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Pilgrims’ attraction
During the three-day festival in July when the giant thanka is exposed – see last week’s post -, pilgrims come from far and wide. They climb the stairs to the base of the thanka-wall, walk past and go down on the other side. For a good overview of the images on the thanka it would…
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Tashilhunpo Thanka
Tashilhunpo in Shigatse is the largest monastery in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lamas. The complex contains several golden roofed monuments and a multitude of chapels filled with statues and adorned with murals, thankas and other treasures. For 362 days of the year the view of this monastic city is not exactly like…
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Shekar Monastery
It may be in the middle of nowhere, but like most of the erstwhile 1000 monasteries in Tibet, this one too could not escape the destructive fury of the Cultural Revolution. Partly rebuilt, it has again become a centre of study and worship, nourished by the “White Crystal” (Shekar) inside. Photo of the week: Shekar…
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Timeless Tibet
A child coming down the village road. It could be 200 years ago but then Daguerre’s invention wasn’t there yet to deliver proof. It could be today from a smartphone sent instantly to your screen. It was, in fact, June 1996 captured by my camera on Kodak film. Photo of the week: Shekar, Dingri, China-Tibet…
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Foot-bath temple
Orange saris and green saris, red ones and blue ones (and purple ones, I could add), and gold upon their bodies, bracelets on their arms and combs in their hair. The women were lithe and walked just above the earth, so it seemed. Thus Robert James Waller continues his ode to the beauty of Indian…
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Worn down worshippers
Thousands, if not millions of feet must have stepped on the threshold of this place of worship, wearing down bit by bit the reliefs of worshippers sculpted on its surface. Touching signs of the passage of time. Photo of the week: Entrance of Vitthala temple complex, Hampi, Karnataka, India 2014
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Massive arcades
Such is the abundance of granite rock at Hampi that massive projects could easily be envisaged. Like constructing two lengthy arcades for the entranceway to a temple complex. Hundreds of massive pillars, heavy but simple, for a massive project indeed. In contrast, inside the complex, reliefs of love and tenderness that clearly betray how much…
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Stonecutters’ paradise
Elegant camels, mounted horsemen. and of course, as always, the graceful women … it’s as if we can appreciate these scenes from daily life even more when depicted in stone. Maybe it is because we can feel the pleasure the sculptors of Hampi must have had in cutting these reliefs. The non-sculptured walls are impressive…
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Giant boulders galore
“Better on it than under it”, the little bird must have thought when it landed on this massive piece of granite rock. This must be Hampi, yes indeed. It’s not just the old monuments of the historical capital city of the Vijayanagara Empire that enchant us, the boulder-strewn landscape in which they lie scattered is…
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Globed breasts adorned with pearls
Globed breasts adorned with pearls sandal-misted, wide curving hips with girdles strung with bells, precious anklets making music on their lotus feet, lit with happiness deep within women now enhance their beauty. In strophes like this Kālidāsa sings of the feminine ideal in his long poem Ṛtusaṃhāram (The Gathering of the Seasons, translation from the…
καιρός remembered
… the right moment, position chosen, shoot …
καιρός remembered 