Category: Asia
-
Holy feet
It so happens that the sacred remains of St. Francis Xavier are kept in the Bom Jesus church in Old Goa. They are exposed to the public once in ten years and the last exposition was around December 2014, in the big Se cathedral across the street. I was in Goa at that time and…
-
St. Francis Xavier
Faith is business. Not only for the Church, others try getting their share as well. Churches and stalls selling religious trash undeniably hold attraction for me. It must be because of my catholic youth in the catholic south of the Netherlands. For years I sang in the boys choir of the local church, was altar…
-
Faith and business
According to catholic doctrine Maria wasn’t deflowered before she conceived. In her case the Church speaks of the Virgin Birth of Christ and so Maria remained a virgin even while being a mother. Virgin and mother at the same time, that’s what makes her special. Maria is often depicted as a beautiful, virtuous young woman, with or…
-
Via crucis
or: the missing fingers Religion can be a true source of inspiration for Art with a capital A – examples aplenty through the ages for all the different religions. It can also inspire to living folklore and concomitant religious kitsch – examples aplenty as well. Living in the post-religious era, at least as far as I am…
-
Yak horns
The turning of prayer-wheels as in last week’s post, and prayer-flags in the wind in an earlier post, are efficient ways of multiplying and spreading the positive effects of the sacred texts they contain. Another very ancient custom is the use of engraved stone or animal skull and horn for spreading the mystic mantras over the face…
-
As the world turns
Praying while you chat with friends on the square ….. for Tibetans this is possible thanks to their prayer-wheels. Sacred formulas like “om mani padme hum” can be written down repeatedly in great number on paper and put on a role inside the wheel. If turned around it is believed to have the same effect…
-
Tibet café
We notice in this simple Tibetan café a not necessarily hostile mixture of human beings and their cultural expressions from China and Tibet. The big flasks and at least one of the guests are clearly Chinese, while the lady with the impressive silver buckle is a typical traditionally dressed Tibetan woman. The flasks usually contain…
-
Bathing at the pump
Life of the seasonal migrant workers in the brick kilns is all about hard work, eating and sleeping in tiny huts and, as we see on this picture, cleaning of body and clothes at the common hand-pump. What pleased me in last week’s pictures of women at work in the kilns pleases me here again:…
-
Pillars of strength
That’s what they are, the working poor of India! Especially the women. Without their constant effort and care the entire structure of society would collapse in no time. Prone to exploitation and even bondage, these migrant workers in the brick kilns have one advantage over their middle class masters. Their physically demanding work in relative…
-
White elephant
Sometimes you meet after many years an old acquaintance who greets you with the exclamation “You haven’t changed a single bit!” The same applies to the Indian Ambassador car. Since its birth in 1957 as a clone of Morris Oxford its looks have hardly changed during all those years that it has been in production. But the “sick…
καιρός remembered 