Category: Asia
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Curtain in the wind
Curtain in the wind Not a breath of wind but trees and houses struggle to remain standing. Photo of the week: Curtain, Bageshwar, Uttarakhand, India 2013
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Light in the dark
Light in the dark There aren’t many Brahma temples in India, and when we peer through the jalis of this temple, we are surprised to see a beautifully lit Mukhalingam – a four-faced lingam. So his rare Brahma temple in Khajuraho is, in fact, a Shiva temple. Without the help of Surya, the sun god,…
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Courtyard order
Courtyard order A mother and her child decorating the front of their house for an upcoming festival. Photo of the week: Courtyard, Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, India 2017
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Buffalo buddies
Buffalo buddies Two sweet young buffaloes having a nap in their courtyard. Two specimens out of a total of more than half a billion livestock animals in India. Photo of the week: Buffaloes, Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, India 2017
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Sunset silhouette
Sunset silhouette Plants, stones, an Indian cow, drawn in sharp outlines against a clear evening sky.I don’t think I ever consciously noticed the forms of these plants – stems, flowers, leaves – in such amazing detail as on this silhouette picture. Photo of the week: Orchha, Madhya Pradesh, India 2017
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Looking at you!
Looking at you! I had the feeling that someone was watching me. I turned round and saw this little owl with big eyes. We looked at each other for a while and I took a photo.Now that I’m looking at the photo, I realise that most, if not all, other birds have one eye on…
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Onigawara
Onigawara The scary creature on the roof is an ‘oni’, a Japanese ogre. Temple roofs are often ornamented with these ogre tiles (onigawara) and also with small round hanagawara, i.e. tiles with floral designs. The roofs of Japanese temples are intricate works of very fine craftsmanship. See for example the small roof on the photo…
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Okame
Okame Okame is the name of the mask depicting a young woman with a small, upturned nose and large, round cheeks. It is also the name of the wife of the master carpenter who built the main hall of the Senbon Shakado Temple in Kyoto, where I saw this beautifully illuminated mask. The story goes…
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Noh apparition
Noh apparition In a Noh museum, one naturally expects to see Noh masks. With their painted high eyebrows (hikimayu) and other typical features, Noh masks often look striking. But this mask, emerging from the darkness, looks more like a ghost, with elements of the background faintly shining through the face.Are we looking at an illuminated…
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The Envy of Heaven
The Envy of Heaven Reflections of light make the dark teak arches and ceilings of Tipu Sultan’s palace gleam, where he used to spend the summer with his royal consorts. Perhaps that is why it was known as the ‘Envy of Heaven’. Photo of the week: Tipu Sultan’s summer palace (1791), Bangalore, Karnataka, India 2019
καιρός remembered 