Tag: Religion
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Fallen angel
Fallen angel Fallen from his heavenly nest, wings too small to keep his baby-build up in the air. Photo of the week: Fallen angel, Church of Corpus Christi, Krakow, Poland 2007
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Hi Gautama
Hi Gautama Churches, temples, mosques … they are not just places of worship where the devotees come together to pray to their god(s). Nowadays they are also favourite environments for group photos and selfies. And for chatting of course, since that goes on day and night irrespective of where one finds oneself. Who knows the…
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Heavenly nymphs
Heavenly nymphs Liked by hindous and buddhists alike in their temple decorations, the dancing apsaras fulfil the ideal of feminine beauty:round-breasted wasp-waistedbroad-hipped Photo of the week: Namdroling Monastery, Madikeri, Karnataka, India 2019
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Surya
Surya A stream of men, women and childrenmeanders between the Surya temple shrines.A thousand years, day after day, ever different,always the same, as the sun that comes and goes.Aeons … a millennium … today. Photo of the week: Surya (Sun) temple, 9th cent. AD, Katarmal, Uttarakhand, India 2021
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A wall in Kazimierz
A wall in Kazimierz Broken, mutilated, spread around in disarray,dug up from layers of dust and sand: memory fragments of the departed,fit together as a jigsaw puzzle. Memorial wall to the dead,for the eyes of the living. Photo of the week: 16th cent. Jewish R’emuh Cemetery wall, Kazimierz, Krakow, Poland 2007
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Memento mori
Memento mori When walking around in a graveyard we may be content of still belonging to the realm of the living, but it also inevitably reminds us of our own mortality. This is certainly the case in the graveyard of the Portuguese Jews near Amsterdam. Many of the gravestones carry images that denote death: an…
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Anno Mundi 5490
Anno Mundi 5490 The Jewish cemetery at ‘Ouderkerk aan de Amstel’ near Amsterdam is called Beth Haim which means House of Life. This tells us something about the Sephardim philosophy of life – and death. The picture shows a detail of a partly submerged gravestone in which we see a shepherdess with her cattle. A…
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Death and decay
Death and decay Two headstones, one a bit more pointed than the other, are each covering a corner of two gothic church windows, one a bit more pointed than the other. A harmonious rhythm of corresponding forms that subconsciously may have caught my eye. But I took the picture in the first place because I…
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Cross on stilts
Cross on stilts I.I climbed up to an elevated cemeteryand saw a cross on stilts.Raised for a still better view?For the pursuit of heaven?Or just for fun? II.I descended the steps into a pitch-dark tomb. Groped for my camera, managed to put on the flash and took a picture. The photo shows what I couldn’t…
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Of light and loss
Of light and loss I like visiting cemeteries. Gravestones, a name and two dates, sometimes a picture of the deceased. Sometimes other testimonies of loving memories which in all their simplicity and – often – cheap taste can be touching. Gravestones remind us of the dead underneath, but they also tell us something of the…
