The most significant symbolism of the labyrinth is that of the journey of the soul to its center and then back toward the outside once more, the cycle of death and rebirth, a metaphysical pilgrimage of the spirit.*

*The Illustrated Signs & Symbols Sourcebook by Adele Nozedar

Crete

In the Greek Orthodox Church sacred objects are manifest divine conduits which are venerated by caressing with the hands and pressing the face close to kiss the surfaces. Faith is passionate and sensual.

Less well known than Notre Dame and Chartres, the Basilica St. Denis is considered the first example of the religious architecture known as gothic. The need to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims caused many churches to undertake major renovations. Church relics were placed in an interior passageway called an ambulatory, which allowed pilgrims to circulate and venerate the relics without interrupting the monks in their regular orders of prayer.*

The western entrances were regarded as the "gateways" to heavenly Jerusalem" and the "Royal Portal," so named because of the statues of kings and queens on the embrasures flanking the doorways.

A system of pilgrim routes covered France like a net, leading to Rome and Jerusalem, to Compostela, to the Mont-Saint-Michel in the Peril by the Sea.

*textual reference from Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, published online by the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Notre Dame has the holy relics of the passion: The Crown of Thorns, a nail of the crucifixion and pieces of the True Cross.

Hundreds of visitors wait in line to kiss Christ's crown of thorns at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. The relic is shown to worshippers every year on Good Friday ahead of Easter celebrations.

AFP News Agency

Bare-headed pilgrims are shown with wallet, water bottle and staff. This evidently non-military garb was a protection for pilgrims in foreign lands, where they were normally given safe conduct.

Source: Atlas of the Christian Church, edited by Henry Chadwick and G.R. Evans

Many websites offer travel packages for pilgrimage tours for all faiths and in any part of the world; no matter how remote and difficult to reach.

Nostalgia is a dominant visual motif in the images used by the travel industry catering to potential customers. Dressed in traditional clothing and riding horseback into a mountain pass romantically evokes the days of caravans traveling the Spice Route to holy places.

Most pilgrimages are journeys of a few days to local festivals; that is, travel constrained by the physical limits of a journey made by an ox-cart on dirt roads or an inexpensive ticket on a crowded bus.

Muslim pigrims circumambulating the Kaaba in Mecca.

The great sanctuary of Islam is the Kaaba at Mecca, a cubic edifice draped with a rich cloth, which contains the mysterious Black Stone.*

The hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to the holy places of Mecca and Medina has remained free from the influence of tourism due to strict control by the Saudi governmental authorities. Tourists are not allowed into Saudi Arabia, and the holy places are off limits to all non-Muslims. Mecca is a closed city at all times of the year, and as a result, the hajj has keep its purely religious character.

Source: Encyclopedia of Sacred Places, Norbert C. Brockman

*Man, Myth and Magic, Volume 16, Marshall Cavendish

University of Cambridge collection.

John Mason Cook, son of the founder, expanded travel services of the famous British company, to include the Middle East in the 1880s. T Cook & Sons became the first and most far-reaching travel service in the modern western world.

The Temple of Apollo on Mount Parnassus

Upon arriving at Delphi, supplicants registered and paid a fee; when their appointments neared, they purified themselves at the Castilian spring. They then proceeded along the Sacred Way, a zig-zag flagstone walk up the hill.

The Sacred Way ended outside the temple. There pilgrims would sacrifice a sheep or goat, whose entrails were examined by the priests for omen. Then the pilgrims entered one by one to ask the sibyl their question.

Apollo spoke through his oracle, who had to be an older woman of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area. The sibyl or prophetess took the the name Pythia and sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth. When Apollo slew Python, its body fell into this fissure, according to legend, and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the sybil would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied. She spoke in riddles, which were interpreted by the priests of the temple.

Source: Encyclopedia of Sacred Places, Norbert C. Brockman

The temperate mediterranean climate that most of Greece enjoys changes in the mountainous regions outside Athens. The road to Mount Parnassus and Delphi passes through Parnassos Ski Centre, the largest and ultra-modern winter resort in Greece. The village community of Archova offers boutique hotels and fine dining for skiers, snowboarders and trekkers in the winter months.

The Ananda Pagoda Festival in Bagan

The zebu oxen are given rest and stand freed of the Withers yoke, named for the cross member fits in front of the withers (shoulder blades).

Pilgrims make their way to the Ananda Temple for the annual festival honoring the Buddha. A caravan of bullock carts pull into the deep ruts on the shoulder of an ancient dirt road on the outskirts of a small rural town. Both drovers and oxen enjoy the small pools of shade provided by the overhanging dense green branches of a copse near the bend of the dirt road. They rest and eat a simple meal. 

Extended families make camp together using a truck tented with tarpaulins.

There are over 2,000 ancient pagodas in the Bagan archeological zone. Visitor's are free to set-up their encampments and use the sides of the monuments as shelter to prepare meals, wash clothes and sleep during festival days

Young women prepare meals for their families in an outdoor kitchen with fabrics suspended from ropes for shelter. Pilgrim families endure significant hardships to attend religious festivals but they are all smiles and grateful to attend an auspicious event.

Inside the Ananda Pagoda: quiet contemplation and cellphone pictures.

The Ananda Pagoda Temple is unique in Bagan for it's cruciform symmetrical ground plan. It has four entrance halls that each lead to the central core with a gilded standing buddhas facing out in the four cardinal directions. The four Buddhas represent Gotama, the historical Buddha (pictured here) and the three Buddhas that preceded him.

Monks read the entire canonical words of the Buddha in the Ananda Pagoda in Bagan. Hearing the sacred text earns the listener great merit.

Magic tricks fascinate the festival teenage boys: a young man demonstrates the magic tricks that can be learned from a purchase of "Magic Man."

A cold morning in Old Bagan: Sisters and their children are surprised to see tourists, but are happy to pose for pictures.

A marketplace for fruits and vegetables at the Ananda Pagoda Festival.

"Main Street" of the market bazaar with the Ananda Pagoda Temple spire in the background.

The temple spires were gilded to celebrate the 900th anniversary of its construction.

The main event of the 3 day festival honoring the birth of the Buddha is the morning of the festival that gifts are presented to support the order of monks. It takes place in the enormous courtyard that is part of the temple grounds.

By the end of the morning the L shaped table is overflowing with plastic buckets filled with food, soap, medical supplies, new robes, money trees, rice and most things the monks do not provide for themselves.

The introduction of the subject of Pilgrimage and it's connection to the rock-caves temples of Ajanta and Ellora from the website:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/buddhist-pilgrimage-sites-india/

The Victoria and Albert Museum

Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, India

Massive interior at the cave complex that served as a rains retreat and monastery. Rough hewn rock surfaces are visible where the light crawls in from the windows at the entrance.

Some of the caves are only partially excavated and left unfinished.

These caves belong to two distinctive types: the sanctuaries, or caityas, and the monasteries, or viharas.

Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, India

Modern lighting and electronic monitoring and control of cave humidity share sacred interior spaces decorated with monumental ceiling mandalas and fragile painted limestone surfaces.

Ellora Caves in Maharashtra, India: Kailasanatha (Kailasa) temple is one of the 34 cave temples and monasteries. The Ajanta Caves and Ellora are popular destinations for pilgrims for their historical significance and famous iconography.

Ellora Caves in India.

Massive amounts of rock were excavated to create the central temple and the surrounding cells for visiting monks.

The Ellora Caves were used by wondering monks during the monsoons rains retreat and are a popular site for a visits that are a kind of sacred tourism. The sprawling cave complex has temple architecture cut into the rock facade of natural caves that have been structurally excavated and made into sacred places used by Buddhist monks and Jains. 

Elephanta Island, Mumbai, India

Monk at Pindaya Caves in Myanmar.

A lighthearted moment: Monks on a pilgrimage to the Pindaya Caves pose for pictures with the gigantic spider that is part of the legend of cave complex and monastery in Myanmar.

The Tham Ting Cave on the bank of the Mekong river in Laos contains over 4,000 Buddha icons. Dating back thousands of years the upper and lower caves are the best known caves in Laos.

*The cave was used as a "safe" where statues from ruined or burnt temples were kept.*

Visited by local pilgrims from Laos the caves are an active site for burning incense and making prayers.

*Sacred Rocks and Buddhist Caves in Thailand by Christophe Munier

Two men make prayers before the large altar in the Tham Ting Cave.

Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon

Lustral water is poured on the gilded figure of a nat that is associated with the Buddha image. Each figure is worshipped in turn by pouring water that has been sanctified by spells and powerful plants like camphor and sompuay. Lustral water has the power to exorcise evil influences. As a sensual devotional act it also strengthens the sacred power of religious representations of the Buddha and animist spirits. 

Shwedagon pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar

A contribution by Chinese Buddhists to many of the shrines at the Shwedagon Pagoda are Buddha figures illuminated with dazzling aureoles made from radiating colored lights. Visiting and local worshippers did not appreciate, at first, the jarring introduction of flashy modern lighting into the classic, stately and conservative shrines of the Shwedagon complex. Over time they have been accepted and even enjoyed as a lively, eye catching addition to the familiar surroundings.

Chauk Htat Gyi Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar

The massive size of a devotional image adds to the psychological impression of the power and veracity of the teachings of the faith.

Pilgrimage to Sarnath, Varanasi, Ayodhya & Madurai in India

Pilgrims from all over the world come to circumambulate the Dhamekh stupa at Sarnath. Sarnath is one of the most famous pilgrimage sites in the Buddhist world.

Visiting Nepalese pilgrims on the platform walkway encircling the stupa at Sarnath.

Circumambulation: Three circuits of the stupa with a pause to press prayer beads against a spur covered with gold leaf and candle wax at the stupa at Sarnath.

Varanasi (Kasi, Banaras) in northern India

Banaras (Varanasi) is said to be such a great pilgrimage place that all 330 million Hindu deities have chosen to dwell there. Hindus come to Banaras for the full range of rituals associated with the daily, annual, and life cycles.

Banaras is known as an ancient site of worship to various deities. However, it is also a living city. Despite the city’s great age, very few of her temples are themselves more than several hundred years old. Most of the major temples are reconstructions; others are wholly new structures.*

The holy festival of Makar Sankranti, The Festival of New Beginnings, the sun enters the sun-sign of Capricorn or Makara from the Tropic of Cancer. This is an auspicious time when thousands of pilgrims descend on the holy city of Varanasi to worship in the temples and bath in the Ganges.

*Living Banaras, Hindu Religion in Cultural Context, edited by Bradley R. Hertel and Cynthia Ann Humes

Map of ancient pilgrimage routes of Varanasi.

Pilgrimage in Varanasi is a thriving business. There are specialists to guide pilgrims in every aspect of a sacred visit. A priest call a panda greets pilgrims arriving by train. They will arrange transportation and lodging at a local rest house and all other needs of a pilgrimage in the city, including itineraries to the appropriate temples, sacred sites and the most auspicious ghats to bathe in the Ganges. *For many pilgrims, the panda will be the same man or of the family who has cared for their ancestors.* There are specialist priests for performing rites, for officiating in temples and for death rites.

*Banaras, City of Light by Diana Eck for quote and general information.

Early morning crowds in Varanasi making their way to the ghats for Makar Sankranti. They chant as they walk: Aum Sri Ram, Jai Ram, Jai Jai Ram.

It is said: The name of Rama is the sole mantra to escape from the coils of the world. He who keeps this name in his mind constantly will have all power in the palm of his hand.

The Ganges arrival from the south at Varanasi.

Flower garlands mark the places of the early morning worship to the Goddess of the Ganges.

Among the holiest of goals for Hindu pilgrimages are the seven great rivers, especially the Ganges, and of the cities on the rivers, probably the best-known is Benares (Varanasi).

The great Ganges pilgrimage begins at Hardwar, ‘Bari’s gate’, and passes through Rishikesh, the town of ascetics, to the three sanctuaries. The entire pilgrimage, performed in May, June and July, covers over 600 miles.

Man, Myth & Magic, Marshall Cavendish

Visitor boats overflowing with pilgrims on the Ganges.

Labyrinthine streets and eaves saturated with color overhang a tour group of pilgrims in Varanasi.

Hindus bathing in the Ganges at the steps of a ghat. There are 84 ghats (stairways to the riverbank) in Varanasi. Taking holy dips in the Ganges at all the ghats will purify the soul.

Among the 84 ghats the 5 described as the most merit-making and scared, called the Panchatirthis, are Asi, Dashashvamedha, Manikarnika, Panchaganga, and Adi Keshava. Taking a sacred bath at these five ghats provides the same merit as bathing at all the ghats.*

*Banaras Region, A Spiritual & Cultural Gide by Rana P. B. Singh and Pravin S. Rana

Varanasi

Unusually large crowds of pilgrims make their way to the ghats for Makar Sankranti.

Makar Sankranti falls on the day of the year when the sun —considered the king of all grahas (planets) —is in the rasi (Zodiac sign) known as Makar (Capricorn). This is considered the most beneficial rasi of the sun, and is very auspicious.

Although Sankrant comes every month, the position of the ‘sun in makar’ bestows the most punn (merit) for those that abide by the rules of the festival — by bathing in the rivers or tanks, offering water to the sun god and giving daan (charity).

The Book of Hindu Festivals and Ceremonies by Om Lata Bahadur

Varanasi, India

Offering the waters of the Ganges to his ancestors and the gods.

Udaipur, India

Sindoor, a powder made of dried turmeric, when mixed with lime it turns a deep red. Mixed with water, the powder becomes a paste. Tradition has had both men and women marked a round dot on their foreheads, between their eyebrows, known as a bindi or tikka.

The mark can either be done by a priest or made by the individual outside the temple. A mirror is very helpful to place the bindi in the proper place.

Philosophically, the red dot represents the third eye and has mystical meaning.

The lotus feet of Vishnu:

The river Ganga is said to originate from Vishnu's feet.

It is said, metaphorically, that the spiritual master plants his lotus feet in the heart of the disciple. Sincere spiritual students are encouraged to enshrine God's lotus feet or enshrine the lotus feet of the spiritual master within their heart.

The magnificence of Vishnu is so far beyond human conception that only his feet are approachable. The primary image in most temples is carved stone feet that can be touched for darshan with the God.*

Meeting God, Elements of Hindu Devotion by Stephen P. Huyler

The darsana is located in areas designated for Hindus only in the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. *A darsana literally a means glimpse or view. In a Hindu temple, the term refers to viewing the inner sanctum under the main Shikhara or Gopuram of the temple, which hosts the murti (image of a god).* Many of the most holy Hindu temples do not allow entry by non-Hindus.

Cameras are banned from many temples because telephoto lens may provide an opportunity to "reach" into private worship areas. Cell phones are acceptable.

*Wikipedia: Darsana

Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

A temple dedicated to Parvati, known locally as Meenakshi and her consort, Shiva, known here as Sundareswarar. An important place of worship, the Meenakshi Amman Temple, is an essential religious site for the Tamil Nadu peoples of southern India.

Dressed in white, a symbol of purity, a group of Hindu pilgrims walk the long Meenakshi Nayakkar Mandapam: the hall of 1,000 pillars.

Kambattadi Mandapa, Temple of Meenakshi, Madurai

The pillars of this mandapa are enormous and decorated with cravings of the various aspects of Shiva. In the middle of the mandapa a shaft pierces the ceiling, indicating the location of the sanctuary.

Source: The Art of India, Temples and Sculpture by Louis Frederic

Hindus worship some deities that have no recognizable anthropomorphic characteristics. This shrine's votive figure is ritually honored by attaching string to it.

A couple return to the fertility shrine inside the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai to give thanks for the success of their prayers for a child.

A very human depiction of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana crossing the Sarayu River at Ayodhya.

Painting by Raja Ravi Varma: Famous for his fusion of European painting techniques with Indian themes, Raja Ravi Varma's paintings of Hindu deities and images from Indian epic literature are popular throughout India. Some of his paintings of religious subjects are venerated as objects of worship.

Pilgrims bathing the Sarayu River at Ayodhya.

*Bathing in a sacred river or lake is not to be interpreted merely as a purificatory ceremony; it has a deeper significance. For example, the Kumbha fair in Hardawar and other places means bathing in the amrita, or life-giving water.*

*Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India, A Study in Cultural Geography by Surinder Mohan Bhardwaj

Ayodhya, India

A cold and foggy morning on the banks of the Sarayu river.

Known today as the Sarda river. The Sarayu river is a tributary of the Ganges and important in classical Indian literature of both the Vedas and the Ramayana. Rama was born on the banks of the Sarayu river and Ayodhya was the capital of his kingdom. Rama comes to the Sarayu river at the end of the Ramayana to return to his Mahavishnu (divine form) from his human incarnation and ascend to heaven.

Bathing in the Sarayu is a potent symbolic act to pilgrims who come to Ayodhya.

The Sarayu is also the name of the river that flows by the fictional town of Malgudi created by the Indian writer R. K. Narayan.

Gho Pooja on the banks of the Sarayu River, Ayodhya, India

The word "Gho" means cow in Sanskrit. Thus "Gho Pooja" means worship of the cow.  A cow is so spiritually pure that millions and millions of deities take residence in and around a cow. Thus the very space occupied by a cow is holy ground. 

*It was by no accident that all-wise Vishnu chose, for this, his eighth sojourn on earth, to be brought back as a cowherd; the Hindu worship of the cow goes back to more ancient bull-worship, and every part of a cow is holy, from her horns to her milk, urine, and dung - all of her except her mouth, because she once told a lie. Brahma and Shiva had an argument and the cow was called in as a witness to certain happenings that Brahma wished to prove. Thinking to please the Creator, she told a lie, but Shiva, in his wily cross-examination, found her out and cursed her mouth, which has been foul ever since.*

*Shiva's Pigeons, An Experience of India, by Jon and Rumer Godden,pg 153.

"The Cow with 84 Deities", c. 1912, Ravi Varma Press. This was one of the pamphlets circulated by various Agorakshanasabh (“cow protection leagues”) and “wandering ascetics” as a protest against the practice of beef-eating during the British raj. The dark-skinned monster with the sword is Kali.  A lithograph press founded by Indian artist Ravi Varma in 1894

Source: Wikipedia Commons: Sacred Cow

Ayodhya on the banks of the Sarayu river.

A woman at her morning puja to a small shrine devoted to Rama and Sita at the river's edge. Boys play on the platforms built for groups of pilgrims in the background.

Sri Bade Hanuman Temple

Mani Ram Das Chawni Marg, Janki Ghat, Ayodhya 224123, Faizabad district, Uttar Pradesh state, India

Pilgrims gather beneath the legs of a monumental Hanuman facade in Ayodhya. Hanuman is the leader of the monkey army that makes an alliance to fight with Rama in the war depicted in the Ramayana.

Hanuman has the power to fly and to change his size from microscopic to gigantic when needed to help Rama.

Sita ki Rasoi Temple, Ayodhya, India

Stairway to the Hanuman Garhi in Ayodhya. The graffiti on the wall at the top of the stairs refers to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The ABVP is a right-wing Hindu nationalist student organization associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Ayodhya experienced many episodes of communal violence in the 1990's when Hindu nationalists clashed with local Muslims over disputed religious ground. Hindus asserted that a mosque had been built to replace the temple to Rama.

When the Islam swept through India in the 13th century, many Hindu temples were destroyed and replaced by mosques. A mosque built on sacred ground to the Hindu faith, considered the birthplace of Rama, was a religious bomb waiting for any spark. The Hindu activists needed little provocation to ignite it.

Members of the Hindu Kar Sevaks (right-wing Hindu political activists) incited a riot and tore down the Babri Mosque stone by stone. The area has been fenced and patrolled by the military and remains empty and controversial to this day. 

Hanuman Garhi, Ayodhya

Many sacred sites in India must be safeguarded against terrorism. Men in uniform with rifles and temple thresholds with metal detectors are a part of modern pilgrimage at the most revered holy places.

Hanuman Garhi in Ayodhya, India

A long line forms and worshippers of the famous monkey warrior from the Ramayana rush to offer flower garlands and prasad (boxes of sweets). Many vendors in the narrow alleyways at the base of the stairs that climb up to the shrine specialize in the business of boxed sugary confections like jaggery to carry up the steps to Hanuman's Temple because monkeys love sweets.

Waiting to reach the threshold of the shrine a man grips his box of sweets in the bottom left corner.

Hanuman Garhi, Ayodhya

Parts of the image have been worn bare by the touch of devotees of the popular monkey god, Hanuman.

Shri Ram Janam Bhumi Nyas

Karsewakpuram, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh 224123, India

Karsevak Puram Workshop (The Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement), Ayodhya, India.

The proposed entrance to Rama's temple greets visitors to the fenced compound that holds the stone blocks that Hindus hope will be used to rebuild Rama's temple.

Karsevak Puram Workshop (The Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement), Ayodhya, India.

Ram Janmabhoomi (literally, "Rama's birthplace")

A group of Hindus visit the compound storing the decorated stones in stacks rising high above their heads. They wait for the day that Ram;s temple can be rebuilt on the original site. There are tours of the grounds, an exhibit of the Hindutuva version of events. The stones as considered to be holy in the name of Rama.

Karsevak Puram Workshop (The Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement), Ayodhya, India.

Portrait of the brothers that incited the riot leading to the destruction of the Babri Mosque.

Karsevak Puram Workshop (The Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement), Ayodhya, India.

Karsevak Puram Workshop (The Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement), Ayodhya, India.

Unassembled temple stone piled high in the Ram Janmabhoomi courtyard sit homeless Rama's monkey army.

Karsevak Puram Workshop (The Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement), Ayodhya, India.

Building made of bricks with the name Shri Rama.

Screen shot of YouTube video about the controversies in Ayodhya: The destruction of the mosque.

The future fate of the disputed area is still being fought in the courts with no resolution coming anytime soon.

The Hindutuva members have been raising money and seeking donations of stone and labor to rebuilt the temple of Rama in Ayodhya. The Shri Rama Janmabhoomi is a new kind of sacred site that draws many Hindus coming to Ayodhya on a pilgrimage to worship Rama and hear the story of the great struggle to re-establish his legacy.

The Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra trust began the first phase of construction of the Ram Temple in March 2020. However, the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in India followed by the 2020 China–India skirmishes caused a temporary suspension of the construction. The temple construction officially started again after a ground-breaking ceremony on 5 August. Three-day long Vedic rituals were held ahead of the ground-breaking ceremony

Image from: Prime Minister's Office (GODL-India)

Text: Wikipedia>Ram Mandir, Ayodhya

The Hindu devotional tradition teppam-utsava is a floating festival observed by the Tamil peoples of Southern India. Tanks found in many temples provide a place for worshippers to bath before entering the interior shrines. In the south, larger community tanks serve the dual purpose of water storage as a hedge against the dry seasons and for large religious festivals like Meenakshi Sundareswarar teppam festival.

The purpose of the event is the enjoyment of the deity.

The festival is held every year on the day of Poosam, the birth star of King Tirumalai Nayak, in the Tamil month of Thai.

Lord Sundareswarar and Meenakshi are taken in a procession through the streets of Madurai to a temple near Teppakulam. From there the deities were taken to the float which was pulled around the central mandapam to the edges of the tank to be seen by the crowds of people attending the evening event. 

Wikipedia commons panorama of Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam by Arvin Sivaraj.

Vandiyur Mariamman Teppakulam: Google satellite image of the relative size of the tank in Madurai.

Hindu festivals in India are attended by massive crowds and moving within one is both an exhilarating and terrifying experience. Like being swept into the surging chaos of an ocean wave that pulls and pushes at you in the same moment, with such force you can feel a little unhinged. Personal space in large groups of people has little practical meaning in a society with so many people. Bodies are pushed against each other and individual movement forward is dictated by the flow of thousands of people moving by a unseen collective will. The caprice of the crowd.

Most pilgrimage is solitary, or at most in small groups of people. This is a mass event; a kind of collective religious experience that is profound on it's own terms. The Kumbh Mela or Kumbha Mela, a Hindu pilgrimage of faith in which massive crowds of Hindus, from all over the world, gather to bathe in a sacred or holy river that occurs in 12 year cycles is the best known example of this kind of experience.

Young girl, eating an ear of corn, lifted up on her father's shoulder to see above the crowd of tens of thousands of Hindus to see the Meenashki Sundareswarar Tempakulam festival in progress at Vandiyur Mariamman Tank in Madurai.

In the center of the tank, there is a Mandapam called Maiya Mandapam (Central Mandapam) with a Ganesha temple and garden. 

The float is pulled away from the central mandapam to circle the tank using 2 nylon ropes pulled from the mandapam around the perimeter of the tank.

Colorful lighting reflected on the water adds to the visual splendor and fireworks end the evening ceremony.

The teppam (ceremonial float) contains Meenakshi (Parvati) and Sundareswarar (Shiva).

The exit at the end of the ceremony can be just as harrowing as the arrival. A girl in a golden dress rides on the shoulders of her father and gets a goddess's view of the crowd.

The Golden Lily Tank at the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai.

The tank is no longer used for Hindus to bath before entering the holy areas of the temple complex. It does provide a pleasant, cool shaded area for quiet contemplation from the intense midday sun of southern India. A well-known legend about the tank is that it's holy waters were used to judge the quality of a academic writer's value by throwing his book into the water of the tank. If the book had value and merit it floated, if it did not it sank.

Kaavadiya Bhats (story tellers) in Rajasthan use a Kaavad (a portable pilgrimage in a wooden box). The Kaavadiya Bhats go to patron's homes to recite stories from mythology. 

The Kaavad illustrates a story with hinged panels that progressively reveal scenes as they unfold.

Filmmaker and animator Nina Sabnani published a book entitled Kaavad Tradition of Rajasthan: A Portable Pilgrimage

Photography by Hiart from Wikipedia Commons (kavad)

Every year, around 5 million Hindus (domestic tourists) visit this holy city and perform rituals and pilgrimages. The universe is symbolized by a circle (irregular), connecting a number of shrines and sacred sites.

The city is conceived by devout pilgrims as an embodied spirit. As such, like humans, it is layered in five koshas. The koshas of Banaras (Varanasi) demarcate pilgrimage routes around various representations of the city that differ in the size and intensity of the sacred power present.** The koshas are five in number, the most sacred number in Hindu cosmology. The length of Kashi, the outermost kosha, is five kroshas (a unit of distance equal to about two miles) and is punctuated by 108 sacred sites, a number sacred in Hindu cosmology as representing the twelve months times the nine graha (planets), that is, as representing all of time and space. For this reason, the Pancha Kroshi tirthayatra of Kashi or “pilgrimage of the five kroshas”, has been a prominent pilgrimage route for many centuries.***

*Source images and text from: The International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage, Kashi and Cosmos: Spatial manifestation and the five pilgrimage journeys of Banaras by Rana P.B. Singh and Pravin S. Rana, both from Banaras Hindu University

**Banaras: City of Light by Diana L. Eck

***Living Banaras, Hindu Religion in Cultural Context, edited by Bradley R. Hertel and Cynthia Ann Humes

ALLAHABAD (INDIA) - For decades Laxmi Narayan Tripathi has fought India's conservative laws and beliefs to put her transgender community on a par with the rest of society, and now she has notched up a new milestone.

On Tuesday she and dozens of other resplendent "Kinnars" splashed in the sacred waters of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers alongside revered Hindu ascetics at the immense Kumbh Mela festival in northern India.

It was the first time that members of India's estimated two-million-strong transgender community have been allowed to do so at the festival, the biggest religious gathering in the world that got under way this week.

Hijras, a term used in India for transgenders and eunuchs, often live on the extreme fringes of society, with many forced into prostitution, begging or menial jobs.

The Kumbh Mela, which began on Tuesday, is expected to attract more than 100 million Hindus over the coming seven weeks to bathe at the confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati rivers.

Newspaper article from The Bangkok Post, 16 Jan 2019 at 11:45

WRITER: AFP

Mae Hong Son - Pang Mu

Clusters of gold leaf on the right hand of the Buddha image.

Mae Hong Son - Chong Kham

Gold leaf is well known in Asia for its use as a beauty aid and makeup accessory.

The healing Buddha image. The devotional practice of placing the ultra-thin squares of gold on the face or torso of a statue corresponds to the area of the body of the worshipper that needs divine relief from pain or injury. 

The gold leaf applications can become deep enough to cause feature distortions of the likeness. Periodically, attendants will remove enough of the built-up gold to restore the statue to the natural likeness.

The textures that are created by overlapping and peeling edges are often dramatic.

Five Buddha images made from sandalwood and completely covered in gold leaf are the central objects of devotion at the temple Phaung Daw Oo Hpaya on Inle Lake in Myanmar.

There are some non-devotional uses of gold leaf in Southeast Asia such as this mask for the character Lakshmana (Phra Lak in Laos), the devoted brother of Rama, from the pan-Asian classic story the Ramayana. The color gold symbolizes the virtues of purity and loyalty.

The most popular divination system is the Brahmajati or the Thai zodiac, which is based on the Chinese twelve-year animal cycle.  Thai divination methods are based on the belief in the ability of planetary and spiritual forces to influence people's lives. 

Two men climb the ladder to access the sitting Buddha to apply small leaves of gold leaf. Scattered placement of gold leaf is also seen on the statue's pedestal .

Carved bas-relief panel in gold with red background.

Hand rubbing and the exposure to the alternating seasons of heat and monsoon have made their mark on these cheerful door guardian angels in the dress of Burmese Royalty. The meeting hall used by the monks at Wat Ket Karam in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Gold leaf is used to enliven this scene at the Royal Court, part of an extensive mural that illustrates the extra-canonical jataka (tales of the past lives of the Buddha) at the Viharn Lai Kham of Wat Phra Singh in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Painted mural on interior of Wat Buak Khrok Luang in Chiang Mai. Holding open the curtains is Siddhartha wearing a spired crown called the "Great Crown of Victory" (the shape of the crown represents divine monarchy). He wears the clothing of a Thai monarch embellished with gold leaf. Fine gold tracery outline his wife Yasodhara, who is seen bare-breasted wearing a silk tube skirt (phasin) in the style of a northern Thai woman of the kingdom of Lanna. 

This reproduction of a water damaged wall mural shows the differences between the painted elements and the use of gold leaf to accentuate and enhance the royal clothing worn by the prince and king.

Laai kham patterns frame the Wat Phra Singh Buddha. Laai Kham is gold leaf stencil on red lacquer used to decorate wall interiors in the temples of Lanna in Northern Thailand.

Chocolate cake decorated with gold accent.

End of The Use of Gold Leaf

Walking through the areas where people camp for the 5 day festival there were many children happy to pose for photographs. At this time, tourists with cameras were a rare sight. People in Myanmar were happy to pose for pictures

Thanaka is a yellowish-white cosmetic paste made from ground bark. It is a distinctive feature of the culture of Myanmar, seen commonly applied to the face and sometimes the arms of women and girls, and is used to a lesser extent also by men and boys.

Taking candid photographs in a busy marketplace is very hard. Especially when you are the only, over 6 foot tall white man for miles. This nice lady waggled her finger at me to warn me I had enough pictures of her and her daughters.

There is a saying that when you make friends with the Shan, it lasts a lifetime. The same is true for enemies.

You know you have enough pictures when the guitarist says so.

This was a warm and inviting little shop in the old city area of Rome. He spoke enough English to tell us "I like your Mr. Obama." After we left, he closed up for night.

Inle Lake Region, Myanmar

I love this gruff-looking dark tanned face and his friend with the motorcycle helmet. I had the chance to take one picture and the moment was over.

What's not-to-like about a grimacing man in camouflage fatigues selling colorful balloons.

A street scene in Hanoi. I wanted to name it "The Virtues of Autofocus."

The Old Forbidden City in Hue in Vietnam was patterned after the more famous one in China. The old city was heavily damaged during the war with America. Hue is today being restored to its former glory. Part of the restoration is a revival of traditional dance and music for tourists visiting the area. These are recreations of Royal court entertainments that were only done for the ruling classes.

In a small village in Vietnam we had a meeting, arranged through our guide, with a group of men who had been in the army during the war. Some of them had been soldiers fighting with the Viet Kong and a few men in our group had been stationed with the American Army in South Vietnam during the war. Sad to say, it was an uncomfortable meeting and very emotional. The wounds for Americans run very deep and are still largely unresolved. On the other hand, the former Vietnamese soldiers were very gracious, they seemed not to harbor ill feelings despite so much loss and suffering. They had put the war behind them and enjoyed a quiet life smoking and drinking tea and talking about their country's future. This boy, a child not born till decades after the end of the war was curious to see what was going on inside. 

I have strong suspicions that this mother doesn't know what the sequins are spelling out. Nor would she care. It's just a interesting juxtaposition with a frowning baby in tow.

Graduates of Chiang Mai University stroll the Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens outside Chiang Mai to take pictures in their graduation gowns. The photographer goes the extra mile to get an arty shot.

A weaver posing for picture holding the picking stick of her frame loom. The picking stick operates a fly shuttle that makes weaving more efficient by sending the shuttle back and forth through the warp. Each time it travels from one side to the other is called a pick.

Sri Sita Mata ki Rasoi (Sita's kitchen) was established by Mahant Sri Mani Ram Das to feed to feed Sadhus (holy men) visiting Ayodhya. It operates twenty-four hours a day to feed the poor and hungry students of the area.

The term pilo or piliya refers to the color yellow and its association with spring, blossoms and joyful happiness; when a child is born in a family, the young mother's parents visit, bringing with them a set of clothes which include a yellow odhni ornamented with the lotus motif, the symbol of fertility.*

The different color combinations and patterns of fabric denote a woman's social position and marital status in society.

*Handmade in India, A Geographic Encyclopedia of Indian Handicrafts by Aditi Ranjan and M. P. Ranjan

A young man wearing a t-shirt that says "Being Human is not Possible" uses a hammer to make bowls and household objects from metal. This section of Jaipur was once occupied by shops dedicated to this craft and the sound of the sound of tapping of metal was heard everywhere in the district.

This shop is one of the few surviving in the district. It is just off a side street and inside a small courtyard, that was very dark except for the natural light from an opening three flights up.

Varanasi, India

Artificial snow park with large snow men and ground snow made from salt in Chiang Mai.

Traditional Thai design in a breast plate made from plastic and held in place by interlocking safety pins.

The causeway across the baray using the ruins of Angkor Wat is a popular backdrop for wedding parties.

The wedding party wear sampot chang kben, a term for clothing which are wrapped around the waist before being passed through the legs and affixed at the back. The color of the silk used is dictated by rules from Hindu tradition. The color light green is for Thursday.

The weddings last several days, and the bride and groom dress in matching clothes.

Siem Reap

Inle Lake, Myanmar

Bagan, Myanmar

Class assignment making a new Torii Gate for the Japanese Garden at Lake Merritt in Oakland. Instructor: Jay Van Arsdale is at the end and just to the left.

Great shot of that group of students using Ryoba saws on a giant piece of Port Orford Cedar.

In the Cambodian countryside a farm tractor has been outfitted to serve the needs of the school run by the local Buddhist monastery. 

A 90 year old woman, the family matriarch, operates a Nai. A Nai is a spinning wheel for spooling cotton or silk yarn.

Christmas in Thailand 

A novice monk in Thailand talking on his cell phone and painstakingly inscribing the back of each Din Khor (terra-cotta shingle) for a new structure on the temple grounds.

Bagan, Myanmar

Open field area in old Bagan. The drover and the oxen take little notice of the hot-air balloons landing in the fields around them.

A man and woman of the Karen hill tribe attend the Tham bun ceremony for a monk in San Sai.

The Sgaw blouse tends to be dark blue or black with patterning below the midriff. With blouse is worn a sarong with a horizontally striped design in which red is the dominant color. The head is adorned with a headband or cloth, one end of which hangs free as a veil.The man's shirt is constructed like the women's garments but the design in red and white runs vertically.* Chiang Mai and Hill Tribes, Sangdad Publications

In Thailand, authorities use the umbrella term chao khao, hill tribe, to define "original ethnic groups with unique culture, traditions, belief systems, language, and livelihoods who live and work in, or whose ancestors settled in, the kingdoms highlands."

The Karen people live along the Thai-Myanmar border. In Thailand, the number of Karen, as reported by the Social Development and Human Ministry, was 438,131 in 1992. In Thailand, more of the Karen people are Christian than people of any other ethnic group. The Thai state development attempted to encourage the ethnic groups on the highlands to become Thai. This was done through the establishment of Thai language schools by the border patrol police in 1955, the establishment of the Center of Hill Tribe Development and Welfare in 1962, the Dhammajarik, a traveling Dharma Buddhist missionary project in 1965, and the Royal Project, an opium crop replacement initiative in 1969. In the late 1980s, a series of conflicts arose between the Thai state and several ethnic groups in the highlands around the issue of natural resource management and forest land use. The Karen have been represented through the research and writings of many scholars, both Thai and foreigners, as the guardians of the forest who live a simple and sustainable life.

Ethnic and Religious Identities and Integration in Southeast Asia/Khon Rai Sanchat: Resident Aliens and the Paradox of National Integration in Thailand by Mukdawan Sakboon, Prasit Leepreecha, and Panadda Boonyasaranai, Silkworm Books 2017

Girls make a group picture at a snow park on a hot December afternoon. The snow was made of salt crystals from a machine on the rooftop at Christmas in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

A common sight on the city streets and alleys in Hanoi are barbers cutting hair. 

A old couple make their way down a narrow street on the island of Burano near Venice.

Actor in Likay troupe performing at a temple fair in Northern Thailand.

Cambodian countryside. Boy fishing in rice paddy with a wicker fish trap.

School for youth in Cambodia teaching ancient Khmer arts.

Cambodian woman who assists with the cattle of the village as a midwife.

Carving devas in the Angkor Archeological Park in Cambodia

Lady boys in hill tribe costumes at the Chiang Mai Flower Festival Parade

Sri Sita ma ki Rasoi (Sita's kitchen)

Kitchen as Shrine

The functions of the home and hearth/kitchen have long intersected with ideas of sacrifice and devotional offerings to gods and goddesses. The kitchen area (rasoi) of the modern Hindu home has nearly the same status as the worshipping place; the two spaces are governed by similar rules of ritual purity and are situated close to one another.

The bhakti movement adopted and sanctified the sacred functions of food, changing Hindu gastronomy by locating the divine in this age and in this world. Devotees began to house and care for the divine in their homes as well as in temple shrines.

Phyllis K. Herman: The Pativrata and Ramarajya

Chihuly gardens in Seattle

A day of sudden wind gusts alters the course of the water fall.

View with telephoto lens from Glacier Point

Tours of the rainforest near Juneau take place on elevated walkways built to minimize the impact of the large numbers of visitors that tour the area in the short summer months of the year. Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the United States covering some 17 million acres in Southeast Alaska.

The Tongass is part of the "perhumid rainforest zone", and the forest is primarily made up of western red cedar, sitka spruce, and western hemlock.

Five species of salmon, brown and black, and bald eagles abound throughout the forest. Other terrestrial animals include wolves, mountain goats, ravens, and sitka black-tailed deer.

From the walkway we watched groups of black bears gorging themselves on salmon to fatten up for the winter months ahead.

View from the walkway.

A tree squirrel finds a treat.

Juneau, Alaska from a airplane.

Juneau, Alaska

Alternating wave crests and valleys that appear as dark and light bands of ice on glacier surfaces. Ogives are formed when ice from an icefall is severely broken up, increasing ablation surface area during summer.

The Juneau Icefield is located just north of Juneau, Alaska, continuing north through the border with British Columbia, and is the fifth-largest ice field in the Western Hemisphere.

The California Coastline from Monterey to Point Lobos

A National Marine Sanctuary on 17 Mile Drive

In the waters before you lies Carmel Canyon - an arm of the 10,000 foot-deep Monterey Canyon. In spring and summer, deep, cold, fertile waters well up, feeding the area's marine life.

The Lone Cypress is a Monterey cypress tree. These trees, once near extinction, occur naturally only here and on Pt, Lobos, south of Carmel. They can reach 70 feet (20 m), and live about 300 years. Their popularity may have saved them from extinction - they're planted in California and around the world

The Lone Cypress has prevailed on its rocky perch for more than 250 years. This icon is the living symbol of Pebble Beach Company.

(Pebble Beach Resorts, 17-Mile Drive Map brochure)

Point Lobos

Tide Pools at the south shore of Weston Beach

Weston Beach

South shore of Weston Beach

Whalers Cove was used by Chinese fisherman to harvest abalone followed by the Portuguese whalers that gave the area it's name.

In 1933 the state of California purchased the land for a state park, and Whalers Cove became the first underwater reserve in the United States.

Photographing Big Sur by Douglas Steakley

Point Lobos State Reserve

Point Lobos State Natural Reserve

Death Valley National Park, California

This arid scene is the result of the often violent action of water and earthquakes. Three to five million years ago-before the deepest part of Death Valley had formed-shimmering lakes filled a long, mountain-rimmed valley here. Fine silt and volcanic ash washed into the lake, settling to the bottom, ultimately creating the thick deposit of clay, sandstone and siltstone that make up the Furnace Creek Formation. These once-level layers are being tilted by seismic activity and pressure that is folding the ancient valley’s floor. As the layers uplifted and were exposed, periodic rainstorms cause powerful gullywashes that erode the self rocks into the chaotic yet strangely beautiful landscape we see today.*

Eroded lake beds are called badlands because they will support very little plant life. Water sinks slowly, and the soil clings tenaciously to the water, so that it is difficult for plants to grow there.**

*Plaque description for Zabriskie Point

**A Natural History of California by Allan A. Schoenherr

Death Valley National Park, California

Death Valley National Park, California

Death Valley National Park, California

Death Valley National Park, California

…Teddy-bear Cholla are many species of plants ready to “jump” on some passerby. These are the famous jumping cacti. Of course, they don’t jump, but they do seem to to find ways to become attached to animals, who carry them some distance before they are able to knock them off. This is the way cholla gets dispersed.

*A Natural History of California by Allan A. Schoenherr

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Tees are ecologically similar to other yucca species; for example, they are pollinated by yucca moths. They do not flower every year, but when they do, great masses of white flowers are produced.

*A Natural History of California by Allan A. Schoenherr

There are few trees in the California desert, and Joshua Trees have the softest wood for making a nest. At least 25 species of birds have been reported to use Joshua Trees for nesting. Conspicuous among these are woodpeckers such as Northern Flickers and Ladder-backed Woodpeckers. Woodpeckers eat termites, and termites are constant associates of Joshua Trees. Branches fall off, or strong winds blow down entire Joshua Trees, and termites live in and feed on this downed wood.

*A Natural History of California by Allan A. Schoenherr

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Joshua Tree National Park, California

Near the legendary site of the botched cremation of Gram Parsons. Park officials routinely remove any tributes or memorials left by visitors.

The Point Arena Lighthouse, at 115 feet (35 m) the tallest lighthouse on the West coast of the United States.

Thailand’s Cultural Ministry will stage the Ramayana episode Hanuman Charendej in Bangkok and Chiang Mai throughout the year. The Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre based in Bangkok preserves the traditional masked dance with a large company, extravagant costuming and staging on a par with High Opera.

Along with recognition by UNESCO comes controversy over the origin of the royal dance art form. Added to the same Cultural Heritage Listing is Cambodia’s masked dance, known as lakhon khol.

The dance, which is performed in several countries across Southeast Asia, is a contentious issue between Thailand and its immediate neighbor Cambodia where a masked dance is presented in a similar format. Some people driven by nationalism, have tried to claim ownership over the performance.

The fact is that both countries, like several Southeast Asian countries, inherited the original performing art from India. Thailand’s version is called Ramakien, while it’s Reamker for Cambodia.* Editorial page of Bangkok Post, ‘Khon’ dance no reason for discord, Sunday, December 2, 2018

Nang talung puppets: Seri Rama, Siti Dewi and Laksamma (Seri Rama’s brother) face off with Mahraja Rana (Ravana)

Shadow puppet performances of folk tales and epic literature were popular throughout Southeast Asia. The influence of the sideways movements and exaggerated gestures of puppets are strongly felt in the masked performances of Khon dancers.

Photograph by Peerapat Wimolrungkarat from Flickr

(Photographer attached to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Thailand (H.E.Mr.Abhisit Vejjajiva) : Peerapat Wimolrungkarat 

Silver roundel of Hanuman and a demon soldier in hand-to-hand combat from the ceiling at Wat Muen San, Chiang Mai, Thailand. The iconography of characters and familiar scenes from the Ramayana on temple murals, silver bas-relief panels, and furniture are seen throughout Southeast Asia. Perhaps only the Vessantara jataka, about the final past life of Gotama as the Prince Vessantara, is as favored a subject.

Images of Thai and Laotian Performances of the Ramayana

The brother of Phra Ram, Phra Lak has a golden complexion because he was born at dawn. In Laos, the drama is called Phra Lak/Phra Ram. The Hindu literary epic has been modified from a dramatization of the divine leadership of kings to a jataka, a folk tale about a past life of the Buddha.

"Since Phra Ram is considered the hero, it is believed the altered name was chosen for euphony. Veteran dance performers of Luang Prabang, however, say that Phra Lak comes first in deference to his voluntary assistance of Phra Ram, whose actions were obligatory to his kingship." (Wikipedia: Phra Lak Phra Ram)

Male Khon dancing is as emphatic as the stomp across the stage compared with the subtle gestures of Lakon Nai dancers at the Royal Ballet PhraLak PhraLam in Luang Prabang.

The corps de ballet of female dancers perform a slow dance with graceful movements and a beguiling unmasked beauty are the foundation of Lakon Nai. This is the dance that introduces the male masked performers.

Historically, it was the women from the harems of the Thai King that performed as Lakon Nai dancers.

Suvannamaccha the mermaid. Ramakien performance in Bangkok

The faces of female dancers are expressionless using only hand and body gestures to convey their thoughts and feelings. Traditional training involves the exaggerated bending back of the fingers of their hands.

Lakon Nai dancer as Suvannamaccha showing her fish tail.

In Thailand, Rama IV adapted the Ramayana for Khon theatre and added a charming side-story involving the well known Thai folk goddess of good fortune, Suvannamaccha, the queen of the mermaids.

Thai classical dancer in the nang (female) role demonstrating the chip finger gesture with closed thumb and index finger and opened fingers spread like a fan.

I bow to the messenger of Rama, who is swift as thought, fast as the wind.

Who has conquered his senses and is of mighty intellect,

The son of the wind god, first among monkeys.

Hanuman is the most popular and beloved character of the Ramayana. He is brave, loyal and a brilliant tactician in battle. As a son of the wind god he has exceptional magical powers. He has the power of flight and can change his size to suit the needs of the day.  When gigantic he can act as a bridge for an army the cross the water. He can shrink to a microscopic size to pass through the earth to the lower realms to help return Rama's wife Sita to the human realm. He can live underwater to enjoy seducing a mermaid goddess.

On stage he can be found crouching to the side scratching at his royal garments like any other monkey.

Picture of an actor playing Hanuman with a threadbare knee at the Royal Ballet Theatre of Laos in Luang Prabang

Hanuman in flight with a mountain of healing herbs from the Himalayas.

…less profound but certainly not less striking a departure from Sanskrit and other Indian Ramayanas is the portrayal of Hanuman, the monkey warrior who is revered in India, particularly north India, as a god. His reputation there is as a fearsome warrior whose prowess is closely associated with his celibacy. But to Thai and Cambodian audiences he appears quite different. At the touch of the Thai scribe’s brush he becomes a Casanova of the east, seducing women every minute. In the Khmer version, he is portrayed as a monkey, literally, with an embarrassing itch that might amaze an Indian audience that sees Hanuman as nothing less than a god, as Sankatamocan, the remover of obstacle and danger. In both Thai and Cambodian versions he acts as a foil to the high-mindedness of Rama while retaining his chief distinction as Rama’s devoted servant. He is associated with magic and has much of it at his command. He also lightens the story’s mood. Even when he is engaged in battles and business on Phra Ram’s behalf, his playful monkey nature shows through, and he is always ready to woo a beautiful lady of almost any ancestry, and rarely fails.*

*Ramayana in Thailand and Cambodia by Julie B. Mehta, collected essay in the book The Ramayana Revisited, edited by Mandakranta Bose

Royal Ballet Phralak Phralam performance in Luang Prabang, Laos

Rama the exiled king of the Ramayana called PhraLak PhraLam in Laos.

Notable for his green complexion and his prowess as an archer, Phra Ram is an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu. Behind him is Hanuman the leader of the monkey army

Phra Ram holds his mighty red bow. The stringing of the bow was part of a great contest to win the hand of Sita. In ancient India, when a girl comes of age, her father conducts a Swayamvara. The news is broadcast to the outside world of a contest for eligible men to complete a certain task to become her husband.  Of the many suitors for Sita's hand, only Rama could bend the bow so that it could be stringed.

In Homer's Odyssey there occurs a similar "Contest of the Bow." A test of skill and strength is required to determine the real king. Odysseus returns to his kingdom after a long absence in the disguise of a beggar. To win back his kingdom and his wife Penelope he enters a competition to bend and string the royal bow. *Odysseus inspects the bow, then strings it effortlessly.*

*Blackwell Introductions to the Classical World, Homer by Barry B. Powell

 Phralak Phralam staged at the Royal Ballet Theatre in Luang Prabang, Laos

Vishnu sleeps on his Shesha-serpent couch in the Milky Ocean. In the cycles of time, a point is reached, when there is an excess of evil on earth. Upholding his promise to mankind that he will descend to the earth, whenever there is the need to restore the balance between good and evil, Vishnu will incarnate himself yet again as Rama.

from the National Museum, New Delhi

The painting depicts Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, in superhuman form before his mother, Kausalya. She is naturally awed to observe this and closes her eyes in utter disbelief.

*Treasures of Indian Art in Bharat Kala Bhavan, Ramayana, Notes by Kamal Giri

The villain of the Phralak Phralam, the ten-headed demon king Thotsakan from a performance in Luang Prabang.

Thotsakan's muliple heads are represented in two tiers that make-up the finial on his headdress. His costume is made of silk fabrics with prominent epaulets and crossing straps intersecting in a decorative crest suggestioning chest armor. A rust colored sash (Hoi-Na) hangs from the front waist. At his sides are soldiers in his army.

In the Lao version of the Ramayana, Thotsakan is the prince of Cambodia and Rama the prince of Vientiane.

The representation of Ravana’s ten heads in a tiered finial in Southeast Asian Khon masks depart from the more common one from India showing a row of heads.

top left: Self photograph of Neeraj ChawlaNeerajhardik in the role of Ravana (Thotsakan) in a Ramlila in Delhi, India. Ravana had ten heads and twenty arms.

top right: Ravana captures Sita from the feature film Sita Sings the Blues by Nina Paley.

middle left: Image of Ravana, King of Lanka, with bow, from the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

middle right: Rawana in his incarnation as Dasamuka (the ten headed demon), Wayang Golek Purwa puppet, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, from the Asia Art Museum of San Francisco.

bottom: Burning effigy of Ravana at Dussehra. Image from India,com

Hermits or Rishis are sages with magical powers that reside in hermitages in the forest. The rishi in Phralak Phralam is the guardian of a box that contains the heart of Thotsakan. 

Thotsakan had his heart removed to make himself invincible in battle. Hanuman must obtain the heart to defeat Thotsakan. To accomplish his mission he will have to outfox the sage.

Royal Ballet Theatre in Luang Prabang, Laos

Phralak and Phralam hold court in the forest.

Against a somber and unsettling painted back drop, the fearless Hanuman grabs the demon soldier's weapon, his profile a blur of fury. 

Performance in Bangkok, Thailand

A sort of freeze frame of the battle choreography (sometimes held for several moments), this grouping (Rama, Hanuman and their enemy Thotsakan the great demon king in green that started a war by abducting Rama's wife, Sita) is often reproduced in dolls and figurines. 

Performance in Bangkok, Thailand

Royal Ballet Phra Lak Phra Lam, the Lao version of the Ramayana:

To wage war against Thotsakan, Rama's army must cross the sea to the kingdom of Lanka.

Hanuman describes his plan for building a causeway using his monkey army. Rama will use the causeway to cross the ocean and wage war with the demon king that abducted his wife.

From Episode 5 "Building a Bridge to Lanka"

Ngyak are depictions of mermaids in Southeast Asia that are popular in Buddhist legends, jataka stories and as decorative motifs on temples. 

This detail of Hanuman cavorting with the mermaids from the royal catafalque at Wat Xieng Thong in Luang Prabang is a fine example of the many depictions of the ngyak associated with inland river deltas like the Mekong.

Mermaid with wings portrayed as a deva . Architectural decorative motif in a Northern Thai (Lanna vernacular) on a Ho Trai (Scripture Library) at Wat Phra Singh.

Royal Ballet Phra Lak Phra Lam, the Lao version of the Ramayana:

Hanuman with his army of monkeys reach the sea.

The monkey soldiers begin throwing stones into the ocean, but whatever they throw in the water is immediately thrown back. Furious, Hanuman dives beneath the water to put an end to the sabotage. He spots a group of mermaids and their leader the princess Suvannamacha. Suvannamacha is directing the mermaids to throw the stones back onto the shore. Hanuman attempts to swim toward her to attack, but the mermaid skillfully out maneuvers him. Hanuman unaccustomed to defeat turns the battle into courtship and they unite as lovers and allies.

Royal Ballet Phra Lak Phra Lam, the Lao version of the Ramayana:

Hanuman seduces the mermaid queen. 

From Episode 5 "Building a Bridge to Lanka"

Royal Ballet Phra Lak Phra Lam, the Lao version of the Ramayana:

Hanuman wins the love and allegiance of the mermaid queen and her sisters. Massa, is also known as Suvannamaccha in Thailand. The story of the mermaids is popular in throughout Southeast Asia. 

From Episode 5 "Building a Bridge to Lanka"

Royal Ballet Phra Lak Phra Lam

After the causeway is completed, Phra Lam (Rama) shoots an arrow to inform Ravana about his advance, giving him an ultimatum to return Sita.

From Episode 5 "Building a Bridge to Lanka"

"Double truck" layout of Rama's monkey army.

Rama, The Hero of India by Dhan Gophal Mukerji

Illustrated by Edgar Parin d'Aulaire

Thotsakan is defeated in battle by Phralam and dies in his wife's arms.

Episode 8 of Royal Ballet Phralak Phralam: Princess Sita is put to the fire test.

Photo: Saiphet Khamphasith, 2003

The curtain call of the demon army of Ravana dancers for end of the performance.

Addendum material:

Kathakali performer posing after a performance in Kerala.

Khon masks and costuming are believed to have been an adaptation of a Hindu theatre called Kathakali. The styles have striking similarities from the highly elaborate facial details and headdress, to the non-speaking actors that convey inner states by their movements accompanied by a singer off stage.

Khon dancers prepare for a performance at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. Small local troupes of dancers can be found around the main temples of the Angkor Wat Archeological Park in Cambodia charging fees to pose for pictures.

A dancer in a Khon bird costume emerges from the cool temperatures of the shaded interior gallery of Angkor Wat into the noonday sun.

Dressed in the heavy traditional costumes of Lakhon luong royal court performers, a group of dancers wait in the heat to pose for pictures with tourists at Angkor Thom in Cambodia.

Khon masks and a stage bow at the Royal Ballet Phralak PhraLam in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Khon masks are worshipped as sacred objects possessing supernatural powers.

Full-size masks for sale in a store dedicated to the sale of religious objects:

*Every kind of knowledge in Thailand has its patron Hermit (rusii, rishi), its original teacher who continues to guide and protect contemporary practitioners*

"The Lord Hermit" or "The Old Father" is a popular mask found in performing areas in Thailand. He represents the embodiment of the knowledge of music and dance. Students routinely make their gestures of worship and respect (wai) to the smiling hermit before going onstage to perform. The hermit masks smile to give the performer encouragement.

There are 108 hermits and each has his own color and idiosyncrasies. A mask with a golden face is the color of respect and worship. "The Old Father" with a green face is cruel and given to anger. 

There are a number of rituals that must be performed in the making of a mask. The most important is the final one when the mask is brought to life by giving it a spirit. If it is not completed the mask will be blind and therefore cannot help the performer.

The masks are worn for the wai khruu ceremony. Wai khruu is a Thai ritual performance by music and dance students to honor their teachers.

Masks of the Old Father are believed to be objects of power.

Deities of Thai Court Performance:

Phra Parakhonthap

*One of the main deities of music, Phra Parakhonthap's mask has a green face and wears the tall headdress of a rusii, painted to resemble tiger skin. Musicans regard him as the deity of piiphaat instruments. Khonthap (Sanskrit, gandharva).

Phra Wisanuukaam (Wisawkam) is another name for Vishnu and is the patron deity of all craftspersons, especially those in the arts: instructors often have a special altar for his mask in their workshops. His mask has a green face and wears the shorter headdress called a soet. 

*Sounding the Center, History and Aesthetics in Thai Buddhist Performance by Deborah Wong

Yantra cloth with a representation of a Wai Khru hermit used for it's magical powers.

Sak Yant

These masks when worn as head pieces are believed to bestow special powers to tattoo makers.

Most tattooists have their own secret ink recipes. Generally, a mixture of several commercially available inks, oils, herbs blessed with mantras create a usable substance. The exact breakdown of a master tattooist’s ink is secret and might contain blood or bile.*

*From Sacred Skin, Thailand’s spiritual tattoos, Text by Tom Vater, Photographs by Aroon Thaewchatturat

December 13, 2015 Thai newspaper front page image of a modern day entertainment with suspended acrobats performing in Khon masks and costumes.

Video of Khon performance in Luang Prabang

The introduction of the monkey army is the favorite scene in the Khon performance of the Thai Ramakien. This free outdoor performance by Bangkok’s prestigious Sala Chalermkrung Royal Theatre was held in Chiang Mai at the Three Kings Monument.

Large Ramakien Khon dolls for sale in Chiangmai, Thailand

Thailand Post Company Limited

Postage stamp celebrating the khon character, Hanuman.

*scan from personal collection of author

Thailand Post Company Limited

Khon Masks, Performing Arts of Siam

Series of postal stamps with images of Khon Masks of Monkeys.

*scan from personal collection of author

Thailand Post Company Limited

Khon Masks, Performing Arts of Siam

Series of postal stamps of Khon Masks of Divines.

*scan from personal collection of author

Tympanum at Banteay Srei in the Angkor Archeological Park in Cambodia. It is decorated with a scene from the Ramayana, the battle of Vali and Surgriva using a technique called continuous narrative. Several events in a story are presented and characters appear multiple times in a single representation.

The combat of Sugriva with his brother Vali was a favorite motif of the Khmer sculptors contributing to the Angkorian temples and monuments near Siem Reap in Cambodia. Wikipedia

Banteay Srei means ‘Citadel of the Women’

A popular form of school competition for children in India is the Fancy Dress Contest. Children dress up in a wide variety of possible costumes and give speeches or dance performances as a means of personal development.

Mythologoical and ancient characters are a major theme. Here are three costumes of boys and girls dressed as characters from the Ramayana. L to R: Ravanna, Rama, and Hanuman

Thai brand Myu-Nique has partnered with a South Korean cosmetics company, which uses a skin-friendly colour printing technology to produce the wacky Ramayana Moisturizing Mask Collection.

Infused with green tea, tea tree and pennywort extracts, the hydrating lemongrass mask is printed with a green Tossakan, the villainous 10-face demon in classic Thai literature.

The lemongrass-Tossakan mask is said to be a bestseller that spices up the skincare routine.

Detail image of silver panel depicting an epic battle scene from the Ramayana.

The Ramakien illustrated for children in Thailand. Cute and young versions of the characters are used. Peeking out from behind the children’s version is another version of the Ramakien; an illustrated version with a more threatening and sinister bent.

End of Khon and the Ramayana

Varanasi, India, Bharat Mata (Mother India) Temple. This temple has no votive image of an anthropomorphic deity, but instead manifests Bharat Mata as a huge relief map made from marble. The temple was built in 1936 by Babu Shiv Prasad Gupta and inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi. Dark and cool inside, the building is located near Sarnath. Bharat Mata as goddess protector of India was popularized by a Bengali nationalist and novelist, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee. The point of view in the photograph is a look down the subcontinent from the Himalayas.

Viewed from the abode of the gods, the melting snows of the Himalaya mountain range drain into great rivers of legend: the Indus, Ganges and Jumna. They supply sacred waters to pilgrims and farmers of Lahore, New Delhi, Allahabad, Patna and Calcutta. The Ganges flows eastward past Varanasi into the massive river delta into the Bay of Bengal To the west, the Indus River (from which India takes it's name)  heads through the Punjab to empty into the Arabian Sea. Further down the map are the Deccan uplands. The upland plateau was once heavily forested and the sparse population reflects the challenges of daily life far from the oceans and the river deltas of the north. Finally, the Deccan plateau descends in stair steps down on the western side, an area known as the Ghats, to the flatlands of the south. Once again there are fertile lands sustaining dense populations.

Stone wall bas-relief of a Jain saint, Ellora Caves

The ascetic stood in steady concentration for such a long time that creepers grew around his body and a snake, a lizard and a scorpion live on his limbs. Two girls are shown removing the plants from around his body.

In Jainism, a tirthankara is an omniscient teaching god who preaches the dharma (righteous path). The word tirthankara signifies the founder of a tirtha which means a fordable passage across the sea of interminable births and deaths (called samsara). 

*Mahavira, the founder of the religion is called Jina, 'the conqueror', because of his conquest of human passion, his followers are called Jains after his example.*

The Jains are a relatively small religious faith in India, about 0.37% of India's population; but they yield a strong influence on Indian society. Jains work primarily in the financial sector and are considered astute and successful business owners and money managers prized for their ethics and honesty.

This kind of devotional image, that of a colossus, inert, unchanging, unresponsive to the fecundity of nature and the ephemera thrown up by the upheavals of history, suggests much of the underlying ethos of Indian religion and society.

*A Traveller's History of India by Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda*

Idyll of the north: Indian farm with a simple brick house and a cow standing next to a stack of dung. The cow provides milk, urine (which has many medicinal purposes) and solid waste to be dried and burned in the winter months for warmth. The image of a farm house with no electricity would be pastural and timeless except for the plastic garbage in the foreground. Great heaps of plastic and paper litter can be seen at the edges of small towns and villages throughout the rural areas of North India.

Waterstones Hotel in Mumbai, a view of the bar. Sleek, hip and ultramodern hotels with fast WiFi, large flat screen televisions and restaurants serving more than chick peas, lentils and curry are as much a part of India as ancient temples, mogul palaces, and burning cremation grounds.

Selfie at Elephanta Island:

The stupa at Sarnath is located in the deer park where the Buddha gave his first sermon. 

Facing out across the river from a place considered holy and auspicious by Hindus, pilgrims make their morning and evening worship (puja) to the goddess of the Ganges. The flower garlands, candles and incense ash remain as offerings. In the background, people gather together at the ghats and families bath from the shoreline of the beach.

Bhagirathi

According to Hindu mythology, Bhagiratha was the sage who persuaded Brahman and Shiva to send the sacred river Ganges down to earth from heaven. The earth had become littered with the ashes of the dead, and Bhagiratha realized that the waters of the Ganges would wash them away and liberate the spirits of those who had been cremated.*

*The Encyclopedia of Eastern Mythology by Rachel Storm

Detail of the artifacts of an offering to the goddess of the Ganges. A overturned bowl for rice, a flower garland, ceramic bowls with incense and six finger pressings of different colored pigments.

Jam-packed group of pilgrims from many regions of India on a river tour of the Varanasi ghats from the Ganges. A similar size boat will typically carry a boatman, a guide and 2 or 4 people.

Thousands of pilgrims walk first to Benares (Varanasi) and thence to Ramesvara. And perhaps a double pilgrimage (yatra) is the most meritorious act a Hindu can perform. It is true that enormous merit (punya) may be accumulated by simply visiting Ramesvara, but this is nothing compared to what may be obtained by going first to Benares.

In fact, if a man wish for the perfection of bliss hereafter, he has only one course open to him. He must first journey to Benares, visit the many shrines in the sacred circle surrounding the center of the city and pour plenty of Ganges water over the symbol of Siva at the Visvesvara shrine. Then he must fill a container with more holy water from the Ganges, and toil with it on foot about twelve hundred miles to Ramesvara. There the sacred water is to be poured over the symbol of Siva with the certainty of securing complete beatitude.*

On the journey back home they carry small quantities of water from the Ganges with them for use in family rituals (Ganga jal, literally water of the Ganga).

Ganga Jal Ganges Water 1008 tirthas 375 ml, a product Ganga jal can be purchased from Amazon Prime for $13.50

*Brahmanism and Hinduism by Monier Monier-Williams, 1891

This ceremony is essential to the members of the three higher classes and marks a boy's official acceptance into his varna. At this point he becomes "twice-born." Everyone has a first, biological birth, but when a young man seeks his spiritual identity he symbolically accepts a spiritual teacher as father and the Vedas as mother. He may also receive a new, spiritual name. At the ceremony, he receives the jenoi (sacred-thread), usually worn for his entire lifetime. It is replaced at intervals, but never removed until the new one has been put on.

Source: https://iskconeducationalservices.org/HoH/practice/602.htm

Daybreak is a quiet time for the infamous cremation grounds on the banks of the Ganges. It is a time to replenish the towering stacks of wood (sometimes 30 feet high) that crowd any available space between buildings.

The gargantuan appetite of Manikarnika Ghat for wood is met by an organized syndicate and is re-sold by the Doms who are responsible for performing the cremations. The Doms are a caste of Untouchables. Prices for wood are charged according to the wealth of the family. Poor families are sometimes forced to make-do with less wood than is sufficient to finish the cremation.

A group of men in the foreground are emerging from the river with a corpse that has been dipped in the Ganges river as a final purification before being prepared for cremation. On the steps another group of men wait for their opportunity to descend to the river with their stretcher.

Manikarnika Ghat is the primary cremation ground in Varanasi. A great mountain of wood looms in the background and in the lower right are the cast-off silken shrouds that covered the dead on their journey through the narrow city streets to the Manikarnika cremation grounds.

All ornaments are  stripped from the dead body - it is washed and perfumed, wrapped in linen, perhaps covered with white silk -(white is the color of death) - then tied onto a bamboo mat and stretcher, so that it can be carried through the streets of the village to the burning ghat. As chief mourner, the eldest son or, for a woman, her husband, walks in front of the bier; relatives and friends follow chanting "Ram, Ram". When the funeral procession reaches the entrance to the burning ghat, a pitcher of water is broken to make sure another death shall not visit the family soon.

By burning, the body becomes anonymous, which is what a Hindu would choose his to be. Babies and young children, though, are never burnt; their small bodies wrapped in scarlet silk or cotton and covered with flowers are carried to the nearest river and placed on little bamboo rafts in the stream.

The pyre is made of logs carefully arranged: the corpse is covered with sandalwood, more logs, the ghee, if the family can afford it; if not, oil is poured over the whole, incense scattered, then a lighted torch is handed to the eldest son or grandson, who holds it to the pyre - at the feet for a woman, at the head, or even the mouth, for a man.*

The Garuda Purāṇa Sârodhhâra is one of the Vishnu Purunas. This abridged version of Garuda Purana contains a conversation between Vishnu and his vehicle, Garuda about death, afterlife, sin, and life in hell. It is used all over India at funeral ceremonies, but some are afraid to read it on other occasions, thinking it inauspicious. CHAPTERS VII to XIII deal with Ceremonies for the dead.**

At the site of the cremation ceremony, holy water is sprinkled to purify the area, a kind of altar is made with earth, and the Homa ceremony is performed by casting grain into the sacred fire with repetition of certain Mantras.***  Homa is a Sanskrit word that refers to a ritual, wherein an oblation or any religious offering is made into fire.  A Homa is sometimes called a "sacrifice ritual" because the fire destroys the offering. The Vedic fire ritual, at the core of various Homa ritual variations in Hinduism, is a "bilaterally symmetrical" structure of a rite, it combines fire and water. With hymns sung, the fire is started, offerings collected. The sacrificer enters, symbolically cleanses himself or herself, with water, joins the homa ritual, gods invited, prayers recited, conch shell blown. The sacrificers pour offerings and libations into the fire, with hymns sung, often to the sounds of svaha. The oblations and offerings typically consist of clarified butter (ghee), milk, curd, sugar, saffron, grains, coconut, perfumed water, incense, seeds, petals and herbs.****

*Shiva's Pigeons, An Experience of India by Jon and Rumor Godden

** http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/puranas/gp/gp.asp

***Brahmanism and Hinduism by Sir Monier Monier-Williams, 1891

****Wikipedia: Homa (ritual)

The day of the cremation is filled with many tasks that must be done properly and in quick succession. Lying the pyre, bathing the corpse, shaving the skulls of mourners, and circling the body with a leaking water pot as it starts to smolder then tapping the skull to release the soul. Finally the ashes must be put into the river.*

The eldest son is responsible for the cost and the arrangements. He wears a white robe and his head is freshly shaved for the ceremony. He is seen in the photograph making his last prayers over his parent before lighting the pyre.

*Seduced by the Beauty of the World by Iman Bijleveld and Don Bloch

Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi

The image on the left are inexpensive colorful, synthetic shrouds sold to cover the dead on their way to the cremation ghat. The shroud is used during the ritual bathing of the corpse in the Ganges before it is prepared by the Doms, rewrapped in cotton and aromatics just prior to the actual cremation.

In the image (right side), Jars of ghee (clarified butter) and packages of Havan Samagri are for sale. This Havan Samagri is a combination of some rare medicinal and ayurvedic herbs, which when burnt in the Fire Sacrifice produce medicinal smoke which purifies subtle as well as gross materials when they come in contact with the same. Apart from pleasing the predominating deities of the directions, it pleases the health as well.*

*This is the product description for Havan Samgri. Made available to Hindus worldwide for ritual purposes by Amazon.com

Varanasi, India

A woman, her hand wrapped in cotton bandages, begs for alms in front of the sacred spiritual symbol in Hinduism, that signifies the essence of the ultimate reality, consciousness or Atman. It is a syllable that is chanted either independently or before a mantra in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. (Wikipedia)

Lepers are common in many parts of India. Their condition is considered a curse that must be endured and they elicit little sympathy or acknowledgement from other Indians, Hindu or Muslim or Jain. They are not worthy of moksha (enlightenment) and do not qualify for cremation at the holy sites famous in Varanasi. When they die their bodies are weighted down with stones and then tossed into the Ganges. Even the well-educated guides will tell you that there is no cure for leperosy, but there has been effective treatment for decades and the World Health Organization will provide it for free.

Black Sadhus: The Aghori are known to engage in post-mortem rituals, sometimes involving cannibalism. Their bodies have the markings of followers of Shiva (Shaivas), white ash from a funeral pyre, a dot of red powder is a symbol of Shiva's female consort, and the metal trident. Frightening to approach because of their unpredictability, one of the men managed a friendly smile.

The Aghoris stand close to the ancient shamanistic ascetics, who by incantations and witchcraft sought to control ghosts and spirits; and they stand furthest from respectable society, since they transgress all the rules They drink alcohol, eat meat - even human flesh, it is said - and abuse people with foul and obscene language.

Sadhus, Holy Men of India by Dolf Hartsuiker/Inner Traditions

A fascinating book with beautiful photography and information about little understood ascetic practices.

A bag of wires in the foreground for the electrician, large paint brushes and wood planes advertise the specific skill each man possesses. They wait each day near the busy downtown streets for a the promise of a day's labor.

A mother and son pose for a picture against a jaali.

A jali or jaali is the term for a perforated stone or latticed screen, usually with an ornamental pattern constructed through the use of calligraphy and geometry. (Wikipedia)

During the first Turkish dynasty, a young boy was taken from his family and drafted into the service of the sultan. Qutb-ud-Din was the boy's name. First a soldier, he eventually became an administor of the city that became New Delhi.

Following the assassination of Muhammed of Ghur, Qutb-ud-Din made himself ruler of Delhi, founding the Delhi Sultanate. He erected the colossal minaret Qutb Minar in the heart of his new capital.*

*A Traveller's History of India by Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda

The Qutb Minar minaret in Old Delhi

This red sandstone tower is highly revered for the quality of the ornamental horizontal inscription bands that adorn it's five sections.  Deep religious association with the Qur'an, as well as suspicion of figurative art as idolatrous has led calligraphy to become one of the major forms of artistic expression in Islamic cultures.

*Fifty-two feet at it's base and a colossal 260 feet high, the Qutb Minar was every inch a tower of victory. Carved with sentences from the Quran, each letter a yard high, it cast the long shadow of God over the conquered city of the Hindus.*

**A Traveller's History of India by Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda

These pillars, used in the 12th century to construct a mosque, came from a Hindu temple demolished by the Muslims. The Muslims simply used them after carefully destroying the representations of Hindu deities which had been carved on the shafts.

Source: The Art of India, Temples and Sculpture by Louis Frederic

The original appearance of the statues of Lord Rama and Hanuman votive figures from the Indian epic the Ramayana are lost beneath layers of ghee, turmeric and saffron applied by worshippers. Only the eyes are still visible, so that a Hindu may still make darshan (a interaction with a deity that is a kind of metaphysical transaction, you see it and more importantly it sees you). There are beautiful red-orange patterns made on the doors interiors from worshippers wiping the excess ghee (clarified butter) when their puja is finished.

Behind the man with a cart of red onions and potatoes is a traditional doorway in the old section of Jaipur. The seats on either side of the door were a waiting area for visitors that were of the caste considered "untouchable" (today referred to as Dalits). They could not come inside the home for fear of polluting it.

Right on the banks of the Yamuna River the grounds of the Taj Mahal are often very foggy and cold first thing in the morning. Within a hour or so when the sun rises the fog burns off and its clear and hot. 

"The quaint Dhobi Khana is the only place in Kerala and one of the few places in the country where the traditional method of laundry continues. It is also one of the most photographed sites with droves of tourists clicking keepsake images of men and women who pursue an uncommon lifestyle. “Now only 20 per cent of the youngsters from our community continue in this profession. Most of them are educated and find white collar jobs,” says Satish, a young man who has struck a conscious balance between his ancestral livelihood and his urban lifestyle."  PRIYADERSHINI S. from The Hindu

Dhobi's are washermen and women.

Iron the width and fold-over the length.

Standing on a raised platform a woman glides a large and heavy metal iron heated from inside with burning wood embers. Her left hand firmly holds the fabric in place, adjusting the length when needed. There is an interesting angle of natural light and a wonderful variety of textures juxtaposed in a narrow workspace: bare gray concrete and peeling yellow paint on a metal I-beam frame for a window, the blur motion of the huge iron, the colors of the fabrics and the rumpled newspaper.

Dhobi Khana in Cochin

2 long braided runs of coarse rope supported by cross-hatched wood supports form the exceptionally strong clotheslines used to dry freshly washed laundry in the sun. The ropes twist round and round and cloth ends are pressed through the gaps making clothes pins unnecessary.

Kathakali is a traditional South-Indian theatre performance art form. It is characterized by highly stylized facial make-up using rice paste, elaborate costuming and slow dance-like movements. All emotional expressiveness is conveyed by hand gestures (mudras), and exaggerated eye movements. A man standing back stage from the actors sings and chants the narration of the play. Musical accompaniment is provided by several drummers, of which one is visible on the left side of the stage.

Gods and noble characters have green faces, villains are black, while male actors in female roles have simple gold make-up.

Bharata Natyam, one of four classical dancing styles, comes from the temple dancing of southern India. Every gesture has a specific meaning: the movements of the face have to correspond, and the traditional mudras, or hand and finger gestures, have names like "lotus-bud" "deer's head" and "swan's neck". The typical movement of advancing and retreating assure the dancer never turns her back on the god.

If the dancer smiles, it is not for the audience, but for the god in the scene she is dancing.*

*Shiva's Pigeons, An Experience of India by Jon and Rumor Godden

Meenakshi Tiukalyanam on January 24, 2016

Madurai, India

Madurai, India

Indian street food: Legumes like chickpeas (garbanzo beans), lentils cooked into various forms of daal, peas and beans along with fresh fruit slices and pickles are popular fast food options at festivals. Legumes are great sources of fat, protein and carbohydrates. They make up the foundation of the vegetarian diet of Hindus and Jains.

Kochi International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), is the largest shipping container facility in India. 

Along the banks of a river, is a stationary large net with a lifting frame made of bamboo rods and the lifter made of wood or bamboo with a sinker similar to a crane. The Yaw is used during the dry season when barbs and catfish swim from drier water sources in paddy field to rivers and canals.

Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai, India. Certain areas are set aside for members of the Hindu faith as privileged and sacred. **A drsana literally a means glimpse or view. In a Hindu temple, the term refers to viewing the inner sanctum under the main Shikhara or Gopuram of the temple, which hosts the murti (image of a god).**

The reasons for prohibiting non-Hindus from entering sacred areas are complex and difficult for the outsider to understand. They are derived in part from the belief that human beings are responsible for their actions—even negative thoughts may create adverse reactions. Those not trained in the customs of approaching and honoring a sacred image might consciously or unconsciously pollute it. In the same way that the power of images and sacred spaces is believed to be enhanced by prayers and positive actions, it may also be damaged by careless or malevolent gestures, thoughts or actions.***

Caste, so important in Indian society all loses meaning in the narrow spaces surrounding sacred shrines where worshippers cannot move without touching each other. The devotional offerings of food made to the gods and goddesses are later distributed to the priests and laypeople without regard to whether they came from a Brahmin or a member of a scheduled caste or tribe (untouchable/dalit).

*Paraphrase from Shiva's Pigeons by Jon and Rumer Godden

**Wikipedia: Darsana

***Meeting God, Elements of Hindu Devotion by Stephen P. Huyler, Notes from Chapter Five

White flowers belong to Shiva; especially the Bhant, a small white, clustered flower with pink stamens. Vishnu loves all flowers: roses, jasmine, fragrant champa. Garlands of marigolds are the favorite of many Hindu deities. In Jaipur there are many roundabouts near the old city center where the traffic snarls and it is loud, noisy and chaotic. Contrasted with the tumult of a modern city are the ancient flower markets that overtake the sidewalks. Behind the sellers families gather in the welcome shade of city trees that are also home for local shrines.

Many wealthy neighborhoods in Jaipur have homeless families taking shelter beneath makeshift awnings on the sidewalks outside the property walls. The walls are protected from trespassers with painted broken glass along the top. Families also live on median strips in semi-permanent encampments and make money by selling balloons or plastic toys to passengers in automobiles stopped at intersections for traffic lights. Most emotionally harrowing for visitors to India are the ubiquitous young mothers holding their sick undernourished babies like props, combing through the snaking lines of stopped cars to stare into the tinted windows of white tour van windows in the hope of a small offering.

The temperature in Jaipur was 84 degrees F that day.

Varanasi, India

Priests perform a televised evening ceremony in India. Pictured is Jagannath, a merciful form of Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu.

Shrine to the Goddess Durga on the ghats to the Ganges river.

Durga is the female equivalent of Shiva. Like Shiva, her powers encompass destruction and preservation. Durga appears throughout the Hindu world in a myriad of manifestations. In Nepal, she is a beautiful child dressed in red and worshipped as a virgin; in Calcutta she is represented as an analogue to the goddess Kali with a ferocious expression peering out at the world from behind concealing drapes; in Madurai she has a face of dark stone dotted with vermillion paste.

Among the thousands of representations of Indian gods and goddesses there are significant variations in the manifest form of the same deity. Here, again the goddess Durga makes an appearance but wearing a golden mask.

A mask is used to shield the worshipper from being harmed by the undiminished power and potency of the deity.

The Goddess Durga with dots of sindoor (kumkuma) a vermillion paste as an act of worship in Madurai.

The Hindu Goddess Durga, ceiling polychrome painting at the Palace in Udaipur. Durga is sometimes depicted with the vahans (mounts or vehicles) the tiger and the lion. When she rides the tiger her form is more ferocious. When she is shown on the lion (simhavahini) she is in a beatific form.

Here she is shown on a tiger, holding weapons and flanked by angels.

Varanasi, India

The glories of the age of the Rajas is in the past but many of their palaces survive as luxury hotels for tourists called Haveli.

 Shapura House, is one of many former palaces in Rajasthan.

Boys compete in an kite-cutting contest held in Varanasi at Makar Sankranti.

Kite string is run through a mixture of glue and ground glass and then dried in the sun. The combat challenge is triggered by the kites making a slight bob in the air next to each other. The strings cross until one is severed.

Kites are collected as the spoils of war.

A shrine to Rama and Sita in Varanasi. Each morning the deity must be awoken to a new day. After performing a rite of purification the woman attending this shrine will wash, dry, and clothe the Rama, Sita and Hanuman votive statues. She will also place fresh flowers, light new incense, and provide food for the votive statues before her own act of worship (puja).

Ajanta Caves, Maharashtra, India

The cave complex is located In an arid landscape, in a semi-circular gorge at Ajanta.  The caves were made by excavating large amounts of volcanic rock in the Deccan in the second century BCE. *Five of the Ajanta caves were temples, and twenty-four were monasteries thought to have been  occupied by 200 monks and artisans.*

The caves were abandoned in 650 AD and a new cave complex was established 100 kilometers away at Ellora.

The Archeological Survey of India ongoing preservation work at the Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India. The day of this photograph detailed panoramic imaging of the caves was underway by the Google Earth team.

Ajanta Cave Wall Painting

Cave 1: Bodhisattva Padmapani, second half of the 6th century.

Detail of Bodhisattva Padmapani

Padmapani, or "the One with a lotus in his hand," is one of the divine Bodhisattvas. According to the Buddhist scriptures, Padmapani has been performing the duty of Buddha since the disappearance of Gautama, and he will continue to do so until Maitreya comes back to this world. He is the most esteemed Bodhisattva of the Mahayana pantheon, being styled Sangharatna, or "Jewel of the Order."

Ajanta, painting of the sacred and the secular by Madanjeet Singh

Painting in Cave 1 on the left wall.

Jatakas are folk tales about the former lives of the historical Buddha. Jatakas are the most common subjects of the paintings at Ajanta. This image portrays a scene from the Mahajanaka Jataka. An ascetic delivers a sermon to King Mahajanaka, seen with his hands folded in reverence.

Reference: The Ajanta Caves, Artistic wonder of Ancient Buddhist India by Benoy K. Behl

Damaged wall painting at Ajanta. Centuries of neglect and vandalism have taken a toll on the beautifully painted scenes from the Jatakas of the Buddha and life at court in ancient India.

Detail of mural showing an epic battle scene from the Simhala Avadana.

Simhala and his fellow merchants are shipwrecked on an island inhabited by beautiful women. They find that at night the women become cannibalistic ogresses who devour men. They are rescued and returned to their home by a divine being on a magic horse.

An ogress from the island travels to Simhala’s homeland. She enchants the king and once in his harem summons her friends. Together, they kill the king and all the inhabitants of the palace.

Simhala leds an army to the island and defeats the ogresses in a great battle.

notes taken from: The Ajanta Caves, Artistic Wonder of Ancient Buddhist India by Benoy K. Behl

Architectural columns were carved from volcanic rock and paintings of themes sacred and secular adorn the interiors of caves at Ajanta.

Facade of Cave 26, Ajanta, Maharastra, India

Interior, Caitya 19, Ajanta

The lay-out is classic with a semi-circular apse. The massive and highly decorated columns support a high frieze running all around the nave which has a vaulted roof with ribs in imitation of wooden construction techniques. This caitya is one of the most beautiful.*

The focus of veneration within the caitya was a replica stupa, placed at the end of the prayer hall. Circumabulation, hitherto performed in the open air stupas, was incorporated into the U-shaped plan of the caitya: two rows of pillars separated the narrow corridors on either side of the main hall, thus creating a path which continued behind the replica stupa.**

*Source: The Art of India, Temples and Sculpture by Louis Frederic

**Indian Art, Oxford History of Art by Partha Mitter

Ceiling, Ajanta, Maharastra, India

The painters of the cave walls were constrained by scriptural narrative subject matter for the devotional purposes of the resident monks. They were free to paint ceilings with floral motifs and intricate designs.

Parinirvana wall sculpture, Ajanta, Maharastra, India

Local popular politician in Madurai. Her image can be found on any blank wall or building. Politicians in Southern India are venerated with intense violent passion.

A news report in the Bangkok Post in December 2016 published a story about a former Bollywood actress turned politician's sudden death from cardiac arrest. "The governing party of the southern state of Tamil Nadu said nearly 300 of its followers committed suicide or died of shock and despair upon hearing of the death of the party's leader Jayaram Jayalalithaa."

A practice of performing ritual displays of loyalty by self immolation or cutting off fingers to fashion a favorite politician's portrait out of blood is encouraged by party officials.

If possible, the story concludes on a more macabre fact:

"...the All India Dravidian Munnetra Kazhagam, which offers large compensation packages to the families of followers believed to have died or committed suicide out of loyalty to its leaders. Deaths from natural causes, especially heart attacks, are often counted as expressions of loyalty in party accounts."

Bangkok Post, Monday December 12, 2016

Note: This story does not refer to the woman in the picture above.

Jayaram Jayalalithaa's first film Vennire Aadai in 1965. The plot description is:

A wealthy businessman wants his daughter to marry the psychiatrist who treated her.

Saree shop in Varanasi.

Women traditionally wore various types of regional handloom sarees made of silk, cotton, ikkat, block-print, embroidery and tie-dye textiles. Most sought after brocade silk sarees. Wilipedia

After undergoing extensive purification rites, a young girl becomes fit to be the receptacle for a goddess. Her feet are stained with vermillion and priests and laypeople feed the girl sweets and make offerings of money.

A girl’s purity is a precondition for worshipping her as a powerful goddess in the popular custom of kumari puja. Young girls are held in high regard for their ritual purity (virgin worship).

Shakti is the energizing power of deities that is marked as female and, reflecting the classical idea, in popular Hinduism the gods commonly acquire female consorts —their shaktis—in order to act. That is why temple images of Vishnu and Shiva, for example, frequently show them accompanied by consorts, whereas images of goddesses stand alone.

Goddesses can stand alone because they actually embody power as shakti and can therefore act by themselves. Unmarried goddesses, in particular, unlike wifely goddesses, are ferocious and quickly angered.

The Kamakhya Temple in Assam is one of the most venerated Shakti shrines in India. Kumari Puja is also held at the Kamakhya temple every year. Rahul Tamuli, an archeologist from Assam, says, “Kumari worship in Kamakhya temple is as old as that of the origin of the temple. It is believed that the Goddess, although omnipresent, exists in the virgin girl. So the pilgrims worship the living virgin as Goddess in this temple.”

Notes taken from: The Camphour Flame by C. J. Fuller and Worship of the Living Goddess: Still a Sacred Custom on freepressjournal.in

See also new18.com: Devotees Throng Assam's Kamakhya Temple for Kumari Puja

Photo credit: by Bhrigu Bayan Kumari Pjua (Virgin worship).jpg on Wikipedia Commons

In smaller towns well outside cosmopolitan urban cities like Delhi and Mumbai the streets are filled with men. The daily lives of women and men are largely separate. 

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Nearly four out of five women in India have faced public harassment ranging from staring, insults and wolf-whistling to being followed, groped or even raped, said a survey by the charity ActionAid UK.

The study - which polled over 500 women in cities across India - found that 84 percent of the respondents who experienced harassment were aged between 25 and 35 years old and were largely working women and students. By Nita Bhalla

Jama Masjid courtyard in Old Delhi: Two travelers talk before the call to prayer.

Shiva as Ashtamurti, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaja Vastu Sangrahalaya (formerly known as the Victoria and Albert Museum)  in Mumbai

*Ashtamurti is one among the numerous names of Shiva. Shiva as Ashtamurti is existence. He is the force behind the living. As Ashtamurti, Shiva is the creative force and life behind everything that exists. He is the one who decides when a life form undergoes transformation and takes a new form – which we refer to as death and birth.*  

*Source: www.hindu-blog.com

Kathputli ka khel are secular puppet theaters throughout Rajasthan. Female dancers at court, snake charmers and local legends are favorite subjects for the lively and humorous performances.

The string marionettes are designed to make surprising transformations. The most virtuosic movement is the ability of the puppeteer to turn the puppet inside out, turning a man into a woman or in this case the puppet head dislocating from the body and bounced like ball by his feet.

End of Mother India

Life, Look and the Saturday Evening Post were large format weekly publications featuring copious amounts of photographs on prominent display on the family coffee table in our family home.

Each temple devoted to Shiva has a shrine with a votive figure of Nandi the bull. Hindus worship the shrine by saying the word Hara, Hara into the figure's ear. Hara is one of the names of Shiva, meaning the destroyer (of sins). Leaves of the bael tree or holy basil and flowers are dropped over the figure as the names of Shiva are spoken.*

*The Hindu at Home, Being Sketches of Hindu Daily Life by Joseph Edwin Padfield

Extravagant dioramas illustrate the milestones of the life of Gandhi on the second floor of the Mani Bhavan Gandhi Museum in Mumbai.

Gateway of India in Mumbai

I dream of Blue Lassi

It might get loud:

Asifi Mosque, Bara Imambara complex, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

A view of Old Delhi from a mosque

Udaipur, India

The golden age of making Indian miniatures of temple architecture lives on in highly skilled artisans employed by a thriving cottage-industry selling reproductions to tourists.

Dhvaja, or 'flag,' is the orange or red banner flown above temples, at festivals and in processions. It is a symbol of victory, signal to all that "Sanatana Dharma shall prevail." Its color betokens the sun's life-giving glow.

The saffron flag is the official flag of Hinduism. It is one of the most important symbols for Hindus. The Saffron flag symbolizes sacrifice, or denouncement. The sacrifice is of great importance in Hinduism. The sacrifice for your nation, family, religion, humanity is a necessary virtue in a man's life. 

Saffron also represents fire and as impurities are burnt by fire, this color symbolizes purity. It also represents religious abstinence. This color connotation has a sacred meaning for the Hindu. It is the color of holy men and ascetics who have renounced the world. Wearing the color symbolizes the quest for light. It is the battle color of the Rajputs, the warrior caste.

Deep in the backcountry, groups of young men walk along narrow highways on their way to temple, They carry red flags that proclaim they are Hindus on their way to worship at local shrines and gathering places in small villages.

Granite stone is carved into idols following the rules of the Shilpa Shastra. Granite is referred to and is believed to be the uyirottam kal a living stone, hence its traditional value and its use in creating religious images. 

The idol is consecrated by craving or opening the eyes of the deity. Kumku is then applied over the eyes.

Quote source: Handmade in India, A Geographic Encyclopedia of Indian Handicrafts by Aditi Ranjan and M. P. Ranjan, Abbeville Press

Craved idol in the Meenakshi Amman Temple, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India

Elephant with nettipattam, a ceremonial forehead ornament. The nettipattam is constructed of embossed copper pieces that are stitched onto a blanket of the desired shape and size. The edges of the nettipattam are decorated with woolen tassels in white, green, yellow, red, violet and occasionally also in rose and blue.*

A unhappy child is being hoisted atop the elephant to pose for a picture during a religious festival in Madurai.

*Handmade in India, A Geographic Encyclopedia of India Hanicrafts by Aditi Ranjan and M. P. Ranjan, Abbeville Press

A massive gopura (gate tower) in Madurai, India

In a temple, the cult image is surrounded by a hierarchy of deities, with minor ones at the outer periphery, all arranged according to a scale of purity. The aim is to protect the sanctum from worldly pollution. If these gateways, which are accompanied by high walls, are to serve as symbolic barriers to pollution, the higher they are, the greater chance they have of being effective. Indian Art, Oxford History of Art by Partha Mitter

Gopuram detail

Suthai, Stucco, is a hereditary craft practiced by the craftsman belonging to the Pilamar caste in Kakampudar. Stucco has been the traditional alternative to stone as a sculptural material. Stucco craftsman in Tamil Nadu see themselves as temple architects and sculptors. They employ the techniques of 'real stucco' - a mixture of sand, cement and lime. 

Existing temples in the south were renovated and new elements were added by the Nayaka dynasty. Handmade in India, A Geographic Encyclopedia of India Handicrafts byAditi Ranjan and M. P. Ranjan

The painting of the gopuras took place in more recent times. The vivid appearance of polychrome stucco figurines of gods and goddesses is not historical.

The Masjid-i Jahān-Numā, commonly known as the Jama Masjid of Delhi, is one of the largest mosques in India. Wikipedia

Hanumangarhi is a temple of Lord Hanuman in Ayodhya. More than 70 steps lead to the main Hanuman temple which is one of the most popular temples of Lord Hanuman in North India.It is a custom that before visiting lord Ram temple one should first pay visit to shri lord Hanuman temple: Wikipedia

At the foot of the temple steps are stands selling sugar confections in the shape of colorful balls to be offered at the temple shrine. Hanuman is a preeminent Hindu god, but being a monkey, he loves sweets.

This memorial is dedicated to B. R. Ambedkar, an Indian jurist, economist, politician, social reformer and the “father of the Indian Constitution”. He was independent India’s first Minister of Law and Justice.

Ambedkar was born into a poor, low Mahar (dalit) caste. He campaigned against social discrimination towards the dalit caste (untouchables).

Early in his career Ambedkar launched active movements against untouchability. He began with public movements and marches to open up public drinking water resources. He also began a struggle for the right of untouchables to enter HIndu temples.

Ambedkar was voted “the Greatest Indian” in 2012 in a poll which didn’t include Mahama Gandhi, citing it was not possible to beat him in a poll. The poll was organized by History TV18 and CNN IBN.

The entire memorial is built using red sandstone brought from Rajasthan.

Jama Masjid, Delhi, India

Rush hour in Mumbai

People identity themselves by all kinds of markers such as dress (including shawl and turban), ornaments, body markings, tattooing, flag and emblem, hair style, phallus or iconic representation of Shiva (linga), and coloring of teeth. Female dress and male dress followed by female ornaments, male headgear, and female tattooing are among the prominent markers of community identification. The sartorial varieties reflect ecological diversities and status and gender dimensions.

(R) The man striding down a village street in Kerala is wearing a Mundu. Behind him young men wear denim. Unspoken rules of etiquette govern the way the mundu is worn. Men will often fold the garment in half to resemble a short skirt when working, cycling, etc., but it is considered disrespectful to speak to women or one's social superiors with the mundu folded up this way, revealing the legs from the knee down. When faced with such a social situation, the fold of the mundu is loosened with an imperceptible flick and it flutters down to cover the legs completely.

(L) A group of women wait in Rajasthan for a municipal botanical garden to open.

Text from: People of India by K. S. Singh

(i)Wikipedia

Varanasi, India

Shops that open to the streets may have unexpected visitors.

Hindu Gods in primetime.

Shiva, Vishnu and other gods of the Hindu religion star in modern crime dramas on India television.

The vast expanses of land of the Oval Maidan, Azad Maidan, Cooperage Ground and Cross Maidan until the early 20th century formed the area known as Esplanade.

The Azad Maidan is a triangular-shaped maidan (sports ground) in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

The ground is known for its cricket pitches, for protest meetings, and for political rallies.

(Wikipedia>Azad Maidan)

Lotus and Silk Weaving Company located in the village of In Paw Khon.

Large gilded chambers, ascending stairs and escalators contribute to the drama of a visit to Myanmar’s penultimate sacred site.

Yangon, Myanmar

Water damage contributed to the erosion of the painted wall mural immediately behind the head of the Buddha image. It creating some interesting textural surface effects all the way to the exposed brick  wall. What remains is a painted mural background that is largely intact. The bodhi tree surrounds the head of the Buddha like a nimbus and there are rhomboidal decorative depictions of "the thousand buddhas" within the soaring triangular background design. Within each rhomboidal pattern is an inner cruciform larger Buddha figure.

As of February 2014

The mural of a Buddha figure flanked by women making floral tributes echoes the offering in the sunlight drenched shrine at the entrance to the dark corridor.

Venerable Moggallana Taming the King of Dragons, Nandopananda

The practice of meditation can give a yogi supernatural powers. The Buddha’s life story is full of dazzling miracles performed as manifestations of his insight and prowess as a yogi. Some stories feature the miracles of his disciples.

A lesser known epode in the life of the Buddha. Nandopananda, a naga king has become angry with the Buddha and coils himself around Mount Meru blocking Buddha’s way to the heavenly abodes. A disciple of the Buddha with supernatural powers transforms himself into a immense naga and dominates Nandopananda.

The following two images show interesting design variations of this story.

Bagan, Myanmar

The former abbot of this monastery on Inle Lake trained cats to do tricks. Known as Jumping Cat Monastery, this popular destination no longer offers cat tricks up for tourists. Today, the cats are content to follow the pools of warm sunlight in the dark interior.

 Inthein, Taunggyi, Myanmar

Inle Lake, Myanmar

Bagan Archeological Zone in Myanmar

Domestic visitors to the Bagan Archaeological Zone are allowed to camp amid the monumental stupas.

The last western tourists leave as the sun sets on the Dhammayangyi Temple

There are many different legends about the history and origins of this pyramidal shaped pagoda (temple), the largest of the extant 2,000 structures in the Bagan Archeological Zone.

Built but not completed by King Narathu. It is said that Narathu oversaw the construction himself and that masons were excecuted if a needle could be pushed between bricks they had laid.*

The cruel and bloody legends of the Dhammayangyi Temple plays into the dares of local teenage boys. At night it is a popular destination site for drinking parties to challenge the resident demons haunting the temple.

*http://myanmartravelinformation.com

Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon, Myanmar

In Myanmar, the central figure is the historical Buddha is perceived and worshipped as a Nat (the cult of the 37 Lords).

On earth, the Mahagiri Nat and his sister (in the ideal royal marriage pattern) were the effective overlords of the pantheon of the thirty-seven, acting as spiritual counterparts of the human royal couple. They watch over the spiritual plane, including that of every household. They also protected the supernatural territory surrounding the capital city...

Michael Aung-Thwin/Earth, Heaven, and the Supernatural World/The City as a Sacred Center: Essays on Six Asian Contexts

A small building near the Swezigon Pagoda in Bagan contains individual shrine to the 37 Nats worshipped as part of Theravada Buddhism in Myanmar.

In the 11th century in Bagan, King Anawrahta added a King of the Nats, Thagyamin, a Hindu deity based on Indra. In Buddhist mythology Indra paid homage to Buddha.  The Nats were made subordinate to Buddhism, and the faiths were combined.

For the golden Naga to wear/Bring we a robe of satin-velvet

The Lady Golden Sides obtained her name from the special robe she was entitled to wear, a robe with trimmings of gold.

Her two sons, executed by the king. are at her sides.

A smiling Nat with a drooping eye lash. 1,000 kyat is about 79 cents.

This Nat figure is probably The Little Lady, the daughter of Lady Three Times Beautiful. She is usually portrayed as a chubby little girl with an attitude of joy, (unlike most Nat figures that do not smile because their deaths were so violent or tragic). She is the guardian goddess of little children and schoolboys and girls. When a Burmese child smiles in his sleep it is believed that the Little Lady is playing with him, and little boys and girls on the eve of their annual school examinations make offerings of toys and tiny jackets and skirts to the little goddess.*

*Folk Elements in Burmese Buddhism by Maung Htin Aung

The mother of The Little Lady. The Lady Three Times Beautiful was a village maiden whose beauty surpassed man's imagination. She was beautiful 'in the morning, at midday, and at night', and her fame reached the ears of the king. The king sent a nobleman to fetch her, but the nobleman fell in love with her and lied to the king saying "her face is beautiful, but her body is so monstrously fat that she cannot enter the gates of the city".

A hut was built for her outside the city gates and she dwelt there, forgotten by the king and forsaken by her lover. She earned her living as a weaver. In course of time she gave birth to a little girl and then died of grief and became a nat.*

*Folk Elements in Burmese Buddism by Maung Htin Aung

Red and white cloth in a home or tied to an automobile rear-view mirror or hood ornament are traditional nat colors of protection.

Sister Golden Face is one of the 37 mahagiri nats located in the Nat Shrine at the Swezigon Pagoda in Pagan.

End of Art of the Nats

San Francisco Ethnic Dance Festival

Traditional dance from the island of Okinawa, hanagasa dancers wear large "flower shade" hats with red flower-like petals that represent the hibiscus.

Basilique Cathédrale de Saint-Denis, Henri II and Catherine of Medici's monumental tomb.

Vandalized with graffiti from her time outdoors in a cemetery, this personification of one of four virtues was moved inside the Cathedral, but no restoration has been done the the inscribed letters on the surface.

*Pilon was responsible for the kneeling bronze figures on top of this monument (depicting the king and queen alive and praying) the moving and realistic recumbent figures of the queen and king in death at the center and the four Virtues at the corners of the monument, the construction of which was supervised by Francesco Primaticcio (who sculpted the four corner figures). (Catherine de' Medici is reported to have fainted at the sight of these figures.)*

*Wikipedia

On this very site in the late 1800s, the Army planted eucalyptus interspersed with rows of Monterey cypress.  This was part of a program to create a green canopy all around the Presidio. Conditions did not favor the cypress and they died out, leaving open gaps.

Wood Line fills one of these gaps with a quiet, graceful, sinuous sculpture that, in the artist's words, "draws the place." Made up of eucalyptus branches sourced from various park projects that required tree removal, the sculpture is more than 1,200 feet in length. Wood Line will one day fade back into the earth.

http://www.presidio.gov/places/andy-goldsworthys-wood-line

Rice noodle business in HoiAn, Vietnam

The young man can't help smiling as he spins round the antique horses ridden by laughing children on a manual carousel near the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

Male actor wearing traditional gold facial make-up. He is demonstrating the elaborate eye movements that are the primary indicator of inner emotional states for Kathakali actors for a pre-show performance in Cochin. 

Four private school girls dressed exactly alike in clothing and hair style are taking time to wander through the merchant stalls and prepared food on offer at the annual Flower Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Sipping drinks and talking with each other, only one girl is aware that they are being photographed. In Thailand and much of Southeast Asia when someone catches you in a lingering gaze, not offended they respond with a friendly smile and laughter instead of anger and hostility.

Street scene near the tenderloin district in San Francisco.

San Francisco City Hall

Pedestrian bridge to Portsmouth Square Park in Chinatown.

San Francisco

San Francisco

San Francisco

San Francisco

Sanguine and suspicious with a metal sculpture for sale from a local merchant.

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

There are a great variety of colors represented brown shoes, bright yellow hoody, blue jeans, pink purse and green grass as a backdrop.

It's a great adventure to capture candid moments when couples move through the great rotunda with their families and friends, waiting for their turn to climb the great steps to the second floor for the ceremony. Without exception people are happy and laughing, real joy on their faces. 

The judge holds the binder with many pages of official documents, the couple are in a tender embrace and kiss in the first moment after their marriage is official. They stand perfectly centered in the circle on the marble floor and the reflection on the floor from the skylight suggested the diamond of a wedding ring.

I like the balance of elements and tones in this candid scene. The trio of dark formal figures with the face of the young man hidden but in an obvious eye-line with the flower girls. The flower girls' expressions are so loving and revealing of a complete involvement in the ceremony. The woman on the right, perhaps their mother and a sister of one of the men frames the grouping well.

Chinatown, San Francisco

Gambling and game playing are popular pastimes for the the elders of the Chinese community in San Francisco. Portsmouth Square Park is a central city park in Chinatown. On a good day, the cold morning fog dissolves and the concrete benches warm in the afternoon sun.

The park fills with people young and old, local and tourist. Clusters of retired men gather around makeshift chessboards, two players in deep concentration and many observers/advisors shouting advice and arguing with each other about recent chess moves.

I become fascinated the compositions made by the groups of figures and the body language, wildly emotional and studied contemplative concentration.

Xiangqi is a game that is very popular in China. It is based on a famous battle and sometimes simply referred to as Chinese Chess.

Two opposing sides are separated by a horizontal zone the represents a river. Blue chess pieces define the “Northern Territory” and red pieces the “Southern Territory”. The “king’s palace” on side is comprised of the four squares containing the diagonals.

Each side has sixteen pieces that are placed at the intersections of the lines, not inside the squares.

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

In 1632, a book by Jin-zhen Zhu called The Secret Inside the Orange, the last book on Chinese chess (strategies) to come out during the Ming dynasty, was published. It is said that the title of the book was derived from a legend:

There was once an orange field in which an enormous orange was grown. When the orange was peeled, it was found that inside two old men were sitting facing each other, playing chess.*

Source:Chinese Chess by H. T. Lau

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

Portsmouth Square Park, San Francisco

San Francisco

Companionable ladies stroll the Avinguda Gaudi leading away from the Sagrada Familia still under construction.

Wondering what I am up to trying for a low angle picture by putting my camera on the pedestrian walkway with a slight upward tilt. She is in the picture center left.

Rome, Italy

Chiang Mai night market

A popular subject of painters is the world famous Afghan Girl from the cover of National Geographic. Ironically, the ubiquitous copies usually have a sign nearby strictly forbidding taking photographs by tourists.

Jaipur, India

Varanasi, India

The Kite Festival is an annual event in Varanasi. Local boys battle in the sky, cutting free kites from competitors, and collecting as many stranded kites as possible.

The orange, three-tiered tiled roofline of the community Wat's viharn rises above the flat terrain of the pale stubble of rice stalks. During the cooler winter months in Thailand the work of growing rice crops comes to a halt. Many Buddhist ceremonies are scheduled during this short period between crops when leisure time from farming frees the laity for merit-making and devotional rituals.  In a nod to modernity, the local farmer swings a gasoline powered weedwacker using a nylon line to cut back dead rice stalks in place of a gleaming, lethally sharpened metal scythe.

Many Wats in rural areas take their name from the district area where they are located.  Khon Muang means: 'people of the cultivated land' or 'people of our community'.

San Sai is an agricultural town just outside of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand. The Wat Muang Khon is surrounded by farms and rice paddy.

The political system of the Chiang Mai area was established by the dynasty of King Mangrai (1296 - 1558). Based on the panna agricultural system, a panna is an area of land where farms share the same irrigation network.

The ruler used it as a manpower control mechanism since all farmers had to subordinate themselves to one panna in order to obtain their ration of water for farming. Throughout the kingdom, panna were organized to enlist tributary labor and collect tax, as well as to provide food reserves and conscripts in time of war.

Source:Local Healing in northern Thailand: An anthropological study of its effectiveness by Tantidoke, Y., published online by the University of Amsterdam

For much of the year the temple is shuttered and by appearances inactive, although the senior monk of the wat is available for advise and to offer prayers for good fortune. The hard work of daily life continues cultivating rice in the rainfed lowlands of the north.

A local wat serves the needs of a community in a direct way. Calendrical holidays, especially Buddhist Lent are observed. Funeral rites for deaths in the community are made available as needed. But the most joyous activities observed on temple grounds are ceremonies held for merit-making to benefit the community on auspicious occasions and to protect the incoming rice harvest.

Wat Muang Khon, Tambon Pa Phai, Amphoe San Sai, Chang Wat Chiang Mai 50210, Thailand

The facade of the Lanna-style village viharn on an inactive day.

Crowning the entrance to the vihara is a gruesome mural that is an unflinching reminder to the congregation of rice farmers and their families of the punishments in store for people who kill or mistreat animals.

The tale of Phra Malai, (seen in the upper left corner), a Buddhist saint given the power to visit the seven hells of Buddhist cosmology is well known to most Thais. This hell is populated by creatures with human bodies and various animal heads such as dogs, chickens, cats, and buffaloes.

Ceremony to honor a monk and merit-making for the community

Like a wedding ceremony, a sixtieth-birthday life extension ritual incorporates both Buddhist and animistic elements to ensure blessings in this life, and in this instance, a long and healthy old age. In the northern Thai cultural context, the ritual marking old age is called a life-extension or life enhancement (Thai, suep chata) ritual. Suep chata rites may be held for an individual, a family, or a community with the general purpose of warding off evil and engendering good luck, prosperity, and a long life. In addition to being a ritual marking the end of the fiftieth life cycle, the suep chata  may be performed to cure an illness, escape from bad luck predicted by a fortune teller, bless a new home, celebrate a monk's elevation in rank, or protect a village from natural disaster.

At the fiftieth birthday ritual the celebrant sits beneath a tripod constructed of bamboo poles and stalks of sugar cane that is placed in front of the Buddha altar. A white sai sincana cord extending from a Buddha image is tied to the bamboo tripod and wrapped three times around the head of the celebrant. A candle the height of the celebrant stands to one side of the altar. At the base of each pole of the tripod are placed coconuts, bananas, clay pots filled with water, and trays heaped with various food offerings each numbering 108. These include sticky rice, betel nuts, and husked and unhusked rice. Behind the celebrant stands a wishing tree made out of bamboo stalk adorned with sixty flags.

Together these objects create a sacred space, an axial center of power uniting the celebrant with various levels of divine and cosmic powers. The sacred number of 108 symbolizes the sum of power valencies of the basic constituents of the cosmos - earth, water, fire, air - together with the numerical sum of the equally potent spiritual power of the Buddha, his dhamma, and the sangha. The ceremony begins when the celebrant lights the small candles on the Buddha altar and then the large candle that corresponds to the height of the celebrant. This act not only announces the beginning of the ceremony, but also activates the divine powers in the universe. As the celebrant sits in the middle of this ritually constructed center of the world, the monks chant paritta or protection suttas, thereby empowering the celebrant with the power of the Buddha and his teachings as well as the potency of all the devata. After the monks have chanted for approximately an hour, they are presented food for their noon meal. The blessing they chant after their meal concludes the formal part of the ceremony. A generous luncheon for all of the guests concludes the festivities.  The Popular Tradition: Inclusive Syncretism/The Buddhist World of Southeast Asia by Donald K. Swearer, second edition, Silkworm Books

Seated within four life support poles or Mai Kham A-yu, is the senior monk of the local wat. This is an auspicious occasion to acknowledge his promotion in the hierarchy of the Theravada Buddhist order of monks. The colorful enclosure faces the Buddha image on the altar and it's central position and the use of four pillars (corresponding to the cardinal directions) within the sacred space of the temple represents an "axis mundi." The structure can be characterized as a Thao tang si or four directions guardians' ritual. Supported at the base by coconuts, banana leaves, sugar cane, betel nut quibs and miang (fermented tea) are used as offerings to ask protections by Brahmanism and Buddhist gods. These things are "good things" that represent life, prosperity, and abundance. ticthai.com

The simple construction of the tripod for lay people contrasts with the impressive and complex four pillared structure used for ordained monks. Both share the designation as a "cradle of fate." In the Sueb Chata ceremony as it is performed for a lay member of the wat, It is a magical device that is used to redirect a bad fate.  Thai astrology designates a set destiny based a person's birth according to the lunar calendar. Seated within the tripod, hearing the words of the Buddhist liturgy, a lay man or woman believe that their devotions and merit-making will effect their longevity and quality of life and luck.

In a monk's ceremony, the ephemeral structure functions as a conduit of power and an ecclesiastical throne honoring the individual within.

The Buddha did not define rituals in his teachings. Most formal rituals in Thai Theravada Buddhist practice are modifications of Brahmanism and local animistic practices. The Sueb Chata ceremony is a ritual ceremony native to the Lanna Tai people of Chiang Mai province.

Buddhist ecclesiastical hierarchy : 

Somdet Phrasangkharat (Supreme Patriarch)

Mahatherasamakhom (Council of Elders)

Chao Khana Phak (Ecclesiastical Regional Head)

Chao Khana Changwat (Ecclesiastical Provincial Head)

Chao Khana Amphoe (Ecclesiastical District Head)

Chao Khana Tambon (Ecclesiastical Sub-District Head)

Chao Away (Abbot of a Wat)

Bhikkhus and Samaneras (Monks and Novices)

The separation of church and state do not exist in Thailand. Buddhism is the state religion of the Thai people. Liturgical ceremonies are recognized as important events acknowledged by military and governmental officials.

Important members of the congregation and leaders in the local community take privileged seats within the temple.

The “magical” power generated by monks chanting verse is the most strong and efficacious when it is proximal to the source. Lay members within the vihara (temple) will receive the strongest and most beneficial “merit” made by the monks.

Banners of 20 Baht banknotes hang from the sai sin string canopy. Temple ceremonies are an opportunity to raise funds for the ongoing support of the local grounds and monks of the wat. Merit is made with financial gifts. The display of the King's image on the banknotes is auspicious because as a royal he is considered an incarnation of a deity. Donors write their names on the money tungs for prayers from the temple monks.

Thai Buddhists use sai sin (sincana cord) to create a consecrated, protective space. The legend that explains it's use is from a folktale of a bodhisattva that wraps sincana cord around the palace of a raja as a barrier to a demon. The monster ran around the palace for seven days without being able to cross the cord.

The three knots tied around the string-braclets on the wrists signify a form of triple protection against evil influences. The knot is a symbol to secure all blessings. 

*In Europe, during the middle ages, knots enjoyed a high reputation in dispelling  the evil machinations of witches.*

*THAM KHWAN by Ruth-Inge Heinze

The view from the first group of laypeople seated outside the temple. They face the backs of the attendees seated inside. The sai sin cord from the temple interior is daisy chained from awning to awning throughout the temple grounds.

The first of several awnings with plastic chairs outside the temple. In the background are the many volunteers that help cook meals and set tables.

Some laypeople hold the sai sin cord wrapped around their fingers but more commonly the cord is used wrapped around the head. The reason for this is the belief in Khwan, an animist belief unique to the Thai culture.

Khwan can be translated as "vital spirit." The Thais believe that the Khwan resides primarily in the top of the head. If enough Khwan leaves the body it can lead to poor health and death. The cord functions like a wire and the effect of wrapping it around the head is to use the powers of the recitation of scripture to call the Khwan back into the body.

The lay members remove their sai sin cord from the canopy to take home for good fortune.

The support of local wats relies mostly on the women in the community. Women in Buddhist cultures have limited direct means of earning merit; much of it must be made by others on their behalf. Supporting the monks is considered an activity that yields significant amounts of merit.

There are some tasks that men do to contribute this event. Large trucks back into the temple grounds with large, heavy pots of prepared food made for the festival lunch.

When a local wat congregation host a Thambun (merit-making ceremony) it includes a day long, (sometimes several days) Temple Festival (Poi Luang). The entire local community is invited and the proper and mannered morning services give way to a mass midday meal followed by a raucous carnival of entertainments all afternoon and late into the evening. Loud music, goblet drum contests, bounce houses for children and a bawdy theatrical performance called Likay (Like) take place just outside the official enclosure of the temple grounds.

The older women of the congregation have prepared and plated food for hundreds of visitors.

Table setting for the monks who chanted for the community. Thai meals are rarely simple but are labor-intensive in preparation and lavish in presentation. A meal offered must take into consideration a diverse range of food preferences accounting for monks that have traveled great distances to participate in the ceremony.

*Typical dishes served to the monks are fried chicken, steamed or fried vegetables, Burmese Pork Curry, roasted or barbecued pork, and Nahm Prik Ong, a tomato chili paste, okra and cabbage along with steamed rice and sticky rice.* Source: The Profound Meaning of Buddhist Ceremonies. 

The morning chanting ceremony gives way to a relaxing midday meal.

The work of preparing food and serving the monks and visitors is complete and the matrons of the host temple wait in the corner of the community hall. Their faces reflect expressions that bridge the stern and the poignant and the careworn, one happy woman smiles directly at the camera.

Following lunch the honoree monk remains in the temple to receive lay members and visitors who come for blessings and small gifts.

A treasured souvenir for the hard working matrons of the temple.

Su Khwan ceremony: The most repeated interaction that monks have with the lay membership and with tourists eager to encounter  Buddhism firsthand is the brief ceremony of tying white cotton string around the wrist.

The tying of the wrists keeps the khwan inside the body thus strengthening the essence of life, it protects from evil spirits, it strengthens the contact between the wearer and the supernatural world. 

To tie the right wrist is to let the khwan stay with in the body.

Saw performers at Temple Fair: Saw is a vocal genre particular to northern Thailand with two styles. the Chiang Mai and Nan styles. Saw is a vocal repartee genre which the performers draw upon hundreds of memorized poetic verses and extemporaneous lyrics for the content of their sung text. Performances can be categorized as a mock courtship between male and female chan saw. Topics relate to the context in which the performance takes place, such as a house-building ceremony, or an ordination ceremony for monks. They cover a wide range of subjects including love-making, religious rituals, botany, medicine, politics, etc. Lyrics are sung in the northern dialect, kham muang, and must follow standard saw poetic forms, called khao saw.

Skilled performers can dwell on a particular topic for several minutes, continually adding new poetic verses from the memorized repertory and inserting witty improvised lyrics to demonstrate their mastery of the khao saw form.

Khon Muang Music and Dance Traditions of North Thailand by Andrew C. Shahriari

Likay is a kind of Siamese folk opera. With the musical accompaniment of a piped ensemble (gongs, xylophone, and drums). Likay performers dress in outrageously sequined gaudy costumes, synthetic brocades, absurd hair extensions and breeze through threadbare plots that allow for large amounts of improvised jokes and low-brow humor. Likay as a folk-theater has strong similarities to commedia dell'arte with it's stock characters, crude singing and dancing, and dialogue punctuated with puns and vulgar humor.

Because it is rooted in satire, Likay, as an art form is shown more tolerance by the authorities than other modes of speech and is sometimes used as a vehicle to criticize the government by college students.

Likay stories are well known to Thai audiences, so there are many opportunities to improvise story digressions full of contemporary jokes and puns commenting on current events.

*The main characters are phra(hero), nang (heroine), kong (villain), itcha (villainess) and the joker (male or female clowns) in the roles of stereotypedprincesses, kings and lower class figures...*

*Wikipedia

Amorous intrigues like scandalous notes passed on to the wrong person and hilarious parodies of royal court melodramas are a staple of Likay performances.

This Thai "Grouch Marx" type character has a quick wit and a tendency to steal every scene. In contrast to the flashy, elaborate costumes worn by most of Likay's performers, the actor playing the comical character of the lower social classes usually wears simple overalls or a vest with no shirt. The male "clowns" of Likay are similar to the dagelan, which are comical actors with extreme white face makeup in Javanese theater.

Thais enjoy loud music from concert music to movie soundtracks at local malls.

Public events are supplied with powerful amplifiers turned up to maximum volume driving enormous speakers topped with metal public address horns.

Each Likay performer has his own wireless microphone and the men's dialogue is less spoken than shouted in a clipped staccato contrasted with a woman typically speaking in an exaggerated high pitched voice.

Rapt attention and big smiles on the audience for the Likay troupe.

Likay characters wear costumes that are Malay-like with turbans and embroidered fabric. 

Piphad likay musicians: The musical ensemble is tightly integrated into performances. They must be ready for any improvised digressions by the actors. They are also known to make their own witty improvised musical contributions to the performance. Like all live stage performers, the actors delight in an opportunity to make the band members laugh.

The Klawng Aew is big Lanna drum used to signal Buddhist lent and on all Buddhist religious holidays.

The drum head is tuned using a circular weight attached to the face called a Ja.

The paste that makes the Ja weight is a closely guarded secret in drum contests. Sticky rice and ash are the primary ingredients, but the secret elements that are prized are combinations of clay, tar, insect excrement and gold leaf.

The drum head must be tuned before each performance. A Ja weight lowers the tone of the drum. The drum contest is won strictly on the basis of the drum's tone and not by the ability of the drummer.

Drummers will re-adjust the Ja weight to produce the best quality sound. The Ja weight on the drum head has been worked and reworked, the variations in thickness and the random dimples made on the weight will produce the desired deep sound needed to compete in the evening contest.

The drum is sounded with a wooden beater that is wrapped in a monk's robe to ensure that the drum has not been touched by a woman.

At the end of the performance the Ja is removed from the drum head.

At the conclusion of the Sueb Chata, the ceremonial structure is placed under a Bo tree and next to a spirit shrine outside the temple grounds.

Inventing new traditions

New Year "Countdown" Chanting Ceremony in Thailand

Non-traditional ceremonies for merit-making:

Celebrations for International observance of the New Year are held throughout Thailand. Buddhist temples and local governments offer organized festivals with dance performances and music to an alcohol free audience.

Inventing a new tradition: Since 2011, the Sangha Supreme Council of Thailand and the Department of Religious Affairs initiated a campaign for the New Year chanting ceremony.

First organized by the abbot of a Thai temple in North Hollywood, California the International New Year Eve was celebrated by chanting sutras and merit-making. Unpopular at first, most Thai temples offer some form of pious celebration.

At the Wat Chedi Luang in Chiang Mai participants register for an official certificate of the event and a bundle of saai sin cord to attach to the existing canopy. 

New Year Chanting: A Good Start, a Good Life

Promoted by the Thai Health Promotion Foundation on television, radio and Facebook. It provides an opportunity to create merit going into the New Year.

Young people can multi-task participating in the ceremony and keeping up with friends on their cell phones.

Traditional worship on New Years Eve at Wat Chedi Luang. A young couple make their prayers holding joss sticks. The smoke from the candles and joss sticks are believed to carry their prayers to the devas in the heavens.

Wat Phan Tao offers a dazzling evening of non-traditional stagecraft for tourists celebrating the New Year in Chiang Mai.  Less devotional than eye candy for photographers. The New Years Eve event is extremely popular with Americans and Europeans; most Thais prefer the New Year Countdown ceremony next door at the Wat Chedi Luang.

Young monk reflected in the artificial pond from the elevated stage area. Decorated with lanterns and a bamboo backdrop the New Year Countdown at Wat Phan Tao begins.

Artificial but beautiful this annual evening performance ends with a flourish at midnight with the release of the khom loy (the now iconic image of illuminated paper lanterns in Thailand drifting skyward in massive numbers).

The countdown to midnight culminates with families participating in the simultaneous launching of the famous paper lanterns: khom loy.

Notes for New Year Countdown are taken from:

New Year "Countdown" Chanting Ceremony in Contemporary Thai Society: An Analysis of an Invented Tradition by Prasirt Runra, published in the Rian Thai, International Journal of Thai Studies, Vol. 9/2016

10,000 Monks

Thousands of plastic chairs with breakfast boxes line Nimmanhaemin Road in preparation for the 10,000 Monks merit-making ceremony held in Chiang Mai in late December.

Young monks arrive in the pre-dawn hours to participant in the mass merit-making 10,000 Monks. 

Inventing new traditions: 10,000 Monks is staged throughout major cities in Thailand as a mass event for merit-making. Starting in the early morning hours, this contemporary ceremony is staged with great pomp and circumstance. It involves the coordinated participation of civic leaders and the military stretching as far as the eye can see. It culminates in an massive alms round.

Monks from many regions arrive by the bus and crowded into songthaews in the pre-dawn hours to participate in the festivities of the 10,000 Monks event.

Thousands of Thais wear white as a symbol of purity and respect for the monks. The 10,000 Monks ceremony includes large numbers of the Thai military, who are there to assist the monks and to make merit for themselves.

The ceremony begins with community leaders honoring and thanking the Sangha for participating in an auspicious ceremony.

The leading monks of the community are honored by the high-ranking laypeople of the Chiang Mai region.

The highly organized procession for alms-round is directed by monks with bullhorns.

Long straight lines of monks move down Nimmanhaemin Road for miles toward the Ping River on the outskirts of Chiang Mai City. Individual laypersons make as many individual alms gifts as possible to strengthen their merit.

When alms bowls are overflowing with offerings, the monks are assisted by members of the Thai army. Soldiers collect the contents into large plastic bags so that the alms giving may continue.

End of Sueb Chata & Temple Fair: The Sueb Jata Ban

In Chiang Mai workers spend weeks constructing platforms on the river banks for Loy Krathong. 

Each year, the Loy Krathong Festival, known locally as Yee Peng in Northern Thailand holds a parade from ThaPhae Gate towards the Ping River. Contests are held to select a beauty queen and awards for the best lantern float reflecting the theme of the parade are highlights of the festival.

Large floats of boats and dragons illuminated like lanterns are popular in parades in Laos and Thailand.

There is a tradition in Chiang Mai and the North-Eastern provinces to make one very big krathong and light it with torches. The krathong is filled with provisions and clothing and launched into the local river. These will taken by poor people downstream far from the starting place. It is intended as an act which is equal to transferring sins to others. 

In Cambodia, the making and setting in the water to float downstream is an act of filial duty to departed ancestors. They ask their ancestors to partake of a feast prepared for the occasion. After the feast is consumed, the ancestors are sent away in a krathong made of banana stems filled with provisions.

Notes made from: Thailand Culture Series, Loy Krathong & Songkran Festival by Phya Anuman Rajadhon.

The beginning of the parade celebrating Loy Krathong: A local winner of a beauty contest called the Nopphamat Queen Contest.

Women wearing traditional blouses and skirts of the Lanna culture of the north carry poles with lanterns.

Young man carrying a banner in the Loy Krathong Parade.

Thapae Road becomes a symbolic river on which the parade lanterns drift. A group of boys swoop in and out of the procession with lanterns articulated like fish mimicking movements under water.

Western tourists enjoy the Loy Krathong Parade from the balcony of their guest house on Thapae Road.

Young woman selling krathongs made from bread shaped like lotus blossoms. Ideally, materials used to make krathongs are made from organic materials that will naturally decompose or be consumed by birds and fish.

Krathongs made from ice-cream cones with joss sticks, incense cones and a candle.

School groups sell krathongs as part of fund raising programs.

Most krathongs are small and simple. There are also larger ones with fancy designs for sale shaped like dragons and swans made from banana leaves cut and wrapped around a buoyant foam core.

A television crew film a young woman preparing to set her krathong in the water.

Young couple taking a selfie with their krathong. 

Three girls celebrate Loy Krathong together. Posed cell phone selfies lighting the krathong are a modern addition to the ceremony.

Young couples forecast the future of their relationship. If their two Krathong float side by side, it augurs well for the success of their romance. If they drift apart, it should provide a perfect opportunity to assure each other that any departure will be temporary or short of that even - if love does not last, memory will.

Loy Krathong Festival by Suttinee Yavaprapas, published by the Thai Ministry of Culture

A Sapao made at a local temple:

A monk poses with a big boat-shaped float that is attached to a bamboo raft resting on a wagon illuminated with lights flooding the ground beneath. 

The wagon was pulled through the streets by a group of young people from a local temple. They made their way to the Ping River, shouting and banging drums as they pulled and pushed the wagon with the Sapao.

In the past, the people around Wualai Village of Tambon Nantharam, Mueang District, Chiang Mai helped make a sampao at a local temple. It turned out to be a big boat fixed on a bamboo raft filled with all kinds of practical items like pots, jars, clothing, food, etc.

During the twilight of Yipeng, they would carry the boat to be floated in the Ping River. The procession was a fun-filled one accompanied by gongs, drums and other musical instruments playing all the way to the river to float the boat. After the boat had been allowed to drift for awhile, the poor people who waited in the water could come onto the boat and take whatever they wanted or could get.  Thus, this was actually another form of giving as merit making.  (Phrakhru Adunsilakit (Thanwutho) (Interview, Nov. 4, 2008) 

It is believed that making merit by floating this kind of float will get one across the vast river to heaven.

Source material: http://library.cmu.ac.th/ntic/en_lannatradition/yeepeng-sapuo.php

The presiding monk for the Sapao launch distributes small bread krathongs to temple laypeople to make individual offerings on the Ping River.

Filled with provisions of food and offerings of flowers the Sapao is prepared for it's journey down river.

Homemade torches made from discarded energy drink M150 bottles are strung on wires to the mast.

A young boy poses for a cell phone picture with his bread krathong.

Musicians accompany the ceremony making loud, cacophonous sounds to celebrate the launch of the Sapao.

Launching the Sapao.

The Sapao will be steadied two young boys in the broad but shallow Ping River. The water in November is very cold and they must guide it down the river and out of sight without capsizing it.

Boy slinging fireworks into the river.

Merry-go-rounds, spooky haunted houses, and inflatable slides are part of Loy Krathong. At sunset the ticket seller waits for customers.

A walk-through haunted house attraction in a park near the Mae Ping River. Horror movies and scary stories are popular in Thailand. Folk tales of ghosts and avenging spirits are found in movies, television and comic books.

The Loy Krathong/Yee Ping Festival's focal concerns are appeasing spirits of nature and forecasting luck for the future. Astrologers, spirit mediums, the buying of lottery tickets and using Buddhist monks to chant "protection" spells to control the ghosts of the recently deceased from tormenting the living are part of the daily concerns of Thai people.

Ghostly-themed amusements provide a good scare and a hearty laugh after provide a good way to relieve tension and anxiety.

Large inflated slides and bounce houses are popular with families during the three day Loy Krathong Festival.

Temples around town receive visitors taking a moment simply to light candles. 

A family sets afloat many small krathongs on the Ping River a few days before the main event.

Pratu Pa: Arches are constructed in front of local temples and family homes as a welcome gate for "those returning from the forest." The gate is an imitation of the Himalayan forest.

The Lanna tradition of the forest gate is part of the Buddhist ceremony that calls for the recitation of the Vessantara Jataka during the days of Loy Krathong.  Prince Vessantara is the story of the final past life of the historical Buddha before achieving enlightenment. Hearing the entire Vessantara jataka is thought to earn enough merit to be reborn in the time of the future Buddha, ensuring the individual of nibbana. The forest gate is built to lure Vessantara and his family from the forest into the home or temple.

The view from the bridge overlooking the Ping river on the banks of Chiang Mai's Chinatown district. Crowds gather on the steps to the concrete embankment on the river to launch their krathongs. Floating lanterns fill the sky at the culmination of the Loy Krathong celebration.

Launching Krathong Sai: tiny krathongs.

Color photograph of the Sapao guided down the Ping River.

End of Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai 2015

Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai

Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai

Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai

With the roof of the prasat removed the giant creature can clear the height of the final building that leads to the city streets and low hanging electrical wires on the final journey to the cremation ground. Great merit is made by lay members that pull the ropes that move and maneuver the Nok Hatsadiling onto Thaphae Road.

Plaster, shaped into ornamental mouldings and motifs, is the icing on the cake of many Thai buildings. It sometimes even contains cane sugar, an ingredient that gives traditional Thai plaster work its characteristic brilliant whiteness.

Plaster ornament is sculpted by hand, or else formed in a mould.*

Temple buildings and Ho Trai (Buddhist Scripture libraries) are typically surrounded with belts of framed mythological animals from the slopes of Mount Meru. Their purpose is to guard sacred structures. They are depicted joyously and playfully, rather than fierce.

*Architecture of Thailand by Nithi Sthapitanononda and Brian Mertens

Gold and ochre mural depicting the death of King Mangrai from a lightning bolt followed by his funeral and cremation borne on a Nok Hatsadiling pyre at Chiang Mai Market. This event happened 700 years ago.

Wat Chiang Man, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Naga (dragon) balustrades are ubiquitous on temple stairways in Thailand. Brightly colored blue and pink Nok Hatsadilings are sometimes used in the north. They are a rare but formal mythological creature, part of the fantastic bestiary of the Himmapan forest in Buddhist cosmology.

Standing Nok Hatsadiling guardian figures at Wat Phra That Doi Kham, Chiang Man, Thailand

The Nok Hatsadiling is a mythological guardian figure used to protect the entrance to sacred spaces in Buddhist temples in Northern Thailand.

This creature is ornate with realistic grasping talons and a trunk that serves as a perch for a peacock.

Walking mythological creature with a royal structure on its back symbolizing a heavenly temple.

Within a cremation ceremony, a Meru or prasat represents heaven on earth and emphasizes to viewers the luxuries of heaven. In addition to its function as an axis mundi, the cremation structure reminds attendees of the rewards that may await them in the next life cycle. The prasat and pyre are cosmological models, and the multiple roofs represent the levels of existence or heavens located on Mount Meru. As the fire burns this early model transforms into the actual heaven, where the deceased is transported.

Source: Onward toward Heaven: Burning the Nok Hatsadiling by Rebecca S. Hall

Many transliterations exist:

Nok Hatsadiling, Nok Hussadee, Hastilinga, Hasatiling, Hatsidiling, Husasadeeling, Hasadeeling, Husadilingu, Hasadee, Hasadeelink, Hatthalinga.

Funeral ceremonies for monks are known locally as 'Poi Loh' or 'Poi Lag Prasat', which means a fair and procession for pulling the Prasat. Important monks, and sometimes elderly monks who were much esteemed by local people, were ceremoniously called Khruba Sangha.

The Prasat is built on the back of an image of an 'elephant bird'. This mythical creature looks like a bird with the head of an elephant. The Lan Na people call this creature Nok Hastilinga (Hatsadiling). This bird is mentioned in the Jataka Tales as having the mightiest energy. This is the 18th Tale, and in it a Hastilinga flying by, sees a Queen dressed in red in the sunlight on the terrace of a palace. He mistakes her for a piece of meat, and swoops down and carries her off in his mighty claws. In another story, in the Camadevi Legend, a hermit sends a Hastilinga (Hatsadiling)to fetch a conch shell from the sea which is used to design the city of Haripunchai. The bird flew to the sea and back in a single day, and therefore is revered because of its great strength and energy; a bird in the sky.

source sited: http://www.sri.cmu.ac.th/~elanna/elanna_eng/public_html/customs/custom6.html

From a local folk-tale recited in the Lanna Thai language in the form of a Jataka story about a past-life of the Buddha. Many stories include supernatural elements, such as a mechanical swan or other creature able to fly.

The nok hatsadiling as a catafalque used in a funeral ceremony in Laos, was called a puppet. Not merely an static papier-mâché on bamboo matting construction, the creature's ears flutter, the eyes blink, and the trunk swings round and blows out confetti, all mechanically articulated from the interior.

Egyptian image from the foot of a sarcophagus in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.

Like the Apis Bull from ancient Egypt, winged mythological creatures are a recurring motif on funerary objects.

A griffin-like animal used to decorate a Larnax. A Larnax is a ceramic coffer designed to imitate wooden chests.

Archeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete

Hybrid creatures like the Sphinx have the effect of unsettling the mind. Combining the body of a lion with wings and a human head is a purposeful way to invoke fear and awe.

Archeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete

Medieval illumination shows the Griffin’s golden eagle foreparts (Christ’s divinity) and its lion hindparts (his humanity). In order to be effective the hybridity of creatures must be readable to some of its intended audience.

*Images of the Journey in Dante’s Divine Comedy by Charles Taylor and Patricia Finley

The monumental size of the creature compared to humans is a visual clue to impression of the importance of the deceased abbot. 

According to the oldest upanishadic texts, the swan (hamsa) is identified as a bird of passage. The swan is symbolic of the transcendence of the earth. According to the epic Ramayana, the swan exceeded all birds in the height of their flight. Ancient Indian literature manifests many symbolic associations between the swan and such phenomena as the sun, light and heat of the sun and fire.

source: The Many Colors of Hinduism by Carl Olson

Selected pictures of the construction of a Nok Hatsadiling for the cremation of Chan Kusalo, Patriarch-Abbot (regional chief monk) of Northern Thailand.

Built from a hardwood framework, incorporating bamboo,  and decorated with hand-painted papier-mâché the Nok Hadsadiling can take as much as four months to complete.

The Thai kranock (leaf-flame).

Sam tua hang hongse, a three-part kranock in the shape of a swan's tail.

A popular Thai modification of the scroll pattern is one of spiraling naga. These decorative naga, resembling vines, often sprout leaf-flames called kranock.

The classic Thai kranock has three flame-like parts the curl back from a undulating stem. The origins of this seventeenth-century motif are controversial. The flickering shapes suggest that fire may have inspired the motif.

Beasts, Birds, and Blossoms in Thai Art by Pam York Taylor, Oxford University Press

Kranok sam tua ("three kranok") is a variant of lai kranok, or the kranok pattern, a traditional Thai pattern (lai Thai) commonly used for ornamentation.

Each Nok Hatsadiling is a unique design for a particular abbot using the appropriate symbols defining characteristics of his personality. This Hatsadiling is a complex hybrid of many creatures. The elephant head gives way to a long neck with the scales of a naga sitting on the body of a pot-bellied hamsa (goose). The kranock sits on top of a spray of peacock feathers.

While a garuda is the sunbird of Central Thailand, the peacock (the Burmese sunbird) appears in parts of Northern Thailand influenced by Burmese rule.

Beasts, Birds, and Blossoms in Thai Art by Pam Taylor

In the Malay world, the word perahu in Malay/Indonesian language generally refers to water transportation regardless of its size. To differentiate the types of perahu, another word is added to the word perahu.*

The design similarities of the Thai kranock and the Malaysian bangau are obvious. Both are abstractions of flame and dragon motifs and both relate to “luck” for a dangerous journey.

*Source: Malay woodcarving as decoration on traditional boats in Peninsula Malaysia

Nik Hassan Shuhaimi Nik Abdul Rahman, Othman Yatim, Mohamad Zain Musa, Zuliskandar Ramli Institute of The Malay World & Civilisation (ATMA)

These animals are all mythical and all fantastic in appearance. Images of the animals of the Himalaya (Himaphan) were used on two types of occasion: for the ceremony of the tonsuring of princes and in the procession at royal cremations. In the former, tonsuring, an initiation rite of Indian origin, was supposed to represent the mythical tonsuring of the god Ganesha by his father Siva on Mount Kailasa and also embraced a whole system of symbolism relating to the power of the Universal Monarch. The animals were drawn in the procession that accompanied the royal urn to the pyre set up on a catafalque in the likeness of Mount Meru. Each animal carries a sort of shrine on its back for the sovereign’s religious offerings.*

*Thai Painting by Jean Boisselier, translated by Janet Seligman

In February 2015, three documents rolled up in a canister in the storerooms of the Dresden State Art Collections were identified as having originated in Siam.*

Published in the Journal of the Siam Society, volume 104, 2016. This detail shows the use of pulling carts with imaginary animals from Buddhist mythology, each carrying offerings in the prasats on their backs.

*Two Scrolls Depicting Phra Phetracha’s Funeral Procession in 1704 and the Riddle of their creation by Barend J. Terwiel

Prasats are symbolic of the residences of kings and high-ranking monks in the heavens of Buddhist cosmology. Religious offerings in honor of the dead abbot are carried in the funeral procession. They are carried on palanquins rather than mythological animal carts.

Leading the long procession a senior monk reads protective scripture from a palanquin.

Young boys from the community support the community of monks by doing jobs around the wat.

The days leading up to the cremation are filled with music, food and sometimes gambling.

A piiphaat Mon Ensemble with a combination of Thai and Mon traditional instruments. The khaung Mon frames in the first row are elaborately carved and decorated. They feature the head, arms and torso of the mythological creature kinnaun (kinnari) which looks like a woman but has wings and the legs of a bird. It is increasingly popular to decorate the khaung Mon with peacock feathers, small Thai flags, and even blinking Christmas lights; musicians feel that such touches add to the grandeur of the instruments themselves.(Source: Mon Music for Thai Deaths, Ethnicity and Status in Thai Urban Funerals, by Deborah Wong, University of California, Riverside)

Men fill a container positioned at the head of of the Hatsadiling with puffed rice. Puffed rice is tossed on the ground at the head of the procession to the site of cremation. In a typical Thai Theravada funeral  this is done as the procession circumambulates (counterclockwise) the cremation site 3 times. A group of monks lead the procession and the first monk throws the puffed rice.

Here the Hatsadiling will gather the puffed rice with its trunk and throw it across the path. In Buddhist ceremonies puffed rice is used for it's fragrance, as a symbol of purification and in funerals puffed rice symbolizes "that which cannot be grown again." In this case referring to the deceased as not returning in another incarnation.

Tha Wang Tan, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai 50140, Thailand

View of the interior armature of a wing. Materials are selected for their strength, flexibility, and the ability to burn quickly like bamboo matting and hardwoods.

Use of the Hatsadiling in Theravadan Buddhist design

The roof of a temple sign in Chiang Mai.  Emerging from the mouths of Makara are the heads of gilded curvilinear Hatsadiling figures.

Black-and-gold lacquer intricate vegetal motif on a scripture chest in Wat Buppharam in Chiang Mai.  Undulating trees and scrolling vines dominate the foreground design of this complex decoration of monastic furniture.

On the slopes of the legendary Mount Meru is Himaphan Forest, covered with trees, vines, flowers, and grasses. The strange creatures that inhabit the Himaphan Forest decorate Thai temple complexes.

The Traiphum describes rajasimha, kimnari (bird-women), sinthrop (a brace of horses born along the Indus River)  and chat thon (pure white elephants). A gajasimha, known in Thai as a khotchaisi, possesses a lion’s body and and elephant’s trunk. A ghilan is similar to the Chinese ch’i lin, with the head of a lion, the antlers of a deer, the legs of a horse and a tufted tail.

These odd creatures of the Himaphan captured the imaginations of artists of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They appear as sculpture, and on murals, manuscripts, mother-of-pearl, and lacquerware. Some artists even created new hybrid animals, such as the sang (singha) (tiger-lion) and the narasimha (lion-man) which are not mentioned in the Traiphum or other texts. 

Beasts, Birds and Blossoms in Thai Art, Pamela York Taylor, Oxford University Press

Luang Prabang, Laos

Luang Prabang, Laos

Thailand

The country bade farewell to Luang Phor Koon Parisutho, the much revered monk at his cremation during a royally sponsored ceremony in Buddhamonthon in Khon Kaen's Muang district Tuesday night.

The late monk’s coffin will be placed inside a casing of white papier-mache shaped like a Husadilingu, the legendary half-bird, half-elephant of the Himmavanta Forest of Buddhist lore. In Lanna Buddhist mythology, a Husadilingu is summoned to transport the souls of high-ranking monks of great virtue to Heaven.  (nation multimedia.com)

He had bequeathed his body to the medical school at Khon Kaen University for medical students to study.

Credits:

January 07, 2019 04:00 By SUMALEE SUWANNAKORN, KAWINTRA JISUE THE NATION

30 Jan 2019
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Mourners lay out clothes so the vehicle carrying Luang Phor Koon Parisutho’s body can run over them. They believe the clothes will be blessed and bring good luck when they wear them.

Please credit and share this article with others using this link:https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1620038/faithful-bid-luang-phor-koon-final-farewell. View our policies at http://goo.gl/9HgTd and http://goo.gl/ou6Ip. © Bangkok Post Public Company Limited. All rights reserved.

The elephant inspires the greatest range of imaginative hybridizing with other creatures from wings to fins. Even in scale, such as the last creature, enormous enough to carry full size elephants in its talons.

Cremation of the Nok Hatsadiling with surrounding prasats.

Chinese dragons bring good luck to people, therefore the longer the dragon in the dance, the more luck it will bring to the community.*

The famous “Frozen” sisters were the face of globalism in 2018.

The dragon dancers are accompanied by the fan bearer. Wearing a huge smiling head this character is sometimes referred to as ‘uncle.’ He is the token and symbol that one should approach the ineffable - with good humor and dexterity.* (nations online.org)

The color of the lion’s fur is symbolic.

A lion dancer takes a break in a produce market after hours beginning in the pre-dawn darkness to daybreak celebrating Chinese New Year.

The beginning of the parade at the Naowarat Bridge over the Ping River towards Thapae Gate. A drone can be seen in the sky (upper right) and a television crew with a camera on a crane with a swings up and down on the left side.

Peacock dancer, sometimes called ‘butterfly dance.’ In Shan and Burmese culture the peacock symbolizes both the sun and Buddhist wisdom.

A woman stops to pose wearing traditional clothing of Shan culture.

Thai sorority girls in western-style prom dresses

High school marching band

February is the end of the cool season, a peak blooming period for local flowers. Every year, about 25 floats decorated with damask rose, chrysanthemums, orchids, seeds, banana leaves, tulips, thai lotus, beetle nut, jasmine and a dozen other varieties of blossoms cover sculpted styrofoam mythic creatures and legendary heroes that compete for prizes in the Flower Festival Parade.

The fine details that contribute to the parade floats are easily missed. This small area of a large float has a lovely painted (fresco-like) scene of life in Northern Thailand.

The Lanna royals adapted the pot-bellied peacock as a national symbol. This timpanum to a traditional Lanna viharn is beautifully carved and overflowing with creatures from Buddhist mythology. The Siam kingdom in the south favored the garuda.

The peacock symbolizes both the sun and Buddhist wisdom.

Wat Phrathat Doi Kham (Temple of the Golden Mountain)

Conical shaped garlands of 20,000 Phuang Malai (jasmine blossoms) are offered to the Buddha image of success and good fortune, Luang Por Tun Jai. If the wish is fulfilled within 3 months, the person will return with another Phuang Malai as an acknowledgement of their gratitude.

Buddha figures that represent cults of local beliefs are common in Thailand. The ease of Buddhism’s spread throughout Southeast Asia can be explained in part by its flexibility in embracing animist and cultural practices without diluting its message and mission.

Young people purchase fish, animals, and birds at a local temple. Prayers are made and personal merit is increased by the act of releasing them from their captivity.

The concept of Dana is the bedrock of Thai Buddhist life. Actions expressing generosity and charity both toward the high manifested in the support of the Buddhist monks by giving money and homemade food, and the of low aiding the lower creatures in the the great chain of life.

The ghosts of women who die in tragic love stories are considered very potent spirits. Three examples are Mae Nak, Mae Niyom Chiwasuwan, and Pumpuang.

Mae Nak’s husband was called to war. While he was away Mae Nak and he unborn child died in childbirth. This creates the most feared type of ghost, a Phi Tai Tang Glom. A person seeking Mae Nak’s help must venture close enough to press gold leaf in her hand.

Mae Niyom Chiwasuawan’s body was inadvertently revealed when it became necessary to move her corpse. He remains showed she was mummified, a state that only happens to saintly Buddhist monks. Mae Niyom is sought for luck in winning lottery numbers for her worshippers.

Pumpuang was a popular singer of Thai music. She died suddenly at the age of 30 of kidney failure. Her family believed she had been cursed by black magic. Her legacy is the Cult of Pumpuang.

Clothes, jewelry and gold are left at shrines in hopes of some occult intercession for the generosity of the cult spirit’s believers.

From the book: The Occult in Thailand

Wat Phrathat Doi Kham (Temple of the Golden Mountain)

The ritual central to all Buddhists is the walk around the perimeter of a Stupa, a solid round structure that contains sacred relics or scripture in its core. Prayers are made as three circuits are completed in a clockwise direction.

A Phrathat temple is one which contains an actual relic of the historical Buddha or Buddhist saint.

Talipot fans are hand-held fans, originally made of talipot palm leaves, used by Buddhist priests to cover their faces while chanting, also used as their emblems of ecclesiastical rank similar to Western sceptres of authority. (Wikipedia Commons)

A “ta-la-pat” or talipot fan – literally it means “palm leaf”. The fan is one of the essential things that a monk must have. (Thai Museums Database)

Holding a length of cotton string, a group of monks chant the words of the Buddha that charge it with beneficial energy. The energy is transmitted to a canopy that defines a sacred, protected area furnished with plastic chairs. Laypeople hold string directly connected to the canopy.

Reciprocity

Lay members provide material and financial support to the temples and Sangha (the order of monks) in exchange for the benefits from the power of the monks chant.

Shrine of the Bor Lek Namphee God

A wish tree is an individual tree, usually distinguished by species, position or appearance, which is used as an object of wishes and offerings. Such trees are identified as possessing a special religious or spiritual value. Postulants make votive offerings in hopes of having a wish granted, or a prayer answered, from a nature spirit, saint or goddess, depending on the local tradition.

In Thai folklore there are certain spirits or fairies related to trees that are known generically as Nang Mai (นางไม้; "Lady of the Tree"). This folk spirit is featured in the 2003 Thai film Ta-khian ("The Haunted Tree"), with Sorapong Chatree and 2010 movie Nang Ta-khian ("Takien: The Haunted Tree").*

*Wikipedia

This obscure rural shrine is located in Namphee, a small farming community several hours drive from Chiang Mai. They are the guardians of the Bor Lek Mines, an iron-ore pit mine that produced the steel in the swords of Bangkok royalty.

Photographers taking pictures in shrines, if they are wise, will humbly ask the consent of the guardian deities before using their cameras. Without permission, local legend states that all pictures will be out-of-focus.

The process of diagnosis and treatment by a "medicine doctor" (herbalist) follows the Ayurvedic model: the cause of the disease as well as the elemental makeup of the patient is analyzed. All things in the world and in the human being is made up of the four elements: fire, water, air and earth. Each element rules specific body parts and functions, and an imbalance of an element manifests as a disese of the areas it is concerned with. For example: 1) A disharmony of the earth element may manifest as a disease of the organs, bones or muscles. 2) A disharmony of the water element may show symptoms such as urniary trouble, blood or lymph disease. 3) A disharmony of the air element may show as respiratory problems like bronchitis, dizziness, stiffness, arhtiritis. 4) A disharmony of the fire element may cause heart problems.

The imbalance can be either a lack or an excess of that element, and often more than one is involvred. Thai herbalists develop skills to recognize the malfunctioning element(s) as well as the elemental balance (humor) of the patient.

Source: http://factsanddetails.com/southeast-asia/Thailand/

Monks with special powers transfer their saksit (power) on to the amulet. Amulets were popular with the Thai military during the Vietnam War.

The cult of amulets forms an integral part of traditional Thai beliefs in spirits, mediumship, and magic… Magic, supernaturalism, or magical Buddhism “meets the most basic needs of humankind—universal ancient desires to contend with the unseen, to control the uncontrollable, to improve one’s lot, or to cheat death.”

Mediums, Monks & Amulets, Thai Popular Buddhism Today by Pattana Kitiarsa

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai

A woman stops to make merit on Makha Bucha Day in the Chinatown of Chiang Mai. Monetary contributions are added to the money three and later donated to a local temple.

Makha Bucha Day (may also be written as Maka Puja and various other combinations) is an important public holiday in Thailand which commemorates the event where 1,250 of the Lord Buddha’s disciples spontaneously gathered to hear him preach. This particular holiday usually falls in February or March, but like many Buddhist holidays the exact date varies depending on the lunar cycle.

In the morning, Thai Buddhists may make merit by giving alms to monks. In the evening, temples will be busy and many Thai Buddhists will perform the candle ceremony known as wian tian (wian=circle tian=candle). This involves a person holding a lighted candle, incense and flowers as they walk around the main bot of the temple. Source: https://www.thaizer.com

Apsara dancers and auspicious animals entertain the spirits (portrayed as benign ancestors).

Old and damaged spirit houses must be discarded with respect. They are commonly seen placed around a sacred tree (designated by a tricolor ribbon) or beneath a Bodhi tree at a Wat, a ritual echo of the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

Here the sacred tree is presided over by King Chulalongkorn on his throne. King Chulalongkorn is a historical king (King Rama V) and popular cult figure found on many shrines and altars in Northern Thailand.

The date and time of the removal (of the spirit house) is just as critically auspicious as the moment of installation, divined and conducted by a Brahmin, or more likely a Buddhist monk.*

*Very Thai, Everyday Popular Culture by Philip Cornwel-Smith and John Goss, River Books

Children are the future of a country and in Thailand, they are considered the most valuable resource of the nation. There is a Thai saying that states, “Children are the future of the nation, if the children are intelligent, the country will be prosperous.” Like other countries, Thailand observes National Children’s Day (Thai: วันเด็กแห่งชาติ), celebrated here on the second Saturday of January every year. It is known as “Wan Dek” in Thai. This day is celebrated with fun activities for children and introduces them to their significant role towards the development of the country.

Source: http://www.tasteofthailandfoodtours.org/thailand-national-childrens-day-wan-dek/

Blindfolded girls compete to put make-up on boys in a beauty contest to celebrate Children’s Day.

Miming to a pre-recorded audio track, actors in kid costumes promote a Disney sponsored fruit juice aimed at middle schoolers in Chiang Mai. The kid in the blue hat drew laughs for his excessive and uncontrolled flatulence.

The Traiphum Phra Ruang or the Three Worlds according to King Ruang was the most important element of Thai Buddhism for at least 500 years.*

The depiction of the Traiphum is usually painted on the interior wall of the exit threshold to remind lay people of the consequences of a poorly lived life. The scene of the Trai Phum often serves as a background to a major scene from the Life of the Lord Buddha, that is, the Buddha descending from Tavatimsa Heaven. After having ascended to preach a sermon to his mother in Indra’s Heaven for three months, he then returned to earth. As he was descending a miracle occurred in which Heaven, the human realm and Hell were visible to each other; therefore figures from these realms are commonly shown with their hands joined in reverence.***

The Traiphum portrays the conditions of life in each sphere of the cosmos and is a fundamental tenet of Buddhism that a beings place in the universe is the result of good and bad deeds performed in past lives.**

Beings are classified by their merit and designated to live in
particular places according to their store of merit in the Traiphum cosmography. One's deeds can accumulate or diminish the store of merit and account for one's next birth. The most evil beings live in the lowest section of hell. The more merit one makes, the higher the level where one resides.

*“Cosmology as Described in the Trai Phum Phra Ruang”
By Dr. Sumalai Ganwiboon

**Creating Sacred Space, Thai and Burmese wall Paintings of the Seventeenth to Nineteenth Centuries by Alexandra Green

***Thai Traditional Paintings, The Three Worlds of Buddhist Cosmology or Tebhumi (Thai: Trai Phum) by Sonthiwan Inttralib

Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Thailand

Jatakas are tales of the former lives (birth stories) of the Buddha. Each story represents one of the ten perfections that followers of Buddhism must pursue to reach enlightenment. Dāna (generosity) is the moral of the Prince Vessantara jataka.

In visual and psychological terms, the depictions of the Vesantara story, along with the Traiphum cosmology form the core of Buddhist moral instruction in Thailand.

The Vessantara Jātaka is one of the most popular jatakas of Theravada Buddhism. The Vessantara Jātaka tells the story of one of Gautama Buddha's past lives, about a compassionate prince, Vessantara, who gives away everything he owns, including his children, thereby displaying the virtue of perfect generosity. (Wikipedia)

Within the canon…generosity is described as an essential basis of all dealings with others. It is associated with caga ‘letting go’, a quality that is present… at the very moment a gift is given.*

*The Ten Great Birth Stories of the Buddha, Volume Two, translated by Naomi Appleton and Sarah Shaw, Silkworm Books

With no formal rituals, Thai Theravada Buddhism incorporates many from Brahman animism. Sai sin cord is the white cotton string worn by Brahman priests.

The sai sin thread carries merit and protection. When the thread forms a circle the protective power is believed to be stronger because the circle is continuous.

At larger ceremonies there is often one big ball of string which is first tied around a Buddha image before being passed along to the monks in attendance. From there, the thread is passed along to everybody else in attendance. With each individual holding their hands in a wai, the thread is looped around each person. The thread may be strung around a person’s fingers or it can be looped around their head. The important thing is that the thread links everybody to the monks and the Buddha image. The chanting of the monks and the associated merit is then symbolically passed along the thread reaching all of the people in the congregation.*

*https://www.thaizer.com/buddhism/sai-sin-and-the-sacred-white-thread/

Beautiful resorts with houseboat rentals are popular vacation spots in northern Thailand.

Phra khi mah bintabaat (พระขี่ม้าบิณฑบาต) Thai. ‘Monks (phra) riding (khi) horses (mah) to go alms begging (bintabaat)’. Term referring to the monks and novices of Wat Tham Pah Acha Thong in the amphur Mae Chan of Chiang Rai province. Every morning those clergymen set off on horseback rather than on foot to go alms begging in the neighbouring villages. The novices are mostly hill tribe children.

Source: http://www.thailex.info/thailex/THAILEXENG/lexicon/p.htm

Poy Sang Long ceremony

Ordination ceremony for young boys to make merit for their parents. Look kaew, crystal sons are initiated in the Buddhist church. The boy wears sunglasses to symbolize his lack of knowledge of the dhamma (dharma).

The crystal son is dressed as a young prince on a pony, or sometimes carried on the shoulders of his father, recalls the Buddha’s origin as a young prince.

The Poy Sang Long ceremony is also an opportunity for thambun, (merit making), for members of the community. An expensive event like this can be paid for by sponsorships of individual boys .

Sepak takraw or kick volleyball, is a sport native to Southeast Asia. Sepak takraw differs from the similar sport of foot volley in its use of a rattan ball and only allowing players to use their feet, knee, chest and head to touch the ball. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, it is called sepak takraw. (Wikipedia)

Sak Yant—tattoos based on ancient Indic yantras that are considered powerful symbols meant to ward off negative influences—incorporate elements of Hindu, Animist, and Buddhist traditions.

Source: SAK YANT: THE TRANSITION FROM INDIC YANTRAS TO THAI “MAGICAL” BUDDHIST TATTOOS by Angela Marie May

The influence of Malay opera (Bangsawan) on Thailand’s Likay:

The Bangsawan or Malay opera is the pioneer to modern Malay drama. The plot is usually developed in a spontaneous way as there are no scripts involved in a Bangsawan performance. The creativity of the actors and their ability to improvise with their own dialogue based on the storyline provided by the director determines the effectiveness and originality of the the story. Besides the spontaneous dialogue, and the elements of comedy, romance and melodrama in the storyline, the attractiveness of the actors too can attract audiences to the performance.

The Bangsawan is a traditional drama performance that revolves around aristocrats and involving the mythical and the real world. The characters in a Bangsawan performance usually consist of warriors, handsome princes and beautiful princess, slaves, djinn, witches and monsters.

A motorcycle is festooned with ribbons to commemorate the birthday of King Bhumibol Aduyadej the former king of Thailand.

Traditional liturgical text in accordion fold book form.

The offer of a dowry is still a formal aspect of marriage in Thailand. However, the creation of the dowry is far less formal. In this modern wedding the couple made the dowry from their own money.

The appearance of the offering is as important as its symbolism of material support and future prosperity. A bundled stack of fresh new bills is fanned into a circle and covered with flower petals ,puffed rice and sesame seeds with the bundle band sprinkled on top.

Hot packages of clear plastic bags that contain smaller separate packets of broth, vegetables, noodles or rice and chili nested like Russian Dolls are carried from business to business around lunch time. The entire meal can be made and eaten from the main bag. Cheap, easy and satisfying they are the primary way most people eat on the job. The bags are sealed with a rubber band tied in a way that Thais easily undo, but they are one of the profoundest eastern occult mysteries to western tourists.

Fon is a form of folk dance accompanied by the folk music of the region. The first fon originated in the northern region of Thailand. In Fon lep (fingernail dance): each dancer wears six inch long brass fingernails. The long fingernails accentuate the finger movement of each dancer. (Wikipedia)

Fon lep imitates the long fingers of thewadaa, dancers.

The picture shows a “Bangkok interpretation” of Fon Lep put on for tourists as part a variety show showcasing Thai culture.

A great revival of interest in the cultural traditions of the Northern Thailand kingdom of Lanna, can be seen throughout Chiang Mai during Yee Peng.

Scouting was first introduced in Thailand as a branch of the Wild Tiger Corps on July 1, 1911 by King Rama VI, who is known as the Father of Thai Scouting.

Teenage boys, clothed in new bright orange monks’ robes, their black hair sheared short, but not shaved, listen to an elder monk talk on the Buddhist precepts.

Young men are expected to become a Buddhist monk, at least for a brief time, at some point in their lives. Even in modern times as many as 80% of men in Thailand enter a wat for a short period, usually a few days to a month called (chua khrao). To become a monk is thought to transform young men, who are thought to be immature or unripe (dip) into fully adult members of society.

A funeral for a monk is an opportunity for lay people to make merit. Death is usually dealt with as swiftly as possible because corpses are very dangerous. The spirits of the dead are powerful and malevolent.

A monk’s corpse is an object of veneration. The catafalque that bears his coffin is pulled by hand to the cremation grounds. Pulling the catafalque is an honor and an exceptional opportunity to make merit.

Paper flowers, monk’s robes and colorful ribbons.

The symbolic purposes of puffed rice defies any simple, single explanation. Addressed to the real senses and the temporary misdirection of the liminal creatures in the path of the funeral procession.

Strewn in the path of a funeral procession popped rice feeds the hungry spirits in its path. Appeased they will not interfere with the dead persons spirit.

Northern Thai Buddhists use three-tailed funeral banners called tung sam hang, a term that describes their shape. White banners are used for the laity, and saffron is used for monks. The banner is made active through its movement in space as it is carried by the undertaker, leading the corpse and spirit to the cremation ground.*

The undertaker has extensive knowledge of the prerequisites and order of events of a funeral ceremony and plays a central role in the ceremony. The man in this image presents the tung sam hang on a long, flexible bamboo pole to announce the solemn purpose and dignity of the long procession. Over his shoulder is a white bag that contains food for the deceased on their journey to the next world. At the destination the banner and the white bag are placed inside the coffin and burned along with the body.

The sounds of loud, slow rhythmic drumming and the appearance of three-tail banner carried at the head of a long procession are signals to local people that a funeral is passing through. Funerals bring fears of the presence of angry spirits that have not yet left the world of their former lives.

*Rebecca S Hall, Between the Living and the Dead: The three-tail Funeral Banners of Northern Thailand, Ars Orientalis

…the banner maker must be a male who, a some point in his life, was ordained as a monk or a novice monk. He then writes the name, the birth day, and death day of the deceased on the banner, though this is not necessarily requisite for it to have potency.*

*Rebecca S Hall, Between the Living and the Dead: The three-tail Funeral Banners of Northern Thailand, Ars Orientalis

Traditional music for a Thai funeral.

A mixture of traditional black clothing and white to symbolize spiritual purity.

The procession was long, impressive with the sheer numbers of people of all ages walking several miles to the cremation grounds. Waiting patiently at the grounds were many hundreds more, rising to their feet as the procession arrived.

Victory drummers in their traditional red uniform lead the funeral procession and play a final farewell at the cremation ceremony.

Lay members leave fragrant paper flowers as a final offering. The flowers are gathered up and tossed onto the cremation pyre.

Leaves from the corn plant are folded and sculpted into the artificial flowers called dok mai chan. “The idea of using fragrant wood was that, no matter where the deceased travelled in death, they would still smell lovely – an echo of the Buddhist belief that, even in death, our goodness survives.” *

*A Royal Garden Grows

Lifestyle May 20, 2017 01:00 By KUPLUTHAI PUNGKANON
THE NATION

As it burns the structure becomes more unstable and unpredictable. The intensity of the fire is controlled by local fire truck crews.

Four sequential stills from a video:

1. Fireworks are used used throughout the cremation ceremony. Guide wires are strung overhead throughout the area. Fireworks making loud high-pitched noises shoot out along the wires around the pyre until the wire line connected to the pyre ignites the structure. (seen as a smoke trail in the right side of the image)

2. Smoke and small fires emerge from the pyre.

3. Flumes of brightly colored artificial smoke add to the dramatic effect.

4. Streams of flammable liquid cascade down the pyre.

Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon

After Europeans in the First Crusade captured Jerusalem from Muslim conquerors in 1099, many Christians made pilgrimages to various sacred sites in the Holy Land. Although the city of Jerusalem was relatively secure under Christian control, the rest of Outremer was not. Bandits and marauding highwaymen preyed upon these Christian pilgrims, who were routinely slaughtered, sometimes by the hundreds, as they attempted to make the journey from the coastline at Jaffa through to the interior of the Holy Land.

The Knights Templar are famous for their role defending Christian Pilgrims. Less well known is their creation of banking. The Templars became a favoured charity throughout Christendom and grew rapidly in membership and power. They were prominent in Christian finance. Non-combatant members of the order, who made up as much as 90% of their members, managed a large economic infrastructure throughout Christendom, developing innovative financial techniques that were an early form of banking, building its own network of nearly 1,000 fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land, and arguably forming the world's first multinational corporation.*

Their success as international bankers and the great wealth they enjoyed as a result of wealthy donations and special privileges led to their downfall. they became the object of envy and resentment from many quarters. King Philip the IV envied their wealth and power and, faced by money problems of his own, he declared them heretics, largely in order to seize their assets. Convictions of heresy by the Inquisition was punished by death by burning them at the stake.**

*Wikipedia

** Textual information from A Brief History of The Holy Grail by Giles Morgan

The Romería de El Rocío is a procession/pilgrimage on the second day of Pentecost to the Hermitage of El Rocío in the countryside of Almonte, Province of Huelva, Andalucia, Spain, in honor of the Virgin of El Rocío.

Pious associations of laymen existed in very ancient times. The religiosity of the members and their desire for a personal reward in the afterlife were reflected in confraternity activities, such as assisting with burials by donating burial robes or monetary payment, attending the burial mass, volunteering in the local hospitals, organization of and participation in religious fiesta days, giving dowries for local orphans, selling and preparing bread used for local religious holidays, escorting the condemned during the inquisition, burying the dead during epidemics and other charitable acts as deemed appropriate by the confraternity members or parish priest.

Image from the Museo del Prado/Text from Wikipedia

Tama is a word used for the votive offerings which, in the form of miniature replicas of parts of the body for which the saints help is sought, or precious pieces of jewelry, if the donor is wealthy enough, are hung around the icons of particular shrines in prayer for a favor sought or in thanksgiving for one granted.

A vow is of two kinds, unconditional or conditional. The unconditional vow most often takes the form of an undertaking to go to a particular monastery or place of pilgrimage, and is usually the business of women who thereafter are under an obligation to make good their promise, even if it takes years. The expression ‘I vowed’ here seems to have the meaning simply of ‘I said I would’, and does not necessarily involve a formal address to the saint concerned. The vow which promises a favor in return for a favor is a different matter, for it is invoked by need and takes the form of a face-to-face conversation with the saint.*

*Cosmos, Life, and Liturgy in a Greek Orthodox Village bu Juliet Du Boulay

El Santuario de Chimayó is a Roman Catholic church in Chimayó, New Mexico, United States. This shrine, a National Historic Landmark, is famous for the story of its founding and as a contemporary pilgrimage site.

The wall space at and around the church and surrounding grounds contains thousands of snapshots of the beaming faces of people who have been cured with prayers and by collecting small vials of dirt with miraculous healing power. In the shrine that annexes the church is a room lined with crutches and leg supports that proclaim the efficacy of the healing powers of El Santuario de Chimayó.

Sukkot prayers at the Western Wall. Lulav is a closed frond of the date palm tree. It is one of the Four Species used during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Each species is said to kabbalistically represent an aspect of the user's body; the lulav represents the spine, the myrtle the eyes, the willow the lips, and the etrog (citron) represents the heart.

The user brings his or her hands together and waves the species in all four directions, plus up and down, to attest to God's mastery over all of creation. This ritual also symbolically voices a prayer for adequate rainfall over all the Earth's vegetation in the coming year.

During the existence of the Jerusalem Temple, Sukkot was one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals on which the Israelites were commanded to perform a pilgrimage to the Temple.

Attributions: (image) ארכיון הצילומים קקל, הצלם יעקב שיין (text) Wikipedia

For what is meant by being called the Round Table is the roundness of the world and the condition of the planets and of the elements in the firmament; and the conditions of the firmament are seen in the stars and in the countless other things; so that one could say that in the Round Table the whole universe is symbolized.

La Queste du Saint Graal

Glastonbury is an important pilgrimage site that is both ancient and modern, pagan and Christian. Linked forever to the Grail legend with roots in religions and folklore from many cultures, Glastonbury Abbey and Tor are today worshipped by orthodox Christians and New Age faiths of many colors.

In April 2012, it was reported by the Guardian newspaper that, according to the Pilgrim Reception Centre in the town, Glastonbury had around seventy different faith groups.

The Celts and pre-Celts worshipped the natural springs and grottoes of Glastonbury as a portal to the underworld. In the underworld they could visit their ancestors and seek advise for their worldly problems.

The Christianized sanctity and importance of Glastonbury is developed in the story of the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea who buried the Holy Grail at the foot of Chalice Hill in Glastonbury and thus establishing the first Christian church in Europe.

Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury by boat over the flooded Somerset Levels. On disembarking he stuck his staff into the ground and it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn (or Holy Thorn). The original Holy Thorn was a centre of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages.

The spread and growth of Christianity throughout Europe was to produce a fascination with a new miraculous vessel, the communion cup as used in the ritual of the Eucharist. During the Eucharist bread and wine is consumed in remembrance of the Last Supper and Christ’s suffering on the cross to redeem the sins of mankind.

Text and notes from A Brief History of the Holy Grail, History, Myth, Religion by Giles Morgan and the Glastonbury page in Wikipedia.

Wat Doidhammasathit on the mountain road to Doi Suthep outside Chiang Mai.

Not all places of devotion are centuries old. A rough, freshly poured ferro-concrete frame enclosure will be a future site of pilgrimage for Thai Buddhists in Chiang Mai.

Farid al-Din Attar is amongst the greatest poets of Persian Literature. The Conference of Birds, great Sufi poem and fable is all about the importance of committing to a spiritual journey. It describes the pilgrimage of the world’s birds in search of their ideal king and the arduous journey they take to reach him.

notes from: A Comparative Study of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales & Attar’s The Conference of the Birds by Maryam Khoshbakht, Moussa Ahmadian and Shahrukh Hekmat

The act of carrying the mikoshi during a matsuri (festival) is regarded as a considerable privilege, especially on occasions when the mikoshi contains the image of the deity from the local Shinto shrine.*

Understanding Shinto by C. Scott Littleton

Our Lady of the Martyrs of Thailand Shrine in Mukahan Province, Thailand.

Martyrdom in a religion that represents less than 1% of the faiths in Thailand can provide a riveting impact and focus for its followers.

Martyrs of Songkhon are seven Roman Catholic Thais executed in the village Songkhon in northeastern Thailand, in December 1940 by local police forces. The killings occurred during the Franco-Thai War and police falsely believed they were spying for the French. The victims were beatified by Pope John Paul II in Rome on October 22, 1989. (Wikipedia)

image from http://www.khaosodenglish.com

Photograph by Amrit Ghimire Ranjit published in Wikipedia.

Gadhimai festival is a sacrificial ceremony held every 5 years at the Gadhimai Temple of Bariyarpur, in southern Nepal. It is primarily celebrated by the Madheshi and Bihari people. The event involves the large-scale sacrificial slaughter of animals including water buffaloes, pigs, goats, chickens, and pigeons.

It is estimated that 50,000 animals were sacrificed during the Gadhimai festival of 2009. About 4 million people participate in the festival. Participants believe that animal sacrifices to the Hindu goddess Gadhimai will end evil and bring prosperity. (Wikipedia)

For many people, the events of 9/11 instantly transformed the World Trade Center site into hallowed ground. The site draws people from all over the world. The massive footprint of the former towers is home to a museum beneath the falling water.

Nicholas the Pilgrim is a saint of the Roman Catholic Church. In Orthodox tradition he is regarded as a Fool-for-Christ.

The term fools for Christ derives from the writings of Saint Paul. Desert Fathers and other saints acted the part of Holy Fools, as have the yurodivy (or iurodstvo) of Eastern Orthodox asceticism. Fools for Christ often employ shocking and unconventional behavior to challenge accepted norms, deliver prophecies, or to mask their piety.

Parallels for this type of behavior exist in non-Christian traditions as well. The Avadhuta (Sanskrit), for example, the Islamic tradition of Qalandariyya and Malamatiyya Sufism and other crazy-wise mystics display similar traits. Nasreddin, of the Sufis, is also an example.

Photo by Pitichinaccio on Wikipedia Commons, text from Wikipedia

Carrying corpses to the Holy Shrines, Persia, 19th century

Ziyarat comes from Arabic meaning to visit. In Islam it refers to a pious visitation, pilgrimage to a holy place, tomb or shrine. Iranian and South Asian Muslims use the word ziyarat for both the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca as well as for pilgrimages to other sites.

Tawassul is an Arabic word originated from wasilat. The word wasilat, translates as “a means that can be used to gain nearness to God”. In other words, it refers to a position of power due to one’s proximity to a king or sovereign, prophet or holy man.

text from Wikipedia

Kaavadiya Bhats (story tellers) in Rajasthan use a Kaavad (a portable pilgrimage in a wooden box). The Kaavadiya Bhats go to patron's homes to recite stories from mythology. 

The Kaavad illustrates a story with hinged panels that progressively reveal scenes as they unfold.

The Kaavad shrine is a metaphoric place, a conceptual model of a sacred site making the exploration by a devotee a virtual pilgrimage. The Kaavad shrine supposedly comes from a sacred space, Kashi (Varanasi), the centre of the universe in Hindu cosmology.

The journey in the Kaavad begins with the patron suspending all regular activities to listen to the recitation. Renouncing his/her individual identity like a pilgrim, the patron becomes a traveller and a listener. The first turning of the panels is accompanied by stories of the challenges and hardships of the characters. Patrons identify with the hardships of travel and tests of faith endured by the characters from the stories and experience these hardships by proxy.

As the storyteller unfolds the narratives that seamlessly blend a timeless world with that of the patron’s antecedents, the patron is elevated to share a space in the tangible portable shrine that is otherwise inhabited by gods and saints.*

*Filmmaker and animator Nina Sabnani published a book entitled Kaavad Tradition of Rajasthan: A Portable Pilgrimage

Photography by Hiart from Wikipedia Commons (kavad)

The South Asia Institute at Harvard sent a team of public health specialists to one of the largest gatherings in the world, the Kumbh Mela in India, with a goal of assembling the largest public health data set ever among a transient population.

The New York Times published an article in 2013, Can Big Data From Epic Indian Pilgrimage help Save Lives? by Somini Sengupta

The Kumbh Mela in 2019 was visited by 120 million devotees.

Image from http://cameraculture.media.mit.edu

Sati matas are heroines who chose to die on their husband’s funeral pyres. Everywhere in India, deified heroes and heroines are widely worshipped as powerful beings, often with stones erected as monuments and treated as their shrines. In Rajasthan, for instance, countless sati matas are enshrined in elaborate temples visited by huge numbers of people.*

There is much speculation on the motivation(s) of Hindu widows who committed sati. Religious incentives seem critical because the performance of sati was said to be spiritually auspicious for a widow and her natal and marital families. Material factors could also be influential.

Cold Sati

The life of a Hindu widow has been characterized as “cold sati.” Because she was deemed to bear some responsibility for her husband’s death.**

For in traditional Hindu society, a woman loses all her status the minute the husband dies, …living only to fast and pray for her departed spouse.

This practice receives a certain legitimacy in the ancient Hindu tradition that old people who have seen the birth of their grandchildren should disappear off in the forest and spend their last days in prayer, pilgrimage and fasting.***

The social rules that govern the appearance of widows vary within the different regional, ethnic, and religious communities of India, but general prescriptions call for widows to wear undyed (white) clothing, no ornaments, and no perfume. They should sleep on the floor, stop eating “hot” non-vegetarian foods such as fish, onions, garlic, and some varieties of lentils, and they should eat only once a day. …In Banaras widows are not allowed to wear bangles, sindur, bindi, toe rings, anklets, and red and yellow clothing.****

text from

*The Camphour Flame by C. J. Fuller

**Women’s History in Global Perspective, Volume 2, edited by Bonnie G. Smith

***The Age of Kali by William Dalrymple

****The Grace of Four Moons by Pravina Shukla

photocredit: Wolfgang Sauber on Wikipedia Commons: Bikaner ( Rajastan / India ). Fort Junagarh: Daulat Pol gate - Hand inprints of widows of maharajas of Bikaner who suffered sati.

The pilgrim's staff and one of the 'heavenly cloths' being shown from the dwarf gallery.

The Pilgrimage of the Relics is a seven-yearly Catholic event in the Dutch city of Maastricht. Originating in the Middle Ages, it developed from a pilgrimage to the grave of Saint Servatius into the present-day religious, historical, cultural and commercial enterprise. Highlights in the programme are the displaying or unveiling of the relics in the main churches and secondly, the processions with the town's main relics.

Throughout the centuries the Church of Saint Servatius acquired many relics, which were housed in precious reliquaries. The indulgences connected to these relics brought in more pilgrims. A French pilgrim calculated in 1453 that in one year in Maastricht one could earn about 800 years reduction of purgatorial punishment. At the same time, it was assumed that a completed Maastricht pilgrimage was rewarded with a plenarary indulgence (full remittance of punishment).

The concept of worshipping relics of saints: body parts, garment fragments, even dust from far-off holy places is nearly universal and probably has its source in pagan beliefs.

Theodore of Cyprus proclaimed that ‘in the divided body the grace survives undivided and the fragments, however small, have the same efficacy as the whole body’. *

Provoking a Miracle

A miracle constituted certain proof of the authenticity of a relic and a common method of testing relics was to provoke one.

Casting relics in the fire was the simplest method of provoking a miracle and was widely practiced, particularly in the early mediaeval period. In 979 Egbert, bishop of Trier, doubting the authenticity of the body of St. Celsus, broke off a finger joint and threw it into a brazier of burning coals, where it remained unharmed throughout the canon of the Mass.

The Age of Pilgrimage, The Medieval Journey to God by Jonathan Sumption

Text notes from Wikipedia

Teochew opera or Chaozhou opera, Chiuchow opera is one of the many variants of Chinese opera. Like all versions of Chinese opera, it is a traditional Chinese art form, involving music, singing, martial arts, acrobatics and acting.*

…their performing arenas were usually stages erected in temple compounds and garden grounds, make-shift platforms raised in public space, or simply in open air. This was due to the shows being primarily performed on special occasions for local deities on their birthdays or to express gratitude for blessings received, to show off the wealth of a clan during the performance of ancestral sacrificial rites, or to appease hungry ghosts in the 7th Lunar Month.

Posted by The Teochew Store, (theteochewstore.org)

*Wikiwand

Chinese operatic roles generally fall into one of four main categories: sheng (male), dan (female), jing (painted face) and chou (clown). Each category has several sub-types usually classified by age, status and/or personality. For example, sheng roles are broadly classified by age — lao (old) or xiao (young) —and status— wen (scholarly) or wu (military). Among dan roles, the huadan is attractive and spirited while the caidan is a comical character.*

*Wayang (Chinese Street Opera) by Cai, Serene on singapore/infopedia: A Singapore Government Agency Website

Images from: One hundred portraits of Peking opera characters, Metropolitian Museum of Art on Wikipedia Commons

Dan is the general name for female roles in Chinese opera. Male actors who specialize in playing dan are referred to as nándàn (男旦); the practice arose during the Qing dynasty due to imperial prohibitions against women performing on stage, considered detrimental to public morality.*

Wikipeda

A lady’s costume and hair will tell a lot about her status. A lady from a rich family, who is high in social status will have more embroidery on her outfit and a more elaborate hair design.*

*History of Chinese Theater by Ma Ellaine Cruz on slideshare.net

The laosheng (old sheng) is a dignified older role, usually distinguished by a long, thin, three-part beard.

In any Chinese opera, each performer’s makeup reflects the traits of the character being portrayed. There are two distinctive styles: the junban (charming makeup) which is applied lightly at the brow and eye areas, usually on sheng or dan characters, and the distinctively patterned caiban (colorful makeup) which is usually worn by jing and chou characters. Certain colors convey specific meanings. For example, red is used to symbolize bravery, loyalty and uprightness, while gold and silver usually indicate that the character is a god or spirit.*

**Wayang (Chinese Street Opera) by Cai, Serene on singapore/infopedia: A Singapore Government Agency Website

Xiaosheng are young, beardless male characters in pale makeup that distinguishes them from laosheng characters. Attached to his headdress are two 6-foot long pheasant feathers, known as lingzi, which indicate his military profession.*

*wikiwand.com

There are many different kinds of hats worn in Chinese Opera. Scholars and officials often wear simple black hats with two fins coming out from the sides. Hats with rectangular fins are worn by high officials while round fins are worn by treacherous characters. Hats with long , thin fins are only worn by Prime Ministers.

History of Chinese Theater by Ma Ellaine Cruz on slideshare.net

A Gok Dai or hoop is held around the waist. It is a symbol of rank.***

A performer’s costume generally consists of a headdress, robes, footwear and an artificial beard for a sheng, jing or chou character. Attires vary between characters and give hints to their personalities, gender and social status. The costumes are mostly intricately embroidered and elaborately beaded. Some costumes have long and flowing sleeve extensions known as shuixiu (water sleeves), which performers use symbolically to express their character’s emotions.*

The four armor flags (kaoqi) are mounted on a stand with four poles and lashed to the actor’s back. Several theories exists on the inspiration for the flags. Flags are thought to come from history, when generals would give a pennant to their messengers as a token of authority to verify messages. Another theory is that they represent the army behind the general, which involves numbers far too great to appear onstage.** A third theory holds that the flags show that he has received his authority directly from the emperor.***

*Wayang (Chinese Street Opera) by Cai, Serene on singapore/infopedia: A Singapore Government Agency Website

**Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture by Alexandra B Bonds, Routledge Books

***History of Chinese Theater by Ma Ellaine Cruz on slideshare.net

Water sleeves are flickered to emphasize a point, shaken when angry or stretched out when in dance.*

*History of Chinese Theater by Ma Ellaine Cruz on slideshare.net

There are two ways to wear a kao. When the flags are strapped onto the back, the garment becomes the yingkao (hard or complete armor) or dakao (big armor).*

*Beijing Opera Costumes: The Visual Communication of Character and Culture by Alexandra B Bonds, Routledge Books

Characters move in circles to indicate a long journey.

The ajaan is a lay Buddhist specialist, responsible for overseeing all Buddhist ceremonies.

A ritual offering to the spirits of the region that live in the spirit house surrounds prior to the ceremony.

Figurines representing ancestral spirits, animals and dancing apsaras are put into the smaller spirit houses on the side of the primary shrine.

Here are clay figurines of zodiacal animals, marigold flowers, fresh vegetables, sticky rice and coins.