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The Basílica i Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família (Basilica and Expiatory Church of the Holy Family) is a large Roman Catholic church in Barcelona, designed by Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926). Gaudí's work on the building is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in November 2010 Pope Benedict XVI consecrated and proclaimed it a minor basilica, as distinct from a cathedral, which must be the seat of a bishop.
Construction of Sagrada Família commenced in 1882 by architect Francisco Paula de Villar with Gaudí becoming involved in 1883 after Francisco resigned as the head architect. Taking over the project, Gaudí transformed it with his architectural and engineering style, combining Gothic and curvilinear Art Nouveau forms. Gaudí devoted his last years to the project, and at the time of his death at age 73 in 1926, less than a quarter of the project was complete.
Sagrada Familia's construction progressed slowly, as it relied on private donations and was interrupted by the Spanish Civil War, only to resume intermittent progress in the 1950s. Construction passed the midpoint in 2010 with some of the project's greatest challenges remaining and an anticipated completion date of 2026, the centenary of Gaudí's death.
While never intended to be a cathedral (seat of a bishop), the Sagrada Família was planned from the outset to be a cathedral-sized building. Its ground-plan has obvious links to earlier Spanish cathedrals such as Burgos Cathedral, Leon Cathedral and Seville Cathedral.
Gaudí's original design calls for a total of eighteen spires, representing in ascending order of height the Twelve Apostles, the Virgin Mary, the four Evangelists and, tallest of all, Jesus Christ. Eight spires have been built as of 2010, corresponding to four apostles at the Nativity façade and four apostles at the Passion façade.
The Evangelists' spires will be surmounted by sculptures of their traditional symbols: a winged bull (Saint Luke), a winged man (Saint Matthew), an eagle (Saint John), and a winged lion (Saint Mark). The central spire of Jesus Christ is to be surmounted by a giant cross; its total height (170 metres (560 ft)) will be one metre less than that of Montjuïc hill in Barcelona as Gaudí believed that his creation should not surpass God's. The lower spires are surmounted by communion hosts with sheaves of wheat and chalices with bunches of grapes, representing the Eucharist.
The completion of the spires will make Sagrada Família the tallest church building in the world.
Information taken from Wikipedia
End of the academic year celebration for ACC Ascender students on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at the Eastview Campus.
Oh, well. Somehow I felt adventurous and hiked the peak up. In some places, it wasn't really hiking, but rather pulling the body up holding on the metal cabling installed. And if you have a short step, there could be a problem.
I felt even more adventurous and created my first ever 360 degrees panorama image.
Obviously, I was aiming too high. I'm not exactly a petite person, but there is no way my body would be occupying the entire dead spot in the center.
Now there will be a perfect excuse to do it again, and may be even to lag a tripod too, just to feel more miserable on the way up. Getting lower to the ground and getting the camera vertically seem to be a good recipe for a next attempt. The way the business goes, I should be careful what I'm wishing for. These 2 weeks are getting even longer with every passing day.
And it's not definitely a place for anybody looking for a solitude, unless you have the right gear (i.e. ropes) to loose the crowd and free-ascend any of the bold rocky surfaces in this beautiful national park.
The park is easily accessible by public transportation: a subway ride and a short haul on a bus. And, oh boy, I wish I had all this hiking gear the Korean folks were parading in. I felt completely out of place with my business-trip-what-do-I-have-here-to-ruin attire. Though I did see a person in flip-flops, a Westerner too.
Foto tomada con / photo taken with Huawei Ascend G7 + macro lens
Processed with VSCOcam with a4 preset
As the moon rose it lined up directly over these warning / safety lights...took the shot while I could!
Rosalie, Justine, Amelie, Ben and Serach ascending Coyote Hills. Raspberry Ridge and Plateau Mountain can be seen in the distance
End of the academic year celebration for ACC Ascender students on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at the Eastview Campus.
Swayambhunath (Devanagari: स्वयम्भूनाथ स्तुप; Newar: स्वयंभू; sometimes romanized Swoyambhunath) is an ancient religious architecture atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys living in the north-west parts of the temple. The Tibetan name for the site means 'Sublime Trees' (Wylie:Phags.pa Shing.kun), for the many varieties of trees found on the hill. However, Shing.kun may be a corruption of the local Nepal Bhasa name for the complex, Singgu, meaning 'self-sprung'. For the Buddhist Newars in whose mythological history and origin myth as well as day-to-day religious practice, Swayambhunath occupies a central position, it is probably the most sacred among Buddhist pilgrimage sites. For Tibetans and followers of Tibetan Buddhism, it is second only to Boudhanath.
The Swayambhunath complex consists of a stupa, a variety of shrines and temples, some dating back to the Licchavi period. A Tibetan monastery, museum and library are more recent additions. The stupa has Buddha's eyes and eyebrows painted on. Between them, the number one (in Devanagari script) is painted in the fashion of a nose. There are also shops, restaurants and hostels. The site has two access points: a long stairway with 365 steps, leading directly to the main platform of the temple, which is from the top of the hill to the east; and a car road around the hill from the south leading to the southwest entrance. The first sight on reaching the top of the stairway is the Vajra. Tsultrim Allione describes the experience:
We were breathless and sweating as we stumbled up the last steep steps and practically fell upon the biggest vajra (thunder-bolt scepter) that I have ever seen. Behind this vajra was the vast, round, white dome of the stupa, like a full solid skirt, at the top of which were two giant Buddha eyes wisely looking out over the peaceful valley which was just beginning to come alive.
Much of Swayambhunath's iconography comes from the Vajrayana tradition of Newar Buddhism. However, the complex is also an important site for Buddhists of many schools, and is also revered by Hindus.
MYTHOLOGY
According to Swayambhu Purana, the entire valley was once filled with an enormous lake, out of which grew a lotus. The valley came to be known as Swayambhu, meaning "Self-Created." The name comes from an eternal self-existent flame (svyaṃbhu) over which a sūpa was later built.
Swayambhunath is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are holy monkeys living in the north-west parts of the temple. They are holy because Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom and learning was raising the hill which the Swayambhunath Temple stands on. He was supposed to leave his hair short but he made it grow long and head lice grew. It is said that the head lice transformed into these monkeys.
Manjusri had a vision of the lotus at Swayambhu and traveled there to worship it. Seeing that the valley can be good settlement and to make the site more accessible to human pilgrims, he cut a gorge at Chovar. The water drained out of the lake, leaving the valley in which Kathmandu now lies. The lotus was transformed into a hill and the flower became the Swayambhunath stupa.
HISTORY
Swayambhunath, is among the oldest religious sites in Nepal. According to the Gopālarājavaṃśāvalī Swayambhunath was founded by the great-grandfather of King Mānadeva (464-505 CE), King Vṛsadeva, about the beginning of the 5th century CE. This seems to be confirmed by a damaged stone inscription found at the site, which indicates that King Mānadeva ordered work done in 640 CE.
However, Emperor Ashoka is said to have visited the site in the third century BCE and built a temple on the hill which was later destroyed.
Although the site is considered Buddhist, the place is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus. Numerous Hindu monarch followers are known to have paid their homage to the temple, including Pratap Malla, the powerful king of Kathmandu, who is responsible for the construction of the eastern stairway in the 17th century.
The stupa was completely renovated in May 2010, its first major renovation since 1921 and its 15th in the nearly 1,500 years since it was built. The dome was re-gilded using 20 kg of gold. The renovation was funded by the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center of California, and began in June 2008.
The temple complex suffered damage in the 2015 Nepal earthquake.
ARCHITECTURE
The stupa consists of a dome at the base, above which is a cubical structure painted with eyes of Buddha looking in all four directions. There are pentagonal Toran present above each of the four sides with statues engraved in them. Behind and above the torana there are thirteen tiers. Above all the tiers there is a small space above which the Gajur is present. The stupa has many artifacts inside it.
SYMBOLISM
The dome at the base represents the entire world. When a person awakes (represented by eyes of wisdom and compassion) from the bonds of the world, the person reaches the state of enlightenment. The thirteen pinnacles on the top symbolize that sentient beings have to go through the thirteen stages of spiritual realizations to reach enlightenment or Buddhahood.
There is a large pair of eyes on each of the four sides of the main stupa which represent Wisdom and Compassion. Above each pair of eyes is another eye, the third eye. It is said that when Buddha preaches, cosmic rays emanate from the third eye which act as messages to heavenly beings, so that those interested can come down to earth to listen to the Buddha. The hellish beings and beings below the human realm cannot come to earth to listen to the Buddha's teaching, however, the cosmic rays relieve their suffering when Buddha preaches.
There are carvings of the Panch Buddhas (five Buddhas) on each of the four sides of stupa. There are also statues of the Buddhas at the base of the stupas. Panch Buddhas are Buddha in metaphorical sense in Tantrayana. They are Vairochana (occupies the center and is the master of the temple), Akshobhya (faces the east and represents the cosmic element of consciousness), Ratna Sambhava (faces the south and represents the cosmic element of sensation), Amitabha (He represents cosmic element of Sanjna (name) and always faces the West) and Amoghsiddhi (He represents the cosmic element of conformation and faces the north).
Each morning before dawn hundreds of Buddhist (Vajrayana) and Hindu pilgrims ascend the 365 steps from eastern side that lead up the hill, passing the gilded Vajra (Tibetan: Dorje) and two lions guarding the entrance, and begin a series of clockwise circumambulations of the stupa.
SWAYAMBHU PURANA
Swayambhu Purana (Devnagari: स्वयम्भू पूराण) is a Buddhist scripture about the origin and development of Kathmandu valley. Swayambhu Purana gives detail of all the Buddhas who came to Kathmandu. It also provides information about the first and the second Buddhas in Buddhism.
WIKIPEDIA
End of the academic year celebration for ACC Ascender students on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at the Eastview Campus.
End of the academic year celebration for ACC Ascender students on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at the Eastview Campus.
End of the academic year celebration for ACC Ascender students on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at the Eastview Campus.
My heart mosaic which will be part of the glass mosaic tapestry mural being donated to the Cardiology and Surgery Wing of Providence Park Hospital, Novi Michigan. There are 59 artists contributing their idea of "hearts". Lin Schorr is the master-mind behind the project.
That's Nick and Ray up ahead. 4 of the group decided to head down and take the long flat Easedale route back to the cars. It was Sunday afternoon and we all needed to get home. But the three of us decided to leave the rest of the group and race them back while taking in a final ascent to Seagent Man. We were very keen to get up into the snow again. It was their idea and since I'm in training for my next Ironman I was all game for a fell run (in boots mind you).
They got a good head start on me as I took a few layers off and pulled my pole out. What I didn't take off was the AV-1. I tucked the strap behind my left shoulder and took off. I had just about caught up with them and thought I better get a picture in or why the hell was I running up this hill with a camera slapping against my side?
Fortunately on many slopes the snow was so cold and iced over so our boots stayed on top. Here it was slushy and pretty tiring.
End of the academic year celebration for ACC Ascender students on Tuesday, May 7, 2019, at the Eastview Campus.