View allAll Photos Tagged Forms
second rounded form; smoked céramic
antroji apvalaina forma
céramique enfumée, env. 20x25cm
mon blog inspirations -- įkvėpimai
"Bog in a Cup" and its ingredients are part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farmers Market partnership with the Ocean Spray agricultural cooperative to features cranberries on Friday, Sept. 17, 2016 in Washington, D.C. Part of the day-long presentation included "Bog in a Cup" where visitors could learn and assemble the proper growing medium of clay, gravel, peaty moss, and sand to help start a cranberry vine grow into a shrub. The mini-bog demonstrates how water is used as a tool to float berries for a more efficient harvest. Live cranberry shrubs that came from and will return to a bog for continued use in future demonstrations surround the water. The shrub’s vine has cranberries grown this year, its buds that will become next year’s cranberries.
HOW TO PICK
Contrary to popular belief, cranberries do not grow in water. The cranberry plant is a creeping evergreen shrub or bush that grows in sandy bogs and marshes. It produces berries on long-running vines. The berries first appear as a white creamy color before turning a shiny crimson, signaling they are ready to harvest. There are two common methods for harvesting cranberries, dry and wet. Cranberries that are harvested dry (without water added to the bog) are sold as fresh fruit and only available during the fall and holiday season from September to December. Cranberries harvested wet are picked by flooding the bogs. Because cranberries float, farmers use water to harvest the fruit. Bogs are flooded and a machine is used to loosen the cranberries from the vines. The floating cranberries are then corralled and loaded into waiting trucks for delivery to processing facilities.
HOW TO PREPARE
Simply rinse cranberries thoroughly and use as directed If frozen, there is no need to thaw before using. Sometimes a few white cranberries might be in the bag; they are fine to use. These berries haven't been exposed to as much sunlight as the redder ones. Cranberries are a prized element in the Thanksgiving dinner of most Americans. Use cranberries to make sauces, conserves and preserves, in baked goods, to make juice, or enjoy dried.
HOW TO STORE
These crimson berries can be stored up to four weeks in the refrigerator.
Advice about freezing. To freeze cranberries place in a freezer safe plastic bag without pre-washing. Store for up to one year.
FUN FACTS
• The cranberry is indigenous to North America and was used by Native Americans in both fresh and dried form. Native Americans introduced cranberries to early European settlers.
• The cranberry got its name from early settlers, who nicknamed it the “crane berry” due to the shape of its blooms, which resemble the head of a crane.
OCEAN SPRAY
Founded in 1930, Ocean Spray is the world’s leading producer of cranberry products, but it’s not your typical food company. It’s an agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 cranberry farmers who receive the profits from every berry sold. The cooperative allows family farms to thrive ensuring economic sustainability for future generations. The average Ocean Spray family farm is just 18 acres. While cranberries are uniquely American, they are exported and enjoyed all over the word. Ocean Spray is focused on international expansion of its products, with the Cooperative’s cranberries featured in more than 1,000 in over 100 countries worldwide.
The USDA Farmers Market Vegucation tent offers informational presentations every Friday between 11:30 AM and 1:00 PM, May to October, in the VegU tent. Short 10-minute classes are free. The market is located on the corner of Independence Ave. and 12th St., SW, in Washington, DC 20250.
For more information visit usda.gov/farmersmarket
@USDA_AMS
#USDAFarmersMkt
#VEGU
USDA multimedia by Lance Cheung.
The red kite calls
Across an empty sky.
No one comes, no one goes.
A thousand ancestors
Breathe through a single breath.
The bell fades into silence.
Form is emptiness.
Emptiness is form.
A child asks for another story.
The kettle boils.
The bills remain unpaid.
I bow and smile.
. . . sadly Non-Hindus are not allowed inside the temple complex
__________________________________________
The Jagannath Temple of Puri (Odia: ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ମନ୍ଦିର) is a famous, sacred Hindu temple dedicated to Jagannath and located on the eastern coast of India, at Puri in the state of Odisha.
The temple is an important pilgrimage destination for many Hindu traditions, particularly worshippers of god Krishna and god Vishnu, and part of the Char Dham pilgrimages that a Hindu is expected to make in one's lifetime.
Even though most Hindu deities that are worshiped are made out of stone or metal, the image of Jagannath is wooden. Every twelve or nineteen years these wooden figures are ceremoniously replaced by using sacred trees, that have to be carved as an exact replica. The reason behind this ceremonial tradition is the highly secret Navakalevara ('New Body' or 'New Embodiment') ceremony, an intricate set of rituals that accompany the renewal of the wooden statues.
The temple was built in the 12th century atop its ruins by the progenitor of the Eastern Ganga dynasty, King Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva. The temple is famous for its annual Rath Yatra, or chariot festival, in which the three main temple deities are hauled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars. Since medieval times, it is also associated with intense religious fervour.
The temple is sacred to the Vaishnava traditions and saint Ramananda who was closely associated with the temple. It is also of particular significance to the followers of the Gaudiya Vaishnavism whose founder, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, was attracted to the deity, Jagannath, and lived in Puri for many years.
DEITIES
The central forms of Jagannath, Balabhadra and the goddess Subhadra constitute the trinity of deities sitting on the bejewelled platform or the Ratnabedi in the inner sanctum. The Sudarshan Chakra, deities of Madanmohan, Sridevi and Vishwadhatri are also placed on the Ratnavedi. The deities of Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Sudarshan Chakra are made from sacred Neem logs known as Daru Brahma. Depending on the season the deities are adorned in different garbs and jewels. Worship of the deities pre-date the temple structure and may have originated in an ancient tribal shrine.
ORIGINS OF THE TEMPLE
According to the recently discovered copper plates from the Ganga dynasty, the construction of the current Jagannath temple was initiated by the ruler of Kalinga, Anantavarman Chodaganga Dev. The Jaga mohan and the Vimana portions of the temple were built during his reign (1078 - 1148 CE). However, it was only in the year 1174 CE that the Oriya ruler Ananga Bhima Deva rebuilt the temple to give a shape in which it stands today.
Jagannath worship in the temple continued until 1558, when Odisha was attacked by the Afghan general Kalapahad. Subsequently, when Ramachandra Deb established an independent kingdom at Khurda in Orissa, the temple was consecrated and the deities reinstalled.
LEGENDS
Legendary account as found in the Skanda-Purana, Brahma Purana and other Puranas and later Oriya works state that Lord Jagannath was originally worshipped as Lord Neela Madhaba by a Savar king (tribal chief) named Viswavasu. Having heard about the deity, King Indradyumna sent a Brahmin priest, Vidyapati to locate the deity, who was worshipped secretly in a dense forest by Viswavasu. Vidyapati tried his best but could not locate the place. But at last he managed to marry Viswavasu's daughter Lalita. At repeated request of Vidyapti, Viswavasu took his son-in-law blind folded to a cave where Lord Neela Madhaba was worshipped.
Vidyapati was very intelligent. He dropped mustard seeds on the ground on the way. The seeds germinated after a few days, which enabled him to find out the cave later on. On hearing from him, King Indradyumna proceeded immediately to Odra desha Orissa on a pilgrimage to see and worship the Deity. But the deity had disappeared. The king was disappointed. The Deity was hidden in sand. The king was determined not to return without having a darshan of the deity and observed fast unto death at Mount Neela, Then a celestial voice cried 'thou shalt see him.' Afterwards the king performed a horse sacrifice and built a magnificent temple for Vishnu. Sri Narasimha Murti brought by Narada was installed in the temple. During sleep, the king had a vision of Lord Jagannath. Also an astral voice directed him to receive the fragrant tree on the seashore and make idols out of it. Accordingly, the king got the image of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra and Chakra Sudarshan made out of the wood of the divine tree and installed them in the temple.
INDRADYUMNA´S PRAYER TO LORD BRAHMA
King Indradyumna put up for Jagannath the tallest monument of the world. It was 1,000 cubits high. He invited Lord Brahma, the cosmic creator, consecrate the temple and the images. Brahma came all the way from Heaven for this purpose. Seeing the temple he was immensely pleased with him. Brahma asked Indradyumna as to in what way can he (Brahma) fulfill the king's desire, since was very much pleased with him for his having put the most beautiful Temple for Lord Vishnu. With folded hands, Indradyumna said, "My Lord if you are really pleased with me, kindly bless me with one thing, and it is that I should be issueless and that I should be the last member of my family." In case anybody left alive after him, he would only take pride as the owner of the temple and would not work for the society.
THE EPISODE OF THE LORD´S GRACE DURING A WAR WITH KANCHI
At one time, a king of Kanchi in the down south remarked that the king of Orissa was a chandala (a man of very low caste or status) because, he performs the duties of a sweeper during the Car Festival. When this news reached the ears of the king of Orissa, he led an expedition to Kanchi. Before that, he implored the mercy of Lord Jagannath. The soldiers of Orissa marched towards Kanchi from Cuttack (earlier capital city of Orissa, located on the banks of Mahanadi, at a distance of 30 km from Bhubaneswar. It so happened that when the soldiers, headed by the king Purusottam Dev, reached a place near the Chilika lake, a lady, who was selling curd (yogurt) met him (the king) and presented a golden ring studded with precious gems and submitted. "My Lord, kindly listen to me. A little earlier, two soldiers riding over two horses (white and black in colour), approached me and said we are thirsty give us curds to drink.' I gave them curds. Instead of giving me money, they gave me this ring and said,'the king of Orissa will come here, after some time, on his way to Kanchi. You present it to him and he will pay you the money.' So my Lord, you take it and give me my dues.
It took no time for the king to know that the ring belongs to Lord Jagannath. He was convinced that Jagannath and Balabhadra were proceeding to the battle field ahead of him to help him there. To perpetuate the memory of this great incident, the king founded a village in the Chilika lake area. As the name of the lady was Manika, the name given to the village was Manika Patana. Even to this day, the curds of this village are famous.
LEGEND SURROUNDING THE TEMPLE ORIGIN
The traditional story concerning the origins of the Lord Jagannath temple is that here the original image of Jagannath (a deity form of Vishnu) at the end of Treta yuga manifested near a banyan tree, near seashore in the form of an Indranila nilamani or the Blue Jewel. It was so dazzling that it could grant instant moksha, so the god Dharma or Yama wanted to hide it in the earth, and was successful. In Dvapara Yuga King Indradyumna of Malwa wanted to find that mysterious image and to do so he performed harsh penances to obtain his goal. Vishnu then instructed him to go to the Puri seashore and find a floating log to make an image from its trunk.
The King found the log of wood. He did a yajna from which god Yajna Nrisimha appeared and instructed that Narayana should be made as fourfold expansion, i.e. Paramatma as Vasudeva, his Vyuha as Samkarshana, Yogamaya as Subhadra, and his Vibhava asSudarsana. Vishwakarma appeared in the form of artist and prepared images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra from the tree. When this log, radiant with light was seen floating in the sea, Narada told the king to make three idols out of it and place them in a pavilion. Indradyumna got Visvakarma, the architect of Gods, to build a magnificent temple to house the idols and Vishnu himself appeared in the guise of a carpenter to make the idols on condition that he was to be left undisturbed until he finished the work.
But just after two weeks, the Queen became very anxious. She took the carpenter to be dead as no sound came from the temple. Therefore, she requested the king to open the door. Thus, they went to see Vishnu at work at which the latter abandoned his work leaving the idols unfinished. The idol was devoid of any hands. But a divine voice told Indradyumana to install them in the temple. It has also been widely believed that in spite of the idol being without hands, it can watch over the world and be its lord. Thus the idiom.
INVASIONS AND DESECRATIONS OF THE TEMPLE
The temple annals, the Madala Panji records that the Jagannath temple at Puri has been invaded and plundered eighteen times. The invasion by Raktabahu has been considered the first invasion on the temple by the Madalapanji.
RANJIT SINGH´S WILL
Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh, had donated massive amounts of gold to the Jagannath temple. In his last will, he also ordered that Koh-i-noor, the most precious and greatest diamond in the world, to be donated to this temple, but the diamond could never actually make its way to the temple because the British, by that time, had annexed the Punjab and all its royal possessions. Thus, claiming that the Koh-i-noor was theirs. It is currently a part of British crown jewels and is located in the Tower of London.
ENTRY AND DARSHAN
Temple has 4 entrances in all directions.Temple security is selective regarding who is allowed entry. Practicing Hindus of non-Indian descent are excluded from premises, as are Hindus of non-Indian origin. Visitors not allowed entry may view the precincts from the roof of the nearby Raghunandan Library and pay their respects to the image of God Jagannath known as Patitapavana at the main entrance to the temple. There is some evidence that this came into force following a series of invasions by foreigners into the temple and surrounding area. Buddhist, and Jain groups are allowed into the temple compound if they are able to prove their Indian ancestry. The temple has slowly started allowing Hindus of non-Indian origin into the area, after an incident in which 3 Balinese Hindus were denied entry, even though Bali is 90% Hindu.
The temple remains open from 5 am to 12 midnight. Unlike many other temples devotees can go behind the idols(go round the idols).All devotees are allowed to go right up to the deities during the Sahana Mela without paying any fees . The Sahana mela or the public darshan is usually following the abakasha puja between around 7 to 8 am in the morning. Special darshan or Parimanik darshan is when devotees on paying 50 Rupees are allowed right up to the deities. Parimanik darshan happens after the dhupa pujas at around 10 am, 1 pm and 8 pm . At all other times devotees can view the deities from some distance for free. The rathyatra occurs every year some time in the month of July. 2 or 6 weeks before Rathyatra (depending upon the year) there is a ritual of Lord undergoing "Bhukaar" (sick) hence the idols are not on "Darshan". Devotees to make a note of this before they plan to visit the lord.
CULTURAL INTEGRITY
Shrikshetra of Puri Jagannath, as is commonly known, can verily be said to be a truthful replica of Indian culture. To understand this culture, one has to have some idea of the history of this land, which again is different from that of other countries of the world.
Starting from Lord Jagannath himself, history has it that he was a tribal deity, adorned by the Sabar people, as a symbol of Narayan. Another legend claims him to be Nilamadhava, an image of Narayana made of blue stone and worshipped by the aboriginals. He was brought to Nilagiri (blue mountain) or Nilachala and installed there as Shri Jagannath in company with Balabhadra and Subhadra. The images made of wood are also claimed to have their distant linkage with the aboriginal system of worshipping wooden poles. To cap it all the Daitapatis, who have a fair share of responsibilities to perform rituals of the Temple, are claimed to be descendants of the aboriginals or hill tribes of Orissa. So we may safely claim that the beginning of the cultural history of Shrikshetra is found in the fusion of Hindu and Tribal Cultures. This has been accepted as a facet of our proud heritage. The three deities came to be claimed as the symbols of Samyak Darshan, Samyak Jnana and Samyak Charita usually regarded as Triratha (of the Jain cult), an assimilation of which leads to Moksha (salvation) or the ultimate bliss...
Jagannath is worshipped as Vishnu or Narayana or Krishna and Lord Balabhadra as Shesha. Simultaneously, the deities are regarded as the bhairava with Vimala (the devi or the consort of Shiva) installed in the campus of the temple. So ultimately we find a fusion of Saivism, Shaktism and Vaishnavism of the Hindu religion with Jainism and up to an extent Buddhism in the culture of Jagannath and the cultural tradition so reverently held together in Shrikshetra.
ACHARYAS AND JAGANNATHA PURI
All of the renowned acharyas including Madhvacharya have been known to visit this kshetra. Adi Shankara established his Govardhana matha here. There is also evidence that Guru Nanak, Kabir, Tulsidas, Ramanujacharya, and Nimbarkacharya had visited this place. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Gaudiya Vaishnavism stayed here for 24 years, establishing that the love of god can be spread by chanting the Hare Krishna mantra. Srimad Vallabhacharya visited Jagannath Puri and performed a 7-day recitation of Srimad Bhagvat. His sitting place is still famous as "baithakji." It confirms his visit to Puri. A famous incident took place when Vallabhachrya visited. There was a discourse being held between the Brahmins and 4 questions were asked. Who is the highest of Gods, What is the highest of mantras, What is the highest scripture and What is the highest service. The discourse went on for many days with many schools of thought. Finally Shri Vallabh said to ask Lord Jagannath to confirm Shri Vallabh's answers. A pen and paper were left in the inner sanctum. After some time, the doors were opened and 4 answers were written. 1) The Son of Devaki (Krishna) is the God of Gods 2) His name is the highest of mantras 3) His song is the highest scripture (Bhagavat Geeta) 4) Service to Him is the Highest service. The king was shocked and declared Shri Vallabh the winner of the discourse. Some of the pandits who participated became jealous of Shri Vallabh and wanted to test Him. The next day was Ekadashi, a fasting day where one must fast from grains. The pandits gave Shri Vallabh rice Prasad of Shri Jagannathji (The temple is famous for this). If Shri Vallabh ate it, He would break His vow of fasting but if He did not take it, He would disrespect Lord Jagannath. Shri Vallabh accepted the prasad in his hand and spent the rest of the day and night explaining slokas of the greatness of Prasad and ate the rice the next morning.
CHAR DHAM
The temple is one of the holiest Hindu Char Dham (four divine sites) sites comprising Rameswaram, Badrinath, Puri and Dwarka. Though the origins are not clearly known, the Advaita school of Hinduism propagated by Sankaracharya, who created Hindu monastic institutions across India, attributes the origin of Char Dham to the seer. The four monasteries lie across the four corners of India and their attendant temples are Badrinath Temple at Badrinath in the North, Jagannath Temple at Puri in the East, Dwarakadheesh Temple at Dwarka in the West and Ramanathaswamy Temple at Rameswaram in the South. Though ideologically the temples are divided between the sects of Hinduism, namely Saivism and Vaishnavism, the Char Dham pilgrimage is an all Hindu affair. There are four abodes in Himalayas called Chota Char Dham (Chota meaning small): Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri - all of these lie at the foot hills of Himalayas The name Chota was added during the mid of 20th century to differentiate the original Char Dhams. The journey across the four cardinal points in India is considered sacred by Hindus who aspire to visit these temples once in their lifetime. Traditionally the trip starts at the eastern end from Puri, proceeding in clockwise direction in a manner typically followed for circumambulation in Hindu temples.
STRUCTURE
The huge temple complex covers an area of over 37,000 m2, and is surrounded by a high fortified wall. This 6.1 m high wall is known as Meghanada Pacheri. Another wall known as kurma bedha surrounds the main temple. It contains at least 120 temples and shrines. With its sculptural richness and fluidity of the Oriya style of temple architecture, it is one of the most magnificent monuments of India. The temple has four distinct sectional structures, namely -
- Deula, Vimana or Garba griha (Sanctum sanctorum) where the triad deities are lodged on the ratnavedi (Throne of Pearls). In Rekha Deula style;
- Mukhashala (Frontal porch);
- Nata mandir/Natamandapa, which is also known as the Jagamohan (Audience Hall/Dancing Hall), and
- Bhoga Mandapa (Offerings Hall).
The main temple is a curvilinear temple and crowning the top is the 'srichakra' (an eight spoked wheel) of Vishnu. Also known as the "Nilachakra", it is made out of Ashtadhatu and is considered sacrosanct. Among the existing temples in Orissa, the temple of Shri Jagannath is the highest. The temple tower was built on a raised platform of stone and, rising to 65 m above the inner sanctum where the deities reside, dominates the surrounding landscape. The pyramidal roofs of the surrounding temples and adjoining halls, or mandapas, rise in steps toward the tower like a ridge of mountain peaks.
NILA CHAKRA
The Nila Chakra (Blue Discus) is the discus mounted on the top shikhar of the Jagannath Temple. As per custom, everyday a different flag is waved on the Nila Chakra. The flag hoisted on the Nila Cakra is called the Patita Pavana (Purifier of the Fallen) and is equivalent to the image of the deities placed in the sanctum sanctorum .
The Nila Chakra is a disc with eight Navagunjaras carved on the outer circumference, with all facing towards the flagpost above. It is made of alloy of eight metals (Asta-dhatu) and is 3.5 Metres high with a circumference of about 11 metres. During the year 2010, the Nila Chakra was repaired and restored by the Archaeological Survey of India.
The Nila Chakra is distinct from the Sudarshana chakra which has been placed with the deities in the inner sanctorum.
Nila Chakra is the most revered iconic symbol in the Jagannath cult. The Nila Chakra is the only physical object whose markings are used as sacrament and considered sacred in Jagannath worship. It symbolizes protection by Shri Jagannath.
THE SINGHADWARA
The Singahdwara, which in Sanskrit means The Lion Gate, is one of the four gates to the temple and forms the Main entrance. The Singhadwara is so named because two huge statues of crouching lions exist on either side of the entrance. The gate faces east opening on to the Bada Danda or the Grand Road. The Baisi Pahacha or the flight of twenty two steps leads into the temple complex. An idol of Jagannath known as Patitapavana, which in Sanskrit, means the "Saviour of the downtrodden and the fallen" is painted on the right side of the entrance. In ancient times when untouchables were not allowed inside the temple, they could pray to Patita Pavana. The statues of the two guards to the temple Jaya and Vijaya stand on either side of the doorway. Just before the commencement of the Rath Yatra the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are taken out of the temple through this gate. On their return from the Gundicha Temple they have to ceremonially placate Goddess Mahalakshmi, whose statue is carved atop the door, for neglecting to take her with them on the Yatra. Only then the Goddess allows them permission to enter the temple. A magnificent sixteen-sided monolithic pillar known as the Arun stambha stands in front of the main gate. This pillar has an idol of Arun, the charioteer of the Sun God Surya, on its top. One significant thing about Arun stambha is that prior it was located in the Konark Sun temple, later, the Maratha guru Brahmachari Gosain brought this pillar from Konark. The Puri Jagannath Temple was also saved by Maratha emperor Shivaji from being plundered at his times from the Mughals.
OTHER ENTRANCES
Apart from the Singhadwara, which is the main entrance to the temple, there are three other entrances facing north, south and west. They are named after the sculptures of animals guarding them. The other entrances are the Hathidwara or the Elephant Gate, the Vyaghradwara or the Tiger Gate and the Ashwadwara or the Horse Gate.
MINOR TEMPLES
There are numerous smaller temples and shrines within the Temple complex where active worship is regularly conducted. The Vimala Temple (Bimala Temple) is considered one of the most important of the Shaktipeeths marks the spot where the goddess Sati's feet fell. It is located near Rohini Kund in the temple complex. Until food offered to Jagannath is offered to Goddess Vimala it is not considered Mahaprasad.
The temple of Mahalakshmi has an important role in rituals of the main temple. It is said that preparation of naivedya as offering for Jagannath is supervised by Mahalakshmi. The Kanchi Ganesh Temple is dedicated to Uchchhishta Ganapati. Tradition says the King of Kanchipuram (Kanchi) in ancient times gifted the idol, when Gajapati Purushottama Deva married Padmavati, the kanchi princess. There are other shrines namely Muktimandap, Surya, Saraswati, Bhuvaneshwari, Narasimha, Rama, Hanuman and Eshaneshwara.
THE MANDAPAS
There are many Mandapas or Pillared halls on raised platforms within the temple complex meant for religious congregations. The most prominent is the Mukti Mandapa the congregation hall of the holy seat of selected learned brahmins. Here important decisions regarding conduct of daily worship and festivals are taken. The Dola Mandapa is noteworthy for a beautifully carved stone Torana or arch which is used for constructing a swing for the annual Dol Yatra festival. During the festival the idol of Dologobinda is placed on the swing. The Snana Bedi is a rectangular stone platform where idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra are placed for ceremonial bathing during the annual Snana Yatra
DAILY FOOD OFFERINGS
Daily offerings are made to the Lord six times a day. These include:
- The offering to the Lord in the morning that forms his breakfast and is called Gopala Vallabha Bhoga. Breakfast consists of seven items i.e. Khua, Lahuni, Sweetened coconut grating, Coconut water, and popcorn sweetened with sugar known as Khai, Curd and Ripe bananas.
- The Sakala Dhupa forms his next offering at about 10 AM. This generally consists of 13 items including the Enduri cake & Mantha puli.
- Bada Sankhudi Bhoga forms the next repast & the offering consists of Pakhala with curd and Kanji payas. The offerings are made in the Bhog Mandapa, about 200 feet from the Ratnabedi. This is called Chatra Bhog and was introduced by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century to help pilgrims share the temple food.
- The Madhyanha dhupa forms the next offering at the noon.
- The next offering to the Lord is made in the evening at around 8 PM it is Sandhya Dhupa.
- The last offering to the Lord is called the Bada Simhara Bhoga.
The Mahaprasad of Lord Jagannath are distributed amongst the devotees near the Ratnavedi inside the frame of Phokaria, which is being drawn by the Puja pandas using Muruj, except for the Gopal Ballav Bhog and Bhog Mandap Bhoga which are distributed in the Anabsar Pindi & Bhoga Mandap respectively.
ROSAGHARA
The temple's kitchen is considered as the largest kitchen in the world. Tradition maintains that all food cooked in the temple kitchens are supervised by the Goddess Mahalakshmi, the empress of Srimandir herself. It is said that if the food prepared has any fault in it, a shadow dog appears near the temple kitchen. The temple cooks, or Mahasuaras, take this as a sign of displeasure of Mahalakshmi with the food, which is, then, promptly buried and a new batch cooked. All food is cooked following rules as prescribed by Hindu religious texts, the food cooked is pure vegetarian without using onions and garlic. Cooking is done only in earthen pots with water drawn from two special wells near the kitchen called Ganga and Yamuna. There are a total of 56 varieties of naivedhyas offered to the deities, near Ratnabedi as well as in Bhoga Mandap on five particular Muhurta. The most awaited Prasad is Kotho Bhoga or Abadha, offered at mid-day at around 1 pm, depending upon temple rituals. The food after being offered to Jagannath is distributed in reasonable portions as Mahaprasad, which is considered to be divine by the devotees in the Ananda Bazar (an open market, located to the North-east of the Singhadwara inside the Temple complex).
FESTIVALS
There are elaborate daily worship services. There are many festivals each year attended by millions of people. The most important festival is the Rath Yatra or the Chariot festival in June. This spectacular festival includes a procession of three huge chariots bearing the idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra through the Bada Danda meaning the Grand Avenue of Puri till their final destination the Gundicha Temple. Early European observers told tales of devotees being crushed under the wheels of these chariots, whether by accident or even as a form of meritorious suicide akin to suttee. These reports gave rise to the loan word juggernaut suggesting an immense, unstoppable, threatening entity or process operated by fanatics. Many festivals like Dol Yatra in spring and Jhulan Yatra in monsoon are celebrated by temple every year.Pavitrotsava and Damanaka utsava are celebrated as per panchanga or panjika.There are special ceremonies in the month of Kartika and Pausha.
The annual shodasha dinatmaka or 16 day puja beginning 8 days prior to Mahalaya of Ashwin month for goddess Vimala and ending on Vijayadashami, is of great importance, in which both the utsava murty of lord Madanmohan and Vimala take part.
- Pana Sankranti: Also known or Vishuva Sankranti and Mesha Sankranti: Special rituals are performed at the temple.
RATH YATRA AT PURI
The Jagannath triad are usually worshiped in the sanctum of the temple at Puri, but once during the month of Asadha (Rainy Season of Orissa, usually falling in month of June or July), they are brought out onto the Bada Danda (main street of Puri) and travel (3 km) to the Shri Gundicha Temple, in huge chariots (ratha), allowing the public to have darśana (Holy view). This festival is known as Rath Yatra, meaning the journey (yatra) of the chariots (ratha). The Rathas are huge wheeled wooden structures, which are built anew every year and are pulled by the devotees. The chariot for Jagannath is approximately 45 feet high and 35 feet square and takes about 2 months to construct. The artists and painters of Puri decorate the cars and paint flower petals and other designs on the wheels, the wood-carved charioteer and horses, and the inverted lotuses on the wall behind the throne. The huge chariots of Jagannath pulled during Rath Yatra is the etymological origin of the English word Juggernaut. The Ratha-Yatra is also termed as the Shri Gundicha yatra.
The most significant ritual associated with the Ratha-Yatra is the chhera pahara." During the festival, the Gajapati King wears the outfit of a sweeper and sweeps all around the deities and chariots in the Chera Pahara (sweeping with water) ritual. The Gajapati King cleanses the road before the chariots with a gold-handled broom and sprinkles sandalwood water and powder with utmost devotion. As per the custom, although the Gajapati King has been considered the most exalted person in the Kalingan kingdom, he still renders the menial service to Jagannath. This ritual signified that under the lordship of Jagannath, there is no distinction between the powerful sovereign Gajapati King and the most humble devotee.
Chera pahara is held on two days, on the first day of the Ratha Yatra, when the deities are taken to garden house at Mausi Maa Temple and again on the last day of the festival, when the deities are ceremoniously brought back to the Shri Mandir.
As per another ritual, when the deities are taken out from the Shri Mandir to the Chariots in Pahandi vijay.
In the Ratha Yatra, the three deities are taken from the Jagannath Temple in the chariots to the Gundicha Temple, where they stay for nine days. Thereafter, the deities again ride the chariots back to Shri Mandir in bahuda yatra. On the way back, the three chariots halt at the Mausi Maa Temple and the deities are offered Poda Pitha, a kind of baked cake which are generally consumed by the Odisha people only.
The observance of the Rath Yatra of Jagannath dates back to the period of the Puranas. Vivid descriptions of this festival are found in Brahma Purana, Padma Purana, and Skanda Purana. Kapila Samhita also refers to Rath Yatra. In Moghul period also, King Ramsingh of Jaipur, Rajasthan has been described as organizing the Rath Yatra in the 18th Century. In Orissa, Kings of Mayurbhanj and Parlakhemundi were organizing the Rath Yatra, though the most grand festival in terms of scale and popularity takes place at Puri.
Moreover, Starza notes that the ruling Ganga dynasty instituted the Rath Yatra at the completion of the great temple around 1150 AD. This festival was one of those Hindu festivals that was reported to the Western world very early. Friar Odoric of Pordenone visited India in 1316-1318, some 20 years after Marco Polo had dictated the account of his travels while in a Genoese prison. In his own account of 1321, Odoric reported how the people put the "idols" on chariots, and the King and Queen and all the people drew them from the "church" with song and music.
CHANDAN YATRA
In Akshaya Tritiya every year the Chandan Yatra festival marks the commencement of the construction of the Chariots of the Rath Yatra.
SNANA PURNIMA
On the Purnima of the month of Jyestha the Gods are ceremonially bathed and decorated every year on the occasion of Snana Yatra.
ANAVASARA OR ANASARA
Literally means vacation. Every year, the main idols of Jagannath, Balabhadra, Subhadra & Sudarshan after the holy Snana Yatra on the jyestha purnima, go to a secret altar named Anavasara Ghar where they remain for the next dark fortnight (Krishna paksha). Hence devotees are not allowed to view them. Instead of this devotees go to nearby place Brahmagiri to see their beloved lord in the form of four handed form Alarnath a form of Vishnu. Then people get the first glimpse of lord on the day before Rath Yatra, which is called 'Navayouvana. It is said that the gods fall in fever after taking a huge bath and they are treated by the special servants named, Daitapatis for 15 days. During this period cooked food is not offered to the deities.
NAVA KALEBARA
One of the most grandiloquent events associated with the Lord Jagannath, Naba Kalabera takes place when one lunar month of Ashadha is followed by another lunar month of Aashadha. This can take place in 8, 12 or even 18 years. Literally meaning the “New Body” (Nava = New, Kalevar = Body), the festival is witnessed by as millions of people and the budget for this event exceeds $500,000. The event involves installation of new images in the temple and burial of the old ones in the temple premises at Koili Vaikuntha. The idols that are currently being worshipped in the temple premises were installed in the year 1996. Next ceremony will be held on 2015. More than 3 million devotees are expected to visit the temple during the Nabakalevara of 2015 making it one of the most visited festivals in the world.
NILADRI BIJE
Celebrated on Asadha Trayodashi. Niladri Bije is the concluding day of Ratha yatra. On this day deities return to the ratna bedi. Lord Jagannath offers Rasgulla to goddess Laxmi to enter in to the temple.
GUPTA GUNDICHA
Celebrated for 16 days from Ashwina Krushna dwitiya to Vijayadashami. As per tradition, the idol of Madhaba, along with the idol of Goddess Durga (known as Durgamadhaba), is taken on a tour of the temple premises. The tour within the temple is observed for the first eight days. For the next eight days, the idols are taken outside the temple on a palanquin to the nearby Narayani temple situated in the Dolamandapa lane. After their worship, they are brought back to the temple.
THE NAME PURUSHOTTAMA KSHETRA AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE
Lord Jagannath is the Purushottama as per the scripture, Skanda Purana. In order to teach human beings how to lead a life full of virtue, he has taken the form of Saguna Brahman or Darubrahman. He is the best brother to his siblings, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra. He is the best husband to goddess Shri. The most noteworthy aspect is still in the month of Margashirsha, on three consecutive days during amavasya he does Shraddha to his parents (Kashyapa-Aditi, Dasharatha-Kaushalya, Vasudeva-Devaki, Nanda-Yashoda), along with the king Indradyumna and queen Gundicha. As a master he enjoys every comfort daily and in various festivals. He grants all wishes to his subjects, and those who surrender before him he takes the utmost care of.
CULTURE AND TRADITION OF PURI
Puri is one of the fascinating littoral districts of Orissa. The Cultural heritage of Puri with its long recorded history has its beginnings in the third century B.C. The monuments, religious sanctity, and way of life of the people with their rich tradition is the cultural heart of Orissa. Indeed, Puri is considered the cultural capital of Orissa. The culture here flourished with its manifold activities.
The District has the happy conglomerate of different religions, sects and faith. In the course of history, Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina, Muslim, Christian, and Sikh are found here in the District.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, an incarnation of Lord Krishna, appeared 500 years ago, in the mood of a devotee to taste the sublime emotions of ecstasy by chanting the holy name of Krishna. Stalwart scholars of Puri like Sarvabhauma Bhattacharya (a priest & great Sanskrit pandit) and others followed His teachings. Even kings and ministers of His period became His disciples. Especially King Prataparudra became His great admirer and ardent follower. Thus all cultures and religion became one in Puri after his teachings were given to all with no consideration of caste and creed.
MANAGEMENT
After independence, the State Government, with a view to getting better administrative system, passed " The Puri Shri Jagannath Temple (Administration) Act, 1952. It contained provisions to prepare the Record of Rights and duties of Sevayats and such other persons connected with the system of worship and management of the temple. Subsequently Shri Jagannath Temple Act, 1955 " was enacted to reorganize the management system of the affair of the temple and its properties.
SECURITY
The security at the 12th century Jagannath Temple is increased ahead of Ratha Yatra, the homecoming festival of the deities of Jagannath temple. In the wake of terror alert on 27 June 2012, the security forces were increased to ensure smooth functioning of the crowded Ratha Yatra and Suna Besha.
WIKIPEDIA
Spinning is an ancient textile art in which plant, animal or synthetic fibers are drawn out and twisted together to form yarn. For thousands of years, fiber was spun by hand using simple tools, the spindle and distaff. Only in the High Middle Ages did the spinning wheel increase the output of individual spinners, and mass-production only arose in the 18th century with the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Hand-spinning remains a popular handicraft.
Characteristics of spun yarn vary according to the material used, fiber length and alignment, quantity of fiber used, and degree of twist.
HISTORY
HAND SPINNING
The origins of spinning fiber to make string or yarn are lost in time, but archaeological evidence in the form of representation of string skirts has been dated to the Upper Paleolithic era, some 20,000 years ago. In the most primitive type of spinning, tufts of animal hair or plant fiber are rolled down the thigh with the hand, and additional tufts are added as needed until the desired length of spun fiber is achieved. Later, the fiber is fastened to a stone which is twirled round until the yarn is sufficiently twisted, whereupon it is wound upon the stone and the process repeated over and over.
The next method of spinning yarn is with the spindle, a straight stick eight to twelve inches long on which the yarn is wound after twisting. At first the stick had a cleft or split in the top in which the thread was fixed. Later, a hook of bone was added to the upper end. The bunch of wool or plant fibers is held in the left hand. With the right hand the fibers are drawn out several inches and the end fastened securely in the slit or hook on the top of the spindle. A whirling motion is given to the spindle on the thigh or any convenient part of the body. The twisted yarn is then wound on to the upper part of the spindle. Another bunch of fibers is drawn out, the spindle is given another twirl, the yarn is wound on the spindle, and so on.
The distaff was used for holding the bunch of wool, flax, or other fibers. It was a short stick, on one end of which was loosely wound the raw material. The other end of the distaff was held in the hand, under the arm or thrust in the girdle of the spinner. When held thus, one hand was left free for drawing out the fibers.
A spindle containing a quantity of yarn rotates more easily, steadily, and continues longer than an empty one; hence, the next improvement was the addition of a weight called a spindle whorl at the bottom of the spindle. These whorls are discs of wood, stone, clay, or metal with a hole in the center for the spindle, which keep the spindle steady and promote its rotation. Spindle whorls appeared in the Neolithic era. They allowed the spinner to slowly lower, or drop, the spindle as it was spinning, thus allowing a greater quantity of yarn to be created before it had to be wound onto the spindle; hence the name "drop spindle," which is now most commonly used for the hand spindle with whorl attached.
In mediæval times, poor families had such a need for yarn to make their own cloth and clothes that practically all girls and unmarried women would keep busy spinning, and "spinster" became synonymous with an unmarried woman. Subsequent improvements with spinning wheels and then mechanical methods made hand-spinning increasingly uneconomic, but as late as the twentieth century hand-spinning remained widespread in poor countries: in conscious rejection of international industrialization, Gandhi was a notable practitioner. The hand spinning movement that he initiated as a part of the Indian freedom struggle has made the handwoven cloth known as "Khadi" made from handspun cotton yarn world famous. Women spinners of cotton yarn still continue to work to produce handspun yarn for the weaving of Khadi in Ponduru, a village in South India.
A great wheel (also called a wool wheel, high wheel or walking wheel) is advantageous when using the long-draw technique to spin wool or cotton because the high ratio between the large wheel and the whorl (sheave) enables the spinner to turn the bobbin faster, thus significantly speeding up production.
A Saxony wheel (also called a flax wheel) or an upright wheel (also called a castle wheel), can be used to spin wool or cotton, but are invaluable when spinning flax (linen). The ends of flax fibers tend to stick out from the thread unless wetted while being spun. The spinner typically keeps a bowl of water handy when spinning flax, and on these types of wheels, both hands are free (since the wheel is turned with a treadle, rather than by hand), so the spinner can use one hand to draft the fibers and the other to wet them.
INDUSTRIAL SPINNING
Modern powered spinning, originally done by water or steam power but now done by electricity, is vastly faster than hand-spinning.
The spinning jenny, a multi-spool spinning wheel invented c. 1764 by James Hargreaves, dramatically reduced the amount of work needed to produce yarn of high consistency, with a single worker able to work eight or more spools at once. At roughly the same time, Richard Arkwright and a team of craftsmen developed the spinning frame, which produced a stronger thread than the spinning jenny. Too large to be operated by hand, a spinning frame powered by a waterwheel became the water frame.
In 1779, Samuel Crompton combined elements of the spinning jenny and water frame to create the spinning mule. This produced a stronger thread, and was suitable for mechanisation on a grand scale. A later development, from 1828/29, was Ring spinning.
In the 20th century, new techniques including Open End spinning or rotor spinning were invented to produce yarns at rates in excess of 40 meters per second.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SPUN YARNS
MATERIALS
Yarn can be, and is, spun from a wide variety of materials, including natural fibers such as animal, plant, and mineral fibers, and synthetic fibers. It was probably first made from plant fibers, but animal fibers soon followed.
TWIST AND PLY
The direction in which the yarn is spun is called twist. Yarns are characterized as S-twist or Z-twist according to the direction of spinning (see diagram). Tightness of twist is measured in TPI (twists per inch or turns per inch).
Two or more spun yarns may be twisted together or plied to form a thicker yarn. Generally, handspun single plies are spun with a Z-twist, and plying is done with an S-twist. This is a cultural preference differing in some areas but surprisingly common.
PLYING METHODS
Yarns can be made of two, three, four, or more plies, or may be used as singles without plying. Two-ply yarn can also be plied from both ends of one long strand of singles using a center-pull ball, where one end feeds from within a ball of yarn while the other end feeds from the outside. So-called "Andean" plying, in which the single is first wound around one hand in a specific manner that allows unwinding both ends at once without tangling, is another way to ply smaller amounts of yarn. The name comes from a method used by Andean spinners to manage and splice unevenly matched singles being plied from multiple spindles. "Navajo" (aka "chain-") plying is another method of producing a three-ply yarn, in which one strand of singles is looped around itself in a manner similar to crochet and the resulting three parallel strands twisted together. This method is often used to keep colors together on singles dyed in sequential colors. Cabled yarns are usually four-ply yarns made by plying two strands of two-ply yarn together in the direction opposite to the plying direction for the two-ply yarns.
CONTEMPORARY HAND SPINNING
Hand-spinning is still an important skill in many traditional societies. Hobby or small scale artisan spinners spin their own yarn to control specific yarn qualities and produce yarn that is not widely available commercially. Sometimes these yarns are made available to non-spinners online and in local yarn stores. Handspinners also may spin for self-sufficiency, a sense of accomplishment, or a sense of connection to history and the land. In addition, they may take up spinning for its meditative qualities.
Within the recent past, many new spinners have joined into this ancient process, innovating the craft and creating new techniques. From using new dyeing methods before spinning, to mixing in novelty elements (Christmas Garland, eccentric beads, money, etc.) that would not normally be found in traditional yarns, to creating and employing new techniques like coiling, this craft is constantly evolving and shifting.
To make various yarns, besides adding novelty elements, spinners can vary all the same things as in a machined yarn, i.e., the fiber, the preparation, the color, the spinning technique, the direction of the twist, etc. A common misconception is yarn spun from rolags may not be as strong, but the strength of a yarn is actually based on the length of hair fiber and the degree of twist. When working with shorter hairs, such as llama or angora rabbit, the spinner may choose to integrate longer fibers, such as mohair, to prevent yarn breakage. Yarns made of shorter fibers are also given more twist than yarns of longer fibers, and are generally spun with the short draw technique.
The fiber can be dyed at any time, but is often dyed before carding or after the yarn has been spun.
Wool may be spun before or after washing, although excessive amounts of lanolin may make spinning difficult, especially when using a drop-spindle. Careless washing may cause felting. When done prior to spinning, this often leads to unusable wool fiber. In washing wool the key thing to avoid is too much agitation and fast temperature changes from hot to cold. Generally, washing is done lock by lock in warm water with dish-soap.
EDUCATION
There are number of guilds and educational institutions which offer certificate programs in handspinning. The Handweavers Guild of America (HGA) offers a Certificate of Excellence in Handspinning. Olds College in Alberta, Canada, offers a Master Spinner program both on campus and by distance education. The Ontario Handweavers & Spinners offer both a Spinning Certificate as well as a Master Spinning Certificate. These programs feature in-depth examinations of handspinning topics, as well as extensive assignments and skill evaluations.
TECHNIQUES
A tightly spun wool yarn made from fiber with a long staple length in it is called worsted. It is hand spun from combed top, and the fibers all lie in the same direction as the yarn. A woolen yarn, in contrast, is hand spun from a rolag or other carded fiber (roving, batts), where the fibers are not as strictly aligned to the yarn created. The woolen yarn, thus, captures much more air, and makes for a softer and generally bulkier yarn. There are two main techniques to create these different yarns: short draw creates worsted yarns, and long draw creates woolen yarns. Often a spinner will spin using a combination of both techniques and thus make a semi-worsted yarn.
Short draw spinning is used to create worsted yarns. It is spun from combed roving, sliver or wool top. The spinner keeps his/her hands very close to each other. The fibers are held, fanned out, in one hand, and the other hand pulls a small number from the mass. The twist is kept between the second hand and the wheel. There is never any twist between the two hands.
Long draw is spun from a carded rolag. The rolag is spun without much stretching of the fibers from the cylindrical configuration. This is done by allowing twist into a short section of the rolag, and then pulling back, without letting the rolag change position in one's hands, until the yarn is the desired thickness. The twist will concentrate in the thinnest part of the roving; thus, when the yarn is pulled, the thicker sections with less twist will tend to thin out. Once the yarn is the desired thickness, enough twist is added to make the yarn strong. Then the yarn is wound onto the bobbin, and the process starts again.
SPINNING IN THE GREASE
Handspinners are split, when spinning wool, as to whether it is better to spin it 'in the grease' (with lanolin still in) or after it has been washed. More traditional spinners are more willing to spin in the grease, as it is less work to wash the wool after it is in yarn form. Spinners who spin very fine yarn may also prefer to spin in the grease as it can allow them to spin finer yarns with more ease. Spinning in the grease covers the spinner's hands in lanolin and, thus, softens the spinner's hands.
Spinning in the grease works best if the fleece is newly sheared. After several months, the lanolin becomes sticky, which makes the wool harder to spin using the short-draw technique, and almost impossible to spin using the long-draw technique. In general, spinners who use the long-draw technique do not spin in the grease.
Such spinners generally buy their fibers pre-washed and carded, in the form of roving, sliver, or batts. This means less work for the spinners, as they do not have to wash out the lanolin. Spinners then have available predyed fiber, or blends of fibers, which are hard to create when the wool is still in the grease. As machine carders cannot card wool in the grease, pre-carded yarn generally is not spun in the grease. Some spinners use spray-on lanolin-like products to get the same feel of spinning in the grease with carded fiber.
WIKIPEDIA
NOTE: I DID NOT DO THE VAC-FORMING ON THESE PIECES. As I don't have vacuum-forming capabilities, these were sent out to a fellow propmaker named "BlindSquirrel" You can check out his work here: mydumbprojects.blogspot.com/
Visor for Guy-Man's helmet, pulled in 1/16" PETG plastic. These will be tinted before installing in the helmet
St. Lawrence (Nuremberg)
Towers of St. Lorenz Church, view from the west
St. Lawrence is a Gothic church in Nuremberg. The Lorenz church was the parish church of the medieval settlement located south of Pegnitz core of the former free imperial city of Nuremberg and forms the urban counterpart to the older Church of St. Sebald in the northern area . Construction of the three-aisled basilica was in 1250, the late Gothic choir was completed in 1477. Patron of the church is the Holy Lorenz. The heavily damaged in World War II construction was built according to the old model again. Since the Reformation, the Lorenz church is next to the Church of St. Sebald one of the two major Protestant Churches of Nuremberg, both of which belong to the deanery of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria. The Lorenz Church Nuremberg city is the seat of the Dean and finds it in the traditionally held launch of the country's newly elected bishop.
Architectural History
Iron scale from the 15th Century on the west facade. The unit is six Nuremberg Shoe (equivalent to 6 × 27.84 cm = 167.04 cm)
The first mention of Lawrence 's Chapel in Nuremberg from the years 1235 and 1258, during an excavation in 1929 found that it was a small three-aisled basilica with the previous Romanesque. Parts of this building from the early 13th Century have been reused in the rising masonry.
The architectural history of the Lorenz church was always inspired by the model and the competition of the more important in the Middle Ages St. Sebald church. Construction of the three-aisled basilica is dated to about 1250 (St. Sebald ca. 1230/40). However, the exact series episode has yet to be determined. The dating of the sculpture of the west facade plays a supporting role, the workshop will also be seen in Nuremberg at the Tomb of Konrad Gross. The three-aisled basilica was completed around 1390th.
As early as 1400 but was extended (again, following the example of St. Sebald) the aisles by as much moved to their outside walls that is now located in the interior of the church buttresses forming small private chapels for the Council sexes. The last major phase of construction of the hall choir to the altar Deocarus fell in the years 1439-77 (The project is backed by inscriptions; hall choir of St. Sebald 1361-79).
The church was heavily damaged by the air raids in World War II and in the final battle for Nuremberg in April 1945 and has been rebuilt from 1949. Mainly the roof and the vault were destroyed. The roof has been completely redesigned, and the roof was built over the nave due to material shortages of steel. It had to be installed along 1.5 km pursuit and new vault keystones.
History
Lorenz Church, view from south
At least the predecessor of St. Lorenz church, mentioned in the first half of the 13th Century, the bambergischen upper parish in Fuerth was assumed, while St. Sebald originally belonged to Poppenreuth. St. Lawrence could never reach the significance of the sister church, the highlight of this development was in 1425 with the canonization of the public for the past two centuries revered local saint Sebald achieved by the Curia of the entire Middle Ages. St. Lawrence, patron of St. Lorenz church, did not offer the same ID space, especially since you did not have his body . This explains also the 15th Century growing devotion to the Holy Deocarus, confessor of Charles the Great, whose relics were kept in the Lorenz Church since 1316. On his 1436/37 donated altar was allowed, proven from the funds of Nuremberg citizens, establish the late-Gothic hall choir to the east of the church.
Not only for the construction of Hall Choir (1439-1477), but for the entire construction financed by wealthy citizens and the City Council is likely. The same is true for some very valuable assets, in some cases it is here a concrete founder of the patricians can be found ( as in the tabernacle, and the English greeting). This was probably also the reason that the art treasures of St. Lawrence were spared during the Reformation period of iconoclasm. St. Lawrence was one of the first churches in Germany, which were Lutheran (1525), but apparently they wanted to Nuremberg in the memory of the ancestors own honor and had therefore made by them donated sculptures.
In the subsequent history of the church, there are well-known personalities: That there was a preacher among others Andreas Osiander who in St. Lawrence worked - his picture hangs in the sacristy Lorenz .
Building design
The west facade is extremely rich articulated for a parish church, which reflects the high standards of the Nuremberg citizenship, which funded the building substantially. The facade is dominated by the two towers, the model can again to be found in St. Sebald and thus indirectly in the Bamberg Cathedral, the towering sharp Gewändeportal (embrasure portal), well-indented rose window with nine feet in diameter, and the finely perforated Maßwerkgiebel (tracery gable), elements in the form are borrowed and claim all the Gothic cathedrals.
The main building has the shape of a three-nave pillar basilica of eight yokes. In the nave pointed arches on clustered piers carry the nave wall, per yoke breaks through a pointed arch window, the clerestory wall. Presented service bundles to wear a ribbed vault, the ribs are pulled down to the level of the clerestory window sills. The peculiarity of the side aisles is much lower in small family bands, caused by the displacement of the outer walls to the outer edge of the buttress.
The late Gothic hall choir, mirror of the architectural fashion of his time, is seamlessly connected to the main ship. It is distinguished above all by its playful vaulting and the magnificent two-story window tracery in handling. On the south side of a two-storey is inserted the sacristy.
Dimensions of the church nave aisle hall choir
Length: 91.20 m Height: 24.20 m Height: 11.50 m Height: 24.20 m
Width: 30,00 m Beam : 10,40 m Width : 5,90 m Width: 28,60 m
The towers are 80.8 m and 81 m high.
Artworks
Nuremberg, St. Lawrence, north side, angle of nave and transept house: entrance hall with Olives
Tabernacle by Adam Kraft
Annunciation (1517/18) by Veit Stoss
Not all the moving pieces on the rich furnishings are originally from St. Lawrence. Many of the cultural heritage came from secular or destroyed monasteries of Nuremberg and the surrounding area.
Particularly noteworthy are two masterpieces of late Gothic sculpture belonging to the original design of the church: The brainchild of Adam Kraft 1493-1496 tabernacle (donated by Hans Imhoff the Elder.), a 18.70 meter high sandstone tabernacle, consisting of a walk-handling stage and a consequent growing up, pointed, but towards the ceiling rolled spire, which is diverse finely broken. The structure is supported by the back of three crouching figures in three different ages whose mean, equipped with stone tool, probably represents the artist himself. Above the actual Sakramentsschränkchens (small sacrament cabinet) various scenes of Christ's Passion are presented. Despite its delicate shape and the severe damage to the Lorenz Church by bombing in the Second World War, the tabernacle was largely spared from destruction by a surrounding wall.
Another brilliant performance of late Gothic art is hung in the choir German greeting (also: Annunciation in the Rosary), which was 1517/18 given by the patrician Anton Tucher at the sculptor Veit Stoss in order. It shows on the big man, colorful framed and gilded largely linden wood figures of Mary and Gabriel at the Annunciation, surrounded by a wreath of gold roses 55 (372 × 320 cm). Perched above the scene of the blessing God the Father, for the minds of the protagonists buzz musical angels, at the bottom there is a snake with bitten into apple in its mouth. Seven medallions show the seven joys of Mary. Due to a crash on the 2nd April 1817 almost completely destroyed the English greeting had to be carefully restored. Belonging to the twelve angels candlesticks on the choir stalls and the central upstream Marie chandelier.
As one of the few dated altarpieces are the Deocarusaltar of 1436/1437 for the history of the Nuremberg painting and Bilderschnitzerei (sculpture) of great importance. From 1316 to the 19th Century housed the Lorenz Church in Deocarusaltar Deocarus relics of saints, the legendary founder and first abbot of the city Herrieden. Predellenflügel (predella wing) on the right shows how Ludwig the Bavarian city of Nuremberg is about the relics of the saint.
In the right aisle is the Rochus-Altar, a foundation of the Nuremberg trade Imhoff family. When the Altarbau (construction of the altar) started, can not be ascertained clearly, probably around 1485, when the plague was raging in Nuremberg and each solution was welcome. In Venice, the dealer Imhoff family knew very well from Peter Imhoff the Elder managed in Venice from 1465 to 1476 the benefice for the altar of St. Sebald in the church of San Bartolomeo at the Rialto Bridge, which was the altar of German merchants, and is the year he was appointed consul of the Germans in fondaco dei Tedeschi. 1499th Francis Imhoff was a member of the Fraternity of Saint Roch in Venice and knew the local customs very well. And also the success of this saint cult. So it made sense for the Imhoff to make Rochus also known at home in Nuremberg. In the plague year 1484 was celebrated on 16 August in the Lorenz Church in Nuremberg the feast of Saint Roch, a little later probably Imhoff began building the altar. The altar Rochus includes not only the image of Rochus but also of Sebastian, the other plague saint, and is one of the most distinctive sign of early dissemination of the cult of Roch from Venice north of the Alps, before the 1500s. In the lower part you can see the coat of arms of the Imhoff and the Holzschuher, another Nuremberg family.
Numerous altars with paintings and carvings, sculptures in wood and stone, stained glass, some wall paintings, bells, epitaphs, dead shields and a choir from the late 15th Century complete the picture. Also mounted on the exterior are numerous sculptures, some are copies.
Bell
Tagmessglocke (a bell to call the churchgoers or monks)
Laurentia (prayer bell)
The bells of St. Lorenz church consists of 16 bells läutbaren (ringable) and thus representIing the second largest peal of a Protestant church in Germany. It consists of the main elfstimmigen (in eleven voices) bells (1-11 ) and the Cymbelgeläut (cymbeline ringing) ( 12-16). The fire bell is restored as a memorial to the two world wars on the west portal. The old silver bell hangs in the east choir and can be rung from there by cable, but it does not belong to the regular ringing bells ringing but only occasionally to Mittagslob (pray of noonday) on Krell altar. All the bells hang in a wooden belfries of wooden yokes. Due to static problems were in the course of a reorganization almost all the bells upper weights placed on the yoke to slow the Läuterhythmus (rhythm of ringing).
1 bell Christ Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 1953 1815 4407 -4 h0 North Tower
2 Tagmessglocke 1552 Hans (III ) Glockengieser 1490 2006 d1 -1 North Tower
3 Laurentia ( prayer bell ) 1409 1608 2600 Hainrich Grunwalt e1 -1 south tower
4 dead memorial bell Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 1953 1180 1153 fis1 ± 0 South Tower
5 Garausglocke ~ 1400 ( Hermann Kessler ) 1040 ~ 700 g # 1 +2 South Tower
6 Paul Bell 1953 988 668 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling a1 -1 south tower
7 Luther Bell in 1953 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling h1 +1 885 480 South Tower - octagon
8 Osianderglocke 1953 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 802 377 d2 ± 0 - south tower octagon
9 Lazarus Spengler bell Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 1953 705 253 -1 South Tower e2 - octagon
10 Youth With Bell 1953 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling fis2 630 185 -1 South Tower - octagon
11 Silver Bell 1960 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 39 389 d3 +6 silver turrets ( Westgebiel )
I Laudate 1954 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 505 90 a2 +4 North Tower octagon
Magnificat II 1954 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 454 h2 64 +5 North Tower octagon
Bendedictus 1954 Frederick William III Shilling sharp3 +5 410 39 North Tower octagon
Nunc Dimittis in 1954 Frederick William IV Shilling 355 35 e3 +5 North Tower octagon
V Adorate 1954 Friedrich Wilhelm Schilling 325 28 +4 fis3 North Tower octagon
- Old silver bell 2 H. 14 Century ( Hermann Kessler ) 375 d3 +6 ~ 30 east chancel
- Fire bell 1 H. 14 Century ( Hermann Kessler ) 1504 2637 e1 +0.5 parked at the west portal
Läuteordnung
Like other churches, too, St. Lorenz Church has a fixed Läuteordnung (regime of ringing) that lets the bells ring out both on a regular basis as well as on special occasions. At 8 am and in the evening by 21 clock rings the Tagmessglocke, the beep for lunch ringing by 12 clock to Laurentia, which was in 2009 600 years, the Garausläuten (burn out ringing) done with the Garausglocke depending on the sunset 16 to 20 clock. Fridays by 15 clock reminds the great bell at the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. Our Father in all worship the Paul Bell is rung. Saturday is by 14 clock of Sunday, heralded by the ringing of the bells 8, 7 , 6, 4 and 2 ( d2 h1 -a1 -d1 - f k1 ), which does not change over the church year. Depending on the form of worship, church festival degrees and years vary the number and/or the musical compositions (motives ) of the bells.
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Lorenz_(N%C3%BCrnberg)
The Palakkad Fort is said to have existed from very ancient times, but believed to be constructed in present form in 1766 A.D, but little is known of its early history. The local ruler, Palakkad Achchan, was originally a tributary of the Zamorin, but had become independent before the beginning of the eighteenth century.[1] In 1757 he sent a deputation to Hyder Ali seeking help against an invasion threatened by the Zamorin. Hyder Ali seized upon the opportunity to gain possession of a strategically important location such as Palghat and from that time until 1790 the fort was continually in the hands of the Mysore Sultans or the British. It was first taken by the latter in 1768 when Colonel Wood captured it during his raid on Hyder Ali's fortresses, but it was retaken by Haider a few months later. It was recaptured by Colonel Fullarton in 1783, after a siege that lasted eleven days but was abandoned the following year. It later fell into the hands of the Zamorin’s troops. In 1790 it was finally captured by the British under Colonel Stuart. It was renovated and was used as a base for operations that ended with the storming of Srirangapatnam. The fort continued to be garrisoned until the middle of 19th century. In the early 1900s it was converted into a taluk office.
The Royal Air Force Comforts Committee (RAF Comforts Committee) was formed by the Air Council in October 1939 to determine the type and quantities of ‘knitted comforts’ required for the RAF as well as arrange for their collection, storage and distribution through their depots. Local knitting parties or groups were organised mainly by the Women’s Institute (WI) and the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS) according to guidance issued by the Committee. Anyone who could knit was roped into these knitting parties and that included many men too (it was commonplace back then for men to be competent knitters). Groups needed to be registered with the Comforts Committee to ensure they got supplies of free wool and badges/certificates. As the war drew to a close in 1945, knitted comforts were also made for needy children in the liberated countries and distributed by the Red Cross.
The main forms of knitted RAF Comforts were mittens, pullovers (preferably with polo necks), woollen helmets (balaclavas) and gum-boot stockings (of oiled wool). Other items such as ordinary socks and gloves were knitted in smaller quantities as required by the RAF and only to supplement regulation uniform issues. The official colour was a grey/blue but by 1941 there was a shortage of wool as it was required in ever increasing quantities and so wool of many shades of blue and sometimes other colours were supplied for the knitted comforts. The RAF had issued a standard book containing instructions for knitting parties with approved patterns.
This badge issued by the RAF Comforts Committee was given free to each registered local knitting party but only the first badge (usually the party leader), additional badges required were supplied according to the amount of work done by an individual and at the cost of 1/- (one shilling) each, accompanied by the certificate. All this would have been monitored by the Comforts Committee.
Knitted garments and ‘Comforts’ were an important wartime contribution for the men and women of the Defence Forces, whether it was the Royal Navy, RAF, Army or Auxiliary forces. Invariably, these garments were hand-knitted in wool by countless volunteer throughout Britain who helped ensure those at war would be wearing their extra ‘comforts’ and make the endurance that bit more bearable. Regulation clothing issue was generally considered basic and not the most comfortable. Besides, standard issue may not have included sufficient protection against harsh weather conditions and ‘comforts’ were seen as filling that gap.
Knitting wool was sourced and purchased by The Board of Trade according to a set specification and colour (blue/grey for the RAF & Royal Navy blue) to be stored at their depots. Since the beginning of the war, the number of knitted items grew to the extent it had become more difficult to source wool in the quantities required and its cost went up. Funds to purchase the wool came mainly from the Penny-a-Week savings schemes and Comforts Fund collections – all voluntary donations in aid of the War Effort. Some figures quoted in the Hansard Parliamentary report (link below) give an indication of the huge quantities of wool required and its increased rate of usage.
Figures stated are the total number of finished garments distributed regardless of type:
Feb 1 1940 – 31 Jan 1941 – 152,737
Feb 1 1941 – 31 Jan 1942 – 392,191
Feb 1 1942 – Jan 31 1943 – 599,246
.
When the Comforts knitting scheme started up at the beginning of the War, it was very much on an ad-hoc basis with individual women and groups knitting garments to supply their own men away at war. The schemes were quickly integrated into the general Home Front organisation and their potential harnesses by the various Comforts Committees to ensure more efficient supply, quality and upkeep of morale. The official line was generally that the ‘individual’s reward was the satisfaction in knowing the men’s appreciation’ to encourage the volunteers to greater effort. Anyone who could knit were encouraged to join a knitting group, officially known as ‘parties, a word used to engender a greater feeling of solidarity. By April 1943, there were between 6,000 and 7,000 knitting ‘parties’ across Britain (see Hansard link below).
References:
ticketybootupney.blogspot.ie/2012/10/knitting-for-raf.html (Knitting for the RAF, official booklet issued 1940 by the Royal Air Force Comforts Committee costing one shilling each).
www.sentimentaljourney.co.uk/tl/comfort.htm (About knitted comforts for the defence forces).
hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/1943/aug/03/merchant-na... (Parliamentry proposal to extent clothing coupon scheme to cover knitted comforts for the Merchant Navy. Aim is to ensure fairer and more efficient distribution of Comforts packs and eliminate possible abuses but the order was withdrawn. Give an insight into how the scheme works.)
barbaraknitsagain.blogspot.com/2012/02/knitting-for-army.... (Short article about WW2 knitted comforts and the 1940 booklet Knitting for the Army, Official Guide issued by authority of the Director of Voluntary Organizations during 1940. Notice the image of the ‘Volunteer Worker for the Forces’ badge on the cover.)
Enamels: 1 (blue).
Finish: Chrome plated.
Material: Brass.
Fixer: Pin.
Size: 15/16” x 15/16” (24mm x 24mm).
Process: Die-stamped.
Imprint: THOMAS FATTORINI LTD. REGENT ST. BIRMINGHAM.
..wood form I made from some scape soft-wood to confirm a concept for creation of a camera grip that never passed presentation and ideas because there was newer ideas that did not require optical pin-registrations and vertical/horizontal referencing etcetera
"Contrapuntal Forms 1950-51" is carved from Irish blue limestone. It was commissioned for the Festival of Britain by the Arts Council and in 1953 was presented to the new town of Harlow where it still (normally) stands.
From la gare de Lyon (the Lyon Station) in Paris, my son and I travelled by TGV high speed trains and visited many beautiful places in Switzerland and Germany! This station is an artistically beautiful building with so many destinations conveniently available to passengers!
About Gare de Lyon
The Gare de Lyon is a major railway station in Paris, France. It is named after the city of Lyon, the final destination of many of the long-distance trains departing from its platforms. In principle the station's SNCF services run to the south and east of France. The station also hosts regional trains and RER. It is served by the Gare de Lyon metro station.
The station was built for the World Exposition of 1900. Built on multiple levels, it is considered a classic example of the architecture of its time. Most notable is the large clock tower atop one corner of the station, similar in style to the clock tower of the UK Houses of Parliament, home to Big Ben.
The station houses a well known restaurant, Le Train Bleu, which has served drinks and meals to travellers and other guests since 1901 in an ornately-decorated setting.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gare_de_Lyon
@Paris, France.
Castletown River, Dundalk, Co.Louth, Ireland 03-01-2020
[order] Charadriiformes | [family] Scolopacidae | [latin] Tringa erythropus | [UK] Spotted Redshank | [FR] Chevalier arlequin | [DE] Dunkelwasserläufer | [ES] Archibebe oscuro | [IT] Totano moro | [NL] Zwarte Ruiter
Measurements
spanwidth min.: 48 cm
spanwidth max.: 52 cm
size min.: 29 cm
size max.: 32 cm
Breeding
incubation min.: 23 days
incubation max.: 24 days
fledging min.: 0 days
fledging max.: 0 days
broods 1
eggs min.: 3
eggs max.: 4
Physical characteristics
Big and elegant wader, with long neck, legs and bill. Entirely black, with white dots on upperparts, and often variable amounts of whitish on underparts, in flight shows white wedge on back and white underwing. Female slightly larger and generally paler, with white tips on crown feathers and more white fringes on underparts. Non-breeding adult has contrasting dark eye stripe and white supercilium, ash grey upperparts with white fringes, plain grey breast and white underparts. Rather similar to T. totanus, but has longer darker red legs. Longer, finer bill, lower mandible basally red. White above lores. Juvenile darker than non-breeding adult.
Habitat
Open wooded tundra, swampy pine or birch forest near tree-line, and also more open areas such as heathland and shrub tundra. After breeding, occurs in variety of freshwater or brackish wetlands, including sewage farms, irrigated rice fields, brackish lagoons, salt-marshes, salt-pans and sheltered muddy shores along coast
Other details
This bird inhabits taiga and scrub tundra in northern Eurasia, from the north of Scandinavia and Finland to eastern Siberia. European populations winter mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, north of the Equator. Small numbers stay in the Mediterranean regions and Western Europe however. The total European population, Russia included, is estimated at 27000-47000 breeding pairs
Feeding
Mainly aquatic insects, terrestrial flying insects, small crustaceans, molluscs, worms, fish and amphibians. When feeding on fish, may forage socially in dense flock of conspecifics or mixed with other tringines, moving erratically while pecking at prey or running synchronously in one direction, while each bird sweeps bill through water. Often found in water, and occasionally swims while feeding in deep water, may immerse head and neck completely. Pecks, probes, jabs or sweeps bill through water from side to side. Mostly in small flocks, sometimes singly. Diurnal and nocturnal feeder.
Conservation
This species has a large range, with an estimated global Extent of Occurrence of 1,000,000-10,000,000 km². It has a large global population estimated to be 120,000-360,000 individuals (Wetlands International 2002). Global population trends have not been quantified, but the species is not believed to approach the thresholds for the population decline criterion of the IUCN Red List (i.e. declining more than 30% in ten years or three generations). For these reasons, the species is evaluated as Least Concern. [conservation status from birdlife.org]
Breeding
Egg laying from April to May. pair bond is monogamous, apparently sometimes polyandrous.Nest is usually built in grass tussocks or moss, sparsely lined with plant material. 4 eggs are laid, incubation period unknown. Chick pale drab grey finely marked with fuscous black above, dark cap and dirty white on chin and belly. Most females leave before eggs hatch.
Migration
Migratory. Overall winter range extends from western Europe and West Africa to Vietnam and south-east China; reached by broad-front overland movements, though important passage concentrations also occur along western seaboard. European migration characterized by long, continuous flights between staging areas, so that over large regions seen only in low numbers which do not reflect true scale of movement. Adult females form flocks and leave breeding grounds while males incubating (about 10 June in Finland) and reach Denmark and Waddenzee by mid-June. males and juveniles follow in second half July and August. Early birds reach West Africa August-September, but main arrivals in October. Sénégal wintering areas vacated in March; return movement through Europe in April and May. First birds consistently reach Finland about 4 May (× 4 days), and immigration proceeds rapidly, reaching even northern Gulf of Bothnia within a few days. A few non-breeders summer in Africa, but others return to Europe and remain in flocks south of breeding latitudes
One of the world’s most successful and resilient airlines, Cathay Pacific was formed in September 1946 by Roy Farrell and Sydney de Kantzow, former US Army Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force pilots respectively, who had met while flying cargo flights from India to China during World War II. Using a single war surplus Douglas DC-3, the two pilots flew the airline’s first flight themselves, from Sydney to Shanghai via Manila. The name Cathay Pacific came from Farrell and de Kantzow’s hope that one day their airline would fly from China (Cathay) across the Pacific. Their prediction would be proven accurate.
By 1948, Cathay Pacific had acquired another DC-3, and Farrell and de Kantzow put the airline up for sale, with both men retaining 20 percent shares. Cathay Pacific’s controlling interest was bought by the Swire Group, a British-Chinese trading company founded in 1861; the Swire Group today still owns the controlling interest in the airline. Using Douglas DC-4s and DC-6s, Cathay Pacific expanded its routes throughout Southeast Asia and Japan, though it was barred from flying to the People’s Republic of China after the Chinese Revolution ended in 1949. It was able to buy out Hong Kong Airlines in 1959, becoming the Hong Kong Crown Colony flag carrier; in 1964 it entered the jet age with the purchase of Convair 880s.
Even further expansion continued, with Chinese service reopened by 1974, service to London by 1980, and nonstop service to Vancouver, Canada in 1983—realizing its founders’ dream of transpacific service. By this time, its fleet was mostly Lockheed L-1011 Tristars (the largest non-American operator of the type) and Boeing 747s, the latter of which was truly a challenge to operate from Cathay Pacific’s headquarters of Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport.
If anything could stop Cathay Pacific’s growth, it might be the return of Hong Kong to China, scheduled for 1997. This proved to be less trouble than originally thought, and aside from the removal of the British Union Jack from the tail and changing registrations, Cathay Pacific continued operations as before. It changed its livery to a more modern white over gray fuselage color, removing the three green stripes that had been the company’s trademark to a single dark green stripe and a stylized bird, nicknamed the “Brushwing.” It remained the flag carrier for Hong Kong after 1997, using the city’s flag rather than China’s. Cathay Pacific pioneered a transpolar route from Hong Kong to New York in 1998, which at over 8000 miles is one of the longest in operation, and was both the last airline to depart Kai Tak and the first to arrive at Hong Kong’s new airport, Chep Lap Kok.
Cathay Pacific today is one of the world’s most successful and safest airlines (its last fatal accident, a terrorist bombing, occurred in 1972), serving over 160 destinations worldwide. It weathered the 1998 Asian currency crisis and post-9/11 downturn, along with labor problems. Besides its own airline operations, Cathay Pacific also operates a cargo division (the world’s largest) and owns subsidiaries Air Hong Kong and Dragonair. It operates a fleet of mostly Airbus A340s and Boeing 777s.
VR-HKG served its entire existence with Cathay Pacific from 1979 to 1997, when it was retired and scrapped at Victorville, California in 1999.
Rapid strata formation in soft sand (field evidence).
Photo of strata formation in soft sand on a beach, created by tidal action of the sea.
Formed in a single, high tidal event. Stunning evidence which displays multiple strata/layers.
Why this is so important ....
It has long been assumed, ever since the 17th century, that layers/strata observed in sedimentary rocks were built up gradually, layer upon layer, over many years. It certainly seemed logical at the time, from just looking at rocks, that lower layers would always be older than the layers above them, i.e. that lower layers were always laid down first followed, in time, by successive layers on top.
This was assumed to be true and became known as the superposition principle.
It was also assumed that a layer comprising a different material from a previous layer, represented a change in environmental conditions/factors.
These changes in composition of layers or strata were considered to represent different, geological eras on a global scale, spanning millions of years. This formed the basis for the Geologic Column, which is used to date rocks and also fossils. The evolutionary, 'fossil record' was based on the vast ages and assumed geological eras of the Geologic Column.
There was also circular reasoning applied with the assumed age of 'index' fossils (based on evolutionary beliefs & preconceptions) used to date strata in the Geologic Column. Dating strata from the assumed age of (index) fossils is known as Biostratigraphy.
We now know that, although these assumptions seemed logical, they are not supported by the evidence.
At the time, the mechanics of stratification were not properly known or studied.
An additional factor was that this assumed superposition and uniformitarian model became essential, with the wide acceptance of Darwinism, for the long ages required for progressive microbes-to-human evolution. There was no incentive to question or challenge the superposition, uniformitarian model, because the presumed, fossil 'record' had become dependant on it, and any change in the accepted model would present devastating implications for Darwinism.
This had the unfortunate effect of linking the study of geology so closely to Darwinism, that any study independent of Darwinian considerations was effectively stymied. This link of geology with Darwinian preconceptions is known as biostratigraphy.
Some other field evidence, in various situations, can be observed here: www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157635944904973/
and also in the links to stunning, experimental evidence, carried out by sedimentologists, given later.
_______________________________________________
GEOLOGIC PRINCIPLES (established by Nicholas Steno in the 17th Century):
What Nicolas Steno believed about strata formation is the basis of the principle of Superposition and the principle of Original Horizontality.
dictionary.sensagent.com/Law_of_superposition/en-en/
“Assuming that all rocks and minerals had once been fluid, Nicolas Steno reasoned that rock strata were formed when particles in a fluid such as water fell to the bottom. This process would leave horizontal layers. Thus Steno's principle of original horizontality states that rock layers form in the horizontal position, and any deviations from this horizontal position are due to the rocks being disturbed later.”)
BEDDING PLANES.
'Bedding plane' describes the surface in between each stratum which are formed during sediment deposition.
science.jrank.org/pages/6533/Strata.html
“Strata form during sediment deposition, that is, the laying down of sediment. Meanwhile, if a change in current speed or sediment grain size occurs or perhaps the sediment supply is cut off, a bedding plane forms. Bedding planes are surfaces that separate one stratum from another. Bedding planes can also form when the upper part of a sediment layer is eroded away before the next episode of deposition. Strata separated by a bedding plane may have different grain sizes, grain compositions, or colours. Sometimes these other traits are better indicators of stratification as bedding planes may be very subtle.”
______________________________________________
Several catastrophic events, flash floods, volcanic eruptions etc. have forced Darwinian, influenced geologists to admit to rapid stratification in some instances. However they claim it is a rare phenomenon, which they have known about for many years, and which does nothing to invalidate the Geologic Column, the fossil record, evolutionary timescale, or any of the old assumptions regarding strata formation, sedimentation and the superposition principle. They fail to face up to the fact that rapid stratification is not an extraordinary phenonemon, but rather the prevailing and normal mechanism of sedimentary deposition whenever and wherever there is moving, sediment-laden water. The experimental evidence demonstrates the mechanism and a mass of field evidence in normal (non-catastrophic) conditions shows it is a normal everyday occurrence.
It is clear from the experimental evidence that the usual process of stratification is - that strata are not formed by horizontal layers being laid on top of each other in succession, as was assumed. But by sediment being sorted in the flowing water and laid down diagonally in the direction of flow. See diagram:
www.flickr.com/photos/truth-in-science/39821536092/in/dat...
The field evidence (in the image) presented here - of rapid, simultaneous stratification refutes the Superposition Principle and the Principle of Lateral Continuity.
We now know, the Superposition Principle only applies on a rare occasion where sedimentary deposits are laid down in still water.
Superposition is required for the long evolutionary timescale, but the evidence shows it is not the general rule, as was once believed. Most sediment is laid down in moving water, where particle segregation is the general rule, resulting in the simultaneous deposition of strata/layers as shown in the photo.
See many other examples of rapid stratification (with geological features): www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157635944904973/
Rapid, simultaneous formation of layers/strata, through particle segregation in moving water, is so easily created it has even been described by sedimentologists (working on flume experiments) as a law ...
"Upon filling the tank with water and pouring in sediments, we immediately saw what was to become the rule: The sediments sorted themselves out in very clear layers. This became so common that by the end of two weeks, we jokingly referred to Andrew's law as "It's difficult not to make layers," and Clark's law as "It's easy to make layers." Later on, I proposed the "law" that liquefaction destroys layers, as much to my surprise as that was." Ian Juby, www.ianjuby.org/sedimentation/
The example in the photo is the result of normal, everyday tidal action formed in a single incident. Where the water current or movement is more turbulent, violent, or catastrophic, great depths (many metres) of stratified sediment can be laid down in a short time. Certainly not the many millions of years assumed by evolutionists.
The composition of strata formed in any deposition event. is related to whatever materials are in the sediment mix, not to any particular timescale. Whatever is in the mix will be automatically sorted into strata/layers. It could be sand, or other material added from mud slides, erosion of chalk deposits, coastal erosion, volcanic ash etc. Any organic material (potential fossils), alive or dead, engulfed by, or swept into, a turbulent sediment mix, will also be sorted and buried within the rapidly, forming layers.
See many other examples of rapid stratification with geological features: www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157635944904973/
Stratified, soft sand deposit. demonstrates the rapid, stratification principle.
Important, field evidence which supports the work of the eminent, sedimentologist Dr Guy Berthault MIAS - Member of the International Association of Sedimentologists.
(Dr Berthault's experiments (www.sedimentology.fr/)
And also the experimental work of Dr M.E. Clark (Professor Emeritus, U of Illinois @ Urbana), Andrew Rodenbeck and Dr. Henry Voss, (www.ianjuby.org/sedimentation/)
Location: Yaverland, Isle of Wight. Photographed: 14/03/2019
This field evidence demonstrates that multiple strata in sedimentary deposits do not need millions of years to form and can be formed rapidly. This natural example confirms the principle demonstrated by the sedimentation experiments carried out by Dr Guy Berthault and other sedimentologists. It calls into question the standard, multi-million year dating of sedimentary rocks, and the dating of fossils by depth of burial or position in the strata.
Mulltiple strata/layers are evident in this example.
Dr Berthault's experiments (www.sedimentology.fr/) and other experiments (www.ianjuby.org/sedimentation/) and field studies of floods and volcanic action show that, rather than being formed by gradual, slow deposition of sucessive layers superimposed upon previous layers, with the strata or layers representing a particular timescale, particle segregation in moving water or airborne particles can form strata or layers very quickly, frequently, in a single event.
And, most importantly, lower strata are not older than upper strata, they are the same age, having been created in the same sedimentary episode.
Such field studies confirm experiments which have shown that there is no longer any reason to conclude that strata/layers in sedimentary rocks relate to different geological eras and/or a multi-million year timescale. www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PVnBaqqQw8&feature=share&.... they also show that the relative position of fossils in rocks is not indicative of an order of evolutionary succession. Obviously, the uniformitarian principle, on which the geologic column is based, can no longer be considered valid. And the multi-million, year dating of sedimentary rocks and fossils needs to be reassessed. Rapid deposition of stratified sediments also explains the enigma of polystrate fossils, i.e. large fossils that intersect several strata. In some cases, tree trunk fossils are found which intersect the strata of sedimentary rock up to forty feet in depth. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/08/Lycopsi... They must have been buried in stratified sediment in a short time (certainly not millions, thousands, or even hundreds of years), or they would have rotted away. youtu.be/vnzHU9VsliQ
In fact, the vast majority of fossils are found in good, intact condition, which is testament to their rapid burial. You don't get good fossils from gradual burial, because they would be damaged or destroyed by decay, predation or erosion. The existence of so many fossils in sedimentary rock on a global scale is stunning evidence for the rapid depostion of sedimentary rock as the general rule. It is obvious that all rock containing good intact fossils was formed from sediment laid down in a very short time, not millions, or even thousands of years.
See set of photos of other examples of rapid stratification: www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157635944904973/
Carbon dating of coal should not be possible if it is millions of years old, yet significant amounts of Carbon 14 have been detected in coal and other fossil material, which indicates that it is less than 50,000 years old. www.ldolphin.org/sewell/c14dating.html
www.grisda.org/origins/51006.htm
Evolutionists confidently cite multi-million year ages for rocks and fossils, but what most people don't realise is that no one actually knows the age of sedimentary rocks or the fossils found within them. So how are evolutionists so sure of the ages they so confidently quote? The astonishing thing is they aren't. Sedimentary rocks cannot be dated by radiometric methods*, and fossils can only be dated to less than 50,000 years with Carbon 14 dating. The method evolutionists use is based entirely on assumptions. Unbelievably, fossils are dated by the assumed age of rocks, and rocks are dated by the assumed age of fossils, that's right ... it is known as circular reasoning.
* Regarding the radiometric dating of igneous rocks, which is claimed to be relevant to the dating of sedimentary rocks, in an occasional instance there is an igneous intrusion associated with a sedimentary deposit -
Prof. Aubouin says in his Précis de Géologie: "Each radioactive element disintegrates in a characteristic and constant manner, which depends neither on the physical state (no variation with pressure or temperature or any other external constraint) nor on the chemical state (identical for an oxide or a phosphate)."
"Rocks form when magma crystallizes. Crystallisation depends on pressure and temperature, from which radioactivity is independent. So, there is no relationship between radioactivity and crystallisation.
Consequently, radioactivity doesn't date the formation of rocks. Moreover, daughter elements contained in rocks result mainly from radioactivity in magma where gravity separates the heavier parent element, from the lighter daughter element. Thus radiometric dating has no chronological signification." Dr. Guy Berthault www.sciencevsevolution.org/Berthault.htm
Rapid strata formation and rapid erosion at Mount St Helens.
slideplayer.com/slide/5703217/18/images/28/Rapid+Strata+F...
Visit the fossil museum:
www.flickr.com/photos/101536517@N06/sets/72157641367196613/
Just how good are peer reviews of scientific papers?
www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/60.full
www.examiner.com/article/want-to-publish-science-paper-ju...
The neo-Darwinian idea that the human genome consists entirely of an accumulation of billions of mutations is, quite obviously, completely bonkers. Nevertheless, it is compulsorily taught in schools and universities as 'science'.
www.flickr.com/photos/truth-in-science/35505679183
Dr James Tour - 'The Origin of Life'
From my set entitled ‘Sumac”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/sets/72157607186471302/
In my collection entitled “The Garden”
www.flickr.com/photos/21861018@N00/collections/7215760718...
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sumac (also spelled sumach) is any one of approximately 250 species of flowering plants in the genus Rhus and related genera, in the family Anacardiaceae. The dried berries of some species are ground to produce a tangy purple spice often used in juice.
Sumacs grow in subtropical and warm temperate regions throughout the world, especially in North America.
Sumacs are shrubs and small trees that can reach a height of 1-10 meters. The leaves are spirally arranged; they are usually pinnately compound, though some species have trifoliate or simple leaves. The flowers are in dense panicles or spikes 5-30 cm long, each flower very small, greenish, creamy white or red, with five petals. The fruits form dense clusters of reddish drupes called sumac bobs.
Sumacs propagate both by seed (spread by birds and other animals through their droppings), and by new sprouts from rhizomes, forming large clonal colonies.
The drupes of the genus Rhus are ground into a deep-red or purple powder used as a spice in Middle Eastern cuisine to add a lemony taste to salads or meat; in the Turkish cuisine e.g. added to salad-servings of kebabs and lahmacun. In North America, the smooth sumac (Rhus glabra), and the staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina), are sometimes used to make a beverage, termed "sumac-ade" or "Indian lemonade" or "rhus juice". This drink is made by soaking the drupes in cool water, rubbing them to extract the essence, straining the liquid through a cotton cloth and sweetening it. Native Americans also used the leaves and berries of the smooth and staghorn sumacs combined with tobacco in traditional smoking mixtures.
Species including the fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica), the littleleaf sumac (R. microphylla), the skunkbush sumac (R. trilobata), the smooth sumac and the staghorn sumac are grown for ornament, either as the wild types or as cultivars.
The leaves of certain sumacs yield tannin (mostly pyrogallol), a substance used in vegetable tanning. Leather tanned with sumac is flexible, light in weight, and light in color, even bordering on being white.
Dried sumac wood is fluorescent under long-wave UV light. Mowing of sumac is not a good control measure as the wood is springy resulting in jagged, sharp pointed stumps when mowed. The plant will quickly recover with new growth after mowing. See Nebraska Extension Service publication G97-1319 for suggestions as to control.
At times Rhus has held over 250 species. Recent molecular phylogeny research suggests breaking Rhus sensu lata into Actinocheita, Baronia, Cotinus, Malosma, Searsia, Toxicodendron, and Rhus sensu stricta. If this is done, about 35 species would remain in Rhus. However, the data is not yet clear enough to settle the proper placement of all species into these genera.
Abandoned rural library. Providence Forge, Va. I really wanted better light from the window with this one but there was a major storm howling outside. Too bad I couldn't catch the lightening through the window. :(
The Levee District formed in 1893 and was one of the most crime-ridden areas of Chicago. Bordellos, gambling halls, peep shows, saloons, pool rooms and cocaine parlors were the norm.
The Cullerton Hotel was said to be a den of "white slavery" where women, mostly from overseas, were forced to perform as prostitutes. Secret tunnels, which are there today, run underneath it. Al Capone took over the hotel in the 1920s and ran it before The Levee was formally ended as a red-light district in the 1930s. This building is said to be the last of The Levee District buildings yet standing.
Note that this building was recently sold and is being heavily remodeled. This wall with its wonderful ironwork is now gone.
Located at 2001 S. State St.
ART AND ARCHITECTURE
Egyptian representational art forms – sculpture in the round, relief, and painting – acquired a distinctive appearance by the beginning of the Dynastic Period. At the same time the level of work in decorative and functional art forms, such as painted patterning, stone vase manufacture, ivory carving, furniture making, and metalwork was very high, while architecture evolved rapidly from then on, continuing to develop as new materials were mastered and new forms introduced. From the beginning, works of art in a wide range of genres are the most important single legacy from ancient Egypt, and one that is remarkably consistent in character. Changes in art through different periods relate to changes in society and throw light on them, although art seeks its inspiration more in other art than in the world. Egyptian art is superficially approachable, yet also alien from western art.
from
John Baines and Jaromir Malek, Atlas of Ancient Egypt (Revised Edition) (Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2002), p. 56.
きれいな脚 美しい脚の形,美脚,The Fine Art of Photography,Ksmakoto.An exploration of visual movement expressed through shape and rhythm.
Kingfisher looking to defy authority. All these Kingfisher shots today are posted with huge thanks to Martin Webber's invaluable help and patience. (Webbyu61) We were expecting shots around the nest but the young had fledged (see "Hiding"). Martin knew where to find them
Pottery Vase
Pottery vase in the form of a woman carrying a vessel in each hand, inspired by increased trade in the Mediterranean during the Second Intermediate Period onwards
Tomb W1, Abydos
18th Dynasty
E.2431
***
From www.ashmolean.org/documents/ANTSacklerHandbook.pdf
Case 51 Pottery and the Decorative Arts in the New Kingdom
New Kingdom
18th Dynasty
about 1540–1292 BC
The growing prosperity of Egypt in the 18th Dynasty is reflected in a new fashion for fine pottery, especially miniature forms. Contemporary graves have preserved a range of objects which were probably treasured possessions in life, as well as necessities for the well-stocked tomb. Beautifully crafted vessels were made for personal use, probably as containers for scented oil or cosmetics. Figure-vases were made by shaping the clay in a mould, and covering it with a slip which was polished before firing. Additional details could be added in brown or black paint.
Both wild and domesticated animals were popular subjects for pottery and the decorative arts in general. A cosmetic dish in the shape of a duck, or a kohl-pot adorned with a monkey, made playful references to the natural world, but also related these objects to the imagery of rebirth and sexual attraction.
Craftsmen were inspired by foreign imports as well as traditional Egyptian themes. Ceramic shapes from Greece and Cyprus were copied in pottery or stone. Vases made exclusively for the tomb were sometimes decorated after firing with colourful painted designs recalling the floral garlands placed on wine jars for festive occasions. Another, but less successful, innovation was to coat pottery and stone vessels with a glossy resin similar to that used on painted coffins and walls.
A visit to the National Trust property that is Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a tower house. Samuel Wyatt reconstructed the property in the 1780s.
The present building was created between about 1822 and 1837 to designs by Thomas Hopper, who expanded and transformed the building beyond recognition. However a spiral staircase from the original property can still be seen, and a vaulted basement and other masonry were incorporated into the new structure. Hopper's client was George Hay Dawkins-Pennant, who had inherited the Penrhyn estate on the death of his second cousin, Richard Pennant, who had made his fortune from slavery in Jamaica and local slate quarries. The eldest of George's two daughters, Juliana, married Grenadier Guard, Edward Gordon Douglas, who, on inheriting the estate on George's death in 1845, adopted the hyphenated surname of Douglas-Pennant. The cost of the construction of this vast 'castle' is disputed, and very difficult to work out accurately, as much of the timber came from the family's own forestry, and much of the labour was acquired from within their own workforce at the slate quarry. It cost the Pennant family an estimated £150,000. This is the current equivalent to about £49,500,000.
Penrhyn is one of the most admired of the numerous mock castles built in the United Kingdom in the 19th century; Christopher Hussey called it, "the outstanding instance of Norman revival." The castle is a picturesque composition that stretches over 600 feet from a tall donjon containing family rooms, through the main block built around the earlier house, to the service wing and the stables.
It is built in a sombre style which allows it to possess something of the medieval fortress air despite the ground-level drawing room windows. Hopper designed all the principal interiors in a rich but restrained Norman style, with much fine plasterwork and wood and stone carving. The castle also has some specially designed Norman-style furniture, including a one-ton slate bed made for Queen Victoria when she visited in 1859.
Hugh Napier Douglas-Pennant, 4th Lord Penrhyn, died in 1949, and the castle and estate passed to his niece, Lady Janet Pelham, who, on inheritance, adopted the surname of Douglas-Pennant. In 1951, the castle and 40,000 acres (160 km²) of land were accepted by the treasury in lieu of death duties from Lady Janet. It now belongs to the National Trust and is open to the public. The site received 109,395 visitors in 2017.
Grade I Listed Building
History
The present house, built in the form of a vast Norman castle, was constructed to the design of Thomas Hopper for George Hay Dawkins-Pennant between 1820 and 1837. It has been very little altered since.
The original house on the site was a medieval manor house of C14 origin, for which a licence to crenellate was given at an unknown date between 1410 and 1431. This house survived until c1782 when it was remodelled in castellated Gothick style, replete with yellow mathematical tiles, by Samuel Wyatt for Richard Pennant. This house, the great hall of which is incorporated in the present drawing room, was remodelled in c1800, but the vast profits from the Penrhyn slate quarries enabled all the rest to be completely swept away by Hopper's vast neo-Norman fantasy, sited and built so that it could be seen not only from the quarries, but most parts of the surrounding estate, thereby emphasizing the local dominance of the Dawkins-Pennant family. The total cost is unknown but it cannot have been less than the £123,000 claimed by Catherine Sinclair in 1839.
Since 1951 the house has belonged to the National Trust, together with over 40,000 acres of the family estates around Ysbyty Ifan and the Ogwen valley.
Exterior
Country house built in the style of a vast Norman castle with other later medieval influences, so huge (its 70 roofs cover an area of over an acre (0.4ha)) that it almost defies meaningful description. The main components of the house, which is built on a north-south axis with the main elevations to east and west, are the 124ft (37.8m) high keep, based on Castle Hedingham (Essex) containing the family quarters on the south, the central range, protected by a 'barbican' terrace on the east, housing the state apartments, and the rectangular-shaped staff/service buildings and stables to the north. The whole is constructed of local rubblestone with internal brick lining, but all elevations are faced in tooled Anglesey limestone ashlar of the finest quality jointing; flat lead roofs concealed by castellated parapets. Close to, the extreme length of the building (it is about 200 yards (182.88m) long) and the fact that the ground slopes away on all sides mean that almost no complete elevation can be seen. That the most frequent views of the exterior are oblique also offered Hopper the opportunity to deploy his towers for picturesque effect, the relationship between the keep and the other towers and turrets frequently obscuring the distances between them. Another significant external feature of the castle is that it actually looks defensible making it secure at least from Pugin's famous slur of 1841 on contemporary "castles" - "Who would hammer against nailed portals, when he could kick his way through the greenhouse?" Certainly, this could never be achieved at Penrhyn and it looks every inch the impregnable fortress both architect and patron intended it to be.
East elevation: to the left is the loosely attached 4-storey keep on battered plinth with 4 tiers of deeply splayed Norman windows, 2 to each face, with chevron decoration and nook-shafts, topped by 4 square corner turrets. The dining room (distinguished by the intersecting tracery above the windows) and breakfast room to the right of the entrance gallery are protected by the long sweep of the machicolated 'barbican' terrace (carriage forecourt), curved in front of the 2 rooms and then running northwards before returning at right-angles to the west to include the gatehouse, which formed the original main entrance to the castle, and ending in a tall rectangular tower with machicolated parapet. To the right of the gatehouse are the recessed buildings of the kitchen court and to the right again the long, largely unbroken outer wall of the stable court, terminated by the square footmen's tower to the left and the rather more exuberant projecting circular dung tower with its spectacularly cantilevered bartizan on the right. From here the wall runs at right-angles to the west incorporating the impressive gatehouse to the stable court.
West elevation: beginning at the left is the hexagonal smithy tower, followed by the long run of the stable court, well provided with windows on this side as the stables lie directly behind. At the end of this the wall turns at right-angles to the west, incorporating the narrow circular-turreted gatehouse to the outer court and terminating in the machicolated circular ice tower. From here the wall runs again at a lower height enclosing the remainder of the outer court. It is, of course, the state apartments which make up the chief architectural display on the central part of this elevation, beginning with a strongly articulated but essentially rectangular tower to the left, while both the drawing room and the library have Norman windows leading directly onto the lawns, the latter terminating in a slender machicolated circular corner tower. To the right is the keep, considerably set back on this side.
Interior
Only those parts of the castle generally accessible to visitors are recorded in this description. Although not described here much of the furniture and many of the paintings (including family portraits) are also original to the house. Similarly, it should be noted that in the interests of brevity and clarity, not all significant architectural features are itemised in the following description.
Entrance gallery: one of the last parts of the castle to be built, this narrow cloister-like passage was added to the main block to heighten the sensation of entering the vast Grand Hall, which is made only partly visible by the deliberate offsetting of the intervening doorways; bronze lamp standards with wolf-heads on stone bases. Grand Hall: entering the columned aisle of this huge space, the visitor stands at a cross-roads between the 3 principal areas of the castle's plan; to the left the passage leads up to the family's private apartments on the 4 floors of the keep, to the right the door at the end leads to the extensive service quarters while ahead lies the sequence of state rooms used for entertaining guests and displayed to the public ever since the castle was built. The hall itself resembles in form, style and scale the transept of a great Norman cathedral, the great clustered columns extending upwards to a "triforium" formed on 2 sides of extraordinary compound arches; stained glass with signs of the zodiac and months of the year as in a book of hours by Thomas Willement (completed 1835). Library: has very much the atmosphere of a gentlemen’s London club with walls, columned arches and ceilings covered in the most lavish ornamentation; superb architectural bookcases and panelled walls are of oak but the arches are plaster grained to match; ornamental bosses and other devices to the rich plaster ceiling refer to the ancestry of the Dawkins and Pennant families, as do the stained glass lunettes above the windows, possibly by David Evans of Shrewsbury; 4 chimneypieces of polished Anglesey "marble", one with a frieze of fantastical carved mummers in the capitals. Drawing room (great hall of the late C18 house and its medieval predecessor): again in a neo-Norman style but the decoration is lighter and the columns more slender, the spirit of the room reflected in the 2000 delicate Maltese gilt crosses to the vaulted ceiling. Ebony room: so called on account of its furniture and "ebonised" chimneypiece and plasterwork, has at its entrance a spiral staircase from the medieval house. Grand Staircase hall: in many ways the greatest architectural achievement at Penrhyn, taking 10 years to complete, the carving in 2 contrasting stones of the highest quality; repeating abstract decorative motifs contrast with the infinitely inventive figurative carving in the newels and capitals; to the top the intricate plaster panels of the domed lantern are formed in exceptionally high relief and display both Norse and Celtic influences. Next to the grand stair is the secondary stair, itself a magnificent structure in grey sandstone with lantern, built immediately next to the grand stair so that family or guests should not meet staff on the same staircase. Reached from the columned aisle of the grand hall are the 2 remaining principal ground-floor rooms, the dining room and the breakfast room, among the last parts of the castle to be completed and clearly intended to be picture galleries as much as dining areas, the stencilled treatment of the walls in the dining room allowing both the provision of an appropriately elaborate "Norman" scheme and a large flat surface for the hanging of paintings; black marble fireplace carved by Richard Westmacott and extremely ornate ceiling with leaf bosses encircled by bands of figurative mouldings derived from the Romanesque church of Kilpeck, Herefordshire. Breakfast room has cambered beam ceiling with oak-grained finish.
Grand hall gallery: at the top of the grand staircase is vaulted and continues around the grand hall below to link with the passage to the keep, which at this level (as on the other floors) contains a suite of rooms comprising a sitting room, dressing room, bedroom and small ante-chamber, the room containing the famous slate bed also with a red Mona marble chimneypiece, one of the most spectacular in the castle. Returning to the grand hall gallery and continuing straight on rather than returning to the grand staircase the Lower India room is reached to the right: this contains an Anglesey limestone chimneypiece painted to match the ground colour of the room's Chinese wallpaper. Coming out of this room, the chapel corridor leads to the chapel gallery (used by the family) and the chapel proper below (used by staff), the latter with encaustic tiles probably reused from the old medieval chapel; stained and painted glass by David Evans (c1833).
The domestic quarters of the castle are reached along the passage from the breakfast room, which turns at right-angles to the right at the foot of the secondary staircase, the most important areas being the butler's pantry, steward's office, servants' hall, housekeeper's room, still room, housekeeper's store and housemaids' tower, while the kitchen (with its cast-iron range flanked by large and hygienic vertical slabs of Penrhyn slate) is housed on the lower ground floor. From this kitchen court, which also includes a coal store, oil vaults, brushing room, lamp room, pastry room, larder, scullery and laundry are reached the outer court with its soup kitchen, brewhouse and 2-storey ice tower and the much larger stables court which, along with the stables themselves containing their extensive slate-partitioned stalls and loose boxes, incorporates the coach house, covered ride, smithy tower, dung tower with gardeners' messroom above and footmen's tower.
Reasons for Listing
Included at Grade I as one of the most important large country houses in Wales; a superb example of the relatively short-lived Norman Revival of the early C19 and generally regarded as the masterpiece of its architect, Thomas Hopper.
Clocks - went up a tower and they had thousands of clocks all over the place!
Harrison's Garden
An installation of over 5000 clocks creates an imagined landscape in the derelict 'unloved' rooms of the keep.
You needed a token to go up here, and only a certain number of people were allowed up here at each time.
Friedenstauben, "Ostfrontwünsche", Gräuelbanner und "Endsieglosungen" auf Plakaten; der Ruf nach Frieden mit Russland und einem Waffenstillstand im Ukraine-Krieg
Trotz Schneeregen und bitterer Kälte waren am heutigen Samstag viele Tausend Menschen dem Aufruf von Sahra Wagenknecht und Alice Schwarzer zu einer Kundgebung in Berlin gefolgt. Das namentlich gut passende Tief Yigit machte dem Wochenende in vielerlei Hinsicht alle Ehre.
Die Polizei bezifferte die Teilnehmerzahl auf rund 13.000 Menschen. Mehrere unabhängige Journalisten vor Ort schätzen die Zahl der Teilnehmer ebenfalls in dieser Höhe ein und eine spätere Prüfung auf MapChecking bestätigte letztendlich diese Anzahl. Es gibt somit also nicht nur eine Quellenlage – nämlich die der Polizei (was viele kritisierten), sondern wie immer: mehrere und auch unabhängige.
Die Berliner Zeitung interessiert sich allerdings nicht für diese Faktenlage, sie rühmt sich bis heute mit einer Teilnehmerzahl von fast 50.000 Menschen - ganz so, wie es u.a. Sahra Wagenknecht und ihre Gefolgschaft rund um das aufstehen-Bündnis bereits auf der Kundgebung schon verkündet hatte und seitdem in dieser Form von Fake-News durch die sozialen Netzwerke geistert.
Funfact: Der Verleger der Berliner Zeitung: Holger Friedrich mit seiner unrühmlichen DDR-Vergangenheit gehörte zu Wagenknechts Erstunterzeichnern des "Manifest". Die Daten wurden in der Tagesszeitung nicht korrigiert. Eigentlich ein Fall für den Presserat.
Zu der Kundgebung hatten aber nicht nur Wagenknecht und Schwarzer aufgerufen, bei der im Vorfeld Wagenknecht darauf hinwies, das zwar rechtsextreme Flaggen und Symbole nicht geduldet seien, aber sie sagte auch: „Auf unserer Kundgebung ist jeder willkommen, der ehrlichen Herzens für Frieden und für Verhandlungen demonstrieren möchte.“ Schwarzer sagte im Vorfeld: „Selbstverständlich werden wir gegen jede Art von rechtsextremer Propaganda auf dem Platz angehen“ (...).
Wagenknechts Ehemann und ebenfalls Erstunterzeichner Oskar Lafontaine antwortete auf die Abgrenzung nach rechts auf einem Kanal aus dem Querdenken-Spektrum (Milena Preradovic) in einem Interview: „Da gibt es keine Gesinnungsprüfung, da wird auch niemand gefragt: ‚Welches Parteibuch hast du?‘ oder ,Wen hast du gewählt?'“
Auf Anordnung der Versammlungsbehörde gab es auf der Kundgebung Auflagen. Darüber informierte die Polizei via Twitter:
"Für die Versammlung am Brandenburger Tor hat unsere Versammlungsbehörde Beschränkungen erlassen. Insbesondere ist das Tragen von militärischen Uniformen, Abzeichen, St-Georgs-Bändern, den Buchstaben Z & V und anderen kriegsverherrlichenden Symboliken untersagt."
Ordnungsgemäß wurde dies zu Beginn der Kundgebung verlesen, daraufhin brach das Publikum in höhnendes Gelächter aus, die Auflage wurde ausgepfiffen, es erfolgten Buh- und Pfui-Rufe sowie Russija-Verlautbarungen.
Das Coop-Cafe hatte (wie sonst auch, da unerwünscht) entsprechend ihre diversen pro Regime-Bekundungen am Ende der Kundgebung auf der Straße des 17. Juni verteilt, diese standen zusammen mit der DKP am Sowjetischen Ehrenmal am Tiergarten.
Das Bündnis "Heizung, Brot und Frieden" war wie erwartet ebenso vertreten sowie auch das "Unentdecktes Land" aus der stasinahen Vereinigung "Ostdeutsches Kuratorium von Verbänden"; kurz OKV.
Auf mehreren Transparenten war der Auszug des Zitats aus der Sportpalastrede von Joseph Goebbels zu lesen: "Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg" - neben daneben wehenden Parteiflaggen der DIE LINKE. Auf einem anderen Schild wurde gefordert, bis zum „Endsieg“ zu frieren. Die USA und die Ukraine wurden mit Nazi-Deutschland gleichgesetzt und ein Banner mit der Überschrift: "Frieden schaffen ohne Waffen" bildete deutsche Politiker mit amputierten Gliedmaßen in Rollstühlen ab. Auf einer Panzer-Attrappe aus Holz wurden Bundeskanzler Olaf Scholz und Außenministerin Annalena Baerbock unter anderem mit Adolf Hitler verglichen.
Unter den Teilnehmenden waren wie erwartet viele Russland-Freunde, Impfgegner, die Freie Linke und Regierungsgegner - ausgedrückt über Plakate, Fahnen, Regenschirme oder Buttons. Weiter: Rechtsextreme, Reichsbürger, QAnon-Gläubige, die rechtsextremen Freien Sachsen (teils mit abgeschnittenem Logo), das rechtsextreme Compact und Verschwörungsideologen sowie die Partei "Die Basis". Hauptfeindbild blieb in logischer Konsequenz dieser Leute Annalena Baerbock (resp. Die Grünen), aber auch Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann von der FDP.
Der rechte Russland-Fanboy Billy Six lief mir an der Tribüne über den Weg, ebenfalls der verurteilte Holocaustleugner und rechtsextreme Videoblogger Nicolai Nehrling ("Volkslehrer"), der zuletzt wegen Corona-Soforthilfebetrugs angeklagt war. Der ebenfalls verurteilte Holocaustleugner Reza Begi war ebenso vertreten wie auch Matthäus Westfal (Aktivist Mann) oder wie schon erwähnt: das rechtsextreme Compact-Magazin mit Jürgen Elsässer. Von der AfD wurden gesichtet: Lars Günther, Gunnar Lindemann, Jörg Urban und Hans-Thomas Tillschneider. Weiter: Martin Müller-Mertens von AUF1 und auch Wjatscheslaw Seewald, der einst Russia Today mit einer Petition nach Deutschland gebracht hatte. Von den Querdenker-Nicht-Größen ganz zu schweigen.
Auf der Ostseite des Brandenburger Tores gab es Gegenprotest von der Antiverschwurbelte Aktion und den Omas gegen rechts Berlin. Schräg gegenüber dem Holocaustmahnmal hatte sich Geradedenken mit der ukrainischen Diaspora rund um For The Right To Resist (Linke Ukraine-Solidarität Berlin) positioniert. Es gab immer wieder verbale Übergriffe auf die Aktivisten (aber auch auf ukrainische und pro-ukrainische Teilnehmer) und immer wieder wurden sie als Nazis und Faschisten beschimpft. Eine Teilnehmende von Omas gegen rechts wurde von einem Wagenknecht-Teilnehmer angegangen. Nicht nur, das sie eben nicht friedensbewegt sind, haben sie auch absolut keinen Anstand und Respekt vor der älteren Generation.
In einem Video des Journalisten Boris Klinge auf Facebook äußerte sich ein "friedensbewegter" Wagenknecht-Befürworter, das, "wenn es nach ihm ginge, Putin schon 2014 hätte bombardieren und Krieg (nicht "Spezialoperation") anfangen müssen".
Am Rande der Kundgebung gab es eine Auseinandersetzung zwischen Mitgliedern der DIE LINKE rund um Christine Buchholz, die sich lautstark gegen die Teilnahme des rechtsextremen Compact-Herausgebers Jürgen Elsässer wehrten. Dabei gab es von dort Rufe: "Keine Nazis fotografieren", als ich mich den Compact-Leuten näherte. Ob man diese durch nicht fotografieren damit und von der Veranstaltung unsichtbar machen wollte, ließ sich leider nicht mehr in Erfahrung bringen.
Um von der Bühne aus fotografieren und filmen zu können, benötigte es eine Akkreditierung. Darauf hatte ich bei dieser Veranstaltung aus guten Gründen verzichtet.
An Ende der Kundgebung kamen alle Beteiligten noch einmal auf die Bühne und es wurde zum Abschluss zu "Imagine" von John Lennon geschunkelt.
Nach Beendigung der Kundgebung versammelten sich gut 1.000 Menschen am Potsdamer Platz, um den Tag mit einer Demonstration durch Berlin-Mitte und Kreuzberg mit lauten Trommelklängen aus dem Querdenker-Spektrum ausklingen zu lassen. Diese Demonstration wurde letztendlich auf Berlin-Mitte verkürzt, wie dies die Polizei auf Twitter verkündete. Dort dominierten Compact-Flaggen samt Rechte- und Querdenker-Milieu; Jürgen Elsässer war dort allerdings nicht vertreten.
Ann-Katrin Müller vom Hauptstadtbüro DER SPIEGEL bilanzierte den Tag mit folgenden Worten:
Es waren zu sehr großen Teilen die Menschen auf der Straße, die ich schon die letzten Jahre bei Querdenker-Demos und Co gesehen habe: Verschwörungsideologen bis hin zu Q-Anon-Fans, Rechtsextreme, Reichsbürger, Regierungshasser und rechtsoffene Altkommunisten und Friedensbewegte. (...) Von der AfD waren hochrangige Funktionäre da, etwa der sächsische Landeschef Jörg Urban und der Landesvize Hans-Thomas Tillschneider aus Sachsen-Anhalt. Einziger Unterschied zu sonst: Buntere Fahnen und es gab weniger organisierte Neonazi-Kader, zumindest weniger sichtbare. Ansonsten alles wie immer: Russische Fahnen, Lieder und Plakate, dazu lautstarke Häme und Hetze gegenüber der Regierung und Medien.
Vizekanzler Robert Habeck (Grüne) kritisierte die Demonstration als eine „Irreführung der Bevölkerung“. „Jeder, der bei Sinnen und Verstand ist, wünscht sich Frieden“, sagte der Bundeswirtschaftsminister in einem ARD-"Brennpunkt". Wagenknecht und die ihr folgenden Leute wollten aber etwas als Frieden verkaufen, das ein „imperialistischer Diktator“ Europa aufzwinge. Wenn sich das durchsetze, wäre das eine Einladung an den russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin, die nächsten Länder zu überfallen.
hinzugezogene Quellen:
www.stern.de/politik/deutschland/-manifest-fuer-frieden--...
aufstand-fuer-frieden.de/manifest-fuer-frieden/ und archive.fo/sQ7yp
www.berliner-zeitung.de/mensch-metropole/berlin-kundgebun... und archive.fo/pL4D7
www.mapchecking.com/#bAAAAQGYQUkIi_1VBAACIQaMQUkJK_1VBcBB... und archive.fo/4Fmpk
www.focus.de/politik/analyse-von-hubertus-knabe-die-akte-...
www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/kundgebung-von-wagenknecht-un...
www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/demo-aufstand-fur-den-frieden...
twitter.com/bodoramelow/status/1627338657542578176?lang=de
taz.de/Wagenknecht-und-Schwarzer/!5912913/
querdenken-761.de/oesterreich-klage-gegen-pcr-test-von-dr...
www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/10-000-werden-am-brand...
twitter.com/Hoellenaufsicht/status/1629472621107593216
twitter.com/glr_berlin/status/1629481619684835328
www.berlin.de/aufarbeitung/veroeffentlichungen/schriftenr... (Punkt 5, Seite 93)
twitter.com/O_Sundermeyer/status/1629455230654873602
twitter.com/DemocratiaBLN/status/1629478774847750146
twitter.com/O_Sundermeyer/status/1629455230654873602
www.facebook.com/bo.kreuzberg/videos/901857774366978/
twitter.com/Belltower_News/status/1629523843315380226
twitter.com/querdenkenwatch/status/1629604178027741184
twitter.com/JFDA_eV/status/1629473455102935040
twitter.com/glr_berlin/status/1629481619684835328
twitter.com/PaulGaebler/status/1629478687459401729
twitter.com/daniluiz_foto/status/1629506152814747656
twitter.com/Jus_Koenig/status/1629485142795247616
twitter.com/Kei_Nie_/status/1629544402610798593
twitter.com/SchwarzePalmen/status/1629598572550160385
twitter.com/MarcTrevor4/status/1629506472760492032
twitter.com/AutonomeB/status/1629515300008804352
twitter.com/glr_berlin/status/1629468731700043776
twitter.com/glr_berlin/status/1629481619684835328
twitter.com/glr_berlin/status/1629467133317902339
twitter.com/akm0803/status/1629532510479679490 und twitter.com/akm0803/status/1629540528424353793
twitter.com/imaginistas/status/1629597915546021889
taz.de/Paul-Schaefer-zu-Friedensbewegung/!5915768/
www.zdf.de/nachrichten/politik/demonstration-ukraine-berl...
www.focus.de/politik/deutschland/manifest-fuer-frieden-de...
-------------------------------------------------
© Streichphotography
Die Bilder sind in druckbarer Qualität und Original vorhanden.
Rechtlicher Hinweis:
Copyright:
Denken Sie bitte daran, alle hier abrufbaren Medien sind durch das Urheberrecht (§ 2 Abs. 2 UrhG) geschützt und sind Eigentum des Urhebers.
Nutzungsrecht:
Wenn Sie ein Foto für gewerbliche Zwecke verwenden möchten, kontaktieren Sie mich bitte per E-Mail.
Denken Sie bitte daran, dass auch wenn Ihnen ein Nutzungsrecht gewährt wurde, dass die Werke Eigentum des Urhebers bleiben. Eine Weitergabe bzw. Übertragung des überlassenen Materials an Dritte, ist ohne schriftliche Genehmigung des Urhebers nicht gestattet!
Alle Verstöße werden geahndet und rechtlich verfolgt!
Vielen Dank!
Stand: Februar/März 2023
A women’s cooperative is forming in the township of Yoko, Cameroon. It’s called SOCCOMAD and has 42 members, including four men, who joined as allies.
Tukuri Marie Chantal, 52 years old, is an active member. “Because of the road project, we decided to start a cooperative and to empower women in our village,” she says.
Guindong Jaqueline, 60, explains further: “We realized that the road was going to bring workers and the population will increase. Through the cooperative we can grow enough food and we will have a ready market to sell to.”
A small section of the road near the farm is already paved. Once the road is completed, women farmers will have easier access to bigger markets to sell their produce.
“Personally, I decided to join the cooperative to be united with other women. When I have a problem, I now have sisters who can stand by me,” says Seto Satou.
“Before, we were producing food only for our families; now we can grow food and sell in the market,” adds Chantal. “Through the cooperative we can also get partners, access to finance, seeds, and we can commercialize our products. But we need access to many markets, where we can sell the cassava. The cassava crop cannot be left in the ground too long, because it rots.”
The cooperative is not just about income, it’s also about solidarity. In this impoverished area where social protection barely exists, the cooperative has given women a support system that they never had before.
“For me, firstly, [the cooperative] gives me the spirit of solidarity and the sense of belonging to a group,” says Yonah Virginie. “It encourages me to work hard when I see other women working to become independent.”
The cooperative members help each other with a range of issues—from helping each other farm their crops if someone is sick, to talking to couples when there’s a family dispute and helping each other save.
Their message to other women is unequivocally about solidarity: “United, we are stronger. We can do bigger things when we are together.”
Background:
A 200-kilometre road (124 miles) project stretches between the townships of Batschenga, Ntui and Yoko, in central Cameroon. The road crosses farms, forests, water bodies and pastoral areas that sustain the mostly agrarian economy of nearly 40 villages and three towns.
The road, a basic infrastructure that many countries take for granted, literally shapes the lives and livelihood of the people living along it. It decides whether a small entrepreneur will get her products transported on time, and at what cost, and whether more people will come to a restaurant that another has invested in. It determines what markets a woman farmer can access and how often a working mother can visit her daughter who is studying in the city. The red dirt road, waiting for asphalt, will determine if food, income, job, healthcare, livelihood will come, when, and to whom.
UN Women’s “Gender Road Project”, funded by The Development Bank of Central African States and the Government of Cameroon, is aiming to reach at least 20,000 women by 2020, living in rural communities along this road, to prepare them for a better future and access to bigger markets once the road is built. The project teaches them financial and entrepreneurial skills, improved farming techniques and facilitates their access to public services and land rights.
Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown
Read More: www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2019/3/feature-story-came...
Bicycle racks line the entire path on the street outside an MTR station in Hong Kong.
# SML Data
+ Date: 2013-02-22
+ Dimensions: 4766 x 3177
+ Exposure: 1/320 sec at f/5.6
+ Focal Length: 215 mm
+ ISO: 1000
+ Flash: Did not fire
+ Camera: Canon EOS 7D
+ Lens: Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM + Canon EF 1.4x Extender III
+ GPS: 22°25'8" N 114°13'34" E
+ Location: 中國香港馬鞍山馬鐵恆安站對出西沙路單車徑 中国香港马鞍山马铁恒安站对出西沙路自行车道 Bicycle lane at Sai Sha Road near the Heng On MTR Station in Ma On Shan, Hong Kong, China
+ Serial: SML.20130222.7D.24245
+ Workflow: Lightroom 4
+ Series: 人流 Human Logistics, 形 Forms
“單車架 Bicycle Racks” / 人流設施之形 Human Logistics Infrastructure Forms / SML.20130222.7D.24245
/ #人流 #HumanLogistics #形 #Forms #SMLForms #CCBY #SMLPhotography #SMLUniverse #SMLProjects
/ #中國 #中国 #China #香港 #HongKong #馬鞍山 #MaOnShan #街 #Street #城市 #Urban #攝影 #摄影 #photography #單車 #自行车 #Bicycle
...or Forms of Myth
Back to my trip to Queensland for a while.
Day two in Brisbane and have three nights stay then back to New Zealand. August 9, 2014 Queensland, Australia.
One of the most ambitious (and expensive) makeovers of Brisbane city is the installation of imposing bronze works at the entrance of King George Park. As part of Brisbane City Council's vibrant laneways and small spaces program, these four bronze works of varying geometrical shapes frame a circular area to sit and relax for a bit while enjoying the artwork around you. The bronze sculptures are particularly striking as the sun hits their surface making them look like oversized treasures glued to the concrete.
Just up from the 'Forme de Mito' is Jacob's Ladder staircase painted fire engine red striking a happy contrast among the concrete. The stairs command pedestrians to take notice while enticing them to ascend into the parkland above.
Forme del Mito, or Forms of Myth. Brisbane City Council purchased the pieces after the finish of World Expo 1988, for which they were brought to Brisbane. Designed by Italian artist Arnaldo Pomodoro in 1983, the Forme Del Mito is derived from the Greek tragedy of Agamemnon. Each figure represents a force and principal character from the tragedy.
Arnaldo Pomodoro was born on June 23, 1926, in Morciano, Romagna, Italy. He has world renown as a sculptor having his work exhibited and housed throughout the world. With this work, as viewed from right to left from Brisbane City Hall, each bronze piece represents:
Il potere - Power - Agamemnon
L'ambizione - Ambition - Clytemnestra
La macchina - Machine - Aegisthus
La profezia - Prophecy - Cassandra
In mythological Greek tragedy, Agamemnon was the King of Mycenea. In representations of the Trojan War, Agamemnon led a campaign to conquer Troy and rescue Helen, who had been abducted by Paris. Before leaving he sacrificed his daughter Iphegenia to obtain favourable winds from the Goddess Artemis. The first of these sculptures in the form of a powerful pyramid represents Agamemnon.
I've decided to split this post into two, as there are four pieces and characters represented with this sculpture. Therefore to do it justice, I'll finish the story of Agamemnon tomorrow.
For More Info: ilovebrisbane.blogspot.co.nz/2007/03/forme-del-mito-part-...
dosi per una teglia a forma di cuore o d.24:
per la frolla al cacao: 150 g zucchero di canna, 270 g farina 0, un cucchiaio liquore (brandy, rum o amaretto), un uovo, un cucchiaino di lievito per dolci, 10 g cacao amaro, 150 g burro a pezzetti, un pizzico di sale
per la crema: due tuorli, 200 g latte, 20 g farina 0, 50 g zucchero, 10 g liquore (brandy, rum o amaretto), 10 g cacao amaro
per la frolla: impastare insieme tutti gli ingredienti fino ad ottenere un panetto liscio. avvolgerlo nella pellicola e passare in frigorifero per mezz'ora. nel frattempo, riunire in un pentolino che andrà sul fuoco i tuorli con lo zucchero, la farina e il cacao e mescolare con la frusta, poi unire il latte tiepido a filo. cuocere a fiamma bassa mescolando continuamente fino a bollore, proseguire per qualche minuto in più poi togliere dal fuoco e lasciar raffreddare. riprendere l'impasto. stenderne 3/4 con il mattarello su un piano infarinato fino a 4 mm di spessore, posare la sfoglia nella teglia imburrata ed infarinata, lasciando un paio di cm di bordo. stendere anche il resto dell'ìmpasto e ricavare le striscioline. versare la crema sulla base, aggiungere le striscioline. cuocere in forno statico già a 180° per circa 25 min. sformare quando sarà freddo. a piacere aggiungere un po' di zucchero a velo in superficie.
The Ajanta Caves (Ajiṇṭhā leni; Marathi: अजिंठा लेणी) in Aurangabad district of Maharashtra, India are about 30 rock-cut Buddhist cave monuments which date from the 2nd century BCE to about 480 or 650 CE. The caves include paintings and sculptures described by the government Archaeological Survey of India as "the finest surviving examples of Indian art, particularly painting", which are masterpieces of Buddhist religious art, with figures of the Buddha and depictions of the Jataka tales. The caves were built in two phases starting around the 2nd century BCE, with the second group of caves built around 400–650 CE according to older accounts, or all in a brief period of 460 to 480 according to the recent proposals of Walter M. Spink. The site is a protected monument in the care of the Archaeological Survey of India, and since 1983, the Ajanta Caves have been a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The caves are located in the Indian state of Maharashtra, near Jalgaon and just outside the village of Ajinṭhā 20°31′56″N 75°44′44″E), about 59 kilometres from Jalgaon railway station on the Delhi – Mumbai line and Howrah-Nagpur-Mumbai line of the Central Railway zone, and 104 kilometres from the city of Aurangabad. They are 100 kilometres from the Ellora Caves, which contain Hindu and Jain temples as well as Buddhist caves, the last dating from a period similar to Ajanta. The Ajanta caves are cut into the side of a cliff that is on the south side of a U-shaped gorge on the small river Waghur, and although they are now along and above a modern pathway running across the cliff they were originally reached by individual stairs or ladders from the side of the river 35 to 110 feet below.
The area was previously heavily forested, and after the site ceased to be used the caves were covered by jungle until accidentally rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer on a hunting party. They are Buddhist monastic buildings, apparently representing a number of distinct "monasteries" or colleges. The caves are numbered 1 to 28 according to their place along the path, beginning at the entrance. Several are unfinished and some barely begun and others are small shrines, included in the traditional numbering as e.g. "9A"; "Cave 15A" was still hidden under rubble when the numbering was done. Further round the gorge are a number of waterfalls, which when the river is high are audible from outside the caves.
The caves form the largest corpus of early Indian wall-painting; other survivals from the area of modern India are very few, though they are related to 5th-century paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. The elaborate architectural carving in many caves is also very rare, and the style of the many figure sculptures is highly local, found only at a few nearby contemporary sites, although the Ajanta tradition can be related to the later Hindu Ellora Caves and other sites.
HISTORY
Like the other ancient Buddhist monasteries, Ajanta had a large emphasis on teaching, and was divided into several different caves for living, education and worship, under a central direction. Monks were probably assigned to specific caves for living. The layout reflects this organizational structure, with most of the caves only connected through the exterior. The 7th-century travelling Chinese scholar Xuanzang informs us that Dignaga, a celebrated Buddhist philosopher and controversialist, author of well-known books on logic, lived at Ajanta in the 5th century. In its prime the settlement would have accommodated several hundred teachers and pupils. Many monks who had finished their first training may have returned to Ajanta during the monsoon season from an itinerant lifestyle.
The caves are generally agreed to have been made in two distinct periods, separated by several centuries.
CAVES OF THE FIRST (SATAVAHANA) PERIOD
The earliest group of caves consists of caves 9, 10, 12, 13 and 15A. According to Walter Spink, they were made during the period 100 BCE to 100 CE, probably under the patronage of the Satavahana dynasty (230 BCE – c. 220 CE) who ruled the region. Other datings prefer the period 300 BCE to 100 BCE, though the grouping of the earlier caves is generally agreed. More early caves may have vanished through later excavations. Of these, caves 9 and 10 are stupa halls of chaitya-griha form, and caves 12, 13, and 15A are vihāras (see the architecture section below for descriptions of these types). The first phase is still often called the Hinayāna phase, as it originated when, using traditional terminology, the Hinayāna or Lesser Vehicle tradition of Buddhism was dominant, when the Buddha was revered symbolically. However the use of the term Hinayana for this period of Buddhism is now deprecated by historians; equally the caves of the second period are now mostly dated too early to be properly called Mahayana, and do not yet show the full expanded cast of supernatural beings characteristic of that phase of Buddhist art. The first Satavahana period caves lacked figurative sculpture, emphasizing the stupa instead, and in the caves of the second period the overwhelming majority of images represent the Buddha alone, or narrative scenes of his lives.
Spink believes that some time after the Satavahana period caves were made the site was abandoned for a considerable period until the mid-5th century, probably because the region had turned mainly Hindu
CAVES OF THE LATER OR VAKATAKA PERIOD
The second phase began in the 5th century. For a long time it was thought that the later caves were made over a long period from the 4th to the 7th centuries CE, but in recent decades a series of studies by the leading expert on the caves, Walter M. Spink, have argued that most of the work took place over the very brief period from 460 to 480 CE, during the reign of Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka dynasty. This view has been criticized by some scholars, but is now broadly accepted by most authors of general books on Indian art, for example Huntington and Harle.
The second phase is still often called the Mahāyāna or Greater Vehicle phase, but scholars now tend to avoid this nomenclature because of the problems that have surfaced regarding our understanding of Mahāyāna.
Some 20 cave temples were simultaneously created, for the most part viharas with a sanctuary at the back. The most elaborate caves were produced in this period, which included some "modernization" of earlier caves. Spink claims that it is possible to establish dating for this period with a very high level of precision; a fuller account of his chronology is given below. Although debate continues, Spink's ideas are increasingly widely accepted, at least in their broad conclusions. The Archaeological Survey of India website still presents the traditional dating: "The second phase of paintings started around 5th – 6th centuries A.D. and continued for the next two centuries". Caves of the second period are 1–8, 11, 14–29, some possibly extensions of earlier caves. Caves 19, 26, and 29 are chaitya-grihas, the rest viharas.
According to Spink, the Ajanta Caves appear to have been abandoned by wealthy patrons shortly after the fall of Harishena, in about 480 CE. They were then gradually abandoned and forgotten. During the intervening centuries, the jungle grew back and the caves were hidden, unvisited and undisturbed, although the local population were aware of at least some of them.
REDISCOVERY
On 28 April 1819, a British officer for the Madras Presidency, John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, accidentally discovered the entrance to Cave No. 10 deep within the tangled undergrowth. There were local people already using the caves for prayers with a small fire, when he arrived. Exploring that first cave, long since a home to nothing more than birds and bats and a lair for other larger animals, Captain Smith vandalized the wall by scratching his name and the date, April 1819. Since he stood on a five-foot high pile of rubble collected over the years, the inscription is well above the eye-level gaze of an adult today. A paper on the caves by William Erskine was read to the Bombay Literary Society in 1822. Within a few decades, the caves became famous for their exotic setting, impressive architecture, and above all their exceptional, all but unique paintings. A number of large projects to copy the paintings were made in the century after rediscovery, covered below. In 1848 the Royal Asiatic Society established the "Bombay Cave Temple Commission" to clear, tidy and record the most important rock-cut sites in the Bombay Presidency, with John Wilson, as president. In 1861 this became the nucleus of the new Archaeological Survey of India. Until the Nizam of Hyderabad built the modern path between the caves, among other efforts to make the site easy to visit, a trip to Ajanta was a considerable adventure, and contemporary accounts dwell with relish on the dangers from falls off narrow ledges, animals and the Bhil people, who were armed with bows and arrows and had a fearsome reputation.
Today, fairly easily combined with Ellora in a single trip, the caves are the most popular tourist destination in Mahrashtra, and are often crowded at holiday times, increasing the threat to the caves, especially the paintings. In 2012, the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation announced plans to add to the ASI visitor centre at the entrance complete replicas of caves 1, 2, 16 & 17 to reduce crowding in the originals, and enable visitors to receive a better visual idea of the paintings, which are dimly-lit and hard to read in the caves. Figures for the year to March 2010 showed a total of 390,000 visitors to the site, divided into 362,000 domestic and 27,000 foreign. The trends over the previous few years show a considerable growth in domestic visitors, but a decline in foreign ones; the year to 2010 was the first in which foreign visitors to Ellora exceeded those to Ajanta.
PAINTINGS
Mural paintings survive from both the earlier and later groups of caves. Several fragments of murals preserved from the earlier caves (Caves 9 and 11) are effectively unique survivals of court-led painting in India from this period, and "show that by Sātavāhana times, if not earlier, the Indian painter had mastered an easy and fluent naturalistic style, dealing with large groups of people in a manner comparable to the reliefs of the Sāñcī toraņa crossbars".
Four of the later caves have large and relatively well-preserved mural paintings which "have come to represent Indian mural painting to the non-specialist", and fall into two stylistic groups, with the most famous in Caves 16 and 17, and apparently later paintings in Caves 1 and 2. The latter group were thought to be a century or more later than the others, but the revised chronology proposed by Spink would place them much closer to the earlier group, perhaps contemporary with it in a more progressive style, or one reflecting a team from a different region. The paintings are in "dry fresco", painted on top of a dry plaster surface rather than into wet plaster.
All the paintings appear to be the work of painters at least as used to decorating palaces as temples, and show a familiarity with and interest in details of the life of a wealthy court. We know from literary sources that painting was widely practised and appreciated in the courts of the Gupta period. Unlike much Indian painting, compositions are not laid out in horizontal compartments like a frieze, but show large scenes spreading in all directions from a single figure or group at the centre. The ceilings are also painted with sophisticated and elaborate decorative motifs, many derived from sculpture. The paintings in cave 1, which according to Spink was commissioned by Harisena himself, concentrate on those Jataka tales which show previous lives of the Buddha as a king, rather than as an animal or human commoner, and so show settings from contemporary palace life.
In general the later caves seem to have been painted on finished areas as excavating work continued elsewhere in the cave, as shown in caves 2 and 16 in particular. According to Spink's account of the chronology of the caves, the abandonment of work in 478 after a brief busy period accounts for the absence of painting in caves such as 4 and 17, the later being plastered in preparation for paintings that were never done.
COPIES
The paintings have deteriorated significantly since they were rediscovered, and a number of 19th-century copies and drawings are important for a complete understanding of the works. However, the earliest projects to copy the paintings were plagued by bad fortune. In 1846, Major Robert Gill, an Army officer from Madras presidency and a painter, was appointed by the Royal Asiatic Society to replicate the frescoes on the cave walls to exhibit these paintings in England. Gill worked on his painting at the site from 1844 to 1863 (though he continued to be based there until his death in 1875, writing books and photographing) and made 27 copies of large sections of murals, but all but four were destroyed in a fire at the Crystal Palace in London in 1866, where they were on display.
Another attempt was made in 1872 when the Bombay Presidency commissioned John Griffiths, then principal of the Bombay School of Art, to work with his students to make new copies, again for shipping to England. They worked on this for thirteen years and some 300 canvases were produced, many of which were displayed at the Imperial Institute on Exhibition Road in London, one of the forerunners of the Victoria and Albert Museum. But in 1885 another fire destroyed over a hundred paintings that were in storage. The V&A still has 166 paintings surviving from both sets, though none have been on permanent display since 1955. The largest are some 3 × 6 metres. A conservation project was undertaken on about half of them in 2006, also involving the University of Northumbria. Griffith and his students had unfortunately painted many of the paintings with "cheap varnish" in order to make them easier to see, which has added to the deterioration of the originals, as has, according to Spink and others, recent cleaning by the ASI.
A further set of copies were made between 1909 and 1911 by Christiana Herringham (Lady Herringham) and a group of students from the Calcutta School of Art that included the future Indian Modernist painter Nandalal Bose. The copies were published in full colour as the first publication of London's fledgling India Society. More than the earlier copies, these aimed to fill in holes and damage to recreate the original condition rather than record the state of the paintings as she was seeing them. According to one writer, unlike the paintings created by her predecessors Griffiths and Gill, whose copies were influenced by British Victorian styles of painting, those of the Herringham expedition preferred an 'Indian Renascence' aesthetic of the type pioneered by Abanindranath Tagore.
Early photographic surveys were made by Robert Gill, who learnt to use a camera from about 1856, and whose photos, including some using stereoscopy, were used in books by him and Fergusson (many are available online from the British Library), then Victor Goloubew in 1911 and E.L. Vassey, who took the photos in the four volume study of the caves by Ghulam Yazdani (published 1930–1955).
ARCHITECTURE
The monasteries mostly consist of vihara halls for prayer and living, which are typically rectangular with small square dormitory cells cut into the walls, and by the second period a shrine or sanctuary at the rear centred on a large statue of the Buddha, also carved from the living rock. This change reflects the movement from Hinayana to Mahāyāna Buddhism. The other type of main hall is the narrower and higher chaitya hall with a stupa as the focus at the far end, and a narrow aisle around the walls, behind a range of pillars placed close together. Other plainer rooms were for sleeping and other activities. Some of the caves have elaborate carved entrances, some with large windows over the door to admit light. There is often a colonnaded porch or verandah, with another space inside the doors running the width of the cave.
The central square space of the interior of the viharas is defined by square columns forming a more or less square open area. Outside this are long rectangular aisles on each side, forming a kind of cloister. Along the side and rear walls are a number of small cells entered by a narrow doorway; these are roughly square, and have small niches on their back walls. Originally they had wooden doors. The centre of the rear wall has a larger shrine-room behind, containing a large Buddha statue. The viharas of the earlier period are much simpler, and lack shrines. Spink in fact places the change to a design with a shrine to the middle of the second period, with many caves being adapted to add a shrine in mid-excavation, or after the original phase.
The plan of Cave 1 shows one of the largest viharas, but is fairly typical of the later group. Many others, such as Cave 16, lack the vestibule to the shrine, which leads straight off the main hall. Cave 6 is two viharas, one above the other, connected by internal stairs, with sanctuaries on both levels.
The four completed chaitya halls are caves 9 and 10 from the early period, and caves 19 and 26 from the later period of construction. All follow the typical form found elsewhere, with high ceilings and a central "nave" leading to the stupa, which is near the back, but allows walking behind it, as walking around stupas was (and remains) a common element of Buddhist worship (pradakshina). The later two have high ribbed roofs, which reflect timber forms, and the earlier two are thought to have used actual timber ribs, which have now perished. The two later halls have a rather unusual arrangement (also found in Cave 10 at Ellora) where the stupa is fronted by a large relief sculpture of the Buddha, standing in Cave 19 and seated in Cave 26. Cave 29 is a late and very incomplete chaitya hall.
The form of columns in the work of the first period is very plain and un-embellished, with both chaitya halls using simple octagonal columns, which were painted with figures. In the second period columns were far more varied and inventive, often changing profile over their height, and with elaborate carved capitals, often spreading wide. Many columns are carved over all their surface, some fluted and others carved with decoration all over, as in cave 1.
The flood basalt rock of the cliff, part of the Deccan Traps formed by successive volcanic eruptions at the end of the Cretaceous, is layered horizontally, and somewhat variable in quality, so the excavators had to amend their plans in places, and in places there have been collapses in the intervening centuries, as with the lost portico to cave 1. Excavation began by cutting a narrow tunnel at roof level, which was expanded downwards and outwards; the half-built vihara cave 24 shows the method. Spink believes that for the first caves of the second period the excavators had to relearn skills and techniques that had been lost in the centuries since the first period, which were then transmitted to be used at later rock-cut sites in the region, such as Ellora, and the Elephanta, Bagh, Badami and Aurangabad Caves.
The caves from the first period seem to have been paid for by a number of different patrons, with several inscriptions recording the donation of particular portions of a single cave, but according to Spink the later caves were each commissioned as a complete unit by a single patron from the local rulers or their court elites. After the death of Harisena smaller donors got their chance to add small "shrinelets" between the caves or add statues to existing caves, and some two hundred of these "intrusive" additions were made in sculpture, with a further number of intrusive paintings, up to three hundred in cave 10 alone.
A grand gateway to the site, at the apex of the gorge's horsehoe between caves 15 and 16, was approached from the river, and is decorated with elephants on either side and a nāga, or protective snake deity.
ICONOGRAPHY OF THE CAVES
In the pre-Christian era, the Buddha was represented symbolically, in the form of the stupa. Thus, halls were made with stupas to venerate the Buddha. In later periods the images of the Buddha started to be made in coins, relic caskets, relief or loose sculptural forms, etc. However, it took a while for the human representation of the Buddha to appear in Buddhist art. One of the earliest evidences of the Buddha's human representations are found at Buddhist archaeological sites, such as Goli, Nagarjunakonda, and Amaravati. The monasteries of those sites were built in less durable media, such as wood, brick, and stone. As far as the genre of rock-cut architecture is concerned it took many centuries for the Buddha image to be depicted. Nobody knows for sure at which rock-cut cave site the first image of the Buddha was depicted. Current research indicates that Buddha images in a portable form, made of wood or stone, were introduced, for the first time, at Kanheri, to be followed soon at Ajanta Cave 8 (Dhavalikar, Jadhav, Spink, Singh). While the Kanheri example dates to 4th or 5th century CE, the Ajanta example has been dated to c. 462–478 CE (Spink). None of the rock-cut monasteries prior to these dates, and other than these examples, show any Buddha image although hundreds of rock-cut caves were made throughout India during the first few centuries CE. And, in those caves, it is the stupa that is the object of veneration, not the image. Images of the Buddha are not found in Buddhist sailagrhas (rock-cut complexes) until the times of the Kanheri (4th–5th century CE) and Ajanta examples (c. 462–478 CE).
The caves of the second period, now all dated to the 5th century, were typically described as "Mahayana", but do not show the features associated with later Mahayana Buddhism. Although the beginnings of Mahāyāna teachings go back to the 1st century there is little art and archaeological evidence to suggest that it became a mainstream cult for several centuries. In Mahayana it is not Gautama Buddha but the Bodhisattva who is important, including "deity" Bodhisattva like Manjushri and Tara, as well as aspects of the Buddha such as Aksobhya, and Amitabha. Except for a few Bodhisattva, these are not depicted at Ajanta, where the Buddha remains the dominant figure. Even the Bodhisattva images of Ajanta are never central objects of worship, but are always shown as attendants of the Buddha in the shrine. If a Bodhisattva is shown in isolation, as in the Astabhaya scenes, these were done in the very last years of activities at Ajanta, and are mostly 'intrusive' in nature, meaning that they were not planned by the original patrons, and were added by new donors after the original patrons had suddenly abandoned the region in the wake of Emperor Harisena's death.
The contrast between iconic and aniconic representations, that is, the stupa on one hand and the image of the Buddha on the other, is now being seen as a construct of the modern scholar rather than a reality of the past. The second phase of Ajanta shows that the stupa and image coincided together. If the entire corpus of the art of Ajanta including sculpture, iconography, architecture, epigraphy, and painting are analysed afresh it will become clear that there was no duality between the symbolic and human forms of the Buddha, as far as the 5th-century phase of Ajanta is concerned. That is why most current scholars tend to avoid the terms 'Hinayana' and 'Mahayana' in the context of Ajanta. They now prefer to call the second phase by the ruling dynasty, as the Vākāţaka phase.
CAVES
CAVE 1
Cave 1 was built on the eastern end of the horse-shoe shaped scarp, and is now the first cave the visitor encounters. This would when first made have been a less prominent position, right at the end of the row. According to Spink, it is one of the latest caves to have been excavated, when the best sites had been taken, and was never fully inaugurated for worship by the dedication of the Buddha image in the central shrine. This is shown by the absence of sooty deposits from butter lamps on the base of the shrine image, and the lack of damage to the paintings that would have been happened if the garland-hooks around the shrine had been in use for any period of time. Although there is no epigraphic evidence, Spink believes that the Vākāţaka Emperor Harishena was the benefactor of the work, and this is reflected in the emphasis on imagery of royalty in the cave, with those Jakata tales being selected that tell of those previous lives of the Buddha in which he was royal.
The cliff has a more steep slope here than at other caves, so to achieve a tall grand facade it was necessary to cut far back into the slope, giving a large courtyard in front of the facade. There was originally a columned portico in front of the present facade, which can be seen "half-intact in the 1880s" in pictures of the site, but this fell down completely and the remains, despite containing fine carving, were carelessly thrown down the slope into the river, from where they have been lost, presumably carried away in monsoon torrents.
This cave has one of the most elaborate carved façades, with relief sculptures on entablature and ridges, and most surfaces embellished with decorative carving. There are scenes carved from the life of the Buddha as well as a number of decorative motifs. A two pillared portico, visible in the 19th-century photographs, has since perished. The cave has a front-court with cells fronted by pillared vestibules on either side. These have a high plinth level. The cave has a porch with simple cells on both ends. The absence of pillared vestibules on the ends suggest that the porch was not excavated in the latest phase of Ajanta when pillared vestibules had become a necessity and norm. Most areas of the porch were once covered with murals, of which many fragments remain, especially on the ceiling. There are three doorways: a central doorway and two side doorways. Two square windows were carved between the doorways to brighten the interiors.
Each wall of the hall inside is nearly 12 m long and 6.1 m high. Twelve pillars make a square colonnade inside supporting the ceiling, and creating spacious aisles along the walls. There is a shrine carved on the rear wall to house an impressive seated image of the Buddha, his hands being in the dharmachakrapravartana mudra. There are four cells on each of the left, rear, and the right walls, though due to rock fault there are none at the ends of the rear aisle. The walls are covered with paintings in a fair state of preservation, though the full scheme was never completed. The scenes depicted are mostly didactic, devotional, and ornamental, with scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha's former existences as a bodhisattva), the life of the Gautama Buddha, and those of his veneration. The two most famous individual painted images at Ajanta are the two over-life size figures of the protective bodhisattvas Padmapani and Vajrapani on either side of the entrance to the Buddha shrine on the wall of the rear aisle (see illustrations above). According to Spink, the original dating of the paintings to about 625 arose largely or entirely because James Fegusson, a 19th-century architectural historian, had decided that a scene showing an ambassador being received, with figures in Persian dress, represented a recorded embassy to Persia (from a Hindu monarch at that) around that date.
CAVE 2
Cave 2, adjacent to Cave 1, is known for the paintings that have been preserved on its walls, ceilings, and pillars. It looks similar to Cave 1 and is in a better state of preservation.
Cave 2 has a porch quite different from Cave one. Even the façade carvings seem to be different. The cave is supported by robust pillars, ornamented with designs. The front porch consists of cells supported by pillared vestibules on both ends. The cells on the previously "wasted areas" were needed to meet the greater housing requirements in later years. Porch-end cells became a trend in all later Vakataka excavations. The simple single cells on porch-ends were converted into CPVs or were planned to provide more room, symmetry, and beauty.
The paintings on the ceilings and walls of this porch have been widely published. They depict the Jataka tales that are stories of the Buddha's life in former existences as Bodhisattva. Just as the stories illustrated in cave 1 emphasize kingship, those in cave 2 show many "noble and powerful" women in prominent roles, leading to suggestions that the patron was an unknown woman. The porch's rear wall has a doorway in the center, which allows entrance to the hall. On either side of the door is a square-shaped window to brighten the interior.
The hall has four colonnades which are supporting the ceiling and surrounding a square in the center of the hall. Each arm or colonnade of the square is parallel to the respective walls of the hall, making an aisle in between. The colonnades have rock-beams above and below them. The capitals are carved and painted with various decorative themes that include ornamental, human, animal, vegetative, and semi-divine forms.
Paintings appear on almost every surface of the cave except for the floor. At various places the art work has become eroded due to decay and human interference. Therefore, many areas of the painted walls, ceilings, and pillars are fragmentary. The painted narratives of the Jataka tales are depicted only on the walls, which demanded the special attention of the devotee. They are didactic in nature, meant to inform the community about the Buddha's teachings and life through successive rebirths. Their placement on the walls required the devotee to walk through the aisles and 'read' the narratives depicted in various episodes. The narrative episodes are depicted one after another although not in a linear order. Their identification has been a core area of research since the site's rediscovery in 1819. Dieter Schlingloff's identifications have updated our knowledge on the subject.
CAVE 4
The Archeological Survey of India board outside the caves gives the following detail about cave 4: "This is the largest monastery planned on a grandiose scale but was never finished. An inscription on the pedestal of the buddha's image mentions that it was a gift from a person named Mathura and paleographically belongs to 6th century A.D. It consists of a verandah, a hypostylar hall, sanctum with an antechamber and a series of unfinished cells. The rear wall of the verandah contains the panel of Litany of Avalokiteśvara".
The sanctuary houses a colossal image of the Buddha in preaching pose flanked by bodhisattvas and celestial nymphs hovering above.
CAVES 9-10
Caves 9 and 10 are the two chaitya halls from the first period of construction, though both were also undergoing an uncompleted reworking at the end of the second period. Cave 10 was perhaps originally of the 1st century BCE, and cave 9 about a hundred years later. The small "shrinelets" called caves 9A to 9D and 10A also date from the second period, and were commissioned by individuals.
The paintings in cave 10 include some surviving from the early period, many from an incomplete programme of modernization in the second period, and a very large number of smaller late intrusive images, nearly all Buddhas and many with donor inscriptions from individuals. These mostly avoided over-painting the "official" programme and after the best positions were used up are tucked away in less prominent positions not yet painted; the total of these (including those now lost) was probably over 300, and the hands of many different artists are visible.
OTHER CAVES
Cave 3 is merely a start of an excavation; according to Spink it was begun right at the end of the final period of work and soon abandoned. Caves 5 and 6 are viharas, the latter on two floors, that were late works of which only the lower floor of cave 6 was ever finished. The upper floor of cave 6 has many private votive sculptures, and a shrine Buddha, but is otherwise unfinished. Cave 7 has a grand facade with two porticos but, perhaps because of faults in the rock, which posed problems in many caves, was never taken very deep into the cliff, and consists only of the two porticos and a shrine room with antechamber, with no central hall. Some cells were fitted in.
Cave 8 was long thought to date to the first period of construction, but Spink sees it as perhaps the earliest cave from the second period, its shrine an "afterthought". The statue may have been loose rather than carved from the living rock, as it has now vanished. The cave was painted, but only traces remain.
SPINK´S DETAILED CHRONOLOGY
Walter M. Spink has over recent decades developed a very precise and circumstantial chronology for the second period of work on the site, which unlike earlier scholars, he places entirely in the 5th century. This is based on evidence such as the inscriptions and artistic style, combined with the many uncompleted elements of the caves. He believes the earlier group of caves, which like other scholars he dates only approximately, to the period "between 100 BCE – 100 CE", were at some later point completely abandoned and remained so "for over three centuries", as the local population had turned mainly Hindu. This changed with the accession of the Emperor Harishena of the Vakataka Dynasty, who reigned from 460 to his death in 477. Harisena extended the Central Indian Vakataka Empire to include a stretch of the east coast of India; the Gupta Empire ruled northern India at the same period, and the Pallava dynasty much of the south.
According to Spink, Harisena encouraged a group of associates, including his prime minister Varahadeva and Upendragupta, the sub-king in whose territory Ajanta was, to dig out new caves, which were individually commissioned, some containing inscriptions recording the donation. This activity began in 462 but was mostly suspended in 468 because of threats from the neighbouring Asmaka kings. Work continued on only caves 1, Harisena's own commission, and 17–20, commissioned by Upendragupta. In 472 the situation was such that work was suspended completely, in a period that Spink calls "the Hiatus", which lasted until about 475, by which time the Asmakas had replaced Upendragupta as the local rulers.
Work was then resumed, but again disrupted by Harisena's death in 477, soon after which major excavation ceased, except at cave 26, which the Asmakas were sponsoring themselves. The Asmakas launched a revolt against Harisena's son, which brought about the end of the Vakataka Dynasty. In the years 478–480 major excavation by important patrons was replaced by a rash of "intrusions" – statues added to existing caves, and small shrines dotted about where there was space between them. These were commissioned by less powerful individuals, some monks, who had not previously been able to make additions to the large excavations of the rulers and courtiers. They were added to the facades, the return sides of the entrances, and to walls inside the caves. According to Spink, "After 480, not a single image was ever made again at the site", and as Hinduism again dominated the region, the site was again abandoned, this time for over a millennium.
Spink does not use "circa" in his dates, but says that "one should allow a margin of error of one year or perhaps even two in all cases".
IMPACT ON MODERN INDIAN PAINTINGS
The Ajanta paintings, or more likely the general style they come from, influenced painting in Tibet and Sri Lanka.
The rediscovery of ancient Indian paintings at Ajanta provided Indian artists examples from ancient India to follow. Nandlal Bose experimented with techniques to follow the ancient style which allowed him to develop his unique style. Abanindranath Tagore also used the Ajanta paintings for inspiration.
WIKIPEDIA