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Sunday the 26th August 2018
Media Information on the WMOF2018 Closing Mass in Phoenix Park
3.00pm Sunday 26 August 2018
The WMOF2018 Closing Mass will be celebrated by Pope Francis in Phoenix Park, Dublin on Sunday 26 August. 500,000 people are expected to attend the Mass including up to 20,000 overseas visitors.
A mammoth 12-hour programme exploring faith through music, reflections, video and drama will entertain pilgrims as they arrive to and make their way home from the Phoenix Park. Prelude in the Park will feature national and international performers from Ireland, England, America, Germany, Austria, France, India, Canada and USA. They will lead worship, drama and pop-up concerts to prepare everyone for the arrival of Pope Francis at 2.30pm.
Over 1,000 performers from the world of music, arts and Church ministry groups were involved in the three-day Pastoral Congress in the RDS. Many of these will bring a taste of their Congress programme to entertain the crowds before and after Mass.
Eimear Quinn, Daniel O Donnell, Derek Ryan, Paddy Maloney, Comholtas as well as Christian Performers Rexband from India, Rend Collective from Northern Ireland will feature. Other performers include Audrey Assad, Factor One – Dublin, Aris Choir, Dublin Gospel Choir, YOUCAT Foundation, KisiKids, Fr. Ray Kelly, I Am – Worship Band from Derry, Donna Taggart, O Neill Sisters from Kerry.
The Mass
Father Liam Lawton, liturgical composer and priest of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, will sing the psalm, The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor, which he has composed for the Papal Mass. Father Liam will be joined by a 3,000 strong papal Mass choir that has been brought together for the Mass.
The first reading will be proclaimed ‘as Gaeilge’ by Marie Wheldon from Clontarf, who was involved in the new Irish language translation of ‘An Leabhar Aifreann’. While Teresa Menendez, originally from Argentina and marketing manager for the World Meeting of Families 2018, will read the second reading in Spanish.
Rev. Noel McHugh, Permanent Deacon of Dublin Diocese, will preach the Gospel. Married to Paula, their son, John, died (aged 23) running a half marathon in the Phoenix Park in September 2015.
Mother of five Emma Mhic Mhathuna, will bring up one of the offertory gifts for the Papal Mass in the Phoenix Park tomorrow afternoon. The mother of five will be accompanied by her children, Natasha, Seamus, Mario, Oisín, and Donnacha, and friends, Mai Uí Bhruic and Tomás Ó Bruic.
Also involved in the offertory procession will be:
•Olive Foley, widow of former Ireland rugby international and Munster head coach, Anthony ‘Axel’ Foley, and their children, Dan and Tony;
•Paul and Bridget Uzo, and their children Stephanie and Kelvin, representatives of the African Community in the Archdiocese of Dublin;
•The family of one of those killed in the Omagh bombing 20 years ago;
•and a family involved in the “All Are Welcome” Mass in Avila, in Donnybrook, Dublin.
•LITURGICAL MUSIC
The music chosen for the Papal Mass will place an emphasis on congregational singing, so many of the pieces will be familiar to those in the Phoenix Park congregation of 500,000.
Irish music and composers feature prominently throughout the Mass. The Opening Hymn is A Joy For All The Earth, written by Ephrem Feeley, which is the official hymn for WMOF2018.
The music chosen for the Papal Mass will place an emphasis on congregational singing so many of the pieces will be familiar to those in the Phoenix Park congregation of 500,000.
Irish music and composers feature prominently throughout the Mass. The Opening Hymn is A Joy For All The Earth which is the official hymn for WMOF2018 written by Ephrem Feeley. Well-known liturgical composer Father Liam Lawton has composed a new Psalm for the Mass which is called The Lord Hears the Cry of the Poor.
Two pieces by Ireland’s most renowned liturgical composer, Seán Ó Riada, feature as the Penitential Rite/Kyrie (A Thiarna Déan Trócaire), and at the Lord’s Prayer (Ár nAthair). Fintan O’Carroll’s Celtic Alleluia with an enhanced verse by Ronan McDonagh will be sung as the Gospel acclamation.
The Apostles’ Creed will be John O’Keeffe’s own composition, while Fr. Pat Ahern’s A Thiarna Éist Linn will be sung between the Prayers of the Faithful.
As this is a World Meeting of Families there will be a number of international composers featured in the Mass including Caritas et Amor by Z. Randall Stroope has been chosen for the Presentation of Gifts and three piece from Jean-Paul Lécot’s Mass of Our Lady of Lourdes will feature as the Gloria, Sanctus, and Doxology/Amen.
The Communion hymns will be Ave Verum (William Byrd), The Last Supper (Bernard Sexton), Come Feast at this Table (Ian Callanan), Anima Christi (Mon. Marco Frisina), and Bí Íosa im Chroíse.
And finally, the Anthem to Our Lady will be Go mBeannaítear Duit, A Mhuire by Peadar Ó Riada (son of Seán), and the Recessional Hymn: Jesus Christ, You Are My Life by Mon. Marco Frisina.
•THE VESTMENTS - POPE FRANCIS WILL WEAR GREEN VESTMENTS INSPIRED BY CELTIC IMAGERY
Green has been chosen as the colour of vestments to be worn by Pope Francis during the Closing Mass of WMOF2018 which is the colour associated in the liturgy with Ordinary Time. The green is a symbol of how God is ever-faithful, and it also quite appropriate for a celebration in Ireland.
At the centre of each vestment is the Trinity spiral, the same as can be seen in the WMOF2018 logo. The three parts of the spiral represent the mystery of the Holy Trinity, and also draws from Celtic imagery, as spirals can be found on many ancient stones and monuments of Ireland’s past. The colours used in the spiral are the same green, red and gold as the vestments.
Alongside the central spiral are lines which lift and spread out along the side of the vestments. These lines are inspired by the line in the liturgy ‘Lift up your hearts’ inviting us to participate in the celebration of Mass. When expanded the lines represent a cross, with the Trinity spiral as the head of the cross.
The vestments were produced by Haftina, a family business based in Poland, which specialises in liturgical vestments, chalice gowns, altar tablecloths and canopies. The vestment designs were created by Haftina in collaboration with the WMOF2018 Liturgical Committee.
•PENAL CROSS AND PROCESSIONAL CROSS
A penal cross will be present on the Altar while Pope Francis celebrates Mass in the Phoenix Park. The cross, which is carved into a single piece of wood, dates back to 1763 and has been cared for at a Carmelite Community in the Archdiocese of Dublin. The carvings on the front and back of the cross are designed to tell the story of the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The penal cross served as the inspiration for the processional cross which was newly created by Anne Murphy of Eala Enamels, based in Co Carlow in the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
•CHALICES AND CIBORIA
To aid in the distribution of Holy Communion during celebrations of Mass both at the Pastoral Congress in the RDS and at the Phoenix Park, 4,000 ciboria and 200 chalices have been produced by MMI who are based in the Bluebell industrial estate in Dublin. The ciboria and chalices are pewter and silver, adorned with a Celtic cross containing the Trinity spiral of WMOF2018.
ENDS
NOTES TO EDITORS
· The Closing Mass of WMOF2018 will take place in the Phoenix Park, Dublin on Sunday 26 August at 3.00pm. Pope Francis will celebrate this Mass which will have a congregation of 500,000 people including 15,000 from overseas.
Biographies of Liturgical Music Team:
· Liturgical Music Coordinator, Derek Mahady is a native of Rooskey, Co. Roscommon and works as a choral conductor, vocalist, piano accompanist and music educator. Derek has been involved in liturgical music from an early age. He began his liturgical music ministry in parishes throughout his home diocese of Elphin and his neighbouring diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois. Currently, he works in music ministry at Newman University Church, St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin and has regularly featured as a regional and national tutor for the Irish Church Music Association. Derek holds a Master of Arts Degree in Choral Conducting from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, a Higher Diploma in Education from University of Dublin, Trinity College and a Bachelor of Music (Pedagogy) from the Dublin Institute of Technology, Conservatory of Music and Drama. Derek also features as a soloist on the first recording of the official World Meeting of Families 2018 hymn A Joy for all the Earth.
· Conductor, John O’Keeffe is director of Sacred Music and Choral Groups at St Patrick’s College and NUI Maynooth. The native of Portmagee, Co Kerry, studied Church music at St Finian’s College, Mullingar, before going on to further education at universities in Maynooth, Limerick, and UCD, and at the Catholic cathedrals of Dublin and Westminster, where he served as organ scholar.
· Organist, David Grealy, began his musical training as a chorister in the Galway Boy Singers, and organ scholar of Galway Cathedral from 2002-2005. He has held various positions as organist, including at Westminster Cathedral, and is currently the associate organist in St. Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, where he works closely with the Palestrina Choir, as well as playing the organ for the Cathedral’s busy schedule of liturgies.
· Assistant Conductor of Massed Choir, Amy Ryan is originally from Killarney, Co Kerry. She holds a BMus from the CIT Cork School of Music and a Masters degree from the Kodály Institute of the Liszt Academy of Music, Hungary. As Assistant Director of St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral Girls’ Choir from 2015-2018, she led the choir in Sunday morning liturgies, most recently on RTÉ television. Amy founded and conducts award-winning chamber choir, Cuore. In March of this year she conducted the Irish premiere of Graun’s passion oratorio Der Tod Jesu with Jubilate Choir. In April she conducted UCD Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir in their performance of Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem at the National Concert Hall. Amy currently lectures in Music at Trinity College, Dublin and at the Royal Irish Academy of Music.
· Assistant Conductor of Massed Choir, Dominic Finn is originally from Cobh, Co. Cork. He studied a Degree in Arts & Music at UCC, followed by a Diploma in Sacred Music at NUI Maynooth. He is currently the Director of Music at St. Colman’s Cathedral Cobh, and has been involved there for over 24 years as well as throughout the Diocese of Cloyne. Dominic also works as a secondary school teacher at Colaiste Muire, Cobh where he teaches Geography and Music. His choirs at St. Colman’s Cathedral have done many national broadcasts and recordings over the years, and have also worked with several composers such as Philip Stopford, John Rutter, and Liam Lawton to name just a few. Dominic has travelled extensively conducting his choirs from the Cathedral in major venues including St. Stephen’s Cathedral Vienna, Westminster Cathedral London, St. James’s Church, Spanish Place London, along with St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City in 2009 and 2013. Next year Dominic will oversee the music for the 100 year celebrations of the Dedication of St. Colman’s Cathedral, Diocese of Cloyne.
· Father Liam Lawton is a priest of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. Throughout his two decade-long career, his songs have been sung by choirs all over the world, have been translated into a number of different languages, and national and international artists have recorded them. He has recorded 18 collections of music to date, and has graced the stages of the Vatican, Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall Chicago, the Anaheim Convention Centre in L.A., The Malmo Arena in Sweden, The National Concert Hall, Dublin, and many of the world’s sacred sites.
More from the Historic Masters Festival, Brands Hatch. These head-on shots from Druids were all shot through the wire fence.
ARTournament 5th February Sunday Daytime Chilled at 3pm at The New Inn Gloucester City Centre (Near Debenhams)........usually the first Sunday of every month
Description
Sunday 5th February 2012 Doors open at 3.00pm - 9.00pm
Our acts are unsuitable for under 18's. £5 on the door but all confirmed performers are free.
We have an amazing sixth line up for you at The New inn Gloucester which includes the usual eclectic mix of acts bands singers and spoken word performers but for February we will have a predominantly large and diverse range of hilarious stand up comedy...lucky lucky Gloucester!!
As usual ARTournament will be giving away £100 in cash for the best audience voted performance of the day. Each member of the audience will be given one vote on the door when they arrive. The performer/s with the most votes at 8.45pm will be presented with £100 in cash-good luck everyone.
IMPORTANT.....PLEASE CAN ALL ACTS SIGN IN AN HOUR BEFORE THEY ARE DUE TO PERFORM AS DUE TO ILLNESS TRAINS PLANES AND AUTOMOBILES WE MAY HAVE TO CHANGE THE TIME SLOTS TO EARLIER OR LATER DEPENDING ON HOW THINGS ARE RUNNING and THERE WILL BE A FILM CREW ON SITE, IF ANYONE OBJECTS TO BEING FILMED CAN YOU PLEASE LET US KNOW ASAP.
On the Elephant Stage we have a good PA, 2 sm58 mics and can use CDs for backing tracks. The Moroccan Stage has a small PA and MIc and is acoustic/spoken word. if you need any help our engineer is James Candler (in friends list) Thanks
Compered by the hilarious Jamie Doughty who will also be performing his special brand of comedy for us on the elephant Srage during the day.
3-3.30pm James Evans-Musician
3.30-3.45pm Lyn Cinderry TBC
3.30-4pm Joe Kelly-Acoustic set
4-4.15pm Jeremy Toombs Poet
4.15-4.30pm James Bunting TBC
4.30- 5pm Benita Johnson-Acoustic Set
5pm-5.15pm Alison Hustwitt
5.15-5.30pm Helen Gregory-Poet
5.30-5.40pm Citizen Smith-A poem
5.40-6pm Sophia Marie Bovall
6-6.15pm Debra hannis
6.15-6.30pm Andrew Owens
6.30-7pm Shabz Ahmed + Friends (TBC)
7-7.15pm Lyn Cinderry TBC
7.15-7.30 Sarah Snell Pym TBC
7.30-8pm Angus McDressence Clements-very talented local musician who will be treating us to some new music.
8-8.30pm Damon Thomas and his beautiful blues.
Compere for January and the Elephant Stage is the multi talented hilarious comedy guru Josh Richards. He and Jamie Doughty are consistently a couple of the audience's favorite performers and we are looking forward to having them on our stage for the whole day.
3-3.30pm Hartley playing some sweet music
3.30-4pm Ratface Russ and his musical box of tricks.
4-4.30pm Shadowlight Sounds
4.30-5pm Rebecca Cant-Novembers favourite singer and £100 cash winner
5-5.30pm Angus McDressence Clements-very talented local musician
5.30-6pm Our funny Birmingham friends Louise+Nadeem and Lou
6-6.15pm Julie ‘Psycho’Jones-hilarious and winner of dec £100 prize.
6.15-6.30pm Demitris Deech-brilliant, witty, fast stand up
6.30-6.45pm Bambos- special kind of greek Musician-looking forward to this one..
6.45-7pm James Rushbrook and his new 2012 comedy set-lucky lucky us
7-7.15pm Jamie Doughty-a special brand of funny
7.15-7.30pm Darren Hoskins and his box of comedy tricks
7.30-7.45pm John Bassett-very very funny
7.45-8pm Mark Chatterley-A laugh a minute
8.00-8.45pm Gregory Davies and the Simplistic Scientists-and its Greg's Birthday!
March 4th Bookings
Darren Hoskins
Martin Maidment and his infamous band Gagarin
Club 41 James Alexander Dart and his band have kindly agreed to come back and rock our world for a second time!
Way Out west - a band you have to see to believe...TBC
Joel Denno
Martin Thorne TBC
Tony Judge-satirical short stories and a regular reader at Parole Parlate (Worcester) and on Radio Wildfire.
Keith Hyatt-bringing some acoustic flamenco feel guitar and poetry all the way from Swindon. TBC
April 2012 Bookings
Paul Johnson and his guitar will be treating us all again.
Emmet Brown-Whitey Shakespliff Oldham rapping and highly recommended
The Bonfire of the insanities Sunday Chill was reviewed by the Citizen so don't listen to us blowing our own trumpet - see what they have to think...http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/nailed-arts-festival/story-13787726-detail/story.html
Heres the pics for the November 6th Sunday Chilled-can you guess how many witty, talented, entertaining, slam winning incredible performance poets we managed to cram into one room=we think it may be a world record...http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.161683683928208.36084.100002597319241&type=1&l=c09d2aacf6
Check out the first Sunday Chill
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.251649504875972.63268.2...
And here are the pics from the 25th September
www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.143988655697711.30631.1...
We will count your votes and give out the 'dosh' to the winner at 9.15pm. Russ Poole was voted the best performer of the night on 6th September and Cerys Nelmes was voted the best performer of the day on September 25th and won the £100 cash
Just a fiver on the door and the profits go to the street performers and Family/childrens street entertainment for the main ARTournament 2012 Event.
Come and meet the organisers and crew of :-
ARTournament, Kim Fordwoh, Chris Fordwoh Organisers and alleged brains behind the project.
Anna Saunders is our Poetry Advisor and the Director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival.
Lisa Ventura is our compere for March 2012 and our Literary Advisor and if that isn't enough she is also the Brains/Director of Worcester Literary Festival.
Verity Smith-Our very own Sparkley Organiser.
Jamie Doughty-Compere and Comedy Genius
Josh Richards-Compere and Comedy Guru
Guy Williams-Compere for April 2012 and an ARTournament favourite
ARTournament is a Non Profit city centre festival with full backing from both Gloucestershire and Gloucester Councils. It will be in the four main streets of gloucester and use the majority of pubs in the vicinity as well as the guildhall, folk museum, city gallery, Blackfriars Priory, there will be street entertainers, stages outside Renes and Guildhall, a huge marquee on Greyfriars bowling green, street parades, flash mobs, roving robots in GL1! camping and four days of fun.
ARTournament the chill is a monthly club to showcase local talent to festival organisers, band promoter, managers and comedy Gurus. There is a lot more info on our community ARTournament page and also within this fb site
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All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade: Most Capable Small SUV Expands the Brand's Global Portfolio
- All-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade marks the brand's first entry in the small SUV segment
- Renegade Trailhawk model delivers best-in-class 4x4 Trail Rated capability with class-exclusive Jeep Active Drive Low, which includes 20:1 crawl ratio and Jeep Selec-Terrain system
- Designed to expand the Jeep brand globally, the all-new 2015 Renegade combines the brand's heritage with fresh new styling to appeal to youthful and adventurous customers
- Nothing else like it: Renegade displays a powerful stance with aggressive wheel-to- body proportions, plus the freedom of two My Sky open-air roof systems
- Renegade's all-new interior exudes an energetic appearance with rugged and functional details, crafted in high-quality materials and inspired colors
- All-new "small-wide 4x4 architecture" combines best-in-class off-road capability with world-class on-road driving dynamics
- Designed for global markets – with 16 fuel-efficient powertrain combinations for different markets around the world – including the world's first nine-speed automatic transmission in a small SUV
- Renegade will offer a best-in-class combination of fuel efficiency and off-road capability
- Technology once limited to premium SUVs: award-winning Uconnect Access, Uconnect touchscreen radios and the segment's largest full-color instrument cluster
- Loaded with up to 70 available advanced safety and security features
- Designed in America, crafted in Italy, the 2015 Renegade highlights the Jeep brand's global resources and dedication to meeting customer needs in more than 100 countries
The all-new 2015 Jeep® Renegade expands the brand's global vehicle lineup, entering the growing small SUV segment, while staying true to the adventurous lifestyle Jeep is known for. Renegade delivers a unique combination of best-in-class off-road capability, open-air freedom and convenience, a segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission that contributes to outstanding on- road and off-road driving dynamics, fuel-efficient engines, world-class refinement, and a host of innovative safety and advanced technology offerings. The result is an efficient vehicle created to attract youthful and adventurous customers around the world to the Jeep brand.
The all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade expands the brand's product portfolio and targets the rapidly expanding small SUV segment around the globe with benchmark levels of efficiency and driving dynamics, while at the same time delivering best-in-class 4x4 capability that customers expect from Jeep,‖ said Mike Manley, President and CEO - Jeep Brand, Chrysler Group LLC. ―Renegade symbolizes the brand's renowned American design, ingenuity and innovation, marking the Jeep brand's first entry into the small SUV segment in more than 100 markets around the globe.
Best-in-class off-road capability thanks to two all-new 4x4 systems
Leveraging 4x4 technology from the all-new Jeep Cherokee, the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade offers two of the most advanced and intelligent 4x4 systems in its class, all to deliver best-in-class off-road capability. Both systems can provide up to 100 percent of the engine's available torque to the ground, through any wheel, for optimal grip.
- Jeep Active Drive – full-time 4x4 system
- Jeep Active Drive Low – class-exclusive full-time 4x4 system with 20:1 crawl ratio
Innovation is also at the forefront of any new Jeep vehicle, and the Renegade is the first small SUV to feature a disconnecting rear axle and power take-off unit (PTU) – all to provide Jeep Renegade 4x4 models with enhanced fuel economy. The system instantly engages when 4x4 traction is needed.
Both Jeep Active Drive and Active Drive Low 4x4 systems include the Jeep Selec-Terrain system, providing up to five modes (Auto, Snow, Sand and Mud modes, plus exclusive Rock mode on the Trailhawk model) for the best four-wheel-drive performance on- or off-road and in any weather condition.
Trail Rated: Renegade Trailhawk 4x4 model
For customers who demand the most off-road capability from their Jeep vehicles, the Renegade Trailhawk model delivers best-in-class Trail Rated 4x4 capability with:
- Standard Jeep Active Drive Low (20:1 crawl ratio)
- Selec-Terrain system with exclusive Rock mode
- Increased ride height 20 mm (0.8 inches)
- Skid plates, and red front and rear tow hooks
- Unique fascias deliver 30.5 degree approach, 25.7 degree breakover and 34.3 degree departure angles
- 17-inch all-terrain tires
- Up to 205 mm (8.1 inches) of wheel articulation
- Hill-descent Control
- Up to 480 mm (19 inches) of water fording
- Up to 1,500 kg (3,300-lb.) towing capability with MultiJet II diesel engine and 907 kg (2,000- lb.) towing capability with 2.4-liter Tigershark engine, with available tow package
A global Jeep design for a rapidly growing global brand
From the start, Jeep designers knew the Renegade would need to deliver best-in-class off-road capability with city-sized proportions that exuded the brand's rugged style while at the same time enhancing versatility, maneuverability and style. Additionally designers were tasked to create an all- new SUV that would symbolize the brand's renowned American design and ingenuity, as it would mark the Jeep brand's first entry into the small SUV segment in more than 100 markets around the globe. Last, Renegade had to offer the open-air freedom that dates back to its 1941 roots with the Willys MB Jeep.
The result is the all-new 2015 Renegade, a vehicle that builds on the Jeep Wrangler's powerful stance, and features fresh new styling with rugged body forms and aggressive proportions that enable best-in-class approach and departure angles purposely designed to deliver best-in-class off- road capability. And for segment-exclusive panoramic views, two available My Sky open-air roof panel systems conveniently stow to provide passengers open-air freedom with ease.
All-new interior exudes a rugged and energetic appearance
The all-new Jeep Renegade interior features a rugged and energetic appearance that builds upon Jeep's legendary brand heritage. Its precisely crafted detail, innovative and high-quality color and material appointments, state-of-the-art technology, and clever storage features draw inspiration from contemporary extreme sports gear and lifestyles.
The interior of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade has a distinctive form language which Jeep designers have titled ―Tek-Tonic.‖ This new design theme is defined by the intersections of soft and tactile forms with rugged and functional details. Major surfaces such as the sculpted soft-touch instrument panel are intersected with bold functional elements like the passenger grab handle – indispensable for off-road adventures and borrowed from its big brother, the legendary Jeep Wrangler. Unique ―protective clamp fasteners,‖ anodized design accents and inspired colors are derived from extreme sports equipment, while the newly familiar ―X‖ shapes inspired by its roof and tail lamps add to Renegade's Tek-Tonic interior look. And to make sure all of the needed passenger gear fits, the Renegade is designed with an efficient and flexible interior package that includes a removable, reversible and height-adjustable cargo floor panel and fold-forward front-passenger seat.
My Sky: continuing Jeep open-air freedom since 1941
Keeping the tradition of the legendary 1941 Willys MB Jeep, the all-new 2015 Renegade offers open-air freedom with two available My Sky open-air roof systems. With a manual removable, or removable with premium power tilt/slide feature, the segment-exclusive My Sky roof-panel systems quickly bring the outdoors inside. Designed for convenience, the honeycomb fiberglass polyurethane roof panels are lightweight and stow neatly in the rear cargo area. For added design detail, both My Sky roof systems feature a debossed ―X‖ stamped into the roof that exude strength and play on the brand's utilitarian history.
Best-in-class off-road capability with world-class on-road driving dynamics
Designed and engineered to first and foremost deliver legendary Jeep 4x4 capability, the all-new 2015 Renegade is the first small SUV from Chrysler Group to use the all-new ―small-wide 4x4 architecture.‖
With its fully independent suspension capable of up to 205 mm (8.1 inches) of wheel articulation and 220 mm (8.7 inches) of ground clearance (Trailhawk), Renegade raises the bar in the small SUV segment with best-in-class off-road capability. Extensive use of advanced steels, composites and advanced computer-impact simulations enable the all-new 2015 Renegade's architecture to deliver world-class torsional stiffness and Jeep brand's durability required for Trail Rated adventures.
The all-new Renegade is the first Jeep to integrate Koni's frequency selective damping (FSD) front and rear strut system. This damping system enables the Jeep Renegade to deliver world-class road-holding and handling characteristics.
Designed for global markets: 16 powertrain combinations
True to the Jeep brand, the all-new Renegade will offer customers in global markets maximum off- road capability and fuel efficiency. The Renegade will offer up to 16 strategic powertrain combinations – the most ever in a Jeep vehicle – customized to markets around the world to meet a range of performance and efficiency needs. Powertrain options include:
- Four MultiAir gasoline engine offerings
- Two MultiJet II diesel engine offerings
- Efficient and flex-fuel capable E.torQ engine
- Emissions and fuel-saving Stop&Start technology
- Segment-first nine-speed automatic transmission
- Two manual and one dual-dry clutch transmission (DDCT) offerings
World's first small SUV with nine-speed automatic transmission
Like the new Jeep Cherokee, the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade has raised the bar - this time in the small SUV class - with the first available nine-speed automatic transmission. When paired with either the 2.0-liter MultiJet II diesel engine, or 2.4-liter MultiAir2 gas engine, the nine-speed transmission delivers numerous benefits customers will appreciate, including aggressive launches, smooth power delivery at highway speeds and improved fuel efficiency versus a six-speed automatic transmission.
Segment-exclusive technologies once found only on higher classed SUVs
The all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade offers technology features once found only in upper-segment vehicles, and makes them attainable to customers in the growing small SUV segment – including award-winning Uconnect Access, Uconnect touchscreens and the segment's largest full-color instrument cluster.
- Uconnect Access: Utilizes embedded cellular technology to allow Jeep Renegade occupants to get directly in contact with local emergency-service dispatchers – all with the push of the 9-1-1 Assist button on the rearview mirror. Uconnect Access applies the same logic to roadside assistance. One push of the ―ASSIST‖ button summons help directly from Chrysler Group's roadside assistance provider, or the Vehicle Customer Care Center. Further peace of mind comes from the system's ability to receive text messages, announce receipt of texts, identify senders and then ―read‖ the messages aloud with Bluetooth-equipped cell phones. AOL Autos named Uconnect Access its ―Technology of the Year for 2013.‖ (Uconnect services may vary in different markets)
- Uconnect touchscreen radio systems: Award-winning in-vehicle handsfree communication, entertainment and available navigation. Key features available on the Uconnect 5.0 and 6.5AN systems include a 5.0-inch or 6.5-inch touchscreen display, Bluetooth connectivity, single or dual-turner, radio data system capability (RDS), digital audio broadcast (DAB), HD Radio, digital media broadcasting (DMB), SiriusXM Radio, SiriusXM Travel Link, SiriusXM Travel Link, USB port and auxiliary audio jack input. (Uconnect services may vary in different markets)
- Segment's largest full-color instrument cluster display: Filling the Jeep Renegade's gauge cluster in front of the driver is an available 7-inch, full-color, premium multiview display, featuring a reconfigurable function that enables drivers to personalize information inside the instrument cluster. The information display is designed to visually communicate information, using graphics and text, quickly and easily.
Renegade features up to 70 advanced safety and security features
Safety and security were at the forefront in the development of the all-new 2015 Jeep Renegade, setting the stage for up to 70 available safety and security features – including the availability of Forward Collision Warning-Plus and LaneSense Departure Warning-Plus.
In addition, engineers added both active and passive safety and security features, including Blind- spot Monitoring; Rear Cross Path detection; ParkView rear backup camera with dynamic grid lines; electronic stability control (ESC) with electronic roll mitigation and seven standard air bags.
Jeep brand's global resources
Designed in America and crafted in Italy, the 2015 Renegade continues the Jeep brand's dedication to the global marketplace and demonstrates the depths of its available resources. The final assembly location for the Renegade will be at the Melfi Assembly Plant. The Renegade's global portfolio of powertrain production includes the United States, Italy and Brazil.
The palanquin is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Examples of litter vehicles include lectica (ancient Rome), kiệu [轎] (Vietnam), sedan chair (Britain), litera (Spain), palanquin (France, India, Ghana), jiao (China), liteira (Portugal), wo (วอ, Chinese style known as kiao เกี้ยว) (Thailand), gama (Korea), koshi, ren and kago [駕籠] (Japan) and tahtırevan (Turkey).
Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. Larger litters, for example those of the Chinese emperors, may resemble small rooms upon a platform borne upon the shoulders of a dozen or more people. To most efficiently carry a litter, porters will attempt to transfer the load to their shoulders, either by placing the carrying poles upon their shoulders, or the use of a yoke to transfer the load from the carrying poles to the shoulder.
DEFINITIONS
A simple litter, often called a king carrier, consists of a sling attached along its length to poles or stretched inside a frame. The poles or frame are carried by porters in front and behind. Such simple litters are common on battlefields and emergency situations, where terrain prohibits wheeled vehicles from carrying away the dead and wounded.
Litters can also be created by the expedient of the lashing of poles to a chair. Such litters, consisting of a simple cane chair with maybe an umbrella to ward off the elements and two stout bamboo poles, may still be found in Chinese mountain resorts such as the Huangshan Mountains to carry tourists along scenic paths and to viewing positions inaccessible by other means of transport.
A more luxurious version consists of a bed or couch, sometimes enclosed by curtains, for the passenger or passengers to lie on. These are carried by at least two porters in equal numbers in front and behind, using wooden rails that pass through brackets on the sides of the couch. The largest and heaviest types would be carried by draught animals.
Another form, commonly called a sedan chair, consists of a chair or windowed cabin suitable for a single occupant, also carried by at least two porters in front and behind, using wooden rails that pass through brackets on the sides of the chair. These porters were known in London as "chairmen". These have been very rare since the 19th century, but such enclosed portable litters have been used as an elite form of transport for centuries, especially in cultures where women are kept secluded.
Sedan chairs, in use until the 19th century, were accompanied at night by link-boys who carried torches. Where possible, the link boys escorted the fares to the chairmen, the passengers then being delivered to the door of their lodgings. Several houses in Bath, Somerset, England still have the link extinguishers on the exteriors, shaped like outsized candle snuffers. In the 1970s, entrepreneur and Bathwick resident, John Cuningham, revived the sedan chair service business for a brief amount of time.
ANTIQUITY
In pharaonic Egypt and many oriental realms such as China, the ruler and divinities (in the form of an idol) were often transported in a litter in public, frequently in procession, as during state ceremonial or religious festivals.
The ancient Hebrews fashioned the Ark of the Covenant to resemble and function as a litter for the ten commandments and presence of God.
In Ancient Rome, a litter called lectica or "sella" often carried members of the imperial family, as well as other dignitaries and other members of the rich elite, when not mounted on horseback.
The habit must have proven quite persistent, for the Third Council of Braga in 675 AD saw the need to order that bishops, when carrying the relics of martyrs in procession, must walk to the church, and not be carried in a chair, or litter, by deacons clothed in white.
In the Catholic Church, Popes were carried the same way in Sedia gestatoria, which was replaced later by the Popemobile.
IN ASIA
CHINA
In Han China the elite travelled in light bamboo seats supported on a carrier's back like a backpack. In the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, wooden carriages on poles appear in painted landscape scrolls.
A commoner used a wooden or bamboo civil litter (Chinese: 民轎; pinyin: min2 jiao4), while the mandarin class used an official litter (Chinese: 官轎; pinyin: guan1 jiao4) enclosed in silk curtains.
The chair with perhaps the greatest importance was the bridal chair. A traditional bride is carried to her wedding ceremony by a "shoulder carriage" (Chinese: 肩輿; pinyin: jiān yú), usually hired. These were lacquered in an auspicious shade of red, richly ornamented and gilded, and were equipped with red silk curtains to screen the bride from onlookers.
Sedan chairs were once the only public conveyance in Hong Kong, filling the role of cabs. Chair stands were found at all hotels, wharves, and major crossroads. Public chairs were licensed, and charged according to tariffs which would be displayed inside. Private chairs were an important marker of a person's status. Civil officers' status was denoted by the number of bearers attached to his chair. Before Hong Kong's Peak Tram went into service in 1888, wealthy residents of The Peak were carried on sedan chairs by coolies up the steep paths to their residence including Sir Richard MacDonnell's (former Governor of Hong Kong) summer home, where they could take advantage of the cooler climate. Since 1975 an annual sedan chair race has been held to benefit the Matilda International Hospital and commemorate the practice of earlier days.
KOREA
In Korea, royalty and aristocrats were carried in wooden litters called gama. Gamas were primarily used by royalty and government officials. There were six types of gama, each assigned to different government official rankings. In traditional weddings, the bride and groom are carried to the ceremony in separate gamas. Because of the difficulties posed by the mountainous terrain of the Korean peninsula and the lack of paved roads, gamas were preferred over wheeled vehicles.
JAPAN
As the population of Japan increased, less and less land was available as grazing for the upkeep of horses. With the availability of horses restricted to martial uses, human powered transport became more important and prevalent.
Kago (Kanji: 駕籠, Hiragana: かご) were often used in Japan to transport the non-samurai citizen. Norimono were used by the warrior class and nobility, most famously during the Tokugawa period when regional samurai were required to spend a part of the year in Edo (Tokyo) with their families, resulting in yearly migrations of the rich and powerful (Sankin-kōtai) to and from the capital along the central backbone road of Japan.
Somewhat similar in appearance to kago are the portable shrines that are used to carry the "god-body" (goshintai), the central totemic core normally found in the most sacred area of Shinto Shrines, on a tour to and from a shrine during some religious festivals.
THAILAND
In Thailand, the royalty were also carried in wooden litters called wo ("พระวอ" Phra Wo, literally, "Royal Sedan") for large ceremonies. Wos were elaborately decorated litters that were delicately carved and colored by gold leaves. Stained glass is also used to decorate the litters. Presently, Royal Wos and carriages are only used for royal ceremonies in Thailand. They are exhibited in the Bangkok National Museum.
INDONESIA
In traditional Javanese society, the generic palanquin or joli was a wicker chair with a canopy, attached to two poles, and borne on men's shoulders, and was available for hire to any paying customer. As a status marker, gilded throne-like palanquins, or jempana, were originally reserved solely for royalty, and later co-opted by the Dutch, as a status marker: the more elaborate the palanquin, the higher the status of the owner. The joli was transported either by hired help, by nobles' peasants, or by slaves.
Historically, the palanquin of a Javanese king (raja), prince (pangeran), lord (raden mas) or other noble (bangsawan) was known as a jempana; a more throne-like version was called a pangkem. It was always part of a large military procession, with a yellow (the Javanese colour for royalty) square canopy. The ceremonial parasol (payung) was held above the palanquin, which was carried by a bearer behind and flanked by the most loyal bodyguards, usually about 12 men, with pikes, sabres, lances, muskets, keris and a variety of disguised blades. In contrast, the canopy of the Sumatran palanquin was oval-shaped and draped in white cloth; this was reflective of greater cultural permeation by Islam. Occasionally, a weapon or heirloom, such as an important keris or tombak, was given its own palanquin. In Hindu culture in Bali today, the tradition of using palanquins for auspicious statues, weapons or heirlooms continues, for funerals especially; in more elaborate rituals, a palanquin is used to bear the body, and is subsequently cremated along with the departed.
INDIA
A palanquin, also known as palkhi, is a covered sedan chair (or litter) carried on four poles. It derives from the Sanskrit word for a bed or couch, pa:lanka.
Palanquins are mentioned in literature as early as the Ramayana (c. 250BC).
Palanquins began to fall out of use after rickshaws (on wheels, more practical) were introduced in the 1930s.
The doli (also transliterated from Hindi as dhooly or dhoolie) is a cot or frame, suspended by the four corners from a bamboo pole. Two or four men would carry it. In the time of the British in India, dhooly-bearers were used to carry the wounded from the battlefield and transport them.
Today in numerous areas of India including at the Hindu pilgrimage site of Amarnath Temple in Kashmir, palanquins can be hired to carry the customer up steep hills.
IN AFRICA
GHANA
In Southern Ghana the Akan and the Ga-Dangme carry their chiefs and kings in palanquins when they appear in their state durbars. When used in such occasions these palanquins may be seen as a substitutes of a state coach in Europe or a horse used in Northern Ghana. The chiefs of the Ga (mantsemei) in the Greater Accra Region (Ghana) use also figurative palanquins which are built after a chief's family symbol or totem. But these day the figurative palanquins are very seldom used. They are related with the figurative coffins which have become very popular among the Ga in the last 50 years. Since these figurative coffins were shown 1989 in the exhibition "Les magicians de la terre" in the Centre Pompidou in Paris they were shown in many art museums around the world.
ANGOLA
From at least the 15th century until the 19th century, litters of varying types known as tipoye were used in the Kingdom of Kongo as a mode of transportation for the elites. Seat-style litters with a single pole along the back of the chair carried by two men (usually slaves) were topped with an umbrella. Lounge-style litters in the shape of a bed were used to move one to two people with porter at each corner. Due to the tropical climate, horse were not native to the area nor could they survive very ong once introduced by the Portuguese. Human portage was the only mode of transportation in the region and became highly adept with missionary accounts claiming the litter transporters could move at speeds 'as fast as post horses at the gallop'.
IN THE WEST
EUROPE
Portuguese and Spanish navigators and colonistics encountered litters of various sorts in India, Mexico, and Peru. They were imported into Spain and spread into France and then Britain. All the names for these devices are ultimately derived from the root sed- in Latin sedere, "sit," which gave rise to seda ("seat") and its diminutive sedula ("little seat"), the latter of which was contracted to sella, the traditional Latin name for a carried chair.The carried chair met instant success in Europe, whose city streets were often a literal mess of mud and refuse: Where cities and towns did not enjoy the presence of sewage systems left over from Imperial Roman days, it was common to empty chamber pots and discard kitchen refuse from windows down into the adjacent streets. Affluent and well-to-do citizens often found it hazardous and impractical to negotiate those avenues, and sedan chairs allowed them to remain prim and spotless while the carrying valets had to contend with the mud and the filth.In Europe, Henry VIII of England was carried around in a sedan chair — it took four strong chairmen to carry him towards the end of his life — but the expression "sedan chair" was not used in print until 1615. It does not seem to take its name from the city of Sedan. Trevor Fawcett notes (see link) that British travellers Fynes Moryson (in 1594) and John Evelyn (in 1644-5) remarked on the seggioli of Naples and Genoa, which were chairs for public hire slung from poles and carried on the shoulders of two porters.From the mid-17th century, visitors taking the waters at Bath would be conveyed in a chair enclosed in baize curtains, especially if they had taken a heated bath and were going straight to bed to sweat. The curtains kept off a possibly fatal draft. These were not the proper sedan chairs "to carry the better sort of people in visits, or if sick or infirmed" (Celia Fiennes). In the 17th and 18th centuries, the chairs stood in the main hall of a well-appointed city residence, where a lady could enter and be carried to her destination without setting foot in a filthy street. The neoclassical sedan chair made for Queen Charlotte remains at Buckingham Palace.
By the mid-17th century, sedans for hire were a common mode of transportation. In London, "chairs" were available for hire in 1634, each assigned a number and the chairmen licensed because the operation was a monopoly of a courtier of Charles I. Sedan chairs could pass in streets too narrow for a carriage and were meant to alleviate the crush of coaches in London streets, an early instance of traffic congestion. A similar system was later used in Scotland. In 1738, a fare system was established for Scottish sedans, and the regulations covering chairmen in Bath are reminiscent of the modern Taxi Commission's rules. A trip within a city cost six pence and a day's rental was four shillings. A sedan was even used as an ambulance in Scotland's Royal Infirmary.
Chairmen moved at a good clip. In Bath they had the right-of-way and pedestrians hearing "By your leave" behind them knew to flatten themselves against walls or railings as the chairmen hustled through. There were often disastrous accidents, upset chairs, and broken glass-paned windows.
Sedan chairs were also used by the wealthy in the cities of colonial America. Benjamin Franklin used a sedan chair late in the 18th century.
COLONIAL PRACTICE
In various colonies, litters of various types were maintained under native traditions, but often adopted by the white colonials as a new ruling and/or socio-economic elite, either for practical reasons (often comfortable modern transport was unavailable, e.g. for lack of decent roads) and/or as a status symbol. During the 17-18th centuries, palanquins (see above) were very popular among European traders in Bengal, so much so that in 1758 an order was issued prohibiting their purchase by certain lower-ranking employees.
THE END OF A TRADITION
In Great Britain, in the early 19th century, the public sedan chair began to fall out of use, perhaps because streets were better paved or perhaps because of the rise of the more comfortable, companionable and affordable hackney carriage. In Glasgow, the decline of the sedan chair is illustrated by licensing records which show twenty-seven sedan chairs in 1800, eighteen in 1817, and ten in 1828. During that same period the number of registered hackney carriages in Glasgow rose to one hundred and fifty.
THE TRAVELING SILLA OF LATIN AMERICA
A similar but simpler palanquin was used by the elite in parts of 18th- and 19th-century Latin America. Often simply called a silla (Spanish for seat or chair), it consisted of a simple wooden chair with an attached tumpline. The occupant sat in the chair, which was then affixed to the back of a single porter, with the tumpline supported by his head. The occupant thus faced backwards during travel. This style of palanquin was probably due to the steep terrain and rough or narrow roads unsuitable to European-style sedan chairs. Travellers by silla usually employed a number of porters, who would alternate carrying the occupant.
A chair borne on the back of a porter, almost identical to the silla, is used in the mountains of China for ferrying older tourists and visitors up and down the mountain paths. One of these mountains where the silla is still used is the Huangshan Mountains of Anhui province in Eastern China.
WIKIPEDIA
A soggy afternoon at Cowdray Polo for the Gold Cup Final. As a major social event, many were dressed up, despite the weather.
willowgrovedaycamp.com/willows/
At this time in the camp season each child has found his/her favorite activities, which include Basketball, Soccer, Nature, Boating/Fishing, Tennis, Mini-Golf, Dance, etc.. Another favorite activity is when the Willows ride the Big Wheels. Everyone really loves racing their cars around the track. Of course, all The Willows love swimming and riding “Magic,” the pony.
Last week ended on a tasty note with our campers making Tie Dye bread in Cooking. After the bread was dyed, it was turned into grilled cheese or toast. Everyone found it yummy!
On Tuesday the Tadpoles and Minnows went to Woodcraft where they painted bird houses. They really enjoyed choosing their favorite colors. The Willows really love participating in big kid activities.
Our theme this week was “Up, Up and Away.” In Camper Creations, the children had fun making and decorating refrigerator kite magnets. They can’t wait to display them at home! In Ceramics, the children enjoyed adorning their ceramic bathing suits. These projects will be painted and sent home before the end of camp. We hope you enjoyed your child’s
ceramic hands/foot prints and ceramic faces.
While Carnival was postponed on Thursday the day was full of terrific rainy day activities. Our theme was “Harry the Dirty Dog” and we made a special snack, read the book, watched the movie and made our furry friends.
This fun filled week ended as the campers were thrilled to participate in the annual Carnival on Friday. It was a huge success and everyone had a terrific time. The campers played games, went on rides, ate lots of goodies and won prizes at various booths. Also on Friday was “Puttin’ on the Hits” where The Willows danced to the “Banana” song from “Despicable Me.”
About Willow Grove Day Camp
Willow Grove Day Camp provides summer fun for kids who live in Willow Grove, Abington, Blue Bell, Hatboro, Horsham, Huntingdon Valley, Lafayette Hill, Philadelphia, Plymouth Meeting, Southampton and the surrounding areas. For more information on the Willows at Willow Grove Day Camp please visit: willowgrovedaycamp.com/willows/
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Jul 19 2021, Surrey BC - The historic St. George Coptic Orthodox Church was burnt to the ground . Church and contents are totally destroyed. Arson suspect has been apprehended..
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Canada 2021 - Many uf Canada's hundred year old plus historic Christian Churches fall victim to arsonists.
They're Burning down the Churches.
Canada Day July 1st 2021, The traditional proud and celebratory Canadian national holiday, aka Canada Day, has been interrupted this year by a disturbing string of violent acts and massive property destruction. Arsonists have attacked defenseless Christian Churches causing severe damage and in many cases the burning to the ground of 100 year old historic churches and their contents that include irreplaceable documents and invaluable historic artifacts .
And the list is growing..
A prayer ,
“If this fire was deliberately set, we ask for you to forgive whoever set it, and heal them, and bring them into your family with us, so that they may learn of your love for them, the same love that you have overwhelmed us with in our lives,”
No offer as yet by the NDP Liberal Government to help rebuild the burned Christian churches nor any sincere attempt by them to apprehend and charge the perpetrator(s) ?
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some major news clippings :
Apr 22, 2021 The century-old St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Attawapiskat Ontario First Nation burned to the ground on the evening of April 21, 2021 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/attawapiskat-church-fire-1...
June 21 - Suspicious fires destroy the Sacred Heart Mission Catholic Church on Penticton Indian Band land Penticton B.C. burnt to the ground. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51430521370/in/album-7...
June 26 - St. Ann’s Catholic Church ( 110 yrs old ) on the Hedley Native Reserve of the Upper Similkameen Band near Oliver B.C. - Catholic church was burned to the ground by arson. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51432230804/in/album-7...
June 26 - Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church ( 1896 ) on the Chopaka Native Reserve - Lower Similkameen Indian Band, near Osoyoos. was burned to the ground by arson and totally destroyed. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51427903261/in/album-7...
June 26 - St. Paul’s Anglican Church ( 108 yrs old ) on Gitwangak First Nations land, between Terrace and New Hazelton. B.C. fire damaged
June 28 - Siksika First Nation Catholic Church Calgary
June 29 - Siksika Anglican Church east of Calgary damage
Wed June 30th - century old St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville Alberta ( oldest Catholic Church in Alberta ), community centrepiece and Town meeting hall totally destroyed when burned to the ground by an asonist . www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51427903261/in/album-7...
June 30th Nova Scotia St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church on Sipekne'katik First Nation northwest of Halifax damaged by arson
July 1st - Downtown Yellowknife.. St. Patrick's Co-Cathedral Parish heavy interior and smoke damage
Many more Churches were vandalized with windows broken, small fires started, and paint thrown on them ( 11 in Calgary alone )
July 1st - St. Paul’s Anglican Church ( 108 yrs old ) on Gitwangak First Nations land, between Terrace and New Hazelton. B.C. - burned to the ground and totally destroyed by arson. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51434008805/in/album-7...www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51434052775/in/album-7...
July 9th Kelowna BC The Grace Lutheran Church’s garage went up in flames but saved by local FD,
Jul 19 Surrey BC - St George Coptic Orthodox Church was burnt to the ground - completely destroyed by arson, www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51433426473/in/album-7...
St. Theresa Point Roman Catholic Church - An earlier Church fire took place in Manitoba Apr 5, 2021, when a Roman Catholic church was burned to the ground in St. Theresa Point First Nation Manitoba. www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51745130236/in/album-7...
Central Heights Church, Abbotsford, BC. Abbotsford Police are investigating a July 21 arson incident at Central Heights Church. A suspect described as 30-40 years old, male, dark-skinned and wearing a bright yellow rain jacket with a grey baseball hat is being sought by authorities.
Little Flower Mission Church, Fox Lake, AB.,
RCMP are investigating an arson incident after a fire was deliberately set at Fox Lake Community Church on Saturday, August 7, 2021. The building sustained significant interior damage.
St. Mary’s Parish, Prince George, BC.
On July 26, a suspect placed two containers of gasoline near St Mary’s Parish church and lit them on fire. The incident caused the side of the church to catch aflame. Police are still investigating the incident.
Knox United Church, Prince George, BC.
Police responded to a report of an individual spraying flammable material and spray painting an alley near the church. Messages made reference to the residential school findings.
Aug 25, 2022 Suspicious fire destroys century-old church in Fort Chipewyan, Alta. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-alberta-fort-chipe...
St. Andrew’s United Church, Prince George, BC.
Fire services responded to a structure fire at St. Andrew’s United Church on July 4. The outside of the building was damaged as a result of the fire. Police are still investigating the matter.
Upper Pine Gospel Chapel, Rose Prairie, BC.
According to Fort St. John RCMP a report was received at 12:34 a.m. of a fire engulfing Upper Pine Gospel Chapel. Police are investigating the incident.
St Joseph’s Lutheran Church, Armena, AB.
Camrose RCMP responded to a fire on Dec. 31, 2022 at the small parish St. Joseph Lutheran Church near the village of Hay Lakes. When first responders arrived the church was completely engulfed in flames. Police believe the fire is suspicious and are investigating it as an intentional act.
May 22, 2023 St. Bernard Catholic Church, Grouard, AB. St. Bernard Catholic Church was completely engulfed in flames after fires were intentionally set within its premises. The RCMP have since arrested two suspects as a result of the fire. The building remains unsalvageable.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Cherry Grove, AB.,
On Apr 28, 2023 a fire was intentionally set at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Police are investigating the fire as suspicious after the church was razed to the ground by the flames.
On Feb. 13, RCMP responded to a fire at the historic St. Michael’s Hungarian Church. When they arrived the church had completely burnt to the ground. Police have since arrested and charged two suspects.
Okotoks Alliance Church, Okotoks, AB.,
On Feb. 5, 2023 the Fire Department was called to deal with a fire at Okotoks Alliance Church. Police are investigating the fire as suspicious and have ruled that it is related to arson.
Feb. 22, 2023 St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church,, A deliberately set fire destroys over a century of history in Barrie Ontario,
barrie.ctvnews.ca/barrie-church-officials-seek-to-rebuild...
St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Hamilton, ON.,
On Dec. 31, 2022 police arrived at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church where they discovered incendiary materials and evidence of arson. One suspect is currently facing arson charges in connection with the incident.
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Catholic Church, Fort Chipewyan, AB.,
On Aug. 25, 2022 firefighters responded to a church arson at the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Catholic Church. One suspect was arrested in Oct. of that year for the fire. The church was completely destroyed.
June 13 th 2021 - St. John's Tuscaroras Anglican Church ( 1817 ) on Six Nations of the Grand River Ontario attacked by arsonist !
Dec 17, 2023 - St. Gabriel Catholic Mission - Yet another historic church was burned down in Alberta
www.lifesitenews.com/news/another-historic-church-burns-d...
Dec 11 2023 Barrhead, Alberta — Two more historic Christian churches intentionally set on fire late last week in what police said were suspected acts of arson. More than 100 churches have been targeted by criminal acts of arson and vandalism since 2021. www.lifesitenews.com/news/two-more-historic-churches-in-c...
Dec 20th 2023 - RCMP say fire that destroyed Beiseker Seventh-day Adventist Church early Wednesday was arson,
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/beiseker-church-fire-1.706...Sep 30, 2024, Loon Lake Sask - St. George Anglican Church (1939) has been burnt to the ground.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/mayor-loon-lake-churc...
Jun 9, 2024 Fire ravages historic St. Anne’s Anglican Church in Toronto, destroying Group of Seven murals
ottawa.citynews.ca/2024/06/09/fire-destroys-part-of-histo...
Sep 30, 2024, Loon Lake Sask - St. George Anglican Church (1939) has been burnt to the ground.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/mayor-loon-lake-churc...
Mar 13, 2025 Congregation 'devastated' after fire wrecks Grace-St. John's Anglican Lutheran Church in Carman Man.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/carman-church-grace-st-jo...
A new study reveals that arson attacks on Canadian churches have more than doubled since 2021, with most cases linked to public reaction over reports of unmarked graves at former residential schools-not anti-religious sentiment. Despite nearly 100 churches damaged or destroyed, fewer than 4% of arsonists have been charged, leaving communities searching for answers and healing. www.facebook.com/100069681242082/posts/978055547860478/?_rdr
Although the vast majority of residents in cities across Canada like Halifax, Montreal, Victoria, Hamilton and Calgary had wanted to just simply retain their history by just leaving local statues and artifacts alone, unfortunately, these historical artifacts were shown total disrespect and disregard when either destroyed by lawless vigilante mobs while police stood by and watched, or else hastily torn down and then hidden away by order of local Mayors and council without public consultation or permission ? Many other historic Statues such as Queen Elizabeth ll, Queen Victoria, and even Captain Cook were also mutilated or torn down by lawless vigilante mobs ?
2011 - A National Household Survey of Statistics Canada, of 1,400,685 persons who self-identified as Aboriginal in private households, 889,315, or 63 percent identified as Christian. Of these, over 500,000 identified as Roman Catholic.
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news clippings :
Feb 3rd, 2022 - after the first week of the strike Trudeau and Singh are quick to react and both are quick to immediately condemn the new Truckers Strike as a hate crime ? At Least 45 Christian Churches have been set afire in the last 2 years as the attacks and turnings escalate and this subject has not yet been raised by Trudeau and Singh in Parliament ?
www.flickr.com/photos/74039487@N02/51864639114/
July 25, 2023, luckily, there was only minimal damage in the Mississauga Mosque Attack ? Under new Liberal legislation. hate is considered to be an extremely serious crime in Canada. And as such, this attack is well publicized and even receives a personal visit by the P.M. himself along with a massive CBC news media coverage . A heavy penalty of 8 yrs in prison was handed down to the perpetrator ? Luckily there was no serious property damage to the structure nor life threatening injury to worshipers in the bear spray attack ?
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/mississauga-mosque-attacke...
Arson causing property damage is an extremely serious crime - Sep 09, 2022 - Alberta Arsonist gets 10 years ? Arson causing property damage is an extremely serious crime and nets this arsonist 10 years in prison for torching car dealerships, a pet shop and a gas station.
calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/edson-arsonist-who-torc...
At Least 45 Christian Churches are Set afire as the attacks and burnings escalate !
www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/2021/july/number-of-canadian-christi...
Montreal will not replace the mutilated and then toppled Sir John A. MacDonald statue (circa 6th June 1895), back to where it had stood for 130 years before being destroyed by a gang like lawless vigilante mob ?
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/john-a-macdonald-statue-m...
There have been 83 Churches that have been vandalized or burned to the ground since the start of hateful protests based on residential school viewpoints ?
tnc.news/2023/07/04/a-map-of-every-church-burnt-or-vandal...
Arson is understandable according to Justin Trudeau ? The Prime Minister of Canada says "anger towards Catholic Church is understandable " ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxKMNTMPhhs&t=0s
July 1,2021 - We order you to ban Canada Day celebration ? 'hold those fireworks' The official itinerary of Justin Trudeau ( the Prime Minister of Canada ), does not include July 1st Canada Day celebrations claiming that for some, Canada Day is not a day to celebrate ? rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-day-political-reaction-1.....
Church Arson & Vandalism ? www.rebelnews.com/tags/church_arson_vandalism
Mohawk-language Bible is finally published after decades-long effort by one Quebec man,
montreal.ctvnews.ca/mohawk-language-bible-published-after...
Many prominent Canadian Politicians remain oddly silent and unconcerned about a recent rash of Church arson burnings ?
capforcanada.com/christianity-under-attack-in-canada-as-p...
Nov 11th 2023 - Canada's Military has been ordered by the NDP/Liberal Government not to use or recite Christian prayers like the Lord's Prayer in Remembrance Day ceremonies this year ?
www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/gunter-we-will-always-pray-f...
Nov 08, 2024 - Canadian Military uniforms - Sackville Heights Elementary school in Halifax asks Military service members to hide their uniforms and to wear only civilian during Remembrance Day ceremonies ? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/remembrance-day-unifor...
Nov, 2023 - Girl Guides of Canada tell their Chapters not to participate in Santa Clause Parades this year due to the diversity and inclusion issue ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKixRjRvW7s
Trudeau explains away the arson attacks on Christian churches ?
torontosun.com/opinion/columnists/lilley-trudeau-explains...
On being White and Christian and male in Canada ? A Lawyer discusses the question of ; are heavier sentences now being imposed on certain Canadian citizens ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4S2H3L-vjU&t=41s
NDP National Convention Hamilton 2023 - Can it really be Canada ? The NDP seem to be using a caste system like they have in India ? Delegates given yellow or white tags with the white tags identifying white Christian males who must go to the back of the line ? Others are given yellow tags and can go to the front and given the priority to speak first ?
www.reddit.com/r/CanadianConservative/comments/17a0qh2/ho...
Christmas 2023 - Children not to be shown the nativity story ? The traditional Christmas Concerts in some grade Schools in Halifax are cancelled due to nclusion and diversity issue ?
atlantic.ctvnews.ca/more/n-s-after-school-concert-cancell...
The Canadian Human Rights Commission ( fully funded by the Liberal government) declares the celebration of Christmas is evidence of Canada’s colonialist religious intolerance. www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmuDidYTiY
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWmuDidYTiY
Nov 2022 - Unusual democracy in Terrace B.C. ? The Nativity scene was banned by Council this year even though 73 % of the local citizens want it shown just as it always has been ? www.agassizharrisonobserver.com/news/nativity-scene-banne...
Christmas Dec 2023 Moncton, N.B.- Moncton City Council had decided in private that the nativity scene and the Menorah remain in storage and not allowed shown or displayed this Christmas ? Both Christian and Jewish communities are, ‘profoundly hurt’ www.msn.com/en-ca/news/politics/moncton-jewish-community-...
Dec 2023 - Jyoti Gondek current mayor of Calgary has created a political storm and has upset the Jewish community in Calgary at Christmas time ? She has refused to attend the City's annual menorah lighting, saying that the event has become too political for her ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-5e1LEV1pU
Dec 31 2023, Is celebrating New Years Eve in Canada now considered to be somehow inappropriate by the CBC ? Happy New Year Canada from your taxpayer owned CBC ? For the first time ever in memory, CBC will not broadcast the traditional New Years Eve Party,, stage show or countdown ? CBC says they can't afford it ? www.msn.com/en-ca/entertainment/other/cbc-to-skip-new-yea...
CBC Jan 09, 2024 - After 3 years of relative silence on a story about the current epidemic of Christian Churches burnings by arson, CBC finally air a brief approx 8 minute documentary story covering this ongoing national disgrace ? A local First Nations chief, who is quite vocal about his personal animosity towards the Church, serves as the co-host in the first segment of the program ? Another individual who is currently studying at UofA in Edmonton explains why Christian Church arson by her First Nations people is understandable and justifiable ?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxkX6NPpe14&t=51s
Jan 10, 2024 - A newspaper article on Christian Church arson in Canada www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-fires-canada-1.705...
Jan 28 2024 Fredericton NB Canada, Citizens gather together arm in arm in solidarity showing community outrage over an attack on a local Jewish Sgoolai Israel Synagogue . Over 100 residents join arms to show sympathy and support against an attack on a place of worship . ca.news.yahoo.com/community-unites-support-vandalized-fre...
Is Bill C-367 designed to eventually make Christianity illegal in Canada ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_VQe0z6ghk
Bill C-367 - Speaking the Biblical message as truth could get you arrested in Canada ? www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1NY_YsF35k
No one is denying the existence of residential schools. And so why are Leah Gazan (NDP) Lindsay Mathyssen (NDP) and Kimberley Murray (Liberal Government investigator) so unsatisfied and why are they trying to force their own unique personal and job related viewpoint on everyone else ? Why do they want you to think the same way that they think, believe what they believe, and to be forced to accept what they want or else be called a denier and sent to jail ?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZU7NEzs3Gk
Jan 10, 2024- At least 33 Canadian churches have been burned to the ground since May 2021. So far, 24 confirmed as arson ? .
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/church-fires-canada-1.705...
Aug 24, 2024 - ' Church arson is Terrorism in France' - French anti-terrorism team is investigating attempted arson against a French synagogue. The Country of France is viewing Church burning as internal Terrorism, yet Canada does nothing as over 100 historic churches in Canada are attacked ? Dec/2024 Trudeau not invited to the official Notre Dame opening ceremony in France ?
www.cbc.ca/news/world/arson-attempt-france-1.7304198
Is Christianity under attack in Canada ? Our NDP Liberal political leaders hide, downplay and don't seem bothered at all by the epidemic of Christian Church Arson ?
capforcanada.com/christianity-under-attack-in-canada-as-p...
Apr 11, 2024, Winnipeg Manitoba - Manitoba's NDP premier Wab Kinew wants to change the current prayer recited in the legislature to make it more inclusive of people who practice faiths other than Christianity, or those holding no faith at all ? www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/prayer-legislature-questi...
Good Friday Easter 2024 - Did Prime Minister Trudeau snub a longtime Canadian religious holiday ? www.msn.com/en-ca/news/other/warmington-prime-minister-ac...
fire set in doorway possible 'hate crime' - Vancouver, May 31, 2024, - Police say the fire set in the doorway of the Schara Tzedeck synagogue May 30th is arson and are treating it as a possible 'hate crime' and will immediately launch a criminal investigation into suspected Church arson
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-fire-sy...
Aug 21, 2024 - Alleged Catholic church arsonist immediately let out on bail ? Vernon man is arrested Monday after trying to start fires outside a Catholic church has been released on bail, and barred from possessing lighters or matches. Suspect granted bail following hearing Tuesday afternoon in Kamloops provincial court.
www.castanet.net/news/Vernon/502364/Bail-granted-to-man-a...
Apr 16th 2025 Montreal - Scrum following the French-language leaders' debate - NDP leader Jagmeet Singh won't address questions on Christian church arson attacks in Canada ? Dismisses this as misinformation and disinformation and dismisses person asking question as extremist ? Refuses to answer ?
nowtoronto.com/news/canadians-react-to-ndp-leader-jagmeet...
Trump is protecting history enacts 10 years in jail penalty for harming or defacing historical statues,,
www.cbsnews.com/video/trump-signs-executive-order-enactin...
.
.
Religious intolerance - The ability of an individual to freely practice their religion is a fundamental human right.
www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/en/resources/publications/discussion-...
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Low wide video view that includes a view through the screened gate of a cotton module builder (stompers), as a basket-type cotton picker harvesters pulling up and unload cotton bolls into the builder that uses a hydraulic ram and tramper beam to compress the cotton into modules, 32 feet long, 7 1/2 feet wide, and 9 1/2 feet tall, then the stomper is raised and pulled away, simultaneously pulling a protective tarp over the top, following the end of each day, a vacuum is used to pick up all the fallen cotton and added to a module during the Ernie Schirmer Farms cotton harvest, in Batesville, TX, on August 22, 2020. For more information about the cotton harvest, the Schirmer family, and their farms, please go to flic.kr/s/aHsmPYgNPx
From 10 AM to 10 PM, harvesters are driven across the circular (pivot irrigated) fields. The harvesters use specialized harvester heads that twist and pull the soft, cotton boll from the plant; and then the cotton bolls are vacuumed up into a large open-air bin. When full, operators return to the mobile industrial area to unload cotton into 'stompers' (module builders). Stompers use a hydraulic ram and tramper beam to compress the cotton into modules, 32 feet long, 7 1/2 feet wide, and 9 1/2 feet tall. Once complete, the stomper is raised and pulled away, simultaneously pulling a protective tarp over the top. Once covered tight, the modules become the property of the cotton gin.
The Schirmer family have owned and operated farms in the south-central Texas region for six generations, since 1875.
In the harvesters are Ernie Schirmer Farms (Batesville) Operations Manager Brandon Schirmer (in grey shirt and dark brimmed cap, 6th generation), and farm owner and father Ernie Schirmer (dark shirt and orange cap, 5th generation), Jerry Berstraeten, with son Brett; at the same time, Ernie's wife Terri (yellow shirt and tan cap), cousin Cali Erfurth (pink t-shirt), Derek Reininger (grey t-shirt and tan cap) and a fellow farmowner Carl Santleben (western hat) operate the stompers.
For more information about the Schirmer family and their farms, please go to flic.kr/s/aHsmPYgNPx
USDA Photo and Media by Lance Cheung.
British Real Photograph postcard, no. 214.
Handsome, suave English-American actor Cary Grant (1904-1986) became one of Hollywood's definitive classic leading men, known for his debonair demeanour. Grant’s best-known films include Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), His Girl Friday (1940), Notorious (1946), An Affair to Remember (1957), North by Northwest (1959), and Charade (1963).
Cary Grant was born Archibald Alexander Leach in Horfield, Bristol, England, in 1904. His parents were Elsie Maria (Kingdon) and Elias James Leach, who worked in a factory. Grant considered himself to have been partly Jewish. He had an unhappy upbringing in Bristol. At age nine, he came home from school one day and was told his mother had gone off to a seaside resort. The real truth, however, was that she had been placed in a mental institution, where she would remain for years, and he was never told about it. Grant did not learn that his mother was still alive until he was 31, when his father confessed to the lie, shortly before his own death. At age 14, Archibald dropped out of school. He lied about his age and forged his father's signature on a letter to join Bob Pender's troupe of knockabout comedians. He learned pantomime as well as acrobatics as he toured with the Pender troupe in the English provinces. Then in 1920, he was one of the eight Pender boys selected to go to the US. Their show on Broadway, Good Times, ran for 456 performances at the New York Hippodrome (the largest theatre in the world at the time with a capacity of 5,697), giving Grant time to acclimatise. He would stay in America. Grant spent the next couple of years touring the United States with The Walking Stanleys. He visited Los Angeles for the first time in 1924, which left a lasting impression upon him. After the group split up he returned to New York, where he began living and performing at the National Vaudeville Artists Club. In 1927, he was cast as an Australian in Reggie Hammerstein's musical, Golden Dawn. In the following years he gained a reputation as a romantic leading man. After a successful screen-test, Paramount producer Bud Schulberg signed a contract with the 27-year-old Grant in 1931 for five years. He made his feature film debut with the comedy This is the Night (Frank Tuttle, 1932), playing an Olympic javelin thrower opposite Thelma Todd and Lili Damita. Grant played a wealthy playboy opposite Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932), directed by Josef von Sternberg. Mae West wanted Grant for She Done Him Wrong (Lowell Sherman, 1933) because she saw his combination of virility, sexuality and the aura and bearing of a gentleman. The film was a box office hit, earning more than $2 million in the United States. For their next pairing, I'm No Angel (Wesley Ruggles, 1934), Grant's salary was increased from $450 to $750 a week. The film was even more successful than She Done Him Wrong, and saved Paramount from bankruptcy.
When the Paramount contract was up Cary Grant made an unusual decision for the time: he decided to freelance. Because his films were so successful at the box office, he was able to work at any studio he chose for the majority of his career. For Hal Roach's studio he made the screwball comedy Topper (Norman Z. McLeod, 1937), which became his first major comedy success. The following year, he starred opposite Katharine Hepburn in the screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938), featuring a leopard and frequent bickering and verbal jousting between Grant and Hepburn. He played a British army sergeant opposite Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. in the adventure film Gunga Din (George Stevens, 1939), set at a military station in India, and a pilot opposite Jean Arthur and Rita Hayworth in the drama Only Angels Have Wings (Howard Hawks, 1939). Grant gained even more success for his appearances in the romantic comedies His Girl Friday (Howard Hawks, 1940) with Rosalind Russell, and The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor, 1940) with Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart. Along with Arsenic and Old Lace (Frank Capra, 1944) and I Was a Male War Bride (Howard Hawks, 1949); these films are among the all-time great comedy films. Having established himself as a major Hollywood star, he was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Penny Serenade (George Stevens, 1941) and None but the Lonely Heart (Clifford Odets, 1944). In the 1940s, Grant also started a working relationship with director Alfred Hitchcock, appearing in films such as Suspicion (1941) opposite Joan Fontaine, and Notorious (1946) opposite Ingrid Bergman. Hitchcock admired Grant and considered him to have been the only actor that he had ever loved working with. In To Catch a Thief (1955), he and Grace Kelly were allowed to improvise some of the dialogue. They knew what Hitchcock wanted to do with a scene, they rehearsed it, put in some clever double entendres that got past the censors, and then the scene was filmed. His biggest box-office success was Hitchcock’s North by Northwest (1959) made with Eva Marie Saint since Kelly was by that time Princess of Monaco.
Cary Grant was young enough to begin the new career of fatherhood when he stopped making movies at age 62. Grant retired from the screen at 62, when his daughter Jennifer was born, to focus on bringing her up and to provide a sense of permanency and stability in her life. Although Grant had retired from the screen, he remained active. In 1966, he accepted a position on the board of directors at Fabergé. By all accounts this position was not honorary, as some had assumed; Grant regularly attended meetings and travelled internationally to support them. The position also permitted use of a private plane, which Grant could use to fly to see his daughter wherever her mother, Dyan Cannon, was working. He later joined the boards of Hollywood Park, the Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle, Hollywood, California), Western Airlines (acquired by Delta Air Lines in 1987), and MGM. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Grant the second greatest male star of Golden Age Hollywood cinema (after Humphrey Bogart). He was nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Actor and five times for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. After his retirement from film in 1966, Grant was presented with an Honorary Oscar in 1970. He expressed no interest in making a career comeback. He was in good health until almost the end of his life, when he suffered a mild stroke in October 1984. His final appearance at the Academy Awards was in 1985 to present James Stewart with an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. In the last few years of his life, Grant undertook tours of the United States in a one-man show, A Conversation with Cary Grant, in which he would show clips from his films and answer audience questions. In 1986, Grant suffered a major stroke prior to performing in his one man show in Davenport, Iowa. He died later that night at St. Luke's Hospital. Grant had been married five times. His wives were actress Virginia Cherrill (1934-1935), Barbara Hutton (1942-1945), actress Betsy Drake (1949-1962), actress Dyan Cannon (1965-1968), and Barbara Harris (1981-1986). From 1932 till 1944 he shared a house with Randolph Scott, whom he met on Hot Saturday (1932). Studio heads threatened not to employ them together, unless they lived separately. Grant's marriage to Barbara Hutton permanently dissolved his living arrangement with Scott. Grant later fell in love with Sophia Loren while filming The Pride and the Passion (1957) when he was 53 and she was 22. At the time, Grant was still married to actress Betsy Drake, and Loren was involved with 45-year-old producer Carlo Ponti, who was also married. Both men eventually separated from their wives and proposed to Loren at the same time; she chose Ponti.
Sources: Dale O'Connor (IMDb), Pedro Borges (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.
Stourhead (/ˈstɑːˌhɛd/[1]) is a 1,072-hectare (2,650-acre) estate[2] at the source of the River Stour near Mere, Wiltshire, England. The estate includes a Palladian mansion, the village of Stourton, gardens, farmland, and woodland. Stourhead is part owned with the National Trust since 1946.
Contents [hide]
1History
2Gardens
2.1Architects
2.2"The Genius of the Place"
3Prints
4Trivia
5Gallery
6References
7External links
History[edit]
The Stourton family, the Barons of Stourton, had lived in the Stourhead estate for 500 years[3] until they sold it to Sir Thomas Meres in 1714.[4] His son, John Meres, sold it to Henry Hoare I, son of wealthy banker Sir Richard Hoare in 1717.[5] The original manor house was demolished and a new house, one of the first of its kind, was designed by Colen Campbell and built by Nathaniel Ireson between 1721 and 1725.[6] Over the next 200 years the Hoare family collected many heirlooms, including a large library and art collection. In 1902 the house was gutted by fire but many of the heirlooms were saved, and the house was rebuilt in a near identical style.[7]
The last Hoare family member to own the property, Henry Hugh Arthur Hoare, gave the house and gardens to the National Trust in 1946, one year before his death; his sole heir and son, Captain "Harry" Henry Colt Arthur Hoare, of the Queen's Own Dorset Yeomanry, had died of wounds received at the Battle of Mughar Ridge on 13 November 1917 in World War I.[7] The last Hoare family member to be born at the house was Edward Hoare on 11 October 1949.
Gardens[edit]
Architects[edit]
Although the main design for the estate at Stourhead was created by Colen Campbell, there were various other architects involved in its evolution through the years. William Benson, Henry Hoare's brother-in-law, was in part responsible for the building of the estate in 1719.[8] Francis Cartwright, a master builder and architect, was established as a "competent provincial designer in the Palladian manner."[9] He worked on Stourhead between the years of 1749–1755. Cartwright was a known carver, presumably of materials such as wood and stone. It is assumed that his contribution to Stourhead was in this capacity. Nathaniel Ireson is the master builder credited for much of the work on the Estate. It is this work that established his career, in 1720.[10]
The original estate remained intact, though changes and additions were made over time. Henry Flitcroft built three temples and a tower on the property. The Temple of Ceres was added in 1744, followed by the Temple of Hercules in 1754 and the Temple of Apollo in 1765. That same year he designed Alfred's Tower, but it wasn't built until 1772.[11] In 1806, the mason and surveyor John Carter added an ornamental cottage to the grounds; at the request of Sir Richard Colt Hoare.[12] The architect William Wilkins created a Grecian style lodge in 1816; for Sir R. Colt Hoare.[12]
In 1840, over a century after the initial buildings were constructed, Charles Parker was hired by Sir Hugh Hoare to make changes to the estate. A portico was added to the main house, along with other alterations. The design of the additions was in keeping with original plans.[13]
"The Genius of the Place"[edit]
The lake at Stourhead is artificially created. Following a path around the lake is meant to evoke a journey similar to that of Aeneas's descent in to the underworld.[14] In addition to Greek mythology, the layout is evocative of the "genius of the place", a concept made famous by Alexander Pope. Buildings and monuments are erected in remembrance of family and local history. Henry Hoare was a collector of art– one of his pieces was Claude Lorrain's Aeneas at Delos, which is thought to have inspired the pictorial design of the gardens.[14] Passages telling of Aeneas's journey are quoted in the temples surrounding the lake.
Monuments are used to frame one another; for example the Pantheon designed by Flitcroft entices the visitor over, but once reached, views from the opposite shore of the lake beckon.[15] The use of the sunken path allows the landscape to continue on into neighbouring landscapes, allowing the viewer to contemplate all the surrounding panorama. The Pantheon was thought to be the most important visual feature of the gardens. It appears in many pieces of artwork owned by Hoare, depicting Aeneas's travels.[16] The plantings in the garden were arranged in a manner that would evoke different moods, drawing visitors through realms of thought.[15] According to Henry Hoare, 'The greens should be ranged together in large masses as the shades are in painting: to contrast the dark masses with the light ones, and to relieve each dark mass itself with little sprinklings of lighter greens here and there.'[17]
View taken from the Grotto, of the lake in autumn colours
Stourhead's lake and foliage as seen from a high hill vantage point
The gardens were designed by Henry Hoare II and laid out between 1741 and 1780 in a classical 18th-century design set around a large lake, achieved by damming a small stream. The inspiration behind their creation were the painters Claude Lorrain, Poussin, and, in particular, Gaspard Dughet, who painted Utopian-type views of Italian landscapes. It is similar in style to the landscape gardens at Stowe.
Included in the garden are a number of temples inspired by scenes of the Grand Tour of Europe. On one hill overlooking the gardens there stands an obelisk and King Alfred's Tower, a 50-metre-tall, brick folly designed by Henry Flitcroft in 1772; on another hill the temple of Apollo provides a vantage point to survey the magnificent rhododendrons, water, cascades and temples. The large medieval Bristol High Cross was moved from Bristol to the gardens. Amongst the hills surrounding the site there are also two Iron Age hill forts: Whitesheet Hill and Park Hill Camp. The gardens are home to a large collection of trees and shrubs from around the world.
Richard Colt Hoare, the grandson of Henry Hoare II, inherited Stourhead in 1783.[7] He added the library wing to the mansion,[7] and in the garden was responsible for the building of the boathouse and the removal of several features that were not in keeping with the classical and gothic styles (including a Turkish Tent). He also considerably enhanced the planting – the Temple of Apollo rises from a wooded slope that was planted in Colt Hoare's time. With the antiquarian passion of the times, he had 400 ancient burial mounds dug up to inform his pioneering History of Ancient Wiltshire.
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FUGRO
M.V. FUGRO VENTURER
New generation geophysical & hydrographic survey vessel designed for performance, safety and efficiency.
Fugro Venturer, is the newest evolution of Fugro’s Standard Survey Vessels (FSSV series) built specifically to meet multi-role geophysical survey standards.
The suite of survey equipment includes analogue sensors comprising of hull mounted single and multibeam echo sounders, state of the art sub bottom profilers, a hull mounted Edgetech CHIRP profiler and 2 x 12 cubic inch mini air gun
array and an Edgetech dual frequency 4200
FS digital sidescan sonar.
In complement to this, the vessel is also mobilised with a Hydroscience SeaMUX digital system, comprised of a 1200m HTI solid digital streamer and seismic source of 152 cubic inches, although larger sources and streamers may be mobilized subject to client requirements.
Precise subsea positioning of survey equipment is achieved
EQUIPMENT FLYER via a hull-mounted HiPAP 502 USBL
system. Dual Rx / Dual Swath EM2040 and
a Deep Water EM302 MBES system is fitted to an acoustically efficient gondola.
A 20t traction winch is fitted below decks that
offers sampling in up to 3500m water
depth.
The design of the vessel permits simultaneous analogue/digital survey operations and the capability to also
conduct AUV, ROV, Environmental and Shallow Geotechnical surveys.
The vessel houses a permanent AUV deployment Hangar and is capable of hosting a multitude of ROV platforms.
General
Name M.V. Fugro Venturer
Classification GL+100 A5 E1 BWM(D2) Special Purpose Ship,
Research Vessel, GL+MC E1 AUT DP 1 EP-D
Owner Fugro
Built Q2 2017
Port / Flag Panama
MMSI No. 311 000 463
Call Sign C6CG3
IMO No. 9769051
Dimensions
LOA 71.5m
Beam 15.4m
Draught 5.6m
Tonnage GT 2455
Accommodation
Cabins 34 single en-suite, 4 double ensuite
Hospital 1 single berth
Offices 2 clients office
Recreation 2 x lounge / video, 1 x gym, 1 x cinema
Machnery
Bow Thruster 1 x 600 kW (electric)
Cruising Speed 10 knots
Maximum Speed 12 knots
Electrical Power
Auxiliary Generators N/A
Generators 2 x 1175 KVA, 2 x 972 KVA CAT Leroy Somer
Capacities
Fuel Capacity 464 m3 (35 operational days at sea)
Fuel Consumption 211 g/KWh at 100% load (pending sea trial
measurements)
Water Capacity 185 m3
Water Making 10 m3/day
Provisions 90 days
Control and Navigation
Autopilot Schottel Co-pilot Simrad AP80
DP System Kongsberg KPOS and cJoy
2 x Radars Sperry S-Band & Sperry X-Band
2 x Electronic Chart TransasNS4000
2 x DGPS Saab R5
1 x Gyro Sperry Navigat X MK1
Deck Machinery
Deck Crane 2 x SWL 5.0 t /12 m crane
Hydraulic A Frame 1 x SWL 20t, 1 x SWL 7.5t, 1 x SWL 3t
Launch Boom 1 x SWL 2.5t and 1 x SWL 1t traversing
Deepwater Sampling lift/log
winch (PCPT)
3,500m 20t lift and 1,400m
Communications
MF / HF (2x) Sailor 6000 series
Inmarsat C (2x) Sailor 6110 mini
VHF (4x) Sailor 6222
UHF(4x) Motorola DM2600
V-SAT 1 x KU band Seatel 6012
CCTV Hernis
Safety
Rescue / MOB Boat 6.1m 6 pers rescue boat
Lift Rafts (200%) 4 x 25 person
Survival Suits (100%) 42 pcs
Lift Jackets (200%) 100 pcs
Work Vest 12 pcs
Fire Detection Funa MD9800
Survey Equipment
DGPS Positioning Starfix HP / XP and Starfix Spot
Acoustic Positioning Kongsberg HiPAP 502, 2 Poles available
Motion Reference Unit MRU5+, MGC R3 INS
Echo Sounder Kongsberg EA600
Multi Beam Echo Sounder Kongsberg EM302 and EM2040 Dual Rx
Sound Velocity Probe 2 x Valeport Midas SVX2
Side Scan Sonar Edgetech 4200 FS
Sub Bottom Profiler Hull mounted Edgetech CHIRP Profiler,
2 x 12 cu inch mini guns
Magnetometer Geometrics G-882 Magnetometer
Hydrophone Steamer SES 24 Element Mini Streamer
Digital Logging GLOG / GPLOT
Seabed Sampling 3 / 6m Gravity Corer, Grab Sampler,
3 / 6m Piston Coring
Digital Seismic Recording Hydroscience Technologies NTRS2 240 ch
Streamer HTI Seamux gel filled 6.25m / 12.5m
Gun Controller RTS Hotshot
Depth Controller Digicourse 5010 & 5011
Source Arrays 6 x Sercel Mini G Guns, 152 cu inch array
Network Several 10G Bass T
Compressor 4 x Hamworthy compressors
Geotechnical Capability Roson CPT, Coiled rod CPTs, Piston Corer,
Gravity Corer
Environmental Capability Box corer - several options can be mobilised
Corers - several options can be mobilised
ROV Capability Several ROV options can be mobilised
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
I've got some good things going on right now. These include a small hanging in New Paltz, NY at an organic restaurant Karma Road and I am also the featured photographer on Hungry Walls for the month of September. Latly, there is also a work of mine currently hanging in the Poughkeepsie Quadracentennial Show.
Thank you to everyone who is a fan of what I do.
And, oh yes, this chair has seen a lot of arse.
Dharamshala (also Dharamsala) is a city and a municipal council in Kangra district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is the district headquarters. It was formerly known as Bhagsu. The Dalai Lama's residence in McLeodGanj and the headquarters of Central Tibetan Administration (the Tibetan government in exile) are in Dharamshala. Dharamshala is 18 kilometres from Kangra.
DESCRIPTION
Dharamshala is a city in the upper reaches of the Kangra Valley and is surrounded by dense coniferous forest consisting mainly of stately Deodar cedar trees. The suburbs include McLeodGanj, Bhagsunath, Dharamkot, Naddi, ForsythGanj, Kotwali Bazaar (the main market), Kaccheri Adda (government offices such as the court, police, post, etc.), Dari, Ramnagar, Sidhpur, and Sidhbari (where the Karmapa is based).
The village of McLeodGanj, lying in the upper reaches, is known worldwide for the presence of the Dalai Lama. On 29 April 1959, the 14th Dalai Lama (Tenzin Gyatso) established the Tibetan exile administration in the north Indian hill station of Mussoorie. In May 1960, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) was moved to Dharamshala.
Dharamshala is the centre of the Tibetan exile world in India. Following the 1959 Tibetan uprising there was an influx of Tibetan refugees who followed the 14th Dalai Lama. His presence and the Tibetan population has made Dharamshala a popular destination for Indian and foreign tourists, including students studying Tibet.
One of the main attractions of Dharamshala is Triund hill. Jewel of Dharamshala, Triund is one day trek at the upper reaches of McLeodGanj, about 9 km from McLeodGanj.
ETYMOLOGY
Dharamshala (Devanagari: धर्मशाला; ITRANS: Dharmashaalaa; IAST: Dharmaśālā) is a Hindi word (derived from Sanskrit) that is a compound of dharma (धर्म) and shālā (शाला). A loose translation into English would be 'spiritual dwelling' or, more loosely, 'sanctuary'. Rendering a precise literal translation into English is problematic due to the vast and conceptually rich semantic field of the word dharma[1] and the cultural aspect of India.
In common Hindi usage, the word dharamshala refers to a shelter or rest house for spiritual pilgrims. Traditionally, such dharamshalas (pilgrims' rest houses) were commonly constructed near pilgrimage destinations (often in remote areas) to give visitors a place to sleep for the night. When the first permanent settlement was created in the place now called Dharamshala, there was one such pilgrims' rest house on the site, and the settlement took its name from that dharamshala.
HISTORY
BEFORE THE RAJ
From the earliest times until the British Raj, Dharamshala and its surrounding area was ruled by the Katoch Dynasty of Kangra. The Katoch Dynasty is said to be the oldest serving Royal Family in the world.[3] The Royal Family still keeps a residence in Dharamshala, known as 'Clouds End Villa'.
The indigenous people of the Dharamshala area (and the surrounding region) are the Gaddis, a predominantly Hindu group who traditionally lived a nomadic or semi-nomadic (transhumant) lifestyle. Due to the lack of permanent settlements in the area, some Gaddis lost their seasonal pastures and farmland when the British and the Gurkhas arrived to settle.
Settlement by the British and the Gurkhas
In 1848, the area now known as Dharamshala was annexed by the British.
"Dharamsāla lies on a spur of the Dhaola Dhār, 16 miles north-east of Kāngra, in the midst of wild and picturesque scenery. It originally formed a subsidiary cantonment for the troops stationed at Kāngra, and was first occupied as a station in 1849, when a site was required for a cantonment to accommodate a Native regiment which was being raised in the District. A site was found upon the slopes of the Dhaola Dhār, in a plot of waste land, upon which stood an old Hindu resthouse, or dharmsāla, whence the name adopted for the new cantonment. The civil authorities, following the example of the regimental officers, and attracted by the advantages of climate and scenery, built themselves houses in the neighbourhood of the cantonment; and in 1855 the new station was formally recognised as the head-quarters of the [Kāngra] District."
In 1860, the 66th Gurkha Light Infantry was moved from Kangra, Himachal Pradesh to Dharamshala, which was at first made a subsidiary cantonment. An ideal position for the new base was found on the slopes of the Dhauladhar Hills, near the site of a Hindu sanctuary, or Dharamshala, hence the name of the town. The Battalion was later renamed the historic 1st Gurkha Rifles, this was the beginning of the legend of the Gurkhas, also known as the 'Bravest of the Brave'. Consequently, fourteen Gurkha platoon villages grew from this settlement, and exist to this day, namely Dari, Ramnagar, Shyamnagar, Dal, Totarani, Khanyara, Sadher, Chaandmaari, Sallagarhi, Sidhbari, Yol, and so on. The Gurkhas worshipped at the ancient Shiva temple of Bhagsunag. The Gurkhas referred to Dharamshala as 'Bhagsu' and referred to themselves as Bhagsuwalas.
The 21st Gurkha Regiment from Dharamshala performed heroic feats during World War I and the North West Frontier Province campaigns. The Gurkha cantonment then reached its zenith during World War II, when battalions from Dharamshala made history. Many place names in the town still retain their former cantonment terminologies: Depot Bazaar, Pensioners' Lines, Tirah Lines (named after the 19th century Tirah Campaign), Bharatpore Lines (named after the 1826 Battle of Bharatpore).
The second Lord Elgin, Viceroy of India died here (at the 1st Gurkha Rifles Officers' Mess) in 1863 and is buried in the cemetery of St. John in the Wilderness, a small Anglican church distinguished by its stained-glass windows. Dharamshala became a popular hill station for the British working in or near Delhi, offering a cool respite during the hot summer months.
"Before the earthquake of 1905, the upper part of the station, which rises to a height of 7,112 feet [2,168 metres], contained the European houses, the station church, and the officers' mess and lines of the 1st Gurkhas, together with the public gardens, post office, and two bazars, the Forsythganj and McLeodganj. The public offices, a bazar, and a few European houses made up the lower station, as low as 1,372 metres. The 1st battalion of the 1st Gurkhas used to be stationed here, but was moved to the upper station in 1894-5.... The public gardens, which were, before the earthquake, laid out with much taste in lawns and terraces, contained a valuable collection of indigenous and imported trees and shrubs, and were overlooked by the Assembly Rooms, a handsome building comprising a public hall, a library and reading-room and a billiard-room. The church was beautifully situated in a recess of the mountain."
In 1905, the Kangra valley suffered a major earthquake. On April 4 of that year, the earth shook, demolishing much of the cantonment and the neighbouring city of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh as well as the Bhagsunag temple. Altogether, the 1905 Kangra earthquake killed 20,000 people. "1,625 persons perished at Dharamsāla alone, including 15 Europeans and 112 of the Gurkha garrison."."
The Gurkhas rebuilt the town along with the temple, which today is acknowledged as the 1st Gurkha Rifles' heritage. The British had planned to make Dharamshala the summer capital of India, but moved to Shimla after the disaster.
Not only did the Gurkhas of Dharmshala make a major contribution to India's defence, many were freedom fighters for the Indian National Army, which had been founded by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The Indian National Army Captain Ram Singh Thakur, a Gurkha from the village of Khanyara, composed some of India's most popular and stirring patriotic songs, including "Kadam Kadam Badaye Ja". He is acknowledged so by the Netaji Research Bureau, Kolkata. The important contribution of the noted Gurkha social commentator, the late Master Mitrasen Thapa, from the village of Totarani, has been acknowledged by the Himachal Pradesh government. Recently, a park dedicated to the memory of the late Brigadier Sher Jung Thapa, MVC, the 'Hero of Skardu', has been opened alongside the road between Lower and Upper Dharamshala.
ESTABLISHMENT OF TIBETAN EXILE COMMUNITY
The Tibetan settlement of Dharamshala began in 1959, when His Holiness the Dalai Lama had to flee Tibet and the Prime Minister of India allowed him and his followers to settle in McLeodGanj (in Upper Dharmshala), a former colonial British summer picnic spot. There they established the "government-in-exile" in 1960. Dharamshala had been connected with Hinduism and Buddhism for a long time, many monasteries having been established there in the past, by Tibetan immigrants in the 19th century.In 1970, The Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, opened the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives which houses over 80,000 manuscripts and other important resources related to Tibetan history, politics and culture. It is considered one of the most important institutions for Tibetology in the world, the new director is Geshe Lahkdor, the old translator of H.H. the Dalai Lama.
Several thousand Tibetan exiles have now settled in the area, and most live in and around McLeodGanj in Upper Dharamshala, where they have built monasteries, temples and schools. McLeodGanj is sometimes known as 'Little Lhasa", after the Tibetan capital city, or 'Dhasa' (a compound of 'Dharamshala' and 'Lhasa'). It has become an important tourist destination with many hotels and restaurants, leading to growth in tourism and commerce.
Dharamshala is the winter capital of Himachal Pradesh. The Legislative Assembly is at Sidhbari, near the Chinmaya Tapovan Ashram, and the winter sessions of the Government are held there.
GEOGRAPHY
Dharamshala has an average elevation of 1457 metres, covering an area of almost 8.51 km².
Dharamsala is located in the Kangra Valley, in the shadow of the Dhauladhar mountains.
The city is divided into two distinct sections. Kotwali Bazaar and the surrounding markets are referred to as "Lower Dharamshala" or just "Dharamshala." Further up the mountain is McLeodGanj separated in between by the village of Ganchen Kyishong, the home of the Tibetan government-in-exile. A steep, narrow road connects McLeodGanj from Dharamshala and is only accessible to taxis and small cars, while a longer road winds around the valley for use by buses and trucks. McLeodGanj is surrounded by pine, Himalayan oak, and rhododendron.
The main crops grown in the valleys below are rice, wheat and tea.
CONNECTIONS
Dharamshala town is reached by Gaggal Airport, (IATA: DHM, ICAO: VIGG), about 15 km to the town's south and about 10 km north of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh town. To reach Dharamshala by train, one has to reach Kangra, Himachal Pradesh town by Kangra Valley Railway line from Pathankot 94 km away and then take a bus or a taxi.
Pathankot is a broad gauge railway head. There is another railway line from Pathankot to Jogindernagar, a part of the Mandi District of Himachal Pradesh, which is a narrow-gauge line. The nearest station to Dharamshala on this line is Chamunda Marg, half an hour away, where a Shaktipitha is; the town is well connected by road to other parts of the country.
Buses of all classes (deluxe, air-conditioned, and regular) drive daily between Dharamshala and major cities such as Chandigarh, Delhi, and Shimla. Several buses each night connect McLeodGanj with Majnu Ka Tila, the Tibetan settlement in Delhi.
CLIMATE
Dharamshala has a monsoon-influenced humid subtropical climate (Cwa). Summer starts in early April, peaks in early June (when temperatures can reach 36 °C) and last till mid-June. From July to mid-September is the monsoon season when up to 3000 mm of rainfall can be experienced, making Dharamshala one of the wettest places in the state. Autumn is mild and lasts from October to the end of November.
Autumn temperatures average around 16–17 °C. Winter starts in December and continues until late February. Snow and sleet are common during the winter in upper Dharamshala (including McLeodganj, Bhagsu Nag and Naddi). Lower Dharamshala receives little solid precipitation except hail. The snowfall of January 7, 2012 was an exception. It was caused by deep low pressure entering the Kangra district. Winter is followed by a short, pleasant spring until April. Historically, the Dhauladhar mountains used to remain snow-covered all year long, however, in recent years they have been losing their snow blanket during dry spells.
The best times to visit are the autumn and spring months.
TREKKING
Dharamshala is a starting point to a number of trekking trails that especially lead trekkers across Dhauladhar into the upper Ravi Valley and Chamba district. En route, you cross through forests of deodar, pine, oak and rhododendron, and pass streams and rivers and wind along vertiginous cliff tracks, and the occasional lake waterfall and glacier.
A 2-km amble takes one to Bhagsu, and then a further 3-km walk will lead the trekkers to Dharamkot. If one wishes to go on a longer walk then he/she can trek 8-km to Triund. The snow line of Ilaqa Got is just a 5-km walk.
Other trekking trails that lead you to Chamba from Dharamshala are:
Toral Pass (4575m) which begins from Tang Narwana (1150m) that is nearly 10 km from Dharamshala
Across Bhimghasutri Pass (4580m) via near-vertical rocky ascents, steep cliffs and dangerous gorges. This is a highly difficult level trek and takes around six days to complete.
Dharamshala—Bleni Pass (3710m) – Dunali. Compared to other trekking trails, this one is much easier and takes around four or five-days to complete. The trek leads you through alpine pastures, woods, and streams, before ending at Dunali, on the Chamba road.
Dharamshala is an ideal destination for rock climbing enthusiasts. One can go rock climbing over the ridges of the Dhauladhar range.
kareri lake (near kareri village) is also a famous trekking destination for travellers.
PLACES OF ATTRACTION
Naam Art Gallery The exhibition in ‘NAAM ART GALLERY’ exhibits paintings by Elsbeth Buschmann - watercolours and acrylics - and oil paintings by Alfred W. Hallett. Elsbeth Buschmann, is a professional painter from Germany, having studied painting in London and Paris . She lived in many countries where she held exhibitions, especially in the USA where she received various awards. Her paintings are in private collections in Germany, USA, Scotland, India and Switzerland. In India she held solo exhibitions at AIFAX, New Delhi and TAG, the Art Gallery of the Taj Mahal Hotel, Mumbai. She also took part in ‘The Himalayan National Exhibition of Art’ and was awarded. Open 10am to 7.00pm (Monday Closed) Mobile 098160-43708
Masrur (or Masroor): The major attraction of this place is the fifteen exquisitely carved monolithic rock temples dating back to the 8th century. The carvings of these temples are similar to Kailash temple at Ellora. In the sanctum of the main temple, one can find images of Lord Ram, and the Goddesses Sita and Lakshmi. Masrur is 40 km south of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh at 32°4′22″N 76°8′14″E. Template:Jama Masjid, Kotwali Bazar, Dharamshala.
Bhagsu Waterfall: This waterfall is in Bhagsu, 2 km from McLeodGanj. It lies behind the Bhagsunag Temple. During Monsoon, the fall turns into a 30 feet cascade.
Bhagsunag Temple: Temple of god Shiva situated around 2 km from McLeodGanj Bazaar. Constructed by 1 GR by around 1800 century and then worshipped majorly by 14 Gukha platoon villages in Dharamshala. Very next to Bhagsunag temple is a water fall, one of the major tourist attraction spot in Dharamshala.
Kangra Museum: Situated close to the bus stand, Kangra Art Museum is a unique museum displaying the artifacts of Tibetan and Buddhist cultures. This is a treasure of Kangra valley’s cultural past, crafts, arts and other ancient artifacts. Some of the displayed items in the museum are dating back to the 5th century.
Kangra Museum encloses a gallery consisting of miniature paintings of Kangra’s rich past, pottery, rare coin memorabilia, sculptures and anthropological materials. It has a varied collection of tribal jewelry, embroidered costumes and wood carvings. A section dedicated to contemporary artworks adds the attraction to the museum.
Tourists can easily reach by bus or taxi and it will take 30 mins to one hour to see the museum. While visiting the museum, never miss to explore the Kotwali bazar.
Kunal Pathri Temple: This temple is dedicated to Goddess Kalpeshwari and is 3 km from the Kotwali Bazaar. It's believed that a part of Goddess Sati's skull fell here when Lord Shiva was carrying the charred body of the Goddess; hence the name of the temple.
Chamunda Temple: This temple is around 15 km from Dharamshala on the right bank of river Baner on the Mandi-Pathankot highway. According to mythology, Goddess Kali killed the demons Chand and Mund at this place.
Dal Lake: The Lake is spread in an area of 1 km and is bounded by rhododendrons, deodars, and junipers forest. Annually, a fair is held at the Kali Temple near the Lake. There is another temple close to the lake that is dedicated to sage Durvasa. Dal Lake is 2 km walk westwards from McLeodGanj bazaar.
Triund: Triund is nestled in the foothills of Dhauladhar and is around 17 km from Dharamshala. It's a trekking destination from McLeodGanj, and offers magnificent vistas of the mountains and valleys. The nightstays are in the hoods, small time caves, that local gaddis with their goat herds use as shelters from rains during the daytime.
Naddi: This scenic picnic spot is located 5 km northwest of McLeodGanj. Naddi offers a spectacular view of the Kangra valley. You can trek to Kareri Lake, Triund, and Guna Devi from here. It's becoming a popular destination for nature lovers.
Thaneek Pura or Thanik Pura is a hill station village (hamlet) in Chintpurni in the Una district of the state of Himachal Pradesh in India. It is near the Chintpurni Temple, which is a place of pilgrimage for both Hindus and Sikhs. The area is surrounded by the western Himalayas in the north and east in the smaller Shiwalik (or Shivalik) range bordering the state of Punjab.
McLeodGanj is around 9 km from Dharamshala. This place is famous for its markets, where one can shop for handicraft items, eat Tibetan food and visit statue of Lord Buddha.
Sidhbari : A village located 6 km from Dharamshala near Yol Cantonment and a place of historical spiritual significance. Attractions around Sidhbari include the Kapila Muni Cave, Chinmaya Ashram, Gyuto monastery, Aganjar Mahadev Temple and the newly constructed State legislature. The agricultural hamlet of Rakkar nearby is an ideal base to explore the rest of the Kangra district and experience the traditional lifestyle and mud architecture of the Gaddi community.
Adi Shakti Temple, Naddi
Aghanjar Mahadev
Bhagsu waterfall
Bhagsunath
Sheela Chowk
Bir - Popular destination for ecotourism, meditation studies, volunteering, and paragliding at Billing.
Brajeshwari Devi Temple
Chamunda Devi Mandir
Chinmaya Tapovan
Chime Gyatsarling Monastery, just behind of Norbulingka Institute, upper Sidhpur. 6 km from Dharmshala and 14 km from Gagal airport.
Dal Lake
Dari
Gopalpur Zoo and tea gardens
Dehra Gopipur
Dharamkot (2100 m)
Guna Devi Mandir amidst dense forest
Historical fort in Old Kangra, Himachal Pradesh. Adjoining the Fort is the Maharaja Sansar Chandra Museum, run by the Kangra Royal Family. The Museum provides audio guides for the fort and the museum.
Haripur Village (near Guler)
Pong Dam Lake
Indru Nag Temple
Kareri Lake
Khaniyara
Kunal Pathri
Lam Dal Lake
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives
Masrur (rock temple)
Namgyal Monastery
Narghota
Norbulingka Institute
Nurpur[18]
Sidhbari
Church of St. John in the Wilderness
Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts
Triund (2975 m), a popular day hike or overnight trek. There is a forest rest house for overnight stay.
Tatwani and Machhrial
Trilokpur
Chime Gyatseling Monastery (Guru Padmasambhava)
Near Norbulingka Tibetan Institute
Jama Masjid kotwalibazar Dharamshala
It's Lambing time at Coombes Farm. Lots of new-borns there wearing slightly baggy fleeces, which I'm sure they will grow in to
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Prince of Wales Hotel, Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
In 1913 Louis Warren Hill Sr., chairman of the Great Northern Railway, visited Waterton and announced his desire to include a Canadian lodge in his expanding hotel and chalet development in Glacier National Park. What motivated Hill to proceed was the 1923 end of Prohibition in Alberta. A resort hotel in Waterton could lure American tourists to Glacier and then north across the U.S.-Canada border to Alberta so they could legally drink alcohol. Hill selected the Cardston contractors Douglas Oland and James Scott. A storm in December 1926 nearly tore down the half-built structure. Oland and Scott were also hampered by Louis Hill’s ever-changing vision of the final project. The Prince of Wales Hotel was originally supposed to look much like Many Glacier Hotel. A third of the way through the build, Hill decided to radically change the roofline and add three storeys. The hotel was opened on July 25, 1927, too much acclaim. Orignial estimated cost to build the hotel was $250,000 but final tab was $1,000,000. Funding was through Louis Hill's inheritance - the Canadian entity for the Prince of Wales Hotel was known as Canadian Rockies Hotel Company LTD with Hill as President. With 87 rooms on 7 floors under a steeply gable roof the hotel looked like a Swiss kings palace. (History provided by Glacier Park Foundation.)
The Prince of Wales Hotel was luxury in the wilderness with steam-heated rooms, hot and cold running water, electricity, a full service dining room, an elevator, laundry, beauty parlor and barber shop, all overseen by professional and uniformed staff. Rooms rented for $8 to $12 a day, American plan. A couple of weeks later, a tavern opened to serve beer to thirsty Americans.
The lake-side community of Waterton Park got a shock when the Great Northern didn’t open the Prince of Wales Hotel in 1933, with the railway citing the downturn in economic conditions caused by the Great Depression. The railway said it would not reopen the hotel until a more direct route was built between Waterton and Glacier, versus all bus traffic having to go via Cardston. Construction of Chief Mountain International Highway was undertaken as a work relief project and completed in 1936, when the railway kept its promise and reopened the hotel. The new highway saved 30 miles from the Many Glacier Hotel to Waterton.
During 1935 when the hotel was closed, Waterton townsite faced the threat of a forest fire. Great Northern sent its chief engineer, Ray Sleeger, and other staff to Waterton to protect the shuttered hotel. The fire was snuffed out before it reached the town, and despite not having a hand in battling the blaze, the wily Sleeger sent a telegram to his bosses saying: “I saved the hotel.” Great Northern president W.P. Kenney famously replied: “Why?” By then Prohibition had ended in the United States so there was no need for the hotel, and given the financial times, the purpose for keeping the hotel was dubious. The hotel would again be closed, from 1942 to 1945, due to the Second World War.
The longest term for a manager of the Prince of Wales Hotel was set by Harley Boswell. Accompanied by his wife Anna, who worked as head housekeeper, the Boswells oversaw the Prince for 23 seasons (1930-1958). They’d cut their teeth at Chateau Lake Louise and at the Banff Springs Hotel. An American citizen, Harley Boswell eventually landed a job as assistant manager at the prestigious Palmer House in Chicago. He managed to get summers off each year to work in Waterton.
Operation of the Prince of Wales Hotel is taken over by a Minnesota corporation headed by Donald Knutson from 1957 to 1959. Major upgrades are made to the hotel, including installation of a fire suppression sprinkler system, new exterior fire escapes, installation of a new lobby light fixture, closing of the tavern and opening of a liquor lounge, and remodelling of the giftshop.
The Prince of Wales Hotel and other Great Northern-owned lodges in Glacier are sold in 1960 to Don Hummel, his brother Gail, and Don Ford, who pay $1.4 million. They assume operation under the name Glacier Park, Inc.
Robert Hayes begins as manager of the Prince of Wales. His last summer was 1972. In 1981 Don Hummel sells Glacier Park, Inc. to Greyhound Corp. of Phoenix, Arizona - later known as Viad Corporation and now marketed as PURSUIT Collection. Chris Caulfield has served as General Manager at Prince of Wales Hotel since 2015. The staff all don royal tartans, or kilts, in homage to the hotel’s British namesake, Prince Edward.
Prince of Wales Hotel
Waterton Park, Alberta, Canada
Stanford sits beside the junction on the M20 for Hythe and the junction with the bottom of the old Roman Road of Stone Street, and is the chosen location for the massive lorry park for any Brexit-related delays/jams. Only the DoT seemed to have forgotten to include an environmental impact assessment with the application, and was withdrawn.
Could still happen I guess, and the fine fellow in mustard coloured cords seemed to think it was still a possibility.
But for the time being, Stanford is quiet enough, with a fine looking pub, The Drum, and this mostly Victorian church, which I was rather taken with.
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What a delightful church! It is almost completely Victorian with the nave and chancel being rebuilt 30 years apart. The nave is severely plain, but the west windows may be part of the medieval church re-used. The font is a most unusual piece and is either Victorian or seventeenth century. It ahs certainly been recut over the years and has no Christian iconography. The chancel is well proportioned and entered via a well carved chancel arch. The east windows are shafted and have rere-arches. The stonework over the organ is typical late nineteenth century with castellations and niches, all probably designed by Carpenter. All in all this is a lovely church with a warm feeling and magnificent proportions. It deserves to be better known.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Stanford
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THE next parish south-eastward from Horton is that of Stanford, which takes its name both from its soil and situation, slane in Saxon signifying a stone, and ford, a rivulet. The parish of Stanford itself lies in the hundred of Stowring, but that of Westenhanger, now united to it, is within the hundred of Street.
It is, the greatest part of it, a low unpleasant situation, lying at a small distance below the down hills. The greatest part of it is pasture ground, and very wet. The soil is very clity and poor near the hill, where the ground lies higher, but lower down it becomes richer, and has some good fertile meadows in it. There is but little wood, only two small coppices in the northern part of it; the rents are about 900l. per annum. The high road along the Stone-street way from Canterbury, and over Hampton hill, leads through this parish towards Newinn-green, whence it continues strait forward to Limne, the Portus Lemanis of the Romans, and to the right and left to Ashford and Hythe. Stanford-street is built on this road, in which there is a neat modern-built house, belonging to Mr. Jones, who lives in it; the church stands on a gentle rise eastward from it. The parish is watered by the stream which rises above Postling church, being the head of that branch of the river called the Old Stour, which running from thence hither, having been joined by several smaller streams from the north-west, crosses the high road westward below Stanford-street towards Ashford. The bridge under which it runs here, being broken down anno 7 Edward I. the jury found, that it ought to be repaired by Nicholas de Criol, and not by the adjacent hundreds. At a small distance westward from this bridge, and not far from the stream, stands the antient mansion of Westenhanger, having a gloomy appearance, in a low unpleasant situation, having an extent of flat country and pasture grounds in front of it, the above stream supplying the broad deep moat which surrounds it.
The ruins of this mansion, though very small, shew it to have been formerly a very large and magnificent pile of building. The antiquity of this mansion was, no doubt, very high, and if not originally built by one of the family of Criol, was afterwards much enlarged and strengthened by them. From one of the towers still retaining the name of Rosamond's tower, where the tradition is, that fair mistress of king Henry II. was kept for some time, it should seem to have been built before his reign, or perhaps even belonging to him. Which seems the more probable from there having been found among the ruins the left hand of a well carved statue, with the end of a sceptre grasped in it; a position peculiar to this prince, one of whose seals was so made in the life time of his father. (fn. 1) The scite of the house, moated round, had a drawbridge, a gatehouse and portal, the arch of which was large and strong, springing from six polygonal pillars, with a portcullis to it. The walls were very high, and of great thickness, the whole of them embattled, and fortified with nine great towers, alternately square and round, and a gallery reaching throughout the whole from one to the other. One of these, with the gallery adjoining to it on the north side, was called, as has been already mentioned, Fair Rosamond's; and it is suppoted she was kept here some time before her removal to Woodstock. The room called her prison, was a long upper one, of 160 feet in length, which was likewise called her gallery. Over the door of entrance into the house was carved in stone, the figure of St. George on horseback, and under it four shields of arms; one of which was the arms of England, and another a key and crown, supported by two angels. On the right hand was a slight of freestone steps, which led into a chapel, now a stable, curiously vaulted with stone, being erected by Sir Edward Poynings, in the reign of king Henry VIII. At each corner of the window of this chapel was curiously carved in stone, a canopy. There were likewise in it several pedestals for statues, and over the window stood a statue of St. Anthony, with a pig at his feet, and a bell hanging to one of its ears. At the west end were the statues of St. Christopher and king Herod. The great hall was fifty feet long, with a music gallery at one end of it, and at the other a range of cloisters which led to the chapel, and other apartments of the house. There were one hundred and twenty-six rooms in it, and, by report, three hundred and sixty-five windows. In the year 1701, more than three parts of it was pulled down, for the sake of the sale of the materials, which were then sold for 1000l. After this Mr. Champneis, the purchaser of it, converted the remainder into a small neat edifice for his residence; which house, within these few years, has been again pulled down, and a yet smaller modern one built on the scite of it. All that now remains therefore of this great mansion and its extensive surrounding buildings, are the walls and two towers on the north and east sides of it, which being undermined by length of time, are yearly falling in huge masses into the adjoining moat; and the remaining ruins being covered with ivy and trees, growing spontaneously on and through the sides of every part of them, exhibit an awful scene, and a melancholy remembrance of its antient grandeur; the under part of the great entrance yet remains, the arch over it having been taken down but lately; and there are numberless fragments of carved stone-work lying scattered about. The whole was built of quarry-stone, said to have been dug in the quarries of the adjoining manor of Otterpoole, in Limne, ornamented with sculptured stone brought from Caen. The park which belonged to this mansion, extended over the east and south parts of this parish, rather on rising ground, formerly comprehending the whole parochial district of Ostenhanger, at the southern boundary of which is New-Inn-green, so called from a new inn built there in king Henry the VIIIth's time, near which there is a small hamlet built on the road leading from Hythe to Ashford. Near the western boundary of the parish is a small green, built round with houses, called Gibbins brook, situated in the borough of Gimminge, its proper name, in a very wet and swampy country.
There was an annual fair instituted in 1758, to be holden in Stanford-street on June 7, for all sorts of cattle, but it was soon left off, and there has not been any held for near twenty years past.
THE MANOR OP STANFORD was antiently part of the possessions of the family of De Morinis, whose descendants the Derings continued afterwards to possess it. Sir Richard Dering, of Hayton, was owner of it anno 22 Richard II. and then quitted the possession of it to Sir Arnald St. Leger. (fn. 2) How it passed afterwards, I have not found; but in 1659 it was the property of Richard Busbridge, of Nottinghamshire, one of whose descendants sold it in 1699 to George Hamond, of Stanford, and he in 1733 alienated it to Michael Lade, of Canterbury, who parted with it again two years afterwards to Wile, of Sandwich, from which name it came to Mr. Odiarne Coates, of New Romney, whose heirs now possess it.
THE MANOR OF BEKEHURST, alias SHORNECOURT, lay somewhere in, or near this parish; for by the Book of Aid, levied anno 20 Edward III. it appears, that the heirs of Walter de Shorne paid aid for it, as the eighth part of a knight's see, which the said Walter before held in Bokehurst of John de Criell, as of his manor of Westenhanger. In king Henry VIII.'s reign, this manor was in the possession of Humphry Gay, gent. but in 1613 it was become the property of Sir Thomas Hardres, who that year levied a fine of it; but where it is situated, or who have possessed it since, I have not, with all my eldeavours, been able to discover.
HEYTON is another manor, lying at the north-west corner of this parish, next to Horton, being frequently mentioned in antient deeds by the name of Hayte. It was in very early times possessed by a family which took its surname from it, and bore for their cognizance in antient armorials, Gules, three piles, argent. Alanus de Heyton was owner of this manor in the reign of king Henry II. in which reign he held by knight's service of Gilbert de Magminot, but dying s.p. Elveva his sister, married to Deringus de Morinis, became his heir, and entitled her husband to it, and wrote himself, as appears by several dateless deeds, Dominus de Heyton. Their son Deringus Fitz Dering, was the first who deserted the name of Morinis, whose son Richard Fitz Dering, who likewise wrote himself Dominus de Heyton, died possessed of it at the latter end of the reign of king Henry III. and left it to his son Peter Dering, whose grandson Sir Richard Dering appears to have possessed it in the 22d year of king Richard II. and that year to have quitted the possession of it to Sir Arnald Seyntleger. After which it passed into the family of Scott, of Braborne, in which it continued till the reign of queen Elizabeth, when it was alienated by one of them to Mr. William Smith, of Stanford, yeoman, in whose descendants, resident at it, this manor continued down to Mr. William Smith, gent, of Heyton, who dying s.p. by will devised it to his widow Anne, daughter of Mr. John Drake, of London, and she having in 1769 remarried with the Rev. George Lynch, he in her right became possessed of it, and for some time resided here, till on the death of his brother Robert Lynch, M. D. he removed to Ripple, where he died in 1789, s.p. and by his will devised it to his two surviving sisters, who are the present possessors of it. (fn. 3) A court baron is held for this manor.
WESTENHANGER is an eminent manor here, which was once a parish of itself, though now united to Stanford: Its antient and more proper name, as appears by the register of the monastery of St. Angustine, was Le Hangre, yet I find it called likewise in records as high as the reign of Richard I. by the names both of Ostenhanger and Westenhanger, which certainly arose from its having been divided, and in the hands of separate owners, being possessed by the two eminent families of Criol and Auberville. Bertram de Criol, who was constable of Dover castle, lord warden of the five ports, and sheriff of Kent, for several years in the reign of king Henry III. who from his great possessions in this country, was usually stiled the great lord of Kent, is written in the pipe-rolls of the 27th year of that reign, of Ostenhanger, where it is said he rebuilt great part of the then antient mansion. He left two sons, Nicholas and John, the former of whom marrying with Joane, daughter and heir of Sir William de Aubervilse, inherited in her right the other part of this manor, called Westenhanger, as will be further mentioned hereafter. John, the younger son, seems to have inherited his father's share of this manor, called Ostenhanger, of which he died possessed in the 48th year of king Henry III. as did his son Bertram de Criol in the 23d year of Edward I. leaving two sons, John and Bertram, who both died s.p. and a daughter Joane, who upon the death of the latter became his heir, and carried Ostenhanger, among the rest of her inheritance, in marriage to Sir Richard de Rokesle, seneschal and governor of Poictu and Montreul in Picardy, a man of eminent character in that time, having been created a knight-banneret by king Edward I. at the siege of Carlaverock, in Scotland. He died without issue male, leaving his two daughters his coheirs, of whom Agnes, the eldest, married Thomas de Poynings; and Joane, the youngest, first Hugh de Pateshall, and secondly Sir William le Baud, and upon the division of their inheritance, Ostenhanger was wholly allotted to Thomas de Poynings, who died anno 13 Edward III. bearing for his arms, Barry of six, or, and vert, over all a bend, gules. He left three sons, Nicholas, Michael, and Lucas de Poynings, all three summoned at different times to parliament, among the barons of this realm. The descendants of the latter being summoned as barons Poynings de St. John, which barony became vested in the late duke of Bolton. Upon the division of their inheritance, this manor was allotted to the second son Michael, who died anno 43 king Edward III. and left two sons, Thomas and Richard. Thomas de Poynings, the eldest son, possessed it on his father's death, but he died anno 49 Edward III. s.p. having bequeathed his body to be buried in the midst of the choir of St. Radigund's, of his own patronage, before the high altar, appointing that a fair tomb should be placed over his grave, with the image of a knight made thereon. Upon his death, Richard de Poynings, his youngest brother, succeeded to it, and died possessed of it in the IIth year of king Richard II. as did his son Robert anno 25 Henry VI. having had two sons, Richard de Poynings, who died in his life-time, leaving a sole daughter and heir Alianore, who married Sir Henry Percy, afterwards earl of Northumberland, and brought him a large inheritance, together with the baronies of Poynings, Bryan, and Fitzpain, now enjoyed by the present duke of Northumberland; and a second son Robert, who succeeded his father in Ostenhanger, of which he died possessed anno 9 Edward IV. (fn. 4) who, as well as his several ancestors above-mentioned, were summoned among the barons to parliament, and his son Sir Edward Poynings, who having purchased the other part of this great manor, called Westenhanger, became possessed of the whole property of it, as will be further mentioned hereafter.
To return now to that part of this eminent manor, distinguished from its situation by the name of Westenhanger, which was in the reign of king Richard I. in the possession of the family of Auberville, one of whom, Sir William de Auberville, descended from William de Ogburville, mentioned in the survey of Domesday, being one of those who attended the Conqueror in his expedition hither, resided in that reign in the borough of Westenhanger, and was founder of the abbey of West Langdon, and a benefactor to the priory of Christ church, and as appears by his seal appendant to a deed in the Surrenden library, dated 29 Henry III. bore for his arms, Parted per dancette, two annulets in chief, and one in base. His grandson, of the same name, left an only daughter and heir Joane, who marrying with Nicholas de Criol, brought him this estate as part of her inheritance. His descendant Sir John de Criol, in the 19th year of Edward III. obtained a licence to found and endow a chantry in the chapel of St. John, in Westenhanger,; and before, in the 17th year of that reign, he had a grant to embattle and make loop-holes in his mansion-house of Westenhanger. His descendant Sir Nicholas de Criol, or Keriel, died possessed of it in the 3d year of king Richard II. and from him it devolved at length by succession to Sir Thomas Keriel, for so their name was then in general spelt, who was slain in the second battle of St. Albans, in the 38th year of Henry VI. in asserting the cause of the house of York. On his death without male issue, his two daughters became his coheirs, (fn. 5) viz. Elizabeth, married to John Bourchier, esq. and Alice, to John Fogge, esq. of Repton, afterwards knighted, whose second wife she was; and on the division of their inheritance, Westenhanger was allotted to the latter. He had by her one son, Sir Thomas Fogge, sergeant-porter of Calais in the reigns of king Henry VII. and VIII. who sold his interest in it to his elder brother, (by his father's first wise Alice Haut) Sir John Fogge, of Repton, and he, about the beginning of king Henry VIII.'s reign, alienated it to Sir Edward Poynings, the possessor of the other part of this manor, who thereupon became possessed of both Ostenhanger and Westenhanger, being the entire property of the whole manor. He was a man of much eminence of that time, and greatly in favour both with king Henry VII. and VIII. being governor of Dover castle, lord warden of the five ports, and knight of the garter. He resided at Westenhanger, where he began building magnificently, but he died before his stately mansion here was finished, anno 14 Henry VIII. having married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Scott, of Scotts-hall, by whom he had one only child John, who died in his life time; so that thus deceasing without legitimate issue, and even without any collateral kindred, who could make claim to his estates, this manor, among the rest of them, escheated to the crown. Although Sir Edward Poynings died without legitimate issue, yet he left by four different concubines three sons, Sir Thomas, who afterwards died s. p. Sir Adrian Poynings, who died without male issue; and Edward, slain at Bologne in the 38th year of Henry VIII. and likewise four daughters.
This manor thus becoming vested in the crown, was by the king's bounty soon afterwards conferred on his eldest natural son Sir Thomas Poynings abovementioned, who was a gentleman noted for the beauty and elegance of his person, and was of equal merit; and being of remarkable strength and courage, greatly signalized himself at the justs and tournaments of those times of which the king being himself exceedingly fond, it recommended him still more to the royal favour, and he was made K. B. and was summoned to parliament as baron Poynings, of Ostenhanger. But in the 32d year of the same reign, he, with dame Catherine his wife, exchanged this manor, park, and sundry premises belonging to it, with the king, for other estates in Dorsetshire and Wiltshire. (fn. 6) Soon after which, the king seems to have intended this manor as a mansion fit for his royal residence; for he not only expended much on the completing of the unfinished state of it, but two years afterwards laid into the park a large circuit of land, inclosing many mansions, houses, and buildings of the inhabitants within the pale of it; at which time this manor seems to have been indiscriminately called by both the names of Ostenhanger and Westenhanger. After which, the manor, together with the mansion, park, and other appurtenances belonging to it, continued in the hands of the crown till the reign of Edward VI. when that prince, in his first year, granted it with its appurtenances, to John Dudley, earl of Warwick, to hold in capite by knight's service; but in the 3d year of that reign, the earl joined with dame Joane his wife, in the reconveyance of it to the king, in exchange for premises in other counties. The next year after which the king granted it, among other premises, to Edward Fynes, lord Clinton, son of Thomas, lord Clinton, by Mary, one of the four daughters of Sir Edward Poynings before-mentioned, to hold in capite by knight's service, and in the 6th year of his reign, he made a new grant to him and Henry Herdson, his trustee of it, together with the advowson of the rectory, to hold by the like service; and they not long afterwards alienated the manor of Westenhanger with its appurtenances, to Richard Sackville, esq. who died possessed of it in the 8th year of queen Elizabeth; but it should seem that he had it only for his life, or perhaps might not be in possession of the mansion of Westenhanger itself; for that queen, in the progress which she made through this county, at the latter end of the summer in the year 1573, is said in the course of it to have stayed at her own house of Westenhanger, the keeper of which was then Thomas, lord Buckhurst, son of Richard Sackville, before-mentioned, And further, for that the queen, in her 27th year, granted the manor of Eastenhanger with its appurtenances, in see to Thomas Smith, esq. He was commonly called the Customer, from his farming the customs of the port of London, and he having greatly increased the beauty of this mansion, which had been impaired and defaced by fire, with magnificent additions, resided here; and when Lambarde wrote his Perambulation in 1570, there were here two parks, which continued till one of the family of Smith disparked them both. He died in 1591, and was succeeded by his eldest son Sir John Smythe, who was of Ostenhanger, where he kept his shrievalty in the 42d year of queen Elizabeth, and died in 1609. His son Sir Thomas Smythe, K. B. resided likewise at Westenhanger, (for by both these names this place was yet at times differently called) and was in 1628 created viscount Strangford, of the kingdom of Ireland. His son Philip, viscount Strangford, conveyed it to trustees, (fn. 7) and they, at the latter end of king Charles II.'s reign, alienated this manor, with its mansion, lands, and appurtenances, to Finch, who having in 1701 pulled down by far the greatest part of this stately mansion, then passed it away by sale to Justinian Champneis, esq. The family of Champneis are descended from Sir Amyan Champneis, who flourished in king Henry the IId's reign, whose descendants settled in Somersershire; one of whom, Robt. Champneis, of Chew, in that county, was father of Sir John Champneis, lord mayor of London anno 26 king Henry VIII. who was possessed of Hall-place, in Bexley, where he resided, and in which he was succeeded by his son, the youngest and only surviving son of seven, Justinian. One of his descendants, Walter Champneis, son of William, appears by the parish register of Boxley to have lived in that parish in queen Elizabeth's reign, anno 1582. After which there is continued mention in it of them down to the burial of Justinian Champneis, esq in 1712. Justinian Champneis, the purchaser of this estate, bore for his arms, Parted per pale, argent and sable, a lion rampant, gules, within a bordure, engrailed and counterchanged, of the field. He afterwards resided here, having built a smaller house on the same scite, out of the ruins remaining of it. He was one of the five Kentish gentlemen, who in 1701, delivered the noted petition from this county to the house of commons. He died possessed of this manor and estate, far advanced in years, in 1748, leaving three sons, Justinian, William, and Henry. On his death, by the settlement made on his marriage, one sixth part of this estate devolved to the two younger sons, and the rest of it on the eldest son Justinian Champneis, esq. who dying abroad, s. p. in 1754, gave by will his interest in it to his younger brother Henry; and the remaining sixth part came by compromise wholly to the then eldest surviving brother William Champneis, esq. who resided at Vintners, in Boxley. He left by his first wife two daughters his coheirs, Frances, now unmarried, and Harrior, who married John Burt, esq. of Rochester, by whom she had two sons, WilliamHenry and Thomas, and a daughter Harriot, as will be further mentioned hereafter. On his death in 1762, his sixth part of this estate came to his two daughters and coheirs before-mentioned, the eldest of whom, in her own right, and the two sons of John Burt, esq. deceased, in right of the youngest, is at this time entitled to it. The remaining part of this estate was by Henry Champneis, esq. of Vintners, in Boxley, who died unmarried in 1781, devised to his great nephew William-Henry Burt, the eldest son of John Burt, esq. by his wife Harriot before-mentioned, for whom he had in his life-time obtained a privy seal, to take the surname and bear the arms of Champneis. Which William-Henry Champneis, esq. is now entitled to the inheritance of it.
¶The parish of Ostenbanger stood, as to its ecclesiastical jurisdiction, in the deanry of Limne and diocese of Canterbury. The church, which was a rectory, was formerly in the patronage of the owners of the manor, and came to the crown on the death of Sir Edward Poynings, in the 14th year of king Henry VIII. whence it was granted, as appurtenant to the manor, to Sir Thomas Poynings, who in the 34th year of that reign, granted it to the crown in exchange; in which year the king having laid a large circuit of land into his park here, of which the rector had received the yearly tithes, and having likewise inclosed and imparked in it many houses, barns, and glebe-lands belonging to the rectory, and injoined the parishioners and inhabitants to resort to the parish to which they lay nearest, by which means the rector was destitute of a maintenance, granted to him for life, a yearly pension of six pounds, to be had of his treasurer of the Augmentation-office. Thus this parish became, as to its ecclesiastical juridiction, united to Stanford, to which church the owners of this estate, in whom the tithes of the whole of it are vested, pay a composition of eleven shillings as an acknowledgment for the privilege the inhabitants within it enjoy of the rites of the church there.
The rectory of Eastenhanger is valued in the king's books at 7l. 12s. 6d. and the yearly tenths at 15s. 3d. which are paid to the crown receiver, and not to the archbishop.
The church of Westenhanger has been entirely pulled down, and the materials removed, several years ago. It stood at a small distance westward of the house, and of the drawbridge at the entrance to it, between the latter and the great barn, which report says, was partly built out of the ruins of it. Several skeletons have from time to time been dug up within the scite of it and adjoining to it; and in some of the graves, several sculls in one grave; and some years ago a stone coffin was dug up. The font, which was in this church, was removed to, the church of Stanford, where it now remains.
I find the names of only two of the rectors of this parish, viz. William Lambard, in the 34th year of king Henry VIII. (fn. 8) and Thomas Eaton, A. M. presented by the crown in 1636. (fn. 9)
I started a series on my blog called "My Neighborhood" that focuses on some of the characters and things in my neck of the woods in Manhattan, the East Village. I include a few things that aren't necessarily there.
willowgrovedaycamp.com/willows/
At this time in the camp season each child has found his/her favorite activities, which include Basketball, Soccer, Nature, Boating/Fishing, Tennis, Mini-Golf, Dance, etc.. Another favorite activity is when the Willows ride the Big Wheels. Everyone really loves racing their cars around the track. Of course, all The Willows love swimming and riding “Magic,” the pony.
Last week ended on a tasty note with our campers making Tie Dye bread in Cooking. After the bread was dyed, it was turned into grilled cheese or toast. Everyone found it yummy!
On Tuesday the Tadpoles and Minnows went to Woodcraft where they painted bird houses. They really enjoyed choosing their favorite colors. The Willows really love participating in big kid activities.
Our theme this week was “Up, Up and Away.” In Camper Creations, the children had fun making and decorating refrigerator kite magnets. They can’t wait to display them at home! In Ceramics, the children enjoyed adorning their ceramic bathing suits. These projects will be painted and sent home before the end of camp. We hope you enjoyed your child’s
ceramic hands/foot prints and ceramic faces.
While Carnival was postponed on Thursday the day was full of terrific rainy day activities. Our theme was “Harry the Dirty Dog” and we made a special snack, read the book, watched the movie and made our furry friends.
This fun filled week ended as the campers were thrilled to participate in the annual Carnival on Friday. It was a huge success and everyone had a terrific time. The campers played games, went on rides, ate lots of goodies and won prizes at various booths. Also on Friday was “Puttin’ on the Hits” where The Willows danced to the “Banana” song from “Despicable Me.”
About Willow Grove Day Camp
Willow Grove Day Camp provides summer fun for kids who live in Willow Grove, Abington, Blue Bell, Hatboro, Horsham, Huntingdon Valley, Lafayette Hill, Philadelphia, Plymouth Meeting, Southampton and the surrounding areas. For more information on the Willows at Willow Grove Day Camp please visit: willowgrovedaycamp.com/willows/
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck, about 10 km south of Poole and 40 km east of Dorchester. The parish has a population of 10,124 (2001). Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks, with Studland Bay and Poole Harbour to the north. Within the parish are Durlston Bay and Durlston Country Park to the south of the town. The parish also includes the areas of Herston, just to the west of the town, and Durlston, just to the south. During the peak summer season many people are drawn by the town's beautiful setting, the beach and other attractions. The town has many hotels and guest rooms though the number ( particularly of hotels ) has reduced slightly in recent years. Besides the beach, there are other local attractions including the restored Swanage steam railway and the Victorian pier. The town may also be used a base from which to visit other nearby areas of interest, such as Corfe Castle. Swanage's Victorian pier is over 100 years old and is one of two built, although it is the only one that survives complete today. The pier extends into the southern end of Swanage Bay near Swanage. The original Swanage Pier was built between 1859 and 1861 for use primarily by the local stone quarrying industry, and included a tramway which ran the length of the pier and some way along the seafront. The old tracks can be seen to this day, inset into the seafront walkways.
The town, originally a small port and fishing village flourished in the Victorian era, when it first became a significant quarrying port and later a seaside resort for the rich of the day. Today the town remains a popular tourist resort, this being the town's primary industry, with many thousands of visitors coming to the town during the peak summer season, drawn by the bay's sandy beaches and other attractions. During its history the bay was listed variously as Swanawic, Swanwich, Sandwich, and only in more recent history as Swanage. The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site ~ this wonderful coast line which stretches from Orcombe Point in East Devon to The Old Harry Rocks near Swanage, is a beautiful part of this area. Swanage Tourist Information Centre (T.I.C.) is an excellent point of reference for all visitors to the area and our friendly staff will be delighted to help you plan your holiday and find out more about the area. By carefully assessing your requirements and interests the staff will ensure you have the very best information to make your holiday a real success.
While fishing is likely the town's oldest industry, quarrying has been important to the town and the local area since at least the 1st century AD. During the time of the Roman occupation this industry grew, with the distinctive Purbeck marble being used for decorative purposes in buildings as far away as London. When the Romans left Britain, quarrying largely ceased until the 12th century. The town is first mentioned in historical texts in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 877 AD. It is stated as being the scene of a great naval victory by King Alfred over the Danes: ~ This year came the Danish army into Exeter from Wareham; while the navy sailed west about, until they met with a great mist at sea, and there perished 120 ships at Swanwich. A hundred Danish ships which had survived the battle, were driven by a storm onto Peveril Point, a shallow rocky reef outcropping from the southern end of Swanage bay. In the 12th century demand for Purbeck Marble grew once again. While Purbeck marble is not suited to external use, as it does not weather well, it is however strong and suitably decorative for use as internal columns. As such the stone was used in the construction of many large churches and cathedrals being built as the time.
In contrast to the decorative Purbeck marble, Purbeck limestone, or more commonly 'Purbeck stone', has been used in construction locally since the early days of quarrying in Purbeck. Its use is less well documented as it was taken for granted as the default construction materials in the area. However, the arrival of more modern quarrying techniques in the 17th century resulted in an increase in production. The Great Fire of London in 1666 led to a period of large scale reconstruction in the city, and Purbeck stone was extensively used for paving. It was in this time that stone first started being loaded on ships directly from the Swanage seafront; before this time quarried stone had been first transported to Poole for shipping. The idea that Swanage could become a tourist destination was first encouraged by a local MP William Morton Pitt in the early 19th century, who converted a mansion in the town into a luxury hotel. The hotel is noted for having been visited in 1833 by the ( then ) Princess Victoria, later to become queen. The building was later renamed the Royal Victoria Hotel, now the building has been converted into flats and a bar and nightclub in the left and right wings respectively.
The main bus services are provided by Wilts & Dorset. Numbers 40 and 44 which run between Swanage and Poole, and the number 50 which runs between Swanage and Bournemouth via the chain ferry between Studland and Sandbanks. Double-deck open top buses are used on the Poole/Bournemouth to Swanage routes in the summer months. The buses on these routes are branded as Purbeck Breezers. Swanage has a heritage restored steam railway which operates for most of the year, though at the moment this only goes as far as Norden. Recent developments on the railway have seen the physical connection between the Swanage Railway and the mainline restored. The first passenger service in more than 40 years from London Victoria and returning to London Waterloo took place on 1 April 2009. It is hoped that regular passenger services connecting to the mainline will begin in the future. Limited ferry services also run between Poole Quay and Swanage Pier. These are used by Swanage residents for shopping trips to Poole's large shopping centre, and also by tourists in Poole for day trips into Swanage. The nearest mainline railway station to Swanage is Wareham, where connections can be made for South West Trains services westward to Dorchester South and Weymouth. Services also travel eastwards towards Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton Central and London Waterloo. Services to and from Weymouth and London Waterloo can be either fast or stopping services.
Earth Designs Garden Design and Build were asked to created a landscape and propose garden design in Acton, London*. Here are the details of the project
Brief: The plot for this design was a mid-size family garden, which had recently benefited from the addition of a large sunroom on the back of the property. It was a fairly blank canvas, with nothing of note to be retained in the re-design. The garden had side access and worn boundary fences which required replacing. There was no clear brief other than that the design include a seating area and some lawn, and that the transition from sunroom to garden be fairly seamless.
Solution: The focus of this design was to create an exterior space that serves as an extension to the interior, featuring several distinct and versatile areas that can be adapted to a variety of uses.
The garden's boundaries were replaced with new fencing to provide a uniform and attractive backdrop to the transformation within, while the long sideway down the right of the house was renovated with the addition of attractive 'bamboo' slate tile flooring in a random lay pattern.
The first section of the space comprises a large area of Western Red Cedar decking adjoining the house, and offers ample room for entertaining, with a long L-shaped fixed-bench seat stretching width-ways across the space from the left-hand side to the centre. This was backed with a rendered block raised bed, planted with fragrant lavender and capped with 'bamboo' slate tile, to provide a sense of enclosure and separation from the rest of the garden.
A decked walkway running down the right hand side of the space provides access to a 'spa' area, featuring a large square hot tub housed upon a reinforced paved hard-standing and nestled between existing and additional trees, shrubs and foliage to provide a secluded and intimate area for bathing throughout the seasons. Hidden behind mature and new planting in the bottom left corner, a large shed provides ample storage for the client's garden accessories. The middle of the space has been given over to a large lawn edges with slate.
A purple and yellow planting scheme of soft, cottage-style evergreen shrubs and flowering perennials will help to bring year round lightness and subtle colouring to the space.
After-dark hot tub bathing is enhanced by several strings of pea-lights woven through the existing shrubbery. Deck lights demark the main area of decking and guide one's journey along the decked walkway. Finally, spot lights in the beds highlight certain area while providing a gentle wash throughout the space.
Testimonial: "After months of planning and a full year of having builders everywhere, we had finally got the house into good shape but the garden was a nightmare. It had been somewhat overgrown before the builders moved in, but after a year of being used as a builders yard, it needed shock treatment.
We needed help fast so we searched the web. We were looking for garden designers with creative ideas for smaller London gardens. We didn't want anything too traditional but at the same time, nothing too extreme.
Earth Designs fitted the bill and after a design session with Katrina, we engaged them for the project. They had offered us a design service only, but as we only had a 4 week window in which to complete the job, we gave them the whole project.
We had built a new extension with wide glass doors that opened out into the garden, so the brief to Earth Designs was to "bring the outside, inside" and create a strong link between the new room and the garden beyond. The actual garden space was not large so we wanted to use the space as an extension of the living space - to be an "outside room".
Monday 18th April and three very charming men arrived on our doorstep at 8.0am sharp. Arlo was the project manager, ably aided and abetted by Paul and Phillip. They worked brilliantly as a team and always hit all the deadlines. In particular they did a great job in working with our neighbours to ensure the whole project ran smoothly.
The first week involved clearing the site - no mean feat with 30-year-old ivy stems that looked more like tree trunks.
The second week involved levelling the garden, putting up new fencing, building the corner seating base and planters, plus marking out the garden shape. It was good to be able to make minor changes to the design on the ground at this stage. The hot tub arrived too and was winched into place for connection later.
Week 3 saw the decking and seating built.
Then in week four the turf arrived, the lawn went down and on the last day, Katrina arrived with a truckload of wonderful specimens (and Matt) and we had a wonderful time planting. Ground Force Mk II - a complete garden from start to finish in just 4 weeks!
There were a few things that needed to be sorted out after the main work was complete. Earth Designs were great about coming back until all was complete and finished.
Our thanks to Katrina, Matt, Arlo, Paul and Phillip for a great job, completed on time and on budget with a great looking result."
If you dig this and would like to find out more about this or any of other of our designs, please stop by our web-site and have a look at our work.
Earth Designs is a bespoke London Garden Design and build company specialising in classic, funky and urban contemporary garden design.
Our Landscape and Garden build teams cover London, Essex and parts of South East England, while garden designs are available nationwide.
Please visit www.earthdesigns.co.uk to see our full portfolio. If you would like a garden designer in London or have an idea of what you want and are looking for a landscaper London to come and visit your garden, please get in touch.
Follow our Bespoke Garden Design and Build and Blog to see what we get up to week by week, our free design clinic as well as tips and products we recommend for your garden projects www.earthdesigns.co.uk/blog/.
Earth Designs is located in East London, but has built gardens in Essex , gardens in Hertfordshire Hertfordshire and all over the South East. Earth Designs was formed by Katrina Wells in Spring 2003 and has since gone from strength to strength to develop a considerable portfolio of garden projects. Katrina, who is our Senior Garden Designer, has travelled all over the UK designing gardens. However we can design worldwide either through our postal garden design service or by consultation with our senior garden designer. Recent worldwide projects have included garden designs in Romania. Katrina’s husband. Matt, heads up the build side of the company, creating a unique service for all our clients.
If you a not a UK resident, but would like an Earth Designs garden, Earth Designs has a worldwide design service through our Garden Design Postal Design Vouchers. If you are looking for an unique birthday present or original anniversary present and would like to buy one of our Garden Design Gift Vouchers for yourself or as a present please our sister site www.gardenpresents.co.uk. We do also design outside of the UK, please contact us for details.
La posada del Caballito Blanco, l'Auberge du Cheval-Blanc, al Cavallino bianco
Vienna Volksoper
The Volksoper is after the Vienna State Opera, the second-largest opera house in Vienna. The program includes operettas, operas, musicals and ballet.
(Pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
The Volksoper seen from Währing street
History
Founding and time as spoken theater
The Jubilee City Theatre woodcut from the Leipzig magazine of 19 January 1899
1897 Karl Lueger was appointed mayor of Vienna. The architectural thought - ie the redesign of Vienna - was the prevailing social, economic and political trend in this as ring road time known era. In the same year the emperor anniversary Municipal Theatre Association (Kaiserjubiläums-Stadttheater-Verein) was founded by committed citizens of the City of Vienna to set up with the objective of the 50th Jubilee of Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1898 a theater for the performance of German speaking pieces in Waehring.
In addition to this club significantly involved was also the Christian Social dictrict leader of Währing Anton Baumann because the building until 1905 stood in the 18th District. The theater association commissioned the architect Alexander Graf with the implementation of the building, which together with the architect Franz Freiherr von Krauss built the Emperor's Jubilee City Theatre in just 10 months.
The total costs were estimated at 650,000 guilders before construction begins. This amount was financed through shares, which were sold like hot cakes. With some delay, the construction work was started in March, 1898. The high pressure of time led to a violation of the construction costs by approximately 25%, or 160,000 guilders. This missing amount was not subsidized by public authorities, but was imposed the director Adam Müller-Guttenbrunn in the form of a lease rate increase.
Another shadow over the opening on 14 December 1898 cast the fact that the emperor himself stayed away from the opening of the house, as his wife Elizabeth had been killed three months earlier. After this bad start of the theater followed after not yet five years in 1903, the first bankruptcy .
The musical theater from 1903 until the postwar years
The Jubilee City Theatre at the time of opening, 1898
On 1 September 1903, Rainer Simon took over the directorate. He for himself had completed his apprenticeship with famous singers such as Julius Stockhausen or composers like Engelbert Humperdinck. A clear goal in mind, although he would indeed continue the popular German speaking parts in the sense of its predecessor, but put the first steps towards musical theater. During the 1904/05 season - in which for the first time appeares in the subtitle Volksoper, too - Simons introduced the first comic operas. Due to the great public appeal, Simons already ventured 1906-1908 the leap to the big opera. From 1908 the venue operated only under the name Volksoper.
After many highly successful years, finally in 1925 the Volksoper massively had to fight with the effects of inflation. After some brief closures and various rescue attempts by the working groups Volksoper was closed on 5 July in 1928 and only on 5 November 1929 reopened as New Vienna Schauspielhaus. 1938 took over the city of Vienna the now Urban Vienna Volksoper (Städtische Wiener Volksoper) later renamed Opera House of the City of Vienna. Towards the end of the Second World War the Volksoper became, for several months, the second largest cinema of the city with 1,550 seats, since after 1 September 1944 for all theaters was ruling prohbition of theater performances and there were some Viennese cinemas already destroyed by air raids.
After the Second World War, the Volksoper served as temporary quarters for the destroyed Staatsoper. After the opening of the restored State Opera building in 1955, the People's Opera became again independent musical theater with operas, operettas and musicals. In the same year, the Volksoper was integrated into the Austrian Federal Theatre.
Recent history
Under the director Karl Dönch took place in 1973 a first major reconstruction of the theater house.
1979 Robert Jungbluth has initiated in his former role as Secretary General of the Federal Theatre Association for the Volksoper a guest performance in Japan. It was the first operetta which was performed in Japan. In 1984, followed an American tour.
September 1991 to June 1996, the Staatsoper and the Volksoper were under joint command. During this time singers were hired for both houses simultaneously. The season was, however, autonomous, since both platforms serve different priorities.
The People's Opera as stage house of the Austrian theater became with the Federal Law on the reorganization of the Federal Theatre (Federal Theatre Organisation Act) in 1998 a legally independent company. 1999 took place the establishment of the "Volksoper Wien GmbH" as a 100% subsidiary of the Federal Theatre Holding GmbH.
Since 1 September 2007 is the Volksoper Vienna conducted by Kammerschauspieler Robert Meyer as director and artistic director. Rainer Schubert acts as Deputy Director. At the same time Mag. Christoph Ladstätter was appointed Chief Financial Officer. Diethmar Strasser acts as artistic director of operations, and Gerrit Prießnitz is the musical director of studies.
Robert Meyer is pursuing a consistent policy of reform. Its goal is to position the Volksoper again as "the musical theater in Vienna" to enhance the operetta and to a wider audience.
Iron Curtain
An iron curtain of the Vienna Volksoper
On the Iron Curtain, the dedication of the house of the 50th anniversary of the reign of Franz Joseph I. By the two year figures 1848, on your left, and 1898, on your right, good recognisable. This was painted by Karl Schuller and Georg Janny.
The curtain is showing in the center front Vindobona. The man in the right half of the picture is supposed to symbolize the citizens of Vienna. By removal of the blindfold this one now should be able to see the beautiful muses, too.
Before the war, the curtain was cleared away and was then lost until it reappeared in the 1990s in the attic of the Theater an der Wien.
Facts and Figures
Spectators and house
Current seating plan of the Volksoper
At three different levels to visitors a total of 1261 seating and 72 standing places, and 2 wheelchair places are available. From September to June, there is, with few exceptions, every day a performance. The most important figures in recent years:
Season Performances Visitors avg seat utilization employees
2004/2005 [2 ] 287 293 695 75.41 % unknown
2005/2006 [3 ] 276 280 520 74.77 % 524
2006/2007 [ 4] 281 289 721 78.34 % 523
2007/2008 [ 5 ] 291 325 491 85.77 % 526
The for maintenance activities responsible federal-Holding has spent in the fiscal year 2006/2007 for a facade renovation of the historic building Volksoper EUR 1.1 million.
Specifications
Lighting and views to the orchestra pit at the Volksoper
The orchestra pit is equipped with two electrically powered lifting platforms. The load capacity is 500 kg/m² (front single podium, stage-sided double-decker panel) and is height adjustable from 0 to 2.65 feet below stage level.
The existing red velvet curtain head is hydraulically liftable and raff. The gathering speed is 0.15 to 3.0 m/s, the lifting speed is up to 2 m/s.
The sound curtain of aluminum frame also operates hydraulically. The additional capacity of 300 kg with a point load of 150 kg. The lifting speed as sound curtain is up to 0.8 m/s. The lifting speed as heavy truck is up to 0.5 m/s.
The hydraulically operated Schleierzug has a load capacity of 350 kg with a point load of 150 kg.
The stage area is 480 square meters with a maximum of 500 kg / m² load . The usable platform width is 17.2 meters and the depth of the stage from the front edge to the portal sliding gate are 19 meters.
Volksoper from the belt
The stage surface is made of a rotatable and raisable core disk having a diameter of 7.20 m in the middle, and a rotatable annular disc having an outer diameter of 15 meters of the core slices. Furthermore, there are three hand-operated, stationary personal meditations.
Organizational Structure
Since 1999, the Vienna Volksoper belongs to 100 % to the Federal Theatre holding just like the Staatsoper GmbH Vienna and Burgtheater GmbH. Another subsidiary is the theater GmbH which belongs to 51.1 % to the Federal Theatre Holding. The remaining 48.9% hold the three stage companies in equal parts (each 16.3%). Together with the Vienna State Opera, the Volksoper is subordinaded the independent consortium Ballet of the Vienna State Opera and Volksoper. Directors
Adam Müller- Guttenbrunn (1898-1903)
Rainer Simons (1903-1917)
Raoul Mader (1917-1919)
Felix Weingartner (1919-1924)
August Markowsky/Fritz Stiedry (1924 )
Hugo Gruder-Guntram/Leo Blech (1925 )
Frischler Hermann (1925-1928)
Jacob Feldhammer/Otto Preminger (1929-1931)
Leo Kraus (1931-1933)
Karl Funny-Prean/Jean Ernest (1934-1935)
Alexander Kovalevsky (1935-1938)
Anton Baumann (1938-1941)
Jölli Oskar (1941-1944)
Juch Hermann (1946-1955)
Salmhofer Franz (1955-1963)
Albert Moser (1963-1973)
Karl Dönch (1973-1986)
Eberhard Waechter (1987-1992, 1991-1992 also the director of the Vienna State Opera)
Ioan Holender (1992-1996, also the director of the Vienna State Opera)
Klaus Bachler (1996-1999)
Dominique Mentha (1999-2003)
Rudolf Berger (2003-2007)
Robert Meyer (from 2007)
Premieres
The Kuhreigen, Musical Theatre by Wilhelm Kienzl, 23 November 1911
Love chains, opera in three acts by Eugen d'Albert, 12th November 1912
The Testament, musical comedy by William Kienzl, on 6 December 1916
The lucky hand, drama with music by Arnold Schoenberg, on 14 October 1924
This is the first love affair, operetta by Eysler, 23 December 1934
On the green meadow, operetta by Jara Benes, on 9 October 1936
Spring Parade, operetta by Robert Stolz, on 5 March 1964
Felix. Or of someone who set out to learn to shudder, and jazz opera by Klaudia Kadlec (libretto ) and Max Nagl (music) after the fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm on 23 June 2002
Honorary members
Klaus Bachler
Franz Bauer-Theussl
Rudolf Bibl
Adolf Dallapozza
Otto Fritz
Hans Grötzer
Karlheinz Haberland
Johannes Heesters (since 1984)
Michael Heltau (since 2004)
Robert Herzl (since 1998)
Ioan Holender
Renate Holm
Mirjana Irosch
Wolfgang Schultze
Dagmar Koller
Erich Kuchar
Guggi Löwinger
Sigrid Martikke
Peter Minich
Sonja Mottl Dönch
Helga Papouschek
Herbert Prikopa (since 1986)
Harald Serafin
Wicus Slabbert (since 2005)
Christiane Sorell
Helmut Süß
Paul Walter Rudolf Wasserlof
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
The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is known for land speed records at the Bonneville Speedway. Access to the Flats is open to the public.
The Flats are about 12 miles (19 km) long and 5 miles (8 km) wide, with a crust almost 5 ft (1.5m) thick at the center and less than one inch (2.5 cm) towards the edges. It is estimated to hold 147 million tons of salt, approximately 90% of which is common table salt.
Geologist Grove Karl Gilbert named the area after Benjamin Bonneville, a U.S. Army officer who explored the Intermountain West in the 1830s. In 1907, Bill Rishel and two local businessmen tested the suitability of the salt for driving by taking a Pierce-Arrow onto its surface.
A railway line across the Flats was completed in 1910, marking the first permanent crossing. The first land speed record was set there in 1914 by Teddy Tetzlaff.
Entertainment filmed at the Flats include portions of Walking with Dinosaurs Special - The Ballad of Big Al, Knight Rider, Warlock, Independence Day (1996) and its sequel, SLC Punk, Cremaster 2 from Cremaster Cycle, The Brown Bunny, The World's Fastest Indian, Gerry, The Tree of Life, Top Gear and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Furthermore, the Pontiac Bonneville (former flagship sedan of the Pontiac motor division), the Triumph Bonneville motorcycle, and the Bonneville International media company are all named for the Flats.
The Bonneville Salt Flats hosts the annual US Flight Archery Championships. The goal of flight archery is to shoot arrows from bows at the greatest distance possible without regard to hitting a target, and so the vast flat plane of the flats serves as an ideal location to measure the linear distance traveled by arrows without geographic interference. Both the 1977 (archer Don Brown) and 1982 (archer Alan Webster) world records were set there; while the current world record, achieved in 1987 (archer Don Brown), was set at the salt flats near Smith Creek, Nevada.
The thickness of salt crust is a critical factor in racing use of the salt flats. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has undertaken multiple studies on the topic; while a 2007 study determined that there was little change in the crust's thickness from 1988 to 2003, more recent studies have shown a reduction in thickness, especially in the northwest area where racing occurs. The flats' overall area has contracted significantly over the past several decades. The cause or causes of this remain unclear, but many believe adjacent evaporative potash mining is the primary factor.
Collaboration between racing organizations, the potash mine, and the BLM led to a pilot program begun in 1998 to release excess brine onto the salt flats during winter. Plans to increase the volume of brine returned to the salt flats are hoped to halt loss of crust thickness, or possibly restore it where it has become too thin to sustain human use.
Motorcar racing has taken place at the salt flats since 1914. Racing takes place at part of the Bonneville Salt Flats known as the Bonneville Speedway. There are five major land speed events that take place at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Bonneville "Speed Week" takes place mid-August followed by "World of Speed" in September and the "World Finals" take place early October.
These three events welcome cars, trucks, and motorcycles. The "Bub Motorcycle Speed Trials" are for motorcycles only. World records are contested at the Mike Cook ShootOut in September. The Southern California Timing Association and the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association organizes and plans the multi-vehicle events, but all event promoters contribute to prepping and maintaining the salt. "Speed Week" events in August were canceled in 2015 and 2022, due to the poor condition of the salt in certain parts of the flats. The salt flats had been swamped by heavy rains earlier in the year, as usual, but this year the rains also triggered mudslides from surrounding mountains onto a section of the flats used for the land-speed racing courses.
Bonneville Speedway (also known as the Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track) is an area of the Bonneville Salt Flats northeast of Wendover, Utah, that is marked out for motor sports. It is particularly noted as the venue for numerous land speed records. The Bonneville Salt Flats Race Track is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but did not become truly popular until the 1930s when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.
A reduction of available racing surface and salt thickness has led to the cancellation of events at Bonneville, such as Speed Week in 2014 and 2015. Available racing surface is much reduced with just 2.5 miles (4.0 km) available instead of the 9-mile (14 km) courses traditionally used for Speed Week.
Historically, the speedway was marked out by the Utah Department of Transportation at the start of each summer. Originally, two tracks were prepared; a 10-mile (16 km) long straightaway for speed trials and an oval or circular track for distance runs, which was typically between 10 and 12 miles (16 and 19 km) long depending on the condition of the salt surface.
Since at least the 1990s, track preparations have been the responsibility of the event organizers. Days or weeks in advance, the track preparers identify an area best suited for their track layouts and begin grading the tracks. Surveyors are brought in to survey the timing trap distances. A day before racing begins, the track markers are added.
Originally, the straightaway was marked with a broad black line down its center. This was eventually changed to lines down either side, as the center line wore out too quickly. As the costs for painting the lines has gone up, organizations have switched to flags and cones as track markers. The last event to use black lines was Speed Week, August 2009.
The number of tracks and the timed sections for each track are set according to what is most beneficial for each event. Large public meets such as Speed Week run as many as four tracks with several timed miles, usually starting with the second mile and running to the fifth mile. Smaller meets that typically only run world record attempts will utilize a single track, with one timed mile and one timed kilometer in the middle of the track. Additional marks and cones indicate the end of the track and the position of timing equipment.
The annual Speed Week was cancelled in both 2014 and 2015, as were many land-speed racing events, due to deteriorating track conditions. Heavy rains caused a layer of mud from surrounding mountains to flow onto the flats, covering approximately 6 mi (9.7 km) of the track. Although another section of the flats would normally be used, nearby salt mining operations had reduced the size of the alternative track.
The depth of the salt crust at Bonneville has also been decreasing, possibly leaching into a saltwater aquifer. Measured at as much at 3 ft (0.91 m) in the 1940s and 50s, it has been reduced to just 2 in (0.051 m) in 2015.
Though recent studies have been made (since 1960), the causes of this deterioration are not clear, although the evidence points toward both local climatic changes and salt mining. Some strategies were devised to revert the decreasing salt surface, such as pumping back salt, though this had no effect.
In August, the Southern California Timing Association and Bonneville Nationals Inc. organize Speed Week, the largest meet of the year, which attracts several hundred drivers who compete to set highest speed in a range of categories. Bonneville Speed Week has been taking place since 1949.
In late August, the Bonneville Motorcycle Speed Trials are held.
In September each year is the World of Speed, (similar to Speed Week) organized by the Utah Salt Flats Racing Association. The USFRA also meet on the first Wednesday of each month throughout the summer.
In October, the Southern California Timing Association puts on World Finals, a scaled-down version of Speed Week. This event tends to have cooler weather and often drier salt that Speed Week the prior month. There are less spectators and it tends to draw serious racers, as this event is the last chance to break a land speed record and be in the SCTA record book for that year.
Each year, there are usually a few private meets that are not publicized scattered among the larger public meets.
Several motor-paced racing speed records have been attempted at Bonneville.
In 1985, American cyclist John Howard set a then world record of 244 km/h (152 mph).
On 15 October 1995, Dutch cyclist Fred Rompelberg achieved 268.831 km/h (167.044 mph), using a special bicycle behind a dragster with a large shield.
In 2016, Denise Mueller-Korenek claimed a women's bicycle land speed record at 147 mph (237 km/h). She was coached by Howard. It is not clear which authority was supervising the record attempt.
In 2018, Mueller-Korenek broke her own women's record and the men's record at a speed of 183.9 miles per hour (296.0 km/h).
In popular culture
In the 2003 film The Brown Bunny, Bud Clay races his motorcycle at the speedway.
In the 2005 film The World's Fastest Indian, Burt Munro and his highly modified Indian Scout motorcycle sets a world record.
In the 2015 series finale episode of Mad Men, Donald Draper drives a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS muscle car in the races at Bonneville Speedway.
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It borders Colorado to its east, Wyoming to its northeast, Idaho to its north, Arizona to its south, and Nevada to its west. Utah also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area; with a population over three million, it is the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mostly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, which is home to roughly two-thirds of the population and includes the capital city, Salt Lake City; and Washington County in the southwest, with more than 180,000 residents. Most of the western half of Utah lies in the Great Basin.
Utah has been inhabited for thousands of years by various indigenous groups such as the ancient Puebloans, Navajo, and Ute. The Spanish were the first Europeans to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region's difficult geography and harsh climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was Mexican territory, many of Utah's earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States via the Mormon Trail. Following the Mexican–American War in 1848, the region was annexed by the U.S., becoming part of the Utah Territory, which included what is now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah's admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted in 1896 as the 45th.
People from Utah are known as Utahns. Slightly over half of all Utahns are Mormons, the vast majority of whom are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where a majority of the population belongs to a single church. A 2023 paper challenged this perception (claiming only 42% of Utahns are Mormons) however most statistics still show a majority of Utah residents belong to the LDS church; estimates from the LDS church suggests 60.68% of Utah's population belongs to the church whilst some sources put the number as high as 68%. The paper replied that membership count done by the LDS Church is too high for several reasons. The LDS Church greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life, though since the 1990s the state has become more religiously diverse as well as secular.
Utah has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, mining, multi-level marketing, and tourism. Utah has been one of the fastest growing states since 2000, with the 2020 U.S. census confirming the fastest population growth in the nation since 2010. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005. Utah ranks among the overall best states in metrics such as healthcare, governance, education, and infrastructure. It has the 12th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. Over time and influenced by climate change, droughts in Utah have been increasing in frequency and severity, putting a further strain on Utah's water security and impacting the state's economy.
The History of Utah is an examination of the human history and social activity within the state of Utah located in the western United States.
Archaeological evidence dates the earliest habitation of humans in Utah to about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. Paleolithic people lived near the Great Basin's swamps and marshes, which had an abundance of fish, birds, and small game animals. Big game, including bison, mammoths and ground sloths, also were attracted to these water sources. Over the centuries, the mega-fauna died, this population was replaced by the Desert Archaic people, who sheltered in caves near the Great Salt Lake. Relying more on gathering than the previous Utah residents, their diet was mainly composed of cattails and other salt tolerant plants such as pickleweed, burro weed and sedge. Red meat appears to have been more of a luxury, although these people used nets and the atlatl to hunt water fowl, ducks, small animals and antelope. Artifacts include nets woven with plant fibers and rabbit skin, woven sandals, gaming sticks, and animal figures made from split-twigs. About 3,500 years ago, lake levels rose and the population of Desert Archaic people appears to have dramatically decreased. The Great Basin may have been almost unoccupied for 1,000 years.
The Fremont culture, named from sites near the Fremont River in Utah, lived in what is now north and western Utah and parts of Nevada, Idaho and Colorado from approximately 600 to 1300 AD. These people lived in areas close to water sources that had been previously occupied by the Desert Archaic people, and may have had some relationship with them. However, their use of new technologies define them as a distinct people. Fremont technologies include:
use of the bow and arrow while hunting,
building pithouse shelters,
growing maize and probably beans and squash,
building above ground granaries of adobe or stone,
creating and decorating low-fired pottery ware,
producing art, including jewelry and rock art such as petroglyphs and pictographs.
The ancient Puebloan culture, also known as the Anasazi, occupied territory adjacent to the Fremont. The ancestral Puebloan culture centered on the present-day Four Corners area of the Southwest United States, including the San Juan River region of Utah. Archaeologists debate when this distinct culture emerged, but cultural development seems to date from about the common era, about 500 years before the Fremont appeared. It is generally accepted that the cultural peak of these people was around the 1200 CE. Ancient Puebloan culture is known for well constructed pithouses and more elaborate adobe and masonry dwellings. They were excellent craftsmen, producing turquoise jewelry and fine pottery. The Puebloan culture was based on agriculture, and the people created and cultivated fields of maize, beans, and squash and domesticated turkeys. They designed and produced elaborate field terracing and irrigation systems. They also built structures, some known as kivas, apparently designed solely for cultural and religious rituals.
These two later cultures were roughly contemporaneous, and appear to have established trading relationships. They also shared enough cultural traits that archaeologists believe the cultures may have common roots in the early American Southwest. However, each remained culturally distinct throughout most of their existence. These two well established cultures appear to have been severely impacted by climatic change and perhaps by the incursion of new people in about 1200 CE. Over the next two centuries, the Fremont and ancient Pueblo people may have moved into the American southwest, finding new homes and farmlands in the river drainages of Arizona, New Mexico and northern Mexico.
In about 1200, Shoshonean speaking peoples entered Utah territory from the west. They may have originated in southern California and moved into the desert environment due to population pressure along the coast. They were an upland people with a hunting and gathering lifestyle utilizing roots and seeds, including the pinyon nut. They were also skillful fishermen, created pottery and raised some crops. When they first arrived in Utah, they lived as small family groups with little tribal organization. Four main Shoshonean peoples inhabited Utah country. The Shoshone in the north and northeast, the Gosiutes in the northwest, the Utes in the central and eastern parts of the region and the Southern Paiutes in the southwest. Initially, there seems to have been very little conflict between these groups.
In the early 16th century, the San Juan River basin in Utah's southeast also saw a new people, the Díne or Navajo, part of a greater group of plains Athabaskan speakers moved into the Southwest from the Great Plains. In addition to the Navajo, this language group contained people that were later known as Apaches, including the Lipan, Jicarilla, and Mescalero Apaches.
Athabaskans were a hunting people who initially followed the bison, and were identified in 16th-century Spanish accounts as "dog nomads". The Athabaskans expanded their range throughout the 17th century, occupying areas the Pueblo peoples had abandoned during prior centuries. The Spanish first specifically mention the "Apachu de Nabajo" (Navaho) in the 1620s, referring to the people in the Chama valley region east of the San Juan River, and north west of Santa Fe. By the 1640s, the term Navaho was applied to these same people. Although the Navajo newcomers established a generally peaceful trading and cultural exchange with the some modern Pueblo peoples to the south, they experienced intermittent warfare with the Shoshonean peoples, particularly the Utes in eastern Utah and western Colorado.
At the time of European expansion, beginning with Spanish explorers traveling from Mexico, five distinct native peoples occupied territory within the Utah area: the Northern Shoshone, the Goshute, the Ute, the Paiute and the Navajo.
The Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado may have crossed into what is now southern Utah in 1540, when he was seeking the legendary Cíbola.
A group led by two Spanish Catholic priests—sometimes called the Domínguez–Escalante expedition—left Santa Fe in 1776, hoping to find a route to the California coast. The expedition traveled as far north as Utah Lake and encountered the native residents. All of what is now Utah was claimed by the Spanish Empire from the 1500s to 1821 as part of New Spain (later as the province Alta California); and subsequently claimed by Mexico from 1821 to 1848. However, Spain and Mexico had little permanent presence in, or control of, the region.
Fur trappers (also known as mountain men) including Jim Bridger, explored some regions of Utah in the early 19th century. The city of Provo was named for one such man, Étienne Provost, who visited the area in 1825. The city of Ogden, Utah is named for a brigade leader of the Hudson's Bay Company, Peter Skene Ogden who trapped in the Weber Valley. In 1846, a year before the arrival of members from the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints, the ill-fated Donner Party crossed through the Salt Lake valley late in the season, deciding not to stay the winter there but to continue forward to California, and beyond.
Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormon pioneers, first came to the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847. At the time, the U.S. had already captured the Mexican territories of Alta California and New Mexico in the Mexican–American War and planned to keep them, but those territories, including the future state of Utah, officially became United States territory upon the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, February 2, 1848. The treaty was ratified by the United States Senate on March 10, 1848.
Upon arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormon pioneers found no permanent settlement of Indians. Other areas along the Wasatch Range were occupied at the time of settlement by the Northwestern Shoshone and adjacent areas by other bands of Shoshone such as the Gosiute. The Northwestern Shoshone lived in the valleys on the eastern shore of Great Salt Lake and in adjacent mountain valleys. Some years after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley Mormons, who went on to colonize many other areas of what is now Utah, were petitioned by Indians for recompense for land taken. The response of Heber C. Kimball, first counselor to Brigham Young, was that the land belonged to "our Father in Heaven and we expect to plow and plant it." A 1945 Supreme Court decision found that the land had been treated by the United States as public domain; no aboriginal title by the Northwestern Shoshone had been recognized by the United States or extinguished by treaty with the United States.
Upon arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, the Mormons had to make a place to live. They created irrigation systems, laid out farms, built houses, churches, and schools. Access to water was crucially important. Almost immediately, Brigham Young set out to identify and claim additional community sites. While it was difficult to find large areas in the Great Basin where water sources were dependable and growing seasons long enough to raise vitally important subsistence crops, satellite communities began to be formed.
Shortly after the first company arrived in the Salt Lake Valley in 1847, the community of Bountiful was settled to the north. In 1848, settlers moved into lands purchased from trapper Miles Goodyear in present-day Ogden. In 1849, Tooele and Provo were founded. Also that year, at the invitation of Ute chief Wakara, settlers moved into the Sanpete Valley in central Utah to establish the community of Manti. Fillmore, Utah, intended to be the capital of the new territory, was established in 1851. In 1855, missionary efforts aimed at western native cultures led to outposts in Fort Lemhi, Idaho, Las Vegas, Nevada and Elk Mountain in east-central Utah.
The experiences of returning members of the Mormon Battalion were also important in establishing new communities. On their journey west, the Mormon soldiers had identified dependable rivers and fertile river valleys in Colorado, Arizona and southern California. In addition, as the men traveled to rejoin their families in the Salt Lake Valley, they moved through southern Nevada and the eastern segments of southern Utah. Jefferson Hunt, a senior Mormon officer of the Battalion, actively searched for settlement sites, minerals, and other resources. His report encouraged 1851 settlement efforts in Iron County, near present-day Cedar City. These southern explorations eventually led to Mormon settlements in St. George, Utah, Las Vegas and San Bernardino, California, as well as communities in southern Arizona.
Prior to establishment of the Oregon and California trails and Mormon settlement, Indians native to the Salt Lake Valley and adjacent areas lived by hunting buffalo and other game, but also gathered grass seed from the bountiful grass of the area as well as roots such as those of the Indian Camas. By the time of settlement, indeed before 1840, the buffalo were gone from the valley, but hunting by settlers and grazing of cattle severely impacted the Indians in the area, and as settlement expanded into nearby river valleys and oases, indigenous tribes experienced increasing difficulty in gathering sufficient food. Brigham Young's counsel was to feed the hungry tribes, and that was done, but it was often not enough. These tensions formed the background to the Bear River massacre committed by California Militia stationed in Salt Lake City during the Civil War. The site of the massacre is just inside Preston, Idaho, but was generally thought to be within Utah at the time.
Statehood was petitioned for in 1849-50 using the name Deseret. The proposed State of Deseret would have been quite large, encompassing all of what is now Utah, and portions of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wyoming, Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico and California. The name of Deseret was favored by the LDS leader Brigham Young as a symbol of industry and was derived from a reference in the Book of Mormon. The petition was rejected by Congress and Utah did not become a state until 1896, following the Utah Constitutional Convention of 1895.
In 1850, the Utah Territory was created with the Compromise of 1850, and Fillmore (named after President Fillmore) was designated the capital. In 1856, Salt Lake City replaced Fillmore as the territorial capital.
The first group of pioneers brought African slaves with them, making Utah the only place in the western United States to have African slavery. Three slaves, Green Flake, Hark Lay, and Oscar Crosby, came west with this first group in 1847. The settlers also began to purchase Indian slaves in the well-established Indian slave trade, as well as enslaving Indian prisoners of war. In 1850, 26 slaves were counted in Salt Lake County. Slavery didn't become officially recognized until 1852, when the Act in Relation to Service and the Act for the relief of Indian Slaves and Prisoners were passed. Slavery was repealed on June 19, 1862, when Congress prohibited slavery in all US territories.
Disputes between the Mormon inhabitants and the federal government intensified after the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' practice of polygamy became known. The polygamous practices of the Mormons, which were made public in 1854, would be one of the major reasons Utah was denied statehood until almost 50 years after the Mormons had entered the area.
After news of their polygamous practices spread, the members of the LDS Church were quickly viewed by some as un-American and rebellious. In 1857, after news of a possible rebellion spread, President James Buchanan sent troops on the Utah expedition to quell the growing unrest and to replace Brigham Young as territorial governor with Alfred Cumming. The expedition was also known as the Utah War.
As fear of invasion grew, Mormon settlers had convinced some Paiute Indians to aid in a Mormon-led attack on 120 immigrants from Arkansas under the guise of Indian aggression. The murder of these settlers became known as the Mountain Meadows massacre. The Mormon leadership had adopted a defensive posture that led to a ban on the selling of grain to outsiders in preparation for an impending war. This chafed pioneers traveling through the region, who were unable to purchase badly needed supplies. A disagreement between some of the Arkansas pioneers and the Mormons in Cedar City led to the secret planning of the massacre by a few Mormon leaders in the area. Some scholars debate the involvement of Brigham Young. Only one man, John D. Lee, was ever convicted of the murders, and he was executed at the massacre site.
Express riders had brought the news 1,000 miles from the Missouri River settlements to Salt Lake City within about two weeks of the army's beginning to march west. Fearing the worst as 2,500 troops (roughly 1/3rd of the army then) led by General Albert Sidney Johnston started west, Brigham Young ordered all residents of Salt Lake City and neighboring communities to prepare their homes for burning and evacuate southward to Utah Valley and southern Utah. Young also sent out a few units of the Nauvoo Legion (numbering roughly 8,000–10,000), to delay the army's advance. The majority he sent into the mountains to prepare defenses or south to prepare for a scorched earth retreat. Although some army wagon supply trains were captured and burned and herds of army horses and cattle run off no serious fighting occurred. Starting late and short on supplies, the United States Army camped during the bitter winter of 1857–58 near a burned out Fort Bridger in Wyoming. Through the negotiations between emissary Thomas L. Kane, Young, Cumming and Johnston, control of Utah territory was peacefully transferred to Cumming, who entered an eerily vacant Salt Lake City in the spring of 1858. By agreement with Young, Johnston established the army at Fort Floyd 40 miles away from Salt Lake City, to the southwest.
Salt Lake City was the last link of the First Transcontinental Telegraph, between Carson City, Nevada and Omaha, Nebraska completed in October 1861. Brigham Young, who had helped expedite construction, was among the first to send a message, along with Abraham Lincoln and other officials. Soon after the telegraph line was completed, the Deseret Telegraph Company built the Deseret line connecting the settlements in the territory with Salt Lake City and, by extension, the rest of the United States.
Because of the American Civil War, federal troops were pulled out of Utah Territory (and their fort auctioned off), leaving the territorial government in federal hands without army backing until General Patrick E. Connor arrived with the 3rd Regiment of California Volunteers in 1862. While in Utah, Connor and his troops soon became discontent with this assignment wanting to head to Virginia where the "real" fighting and glory was occurring. Connor established Fort Douglas just three miles (5 km) east of Salt Lake City and encouraged his bored and often idle soldiers to go out and explore for mineral deposits to bring more non-Mormons into the state. Minerals were discovered in Tooele County, and some miners began to come to the territory. Conner also solved the Shoshone Indian problem in Cache Valley Utah by luring the Shoshone into a midwinter confrontation on January 29, 1863. The armed conflict quickly turned into a rout, discipline among the soldiers broke down, and the Battle of Bear River is today usually referred to by historians as the Bear River Massacre. Between 200 and 400 Shoshone men, women and children were killed, as were 27 soldiers, with over 50 more soldiers wounded or suffering from frostbite.
Beginning in 1865, Utah's Black Hawk War developed into the deadliest conflict in the territory's history. Chief Antonga Black Hawk died in 1870, but fights continued to break out until additional federal troops were sent in to suppress the Ghost Dance of 1872. The war is unique among Indian Wars because it was a three-way conflict, with mounted Timpanogos Utes led by Antonga Black Hawk fighting federal and Utah local militia.
On May 10, 1869, the First transcontinental railroad was completed at Promontory Summit, north of the Great Salt Lake. The railroad brought increasing numbers of people into the state, and several influential businessmen made fortunes in the territory.
Main article: Latter Day Saint polygamy in the late-19th century
During the 1870s and 1880s, federal laws were passed and federal marshals assigned to enforce the laws against polygamy. In the 1890 Manifesto, the LDS Church leadership dropped its approval of polygamy citing divine revelation. When Utah applied for statehood again in 1895, it was accepted. Statehood was officially granted on January 4, 1896.
The Mormon issue made the situation for women the topic of nationwide controversy. In 1870 the Utah Territory, controlled by Mormons, gave women the right to vote. However, in 1887, Congress disenfranchised Utah women with the Edmunds–Tucker Act. In 1867–96, eastern activists promoted women's suffrage in Utah as an experiment, and as a way to eliminate polygamy. They were Presbyterians and other Protestants convinced that Mormonism was a non-Christian cult that grossly mistreated women. The Mormons promoted woman suffrage to counter the negative image of downtrodden Mormon women. With the 1890 Manifesto clearing the way for statehood, in 1895 Utah adopted a constitution restoring the right of women's suffrage. Congress admitted Utah as a state with that constitution in 1896.
Though less numerous than other intermountain states at the time, several lynching murders for alleged misdeeds occurred in Utah territory at the hand of vigilantes. Those documented include the following, with their ethnicity or national origin noted in parentheses if it was provided in the source:
William Torrington in Carson City (then a part of Utah territory), 1859
Thomas Coleman (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1866
3 unidentified men at Wahsatch, winter of 1868
A Black man in Uintah, 1869
Charles A. Benson in Logan, 1873
Ah Sing (Chinese man) in Corinne, 1874
Thomas Forrest in St. George, 1880
William Harvey (Black man) in Salt Lake City, 1883
John Murphy in Park City, 1883
George Segal (Japanese man) in Ogden, 1884
Joseph Fisher in Eureka, 1886
Robert Marshall (Black man) in Castle Gate, 1925
Other lynchings in Utah territory include multiple instances of mass murder of Native American children, women, and men by White settlers including the Battle Creek massacre (1849), Provo River Massacre (1850), Nephi massacre (1853), and Circleville Massacre (1866).
Beginning in the early 20th century, with the establishment of such national parks as Bryce Canyon National Park and Zion National Park, Utah began to become known for its natural beauty. Southern Utah became a popular filming spot for arid, rugged scenes, and such natural landmarks as Delicate Arch and "the Mittens" of Monument Valley are instantly recognizable to most national residents. During the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the construction of the Interstate highway system, accessibility to the southern scenic areas was made easier.
Beginning in 1939, with the establishment of Alta Ski Area, Utah has become world-renowned for its skiing. The dry, powdery snow of the Wasatch Range is considered some of the best skiing in the world. Salt Lake City won the bid for the 2002 Winter Olympics in 1995, and this has served as a great boost to the economy. The ski resorts have increased in popularity, and many of the Olympic venues scattered across the Wasatch Front continue to be used for sporting events. This also spurred the development of the light-rail system in the Salt Lake Valley, known as TRAX, and the re-construction of the freeway system around the city.
During the late 20th century, the state grew quickly. In the 1970s, growth was phenomenal in the suburbs. Sandy was one of the fastest-growing cities in the country at that time, and West Valley City is the state's 2nd most populous city. Today, many areas of Utah are seeing phenomenal growth. Northern Davis, southern and western Salt Lake, Summit, eastern Tooele, Utah, Wasatch, and Washington counties are all growing very quickly. Transportation and urbanization are major issues in politics as development consumes agricultural land and wilderness areas.
In 2012, the State of Utah passed the Utah Transfer of Public Lands Act in an attempt to gain control over a substantial portion of federal land in the state from the federal government, based on language in the Utah Enabling Act of 1894. The State does not intend to use force or assert control by limiting access in an attempt to control the disputed lands, but does intend to use a multi-step process of education, negotiation, legislation, and if necessary, litigation as part of its multi-year effort to gain state or private control over the lands after 2014.
Utah families, like most Americans everywhere, did their utmost to assist in the war effort. Tires, meat, butter, sugar, fats, oils, coffee, shoes, boots, gasoline, canned fruits, vegetables, and soups were rationed on a national basis. The school day was shortened and bus routes were reduced to limit the number of resources used stateside and increase what could be sent to soldiers.
Geneva Steel was built to increase the steel production for America during World War II. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had proposed opening a steel mill in Utah in 1936, but the idea was shelved after a couple of months. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war and the steel plant was put into progress. In April 1944, Geneva shipped its first order, which consisted of over 600 tons of steel plate. Geneva Steel also brought thousands of job opportunities to Utah. The positions were hard to fill as many of Utah's men were overseas fighting. Women began working, filling 25 percent of the jobs.
As a result of Utah's and Geneva Steels contribution during the war, several Liberty Ships were named in honor of Utah including the USS Joseph Smith, USS Brigham Young, USS Provo, and the USS Peter Skene Ogden.
One of the sectors of the beachhead of Normandy Landings was codenamed Utah Beach, and the amphibious landings at the beach were undertaken by United States Army troops.
It is estimated that 1,450 soldiers from Utah were killed in the war.
From Wikipedia;
Tenby (Welsh: Dinbych-y-Pysgod, meaning little town of the fishes or little fortress of the fish) is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, South West Wales, on the west side of Carmarthen Bay.
Notable features of Tenby include 2.5 miles (4.0 km) of sandy beaches; the 13th century medieval town walls, including the Five Arches barbican gatehouse ; 15th century St. Mary's Church; the Tudor Merchant's House (National Trust); a museum with art gallery; and the Pembrokeshire Coast Path, part of Wales' only coastal National Park. Boats sail from Tenby's harbour to the offshore monastic Caldey Island, while St Catherine's Island is linked to the town at low tide. The town is served by Tenby railway station.
With its strategic position on the far west coast of the British Isles, and a natural sheltered harbour from both the Atlantic Ocean and the Irish Sea, Tenby was a natural settlement point.
The earliest reference to a settlement at Tenby is in Etmic Dinbych, a poem probably of 9th century date, preserved in the 14th century Book of Taliesin. At this point the settlement was likely a hill fort, the mercantile nature of the settlement possibly developing under Hiberno-Norse influence.
After the Norman Conquest, the lands came under the control of the Earls of Pembroke, who strengthened the easy to defend but hard to attack hill fort on Castle Hill, by building the first stone walled castle. This enabled the town to grow as a seaport. But the need for additional defences was shown, when attacked by Welsh forces in 1187 and again in 1260 by Llewelyn the Great.[1] The town walls were built by William de Valence, 1st Earl of Pembroke, in the late 13th century.
[edit] Medieval walled town, trading port
This spurred the landowners to develop extensive city walls, enclosing a large part of the settlement into what is now termed the "old town." Although the actual wooden gates into Tenby no longer exist, the Five Arches at the edge of old town give an insight into what the merchants would have marvelled at as they entered.
During the Wars of the Roses, the future King Henry VII sheltered within Tenby before sailing into exile in 1471. Resultantly, in late medieval times through the 14th and 15th centuries, Tenby was awarded various royal grants which financed the maintenance and improvement of the town walls and the enclosure of Tenby harbour. The harbour during this period became a busy and important national port. Originally based on fish trading, traders sailing along the coast to Bristol and Ireland, and further afield to France, Spain and Portugal. Exports from Tenby included wool, skins, canvas, coal, iron and oil; while in 1566 Portuguese seamen landed the first oranges to be brought to Wales.
However, two events caused the town to quickly and permanently decline in importance. Firstly, in the English Civil War, the town declared for Parliament, and resisted two attempts by Charles Gerard, 1st Earl of Macclesfield, to capture it for the King, Charles I. In 1648, the Royalists captured the castle for ten weeks before surrendering to Colonel Thomas Horton,[1] who welcomed Oliver Cromwell to the town shortly afterwards.[2] In the following year, 1650, a plague epidemic killed half its population.
Resultantly bereft of trade, the town was abandoned by the merchants, and slid inexorably into decay and ruin. By the end of the eighteenth century, the visiting John Wesley noted how: "Two-thirds of the old town is in ruins or has entirely vanished. Pigs roam among the abandoned houses and Tenby presents a dismal spectacle."
With the Napoleonic wars restricting rich tourists from visiting the spa resorts in Europe, the need for home-based sea bathing grew. In 1802, locally resident merchant banker and politician Sir William Paxton bought his first property in the old town. From this point onwards he invested heavily in the town, with the full approval of the town council. Engaging the team who had built his home at Middleton Hall, engineer James Grier and architect Samuel Pepys Cockerell were briefed to ceate a "fashionable bathing establishment suitable for the highest society." His baths came into operation in July 1806, and after acquiring the Globe Inn transformed it into "a most lofty, elegant and convenient style" to lodge the more elegant visitors to his baths. Cottages were erected adjoining the baths, and livery stables with an adjoining coach house. In 1814 a road built on arches overlooking the harbour was built at Paxton's full expense. However, although he later got passed a Bill in Parliament to enable fresh water to be piped through the town, his 1809 theatre was closed in 1818 due to lack of patronage.
Paxton also took in "tour" developments in the area, as required by rich Victorian tourists. This included the discovery of a chalybeate spring in his own park at Middleton Hall, and coaching inns from Swansea to Narberth. He also built Paxton's Tower, in memorial to Lord Nelson whom he had met in 1802 when mayor of Carmarthen. Paxton's efforts to revive the town succeeded, and even when victory at the Battle of Trafalgar reopened Europe, the growth of Victorian Tenby was inevitable. Through both the Georgian and Victorian eras Tenby was renowned as a health resort and centre for botanical and geological study. With many features of the town being constructed to provide areas for healthy seaside walks, due to the walkways being built to accommodate Victorian nannies pushing prams, many of the beaches today still retain good disabled access. In 1856 writer Mary Ann Evans (pen-name George Eliot) accompanied George Henry Lewes to Tenby to gather materials for his work Seaside Studies published in 1858.
In 1852, The Shipwrecked Fishermen and Mariners' Royal Benevolent Society deployed a lifeboat to the town, taken over in 1854 by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. This led in 1905 to the building of the first slip-way equipped Lifeboat Station, which was replaced in 2008.
Tenby railway station was opened by the Pembroke and Tenby Railway as the terminus of the branch from the Pembroke direction in 1863, with the section eastwards to join the main line at Whitland following three years later.
In 1867, the construction of the Palmerston Fort on St Catherine's Island began. It was built to protect the coastline from a potential landing force.
Modern Tenby provides many items and activities for both the local resident and out of season tourists to enjoy.
The old town castle walls still survive, as does the Victorian revival architecture which has been retained and maintained, often in a high-light orientated pastel colour scheme, making the town more French Riviera-esque in nature and feel.
The economy is still highly based around tourism, supported by the provision of a range of craft, art and local goods stores, which has been created by a thriving artist community.
The cows on Truleigh Hill were gathered late this afternoon, presumably waiting for the farmer to open the gate.
SPORTS604 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS 2010
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photos by Ron Sombion Gallery & PacBlue Printing
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All relevant and extensive information about the Hong Kong Police Force is available on their website
It is very comprehensive, the Hong Kong Police Force has a highly organised structure.
All Hong Kong Police Vehicles use the AM licence plate ie 2 digits and up to 4 numbers | Police vehicles have different colours, normal Police vehicles are white with red and blue stripes, the Police Traffic Division vehicles are white with yellow and blue checkerboard design.
Amazingly the Police Force have their own superstitions as well, the majority of the licence plates on Police Vehicles have lucky number combinations involving the numbers 6,8, and 9 ! Basically 6 means easy life, 8 means wealth and 9 means long life - this is very much Hong Kong Culture. The Police also use unmarked vehicles extensively which are NOT identified by the AM mark.
The Police Museum at 27 Coombe Road at the Peak is also worth a visit, see details on the website listed above.
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From a wander around Woods Mill after a bit of gardening, a trip to the dump and car some tinkering.
Kilmun Arboretum
Kilmun is also home to an extensive arboretum managed by the Forestry and Land Scotland. Established in the 1930s to monitor the success of a variety of exotic tree species in the humid west coast environment, it includes specimens of Sequoia, Japanese Larch, Araucaria araucana (monkey puzzle) and Japanese Chestnut amongst many others from around the world. A series of woodland walks have been established of varying gradients and degrees of difficulty, which link by a forestry track to Benmore wood at the top of Puck's Glen.
Kilmun is a linear settlement on the north shore of the Holy Loch, on the Cowal peninsula in Argyll and Bute, Scottish Highlands. It takes its name from the 7th-century monastic community founded by an Irish monk, St Munn (Fintán of Taghmon). The ruin of a 12th-century church still stands beside the Kilmun Parish Church and Argyll Mausoleum.
Location
The village lies on the A880, within the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park. It runs between the head of the sea loch and connects with the village of Strone at Strone Point, where the sea loch joins the Firth of Clyde.
History
As a settlement, Kilmun is substantially older than most of its neighbours. Like them, it developed as a watering-place (a summer pleasure resort/spa with sea bathing for well off Glasgow families) after 1827, when a quay was built by the marine engineer David Napier to connect to his "new route" to Inveraray which included a steam ship on Loch Eck. The pier was a regular stop for the Clyde steamer services until its closure in 1971. A ferry also used to cross the loch to and from Lazaretto Point in Ardnadam.
Kilmun Parish Church and Argyll Mausoleum
Consists of St Munn's Church (a Category-A-listed building and Kilmun's parish church of the Church of Scotland), as well as the adjacent mausoleum of the Dukes of Argyll and a historically significant churchyard. The complex is located on the summit of a slight knoll about ten metres from the shoreline of the Holy Loch. The existing church dates from 1841 and occupies the site of an older, medieval church. A partly ruined tower from the medieval period still stands to the west of the present building.
Decline
The population for the Benmore and Kilmun area was recorded as 1,030 in the 2001 census. That showed a decline of 99 people (9.69%) in the ten years since the 1991 census.
Notable residents
Australian politician Gregor McGregor (1848–1914) was born in Kilmun
Cowal is a rugged peninsula in Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland. It is bounded on the west by Loch Fyne and on the east by Loch Long and the Firth of Clyde. The Kyles of Bute separate it from the Isle of Bute to the south.
The northern part of the peninsula is covered by Argyll Forest Park and also includes the Arrochar Alps. In the south, the peninsula is divided into three forks by Loch Striven and Loch Riddon.
Cowal's only burgh is Dunoon in the south-east, from which ferries sail to Gourock in Inverclyde. Other ferries run from Portavadie in the west to Tarbert in Kintyre, and from Colintraive in the south to Rhubodach on Bute.
Much of Cowal was once held by the Lamonts clan. Later, the Campbells came to be one of the most powerful families in Cowal.
Cowal's underlying geology is made up largely of resistant metamorphic rocks, but south of the Highland Boundary Fault part of the Toward peninsula is composed of sedimentary rocks. The landscape is mountainous, the high ground dominated by moorland, peat mosses and the forest that often extends down the sides of the sea lochs to the water's edge. The acreage of improved farmland is small. Most land is owned by estates or the Forestry and Land Scotland except in the more settled areas.
The coast is mostly rocky and the few beaches are mostly shingle and gravel except on Loch Fyne: the longest sandy beach is at Ardentinny on Loch Long. The only lowland areas are around the coast where most of the settlement is found, particularly around Dunoon, Cowal's largest settlement on the Firth of Clyde. Other settlements include Innellan, Sandbank, Kilmun, Strone, Arrochar, Lochgoilhead, Tighnabruaich, Kames and Strachur.
The A83 trunk road crosses the northern end of the peninsular passing Arrochar at the head of Loch Long and Cairndow near the head of Loch Fyne. It partly follows or runs parallel to William Caulfield's historic military road that takes its name, Rest and Be Thankful from the stone seat erected at the summit at the head of Glen Croe. As the A83 has been subject to landslips, the old route has been used as a diversionary route. The other A roads are the A815 which links the A83 with Dunoon via Strachur where the A886 leaves it and heads south via Glendaruel to Colintraive where the ferry connects it to the Isle of Bute and the A8003 which links Tighnabruaich to the A886. Other roads are secondary B roads, narrow roads or tracks.
At Colintraive the Caledonian MacBrayne vehicle ferry takes five minutes to cross the 400-yard (370-metre) strait to Rhubodach on Bute. The ferry from Portavadie to Tarbert on Kintyre across Loch Fyne takes 25 minutes. A passenger-only service operated by Caledonian MacBrayne connects Dunoon to Gourock in Inverclyde where there is easy access the ScotRail train service to Glasgow Central railway station. Western Ferries operates a high-frequency vehicle carrying service between Hunters Quay, near Dunoon, and McInroy's Point, on the outskirts of Gourock in Inverclyde.
The NCR75 links Dunoon and Portavadie on Cowal. The NRC75 route originates at Edinburgh and Tarbert on the Kintyre peninsula. The National Cycle Network is maintained by sustrans.
Route across Cowal, traveling from east to west. After catching the ferry from Gourock to cross the upper Firth of Clyde to Dunoon. The route continues along the Cowal peninsula coast, passing the Holy Loch and Sandbank. Then travels through Glen Lean to the head of Loch Striven at Ardtaraig. Then passes the Kyles of Bute passing through Tighnabruaich, to Portavadie. From where another ferry crosses Loch Fyne, connecting the route onto the Kintyre peninsula at Tarbert. On the Kintyre peninsula you can join the National Cycle Route 78 (The Caledonia Way).
Evidence of early occupation of the area is in the form of cairns or burial mounds. One example is a Bronze Age cairn from between about 2000 BC and 800 BC is situated close to the summit of Creag Evanachan, 195 metres (640 ft) above sea level overlooking Loch Fyne. It is a mound of stones about 20 metres (66 ft) in diameter and up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) high. Another is the cairn at Dunchraigaig which is 195 feet (59 m) in diameter and was first excavated in 1864. At the south end a cist contained the deposits of burnt bones from eight or ten bodies. A smaller cist in the centre contained a bowl, burnt bone, charcoal and flint chips, and in the clay below them, the remains of a burial. A third even smaller cist also contained a food bowl, burnt bones and flint chips. A whetstone, flint knife, fragments of pottery and a greenstone axe were also found.
When the Irish invaded the region, it became part of their kingdom of Dal Riata. The Cenél Comgaill, a kin group within Dal Riata, controlled the Cowal peninsula, which consequently took their name (evolving over time from Comgaill to Cowal). Prior to this, little is known, except as revealed archaeologically, though the region may have been part of the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu.
Following a subsequent invasion by Norsemen, the Hebridean islands of Dal Riata became the Kingdom of the Isles, which following Norwegian unification became part of Norway, as Suðreyjar (historically anglicised as Sodor). The remaining parts of Dal Riata attracted the name Argyle (later Argyll), in reference to their ethnicity. In an unclear manner, the kingdom of Alba was founded elsewhere by groups originating from Argyll, and expanded to include Argyll itself.
However, an 11th-century Norse military campaign led to the formal transfer of Lorn, Islay, Kintyre, Knapdale, Bute, and Arran, to Suðreyjar. This left Alba with no part of Argyll except Cowal, and the land between Loch Awe and Loch Fyne. After Alba united with Moray, over the course of the century, it became Scotland. In 1326, a sheriff was appointed for the Scottish parts of Argyll.
Although, following the Treaty of Perth, Suðreyjar's successor state, the Lordship of the Isles, fell under the nominal authority of the Scottish king, it was not until 1475 that it was merged with Scotland (the occasion being the punishment of its ruler for an anti-Scottish conspiracy). The sheriffdom of Argyll was expanded to include the adjacent mainland areas from the Lordship. Following local government reforms in the 19th century, the traditional provinces were formally abolished, in favour of counties aligned with sheriffdoms, so Cowal became merely a part of the county of Argyll.
The history of the Cowal is tied into the clans who inhabited it. Seemingly, in the 11th century, an unidentified heiress of the Cenel Comgaill married Anrothan, grandson of the king of the Cenél nEógain, from Ulster. Clan traditions argue that Anrothan's lands were passed down to a descendant named Aodha Alainn O'Neil, who had the following sons:
Neil, who founded the MacNeil of Argyll, who were castellans of Castle Sween in Knapdale, on behalf of the Lords of the Isles. The MacNeil of Barra claim to be related to them, though how they came to be involved with Barra is unclear.
Gillachrist, whose son was:
Lachlan Mor, who founded Clan MacLachlan, who ruled from Castle Lachlan, on the Loch Fyne coast
Dunslebhe, whose sons were:
Ewen, who founded Clan Ewen of Otter, who ruled from Castle MacEwen, in the Kilfinan peninsula
Fearchar, who founded Clan MacKerracher, renamed Clan Lamont after 1235, after Lauman, the then chief. Clan Lamont ruled from Toward Castle, in the Toward peninsula.
Excavations carried out at Castle MacEwen showed the site had several stages of development before it was the defended medieval homestead of the MacEwens; at first there was a palisaded enclosure, and then a promontory fort with a timber rampart.
The remote areas in the north east of Cowal, which were theoretically under the dominion of Clan Lamont, were used by Scottish kings for hunting; indeed, Cowal was the last part of Britain to have wild boar. When King John Balliol was threatened by his rival, Robert de Bruys, Balliol's ally, the king of England, established Henry Percy at Carrick Castle, in the region; likewise Dunoon Castle further south. De Bruys expelled the English from Cowal, with the aid of the Campbells (who were based nearby at Loch Awe), and eventually defeated Balliol. De Bruy's son gave Carrick Castle to the Campbells, while, after spending some time as a direct Royal possession, Dunoon Castle was handed to them by James III, who made the Campbells its Honorary Keepers.
During the civil war between Royalists and Puritans, the Campbells had sided with the Puritans, so following their defeat at the Battle of Inverlochy, Clan Lamont took the opportunity to push back the borders of Campbell control. Predictably, in 1646, the Campbells took revenge, and overran Toward Castle; after being offered hospitability, the Campbells slaughtered the Lamont occupants in their beds. Despite the chief of the Lamonts surrendering, the Campbells hanged many members of Clan Lamont, in what became known as the Dunoon massacre.
By contrast, the next chief of the Campbells, the son of the former chief, was a Royalist, so after the restoration of Royalist rule, the Campbells were not ultimately dispossessed of their gains. However, after James VII came to the Scottish throne, the Campbells revolted, and the chief was executed, but his son, the new chief, took part in the successful expulsion of James VII, so the Campbells once again ultimately retained their lands.
After the Jacobite rising of 1715 when James Francis Edward Stuart attempted to regain the throne, the lack of roads in the Highlands prevented the British army from advancing to quell areas of unrest. General Wade was tasked with implementing a programme to build military roads from north-central Scotland through the Highlands to the forts in the Great Glen. They were constructed by officers and soldiers. William Caulfeild succeeded Wade in 1740 and constructed the road from Dumbarton via Tarbet to Inveraray through the Cowal where it is known as the "Rest and Be Thankful".
In Victorian times tourism began to take hold on the Clyde coast. Steam propulsion started in 1812 and by the end of the 19th century, paddle steamers ferried thousands of Glaswegians doon the watter from Broomielaw in the city centre to holiday resorts including Dunoon on the Cowal.
The Loch Lomond and Cowal Way stretches for over 57 miles (92 kilometres) through Cowal, from Portavadie on the southeastern shore of Loch Fyne leading to Inveruglas on Loch Lomond, in the Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
The Cowal Highland Gathering, the annual highland games, are held annually in Dunoon stadium on the last Friday/Saturday of August.
Asgog Castle, ruin, next to Asgog Loch, Millhouse, Kilfinan Parish.
Auchenbreck Castle (no longer standing), Kilmodan, Glendaruel
Carrick Castle (private), Carrick Castle
Dunans Castle (ruin, fire damage), Glendaruel
Dunoon Castle (no longer standing), Dunoon
Knockamillie Castle, ruin, Innellan
New Castle Lachlan (private), Strathlachlan
Old Castle Lachlan (ruin), Strathlachlan
Castle MacEwen (no longer standing), Kilfinan
Castle Toward (private), Toward
Toward Castle (ruin), in the grounds of Castle Toward
The Postcard
A postally unused carte postale that was published by Gaddis and Seif of Luxor. The card has a divided back.
Luxor
Luxor (Arabic: الأقصر) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of Thebes.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-air museum", as the ruins of the Egyptian temple complexes at Karnak and Luxor stand within the modern city.
Immediately opposite, across the River Nile, lie the monuments, temples and tombs of the west bank Theban Necropolis, which includes the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens. Thousands of tourists from all around the world arrive annually to visit Luxor's monuments, contributing greatly to the economy of the modern city.
The population of Luxor is 422,407 (2021), with an area of approximately 417 square kilometres (161 sq mi). It is among the oldest inhabited cities in the world.
Luxor was the ancient city of Thebes, the great capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom, and the glorious city of Amun, later to become the god Amun-Ra. The city was regarded in the ancient Egyptian texts as wAs.t (approximate pronunciation: "Waset"), which meant "City of the Sceptre", and later in Demotic Egyptian as ta jpt meaning "the Shrine/Temple", referring to the the temple now known by its Arabic name Karnak, meaning "Fortified Village"), which the ancient Greeks adapted as Thebai.
Thebes was also known as "the City of the 100 Gates", sometimes being called "Southern Heliopolis" to distinguish it from the city of Iunu or Heliopolis, the main place of worship for the god Ra in the north.
The importance of the city started as early as the 11th. Dynasty, when the town grew into a thriving city. Montuhotep II, who united Egypt after the troubles of the First Intermediate Period, brought stability to the lands as the city grew in stature.
The Pharaohs of the New Kingdom in their expeditions to Kush, in today's northern Sudan, and to the lands of Canaan, Phoenicia and Syria saw the city accumulate great wealth and rise to prominence, even on a world scale.
As the city of the god Amun-Ra, Thebes remained the religious capital of Egypt until the Greek period. The main god of the city was Amun, who was worshipped together with his wife, the Goddess Mut, and their son Khonsu, the God of the moon.
With the rise of Thebes as the foremost city of Egypt, the local god Amun rose in importance as well, and became linked to the sun god Ra, thus creating the new 'King of Gods' Amun-Ra. His great temple at Karnak, just north of Thebes, was the most important temple of Egypt right until the end of antiquity.
Recent Discoveries
In April 2018, the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities announced the discovery of the shrine of god Osiris-Ptah Neb, dating back to the 25th. dynasty in the Temple of Karnak. According to archaeologist Essam Nagy, the material remains from the area contained clay pots, the lower part of a sitting statue and part of a stone panel showing an offering table filled with a sheep and a goose which were the symbols of the god Amun.
On the same day in November 2018, two different discoveries were announced. One was by the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities that had found a 13th.-century tomb on the West Bank belonging to Thaw-Irkhet-If, the overseer of the mummification shrine at the temple of Mut, and his wife.
Five months of excavation work up to this point had revealed colorful scenes of the family and 1,000 funerary statues or ushabti.
The other discovery was of 1000 ushabti and two sarcophagi each containing a mummy by a joint team from the IFAO (French Institute of Oriental Archaeology, Cairo) and the University of Strasbourg. One of the sarcophagi was opened in private by Egyptian antiquities officials, while the other, of a female 18th. Dynasty woman named Thuya, was opened in front of international media.
In October 2019, Egyptian archaeologists headed by Zahi Hawass revealed an ancient "industrial area" used to manufacture decorative artefacts, furniture and pottery for royal tombs. The site contained a big kiln to fire ceramics and 30 workshops.
According to Zahi Hawass, each atelier had a different aim – some of them were used to make pottery, others used to produce gold artefacts, and others still to produce furniture. About 75 meters below the valley, several items believed to have adorned wooden royal coffins, such as inlaid beads, silver rings and gold foil were unearthed. Some artefacts depicted the wings of the deity Horus.
In October 2019, the Egyptian archaeological mission unearthed thirty well-preserved wooden coffins that were 3,000 years old in front of the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut.
The coffins contained the mummies of twenty-three adult males, five adult females and two children, who are believed to be from the middle class. The mummies were decorated with mixed carvings and designs, including scenes from Egyptian gods, hieroglyphs, and the Book of the Dead, a series of spells that allowed the soul to navigate in the afterlife. Some of the coffins had the names of the dead engraved on them.
On the 8th. April 2021, Egyptian archaeologists led by Zahi Hawass found Aten, a 3,400 years old "lost golden city" near Luxor. It is the largest known city from Ancient Egypt to be unearthed to date. The site was said to be "the second most important archaeological discovery since the tomb of Tutankhamen".
The site provides a glimpse into the ordinary lives of ancient Egyptians, whereas past archaeological discoveries were from tombs and other burial sites. Many artefacts were found alongside the buildings such as pottery dated back to the reign of Amenhotep III, rings and everyday working tools. The site had still not been completely unearthed as of April 2021.
Luxor Landmarks
(a) West Bank
-- Valley of the Kings
-- Valley of the Queens
-- Medinet Habu (memorial temple of Ramesses III)
-- The Ramesseum (memorial temple of Ramesses II)
-- Deir el-Medina (workers' village)
-- Tombs of the Nobles
-- Deir el-Bahari (Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut)
-- Malkata (palace of Amenophis III)
-- Colossi of Memnon (memorial temple of Amenophis III)
-- Al-Asasif cemetery.
(b) East Bank
-- Luxor Temple
-- Karnak Temple
-- Luxor Museum
-- Mummification Museum
-- Winter Palace Hotel
-- Luxor International Airport.
Ozymandias
Ozymandias, which is the Greek name for the Egyptian Pharaoh Rameses II, is Shelley's most famous work. Here it is:
'I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away'.
Out of Chaos - further information from the Laing Art Gallery website:-
"Introduction
Out of Chaos showcases outstanding sculpture, paintings and prints by artists such as Frank Auerbach, David Bomberg, Marc Chagall, Edith Kiss, Chaïm Soutine and Alfred Wolmark. Together, they demonstrate the contribution of artists from around the world to Britain’s cultural heritage. The artworks span more than a century, and include examples of important movements and styles ranging from figuration to abstraction.
The exhibition themes encompass issues of identity and belonging connected with migration. Many of the artists or their families had to make forced journeys as the result of upheavals in their homelands.
The artworks have been selected from the collection of the Ben Uri Gallery, London, featuring artists primarily of Jewish descent. They are augmented by works by contemporary artists from migrant communities who have exhibited with Ben Uri. Some paintings from the Laing and Hatton Gallery collections are also included.
Identity and Migration
A wave of emigration to Britain from Eastern Europe took place over several decades from the 1880s, especially following increasing persecution of Jews. The main destination was London, and the new arrivals continued their distinct traditions in their new host cities. In contrast, longer established Jewish communities often mirrored the aspirations of mainstream British society. These differences in identity were reflected by artists of the time.
In the early Victorian period, Solomon Hart achieved success with scripture subjects, painted in a style entirely in tune with establishment taste. In contrast, Alfred Wolmark’s pictures focussed on the daily lives of the immigrant Polish-Jewish community in London at the beginning of the 20th century. His pictures differed considerably from Solomon J Solomon’s choice of subjects, which mirrored his family’s integration into Edwardian middle-class society. For Simeon Solomon, however, personal identity led to disaster as he was rejected by society for his homosexual lifestyle, despite considerable earlier success as a Pre-Raphaelite artist.
The Whitechapel Boys
These artists’ innovative approach to colour and form made an important contribution to British modernism in the period just before and after the First World War. All were from migrant Jewish backgrounds, with shared feelings of cultural identity. They were open to influences from Europe as well as new artistic developments in Britain. The group was closely associated with the Whitechapel area of London, and included experimental writers.
The artists’ friendships and interests developed from the overlapping periods they spent at the Slade School of Art, London. They were also encouraged by Alfred Wolmark (pictures also on display). Two of the leading figures in the group of artists were David Bomberg and Jacob Epstein. In 1914, they curated the ‘Jewish section’ of the Whitechapel Art Gallery’s important exhibition ‘Twentieth Century Art: A Review of Modern Movements’, featuring artwork by members of the group.
Modernism and Turmoil
Paris was also a magnet for Jewish artists who left Russia and neighbouring countries in the early twentieth century, escaping oppression and poverty. Many artists, including Marc Chagall and Chaïm Soutine, lived and worked in the collection of studios known as La Ruche (the Beehive), in Montparnasse. These painters had a powerful influence on modernist figurative art.
Other Jewish artists, such as Ludwig Meidner, Martin Bloch and Arthur Segal, contributed to experimental art developments in Germany, including Expressionism and optical-effect painting.
Following the rise of Nazism in the 1930s, modernist art was denounced as degenerate. Jewish artists in Europe were particularly at risk. Soutine lived in hiding in France, while Chagall fled to America. Meidner, Bloch, and Segal escaped to Britain.
Many artists were among the German-speaking émigrés who were interned in Britain in 1940-41, during the Second World War. Making art, sometimes using improvised materials, provided an escape for many from the depressing experience of internment.
Fleeing Destruction
Polish artist Josef Herman’s painting of refugees captures the universal plight of all those who had to flee destruction or persecution in their homeland. A scene with the backdrop of a traditional village represents the settled life that many lost through devastating events.
The artworks in this section are related to the terrible destruction of the Holocaust unleashed in Nazi-controlled Europe during the Second World War. Jews were targeted for annihilation, and millions of other people also lost their lives because of their nationality, ethnic group, skin colour, religion, political beliefs, sexual orientation or disability.
Both Marc Chagall and Emmanuel Levy used traditional Christian imagery of crucifixion as a powerful symbol of the massacre of Jewish people. German-American satirist George Grosz showed the violent persecution of individuals. Art came out of tragic circumstances, and Leo Haas risked his life to make sketches of life in a concentration camp. Edith Kiss’s later sculpture was influenced by her experience of forced labour and imprisonment.
Post-War Britain
Artists who fled Nazism in Germany introduced new styles to Britain. However, some, like Erich Kahn and Else Meidner, suffered considerably from the traumatic disruption to their lives. Clara Klinghoffer fled to London from Amsterdam, having previously established a successful career painting striking portraits. From a younger generation, Eva Frankfurther and Frank Auerbach came to Britain as child refugees in 1939. Despite very different styles, they both identified with individual areas of London in their art.
Pictures by Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff and Ronald B Kitaj show how they adopted expressive styles to represent the identity and emotional character of a person, a place, or an experience. Contemporary painter Ansel Krut, from South Africa, also adopted an expressive style for his symbolic scene of impending sacrifice.
Recent Art
In these works, artists explore issues of group and individual identity through film, installation, photography and paintings. The artworks reflect the wide variety of the artists’ backgrounds and experiences. Coming right up to date, a specially commissioned film confronts the issue of migrant workers in London.
The themes include the clashing viewpoints of different communities and the conflict that can arise from passionate beliefs. The disorientation of refugee experience is strikingly illustrated in an image of a robed figure dragging a symbolic house in a Brazilian city. Similarly, massive portraits of asylum seekers in a style mimicking identity cards raise issues of self and individuality.
Aspects of female identity are also explored, while a photographic work celebrates the individual affirmation of a happy gay relationship. The concept of religion as an aspect of personal identity also features.
Ben Uri Gallery
The Ben Uri Art Society was founded in 1915 in London’s East End. Its original aim was to encourage Jewish artists who were struggling to gain acceptance by the art establishment of the time. Today, the Ben Uri Gallery has a wider focus, concentrating on art with the themes of migration and identity. It works with varied immigrant communities and artists of diverse backgrounds.
From its early days, Ben Uri purchased works of art, and held art classes, exhibitions, lectures, and concerts. Even during the Second World War, activities carried on, though the collection was stored in a basement for safety. Since then, Ben Uri has added innovative learning, well-being and outreach programmes, publications and a website to its exhibitions and acquisitions. During its history, Ben Uri Gallery has occupied a variety of tiny premises. In 2015, it began a major project to move to a new home.
In all its activities, Ben Uri Gallery explores the ways in which Britain’s rich cultural life has been enhanced and broadened by outsiders. It promotes the visual arts as a universal language that can encourage understanding in difficult and troubled times.
Watch a series of films with Chairman and Chief Executive David Glasser discussing the history of Ben Uri
Watch video about Ben Uri created for the 2015 Centenary celebrations
Visit the Ben Uri collection website
Blogs for further reading
Read about David Bomberg, Picasso and the Whitechapel boys in this informative blog by curator Sarah Richardson.
Another blog by Sarah tells the story of Chaïm Soutine, misfit artistic genius in 1930s Paris.
Out of Chaos - art that makes you think is Sarah's third blog, revealing background stories to some of the impressive contemporary and historical art in the exhibition.
Read about Marc Chagall’s ‘Apocalypse in Lilac’ with reference to Holocaust Memorial Day."
The Portfolio pattern doesn't include any instructions for reinforcing or finishing the underarm/side seam. The curve has to be clipped quite thoroughly to get the top to sit right on the body, but it also takes quite a bit of strain and needs to be really strong. My white Portfolio blouse has developed a little hole in one underarm so I knew something extra was needed this time around.
Googling brought up a tutorial that I adapted slightly. Notching, as shown in the blog post, is unnecessary because of the direction of the curve, so you only need to clip (i.e. make a single cut, not a V-shape); I chose to alternate the clips on each side instead of cutting though both seam allowances in the same places - hopefully that reduces the likelihood of holes. After clipping I folded back the seam allowances and then topstitched the whole seam rather than just the underarm portion.
FYI, I made a similar top a little while ago and tried to French all my seams, and it didn't work. It was a fine lawn fabric and I went with a pretty narrow French seam but it was no good. On a curve like this [concave? convex? I never know whether we mean as sewn or when it's turned right side out...] the seam allowance is a lot shorter than the seam and it really has to be clipped.