View allAll Photos Tagged Spirtual
Bhutan follows the Drukpa Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The state religion of Bhutan is Buddhism and the majority of the country follow the religion. This makes for some beautiful temples and monasteries throughout the country, along with a number of monks.
Follow: Website • Facebook • Google+ • Instagram • Twitter • Youtube
This Sadhu was one of 4 or 5 Sadhus camped out around Dakshinkali Temple outside of Kathmandu. Most of the Sadhus seemed to be pretty relaxed and just waiting for someone to make a donation, but one went out of his way trying to get my attention.
Read more: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/the-sadhus-of-nepal-part-2
Follow Me: Website • Facebook • Google+ • Twitter • Youtube
I was quite taken in by this temple. It's a Jain temple, a religion that I think isn't that well known outside of India. I only heard about it within the last few years, and don't know that much about it overall, besides it's emphasis on non-violence. Mahatma Gandhi was influenced by Jainism during his youth, and his application of the Jain principle 'Ahimsa' of non-violence was prevalent in the development of his own Satyagraha (truth force) principle.
I probably spent a solid 1.5 hours walking around the temple. It's about 40,000 sq. ft., or to put that in perspective, a pretty decently sized Best Buy. Instead of admiring electronics I was admiring the amazing details found everywhere you look. It's truly an amazing temple and well worth going a couple hours out of your way from Udaipur to see it. I'm so glad I did.
Blogged: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/2016/10/26/ranakpur-jain-temple
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For prints please visit: www.shefman.com
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Google+
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
An Israeli soldier prays at the Western Wall, the holiest site for Jews, just beneath the Temple Mount, the site of one of Islam's holiest sites.
Another pic from my visit to Chichester Cathedral, and while we were there, we got chatting to a lady from the clergy, I think she was a deaconess. It was a lovely informative chat about the cathedral and we even got onto spiritual matters, but what I also liked was the fact Sophie and I were presenting as females was irrelevant. Being able to do things like that as my true self, is incredibly valuable to me.
Follow Me: Website • Facebook • Google+ • Twitter • Youtube
Blog Excerpt:
Inside one of the pavilions is this astonishing image of the Nan Oo Buddha. It is set within a rather ornately decorated shrine with glass panels that glimmer and sparkle.
The pagoda is very popular with Thai tourists in particular. In one of the other shrines, there is a Buddhist deity that is believed to grant wishes. You must bring two bills of equal amounts - one for the deity, and one for yourself. While the bills are being blessed, you make a wish. One of the bills is returned to you, the other is kept for the temple and your wish shall come true....
Read the full blog post: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/nan-oo-buddha
Situated inside the walls of the Grand Palace in Bangkok is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which is in fact a royal chapel and not a temple as there's no living quarters for the monks. The chapel is home to some of the most intricate and beautiful Thai architecture. Every way you look it's immediately clear just how much painstaking effort must have been taking to decorate, well, everything. Lots of sparkles and bold Buddhist colors.
Follow: Website • Facebook • Google+ • Instagram • Twitter • Youtube
I'm more of a landscape person, enjoying the beautiful spoils of nature, but more and more, I find myself enjoying getting some portraits of locals. It can often be hard in places to strike up a rapport and get someone to pose for you.
Read more: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/pilgrims-of-ethiopia-part-2
In France, the Decadent Movement could not withstand the loss of its leading figures. Many of those associated with the Decadent Movement became symbolists after initially associating freely with decadents. Paul Verlaine and Stéphane Mallarmé were among those, though both had been associated with Baju's Le Décadent for a time.Others kept a foot in each camp. Albert Aurier wrote decadent pieces for Le Décadent and also wrote symbolist poetry and art criticism.Decadent writer Rachilde was staunchly opposed to a symbolist take over of Le Décadent even though her own one-act drama The Crystal Spider is almost certainly a symbolist work.[31] Others, once strong voices for decadence, abandoned the movement altogether. Joris-Karl Huysmans grew to consider Against Nature as the starting point on his journey into Roman Catholic symbolist work and the acceptance of hope.[7] Anatole Baju, once the self-appointed school-master of French decadence, came to think of the movement as naive and half-hearted, willing to tinker and play with social realities, but not to utterly destroy them. He left decadence for anarchy? Decadence, in contrast, actually belittles nature in the name of artistry. In Huysmans’ Against Nature, for instance, the main character Des Esseintes says of nature: “There is not one of her inventions, no matter how subtle or imposing it may be, which human genius cannot create . . . There can be no doubt about it: this eternal, driveling, old woman is no longer admired by true artists, and the moment has come to replace her by artifice.The Decadent Movement was a late 19th-century artistic and literary movement, centered in Western Europe, that followed an aesthetic ideology of excess and artificiality. The visual artist Félicien Rops's body of work and Joris-Karl Huysmans's novel Against Nature (1884) are considered the prime examples of the decadent movement it first flourished in France and then spread throughout Europe and to the United States.The movement was characterized by self-disgust, sickness at the world, general skepticism, delighting in perversion, and employing crude humor and a belief in the superiority of human creativity over logic and the natural world.The concept of decadence dates from the eighteenth century, especially from the writings of Montesquieu, the Enlightenment philosopher who suggested that the decline (décadence) of the Roman Empire was in large part due to their moral decay and loss of cultural standards.When Latin scholar Désiré Nisard turned toward French literature, he compared Victor Hugo and Romanticism in general to the Roman decadence, men sacrificing their craft and their cultural values for the sake of pleasure. The trends that he identified, such an interest in description, a lack of adherence to the conventional rules of literature and art, and a love for extravagant language were the seeds of the Decadent Movement.The first major development in French decadence would come when writers Théophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire used the word proudly, to represent a rejection of what they considered banal "progress." Baudelaire referred to himself as decadent in his 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du Mal and exalted the Roman decline as a model for modern poets to express their passion. He would later use the term decadence to include the subversion of traditional categories in pursuit of full, sensual expression. In his lengthy introduction to Baudelaire in the front of the 1868 Les Fleurs du Mal, Gautier at first rejects the application of the term decadent, as meant by the critic, but then works his way to an admission of decadence on Baudelaire's own terms: a preference for what is beautiful and what is exotic, an ease with surrendering to fantasy, and a maturity of skill with manipulating language.Though he was Belgian, Félicien Rops was instrumental in the development of this early stage of the Decadent Movement. A friend of Baudelaire,he was also a frequent illustrator of Baudelaire's writing, at the request of the author himself. Rops delighted in breaking artistic convention and shocking the public with his combination of (often graphic) with gruesome, fantastical horror. He was explicitly interested in the Satanic, and he frequently sought to portray the double-threat of Satan and Woman. At times, his only goal was the portrayal of a woman he'd observed debasing herself in the pursuit of her own pleasure. It has also been suggested that, no matter how horrific and perverse his images could be, Rops' invocation of supernatural elements was sufficient to keep Baudelaire situated in a spirtually-aware universe that maintained a cynical kind of hope, even if the poetry "requires a strong stomach."Their work was the worship of beauty disguised as the worship of evil.For both of them, mortality and all manner of corruptions were always on their mind.The ability of Rops to see and portray the same world as they did, made him a popular illustrator for other decadent authors.The concept of decadence lingered after that, but it wasn't until 1884 that Maurice Barrès referred to a particular group of writers as Decadents. He defined this group as those who had been influenced heavily by Baudelaire, though they were also influenced by Gothic novels and the poetry and fiction of Edgar Allan Poe. Many were associated with Symbolism, others with Aestheticism.The pursuit of these authors, according to Arthur Symons, was "a desperate endeavor to give sensation, to flash the impression of the moment, to preserve the very heat and motion of life," and their achievement, as he saw it, was "to be a disembodied voice, and yet the voice of a human soul."In his 1884 decadent novel À Rebours (English, Against Nature or Against the Grain), Joris-Karl Huysmans overthrew the past, subordinated nature to the human creative will, and suggested the primacy of but inherent disillusion in pleasure. He also identified likely candidates for the core of the Decadent Movement, which he seemed to view Baudelaire as sitting above: Paul Verlaine, Tristan Corbière, Theodore Hannon, and Stéphane Mallarmé. His character Des Esseintes hailed these writers for their creativity and their craftsmanship, suggesting that they filled him with "insidious delight" as they used a "secret language" to explore "twisted and precious ideas."Not only did Against Nature define an ideology and a literature, but it also created an influential perspective on visual art. The character of Des Esseintes explcitily heralded the work of Gustave Moreau, Jan Luyken, and Odilon Redon. None of these artists would have identified themselves as part of this movement. Nevertheless, the choice of these three established a decadent perspective on art which favored madness and irrationality, graphic violence, frank pessimism about cultural institutions, and a disregard for visual logic of the natural world. It has also been suggested that a dream vision that Des Esseintes describes is based the series of satanic encounters painted by Félicien Rops.Capitalizing on the momentum of Huysmans' work, Anatole Baju founded the magazine Le Décadent in 1886, an effort to define and organize the Decadent Movement in a formal way. This group of writers did not only look to escape the boredom of the banal, but they also sought to shock, scandalize, and subvert the expectations and values of society, believing that such freedom and creative experimentation would better humanity.Not everyone was comfortable with Baju and Le Décadent, even including some who had been published in its pages. Rival writer Jean Moréas published his Symbolist Manifesto, largely to escape association with the Decadent Movement, despite their shared heritage. Moréas and Gustave Kahn, among others, formed rival publications to reinforce the distinction.[19] Paul Verlaine embraced the label at first, applauding it as a brilliant marketing choice by Baju. After seeing his own words exploited and tiring of Le Décadent publishing works falsely attributed to Arthur Rimbaud, however, Verlaine came to sour on Baju personally, and he eventually rejected the label, as well.Decadence continue on in France, but it was limited largely to Anatole Baju and his followers, who refined their focus even further on perverse sexuality, material extravagance, and up-ending social expectations. Far-fetched plots were acceptable if they helped generate the desired moments of salacious experience or glorification of the morbid and grotesque. Writers who embraced the sort of decadence featured in Le Décadent include Albert Aurier, Rachilde, Pierre Vareilles, Miguel Fernandez, Jean Lorrain, and Laurent Tailhaide. Many of these authors did also publish symbolist works, however, and it unclear how strongly they would have identified with Baju as decadents.In France, the Decadent Movement is often said to have begun with either Joris-Karl Huysmans' Against Nature (1884) or Baudelaire's Les Fleur du Mal.[20] This movement essentially gave way to Symbolism when Le Décadent closed down in 1889 and Anatole Baju turned toward politics and became associated with anarchy.[7] A few, writers continued the decadent tradition, such as Octave Mirbeau, but Decadence was no longer a recognized movement, let alone a force in literature or artBeginning with the association of decadence with cultural decline, it is it not uncommon to associate decadence in general with transitional times and their associated moods of pessimism and uncertainty. In France, the heart of the Decadent Movement was during the 1880s and 1890s, the time of fin de siècle, or end-of-the-century gloom.[21] As part of that overall transition, many scholars of Decadence, such as David Weir, regard Decadence as a dynamic transition between Romanticism and Modernism, especially considering the decadent tendency to dehumanize and distort in the name of pleasure and fantasy.Symbolism has often confused with the Decadent Movement. Arthur Symons, a British poet and literary critic contemporary with the movement, at one time considered Decadence in literature to be a parent category that included both Symbolism and Impressionism, as rebellions against realism. He defined this common, decadent thread as, "an intense self-consciousness, a restless curiosity in research, an over-subtilizing refinement upon refinement, a spiritual and moral perversity." He referred to all such literature as, "a new and beautiful and interesting disease."[17] Later, however, he would go on to instead describe the Decadent Movement as an "interlude, half a mock interlude" that distracted critics from seeing and appreciating the larger and more important trend, which was the development of Symbolism.Only a year later, however, Jean Moréas wrote his Symbolist Manifesto to assert a difference between the symbolists with whom he allied himself and this the new group of decadents associated with Anatole Baju and Le Décadent.[19][14] Even after this, there was sufficient common ground of interest, method, and language to blur the lines more than the manifesto might have suggested.In the world of visual arts, it can be even more difficult to distinguish decadence from symbolism. In fact, Stephen Romer has referred to Félicien Rops, Gustave Moreau, and Fernand Khnopff as "Symbolist-Decadent painters and engravers.Nevertheless there are clear ideological differences between those who continued on as symbolists and those who have been called "dissidents" for remaining in the Decadent Movement.[24] Often, there was little doubt that Baju and his group were producing work that was decadent, but there is frequently more question about the work of the symbolists.In a website associated with Dr. Petra Dierkes-Thrun's Stanford University course, Oscar Wilde and the French Decadents (2014), a student named Reed created a blog post that is the basis for much of what follows.Both groups reject the primacy of nature, but what that means for them is very different. Symbolism uses extensive natural imagery as a means to elevate the viewer to a plane higher than the banal reality of nature itself, as when Stéphane Mallarmé mixes descriptions of flowers and heavenly imagery to create a transcendent moment in "Flowers.Symbolism treats language and imagery as devices that can only approximate meaning and merely evoke complex emotions and call the mind toward ideas it might not be able to comprehend. In the words of symbolist poet Stéphane Mallarmé:Languages are imperfect because multiple; the supreme language is missing... no one can utter words which would bear the miraculous stamp of Truth Herself Incarnate... how impossible it is for language to express things... in the Poet's hands... by the consistent virtue and necessity of an art which lives on fiction, it achieves its full efficacy.As Moréas would go on to assert in his manifest on symbolism, words and images serve to dress up the incomprehensible in such a way that it can be approached, if not understood.Decadence, on the other hand, sees no path to higher truth in words and images. Instead, books, poetry, and art itself as the creators of valid new worlds, thus the allegory of decadent Wilde’s Dorian Gray being poisoned by a book like a drug. Words and artifice are the vehicles for human creativity, and Huysmans suggests that the illusions of fantasy have their own reality: "The secret lies in knowing how to proceed, how to concentrate deeply enough to produce the hallucination and succeed in substituting the dream reality for the reality itself."Both groups are disillusioned with the meaning and truth offered by the natural world, rational thought, and ordinary society. Symbolism turns its eyes toward Greater Purpose or on the Ideal, using dreams and symbols to approach these esoteric primal truths. In Mallarme’s poem “Apparition”, for instance, the word “dreaming” appears twice, followed by “Dream” itself with a capital D. In “The Windows,” he speaks of this decadent disgust of contentment with comfort and an endless desire for the exotic. He writes: “So filled with disgust for the man whose soul is callous, sprawled in comforts where his hungering is fed.” In this continuing search for the spiritual, therefore, Symbolism has been predisposed to concern itself with purity and beauty and such mysterious imagery as those of fairies.Ultimately, the distinction may best be seen in their approach to art. Symbolism is an accumulation of “symbols” that are there not to present their content but to evoke greater ideas that their symbolism cannot expressly utter. According to Moréas, it is an attempt to connect the object and phenomena of the world to "esoteric primodial truths" that cannot ever be directly approach. Decadence, on the other hand, is an accumulation of signs or descriptions acting as detailed catalogs of human material riches as well as artifice. It was Oscar Wilde who perhaps lay this out most clearly in The Decay of Lying with the suggestion of three doctrines on art, here excerpted into a list:"Art never expresses anything but itself.""All bad art comes from returning to Life and Nature, and elevating them into ideals.""Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life.After which, he suggested a conclusion quite in cotrast to Moréas' search for shadow truth: "Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art." While the Decadent Movement, per se, was truly a French phenomenon, the impact was felt more broadly. Typically, the influence was felt as an interest in pleasure, an interest in experimental sexuality, and a fascination with the bizarre, all packaged with a somewhat trangressive spirit and an aesthetic that values material excess. Many were were also influenced by the Decadent Movement's aesthetic emphasis on art for its own sake.In Britain, influenced through general exposure but also direct contact, the leading figures associated with decadence were writer Oscar Wilde, poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, and illustrator Aubrey Beardsley, as well as other artists and writers associated with The Yellow Book. Others, such as Walter Pater, resisted association with the movement, even though their works seemed to reflect similar ideals.[34] While most of the influence was from figures such as Baudelaire and Verlaine, there was also very strong influence at times from more purely decadent members of the French movement, such as the influence that Huysmans and Rachilde had on Wilde, as seen explicitly in The Picture of Dorian Gray.[32][35] British decadents embraced the idea of creating art for its own sake, pursuing all possible desires, and seeking material excess.[33] At the same time, they were not shy about using the tools of decadence for social and political purpose. Beardsley had an explicit interest in the improvement of the social order and the role of art-as-experience in inspiring that transformation.[34] Oscar Wilde published an entire work exploring socialism as a liberating force: "Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody."[36] Swinburne wrote explicitly addressed Irish-English politics in poetry, as when he wrote, "Thieves and murderers, hands yet red with blood and tongues yet black with lies | Clap and clamour--'Parnell spurs his Gladstone well!'"[37] In many of their personal lives, they also pursed decadent ideals. Wilde had a secret homosexual life.[32] Swinburne had an obsession with flagellation.The Decadent Movement reached into Russia primarily through exposure to the writings of Charles Baudelaire and Paul Verlaine. The earliest Russian adherents lacked idealism and focused on such decadent themes as subversion of morality, disregard for personal health, and living in blasphemy and sensual pleasure. Russian writers were especially drawn to the morbid aspects of decadence and in the fascination with death. Dmitry Merezhkovsky is through to be the first to clearly promote a Russian decadence that included the idealism that would eventually inspire the French symbolists to disassociate from the more purely materialistic Decadent Movement. The first Russian writers to achieve success as followers of this Decadent Movement included Konstanin Balmont, Fyodor Sologub, Valery Bryusov, and Zinaida Gippius. As they refined their craft beyond imitation of Baudelaire and Verlaine, most of these authors became much more clearly aligned with symbolism than with decadence.Some visual artists adhered to the Baju-esque late Decadent Movement approach to sexuality as purely an act of pleasure, often ensconced in a context of material luxury. They also shared the same emphasis on shocking society, purely for the scandal. Among them were Konstantin Somov, Nicolai Kalmakov, and Nikolai Feofilaktov.In Bohemia, Czech writers who were exposed to the work of the Decadent Movement saw in it the promise of a life they could never know. They were neither aristocrats nor bored bourgeoisie. They were poor and hungry for something better. The dreams of the decadents gave them that something better, but something that was hopelessly unattainable. It was that melancholy that drove their art. These Bohemian decadent writers included Karel Hlaváček, Arnošt Procházka, Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, and Louisa Zikova. One Czech writer, Arthur Breisky, embraced the full spirit of Le Décadent with its exultation in material excess and a life of refinement and pleasure. From the Decadent Movement he learned the basic idea of a dandy, and his work is almost entirely focused on developing a philosophy in which the Dandy is the consummate human, surrounded by riches and elegance, theoretically above society, just as doomed to death and despair as they.Few prominent writers or artists in the United States were connected with the Decadent Movement. Those who were connected struggled to find an audience, for Americans were reluctant to see value for them in what they considered the art forms of fin de siècle France.Poet Francis Saltus Saltus was inspired by Charles Baudelaire, and his unpracticed style was occasionally compared to the French poet's more refined experimentation. He embraced the most debauched lifestyle of the French decadents and celebrated that life in his own poetry. At the time, mostly before Baju's Le Décadent, this frivolous poetry on themes of alcohol and depravity found little success and no known support from those who were part of the Decadent Movement.[42] The younger brother of Francis, writer Edgar Saltus had more success. He had some interaction with Oscar Wilde, and he valued decadence in his personal life. For a time, his work exemplified both the ideals and style of the movement, but a significant portion of his career was in traditional journalism and fiction that praised virtue.[43] At the time when he was flourishing, however, multiple contemporary critics, as well as other decadent writers, explcitily considered him one of them.[41] Writer James Huneker was exposed to the Decadent Movement in France and tried to bring it back with him to New York. He has been lauded to his dedication to this cause throughout his career, but it has also been suggested that, while he lived as a decadent and heralded their work, his own work was more frustrated, hopeles, and empty of the pleasure that had attracted him to the movement in the first place. Largely, he focused on cynically describing the impossibility of a true American decidance.Critical Studies.German doctor and social critic Max Nordau wrote a lengthy book entitled Degeneration (1892). It was an examination of decadence as a trend, and specifically attacked several people associated with the Decadent Movement, as well as other figures throughout the world who deviated from cultural, moral, or political norms. His language was colorful and vitriolic, often invoking the worship of Satan. What made the book a success was its suggestion of a medical diagnosis of "degeneration," a neuro-pathology that resulted in these behaviors. It also helped that the book named such figures as Oscar Wilde, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Paul Verlaine, and Maurice Barrès, members of the Decadent Movement who were in the public eye.In 1930 Italian art and literature critic Mario Praz completed a broad study of morbid and erotic literature, translated and published in English as The Romantic Agony (1933). The study included decadent writing (such as Baudelaire and Swinburne), but also anything else that he considered dark, grim, or sexual in some way. His study centered on the 18th and 19th Centuries. The danger of such literature, he believed it unnaturally elevated the instinctive bond between pain and pleasure and that, no matter the artists' intention, the essential role of art is to educate and teach culture.
He is a Japanese man who came to India and never went back. Left his sizeable fortune in Japan and became a sanyaasi.
92nd position on Explore.
Follow: Website • Facebook • Google+ • Instagram • Twitter • Youtube
I'm not sure there's anywhere else in the world where "temple hopping" is as convenient as it is in Burma. Going around all the different temples and pagodas in and around Bagan is pretty incredible. Thousands of beautiful ancient structures clustered so closely together. And at the end of the day, you find one you like and just enjoy sunset views like this one.
Read more: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/burmese-temple-hopping
I thought I was the only crazy one who would wake up so early to photography this scene. To my surprise, there was two others that had the same idea. One guy was doing all this yoga/karate moves with his tripod. At first I thought it was Paul Marcellini doing his spirtual photography of the Everglades. LOL
Then there was this woman who was taking photos. She would take some photos, then move to another area, but her husband (friend) would carry her gear for her. I really need to look into this photographer caddy she had. I'm glad I wasn't the only crazy person out there.
I thought this photo was sceaming to be a B&W.
To enlarge
www.flickr.com/photos/christopherevans/5489705186/sizes/l...
Check out Paul's amazing photos of the everglades
www.flickr.com/photos/paulmarcellini/sets/72157600719608315/
I attended Penny Knobel-Besa's "Art of Photography Workshop" on November 5, 2011. During the workshop we had access to a "live" model for a "Photo Shoot Session". This particular model had a very moving tattoo on her back. Please read it...if you dare!
This is a poster made by an artist, and shared with people in the street when Dalai Lama was visiting Oslo 7th - 9th May.
Surprisingly, this photo is actually taken outdoors. That's just how opulent the Jame'asr Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque is. I could easily be mistaken, but I believe the escalator in the center is reserved for the Sultan himself.
Every year, millions of Muslims gather in Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage, called Hajj. Arriving from every corner of the globe, pilgrims of all nationalities, ages, and colors come together for the largest religious gathering in the world. One of the five "pillars of faith," pilgrimage is a duty upon every Muslim adult who is financially and physically able to make the journey. Every Muslim, male or female, strives to make the trip at least once in a lifetime.
During the days of the Hajj, millions of pilgrims will gather in Mecca, Saudi Arabia to pray together, eat together, remember historical events, and celebrate the glory of Allah.
The pilgrimage occurs during the last month of the Islamic year, called "Dhul-Hijjah" (i.e. "The Month of Hajj").
The pilgrimage rites occur during a 5-day period, between the 8th - 12th days of this lunar month. The event is also marked by the Islamic holiday "Eid al-Adha," which falls on the 10th day of the lunar month, which is tomorow ..
Happy Eid ^__^
a set of shots from my visit in summer for Omrah .. seems it's time to post them :)
hope u'll enjoy the spirtual journey ;)
The Kyichu Lhakhang temple is the oldest temple in Bhutan, where you can find these prayer wheels just waiting for you to spin them. It's believed that spinning the wheels will help you accumulate wisdom and good karma, while helping to remove bad karma.
A tripod and a twist of the zoom @....
Exposure: 2 Seconds
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 120 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Unlike many of Lao's caves , here the attraction was not so much the cave itself , but this beautiful reclining Buddha . To the left is a hole letting some daylight spill in enough see without flashlights . It is in the entrance and from here the cave spills endlessly into the earth . Strobist SB-800 1/2 power , about 25 feet 40 degrees right of camera ,some ambient left , fired with cls .
Taking a short trek through the beautifully lush green valleys of Bhutan. Called the Land of the Thunder Dragon, it evokes the spiritual senses in its exotic and ancient Himalayan ways. I'm taken away to a world where the thought of seeing a Buddhist guru riding on the back of a tigress float by seems like a feasible possibility.
Visiting ancient Buddhist temples always feels so peaceful. Except, this isn't exactly an ancient Buddhist temple, although it sort of is. Angkor Wat, or "City of Temples" was originally built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu. Eventually in the late 13th century, the temple moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use. As the beliefs of the Kings' changed, so did the temples. Today, roughly 95% of the Cambodian population follow Theravada Buddhism.
Bhutan is known as the Land of the Thunder Dragon. I've always thought this is one of the most awesome names ever for a country. With a name like that, the bar is set pretty high for the trip. While I have such fond memories of my travels there, nothing compares with actually being there and being in the moment. Feeling the tranquility envelope you and flow through you.
Ada's entry for Technical!
I kind of rushed through this with the pose and dress, however I had a lot of fun shading it even though I think I could have done more shading :D
The mesh part of the dress was a bitch and the hair could have been done better. Uhh frankensteined which is why the pose is crap.
-----
So, my last question was about extentions, and now that I think about it my question was really stupid. Of course extensions should be given if needed. I'll give a better question this time. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid Serena! Pull something better out of your walnut-sized mind!
This time it's not really a question, but more of something to consider or a concept. It's really weird but hear me out, today I was looking at shirts and I saw one that was red and all it had on it was "I've Changed" in white words in the middle. I was thinking about this shirt and what it means, and also what people would think when they see someone wearing it.
Would they think it means they've changed themselves?
They've changed their clothes?
They've changed their atitudes?
They got plastic surgery?
They've changed spirtually?
My first thought would be "Oh cool they've changed their clothes, good for them". Then I might start thinking about the other possibilties.
What is your first though when you see someone wear that shirt? What do you think "I've changed" means? And yes, this is for real! This is a real question about a tshirt, it may be one of the ones in the category "WTF" but still, think about it! :D And let me know! Peace out ya'll!
P.S. This is the last photo I'm going to add *blahblah question* too because it looks weird, but I am going to continue to give results and a new question to every single photo I post, even if it doesn't mention it in the name. I wanted to put more meaning into things I post on Flickr instead of having people look at a photo, say "it's wonderful" and leave without something on their minds. Yep!
Follow Me: Website • Facebook • Google+ • Twitter • Youtube
This is one of the only remaining Buddha head's in Indein Village. A small village with an amazing amount of stupas and pagodas that I instantly fell in love with. I spent too much time in around Inle Lake, but giving this village a chunk of your time will be immensely rewarding.
While walking through the village isn't remotely like braving an ancient booby-trapped temple in search of a golden idol, it may be nearly as rewarding without the fear of sudden death. It's a location Indiana Jones would've been excited to explore and unearth its treasures. Beautiful, ancient, and full of Buddhist structures leaving your mind to drift into what life was like hundreds of years ago.
Blogged: www.aisleseatplease.com/blog/2016/5/10/ancient-treasures
Directly south of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh is the Silver Pagoda. The official temple of the King of Cambodia, and a popular tourist attraction.
Like many temples in Southeast Asia, everything is ornately decorated. This was basically the very first destination I visited in Cambodia. Hitting up Phnom Penh before Siam Reap/Angkor Wat has the benefit that it's more of a build up to increasingly grand temple complexes.
Always impressive to see the sheer amount of gold and jewels on display when visiting some palaces and grand temples. I always wonder, how hard would it be to chip away a tiny bit, and how much would that yield? Not that I have any intention of doing anything remotely like that. I do like the old motto, adopted by the US National Parks, "Take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints."
her headdress is a fine collection of huge amber beads tipped with coral red coral. her hair is braided into 108 strands - a sacred number from buddhism. the necklaces of dzi beads and red coral are worth a fortune - enough to buy a house in a western country. red and yellow stones and garments are spiritual colors in tibetan culture. 3 silver and gold belts are around her waist, studded with coral and turquoise, considered to provide magical protection. many 24k gold bracelets rest on her wrists and a big gold ring is on every finger
Khampa tibetan festivals feature some of the most astonishing shows of bejewelling in the world. Traditionally nomatter who you are in Khampa society, it would go without saying that you buy jewelry with your money, because that it the most appropriate and traditional store of money. Nomadic people naturally find precious stones and metals the most portable way to keep their wealth. Many ornaments have religious or spirtual meaning, as well as being the objects which store the family history, wealth, and show the family status.
=====================================================
Ornaments make up most of the life savings of many Khampa families, and so play an important role in Tibetan families' lives as well as in announcing the social status of the wearers. They are saved up for over many years and handed down for centuries from generation to generation within families. Until very recently, these families were nomadic and have to move every few months because of the snowy seasons in the Himalayas, so Khampas have always needed to store their wealth in portable form. So being unable to store wealth in the form of estates or houses or land or in a bank, for millenia wealth has been stored in art, precious fabrics, and particularly into ornaments.
Their culture is very conservative about the type of ornaments favored: for thousands of years jewelry made from amber, turquoise and coral have been worn because the stones are believed to hold spiritual power. Gold and silver and also naturally found in Tibet, and the use of these metals by the wealthy also goes back thousands of years. Their ornaments are very chunky, bold and colorful. While the gold earrings that Khampa women wear may have cost them a year or maybe several year's of their salary, ornaments carry so much social status in their society that probably didn't have to think twice about the purchase.
To the Khampa people these ornaments have the utmost sentimental value and significance, because they are the physical remnants of generations of their ancestors hard work or success. what these people are wearing is not just their life savings, but also their family history and treasure. this culture has been around for millenia - archeological finds from the 1st century AD in the khampa area unearthed ornaments that are essentially the same in design and materials as today's are. there are also beliefs that the stones provide good luck and protection to disease. dyed red coral is the most sought after stone, but interestingly tibet is very very far from any oceans - all the coral is imported by traders! Religious symbols from Tibetan Buddhism frequency form the designs of pieces, however archeological finds show that the role of ornaments in Tibetan society and peoples' lives long predate the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet. Indeed the beliefs of spiritual protection being provided by coral, amber and turquoise probably originate from the ancient shamanic Bon religion.
ANOTHER PHOTO of her is below... (click the thumbnail)
Every morning about 6am there's a big procession of monks through one area of Luang Prabang. Most of the people there to bring them food are Thai tourists on package tours, but lots of people to sell them sticky rice and other stuff to present to the monks.
I like this shot only because it's so not me. Since I'm kind of a light snob, it almost never occurs to me to use ambient artificial light. I need to convince myself to do it more often, it seems like a useful skill to have.
posted at Facebook
We met in 2005 my lifes first visit to Ajmer Sharif thanks to Peersab Fakhru Miya and Syed Farid Chishty Sabri sab who have given me shelter food and made my stay comfortable during Urus of Khwajah Garib Nawaz I shot for last 12 years documented the Chishtiya Madariyya Rafaee Silsila .
I used to come visit the malangs at Sola Khamba Char Yar Masjid their Asthana and we got along well I would bring my foreign photographer friends who were absolutely fascinated with the malangs and after I took bayt in 2011 according to Syed Masoomi Baba over 300 foreigners became his Murid ,,this must be the hand of God and his Divine interpretation but Masoom Ali Baba says its because of my videos images I have posted on the internet ,
I still refuse to believe it I tell him..I am a photographer and my photography has always had a purpose it was to shoot the dynamics of faith in India mutually co existing without hate bias or imbalance .
The Dam Madar Malangs followers of Imam Ali like the Qalandaris always fascinated me too and it was not a spirtual quest I am happy with my beliefs my state of Shiasm.
But it was my camera that made me take the plunge and I found it much easier shooting them from within as a Malang not a celibate bur a happily married one.
Syed Rafiq bhai has been my mainstay and support till date he has never called me by my name it has been Maulaiee ,,, meaning follower of Imam Ali .
And Rafiq bhai keeps me updated I share my views with him.. he leads the namaz at the Tent of Syed Masoom Ali Baba is a brilliant Sharia and jurisprudence scholar .
He is a master in religious matters and a great host both at Makanpur and Ajmer Sharif .
Frankly when I think why I became a Malang it was only because of Syed Masoom Ali Baba and Syed Rafiq Ali Baba I could see no other role model..it was their austerity and humility too.
And I know from my heart it was Rafiq Ali baba who must have paved the way for my being ordained a Khalifa of their Malang order .
I do not belong to any Anjuman , I do not belong to any political party or group.. I stay away from politics and religion ... I follow my heart and my heart of heart led me to document the Malangs
honestly sincerely and prolifically .. its not for money or fame either .
It all comes down to shooting India with no sponsor limited resources ..
My camera was never for Sale nor my so called street swiping vision ,
One of the smaller Angkorian temples, Banteay Srei is a 10th-century Cambodian temple built of red sandstone to honor the Hindu god Shiva. It's the only major temple at Angkor not built by a monarch, but rather a member of the royal court, Yajnavaraha.
In the winter, black-necked cranes from Tibet visit the Phobjika Valley to roost. On arrival, the cranes circle the Gangteng Monastery there three times, and also repeat the process upon returning to Tibet. I visited in the spring time, so no black-necked cranes to see unfortunately. However, like everywhere else in Bhutan, the valley offers its stunning natural beauty, accented by a few stupas and a number of prayer flags.
After landing at Paro International Airport, this was the first spot our guide drove us to. Some traditional Buddhist buildings, presumably a temple, along with a stupa. The billowing clouds in the mountains, fresh air and prayer flags all add up to a huge travel high. Is there a Thunder Dragon hiding in the clouds? Who knows...