Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

One of the fancy dress costumes of the Dior company when Pierre Cardin worked there, and which Dalí and Gala used at the fancy-dress ball held by Carlos de Beistegui in the Labia Palace in Venice.These costumes also have connotations of Spanish-inspired scenography, for example El sombrero de tres picos [The three-cornered hat], with its covert characters with three-cornered hat, skull and delicately tied costumes

this photo was taken during the full lunar eclipse. the BLOOD WOLF MOON. pretty damn intense. i was extremely sleep deprived that night -- like, falling face-first-into-a-bowl-of-doritos tired -- and it was absolutely freezing outside, but i was determined to watch it happen, as i always regret when i don't make the most of astronomical events.

 

i took this photo before it started with a prism -- it wasn't my intention to create something that evoked the symbol of the triple goddess, but i quickly realized that's what happened. and only today did i realize that watching a lunar eclipse also evokes this symbol, as it's like watching a moon phase in a time-lapse...except right before your eyes, in the sky.

 

the triple goddess is a very important symbol/concept in my life. it was even before i got into spirituality in a focused, directed way; i've always been interested in the cycles of life, particularly for women. maybe because i'm a woman and therefore focus on that perspective more, or maybe because there's truly something very magical about roles women traditionally play throughout their lives -- there seems to me to be something markedly cyclical about female energy, which is not as evident in male energy. it not only cycles monthly as the moon, but also throughout a lifetime, making for a unique perspective.

 

there's the enchanted maiden, all springtime flowers and magic; the fertile mother, all active power and stability; and the crone, all wisdom and rest.

 

i've contemplated these energies many times throughout my life, and channeled them as need be. at this point in my life, i feel i'm dancing on the cusp of maidenhood and motherhood -- my most unfiltered maiden energy seems to be behind me, in full bloom when i was 12-15 or so. it was something i could practically feel in the air back then, and is so palpable when i look back...though i'm sure i won't reach the "mother" archetype until i'm nearing 30.

 

when i think about life under this framework, aging loses the negative connotations popular american culture has ascribed it. it takes on a tone of power instead of disempowerment -- and how wonderful, because the whole "you're all dried up by the time you're 30" mentality is pretty damn messed up. most people in this day and age probably don't get their head on straight till they're 30 -- and then they're culturally deemed "unviable." that mentality needs to be fought. there is wisdom to be found in every phase of life, and thus every phase of life should be equally respected and appreciated.

 

i do think about the conundrum of gender in relation to these spiritual concepts. i'm of the belief that feminine and masculine energy is contained within both men and women in varying degrees, depending upon biology and environmental experiences. when i talk about female energy, i refer to the traditionally defined female experience, though this can just as easily be applied to men as well. i think it's important for men and women, even if they relate strongly to the gender they were assigned at birth, to seek to embody traits of the opposite energy. it's a sort of smoothing out of the edges; hyper-masculinity needs softening, hyper-femininity needs strengthening. in addition to contemplating & calling upon these traditionally female energies, i call upon masculine energy as well -- this has been a major thing for me in the past year, as i've sought to become more strong & self-sufficient.

 

that being said, viewing life through the lens of feminine & masculine energies might not make sense to everyone, & that's okay. i'm very interested in how gender is being re-defined in certain circles as of late. this is just one framework to work within; to some it will make total sense, and to others it will make no sense, and that's okay.

Hacker: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in particular. (From RFC 1392)

 

They're cool. The bad connotation seems to have come about primarily from media reports of people breaking computer security for nefarious purposes. This happened when the word wasn't widely used by people other than self proclaimed hackers. Since the news tends to report on things gone wrong, the general public only heard the word used in a negative sense.

 

In the positive sense, hacker can include just about anyone making and improving open source software. Thanks to their efforts, no commercial software, besides the firmware on the camera and computer, was used in the creation of this image. Instead, I used Rawtherapee, Digikam, and enfuse running on Linux.

 

Not all hackers look like this. Some wear suits. Some are less conspicuous. Some don't wear glasses. Some don't like coffee.

Private collection.

Polswiss Art Warsaw, Aukcja Dzieł Sztuki,October 2017.

Source: www.polswissart.pl/pl/aukcje/archiwalne/213-aukcja-dziel-...

 

Prince Montparnasse, probably the most colorful figure in the environment of the Parisian bohemia, undoubtedly owes his fame to his portraits. Who does not know the characteristic images permeated with nostalgia models. Portraits of Moise Kisling have permanently entered the canon of not only Polish, but also world art. Idealized faces, with an elongated eye drawing, with a characteristic hairstyle and arrangement of hands do not have counterparts both in the circle of the creators of the Paris school, and in general. Sources of fascination with such performances could be traced to a variety of inspirations. The most frequently mentioned is a reference to Amadeo Modigliani. Extending the image of the model makes the figure more subtle and makes it take on a universal, timeless, almost sacred character. In the picture of a young woman named Ingrid one could look for Barbara Brus-Malinowska's connotation with the primitivism of the great Henri Rousseau, because the presented character modeling is almost surreal. Saturated color to the limit and a clear drawing mean that the work at first glance oscillates somewhere between the museum tradition and the "new reality". Captivatingly beautiful, young woman with blond hair looks at the viewer with calm, slightly nostalgic eyes. Dressed in a black, simple, satin dress with a large white collar and cuffs, it seems to come from a long time ago, and at the same time is incredibly tangible and real. In his lowered hands he holds a red flower, contrasting in a way its contrast with the cool and modest elegance of the dress, as well as a neutral background.

The presented work dates from 1932, full of creative possibilities of the artist. It is a real collector's rarity on the Polish collector's market, because there are virtually no paintings of this painting class, size and incredible decor. They rarely leave private collections

A giant yellow inflatable duck floats around the pond of the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam. It's the work of the Rotterdam artist Florentijn Hofman, who wants to try out a small version of the duck before taking on the big one. Later this year a 20 meter wide duck will float on the Loire river in France.

 

From his website

www.florentijnhofman.nl/index.php?page=wip&id=21

 

i got this info:

 

Title: Rubber duck

Year: 2007

Location: river the Loire, France

Dimensions: 20 x 26 x 19 meters

Materials: inflatable, rubber coated PVC, pontoon and generator

Assigned by: the Biennial Estuaire

In participation with: Studio van Dongen, Koenen air, Udo Rutsche and le Lieu Unique

 

A yellow spot on the horizon slowly approaches the coast. People have gatherd and watch in amazement as a giant yellow Rubber Duck approaches. The spectators are greeted by the duck, which slowly nods its head.

The Rubber Duck knows no frontiers, it doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have a political connotation. The friendly, floating Rubber Duck has healing properties: it can relief mondial tensions as well as define them. The rubber duck is soft, friendly and suitable for all ages!

 

***********************

 

In de vijver bij het Nederlands Architectuurinstituut (NAi) in Rotterdam drijft een enorme badeend. Het knalgele vijf meter hoge opblaasbare exemplaar is het prototype voor een project van kunstenaar Florentijn Hofman. De badeend waar het uiteindelijk om gaat is 20 meter hoog, 26 meter lang en 19 meter breed.

Hofman maakt de reusachtige eend voor de Biënnale Estuaire die op 1 juni begint in de Franse steden Nantes en Saint-Nazaire en het hele gebied van de monding van de Loire. Aan de Biënnale doen ongeveer dertig kunstenaars uit de hele wereld mee, onder wie ook Joep van Lieshout.

De eend met oranje snavel en zwarte oogjes gaat bij Nantes de Loire op en drijft in etappes van telkens tien kilometer naar Saint-Nazaire. Hij doet getrokken door een sleepboot drie maanden over de zestig kilometer en legt onderweg vijf keer voor twee weken aan. Het prototype bij het NAi ligt er alleen maandag om te kijken hoe stabiel het is. Daarvoor wordt niet alleen deze test gebruikt, ook ingenieurs komen er aan te pas, aldus Hofman. Hij heeft voor de badeend gekozen omdat deze voor iedereen, van welke nationaliteit dan ook, herkenbaar is en een grote aaibaarheidsfactor heeft. ,,Iedereen heeft iets met een badeend. Hij is een glimlach voor de maatschappij in tijden van globalisering, waar de oceaan onze badkuip is.'' bron ANP

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

 

Today is Tuesday and we are in the kitchen of Lettice’s flat: Edith her maid’s preserve, except on Tuesdays, every third Thursday of the month and occasionally after a big party. That is when Mrs. Boothby, Lettice’s charwoman*, comes from her home in Poplar to do all the hard jobs. Edith is grateful that unlike her previous positions, she does not have to scrub the black and quite chequered kitchen linoleum, nor polish the parquetry floors, not do her most hated job, black lead the stovetop. Mrs. Boothby does them all without complaint, with reliability and to a very high standard. She is also very handy on cleaning and washing up duty with Edith after one of Lettice’s extravagant cocktail parties.

 

Lettice is away, staying with her family at Glynes, the Chetwynd’s grand Georgian Wiltshire estate, where she is visiting a neighbour of sorts of her parents, Mr. Alisdair Gifford who wishes Lettice to decorate a room for his Australian wife Adelina, to house her collection of blue and white china. Lettice’s absence allows Edith and Mrs. Boothby to tackle some of the more onerous jobs around Cavendish Mews before Lettice’s return later in the week. Whilst Mrs. Boothby has been giving the bathroom a really good going over with a scourer, Edith has climbed a stepladder, taken down all the crystal lustres of the chandeliers in the drawing room, dining room and hallway, washed them all and returned them to their freshly dusted metal frames. After a very full morning’s work, the two ladies are taking a well-deserved break in the kitchen of Cavendish Mews and sit around the deal kitchen table, enjoying a cup of tea, and the pleasant company of one another.

 

“Thank you for giving the bathroom a really good going over, Mrs. Boothby,” Edith says with a very grateful lilt to her voice as she pours some fresh tea into the old Cockney charwoman’s Delftware teacup. “I do try and keep it tidy, but… well…” Her voice trails off.

 

“Nah, don’t cha give it a second fort, Edith dearie,” Mrs. Boothby replies, blowing forth clouds of acrid pale greyish blue smoke across the tabletop covered with magazines, books and a tin of Huntley and Palmers** Empire Assorted Biscuits. “I know youse does, but what wiv all those lotions ‘n’ potions Miss Lettice uses to titivate ‘erself wiv, well, it just gets plain scummy, don’t it? I mean, what’s the point in all them fancy bottles of pink ‘n’ blue stuff wiv fancy labels if it’s all gonna go dahwn the plug ‘ole in the end, anyway?”

 

Edith smiles at Mrs. Boothby’s direct manner. Even though she has been working at Cavendish Mews, and thus Mrs. Boothby for five years now, there are still things that fly from the old woman’s mouth that surprise her.

 

“I mean all Ken and I use is a good old scrubbin’ wiv some carbolic,” Mrs. Boothby continues. “And look, ain’t I just as lovely as Miss Lettice?” She lifts her chin upwards and stretches out her arms slightly in a mock impersonation of a model. A serenely haughty look fills her heavily wrinkled face for just a moment, before she resumes her normal stance and starts laughing hard, her jolly guffaws punctuated by her fruity smoker roughened coughs.

 

“Oh Mrs. Boothby!” Edith titters. “You are a one!”

 

“’Ere! Don’t laugh, Edith dearie! That could be me on this ‘ere cover!” Mrs. Boothby laughs, carrying on the joke as she snatches up Edith’s latest copy of Home Chat from the tabletop in front of her and holds it up next to her face. “The face what sold a million copies!”

 

“Oh Mrs. Boothby!” Edith manages to splutter between laughs as tears roll down her cheeks. “You’re making my sides hurt.”

 

“Oh well, we can’t ‘ave none of that nah, can we?” the old woman says cheekily, returning the magazine to its place on top of a copy of Everylady’s Journal****. “Too much laughter eh? On ta somfink more serious. You clean all them dainty crystal drops what ‘ang off the lights then, did cha?”

 

“Oh yes, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith manages to say as she calms down and dabs the corners of her eyes with her dainty lace embroidered handkerchief. “It’s an awful job. I’m just glad Miss Lettice is away, so I can do it.”

 

“I agree. It does make it a bit easier when Miss Lettice ain’t ‘ome. You can leave a job and come back to it, ‘specially if it’s a big job, and not ‘ave to worry ‘bout pickin’ up after yerself in case she comes flouncin’ threw.”

 

“Her absence gives me a chance to think about some new menu options for my repertoire.” Edith adds, patting the covers of two cookbooks sitting just to her right. “I’m a good plain cook, but I’d like to be able to do a few fancier things too.”

 

“Nuffink wrong wiv a bit of plain cookin’, Edith dearie. That’s all I served me Bill when ‘e was alive, and ‘e nevva complained ‘bout anyfink I served ‘im up for tea.”

 

“I know Mrs. Boothby, and some the best recipes I know, I learned from Mum who is also a plain cook, but I’d just like to expand a bit. It would be nice to be able to make something fancier if Miss Lettice asks.”

 

“Well, just be careful, dearie.” The old charwoman picks up her cigarette from the black ashtray and takes a deep drag on it. “You’ll make a rod for your own back if you ain’t careful. Youse knows what them toffs can be like. Just look at poor “Ilda ‘avin’ ta grind coffee bits for Mr. Channon ev’ry mornin’ now, just cos once Mr. Carter the fancy American came visitin’ and made demands for fresh ground coffee, when Camp Coffee***** would ‘ave done just as well.” She blows out another plume of smoke and releases a few fruity phlegm filled coughs as she does. “Nah she’s gotta make it all the time, poor love.” Changing the subject after taking a slurp of her sweet hot tea, she continues, “So youse ready then, for Sunday?”

 

“Oh yes, I am!” Edith enthuses, thinking of the trip that she will be taking to Wembley to see the British Empire Exhibition****** with her beau, shop delivery boy Frank Leadbetter, her parents and brother, Bert, and Frank’s Scottish grandmother, Mrs. McTavish, on Sunday. “I can hardly wait. It all just sounds so amazing! All different pavilions from around the world.”

 

“Frank got your tickets then?”

 

“Well, he actually gave them to me, because he’s concerned that the daughter of Mr. Willison might pinch them, just to be nasty.”

 

“She sounds like a right piece a work, dearie. Best they stay safe wiv you, ‘ere at Cavendish Mews, then.”

 

“Yes, best to be on the safe side, for Henrietta,” Edith shudders as she mentions her name. “Is quite a little madam. Mind you,” She takes up a biscuit from the tin before her and takes a satisfied bite out of it. “I did give her what for that day you and I walked up to Oxford Street together.”

 

“Whatchoo do, Edith dearie?” Mrs. Boothby asks, snatching up a biscuit for herself with her long and bony, careworn fingers of her right hand, whilst holding her smouldering cigarette aloft in her left. She leans forward, excited to catch a little bit of gossip about her younger companion and friend.

 

“Well, after you left Frank and I together…”

 

“Ah yes!” Mrs. Boothby interrupts. “No place for an old woman like me when there’s young love in the air, is there?”

 

“We didn’t exactly shoo you away, Mrs. Boothby, as I recall it.”

 

“Well, be that as it may, go on.” She takes a long drag on her hand rolled cigarette, the paper crackling as the tobacco inside burns.

 

“Well, after you left and Frank and I talked for just a little while, I noticed we were being observed by that nasty little snitch. She accused us of cavorting in the street!”

 

“Did she now, fancy fine little madam?”

 

“As if she even knew what cavorting meant.”

 

“So whatchoo do, then, Edith dearie?”

 

“Well, I told her that we weren’t, and I told her to stop spying on Frank and I, or I’d tell Miss Lettice that I wanted to take our business elsewhere, and that her father would know that she was the cause of it.”

 

The old Cockney woman bursts out laughing and claps her hands in delight, showering flakes of ash and biscuit crumbs over the table before her. “Good for you, Edith dearie! I ain’t nevva fort youse ‘ave the guts to do somefink like that!”

 

“Nor did I, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith answers slightly shakily as she puts her hand to her heaving chest where her heart beats a little faster at the memory of her altercation with Henrietta Willison. “I don’t quite know where it came from, but I did, and I’m not unhappy that I did it.”

 

“Well, I say well done, dearie. That girl sounds like a nasty bit o’ work: spyin’ on people and spoilin’ their fun by threatenin’ ta steal tickets what they done paid for. It ain’t right. Sounds like she got what was commin’ to ‘er, and there’s a fact.”

 

“All the same, I do feel a little guilty about it.”

 

“Why, Edith dearie?” Mrs. Boothby munches contentedly on the remains of her biscuit as she settles back into the rounded back of the Windsor chair she sits in.

 

“Well, part of me thinks that for all her nastiness, it’s not entirely Henrietta’s fault that she is the way that she is.”

 

“’Ow’s that then?”

 

“Well, she’s at that difficult age. I don’t know if I was overly wonderful when I was her age either. Mum always said I was in a funk, which I put down to working for nasty old Widow Hounslow at the time, but looking back, I think I was emotional. My first chap who I was sweet on, the postman, had taken the King’s shilling******* and gone off to Flander’s Fields******* and never came back.”

 

“Bless all of ‘em takers of the King’s shillin’.” Mrs. Boothby interrupts, lowering her eyes as she does so.

 

“So I was a mess of emotions.”

 

“Course you was, dearie. Any girl wiv a sweetheart in the army would ‘ave been the same.”

 

“Maybe, but I think that even if there hadn’t been a war, I’d still have been emotional. You see it wasn’t just the war: everything made me emotional, or sullen.” She stops speaking and takes a gentle sip of her tea. “Do you know what I think, Mrs. Boothby?”

 

“What’s that then, dearie?”

 

“I think Henrietta is sweet on Frank, even though she’s far to young for Frank, and I think she sees me as a threat.”

 

“Nah, nah, my girl!” Mrs. Boothby defends. “Youse ain’t no threat ta nobody!”

 

“You know that, and I know that, but I think in her emotional, difficult stage of life mind, Henrietta thinks that if I went away, Frank might notice her.”

 

“Well, whevva she finks that or not, she’s still got no business stealin’ a body’s tickets what they gone and paid for ‘emselves. She got what she deserved, which I ‘ope is a big fright!” Mrs. Boothby nods seriously as she screws up her face into an even more wrinkled mass of crumpled flesh.

 

“Maybe, Mrs. Boothby.”

 

“Would you go frew wiv it, then: ya threat, I mean?”

 

“Well, I haven’t had to yet, but if she continues to spy on Frank and I, or cause trouble, I will tell Miss Lettice, and I don’t think she’ll take too kindly to me being bothered in my own time by the daughter of our grocers.”

 

“Well, enuf ‘bout ‘er, Edith dearie. Nah you said your dad was lookin’ forward to seein’ the trains at the hexibition.”

 

“That’s right, Mrs. Boothby. The Flying Scotsman********* in the Palace of Engineering.”

 

“Right-o. But whatchoo lookin’ forward to seein’ the most on Sunday, besides Frank’s pretty blue eyes starin’ dahwn inta yer own, eh?”

 

“Oh Mrs. Boothby!” Edith gasps, raising her hands to her cheeks as she feels them flush. As the old Cockney chuckles mischievously from her seat adjunct to Edith, the young girl perseveres as she clears her throat. “Well, I’m looking forward to seeing the Palace of Engineering too.”

 

“I nevva took you for a train lover, Edith dearie!” Mrs. Boothby says in surprise.

 

“Oh, it isn’t the railway exhibits I’m interested in.” Edith assures her, raising her hands defensively before her and shaking her pretty head. “No. I saw in the newspapers the designer of the Lion of Engineering********** and I read what was going to be included in the pavilion, and there will be examples of new British labour-saving devices, so I’m very keen to see them.”

 

“Is that all?” Mrs. Boothby exclaims aghast. “A whole bunch of new fancy appliances? What about all the fings from ‘round the world? That’s what I’d be interested to see!”

 

“Oh I am. They say that there will be coloured people there from some of the African nations, living right there at the exhibition, giving demonstrations of native crafts and taking part in traditional cultural events.”

 

“Yes, I read that too! Fancy that! I don’t see many coloured people, even dahwn Poplar, where we’s all mixed in togevva, ‘cept maybe a sailor or two nah and then.”

 

“And there will be elephants roaming around too, and goodness knows what else. It’s all going to be amazing, I’m sure.”

 

“Well, I look forward to ‘earing all about it from you, Edith dearie. You’ll probably be the closest I get to seein’ it, meself.”

 

Edith cradles her cup in her hands and looks thoughtfully at the old woman. “Aren’t you going to go too, Mrs. Boothby. Everyone I know is going. Hilda is going, although one of her friends from Mrs. Minkin’s knitting circle asked her before Frank and I did, so she is going with some of them in a few weeks.”

 

“Yes, she told me she was goin’, too, but not wiv you, which is a bit of a shame.”

 

“Oh, I’m just glad that she’s going, and that she has made some new friends.” Edith replies happily. “Hilda, as you know, is quite shy, and she finds it hard to make friends. I don’t think we would have been friends if we hadn’t shared a bedroom at Mrs. Plaistow’s, even if we were both under housemaids and living under the same roof.” She sighs. “Anyway, Hilda and I get to see each other all the time, especially since we live so close by now. As a matter of fact, I’m actually going over to Hill Street tonight, with Miss Lettice’s blessing, to help wait table with Hilda for Mr. and Mrs. Channon. They have some important guests from America coming to dinner this evening, and Hilda can’t manage to serve Lobster à la Newburg*********** by herself. Thus, why I have pulled out my cookbooks. I need to have my head on right if I’m to be head cook for Hilda, who is petrified of spoiling the lobster for Mr. and Mrs. Channon’s guests.”

 

“Well, I ‘ope Mr. and Mrs. Channon is payin’ you, Edith dearie, is all I’ll say. They might be ‘avin’ some fancy toffs over for a lobster tea, probably that American Mr. Carter and ‘is snobby English wife, but they’s can barely scrape by payin’ the ‘ouse’old bills. “Ilda ‘ad the wine merchants boys over at ‘Ill Street last week whilst I was there. Luckily, Mr. and Mrs. Channon were genuinely out, so ‘Ilda didn’t ‘ave ta lie and say they weren’t ‘ome when they was, but it’s still pretty bad when the bailiff’s knockin’ at the door.”

 

“Yes, I heard about that from Hilda. It’s a sorry state of affairs, and that’s a fact. I don’t think Mr. or Mrs. Channon can balance a budget to save themselves. Luckily, like you and Hilda, tonight’s wages will be paid to be by Mrs. Channon’s father, Mr. de Virre, who will also be in attendance.”

 

“Just as well. ‘E never fails to pay me wages.”

 

“Anyway, you were going to tell me why you and Ken aren’t going to the British Empire Exhibition. I’m sure Ken would enjoy the amusement park. Apparently it’s the biggest in Britain.”

 

“Big ain’t necessarily best.” Mrs. Boothby concludes sagely. “And it certainly ain’t for me Ken. I’m sure you’re right. ‘E’d love the rides and the colour, but they’s too many people there, and Ken gets hoverwhelmed, ‘e does if they’s too many strangers about. Besides,” she adds with a defensive sniff. “I don’t want no-one lookin’ sideways wiv funny glances at me Ken. ‘E’s a good lad, but folks outside ‘a Polar ain’t so kind to lads like ‘im, and I won’t ‘ave no strangers pokin’ fun at ‘im niver!”

 

“Well that’s fair enough, Mrs. Boothby. Shall I buy Ken a nice souvenir from the exhibition, then, since he’s not going to go himself?”

 

“Youse spoils my lad, Edith dearie. Nah, what youse should be doin’ is savin’ your shillin’s and pence for when you set up ‘ouse wiv Frank. Youse far too generous, dearie.”

 

“Nonsense, Mrs. Boothby. I think a treat for someone as sweet as Ken is only deserving.”

 

“Well, if I can’t talk you outta it, make it somethin’ small and cheap, eh?”

 

“Alright Mrs. Boothby.” Edith laughs good naturedly. “More tea?”

 

“Like I’d evva say no to a nice cup ‘a Rosie-Lee************, dearie!”

 

Just as Edith pours the tea, a jangling ring echoes through the peaceable quiet of the kitchen.

 

BBBBRRRINGGG!

 

BBBBRRRINGGG!

 

Edith places the knitted coy covered pot back down on the table with an irritable thud and looks aghast through the doors wedged open showing a clear view to Lettice’s dining room. Beyond it in the Cavendish Mews drawing room, the sparkling silver and Bakelite telephone rings.

 

“Oh! That infernal contraption!” she mutters to herself.

 

BBBBRRRINGGG!

 

Edith hates answering the telephone. It’s one of the few jobs in her position as Lettice’s maid that she wishes she didn’t have to do. Whenever she has to answer it, which is quite often considering how frequently her mistress is out and about, there is usually some uppity caller at the other end of the phone, whose toffee-nosed accent only seems to sharpen when they realise they are speaking to ‘the hired help’ as they abruptly demand Lettice’s whereabouts.

 

BBBBRRRINGGG!

 

“That will be the telephone, Miss Watsford,” Mrs. Boothby says with a cheeky smirk as she stubs out her cigarette and reaches for her tobacco and papers so that she can roll herself another one. “Best youse go see ‘oo it is, then.”

 

Edith groans as she picks herself up out of her comfortable Windsor chair and walks towards the scullery connecting the service part of the flat with Lettice’s living quarters. “I should have disconnected it from the wall the instant Miss Lettice left.” she says as she goes. “Then let’s hear it ring.”

 

“Oh! I should like to see Miss Lettice’s face if she came back and saw that!” Mrs. Boothby manages to say between her guffaws and smattering of fruity coughs as Edith disappears.

 

*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.

 

**Huntley and Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world’s first global brands and ran what was once the world’s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley and Son and Huntley and Palmer. Huntley and Palmer were renown for their ‘superior reading biscuits’ which they promoted in different varieties for different occasions, including at breakfast time, morning and afternoon tea and reading time.

 

***Alfred Harmsworth founded Home Chat to compete with Home Notes. He ran the Amalgamated Press and through them he published the magazine. He founded it in 1895 and the magazine ran until 1959. It was published as a small format magazine which came out weekly. As was usual for such women's weeklies the formulation was to cover society gossip and domestic tips along with short stories, dress patterns, recipes and competitions. One of the editors was Maud Brown. She retired in 1919 and was replaced by her sister Flora. It began with a circulation of 186,000 in 1895 and finished up at 323,600 in 1959. It took a severe hit before the Second World War in circulation but had recovered before it was closed down.

 

****The Everylady’s Journal was published monthly in Australia and shipped internationally from 1911 to 1938, but began life as The New Idea: A Woman’s Journal for Australasia in 1902. The New Idea contained articles on women’s suffrage, alongside discussions about diet, sewing patterns and tips and tricks for the housewife and young lady. From 1911 The New Idea became the Everylady’s Journal. Published by T.S. Fitchett the fashion periodical changed its name to New Idea in 1938, and it is still being published to this day.

 

*****Camp Coffee is a concentrated syrup which is flavoured with coffee and chicory, first produced in 1876 by Paterson & Sons Ltd, in Glasgow. In 1974, Dennis Jenks merged his business with Paterson to form Paterson Jenks plc. In 1984, Paterson Jenks plc was bought by McCormick & Company. Legend has it (mainly due to the picture on the label) that Camp Coffee was originally developed as an instant coffee for military use. The label is classical in tone, drawing on the romance of the British Raj. It includes a drawing of a seated Gordon Highlander (supposedly Major General Sir Hector MacDonald) being served by a Sikh soldier holding a tray with a bottle of essence and jug of hot water. They are in front of a tent, at the apex of which flies a flag bearing the drink's slogan, "Ready Aye Ready". A later version of the label, introduced in the mid-20th century, removed the tray from the picture, thus removing the infinite bottles element and was seen as an attempt to avoid the connotation that the Sikh was a servant, although he was still shown waiting while the kilted Scottish soldier sipped his coffee. The current version, introduced in 2006, depicts the Sikh as a soldier, now sitting beside the Scottish soldier, and with a cup and saucer of his own. Camp Coffee is an item of British nostalgia, because many remember it from their childhood. It is still a popular ingredient for home bakers making coffee-flavoured cake and coffee-flavoured buttercream. In late 1975, Camp Coffee temporarily became a popular alternative to instant coffee in the UK, after the price of coffee doubled due to shortages caused by heavy frosts in Brazil.

 

******The British Empire Exhibition was a colonial exhibition held at Wembley Park, London England from 23 April to 1 November 1924 and from 9 May to 31 October 1925. In 1920 the British Government decided to site the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley Park, on the site of the pleasure gardens created by Edward Watkin in the 1890s. A British Empire Exhibition had first been proposed in 1902, by the British Empire League, and again in 1913. The Russo-Japanese War had prevented the first plan from being developed and World War I put an end to the second, though there had been a Festival of Empire in 1911, held in part at Crystal Palace. One of the reasons for the suggestion was a sense that other powers, like America and Japan, were challenging Britain on the world stage. Despite victory in Great War, this was in some ways even truer in 1919. The country had economic problems and its naval supremacy was being challenged by two of its former allies, the United States and Japan. In 1917 Britain had committed itself eventually to leave India, which effectively signalled the end of the British Empire to anyone who thought about the consequences, while the Dominions had shown little interest in following British foreign policy since the war. It was hoped that the Exhibition would strengthen the bonds within the Empire, stimulate trade and demonstrate British greatness both abroad and at home, where the public was believed to be increasingly uninterested in Empire, preferring other distractions, such as the cinema.

 

*******To take the King’s shilling means to enlist in the army. The saying derives from a shilling whose acceptance by a recruit from a recruiting officer constituted until 1879 a binding enlistment in the British army —used when the British monarch is a king.

 

********The term “Flanders Fields”, used after the war to refer to the parts of France where the bloodiest battles of the Great War raged comes from "In Flanders Fields" is a war poem in the form of a rondeau, written during the First World War by Canadian physician Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, written in 1915.

 

*********No. 4472 Flying Scotsman is a LNER Class A3 4-6-2 "Pacific" steam locomotive built in 1923 for the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) at Doncaster Works to a design of Nigel Gresley. It was employed on long-distance express passenger trains on the East Coast Main Line by LNER and its successors, British Railways' Eastern and North Eastern Regions, notably on The Flying Scotsman service between London King's Cross and Edinburgh Waverley after which it was named. Retired from British Railways in 1963 after covering 2.08 million miles, Flying Scotsman has been described as the world's most famous steam locomotive. It had earned considerable fame in preservation under the ownership of, successively, Alan Pegler, William McAlpine, Tony Marchington, and, since 2004, the National Railway Museum. 4472 became a flagship locomotive for the LNER, representing the company twice at the British Empire Exhibition and in 1928, hauled the inaugural non-stop Flying Scotsman service. It set two world records for steam traction, becoming the first locomotive to reach the officially authenticated speed of 100 miles per hour on the 30th of November 1934, and setting the longest non-stop run of a steam locomotive of 422 miles on the 8th of August 1989 whilst on tour in Australia.

 

**********Although largely forgotten today, British artist, sculptor and designer, Percy Metcalf had a great influence on the lives of everyday Britons and millions of people throughout the British Empire. He designed the first coinage of the Irish Free State in 1928. The first Irish coin series consisted of eight coins. The harp was chosen as the obverse. Metcalfe was chosen out of six designers as the winner of the reverse design of the Irish Free State's currency. The horse, salmon, bull, wolf-hound, hare, hen, pig and woodcock were all on different denominations of coinage that was known as the Barnyard Collection. In 1935, it was George V's jubilee, and to celebrate the occasion, a crown piece containing a new design was issued. The reverse side of the coin depicts an image of St George on a horse, rearing over a dragon. Due to its modernistic design by Metcalfe it has earned little credit from collectors. In 1936, Metcalfe designed the obverse crowned effigy of Edward VIII for overseas coinage which was approved by the King, but none was minted for circulation before Edward's abdication that December. Metcalfe was immediately assigned to produce a similar crowned portrait of King George VI for overseas use. This image was also used as part of the George Cross design in 1940. The George Cross is second in the order of wear in the United Kingdom honours system and is the highest gallantry award for civilians, as well as for members of the armed forces in actions for which purely military honours would not normally be granted. It also features on the flag of Malta in recognition of the island's bravery during the Siege of Malta in World War II. Metcalfe also designed the Great Seal of the Realm. He produced designs for coinage of several countries including Ireland and Australia. He created a portrait of King George V which was used as the obverse for coins of Australia, Canada, Fiji, Mauritius, New Zealand and Southern Rhodesia. To commemorate the extraordinary visit that George VI and Queen Elizabeth set out on to North America in 1939, three series of medallions were designed for the Royal Canadian Mint. The reverse side of the coins contained a joint profile of George VI and Queen Elizabeth, which was designed by Metcalfe. This design was also used on the British Coronation Medal of 1937. Metcalfe created a British Jubilee crown piece, which was exhibited in the Leeds College of Art in November 1946. Prior to all his coin designs, Metcalfe had taken up sculpting and designing objects as an art form at the Royal College of Art in London, and he was commissioned to create the great Lions of Industry and Engineering for the British Empire Exhibition in 1924.

 

***********Lobster Newberg (also spelled lobster Newburg or lobster Newburgh) is an American seafood dish made from lobster, butter, cream, cognac, sherry and eggs, with a secret ingredient found to be Cayenne pepper. A modern legend with no primary or early sources states that the dish was invented by Ben Wenberg, a sea captain in the fruit trade. He was said to have demonstrated the dish at Delmonico's Restaurant in New York City to the manager, Charles Delmonico, in 1876. After refinements by the chef, Charles Ranhofer, the creation was added to the restaurant's menu as Lobster à la Wenberg and it soon became very popular. The legend says that an argument between Wenberg and Charles Delmonico caused the dish to be removed from the menu. To satisfy patrons’ continued requests for it, the name was rendered in anagram as Lobster à la Newberg or Lobster Newberg.

 

************Rosie-Lee is Cockney slang for tea, and it is one of the most well-known of all Cockney rhyming slang.

 

This comfortable domestic kitchen scene is a little different to what you might think, for whilst it looks very authentic, it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my miniatures collection, some of which come from my own childhood.

 

Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:

 

Edith’s deal kitchen table is covered with lots of interesting bits and pieces. The tea cosy, which fits snugly over a white porcelain teapot, has been hand knitted in fine lemon, blue and violet wool. It comes easily off and off and can be as easily put back on as a real tea cosy on a real teapot. It comes from a specialist miniatures stockist in the United Kingdom. The Huntley and Palmer’s Breakfast Biscuit tin containing a replica selection of biscuits is also a 1:12 artisan piece. Made in England by hand from clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight, the biscuits are incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination. The Deftware cups, saucers, sugar bowl and milk jug are part of a 1:12 size miniature porcelain dinner set which sits on the dresser that can be seen just to the right of shot. The vase of flowers are beautifully made by hand by the Doll House Emporium and inserted into a real, hand blown glass vase.

 

Edith’s two cookbooks are made by hand by an unknown American artisan and were acquired from an American miniature collector on E-Bay. The Everywoman Journal magazine from 1924 sitting on the table was made by hand by Petite Gite Miniatures in the United States, whilst the copy of Home Chat is a 1:12 miniature made by artisan Ken Blythe. I have a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my miniatures collection – books mostly. Most of the books I own that he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! Sadly, so little of his real artistry is seen because the books that he specialised in making are usually closed, sitting on shelves or closed on desks and table surfaces. As well as making books, he also made other small paper based miniatures including magazines like the copy of Home Chat. It is not designed to be opened. What might amaze you in spite of this is the fact is that all Ken Blythe’s books and magazines are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make them all miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.

 

Also on the table, sit Mrs. Boothby’s Player’s Navy Cut cigarette tin and Swan Vesta matches, which are 1:12 miniatures hand made by Jonesy’s Miniatures in England. The black ashtray is also an artisan piece, the bae of which is filled with “ash”. The tray as well as having grey ash in it, also has a 1:12 cigarette which rests on its lip (it is affixed there). Made by Nottingham based tobacconist manufacturer John Player and Sons, Player’s Medium Navy Cut was the most popular by far of the three Navy Cut brands (there was also Mild and Gold Leaf, mild being today’s rich flavour). Two thirds of all the cigarettes sold in Britain were Player’s and two thirds of these were branded as Player’s Medium Navy Cut. In January 1937, Player’s sold nearly 3.5 million cigarettes (which included 1.34 million in London). Production continued to grow until at its peak in the late 1950s, Player’s was employing 11,000 workers (compared to 5,000 in 1926) and producing 15 brands of pipe tobacco and 11 brands of cigarettes. Nowadays the brands “Player” and “John Player Special” are owned and commercialised by Imperial Brands (formerly the Imperial Tobacco Company). Swan Vestas is a brand name for a popular brand of ‘strike-anywhere’ matches. Shorter than normal pocket matches they are particularly popular with smokers and have long used the tagline ‘the smoker’s match’ although this has been replaced by the prefix ‘the original’ on the current packaging. Swan Vestas matches are manufactured under the House of Swan brand, which is also responsible for making other smoking accessories such as cigarette papers, flints and filter tips. The matches are manufactured by Swedish Match in Sweden using local, sustainably grown aspen. The Swan brand began in 1883 when the Collard & Kendall match company in Bootle on Merseyside near Liverpool introduced ‘Swan wax matches’. These were superseded by later versions including ‘Swan White Pine Vestas’ from the Diamond Match Company. These were formed of a wooden splint soaked in wax. They were finally christened ‘Swan Vestas’ in 1906 when Diamond merged with Bryant and May and the company enthusiastically promoted the Swan brand. By the 1930s ‘Swan Vestas’ had become ‘Britain’s best-selling match’.

 

Edith’s Windsor chairs are both hand-turned 1:12 artisan miniatures which came from America. Unfortunately, the artist did not carve their name under the seat of either chair, but they are definitely unmarked artisan pieces.

 

The bright brass pieces hanging on the wall or standing on the stove all come from various stockists, most overseas, but the three frypans I bought from a High Street specialist in dolls and dolls’ house furnishings when I was a teenager. The spice drawers you can just see hanging on the wall to the upper right-hand corner of the photo came from the same shop as the frypans, but were bought about a year before the pans.

 

In the background you can see a very modern and up-to-date 1920s gas stove. It would have been expensive to instal at the time, and it would have been the cook’s or maid’s pleasure to cook on and in. It would have included a thermostat for perfect cooking and without the need of coal, it was much cleaner to feed, use and clean. It is not unlike those made by the Roper Stove Company in the 1920s. The Roper Stove Company previously named the Florence-Wehrle Company among other names, was founded in 1883. Located in Newark, Ohio, the company was once the largest stove producer in the world. Today, the Roper Stove Company is a brand of Whirlpool.

 

The tin bucket, mops and brooms in the corner of the kitchen all come from Beautifully handmade Miniatures in Kettering.

Jellyfish, also known sea jellies, are the medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria.

 

Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animals with umbrella-shaped bells and trailing tentacles, although a few are anchored to the seabed by stalks rather than being mobile. The bell can pulsate to provide propulsion for highly efficient locomotion. The tentacles are armed with stinging cells and may be used to capture prey and defend against predators. Jellyfish have a complex life cycle. The medusa is normally the sexual phase, which produces planula larvae; these then disperse widely and enter a sedentary polyp phase, before reaching sexual maturity.

 

Jellyfish are found all over the world, from surface waters to the deep sea. Scyphozoans (the "true jellyfish") are exclusively marine, but some hydrozoans with a similar appearance live in freshwater. Large, often colorful, jellyfish are common in coastal zones worldwide. The medusae of most species are fast-growing, and mature within a few months then die soon after breeding, but the polyp stage, attached to the seabed, may be much more long-lived. Jellyfish have been in existence for at least 500 million years, and possibly 700 million years or more, making them the oldest multi-organ animal group.

 

Jellyfish are eaten by humans in certain cultures. They are considered a delicacy in some Asian countries, where species in the Rhizostomeae order are pressed and salted to remove excess water. Australian researchers have described them as a "perfect food": sustainable and protein-rich but relatively low in food energy.

 

They are also used in research, where the green fluorescent protein used by some species to cause bioluminescence has been adapted as a fluorescent marker for genes inserted into other cells or organisms.

 

The stinging cells used by jellyfish to subdue their prey can injure humans. Thousands of swimmers worldwide are stung every year, with effects ranging from mild discomfort to serious injury or even death. When conditions are favourable, jellyfish can form vast swarms, which can be responsible for damage to fishing gear by filling fishing nets, and sometimes clog the cooling systems of power and desalination plants which draw their water from the sea.

  

Names

The name jellyfish, in use since 1796, has traditionally been applied to medusae and all similar animals including the comb jellies (ctenophores, another phylum). The term jellies or sea jellies is more recent, having been introduced by public aquaria in an effort to avoid use of the word "fish" with its modern connotation of an animal with a backbone, though shellfish, cuttlefish and starfish are not vertebrates either. In scientific literature, "jelly" and "jellyfish" have been used interchangeably. Many sources refer to only scyphozoans as "true jellyfish".

 

A group of jellyfish is called a "smack" or a "smuck".

 

Definition

The term jellyfish broadly corresponds to medusae, that is, a life-cycle stage in the Medusozoa. The American evolutionary biologist Paulyn Cartwright gives the following general definition:

 

Typically, medusozoan cnidarians have a pelagic, predatory jellyfish stage in their life cycle; staurozoans are the exceptions [as they are stalked].

 

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines jellyfish as follows:

 

A free-swimming marine coelenterate that is the sexually reproducing form of a hydrozoan or scyphozoan and has a nearly transparent saucer-shaped body and extensible marginal tentacles studded with stinging cells.

 

Given that jellyfish is a common name, its mapping to biological groups is inexact. Some authorities have called the comb jellies and certain salps jellyfish, though other authorities state that neither of these are jellyfish, which they consider should be limited to certain groups within the medusozoa.

 

The non-medusozoan clades called jellyfish by some but not all authorities (both agreeing and disagreeing citations are given in each case) are indicated with on the following cladogram of the animal kingdom:

 

Jellyfish are not a clade, as they include most of the Medusozoa, barring some of the Hydrozoa. The medusozoan groups included by authorities are indicated on the following phylogenetic tree by the presence of citations. Names of included jellyfish, in English where possible, are shown in boldface; the presence of a named and cited example indicates that at least that species within its group has been called a jellyfish.

 

Taxonomy

The subphylum Medusozoa includes all cnidarians with a medusa stage in their life cycle. The basic cycle is egg, planula larva, polyp, medusa, with the medusa being the sexual stage. The polyp stage is sometimes secondarily lost. The subphylum include the major taxa, Scyphozoa (large jellyfish), Cubozoa (box jellyfish) and Hydrozoa (small jellyfish), and excludes Anthozoa (corals and sea anemones). This suggests that the medusa form evolved after the polyps. Medusozoans have tetramerous symmetry, with parts in fours or multiples of four.

 

The four major classes of medusozoan Cnidaria are:

Scyphozoa are sometimes called true jellyfish, though they are no more truly jellyfish than the others listed here. They have tetra-radial symmetry. Most have tentacles around the outer margin of the bowl-shaped bell, and long, oral arms around the mouth in the center of the subumbrella.

Cubozoa (box jellyfish) have a (rounded) box-shaped bell, and their velarium assists them to swim more quickly. Box jellyfish may be related more closely to scyphozoan jellyfish than either are to the Hydrozoa.

Hydrozoa medusae also have tetra-radial symmetry, nearly always have a velum (diaphragm used in swimming) attached just inside the bell margin, do not have oral arms, but a much smaller central stalk-like structure, the manubrium, with terminal mouth opening, and are distinguished by the absence of cells in the mesoglea. Hydrozoa show great diversity of lifestyle; some species maintain the polyp form for their entire life and do not form medusae at all (such as Hydra, which is hence not considered a jellyfish), and a few are entirely medusal and have no polyp form.

Staurozoa (stalked jellyfish) are characterized by a medusa form that is generally sessile, oriented upside down and with a stalk emerging from the apex of the "calyx" (bell), which attaches to the substrate. At least some Staurozoa also have a polyp form that alternates with the medusoid portion of the life cycle. Until recently, Staurozoa were classified within the Scyphozoa.

There are over 200 species of Scyphozoa, about 50 species of Staurozoa, about 50 species of Cubozoa, and the Hydrozoa includes about 1000–1500 species that produce medusae, but many more species that do not.

 

Fossil history

Since jellyfish have no hard parts, fossils are rare. The oldest unambiguous fossil of a free-swimming medusa is Burgessomedusa from the mid Cambrian Burgess Shale of Canada, which is likely either a stem group of box jellyfish (Cubozoa) or Acraspeda (the clade including Staurozoa, Cubozoa, and Scyphozoa). Other claimed records from the Cambrian of China and Utah in the United States are uncertain, and possibly represent ctenophores instead.

 

Anatomy

The main feature of a true jellyfish is the umbrella-shaped bell. This is a hollow structure consisting of a mass of transparent jelly-like matter known as mesoglea, which forms the hydrostatic skeleton of the animal. 95% or more of the mesogloea consists of water, but it also contains collagen and other fibrous proteins, as well as wandering amoebocytes which can engulf debris and bacteria. The mesogloea is bordered by the epidermis on the outside and the gastrodermis on the inside. The edge of the bell is often divided into rounded lobes known as lappets, which allow the bell to flex. In the gaps or niches between the lappets are dangling rudimentary sense organs known as rhopalia, and the margin of the bell often bears tentacles.

  

Anatomy of a scyphozoan jellyfish

On the underside of the bell is the manubrium, a stalk-like structure hanging down from the centre, with the mouth, which also functions as the anus, at its tip. There are often four oral arms connected to the manubrium, streaming away into the water below. The mouth opens into the gastrovascular cavity, where digestion takes place and nutrients are absorbed. This is subdivided by four thick septa into a central stomach and four gastric pockets. The four pairs of gonads are attached to the septa, and close to them four septal funnels open to the exterior, perhaps supplying good oxygenation to the gonads. Near the free edges of the septa, gastric filaments extend into the gastric cavity; these are armed with nematocysts and enzyme-producing cells and play a role in subduing and digesting the prey. In some scyphozoans, the gastric cavity is joined to radial canals which branch extensively and may join a marginal ring canal. Cilia in these canals circulate the fluid in a regular direction.

  

Discharge mechanism of a nematocyst

The box jellyfish is largely similar in structure. It has a squarish, box-like bell. A short pedalium or stalk hangs from each of the four lower corners. One or more long, slender tentacles are attached to each pedalium. The rim of the bell is folded inwards to form a shelf known as a velarium which restricts the bell's aperture and creates a powerful jet when the bell pulsates, allowing box jellyfish to swim faster than true jellyfish. Hydrozoans are also similar, usually with just four tentacles at the edge of the bell, although many hydrozoans are colonial and may not have a free-living medusal stage. In some species, a non-detachable bud known as a gonophore is formed that contains a gonad but is missing many other medusal features such as tentacles and rhopalia. Stalked jellyfish are attached to a solid surface by a basal disk, and resemble a polyp, the oral end of which has partially developed into a medusa with tentacle-bearing lobes and a central manubrium with four-sided mouth.

 

Most jellyfish do not have specialized systems for osmoregulation, respiration and circulation, and do not have a central nervous system. Nematocysts, which deliver the sting, are located mostly on the tentacles; true jellyfish also have them around the mouth and stomach. Jellyfish do not need a respiratory system because sufficient oxygen diffuses through the epidermis. They have limited control over their movement, but can navigate with the pulsations of the bell-like body; some species are active swimmers most of the time, while others largely drift. The rhopalia contain rudimentary sense organs which are able to detect light, water-borne vibrations, odour and orientation. A loose network of nerves called a "nerve net" is located in the epidermis. Although traditionally thought not to have a central nervous system, nerve net concentration and ganglion-like structures could be considered to constitute one in most species. A jellyfish detects stimuli, and transmits impulses both throughout the nerve net and around a circular nerve ring, to other nerve cells. The rhopalial ganglia contain pacemaker neurones which control swimming rate and direction.

 

In many species of jellyfish, the rhopalia include ocelli, light-sensitive organs able to tell light from dark. These are generally pigment spot ocelli, which have some of their cells pigmented. The rhopalia are suspended on stalks with heavy crystals at one end, acting like gyroscopes to orient the eyes skyward. Certain jellyfish look upward at the mangrove canopy while making a daily migration from mangrove swamps into the open lagoon, where they feed, and back again.

 

Box jellyfish have more advanced vision than the other groups. Each individual has 24 eyes, two of which are capable of seeing colour, and four parallel information processing areas that act in competition, supposedly making them one of the few kinds of animal to have a 360-degree view of its environment.

 

Box jellyfish eye

The study of jellyfish eye evolution is an intermediary to a better understanding of how visual systems evolved on Earth. Jellyfish exhibit immense variation in visual systems ranging from photoreceptive cell patches seen in simple photoreceptive systems to more derived complex eyes seen in box jellyfish. Major topics of jellyfish visual system research (with an emphasis on box jellyfish) include: the evolution of jellyfish vision from simple to complex visual systems), the eye morphology and molecular structures of box jellyfish (including comparisons to vertebrate eyes), and various uses of vision including task-guided behaviors and niche specialization.

 

Evolution

Experimental evidence for photosensitivity and photoreception in cnidarians antecedes the mid 1900s, and a rich body of research has since covered evolution of visual systems in jellyfish. Jellyfish visual systems range from simple photoreceptive cells to complex image-forming eyes. More ancestral visual systems incorporate extraocular vision (vision without eyes) that encompass numerous receptors dedicated to single-function behaviors. More derived visual systems comprise perception that is capable of multiple task-guided behaviors.

 

Although they lack a true brain, cnidarian jellyfish have a "ring" nervous system that plays a significant role in motor and sensory activity. This net of nerves is responsible for muscle contraction and movement and culminates the emergence of photosensitive structures. Across Cnidaria, there is large variation in the systems that underlie photosensitivity. Photosensitive structures range from non-specialized groups of cells, to more "conventional" eyes similar to those of vertebrates. The general evolutionary steps to develop complex vision include (from more ancestral to more derived states): non-directional photoreception, directional photoreception, low-resolution vision, and high-resolution vision. Increased habitat and task complexity has favored the high-resolution visual systems common in derived cnidarians such as box jellyfish.

 

Basal visual systems observed in various cnidarians exhibit photosensitivity representative of a single task or behavior. Extraocular photoreception (a form of non-directional photoreception), is the most basic form of light sensitivity and guides a variety of behaviors among cnidarians. It can function to regulate circadian rhythm (as seen in eyeless hydrozoans) and other light-guided behaviors responsive to the intensity and spectrum of light. Extraocular photoreception can function additionally in positive phototaxis (in planula larvae of hydrozoans), as well as in avoiding harmful amounts of UV radiation via negative phototaxis. Directional photoreception (the ability to perceive direction of incoming light) allows for more complex phototactic responses to light, and likely evolved by means of membrane stacking. The resulting behavioral responses can range from guided spawning events timed by moonlight to shadow responses for potential predator avoidance. Light-guided behaviors are observed in numerous scyphozoans including the common moon jelly, Aurelia aurita, which migrates in response to changes in ambient light and solar position even though they lack proper eyes.

 

The low-resolution visual system of box jellyfish is more derived than directional photoreception, and thus box jellyfish vision represents the most basic form of true vision in which multiple directional photoreceptors combine to create the first imaging and spatial resolution. This is different from the high-resolution vision that is observed in camera or compound eyes of vertebrates and cephalopods that rely on focusing optics. Critically, the visual systems of box jellyfish are responsible for guiding multiple tasks or behaviors in contrast to less derived visual systems in other jellyfish that guide single behavioral functions. These behaviors include phototaxis based on sunlight (positive) or shadows (negative), obstacle avoidance, and control of swim-pulse rate.

 

Box jellyfish possess "proper eyes" (similar to vertebrates) that allow them to inhabit environments that lesser derived medusae cannot. In fact, they are considered the only class in the clade Medusozoa that have behaviors necessitating spatial resolution and genuine vision. However, the lens in their eyes are more functionally similar to cup-eyes exhibited in low-resolution organisms, and have very little to no focusing capability. The lack of the ability to focus is due to the focal length exceeding the distance to the retina, thus generating unfocused images and limiting spatial resolution. The visual system is still sufficient for box jellyfish to produce an image to help with tasks such as object avoidance.

 

Utility as a model organism

Box jellyfish eyes are a visual system that is sophisticated in numerous ways. These intricacies include the considerable variation within the morphology of box jellyfishes' eyes (including their task/behavior specification), and the molecular makeup of their eyes including: photoreceptors, opsins, lenses, and synapses. The comparison of these attributes to more derived visual systems can allow for a further understanding of how the evolution of more derived visual systems may have occurred, and puts into perspective how box jellyfish can play the role as an evolutionary/developmental model for all visual systems.

 

Characteristics

Box jellyfish visual systems are both diverse and complex, comprising multiple photosystems. There is likely considerable variation in visual properties between species of box jellyfish given the significant inter-species morphological and physiological variation. Eyes tend to differ in size and shape, along with number of receptors (including opsins), and physiology across species of box jellyfish.

 

Box jellyfish have a series of intricate lensed eyes that are similar to those of more derived multicellular organisms such as vertebrates. Their 24 eyes fit into four different morphological categories. These categories consist of two large, morphologically different medial eyes (a lower and upper lensed eye) containing spherical lenses, a lateral pair of pigment slit eyes, and a lateral pair of pigment pit eyes. The eyes are situated on rhopalia (small sensory structures) which serve sensory functions of the box jellyfish and arise from the cavities of the exumbrella (the surface of the body) on the side of the bells of the jellyfish. The two large eyes are located on the mid-line of the club and are considered complex because they contain lenses. The four remaining eyes lie laterally on either side of each rhopalia and are considered simple. The simple eyes are observed as small invaginated cups of epithelium that have developed pigmentation. The larger of the complex eyes contains a cellular cornea created by a mono ciliated epithelium, cellular lens, homogenous capsule to the lens, vitreous body with prismatic elements, and a retina of pigmented cells. The smaller of the complex eyes is said to be slightly less complex given that it lacks a capsule but otherwise contains the same structure as the larger eye.

 

Box jellyfish have multiple photosystems that comprise different sets of eyes. Evidence includes immunocytochemical and molecular data that show photopigment differences among the different morphological eye types, and physiological experiments done on box jellyfish to suggest behavioral differences among photosystems. Each individual eye type constitutes photosystems that work collectively to control visually guided behaviors.

 

Box jellyfish eyes primarily use c-PRCs (ciliary photoreceptor cells) similar to that of vertebrate eyes. These cells undergo phototransduction cascades (process of light absorption by photoreceptors) that are triggered by c-opsins. Available opsin sequences suggest that there are two types of opsins possessed by all cnidarians including an ancient phylogenetic opsin, and a sister ciliary opsin to the c-opsins group. Box jellyfish could have both ciliary and cnidops (cnidarian opsins), which is something not previously believed to appear in the same retina. Nevertheless, it is not entirely evident whether cnidarians possess multiple opsins that are capable of having distinctive spectral sensitivities.

 

Comparison with other organisms

Comparative research on genetic and molecular makeup of box jellyfishes' eyes versus more derived eyes seen in vertebrates and cephalopods focuses on: lenses and crystallin composition, synapses, and Pax genes and their implied evidence for shared primordial (ancestral) genes in eye evolution.

 

Box jellyfish eyes are said to be an evolutionary/developmental model of all eyes based on their evolutionary recruitment of crystallins and Pax genes. Research done on box jellyfish including Tripedalia cystophora has suggested that they possess a single Pax gene, PaxB. PaxB functions by binding to crystallin promoters and activating them. PaxB in situ hybridization resulted in PaxB expression in the lens, retina, and statocysts. These results and the rejection of the prior hypothesis that Pax6 was an ancestral Pax gene in eyes has led to the conclusion that PaxB was a primordial gene in eye evolution, and that the eyes of all organisms likely share a common ancestor.

 

The lens structure of box jellyfish appears very similar to those of other organisms, but the crystallins are distinct in both function and appearance. Weak reactions were seen within the sera and there were very weak sequence similarities within the crystallins among vertebrate and invertebrate lenses. This is likely due to differences in lower molecular weight proteins and the subsequent lack of immunological reactions with antisera that other organisms' lenses exhibit.

 

All four of the visual systems of box jellyfish species investigated with detail (Carybdea marsupialis, Chiropsalmus quadrumanus, Tamoya haplonema and Tripedalia cystophora) have invaginated synapses, but only in the upper and lower lensed eyes. Different densities were found between the upper and lower lenses, and between species. Four types of chemical synapses have been discovered within the rhopalia which could help in understanding neural organization including: clear unidirectional, dense-core unidirectional, clear bidirectional, and clear and dense-core bidirectional. The synapses of the lensed eyes could be useful as markers to learn more about the neural circuit in box jellyfish retinal areas.

 

Evolution as a response to natural stimuli

The primary adaptive responses to environmental variation observed in box jellyfish eyes include pupillary constriction speeds in response to light environments, as well as photoreceptor tuning and lens adaptations to better respond to shifts between light environments and darkness. Interestingly, some box jellyfish species' eyes appear to have evolved more focused vision in response to their habitat.

 

Pupillary contraction appears to have evolved in response to variation in the light environment across ecological niches across three species of box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri, Chiropsella bronzie, and Carukia barnesi). Behavioral studies suggest that faster pupil contraction rates allow for greater object avoidance, and in fact, species with more complex habitats exhibit faster rates. Ch. bronzie inhabit shallow beach fronts that have low visibility and very few obstacles, thus, faster pupil contraction in response to objects in their environment is not important. Ca. barnesi and Ch. fleckeri are found in more three-dimensionally complex environments like mangroves with an abundance of natural obstacles, where faster pupil contraction is more adaptive. Behavioral studies support the idea that faster pupillary contraction rates assist with obstacle avoidance as well as depth adjustments in response to differing light intensities.

 

Light/dark adaptation via pupillary light reflexes is an additional form of an evolutionary response to the light environment. This relates to the pupil's response to shifts between light intensity (generally from sunlight to darkness). In the process of light/dark adaptation, the upper and lower lens eyes of different box jellyfish species vary in specific function. The lower lens-eyes contain pigmented photoreceptors and long pigment cells with dark pigments that migrate on light/dark adaptation, while the upper-lens eyes play a concentrated role in light direction and phototaxis given that they face upward towards the water surface (towards the sun or moon). The upper lens of Ch. bronzie does not exhibit any considerable optical power while Tr. cystophora (a box jellyfish species that tends to live in mangroves) does. The ability to use light to visually guide behavior is not of as much importance to Ch. bronzie as it is to species in more obstacle-filled environments. Differences in visually guided behavior serve as evidence that species that share the same number and structure of eyes can exhibit differences in how they control behavior.

 

Largest and smallest

Jellyfish range from about one millimeter in bell height and diameter, to nearly 2 metres (6+1⁄2 ft) in bell height and diameter; the tentacles and mouth parts usually extend beyond this bell dimension.

 

The smallest jellyfish are the peculiar creeping jellyfish in the genera Staurocladia and Eleutheria, which have bell disks from 0.5 millimetres (1⁄32 in) to a few millimeters in diameter, with short tentacles that extend out beyond this, which these jellyfish use to move across the surface of seaweed or the bottoms of rocky pools; many of these tiny creeping jellyfish cannot be seen in the field without a hand lens or microscope. They can reproduce asexually by fission (splitting in half). Other very small jellyfish, which have bells about one millimeter, are the hydromedusae of many species that have just been released from their parent polyps; some of these live only a few minutes before shedding their gametes in the plankton and then dying, while others will grow in the plankton for weeks or months. The hydromedusae Cladonema radiatum and Cladonema californicum are also very small, living for months, yet never growing beyond a few mm in bell height and diameter.

 

The lion's mane jellyfish, Cyanea capillata, was long-cited as the largest jellyfish, and arguably the longest animal in the world, with fine, thread-like tentacles that may extend up to 36.5 m (119 ft 9 in) long (though most are nowhere near that large). They have a moderately painful, but rarely fatal, sting. The increasingly common giant Nomura's jellyfish, Nemopilema nomurai, found in some, but not all years in the waters of Japan, Korea and China in summer and autumn is another candidate for "largest jellyfish", in terms of diameter and weight, since the largest Nomura's jellyfish in late autumn can reach 2 m (6 ft 7 in) in bell (body) diameter and about 200 kg (440 lb) in weight, with average specimens frequently reaching 0.9 m (2 ft 11 in) in bell diameter and about 150 kg (330 lb) in weight. The large bell mass of the giant Nomura's jellyfish can dwarf a diver and is nearly always much greater than the Lion's Mane, whose bell diameter can reach 1 m (3 ft 3 in).

 

The rarely encountered deep-sea jellyfish Stygiomedusa gigantea is another candidate for "largest jellyfish", with its thick, massive bell up to 100 cm (3 ft 3 in) wide, and four thick, "strap-like" oral arms extending up to 6 m (19+1⁄2 ft) in length, very different from the typical fine, threadlike tentacles that rim the umbrella of more-typical-looking jellyfish, including the Lion's Mane.

 

Desmonema glaciale, which lives in the Antarctic region, can reach a very large size (several meters). Purple-striped jelly (Chrysaora colorata) can also be extremely long (up to 15 feet).

 

Life history and behavior

Life cycle

Jellyfish have a complex life cycle which includes both sexual and asexual phases, with the medusa being the sexual stage in most instances. Sperm fertilize eggs, which develop into larval planulae, become polyps, bud into ephyrae and then transform into adult medusae. In some species certain stages may be skipped.

 

Upon reaching adult size, jellyfish spawn regularly if there is a sufficient supply of food. In most species, spawning is controlled by light, with all individuals spawning at about the same time of day; in many instances this is at dawn or dusk. Jellyfish are usually either male or female (with occasional hermaphrodites). In most cases, adults release sperm and eggs into the surrounding water, where the unprotected eggs are fertilized and develop into larvae. In a few species, the sperm swim into the female's mouth, fertilizing the eggs within her body, where they remain during early development stages. In moon jellies, the eggs lodge in pits on the oral arms, which form a temporary brood chamber for the developing planula larvae.

 

The planula is a small larva covered with cilia. When sufficiently developed, it settles onto a firm surface and develops into a polyp. The polyp generally consists of a small stalk topped by a mouth that is ringed by upward-facing tentacles. The polyps resemble those of closely related anthozoans, such as sea anemones and corals. The jellyfish polyp may be sessile, living on the bottom, boat hulls or other substrates, or it may be free-floating or attached to tiny bits of free-living plankton or rarely, fish or other invertebrates. Polyps may be solitary or colonial. Most polyps are only millimetres in diameter and feed continuously. The polyp stage may last for years.

 

After an interval and stimulated by seasonal or hormonal changes, the polyp may begin reproducing asexually by budding and, in the Scyphozoa, is called a segmenting polyp, or a scyphistoma. Budding produces more scyphistomae and also ephyrae. Budding sites vary by species; from the tentacle bulbs, the manubrium (above the mouth), or the gonads of hydromedusae. In a process known as strobilation, the polyp's tentacles are reabsorbed and the body starts to narrow, forming transverse constrictions, in several places near the upper extremity of the polyp. These deepen as the constriction sites migrate down the body, and separate segments known as ephyra detach. These are free-swimming precursors of the adult medusa stage, which is the life stage that is typically identified as a jellyfish. The ephyrae, usually only a millimeter or two across initially, swim away from the polyp and grow. Limnomedusae polyps can asexually produce a creeping frustule larval form, which crawls away before developing into another polyp. A few species can produce new medusae by budding directly from the medusan stage. Some hydromedusae reproduce by fission.

 

Lifespan

Little is known of the life histories of many jellyfish as the places on the seabed where the benthic forms of those species live have not been found. However, an asexually reproducing strobila form can sometimes live for several years, producing new medusae (ephyra larvae) each year.

 

An unusual species, Turritopsis dohrnii, formerly classified as Turritopsis nutricula, might be effectively immortal because of its ability under certain circumstances to transform from medusa back to the polyp stage, thereby escaping the death that typically awaits medusae post-reproduction if they have not otherwise been eaten by some other organism. So far this reversal has been observed only in the laboratory.

 

Locomotion

Jellyfish locomotion is highly efficient. Muscles in the jellylike bell contract, setting up a start vortex and propelling the animal. When the contraction ends, the bell recoils elastically, creating a stop vortex with no extra energy input.

Using the moon jelly Aurelia aurita as an example, jellyfish have been shown to be the most energy-efficient swimmers of all animals. They move through the water by radially expanding and contracting their bell-shaped bodies to push water behind them. They pause between the contraction and expansion phases to create two vortex rings. Muscles are used for the contraction of the body, which creates the first vortex and pushes the animal forward, but the mesoglea is so elastic that the expansion is powered exclusively by relaxing the bell, which releases the energy stored from the contraction. Meanwhile, the second vortex ring starts to spin faster, sucking water into the bell and pushing against the centre of the body, giving a secondary and "free" boost forward. The mechanism, called passive energy recapture, only works in relatively small jellyfish moving at low speeds, allowing the animal to travel 30 percent farther on each swimming cycle. Jellyfish achieved a 48 percent lower cost of transport (food and oxygen intake versus energy spent in movement) than other animals in similar studies. One reason for this is that most of the gelatinous tissue of the bell is inactive, using no energy during swimming.

 

Ecology

Diet

Jellyfish are, like other cnidarians, generally carnivorous (or parasitic), feeding on planktonic organisms, crustaceans, small fish, fish eggs and larvae, and other jellyfish, ingesting food and voiding undigested waste through the mouth. They hunt passively using their tentacles as drift lines, or sink through the water with their tentacles spread widely; the tentacles, which contain nematocysts to stun or kill the prey, may then flex to help bring it to the mouth. Their swimming technique also helps them to capture prey; when their bell expands it sucks in water which brings more potential prey within reach of the tentacles.

 

A few species such as Aglaura hemistoma are omnivorous, feeding on microplankton which is a mixture of zooplankton and phytoplankton (microscopic plants) such as dinoflagellates. Others harbour mutualistic algae (Zooxanthellae) in their tissues; the spotted jellyfish (Mastigias papua) is typical of these, deriving part of its nutrition from the products of photosynthesis, and part from captured zooplankton. The upside-down jellyfish (Cassiopea andromeda) also has a symbiotic relationship with microalgae, but captures tiny animals to supplement their diet. This is done by releasing tiny balls of living cells composed of mesoglea. These use cilia to drive them through water and stinging cells which stun the prey. The blobs also seems to have digestive capabilities.

 

Predation

Other species of jellyfish are among the most common and important jellyfish predators. Sea anemones may eat jellyfish that drift into their range. Other predators include tunas, sharks, swordfish, sea turtles and penguins. Jellyfish washed up on the beach are consumed by foxes, other terrestrial mammals and birds. In general however, few animals prey on jellyfish; they can broadly be considered to be top predators in the food chain. Once jellyfish have become dominant in an ecosystem, for example through overfishing which removes predators of jellyfish larvae, there may be no obvious way for the previous balance to be restored: they eat fish eggs and juvenile fish, and compete with fish for food, preventing fish stocks from recovering.

 

Symbiosis

Some small fish are immune to the stings of the jellyfish and live among the tentacles, serving as bait in a fish trap; they are safe from potential predators and are able to share the fish caught by the jellyfish. The cannonball jellyfish has a symbiotic relationship with ten different species of fish, and with the longnose spider crab, which lives inside the bell, sharing the jellyfish's food and nibbling its tissues.

 

Main article: Jellyfish bloom

Jellyfish form large masses or blooms in certain environmental conditions of ocean currents, nutrients, sunshine, temperature, season, prey availability, reduced predation and oxygen concentration. Currents collect jellyfish together, especially in years with unusually high populations. Jellyfish can detect marine currents and swim against the current to congregate in blooms. Jellyfish are better able to survive in nutrient-rich, oxygen-poor water than competitors, and thus can feast on plankton without competition. Jellyfish may also benefit from saltier waters, as saltier waters contain more iodine, which is necessary for polyps to turn into jellyfish. Rising sea temperatures caused by climate change may also contribute to jellyfish blooms, because many species of jellyfish are able to survive in warmer waters. Increased nutrients from agricultural or urban runoff with nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus compounds increase the growth of phytoplankton, causing eutrophication and algal blooms. When the phytoplankton die, they may create dead zones, so-called because they are hypoxic (low in oxygen). This in turn kills fish and other animals, but not jellyfish, allowing them to bloom. Jellyfish populations may be expanding globally as a result of land runoff and overfishing of their natural predators. Jellyfish are well placed to benefit from disturbance of marine ecosystems. They reproduce rapidly; they prey upon many species, while few species prey on them; and they feed via touch rather than visually, so they can feed effectively at night and in turbid waters. It may be difficult for fish stocks to re-establish themselves in marine ecosystems once they have become dominated by jellyfish, because jellyfish feed on plankton, which includes fish eggs and larvae.

 

As suspected at the turn of this century, jellyfish blooms are increasing in frequency. Between 2013 and 2020 the Mediterranean Science Commission monitored on a weekly basis the frequency of such outbreaks in coastal waters from Morocco to the Black Sea, revealing a relatively high frequency of these blooms nearly all year round, with peaks observed from March to July and often again in the autumn. The blooms are caused by different jellyfish species, depending on their localisation within the Basin: one observes a clear dominance of Pelagia noctiluca and Velella velella outbreaks in the western Mediterranean, of Rhizostoma pulmo and Rhopilema nomadica outbreaks in the eastern Mediterranean, and of Aurelia aurita and Mnemiopsis leidyi outbreaks in the Black Sea.

 

Some jellyfish populations that have shown clear increases in the past few decades are invasive species, newly arrived from other habitats: examples include the Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Baltic Sea, central and eastern Mediterranean, Hawaii, and tropical and subtropical parts of the West Atlantic (including the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Brazil).

 

Jellyfish blooms can have significant impact on community structure. Some carnivorous jellyfish species prey on zooplankton while others graze on primary producers. Reductions in zooplankton and ichthyoplankton due to a jellyfish bloom can ripple through the trophic levels. High-density jellyfish populations can outcompete other predators and reduce fish recruitment. Increased grazing on primary producers by jellyfish can also interrupt energy transfer to higher trophic levels.

 

During blooms, jellyfish significantly alter the nutrient availability in their environment. Blooms require large amounts of available organic nutrients in the water column to grow, limiting availability for other organisms. Some jellyfish have a symbiotic relationship with single-celled dinoflagellates, allowing them to assimilate inorganic carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen creating competition for phytoplankton. Their large biomass makes them an important source of dissolved and particulate organic matter for microbial communities through excretion, mucus production, and decomposition. The microbes break down the organic matter into inorganic ammonium and phosphate. However, the low carbon availability shifts the process from production to respiration creating low oxygen areas making the dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus largely unavailable for primary production.

 

These blooms have very real impacts on industries. Jellyfish can outcompete fish by utilizing open niches in over-fished fisheries. Catch of jellyfish can strain fishing gear and lead to expenses relating to damaged gear. Power plants have been shut down due to jellyfish blocking the flow of cooling water. Blooms have also been harmful for tourism, causing a rise in stings and sometimes the closure of beaches.

 

Jellyfish form a component of jelly-falls, events where gelatinous zooplankton fall to the seafloor, providing food for the benthic organisms there. In temperate and subpolar regions, jelly-falls usually follow immediately after a bloom.

 

Habitats

Most jellyfish are marine animals, although a few hydromedusae inhabit freshwater. The best known freshwater example is the cosmopolitan hydrozoan jellyfish, Craspedacusta sowerbii. It is less than an inch (2.5 cm) in diameter, colorless and does not sting. Some jellyfish populations have become restricted to coastal saltwater lakes, such as Jellyfish Lake in Palau. Jellyfish Lake is a marine lake where millions of golden jellyfish (Mastigias spp.) migrate horizontally across the lake daily.

 

Although most jellyfish live well off the ocean floor and form part of the plankton, a few species are closely associated with the bottom for much of their lives and can be considered benthic. The upside-down jellyfish in the genus Cassiopea typically lie on the bottom of shallow lagoons where they sometimes pulsate gently with their umbrella top facing down. Even some deep-sea species of hydromedusae and scyphomedusae are usually collected on or near the bottom. All of the stauromedusae are found attached to either seaweed or rocky or other firm material on the bottom.

 

Some species explicitly adapt to tidal flux. In Roscoe Bay, jellyfish ride the current at ebb tide until they hit a gravel bar, and then descend below the current. They remain in still waters until the tide rises, ascending and allowing it to sweep them back into the bay. They also actively avoid fresh water from mountain snowmelt, diving until they find enough salt.

  

Parasites

Jellyfish are hosts to a wide variety of parasitic organisms. They act as intermediate hosts of endoparasitic helminths, with the infection being transferred to the definitive host fish after predation. Some digenean trematodes, especially species in the family Lepocreadiidae, use jellyfish as their second intermediate hosts. Fish become infected by the trematodes when they feed on infected jellyfish.

 

Relation to humans

Jellyfish have long been eaten in some parts of the world. Fisheries have begun harvesting the American cannonball jellyfish, Stomolophus meleagris, along the southern Atlantic coast of the United States and in the Gulf of Mexico for export to Asia.

 

Jellyfish are also harvested for their collagen, which is being investigated for use in a variety of applications including the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

 

Aquaculture and fisheries of other species often suffer severe losses – and so losses of productivity – due to jellyfish.

 

Products

Main article: Jellyfish as food

In some countries, including China, Japan, and Korea, jellyfish are a delicacy. The jellyfish is dried to prevent spoiling. Only some 12 species of scyphozoan jellyfish belonging to the order Rhizostomeae are harvested for food, mostly in southeast Asia. Rhizostomes, especially Rhopilema esculentum in China (海蜇 hǎizhé, 'sea stingers') and Stomolophus meleagris (cannonball jellyfish) in the United States, are favored because of their larger and more rigid bodies and because their toxins are harmless to humans.

 

Traditional processing methods, carried out by a jellyfish master, involve a 20- to 40-day multi-phase procedure in which, after removing the gonads and mucous membranes, the umbrella and oral arms are treated with a mixture of table salt and alum, and compressed. Processing makes the jellyfish drier and more acidic, producing a crisp texture. Jellyfish prepared this way retain 7–10% of their original weight, and the processed product consists of approximately 94% water and 6% protein. Freshly processed jellyfish has a white, creamy color and turns yellow or brown during prolonged storage.

 

In China, processed jellyfish are desalted by soaking in water overnight and eaten cooked or raw. The dish is often served shredded with a dressing of oil, soy sauce, vinegar and sugar, or as a salad with vegetables. In Japan, cured jellyfish are rinsed, cut into strips and served with vinegar as an appetizer. Desalted, ready-to-eat products are also available.

 

Biotechnology

The hydromedusa Aequorea victoria was the source of green fluorescent protein, studied for its role in bioluminescence and later for use as a marker in genetic engineering.

Pliny the Elder reported in his Natural History that the slime of the jellyfish "Pulmo marinus" produced light when rubbed on a walking stick.

 

In 1961, Osamu Shimomura extracted green fluorescent protein (GFP) and another bioluminescent protein, called aequorin, from the large and abundant hydromedusa Aequorea victoria, while studying photoproteins that cause bioluminescence in this species. Three decades later, Douglas Prasher sequenced and cloned the gene for GFP. Martin Chalfie figured out how to use GFP as a fluorescent marker of genes inserted into other cells or organisms. Roger Tsien later chemically manipulated GFP to produce other fluorescent colors to use as markers. In 2008, Shimomura, Chalfie and Tsien won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work with GFP. Man-made GFP became widely used as a fluorescent tag to show which cells or tissues express specific genes. The genetic engineering technique fuses the gene of interest to the GFP gene. The fused DNA is then put into a cell, to generate either a cell line or (via IVF techniques) an entire animal bearing the gene. In the cell or animal, the artificial gene turns on in the same tissues and the same time as the normal gene, making a fusion of the normal protein with GFP attached to the end, illuminating the animal or cell reveals what tissues express that protein—or at what stage of development. The fluorescence shows where the gene is expressed.

 

Aquarium display

Jellyfish are displayed in many public aquariums. Often the tank's background is blue and the animals are illuminated by side light, increasing the contrast between the animal and the background. In natural conditions, many jellies are so transparent that they are nearly invisible. Jellyfish are not adapted to closed spaces. They depend on currents to transport them from place to place. Professional exhibits as in the Monterey Bay Aquarium feature precise water flows, typically in circular tanks to avoid trapping specimens in corners. The outflow is spread out over a large surface area and the inflow enters as a sheet of water in front of the outflow, so the jellyfish do not get sucked into it. As of 2009, jellyfish were becoming popular in home aquariums, where they require similar equipment.

 

Stings

Jellyfish are armed with nematocysts, a type of specialized stinging cell. Contact with a jellyfish tentacle can trigger millions of nematocysts to pierce the skin and inject venom, but only some species' venom causes an adverse reaction in humans. In a study published in Communications Biology, researchers found a jellyfish species called Cassiopea xamachana which when triggered will release tiny balls of cells that swim around the jellyfish stinging everything in their path. Researchers described these as "self-propelling microscopic grenades" and named them cassiosomes.

 

The effects of stings range from mild discomfort to extreme pain and death. Most jellyfish stings are not deadly, but stings of some box jellyfish (Irukandji jellyfish), such as the sea wasp, can be deadly. Stings may cause anaphylaxis (a form of shock), which can be fatal. Jellyfish kill 20 to 40 people a year in the Philippines alone. In 2006 the Spanish Red Cross treated 19,000 stung swimmers along the Costa Brava.

 

Vinegar (3–10% aqueous acetic acid) may help with box jellyfish stings but not the stings of the Portuguese man o' war. Clearing the area of jelly and tentacles reduces nematocyst firing. Scraping the affected skin, such as with the edge of a credit card, may remove remaining nematocysts. Once the skin has been cleaned of nematocysts, hydrocortisone cream applied locally reduces pain and inflammation. Antihistamines may help to control itching. Immunobased antivenins are used for serious box jellyfish stings.

 

In Elba Island and Corsica dittrichia viscosa is now used by residents and tourists to heal stings from jellyfish, bees and wasps pressing fresh leaves on the skin with quick results.

 

Mechanical issues

Jellyfish in large quantities can fill and split fishing nets and crush captured fish. They can clog cooling equipment, having disabled power stations in several countries; jellyfish caused a cascading blackout in the Philippines in 1999, as well as damaging the Diablo Canyon Power Plant in California in 2008. They can also stop desalination plants and ships' engines.

"Most people enjoy their summer meals served in the old woodshed here, despite the possible unpleasant childhood connotations." Ah, those were the days!

 

On SH 80 in Killingworth, Connecticut, the Country Squire Inn was in business until at least 2009/10, having originally opened in the 1940s. In fact, the restaurant was "resurrected" in 2009 (tinyurl.com/y9sbx3ve). But in 2014, the new owners of the restaurant auctioned off an assortment of antique furniture at the restaurant. According to the Shoreline Times (tinyurl.com/yc7p7uzt),

 

The Country Squire was built in 1794 as the home of Nathan Evarts...

 

As a storied restaurant and Inn, The Country Squire entertained innumerable notables. Hugh D. Auchincloss, stepfather of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy had standing reservations every Friday and Sunday evening as he commuted between Manhattan and Newport. Betty Grable, Sid Caesar, Mickey Rooney, Robert Stack, Kitty Carlisle, Patty Duke Astin, Celeste Holm and Rudolf Nureyev all lodged here. Henry Ford II named the quintessentially American touring car, The Country Squire Estate Wagon for the premises...

 

I have been unable to find much about the present status of the building itself. Anyone know?

 

The recipe featured is "Turkey Killingworth", which is sliced turkey placed over cooked broccoli and covered with a cheese sauce, served "piping hot from the broiler" in a pie tin.

 

1950 Ford probably not included. ;)

 

(The opposing page features the Colonial Inn of Concord, Mass.)

  

Funny story...apparently the building is only 63 stories above ground, not the boasted 69 stories. Apart from the usual skipping of floor 13, so were 4, 14, 24, etc as the 4 sound in Cantonese has some sort of death connotation. Wealthy, superstitious Chinese buyers love the auspicious Trump but not floors of death so much.

 

"Not My Tower" ..."Lunch Trumps Taste", they squalled ....

 

...Of course there were the usual triggered, zombie hordes with their crayon-scrawled cardboard signs protesting against garish opulence, which this building isn't. It's a thoroughly modern presence actually.

 

Perhaps there's some conflation with Vancouver's Tower and the outrageous, golden décor of the Orange One's, New York, Fifth Avenue, Trump Tower.

 

Oh well, Trump Tower haters are going to hate!

 

The Residences have sold well ...to give you an idea of cost, a suite below Penthouse level sold for $8.9 million. Mind you that's Canadian dollars so for some it's probably a steal.

  

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796), also known familiarly as Rabbie Burns, was a Scottish poet and lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is in a "light Scots dialect" of English, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these writings his political or civil commentary is often at its bluntest.

 

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement, and after his death he became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism, and a cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish diaspora around the world. Celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was chosen as the greatest Scot by the Scottish public in a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

 

As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) "Auld Lang Syne" is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and "Scots Wha Hae" served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well known across the world today include "A Red, Red Rose", "A Man's a Man for A' That", "To a Louse", "To a Mouse", "The Battle of Sherramuir", "Tam o' Shanter" and "Ae Fond Kiss".

Life and background

 

Burns was born two miles (3 km) south of Ayr, in Alloway, the eldest of the seven children of William Burnes (1721–1784), a self-educated tenant farmer from Dunnottar in the Mearns, and Agnes Broun (1732–1820), the daughter of a Kirkoswald tenant farmer.

 

He was born in a house built by his father (now the Burns Cottage Museum), where he lived until Easter 1766, when he was seven years old. William Burnes sold the house and took the tenancy of the 70-acre (280,000 m2) Mount Oliphant farm, southeast of Alloway. Here Burns grew up in poverty and hardship, and the severe manual labour of the farm left its traces in a weakened constitution.

 

He was given irregular schooling and a lot of his education was with his father, who taught his children reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history and also wrote for them A Manual of Christian Belief. He was also taught and tutored by the young teacher John Murdoch (1747–1824), who opened an "adventure school" in Alloway in 1763 and taught Latin, French, and mathematics to both Robert and his brother Gilbert (1760–1827) from 1765 to 1768 until Murdoch left the parish. After a few years of home education, Burns was sent to Dalrymple Parish School in mid-1772 before returning at harvest time to full-time farm labouring until 1773, when he was sent to lodge with Murdoch for three weeks to study grammar, French, and Latin.

 

By the age of 15, Burns was the principal labourer at Mount Oliphant. During the harvest of 1774, he was assisted by Nelly Kilpatrick (1759–1820), who inspired his first attempt at poetry, "O, Once I Lov'd A Bonnie Lass". In 1775, he was sent to finish his education with a tutor at Kirkoswald, where he met Peggy Thompson (born 1762), to whom he wrote two songs, "Now Westlin' Winds" and "I Dream’d I Lay".

 

Despite his ability and character, William Burnes was consistently unfortunate, and migrated with his large family from farm to farm without ever being able to improve his circumstances. At Whitsun, 1777, he removed his large family from the unfavourable conditions of Mount Oliphant to the 130-acre (0.53 km2) farm at Lochlea, near Tarbolton, where they stayed until William Burnes's death in 1784. Subsequently, the family became integrated into the community of Tarbolton. To his father's disapproval, Robert joined a country dancing school in 1779 and, with Gilbert, formed the Tarbolton Bachelors' Club the following year. His earliest existing letters date from this time, when he began making romantic overtures to Alison Begbie (b. 1762). In spite of four songs written for her and a suggestion that he was willing to marry her, she rejected him.

 

Robert Burns was initiated into the Masonic lodge St David, Tarbolton, on 4 July 1781, when he was 22. In December 1781, Burns moved temporarily to Irvine to learn to become a flax-dresser, but during the workers' celebrations for New Year 1781/1782 (which included Burns as a participant) the flax shop caught fire and was burnt to the ground. This venture accordingly came to an end, and Burns went home to Lochlea farm. During this time he met and befriended Richard Brown, who encouraged him to become a poet. He continued to write poems and songs and began a commonplace book in 1783, while his father fought a legal dispute with his landlord. The case went to the Court of Session, and Burnes was upheld in January 1784, a fortnight before he died.

Mauchline

 

Robert and Gilbert made an ineffectual struggle to keep on the farm, but after its failure they moved to Mossgiel Farm, near Mauchline, in March, which they maintained with an uphill fight for the next four years. In mid-1784 Burns came to know a group of girls known collectively as The Belles of Mauchline, one of whom was Jean Armour, the daughter of a stonemason from Mauchline.

 

Burns’s first child, Elizabeth "Bess" Burns, was born to his mother's servant, Elizabeth Paton, while he was embarking on a relationship with Jean Armour, who became pregnant with twins in March 1786. Burns signed a paper attesting his marriage to Jean, but her father "was in the greatest distress, and fainted away". To avoid disgrace, her parents sent her to live with her uncle in Paisley. Although Armour's father initially forbade it, they were married in 1788. Armour bore him nine children, three of whom survived infancy.

 

Burns had encountered financial difficulties due to his lack of success as a farmer. In order to make enough money to support a family, he accepted a job offer from Patrick Douglas, an absentee landowner who lived in Cumnock, to work on his sugar plantations near Port Antonio, Jamaica. Douglas' plantations were managed by his brother Charles, and the job offer, which had a salary of £30 per annum, entailed working in Jamaica as a "book-keeper", whose duties included serving as an assistant overseer to the Black slaves on the plantations (Burns himself described the position as being "a poor Negro driver").[8] The position, which was for a single man, would entail Burns living on a plantation in rustic conditions, as it was unlikely a book keeper would be housed in the plantation's great house. Apologists have argued in Burns's defence that in 1786, the Scottish abolitionist movement was just beginning to be broadly active. Burns's authorship of "The Slave's Lament", a 1792 poem argued as an example of his abolitionist views, is disputed. His name is absent from any abolitionist petition written in Scotland during the period, and according to academic Lisa Williams, Burns "is strangely silent on the question of chattel slavery compared to other contemporary poets. Perhaps this was due to his government position, severe limitations on free speech at the time or his association with beneficiaries of the slave trade system".

 

Around the same time, Burns fell in love with a woman named Mary Campbell, whom he had seen in church while he was still living in Tarbolton. She was born near Dunoon and had lived in Campbeltown before moving to work in Ayrshire. He dedicated the poems "The Highland Lassie O", "Highland Mary", and "To Mary in Heaven" to her. His song "Will ye go to the Indies, my Mary, And leave auld Scotia's shore?" suggests that they planned to emigrate to Jamaica together. Their relationship has been the subject of much conjecture, and it has been suggested that on 14 May 1786 they exchanged Bibles and plighted their troth over the Water of Fail in a traditional form of marriage. Soon afterwards Mary Campbell left her work in Ayrshire, went to the seaport of Greenock, and sailed home to her parents in Campbeltown. In October 1786, Mary and her father sailed from Campbeltown to visit her brother in Greenock. Her brother fell ill with typhus, which she also caught while nursing him. She died of typhus on 20 or 21 October 1786 and was buried there.

 

As Burns lacked the funds to pay for his passage to Jamaica, Gavin Hamilton suggested that he should "publish his poems in the mean time by subscription, as a likely way of getting a little money to provide him more liberally in necessaries for Jamaica." On 3 April Burns sent proposals for publishing his Scotch Poems to John Wilson, a printer in Kilmarnock, who published these proposals on 14 April 1786, on the same day that Jean Armour's father tore up the paper in which Burns attested his marriage to Jean. To obtain a certificate that he was a free bachelor, Burns agreed on 25 June to stand for rebuke in the Mauchline kirk for three Sundays. He transferred his share in Mossgiel farm to his brother Gilbert on 22 July, and on 30 July wrote to tell his friend John Richmond that, "Armour has got a warrant to throw me in jail until I can find a warrant for an enormous sum ... I am wandering from one friend's house to another."

 

On 31 July 1786 John Wilson published the volume of works by Robert Burns, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect. Known as the Kilmarnock volume, it sold for 3 shillings and contained much of his best writing, including "The Twa Dogs" (which features Luath, his Border Collie), "Address to the Deil", "Halloween", "The Cotter's Saturday Night", "To a Mouse", "Epitaph for James Smith", and "To a Mountain Daisy", many of which had been written at Mossgiel farm. The success of the work was immediate, and soon he was known across the country.

 

Burns postponed his planned emigration to Jamaica on 1 September, and was at Mossgiel two days later when he learnt that Jean Armour had given birth to twins. On 4 September Thomas Blacklock wrote a letter expressing admiration for the poetry in the Kilmarnock volume, and suggesting an enlarged second edition. A copy of it was passed to Burns, who later recalled, "I had taken the last farewell of my few friends, my chest was on the road to Greenock; I had composed the last song I should ever measure in Scotland – 'The Gloomy night is gathering fast' – when a letter from Dr Blacklock to a friend of mine overthrew all my schemes, by opening new prospects to my poetic ambition. The Doctor belonged to a set of critics for whose applause I had not dared to hope. His opinion that I would meet with encouragement in Edinburgh for a second edition, fired me so much, that away I posted for that city, without a single acquaintance, or a single letter of introduction."

 

On 27 November 1786 Burns borrowed a pony and set out for Edinburgh. On 14 December William Creech issued subscription bills for the first Edinburgh edition of Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish dialect, which was published on 17 April 1787. Within a week of this event, Burns had sold his copyright to Creech for 100 guineas. For the edition, Creech commissioned Alexander Nasmyth to paint the oval bust-length portrait now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, which was engraved to provide a frontispiece for the book. Nasmyth had come to know Burns and his fresh and appealing image has become the basis for almost all subsequent representations of the poet. In Edinburgh, he was received as an equal by the city's men of letters—including Dugald Stewart, Robertson, Blair and others—and was a guest at aristocratic gatherings, where he bore himself with unaffected dignity. Here he encountered, and made a lasting impression on, the 16-year-old Walter Scott, who described him later with great admiration:

 

[His person was strong and robust;] his manners rustic, not clownish, a sort of dignified plainness and simplicity which received part of its effect perhaps from knowledge of his extraordinary talents. His features are presented in Mr Nasmyth's picture but to me it conveys the idea that they are diminished, as if seen in perspective. I think his countenance was more massive than it looks in any of the portraits ... there was a strong expression of shrewdness in all his lineaments; the eye alone, I think, indicated the poetical character and temperament. It was large, and of a dark cast, and literally glowed when he spoke with feeling or interest. [I never saw such another eye in a human head, though I have seen the most distinguished men of my time.]

 

The new edition of his poems brought Burns £400. His stay in the city also resulted in some lifelong friendships, among which were those with Lord Glencairn, and Frances Anna Dunlop (1730–1815), who became his occasional sponsor and with whom he corresponded for many years until a rift developed. He embarked on a relationship with the separated Agnes "Nancy" McLehose (1758–1841), with whom he exchanged passionate letters under pseudonyms (Burns called himself "Sylvander" and Nancy "Clarinda"). When it became clear that Nancy would not be easily seduced into a physical relationship, Burns moved on to Jenny Clow (1766–1792), Nancy's domestic servant, who bore him a son, Robert Burns Clow, in 1788. He also had an affair with a servant girl, Margaret "May" Cameron. His relationship with Nancy concluded in 1791 with a final meeting in Edinburgh before she sailed to Jamaica for what turned out to be a short-lived reconciliation with her estranged husband. Before she left, he sent her the manuscript of "Ae Fond Kiss" as a farewell.

 

In Edinburgh, in early 1787, he met James Johnson, a struggling music engraver and music seller with a love of old Scots songs and a determination to preserve them. Burns shared this interest and became an enthusiastic contributor to The Scots Musical Museum. The first volume was published in 1787 and included three songs by Burns. He contributed 40 songs to volume two, and he ended up responsible for about a third of the 600 songs in the whole collection, as well as making a considerable editorial contribution. The final volume was published in 1803.

 

On his return from Edinburgh in February 1788, he resumed his relationship with Jean Armour and they married in March 1788. He took out a lease on Ellisland Farm, Dumfriesshire, settling there in June. He also took up a training position as an exciseman or gauger, which involved long rides and detailed bookkeeping. He was appointed to duties in Customs and Excise in 1789. Burns chose the land of Ellisland a few miles north of the town of Dumfries, from Patrick Miller's estate at Dalswinton, where he had a new farmhouse and byre built. He and Jean moved in the following summer 1789 to the new farm house at Ellisland. In November 1790, he had written his masterpiece, the narrative poem "Tam O' Shanter". The Ellisland farm beside the river Nith, now holds a unique collection of Burns's books, artefacts, and manuscripts and is mostly preserved as when Burns and his young family lived there. Burns gave up the farm in 1791 to move to Dumfries. About this time he was offered and declined an appointment in London on the staff of The Star newspaper, and refused to become a candidate for a newly created Chair of Agriculture in the University of Edinburgh, although influential friends offered to support his claims. He did however accept membership of the Royal Company of Archers in 1792.

 

After giving up his farm, he removed to Dumfries. It was at this time that, being requested to write lyrics for The Melodies of Scotland, he responded by contributing over 100 songs. He made major contributions to George Thomson's A Select Collection of Original Scottish Airs for the Voice as well as to James Johnson's Scots Musical Museum.[citation needed] Arguably his claim to immortality chiefly rests on these volumes, which placed him in the front rank of lyric poets. As a songwriter he provided his own lyrics, sometimes adapted from traditional words. He put words to Scottish folk melodies and airs which he collected, and composed his own arrangements of the music including modifying tunes or recreating melodies on the basis of fragments. In letters he explained that he preferred simplicity, relating songs to spoken language which should be sung in traditional ways. The original instruments would be fiddle and the guitar of the period which was akin to a cittern, but the transcription of songs for piano has resulted in them usually being performed in classical concert or music hall styles. At the 3 week Celtic Connections festival Glasgow each January, Burns songs are often performed with both fiddle and guitar.

 

Thomson as a publisher commissioned arrangements of "Scottish, Welsh and Irish Airs" by such eminent composers of the day as Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven, with new lyrics. The contributors of lyrics included Burns. While such arrangements had wide popular appeal. Beethoven's music was more advanced and difficult to play than Thomson intended.

 

Burns described how he had to master singing the tune before he composed the words:

 

My way is: I consider the poetic sentiment, correspondent to my idea of the musical expression, then chuse my theme, begin one stanza, when that is composed—which is generally the most difficult part of the business—I walk out, sit down now and then, look out for objects in nature around me that are in unison or harmony with the cogitations of my fancy and workings of my bosom, humming every now and then the air with the verses I have framed. when I feel my Muse beginning to jade, I retire to the solitary fireside of my study, and there commit my effusions to paper, swinging, at intervals, on the hind-legs of my elbow chair, by way of calling forth my own critical strictures, as my, pen goes.

 

Burns also worked to collect and preserve Scottish folk songs, sometimes revising, expanding, and adapting them. One of the better known of these collections is The Merry Muses of Caledonia (the title is not Burns's), a collection of bawdy lyrics that were popular in the music halls of Scotland as late as the 20th century. At Dumfries, he wrote his world famous song "A Man's a Man for A' That", which was based on the writings in The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine, one of the chief political theoreticians of the American Revolution. Burns sent the poem anonymously in 1795 to the Glasgow Magazine. He was also a radical for reform and wrote poems for democracy, such as – "Parcel of Rogues to the Nation" and the "Rights of Women".

 

Many of Burns's most famous poems are songs with the music based upon older traditional songs. For example, "Auld Lang Syne" is set to the traditional tune "Can Ye Labour Lea", "A Red, Red Rose" is set to the tune of "Major Graham" and "The Battle of Sherramuir" is set to the "Cameronian Rant".

 

Burns alienated some acquaintances by freely expressing sympathy with the French, and American Revolutions, for the advocates of democratic reform and votes for all men and the Society of the Friends of the People which advocated Parliamentary Reform. His political views came to the notice of his employers, to which he pleaded his innocence. Burns met other radicals at the Globe Inn Dumfries. As an Exciseman he felt compelled to join the Royal Dumfries Volunteers in March 1795.

 

Latterly Burns lived in Dumfries in a two-storey red sandstone house on Mill Hole Brae, now Burns Street. The home is now a museum. He went on long journeys on horseback, often in harsh weather conditions as an Excise Supervisor, and was kept very busy doing reports. The father of four young children, he was also frequently occupied as a song collector and songwriter.

 

As his health began to give way, he aged prematurely and fell into fits of despondency. Rumours of intemperance (alleged mainly by temperance activist James Currie) may have been overstated. Hard manual farm labour earlier in his life may have damaged Burns's health. Burns possibly had a long-standing rheumatic heart condition, perhaps beginning when he was 21, and a bacterial infection, possibly arising from a tooth abscess, may have exacerbated this.

 

On the morning of 21 July 1796, Burns died in Dumfries, at the age of 37.

 

The funeral took place on Monday 25 July 1796, the day that his son Maxwell was born. He was at first buried in the far corner of St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries; a simple "slab of freestone" was erected as his gravestone by Jean Armour, which some felt insulting to his memory. His body was eventually moved to its final location in the same cemetery, the Burns Mausoleum, in September 1817. The body of his widow Jean Armour was buried with his in 1834.

 

Armour had taken steps to secure his personal property, partly by liquidating two promissory notes amounting to fifteen pounds sterling (about 1,100 pounds at 2009 prices). The family went to the Court of Session in 1798 with a plan to support his surviving children by publishing a four-volume edition of his complete works and a biography written by James Currie. Subscriptions were raised to meet the initial cost of publication, which was in the hands of Thomas Cadell and William Davies in London and William Creech, bookseller in Edinburgh. Hogg records that fund-raising for Burns's family was embarrassingly slow, and it took several years to accumulate significant funds through the efforts of John Syme and Alexander Cunningham.

 

Burns was posthumously given the freedom of the town of Dumfries. Hogg records that Burns was given the freedom of the Burgh of Dumfries on 4 June 1787, 9 years before his death, and was also made an Honorary Burgess of Dumfries.

 

Through his five surviving children (of 12 born), Burns has over 900 living descendants as of 2019.

 

Armour died on 26 March 1834 and was interred into the Burns Mausoleum on 31 March 1834. The opening of the mausoleum provided an opportunity to exhume Burns body by a local group who believed in phrenology, a pseudo-science whose practitioners believed an individuals personality could be predicted by measuring the skulls.

 

The group was led by Archibald Blacklock, a surgeon, and John McDiarmid, Dumfries Courier editor and phrenologist. Other members of the group included Adam Rankine, James Kerr, James Bogie, Andrew Crombie and their assistants.

 

The night before Armour's funeral, the group was supposedly granted permission to exhume Burns's body by Armour's brother, Robert Armour.

 

The group attempted to entered the mausoleum at 7pm. There were many people present in the graveyard and they decided to try again later that evening.

 

The skull was removed and taken to James Fraser, a local plasterer of Queensbury Street, Dumfries. The skull was later returned to the tomb.

 

A plaster cast was sent to George Combe, a Scottish lawyer and practitioner of phrenology based in Edinburgh. Combe published a report about his findings, entitled ‘Phrenological development of Robert Burns. From a cast on his skull moulded at Dumfries, the 31st day of March, 1834’.

 

It is unknown how many casts were made by Fraser, with some sources reporting three were made. Six casts are known though some may be copies of the original cast.

 

Anatomical Museum, University of Edinburgh

The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Writer’s Museum, a museum in Edinburgh

Dumfries Museum

East Ayrshire Museums

National Trust for Scotland’s Robert Burns Birthplace Museum

 

Burns's style is marked by spontaneity, directness, and sincerity, and ranges from the tender intensity of some of his lyrics through the humour of "Tam o' Shanter" and the satire of "Holy Willie's Prayer" and "The Holy Fair".

 

Burns's poetry drew upon a substantial familiarity with and knowledge of Classical, Biblical, and English literature, as well as the Scottish Makar tradition. Burns was skilled in writing not only in the Scots language but also in the Scottish English dialect of the English language. Some of his works, such as "Love and Liberty" (also known as "The Jolly Beggars"), are written in both Scots and English for various effects.

 

His themes included republicanism (he lived during the French Revolutionary period) and Radicalism, which he expressed covertly in "Scots Wha Hae", Scottish patriotism, anticlericalism, class inequalities, gender roles, commentary on the Scottish Kirk of his time, Scottish cultural identity, poverty, sexuality, and the beneficial aspects of popular socialising (carousing, Scotch whisky, folk songs, and so forth).

 

The strong emotional highs and lows associated with many of Burns's poems have led some, such as Burns biographer Robert Crawford, to suggest that he suffered from manic depression—a hypothesis that has been supported by analysis of various samples of his handwriting. Burns himself referred to suffering from episodes of what he called "blue devilism". The National Trust for Scotland has downplayed the suggestion on the grounds that evidence is insufficient to support the claim.

 

Burns is generally classified as a proto-Romantic poet, and he influenced William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Percy Bysshe Shelley greatly. His direct literary influences in the use of Scots in poetry were Allan Ramsay and Robert Fergusson. The Edinburgh literati worked to sentimentalise Burns during his life and after his death, dismissing his education by calling him a "heaven-taught ploughman". Burns influenced later Scottish writers, especially Hugh MacDiarmid, who fought to dismantle what he felt had become a sentimental cult that dominated Scottish literature.

 

Burns had a significant influence on Alexander McLachlan and some influence on Robert Service. While this may not be so obvious in Service's English verse, which is Kiplingesque, it is more readily apparent in his Scots verse.

 

Scottish Canadians have embraced Robert Burns as a kind of patron poet and mark his birthday with festivities. 'Robbie Burns Day' is celebrated from Newfoundland and Labrador to Nanaimo. Every year, Canadian newspapers publish biographies of the poet, listings of local events and buffet menus. Universities mark the date in a range of ways: McMaster University library organized a special collection and Simon Fraser University's Centre for Scottish Studies organized a marathon reading of Burns's poetry. Senator Heath Macquarrie quipped of Canada's first Prime Minister that "While the lovable [Robbie] Burns went in for wine, women and song, his fellow Scot, John A. did not chase women and was not musical!" 'Gung Haggis Fat Choy' is a hybrid of Chinese New Year and Robbie Burns Day, celebrated in Vancouver since the late 1990s.

 

In January 1864, President Abraham Lincoln was invited to attend a Robert Burns celebration by Robert Crawford; and if unable to attend, send a toast. Lincoln composed a toast.

 

An example of Burns's literary influence in the US is seen in the choice by novelist John Steinbeck of the title of his 1937 novel, Of Mice and Men, taken from a line in the second-to-last stanza of "To a Mouse": "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." Burns's influence on American vernacular poets such as James Whitcomb Riley and Frank Lebby Stanton has been acknowledged by their biographers. When asked for the source of his greatest creative inspiration, singer-songwriter Bob Dylan selected Burns's 1794 song "A Red, Red Rose" as the lyric that had the biggest effect on his life.

 

The author J. D. Salinger used protagonist Holden Caulfield's misinterpretation of Burns's poem "Comin' Through the Rye" as his title and a main interpretation of Caulfield's grasping to his childhood in his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. The poem, actually about a rendezvous, is thought by Caulfield to be about saving people from falling out of childhood.

 

Burns became the "people's poet" of Russia. In Imperial Russia Burns was translated into Russian and became a source of inspiration for the ordinary, oppressed Russian people. In Soviet Russia, he was elevated as the archetypal poet of the people. As a great admirer of the egalitarian ethos behind the American and French Revolutions who expressed his own egalitarianism in poems such as his "Birthday Ode for George Washington" or his "Is There for Honest Poverty" (commonly known as "A Man's a Man for a' that"), Burns was well placed for endorsement by the Communist regime as a "progressive" artist. A new translation of Burns begun in 1924 by Samuil Marshak proved enormously popular, selling over 600,000 copies. The USSR honoured Burns with a commemorative stamp in 1956. He remains popular in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.

 

Burns clubs have been founded worldwide. The first one, known as The Mother Club, was founded in Greenock in 1801 by merchants born in Ayrshire, some of whom had known Burns.[75] The club set its original objectives as "To cherish the name of Robert Burns; to foster a love of his writings, and generally to encourage an interest in the Scottish language and literature." The club also continues to have local charitable work as a priority.

 

Burns's birthplace in Alloway is now a National Trust for Scotland property called the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum. It includes: the humble Burns Cottage where he was born and spent the first years of his life, a modern museum building which houses more than 5,000 Burns artefacts including his handwritten manuscripts, the historic Alloway Auld Kirk and Brig o Doon which feature in Burns's masterpiece 'Tam o Shanter', and the Burns Monument which was erected in Burns's honour and finished in 1823. His house in Dumfries is operated as the Robert Burns House, and the Robert Burns Centre in Dumfries features more exhibits about his life and works. Ellisland Farm in Auldgirth, which he owned from 1788 to 1791, is maintained as a working farm with a museum and interpretation centre by the Friends of Ellisland Farm.

 

Significant 19th-century monuments to him stand in Alloway, Leith, and Dumfries. An early 20th-century replica of his birthplace cottage belonging to the Burns Club Atlanta stands in Atlanta, Georgia. These are part of a large list of Burns memorials and statues around the world.

 

Organisations include the Robert Burns Fellowship of the University of Otago in New Zealand, and the Burns Club Atlanta in the United States. Towns named after Burns include Burns, New York, and Burns, Oregon.

 

In the suburb of Summerhill, Dumfries, the majority of the streets have names with Burns connotations. A British Rail Standard Class 7 steam locomotive was named after him, along with a later Class 87 electric locomotive, No. 87035. On 24 September 1996, Class 156 diesel unit 156433 was named The Kilmarnock Edition at Girvan station to launch the new Burns Line services between Girvan, Ayr and Kilmarnock, supported by Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

 

Several streets surrounding the Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.'s Back Bay Fens in Boston, Massachusetts, were designated with Burns connotations. A life-size statue was dedicated in Burns's honour within the Back Bay Fens of the West Fenway neighbourhood in 1912. It stood until 1972 when it was relocated downtown, sparking protests from the neighbourhood, literary fans, and preservationists of Olmsted's vision for the Back Bay Fens.

 

There is a statue of Burns in The Octagon, Dunedin, in the same pose as the one in Dundee. Dunedin's first European settlers were Scots; Thomas Burns, a nephew of Burns, was one of Dunedin's founding fathers.

 

A crater on Mercury is named after Burns.

 

In November 2012, Burns was awarded the title Honorary Chartered Surveyor by The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, the only posthumous membership so far granted by the institution.

 

The oldest statue of Burns is in the town of Camperdown, Victoria.[80] It now hosts an annual Robert Burns Scottish Festival in celebration of the statue and its history.

 

In 2020, the Robert Burns Academy in Cumnock, East Ayrshire opened and is named after Burns as an honour of Burns having spent time living in nearby Mauchline.

 

The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to honour Burns with a commemorative stamp, marking the 160th anniversary of his death in 1956.

 

The UK postal service, the Royal Mail, has issued postage stamps commemorating Burns three times. In 1966, two stamps were issued, priced fourpence and one shilling and threepence, both carrying Burns's portrait. In 1996, an issue commemorating the bicentenary of his death comprised four stamps, priced 19p, 25p, 41p and 60p and including quotes from Burns's poems. On 22 January 2009, two 1st class stamps were issued by the Royal Mail to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Burns's birth.

 

Burns was pictured on the Clydesdale Bank £5 note from 1971 to 2009. On the reverse of the note was a vignette of a field mouse and a wild rose in reference to Burns's poem "To a Mouse". The Clydesdale Bank's notes were redesigned in 2009 and, since then, he has been pictured on the front of their £10 note. In September 2007, the Bank of Scotland redesigned their banknotes to feature famous Scottish bridges. The reverse side of new £5 features Brig o' Doon, famous from Burns's poem "Tam o' Shanter", and pictures the statue of Burns at that site.

 

In 1996, the Isle of Man issued a four-coin set of Crown (5/-) pieces on the themes of "Auld Lang Syne", Edinburgh Castle, Revenue Cutter, and Writing Poems. Tristan da Cunha produced a gold £5 Bicentenary Coin.

 

In 2009 the Royal Mint issued a commemorative two pound coin featuring a quote from "Auld Lang Syne".

 

In 1976, singer Jean Redpath, in collaboration with composer Serge Hovey, started to record all of Burns's songs, with a mixture of traditional and Burns's own compositions. The project ended when Hovey died, after seven of the planned twenty-two volumes were completed. Redpath also recorded four cassettes of Burns's songs (re-issued as 3 CDs) for the Scots Musical Museum.

 

In 1996, a musical about Burns's life called Red Red Rose won third place at a competition for new musicals in Denmark. Robert Burns was played by John Barrowman. On 25 January 2008, a musical play about the love affair between Robert Burns and Nancy McLehose entitled Clarinda premiered in Edinburgh before touring Scotland. The plan was that Clarinda would make its American premiere in Atlantic Beach, FL, at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre on 25 January 2013. Eddi Reader has released two albums, Sings the Songs of Robert Burns and The Songs of Robert Burns Deluxe Edition, about the work of the poet.

 

Alfred B. Street wrote the words and Henry Tucker wrote the music for a song called Our Own Robbie Burns in 1856.

 

Burns Night, in effect a second national day, is celebrated on Burns's birthday, 25 January, with Burns suppers around the world, and is more widely observed in Scotland than the official national day, St. Andrew's Day. The first Burns supper in The Mother Club in Greenock was held on what was thought to be his birthday on 29 January 1802; in 1803 it was discovered from the Ayr parish records that the correct date was 25 January 1759.

 

The format of Burns suppers has changed little since. The basic format starts with a general welcome and announcements, followed with the Selkirk Grace. After the grace comes the piping and cutting of the haggis, when Burns's famous "Address to a Haggis" is read and the haggis is cut open. The event usually allows for people to start eating just after the haggis is presented. At the end of the meal, a series of toasts, often including a 'Toast to the Lassies', and replies are made. This is when the toast to "the immortal memory", an overview of Burns's life and work, is given. The event usually concludes with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne".

Greatest Scot

 

In 2009, STV ran a television series and public vote on who was "The Greatest Scot" of all time. Robert Burns won, narrowly beating William Wallace. A bust of Burns is in the Hall of Heroes of the National Wallace Monument in Stirling.

 

A crater on the planet Mercury has been named after Burns.

 

The Brow Well.

Constructed in its present form in the 20th century, the Grade C Listed well (NGR NY 308505, 567509) is a roughly L-shaped tank with ashlar red sandstone walls entered via stone steps. The iron-rich water was originally taken from a pipe using an iron cup attached to a chain. A drain takes the water to the nearby Raffles or Brow Burn.

 

This is a Chalybeate or ferruginous well that has become firmly established with a built environment surrounding it. The waters are rich in iron and other salts and were believed to have many properties beneficial to health. The map produced circa 1747 by William Roy appears to show three wells on the western side of the burn above the road and records 'Mineral Wells' plural at the site. John Ainslie's map of 1821 also shows the well located above the road and on the western side of the burn as does William Crawford's map of 1804.

 

An engraving of 1846 shows the thatched cottages of the hamlet and a rectangular well on the eastern side of the Raffles or Brow Burn. The 1856 OS map shows the well in its present and a small building nearby with a path leading to it. In 1898 the well is shown as rectangular and the small building nearby is not marked. The well is shown as draining into the burn.

 

The site of two other mineral springs are visible on the other side of the Raffles or Brow Burn at the Brow Well site however they have no built structures associated with them.

 

Association with Robert Burns

 

Probably suffering from subacute bacterial endocarditis (SBE), Robert Burns described his condition as 'Flying Gout' and his medical friends Dr William Maxwell and Dr Alexander Brown suggested that he should go to the Brow Well and try sea bathing, riding and the country air. It was suggested however by James Currie that the sea bathing treatment may have been Burns’ own idea, saying "About the latter end of June he was advised to go into the country, and impatient of medical advice, as well as of every species of control, he determined for himself to try the effects of bathing in the sea. For this purpose he took up his residence at Brow".

 

Arriving circa 3 July, he stayed for three weeks at the inn, lodging in the 'chamber end' of the inn. The inn did not serve port wine and as this had been prescribed as part of his treatment Burns was advised by Davidson to get some from his son-in-law who ran an inn at nearby Clarencefield. Locals used to point out the aged 'thorn' near the well under which he used to sit.

 

Whilst at Brow he wrote several letters, including one on 12 July to George Thomson requesting £5 and one to James Burness in Montrose for £10. He also wrote on 7 July to Alexander Cunningham regarding his much reduced salary and to Frances Dunlop expressing his sorrow at her lack of forgiveness and saying farewell. He also wrote on 10 July two, his first and his last letters ever written by him to his father-in-law, seeking help for his wife in the final stages of her pregnancy from her mother Mrs Mary Armour. A letter to his wife was unsurprisingly positive given Jean's Armours advanced state of pregnancy. To his brother Gilbert he wrote hinting at money troubles and despairing of his health. Burns also stated that he intended to continue taking the treatment for the whole summer whilst "staying at a friend's house", presumably an offer made by Maria Riddell.

 

During this stay, on 5 July, Maria Riddell sent her carriage to collect him so that he could dine with her at Lochmaben. She recorded that he had the "stamp of death" on his face and was "touching the brink of eternity" and his greeting to her was "Well madam, have you any commands for the other world". Burns also visited Ruthwell Manse and had tea with the widow of the minister, Mrs. Craig. The lady's daughter, Agnes, later the wife of the famous Rev Henry Ducan, made to close a curtain to give some shade to Burns and his recorded response was "thank you, my dear, for your kind attention; but oh, let him shine! he will not shine long for me!".

 

Although he had a horse with him he was reluctant to face the rain and wrote to his friend John Clark at nearby Locharwoods Farm requesting the use of his spring-cart, a new innovation with a comfortable ride. Burns at first seemed invigorated, however by 18 July it was time for him to return to Dumfries as the sea bathing depended on the state of the tides and the spring tides had passed. He died at Dumfries on 21 July.

 

A twelve-year-old apprentice stonemason, Allan Cunningham, observed his return to his house and wrote that "The poet returned on the 18th July 1796 in a small spring-cart. The ascent to his house was steep, and the cart stopped at the foot of the Mill-hole Brae; when he alighted he shook much, and stood with difficulty; he seemed unable to stand upright. He stooped as if in pain, and walked tottering towards his door: his looks were hollow and ghastly, and those who saw him then expected never to see him again".

 

Every year the Southern Scottish Counties Burns Association organises a service at the Brow Well to commemorate the death of Robert Burns who died four days after his visit to the Brow Well on 21 July 1796.

 

Archaeology

In 1969 a green-glazed globular jug dating from the 15th-16th century was discovered in a ditch that was being dug near the Brow Well. A number of years back a well made barbed and tanged flint arrow-head was discovered near the Brow Well and was later mounted as a brooch.

 

Brow is a hamlet on the B725 lying around 3 km from Ruthwell in the Parish of that name on the Solway Firth between Dumfries and Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The Raffles Burn runs through the site, marked on maps as the Brow Burn it flows into the Solway Firth at Lochar Bay.

 

The name may refer to the situation of the site that 'faces or confronts' the Lochar Water and the Solway Firth. The hamlet in 1747 consisted of four or more buildings on a minor road between Ruthwell and Caerlaverock. A ford in the 1800s ran across the sands and the Lochar Water from near Brow to Blackshaw Point. The Raffles or Brow Burn runs through the site after passing near to Clarencefield where it once powered a saw mill and then through the Brow Plantation to run through the sand banks at Lochar Bay where at low tide it joins the Lochar Water.

 

Used as a staging post by drovers taking their cattle to England for sale, the hamlet had at Burns' time around a dozen houses. One of which was small inn that although run by the Davidsons, husband and wife, was owned by James Morpeth and survived until 1863 when it was demolished. Brow had a minor reputation as a poor mans spa with its Chalybeate well and sea bathing in the Solway Firth a hundred metres or so away down a narrow lane. The farm of Stanhope is located on the other side of the burn with a ford existing in the 19th century.

 

Herman Molls map circa 1745 does not mark 'Brow' in this position, but locates a 'Brow' on the other side of the Lochar Water on Blackshaw Point as does Blaeu's map, based on Timothy Ponts map of circa 1600.

 

John Thomson's map of 1832 indicates a group of three buildings and a mineral well. In 1856 a group of buildings existed with a small building close to the well and a path leading down to a ford across the Brow Burn that led to Stanhope Farm.

 

The hamlet had a small cottage that acted as an inn of sorts, mainly used by drovers and those visiting the well seeking a cure. The inn, situated between two other cottages, lay on the eastern side of the Raffles or Brow Burn and was demolished in 1863 when the road was widened. Robert Burns stayed at this hostelry whilst taking the waters from Brow Well and immersing himself up to the armpits in the waters of the Solway Firth.

 

A local legend records that the Roman Legions of the Emperor Agricola landed at Brow. It is also said that the first Scottish pigs were introduced and raised at Brow, their appearance causing great concern amongst those who saw them.

 

On a knoll close to the cottage in which Robert Burns lodged David Lord Stormont of Comlongon Castle bade farewell to his younger son William Murray, informing him that he should not return until he achieved the position of Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In due course William did indeed reach this position in the justiciary.

 

The Brow Merse is a part of the Caerlaverock National Nature Reserve.

Please don't use this image on websites, blogs or other media without my explicit permission. © All rights reserved

 

Jaguar Car

 

Jaguar Cars (/ˈdʒæɡjuː.ər/ jag-ew-ər), since December 2012 officially incorporated as Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, is a British multinational car manufacturer headquartered in Whitley, Coventry, England, owned by Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC, a subsidiary of Indian automaker, the Tata Motors company.[4]

Jaguar was founded as the Swallow Sidecar Company by Sir William Lyons in 1922, originally making motorcycle sidecars before developing passenger cars. The name was changed to Jaguar after World War II to avoid the unfavourable connotations of the SS initials.[5] Sale to The British Motor Corporation followed in 1966, the resulting enlarged company now being renamed as British Motor Holdings (BMH), which in 1968 merged with Leyland Motor Corporation and became British Leyland, itself to be nationalised in 1975.

Following further restructuring Jaguar regained its independence and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1984, becoming a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index until it was acquired by Ford in 1990.[6] Jaguar has, in recent years, manufactured cars for the British Prime Minister, the most recent delivery being an XJ in May 2010.[7] The company also holds royal warrants from Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles.[8]

Jaguar cars today are designed in Jaguar Land Rover's engineering centres at the Whitley plant in Coventry and at their Gaydon site in Warwickshire, and are manufactured in Jaguar's Castle Bromwich assembly plant near Birmingham.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_Cars

Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea

 

Yup, there was a v1 indeed, just both versions having their own differences, a longer session to allow myself fully utilize, both mental and physical fitness upgrades before diving into the war zone once more.

 

I didn't have the state of the gobsmacking moment like the previous round, instead I undergo a different approach by not divulging what falling on me. Rather, I choose to remain reticence, only making known a few very close to me be aware of what was happening when I first got it and decided on my next plan of action.

 

I felt peaceful meantime having a sense of relief when first knowing it, there is none in relation to perplexed, chagrin, heartwrenching, angst, obnoxious, implode, or intertwine. Comprehending the impending crisis, just either now or later, is only a matter of time. Not to mention with v1 experience, in my utter state of calm when the day decided to lead me in another connotation in life.

 

Making full use of this period to do things I wanted to do long ago, especially noises coming from work, will procrastinate the goal I wanted to achieve. If any software or operating system needed an upgrade, so does our mindset too. To put into perspective, besides physical fitness (hardware) has to level up, mental (software/OS) upgrade is inevitable, both working hand in hand together to optimize their best self-performance. The enlightenment through the wisdom we accumulated, when the right time has arrived will elevate our existing into a whole new one.

 

Found and redefined certain things in life, specially fine-tuning my principles, way of working, communicating, collaborating, including quality of friendships and life purpose after passing 44. Aligning versions of experience, placing the emphasis on the value I am often skeptical in.

 

Prioritize and adjust my past behavior, been emblematizing mister nice guy for years and will be continuing this practice. I will live the life differently from now on, anyone trying to stand in my way I'd fight against until my very last breath. Gonna accomplish things in my own ways if there is no compelling persuasion or justification, I noticed as I being easygoing continually ended up abusing my length of tolerance, which leaves me no choice but to be very aggressive and take extreme measures if anyone awakens my deepest darkest self. (Personally I don’t wish to be there again)

 

Still the same round of putting this to closure, the catchphrase I always listed in every place I could, "A man of tomorrow is forged by his battle today" as a reminder to thyself. Grateful for being blissful and fruitful meantime, rejuvenate in the next level till the next version, if this day has to come, I will embrace it fully with my heart again and strive for the next purpose of life.

 

P/S: Managed to take advantage during this period, my solo exploratory routes' goal, striving towards increasing my own FTP (Functional Threshold Power), the result was stunning, scoring at 41W over the past 1 year (Apr 2021 to Mar 2022) as of to date, it is indeed primordial initiative and euphoria moment of my own report card.

 

#nikon #nikonphotography #d3s #throwback #nikoncontest #traveltheworld #seoulkorea #ewhawomansuniversity #imagineyourkorea #instaseoul #seoul #seoul_korea #seoulcity #seoulstyle #seoultower #singapore #street #team #travelphoto #travelpics #traveltheworld #visitseoul #nikkor50mmf14

Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

And typically, within our household mother always fills every empty corner in our house with New Year type of flowers. Preferably red. These look like cherry blossom, but they aren't. Mother didn't want cherry blossom because of the connotations of falling in love.

So she went for red berries instead. Which are really funky.

Day 7/365 waaaaaaay better if you hit 'L' .... followed by 'F' ;)

 

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. To be honest, I'm very disappointed in myself. I really didn't want to let this happen, especially not so soon into the challenge, but I have reluctantly not been able to acquire a photo today. Maybe it's a sign that I need to get up earlier and use that morning light when I work evenings- cause by the time I get home it's pitch black and I usually just enter hermit mode. I still enjoy this photo though, even if it is a bit too cheery for my taste.

. I think that I have somewhat of an odd perspective on happiness, not to say that I don't think that I'm happy, but I find relief in observing sadness or things that imply somewhat depressing connotations. I find that while watching/listening/observing those things I am drawn into the emotion of the character suffering and try (subconsciously) to truly identify with their situation somehow and feel what they're feeling. This is why I really only like my photographs that are dramatic or somewhat cinematic (although granted, I think I misuse this term often). I guess my regular goal as a photographer is to upset the viewer. I don't know how that's going to translate into my attempts at profesional work- perhaps money will motivate me lol- but maybe clients will come to love the style or emotion that is provoked. Who knows, I'm rambling and getting pretty off of the photo but hey, why not right? I took this the first day I bought my new camera and that kind of makes me happy. A little nostalgia early on in my relationship with the D600.

Hakodate City Museum of Northern Peoples, Hokkaido, Japan

 

Cultural affiliation: Uilta

Materia: cotton

Source: Magata collection of the Hakodate City Museum

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Oroks (Ороки in Russian; self-designation: Ulta, Ulcha), sometimes called Uilta, are a people in the Sakhalin Oblast (mainly the eastern part of the island) in Russia. The Orok language belongs to the Southern group of the Tungusic language family. According to the 2002 Russian census, there were 346 Oroks living in Northern Sakhalin by the Okhotsk Sea and Southern Sakhalin in the district by the city of Poronaysk. According to the 2010 census there were 295 Oroks in Russia.

 

Etymology

The name Orok is believed to derive from the exonym Oro given by a Tungusic group meaning "a domestic reindeer". The Orok self-designation endonym is Ul'ta, probably from the root Ula (meaning "domestic reindeer" in Orok). Another self-designation is Nani.[2] Occasionally, the Oroks, as well as the Orochs and Udege, are erroneously called Orochons. The Uilta Association in Japan claims that the term Orok has a derogatory connotation.[3][4]

 

Population and settlement

The total number of Oroks in Russia, according to the 2002 Russian Census, is 346 people.[5] They live mostly in Sakhalin Oblast. Most of the Oroks are concentrated in three settlements – Poronaysk, Nogliki and the village of Val, Nogliksky District. A total of 144 Oroks live in Val. Other places in which the Orok people live include: the villages of Gastello and Vakhrushev in Poronaysky District;[6] the village of Viakhtu in Alexandrovsk-Sakhalinsky District; the village of Smirnykh, Smirnykhovsky District; Okhinsky District; and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the administrative center of Sakhalin Oblast.[7]

 

Furthermore, Orok people live on the island of Hokkaido, Japan – in 1989, there was a community of about 20 people near the city of Abashiri. Their number is currently unknown.[8][9]

 

History

Orok oral tradition indicates that the Oroks share history with the Ulch people, and that they migrated to Sakhalin from the area of the Amgun River in mainland Russia. Research indicates that this migration probably took place in the 17th century at the latest.[9]

 

The Russian Empire gained complete control over Orok lands after the 1858 Treaty of Aigun and 1860 Convention of Peking.[10] A penal colony was established on Sakhalin between 1857 and 1906, bringing large numbers of Russian criminals and political exiles, including Lev Sternberg, an important early ethnographer on Oroks and the island's other indigenous people, the Nivkhs and Ainu.[11] Before Soviet collectivization in the 1920s, the Orok were divided into five groups, each with their own migratory zone.[9] However, following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1922, the new government of the Soviet Union altered prior imperial policies towards the Oroks to bring them into line with communist ideology.[12] In 1932, the northern Oroks joined the collective farm of Val, which was specialised in reindeer breeding, together with smaller numbers of Nivkhs, Evenks and Russians.[9]

 

Following the Russo-Japanese War, southern Sakhalin came under the control of the Empire of Japan, which administered it as Karafuto Prefecture. The Uilta, or Oroks, were classified as "Karafuto natives" (樺太土人), and were not entered into Japanese-style family registers, in contrast to the Ainu, who had "mainland Japan" family registers.[13][14] Like the Karafuto Koreans and the Nivkh, but unlike the Ainu, the Uilta were thus not included in the evacuation of Japanese nationals after the Soviet invasion in 1945. Some Nivkhs and Uilta who served in the Imperial Japanese Army were held in Soviet work camps; after court cases in the late 1950s and 1960s, they were recognised as Japanese nationals and thus permitted to migrate to Japan. Most settled around Abashiri, Hokkaidō.[15] The Uilta Kyokai of Japan was founded to fight for Uilta rights and the preservation of Uilta traditions in 1975 by Dahinien Gendanu.[16]

 

Language and culture

The Orok language belongs to the Southern group of the Tungusic language family.[17] At present,[when?] 64 people of the Sakhalin Oroks speak the Orok language,[5] and all Oroks also speak Russian. An alphabetic script, based on Cyrillic, was introduced in 2007. A primer has been published, and the language is taught in one school on Sakhalin.[18]

The Oroks share cultural and linguistic links with other Tungusic peoples, but before the arrival of Russians, they differed economically from similar peoples due to their herding of reindeer. Reindeer provided the Oroks, particularly in northern Sakhalin, with food, clothing, and transportation. The Oroks also practiced fishing and hunting. The arrival of Russians has had a major effect on Orok culture, and most Oroks today live sedentary lifestyles. Some northern Oroks still practice semi-nomadic herding alongside vegetable farming and cattle ranching; in the south, the leading occupations are fishing and industrial labor.[9]

 

Rites of passage

The Orok boys, when it came of time, would usually participate in a Sturgeon Hunt, usually hunting for the Beluga or Kaluga Sturgeon variants. This involved a lone Orok going out, with only a small supply of food (usually enough to last him a week) and armed with a special type of spear. Once the sturgeon was killed, the hunter would take one of the predator's teeth and carve a mark in his forehead or arm, which indicated that the hunt was successful. Due to the fish's size, strength and fierceness, failure to successfully kill the Sturgeon usually resulted in the hunter's death.

   

Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

My photograph is a statue on a century-old grave at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

As a photographer, I like to understand what I am looking at. Yes, I get that this little angel* is pointing to the ground and reminding us that this little soul is going to Heaven, where the family looks forward to being together.

 

This icon has been with us for a very long time. The winged childlike god of love, Cupid (a Roman god from the original Greek god Eros), very similar to this figure, was an important iconography of death for the Romans. One scholar explains Cupid/Eros' "intense presence" in Roman funerary monuments.

 

"The funerary connotations of Eros figures often assimilate them with Sleep, Death, and the eternal sadness of Death. Especially when used in the funerary monuments of children, these figures accentuate the parental grief for the loss of their children. On the other hand, the childlike representation of Eros symbolizes the eternal beauty of youth and the parental hope that their deceased children will continue enjoying a happy afterlife."†

 

—-

*Note: The word angel originates from the Greek language with ancient Greek thought

†Source: Aristodemou, Georgia. (2021). Eros Figures in the Iconography of Death. Eikon / Imago. 10. 25-42. 10.5209/eiko.74134

East Jesus is an experimental and habitable art installation located in the Slab City area. There is no religious connotation in the name East Jesus – it is a colloquialism for a place in the middle of nowhere beyond the edge of serviceability. The off-grid facility operates with no municipal utilities.

 

In early 2007, Charlie Russell left his job in the technology industry, packed all his belongings into a shipping container, and sent it to a trash-strewn field, where he began to surround his two cars with sculptures. Russell, often called Container Charlie, renamed this settlement site East Jesus.

So I found myself brainstorming a name for a new startup that reduces social smog and lets you see the updates you want, from the people you really care about and the topics you like, across the major social networks.

 

Naming is always a dangerous exercise in embarassment…. =)

Our outbursts are regulated a bit by domain name availability, ease of spelling, brand connotations and… yeah.

 

I started with FluxMux, which even suggests a nice logo: the three-input mux… Then I started thinking about the major social network firehoses that this would suck on… Suckerberg…

 

FaceMash, which has a fine history, looks available…

 

And then, rolling it all up — Facetwat... (strong reaction ensues)

 

But then I see that it’s already taken, image above… and someone has grand plans for it.

 

So, in the spirit of crowdsourced branding, do you have a suggestion?

London Dada archive album filler - from 2006.

 

Former shooting lodge, Durisdeer, S. Uplands Scotland.

Dictionary definition of Chav

" ..a young person of a type characterized by brash and loutish behaviour (usually with connotations of a low social status). "

Or, in simple English, to you and me; a dickhead.

Commonly seen on the nation's roads driving at speed and noise in souped-up 25yr old hatchback sheds, acutely endangering everyone and everything in their path.

Yo/Me & Galería/Gallery Fotografia de Viajes/Travel photography

Gracias por vuestros comentarios.Thanks for your comments

 

Durante el reinado de Sancho VII "el Fuerte" (finales del s.XII, inicios del s.XIII) se construyó en Olite un primer castillo defensivo, sobre un núcleo de época romana. Posteriormente, este fue mejorándose bajo el reinado de sus sucesores Teobaldo I y Teobaldo II, de la casa de Champagne. Este primer recinto es conocido como Palacio Viejo o Palacio de los Teobaldos, y es donde se ubica el Parador Nacional. En su disposición interna actual no queda ningún vestigio de aquella época. Los reyes de Navarra solían acudir a él de manera esporádica, al igual que a las otras residencias repartidas por el viejo reino. Cada monarca tenía preferencias por determinadas mansiones, pero ninguna podía considerarse como su residencia fija. Este carácter "nómada" comenzó a desaparecer con Carlos II "el Malo" (segunda mitad del s.XIV) cuando, una vez fracasados sus intentos por hacerse con la corona de Francia (1360), decidió centrarse en el gobierno de su reino, siempre en continua alerta ante los constantes ataques de castellanos y aragoneses. Se sabe también que durante esta época, existían dos palacios menores contiguos, uno de los cuales correspondía al Infante Luis, hermano y lugarteniente de Carlos II.

Las obras de ampliación que dieron lugar al recinto que hoy conocemos, se realizaron durante el reinado de Carlos III "el Noble", de la casa de los Evreux. Aunque nacido en Francia, la mayor parte de su juventud la pasó en Olite, lo que explica su predilección por esta villa. Durante sus primeros años de reinado se vio obligado a resolver la compleja herencia política de su padre, pero una vez hecho esto, pudo desarrollar una vida cortesana plena y llena de esplendor, propio de un reinado estable. Los primeros trabajos fueron obras de reparación: tejados, pintura, etc.. El siguiente paso consistió en resolver el problema de la falta de espacio. Así, en 1388 se compraron una serie de casas y solares para hacer una plaza (Plaza de los Teobaldos) que ofreciera delante del palacio un acceso mas amplio y digno. Se trataba todavía del Palacio Viejo. Posteriormente, se decidió la ampliación del palacio con nuevas construcciones. Durante esta época se produjo un hecho que influyó decisivamente en la posterior evolución de las obras. Y es que, al poco de casarse el rey Carlos III con Leonor de Trastámara, esta lo abandonó regresando a su tierra natal, Castilla. Todos los intentos por hacerla regresar fueron en vano. Independientemente de las más que seguras connotaciones políticas de esta actitud, la reina Leonor argumentaba su negativa a regresar con su marido, manifestando que en Navarra disponía de escasos recursos económicos, y que además sentía peligrar su vida. Así pues, sólo cuando el rey Carlos ofreció las garantías suficientes al hermano de esta, el rey Juan I de Castilla, de que las peticiones de Leonor serían atendidas, esta regresó a Navarra. Esto sucedió en marzo de 1395. El empeño del rey en cumplir sus promesas, se tradujo en un repentino impulso a los trabajos de reforma y mejora del palacio. Es su ánimo estaba el de rodear a su esposa de un ambiente cortesano lo mas acogedor posible. En 1399 se adquieren mas solares por la parte de la Iglesia de Santa María, para edificar nuevas habitaciones para la reina, y en 1400, con el fin de proceder a la ampliación de estas, se vuelven a comprar casas y solares de la judería vecina. La edificación de este Palacio Nuevo la afrontó Carlos III sin ningún esquema premeditado de conjunto, y por tanto, el resultado final se corresponde con una yuxtaposición de nuevas unidades, edificios y jardines. La primera fase del palacio comprendió las habitaciones para la reina, denominado Palacio de la Reina o Torre Nueva, la capilla real y algunos locales y pasajes menores hacia la parte norte de la iglesia. En una segunda fase, se emprendieron las construcciones del conocido como Palacio del Rey. En él se integraban una Gran Torre, apoyada sobre el muro de cierre de la villa, y la llamada Galería Dorada. Estas obras estaban terminadas para el año 1406. Una pequeña torrecilla junto a la Gran Torre, dos nuevas galerías y el arreglo de los jardines, fueron las obras que se ejecutaron a continuación. Entre los años 1411 y 1414 se completó la edificación de las torres exteriores del palacio: la Ochavada, la Joyosa Guarda, la del Portal de Fenedo y la de los Cuatro Vientos. El conjunto estaba prácticamente terminado y su fisonomía era casi definitiva. Sólo faltaban algunas estancias menores, que se construyeron de acuerdo a las nuevas exigencias o al ritmo de las oportunas reparaciones. Las últimas renovaciones de importancia se realizaron a finales del s.XV a cargo de Catalina de Foix y Juan III de Albret. Y ya por último, habiendo dejado de ser Navarra un reino independiente, el marqués de Almazán introdujo hacia el año 1584, algunos cambios, como la portada de entrada al Palacio Viejo coronada por un blasón que hace referencia a Felipe II.

 

During the reign of Sancho VII "the Strong" (late twelfth century, the beginning of the XIII century) was built a castle in Olite defensive over a core of Roman times. Later this was improved during the reign of his successors Theobald Theobald I and II, the Champagne house. The first area is known as the Old Palace or Palace of Tybalt, and which houses the Parador Nacional. In its current internal layout is not any trace of the time. The kings of Navarre used to come to him sporadically, as well as other residences scattered throughout the Old Kingdom. Each monarch had preferences for certain houses, but none could be considered his permanent residence. This character "nomadic" began to disappear with Charles II "the Bad" (second half of XIV century) where, after unsuccessful attempts to seize the crown of France (1360), decided to focus on the government of his kingdom, always constantly alert to the constant attacks of Castile and Aragon. We also know that during this time, there were two smaller palaces contiguous, one of which corresponded to the Infante Luis, brother and lieutenant of Charles II.

The expansion work that led to the compound we know today, were made during the reign of Charles III "the Glorious", the house of Evreux. Although born in France, most of his youth was spent in Olite, which explains his preference for this town. During his early reign was forced to resolve the complex political heritage of his father, but once done, could develop a full court life and full of grandeur, typical of a stable kingdom. The first works were works of repair: Roof, paint, etc. .. The next step was to solve the problem of lack of space. Thus, in 1388 bought a number of houses and plots for a square (Plaza de los Teobaldos) front of the palace to offer wider access and dignified. It was still the old palace. Later, it was decided the extension of the palace with new construction. During this time, there was an event that decisively influenced the further evolution of the works. And, soon after King Charles III married Eleanor of Trastámara, this left him returning to his native Castile. All attempts to bring her back were in vain. Regardless of the more than certain political connotations of this attitude, Queen Eleanor argued his refusal to return to her husband, stating that in Navarra economic resources were limited, and that was also life-threatening. Thus, only when King Charles gave the assurance to her brother, King Juan I of Castile, Leonor that requests would be addressed, this returned to Navarre. This happened in March 1395. The king's efforts to fulfill its promise, resulting in a sudden impulse to the work of reform and improvement of the palace. Is your mood was that of his wife surround a court environment as pleasant as possible. In 1399 more lots are purchased by the Church of Santa Maria, to build new rooms for the queen, and in 1400, to proceed with the extension of these, turn to buy homes and neighboring solar Jewry . The building of the New Palace of Carlos III faced no premeditated scheme as a whole, and therefore the final result corresponds to a juxtaposition of new units, buildings and gardens. The first phase saw the rooms of the palace for the queen, called Queen's Palace or New Tower, the royal chapel and some minor local and passages to the north of the church. In a second phase, we undertook the construction of so-called Palace of the King. It integrates a large tower, resting on the enclosing wall of the town, and called Golden Gallery. These works were completed by the year 1406. A small turret next to the Great Tower, two new galleries and the arrangement of the gardens were works to be executed next. Between 1411 and 1414, completed the building of the outer towers of the palace: the Ochavada the Joyosa Guarda, Fenedo the Portal and the Four Winds. The set was almost over and his face was almost final. There were only some smaller rooms, which were built according to new requirements or the rate of appropriate repairs. The last major renovation took place in the late fifteenth century by Catherine de Foix and John III d'Albret. And finally, having ceased to be an independent kingdom Navarre, Marquis of Almazan introduced by the year 1584, some changes such as the front entrance to the Old Palace topped by a coat of arms referred to Philip II.

   

In October 1981, flying tiger ancient human remains from Guizhou Provincial Museum trial excavation, the accumulation of complex, broadly divided into early and late phases. Early formation of yellow or grayish yellow, unearthed panda, Stegodon fossils, stone products are made for the late Paleolithic culture era. Advanced formation is black, black, unearthed animal genetic pulp for extant species, and human mandibular and chipped stone, grinding stone, grinding bone, pottery and other large, geological time for the Holocene, culture in the age of the Neolithic age, that about 4000 years ago to 6000 years.

 

Unearthed stone products made a total of 532 pieces of raw materials, mainly to flint stone, there is, nuclear, stone etc.. The stone to stone, with the forward direction of processing processing, types of hit device, a scraper, tip like device and dolabriform etc.. The scraper accounted for 76%, tip like device is small but fine processing. The axe is a symbol of the transformation of Neolithic culture. 27 pieces of polished stone, delicate process, a stone axe, stone adzes, stone spinning wheels, stone scraper, stone arrow head, small stones (spear) 8. The number of stone adzes, regular shape, with long oblique cutting tool representative. 79 pieces of bone, in addition to the 1 pieces of grinding residual bone scraper, are making bone, bone and bone shovel cone. The three notches in the teeth may be scratching the porcupine symbol. In addition to pottery and ball spinning round round cake 1, the rest are all pieces of artifacts. 1494 tablets. The uneven thickness, thickness of 1.2 cm, thickness of only 0.2 cm, high temperature, hard texture. About 70% of sand pottery, pottery sand shale pottery class accounted for 30%, very little. Sand and sand are mainly sand. Pottery ornamentation is complicated, there are thick rope lines and Fang Gewen cone, tattoo, carved lines and lines and other additional cone. There are 3 pieces of pottery pottery, which has 1 pieces of orange powder is subjected to pottery coating inside and outside the grey clay, on the exterior is painted with two parallel red bands. This is the first time in Guizhou, Guizhou is also the earliest pottery record.

 

The site has a new and old stone formation, and the cultural connotation is rich. Pottery appear more attractive, but considerable differences in advanced culture. These have great significance to the study of the relationship between the new and the old stone culture in Guizhou and the time continuity of the times.

 

In February 23, 1982, the Guizhou Provincial People's Government approved the publication of the provincial cultural relics protection units. 1981年10月，飞虎山古人类遗址由贵州省博物馆试掘，洞内堆积复杂，大致分早、晚两期。早期地层呈黄色或灰黄色，出土大熊猫、剑齿象等化石，石制品均为打制，文化时代为旧石器时代晚期。晚期地层呈黑色、灰黑色，出土动物遗髓为现生属种，并出人类下颌件和打制石器、磨制石器、磨制骨器、大量的陶片等，地质时代为全新世，文化时代属新石器时代，推测距今约4000年至6000年。

遗址出土打制的石制品共532件，原料以燧石为主，有是核、石片、石器等。石器以石片为主，加工方向以正向加工为主，类型有砸器、刮削器、尖状器和斧形器等。其中刮削器占76%，尖状器虽少但加工精细。斧形器似为向新石器文化转化的象征。磨制石器27件，加工精致，有石斧、石锛、石纺轮、石刮刀、石箭(矛)头、小石块等8种。石锛数量多，形制规整，以长形斜刃具代表性。骨器79件，除1件残的磨制骨刮刀外，均为打制骨器，有骨锥和骨铲。其中豪猪牙上的三道刻痕可能是刻划符。陶器除圆饼式及圆珠纺轮各1件外，其余全是器物碎片。计1494片。其厚度不匀，厚者达1.2厘米，薄者仅0.2厘米，火候高，质地坚硬。夹砂灰陶约占70%，夹砂黑陶占30%，泥质类陶极少。夹砂陶以夹细砂为主。陶片纹饰复杂多样，有粗细绳纹、方格纹、锥刺纹、刻划纹和附加锥纹等。陶片中有3片彩陶，其中有1片是在泥质灰陶的内外施以粉澄色陶衣，再于外表绘有两条平行的红色条带。这是贵州首次发现，也是贵州迄今最早的彩陶记录。

遗址具有新、旧石器地层叠压，文化内涵丰富。彩陶的出现更引人瞩目，但中、晚期文化差异颇大。这些对研究贵州新、旧石器文化的相互关系和时代延续问题具有重要的意义。

1982年2月23日，经贵州省人民政府批准公布为省级文物保护单位。

 

In October 1981, flying tiger ancient human remains from Guizhou Provincial Museum trial excavation, the accumulation of complex, broadly divided into early and late phases. Early formation of yellow or grayish yellow, unearthed panda, Stegodon fossils, stone products are made for the late Paleolithic culture era. Advanced formation is black, black, unearthed animal genetic pulp for extant species, and human mandibular and chipped stone, grinding stone, grinding bone, pottery and other large, geological time for the Holocene, culture in the age of the Neolithic age, that about 4000 years ago to 6000 years.

 

Unearthed stone products made a total of 532 pieces of raw materials, mainly to flint stone, there is, nuclear, stone etc.. The stone to stone, with the forward direction of processing processing, types of hit device, a scraper, tip like device and dolabriform etc.. The scraper accounted for 76%, tip like device is small but fine processing. The axe is a symbol of the transformation of Neolithic culture. 27 pieces of polished stone, delicate process, a stone axe, stone adzes, stone spinning wheels, stone scraper, stone arrow head, small stones (spear) 8. The number of stone adzes, regular shape, with long oblique cutting tool representative. 79 pieces of bone, in addition to the 1 pieces of grinding residual bone scraper, are making bone, bone and bone shovel cone. The three notches in the teeth may be scratching the porcupine symbol. In addition to pottery and ball spinning round round cake 1, the rest are all pieces of artifacts. 1494 tablets. The uneven thickness, thickness of 1.2 cm, thickness of only 0.2 cm, high temperature, hard texture. About 70% of sand pottery, pottery sand shale pottery class accounted for 30%, very little. Sand and sand are mainly sand. Pottery ornamentation is complicated, there are thick rope lines and Fang Gewen cone, tattoo, carved lines and lines and other additional cone. There are 3 pieces of pottery pottery, which has 1 pieces of orange powder is subjected to pottery coating inside and outside the grey clay, on the exterior is painted with two parallel red bands. This is the first time in Guizhou, Guizhou is also the earliest pottery record.

 

The site has a new and old stone formation, and the cultural connotation is rich. Pottery appear more attractive, but considerable differences in advanced culture. These have great significance to the study of the relationship between the new and the old stone culture in Guizhou and the time continuity of the times.

 

In February 23, 1982, the Guizhou Provincial People's Government approved the publication of the provincial cultural relics protection units. 1981年10月，飞虎山古人类遗址由贵州省博物馆试掘，洞内堆积复杂，大致分早、晚两期。早期地层呈黄色或灰黄色，出土大熊猫、剑齿象等化石，石制品均为打制，文化时代为旧石器时代晚期。晚期地层呈黑色、灰黑色，出土动物遗髓为现生属种，并出人类下颌件和打制石器、磨制石器、磨制骨器、大量的陶片等，地质时代为全新世，文化时代属新石器时代，推测距今约4000年至6000年。

遗址出土打制的石制品共532件，原料以燧石为主，有是核、石片、石器等。石器以石片为主，加工方向以正向加工为主，类型有砸器、刮削器、尖状器和斧形器等。其中刮削器占76%，尖状器虽少但加工精细。斧形器似为向新石器文化转化的象征。磨制石器27件，加工精致，有石斧、石锛、石纺轮、石刮刀、石箭(矛)头、小石块等8种。石锛数量多，形制规整，以长形斜刃具代表性。骨器79件，除1件残的磨制骨刮刀外，均为打制骨器，有骨锥和骨铲。其中豪猪牙上的三道刻痕可能是刻划符。陶器除圆饼式及圆珠纺轮各1件外，其余全是器物碎片。计1494片。其厚度不匀，厚者达1.2厘米，薄者仅0.2厘米，火候高，质地坚硬。夹砂灰陶约占70%，夹砂黑陶占30%，泥质类陶极少。夹砂陶以夹细砂为主。陶片纹饰复杂多样，有粗细绳纹、方格纹、锥刺纹、刻划纹和附加锥纹等。陶片中有3片彩陶，其中有1片是在泥质灰陶的内外施以粉澄色陶衣，再于外表绘有两条平行的红色条带。这是贵州首次发现，也是贵州迄今最早的彩陶记录。

遗址具有新、旧石器地层叠压，文化内涵丰富。彩陶的出现更引人瞩目，但中、晚期文化差异颇大。这些对研究贵州新、旧石器文化的相互关系和时代延续问题具有重要的意义。

1982年2月23日，经贵州省人民政府批准公布为省级文物保护单位。

 

☆nagai yoru - natten är lång 情報☆

  

この度 アムステルダム ハイブリッドカルチャーズにて

ルーカス・ゴースマンさんとの二人展を

開催させていただく運びとなりました。

ご案内・ご報告申し上げます。

  

ルーカスとわたしは、共に The Act Of Painting に所属し

2013年からいくつものTAOPのグループ展でご一緒しています。

今回の展覧会は TAOPの主催である

レイモンド・ケホパースのアトリエの一部を

ギャラリーとし、1ヶ月ほど開催します。

  

今回は、文字をキーワードとし

二人の異なる絵画言語で語られる

物語をテーマとします。

  

眞弥子は初日とその週末は近くにおりますので

もしもお越しいただける方は

お声をかけていただけましたら幸いです。

どうぞよろしくお願いいたします。

  

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・・・・・

  

nagai yoru - natten är lång

Mayako Nakamura + Lukas Göthman

March 17th - April 8th **opening Friday March 17th 3pm**

  

HYBRID CULTURES open Saturday 11 am - 6 pm and by appointment

Donker Curtiusstraat 25 B, 1051 JM, Amsterdam, 0031614672978, www.hybridcultures.org

  

・・・・・

  

Hybrid Cultures emphasizes the importance of the personal story, in this duo show by Japanese artist Mayako Nakamura, based in Tokyo and Swedish artist Lukas Göhman who lives and works in Stockholm. Both tell their stories in divergent painterly languages.

In her Calligraphic Landscape series Mayako Nakamura employs traditional Chinese characters as a point of departure for intuitive abstract landscapes on scrolls and screens. Mayako worked on this series while taking care of her gravely ill father. The works can be read as a diary incorporating the narrative of her daily life into the abstraction. In her latest works Mayako comes to grips with the spiritual inheritance of her family. Both her parents quite recently passed away and their spirits are captured in these gestural works. As Mayako states: “My mother passed away a year ago. My father passed away a month ago. I often feel their spirits come and go- riding the winds, or scent of spring. I feel the elemental particles of my parents often dancing in the courtyard..

Whoever came to exist on this earth must pass away.

Using water and ink on paper, I am trying to paint the impermanence - the very moment I am here - over and over again.”

Lukas Göhman tells his story by painting texts. Each text fluid and painted in thick and colorful layers of high viscosity oil, can be interpreted as a fragment of an ongoing story; a journey of self experienced realities and auto-ficticious, poetic narratives, meanwhile exploring the painterly abstract composition on the canvas. A series of paintings by Lukas Göthman can be read as pages from a diary, sometimes fictionalized, sometimes merely abstract, but always telling the story of the life Lukas is leading or is aiming to lead, with all the joy, fear, desire, dreams, love, lust, anger and grief a husband, father of two sons and owner of a dog can embody. The travels Lukas makes and the resonating lines of texts in his works are a commemoration to Scandinavian life. So too the title of this show, The Night is Long, which can refer to the long and dark winter in the North but also relates to a dark and difficult period in life. And yet there is another more enticing connotation: the longing for a long night with loved ones. Lukas captures the essence of his art practice as follows: “All my art starts from a sort of existential journey in which places and memories are important to me.”

50 Synonyms and Idioms for “Give”

by Mark Nichol

It’s better to give than to receive, and it’s easier to precisely describe giving than receiving, thanks to numerous synonyms for give. Here are dozens of them, with connotative definitions.

 

1. Accord: to give what is due

2. Administer: to give medication, to perform a religious ritual, or to carry out a punishment

3. Afford: to give in a manner consistent with the giver, usually something inanimate (for example, “The complication afforded us additional time to prepare”)

4. Allot: to give a portion or share, or by lottery

5. Apportion: to give in shares

6. Award: to give something that is deserved

7. Bestow: to give as a gift, with the possible connotation of condescension

8. Chip in: see contribute

9. Comp: to give something free that is normally paid for (a truncation of complimentary)

10. Confer: to give graciously

11. Contribute: to give among other providers or supporters

12. Convey: to give something originating from one party to another party

13. Deliver: to give something to the intended recipient

14. Devote: to give something useful or valuable

15. Dispense: see administer and allot

16. Dish out: to give criticism; also see administer and allot

17. Distribute: to give to a number of recipients

18. Dole (out): to give in small amounts

19. Donate: to give to an organization or other entity as an act of charity

20. Endow: to give an income to someone, or to give money for long-term maintenance or support

21. Endue (or indue): see endow and provide

22. Extend: to give so as to make available; see also proffer

23. Fork over (or fork out or fork up): to give money

24. Furnish: see provide and supply

25. Grant: to give consent or to concede; see also bestow and transfer

26. Hand down: to give an inheritance, either of material goods or of characteristics

27. Hand out: to distribute

28. Hand over: to give something intended for or due to another

29. Impart: to give from a supply

30. Kick in: see contribute

31. Lavish: to give generously

32. Mete (out): see dole (out)

33. Offer: to make available, or to give an exhibition or performance

34. Pay: to give in exchange for a product or a service, or to give or forfeit as penalty, or to give something intangible such as attention

35. Pitch in: see contribute

36. Present: to give in a ceremonial or formal manner

37. Produce: see offer

38. Proffer: see offer and tender

39. Provide: to make available

40. Pungle (up): see contribute and pay

41. Render: to give in return or retribution; see also administer, deliver, pay, and yield

42. Reward: to give in return for a service

43. Sacrifice: to give something at a loss or to give something for a belief or an ideal or for a purpose

44. Supply: see provide

45. Tender: to give something that is to be accepted

46. Transfer: see convey

47. Transmit: see convey

48. Volunteer: to give services freely

49. Vouchsafe: to give a reply, or to grant as a favor or privilege; see also bestow

50. Yield: to give as is appropriate or required, or to surrender oneself or a possession

 

www.dailywritingtips.com/50-synonyms-and-idioms-for-give/

 

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I snagged this from an essay by David Holmgren, in which he discusses the 12 permaculture principles. I know from experience that permaculture has a lot of connotations and meanings to many different kinds of people. The most common association is with gardening, and rightfully so, that's where a lot of action happens. But David has a grace in which he describes the purposes and intents of permaculture; beyond a way of gardening or a set of skills, but as a means of designing, managing and improving the actions of humans and our settlements.

A family romp in the waters of Dadonghai beach.

 

Dadonghai, which means Great East Sea, bears the connotation of “Fortune lasts as vast and deep as East Sea".

 

The beach spreads between two peninsulas and was the first free public beach for tourists in Sanya.

 

Dadonghai is crescent-shaped 2.3 kilometres 1.4 miles) long and has everything to support a seaside tourist location, including a large shopping square (Summer Mall), amusement companies and a dive company to provide scuba diving, ship diving, seabed strolling, speed boat, motorboat, luxury yacht, sail boat, ocean fishing, beach sports and underwater photography - OK.

 

Residents of Chesterfield will know that the Chesterfield Hotel is no more. I've photographed this through the last few years until its demolition. The following history is courtesy of Chesterfield Civic Society:

The Chesterfield Hotel was built in 1876–7, a few years after the Midland Railway rebuilt its station at Chesterfield on its present site.

The hotel, which is built of brick with pitched slate roofs on a quadrangular plan around a central courtyard, was extended three times.

Known for most of its life as the Station Hotel, it was renamed the Chesterfield Hotel in the 1980s, presumably because the older name had rather down-at-heel connotations, although the later name was essentially meaningless.

The Station Hotel set out from the start to be Chesterfield’s leading hotel. For much of the twentieth century it was one of Mansfield Brewery’s leading residential houses and was featured a good deal in the company’s advertising. It was a three-star hotel, whereas its nearest rival, the Hotel Portland of 1899, also a railway hotel, was Chesterfield’s two-star hotel.

For many local people, the hotel is probably most affectionately remembered as a function venue, rather than as somewhere to stay.

The setting of the hotel was not improved by the decision to sever Corporation Street as a motor road when the Inner Relief Road was built, separating it from the other commercial buildings higher up the street, and leaving it in not very splendid isolation, flanked by minor roads on three sides and the Inner Relief Road on the fourth.

Hotels of this sort in not particularly wealthy medium-sized provincial towns have not had an easy time in recent decades and for most local people it was probably disappointing, rather than surprising, when it ceased trading. It must have been a very expensive building to maintain and, despite the efforts of recent operators, was arguably doomed from the day the Casa opened on Whittington Moor. These were taken in June and July as demolition proceeded.

Shot @ Nuremberg ,Germany,Dec07.

 

The color red have so many connotations: sexy, revolting, inviting, off-putting, daring; dangerous.

 

A poem by Cati Porter ...

  

If, Then

 

pomegranate is to apple

 

as I am to you

 

you are all I want to bite into

 

and I am all you want to take apart

 

I halve you through the core and find a star

 

you open me tenderly

 

I unfold into a flower glistening

 

possibility

 

---

View my Germany Pics ... Click Here

  

Xplored :-

Highest position: 386 on Thursday, December 20, 2007

 

Believe it or not, I did make a few photographic New Year's resolutions. They are small ones though.

 

I am no longer going to go out "shooting" my cameras. I am going to go out and photograph. This isn't a gun thing, but just sort of a sloppy use-of-language thing for me. Guns shoot. Cannons shoot. Stars shoot across the sky. Light shoots out of a flashlight. Shooting is emitting, projecting, etc. Cameras don't emit or project, they receive and gather, hence they don't shoot, and since they don't shoot, I cannot shoot them.

 

I am also going to stop "taking" photos, I prefer to try to find them, make them, create them, etc. I just don't really like the subtle connotation to "take". Simple as that.

 

Oh, and I am going to say PIC-ture instead of pit-CHER. Gotta fix that one too.

 

So there are my simple resolutions. But remember, the way we talk reflects the way we think, and the way we think decides the way we photograph. So maybe these resolutions aren't as simple as I let on...

1933-1945

The outer castle gate was 1933/1934 converted into a war memorial. In the 30s it became common practice to use the space for mass events, the speakers most of the time speaking from the balcony of the New Castle to the crowd of people (1932 rally during the visit of Hermann Goring, 1934 rally of the Fatherland Front, 1938 Nazi rally for Adolf Hitler [whereby the Heroe's square internationally became the synonym for Annexation; the play "Heldenplatz" by Thomas Bernhard (premiere November 4, 1988 at the Burgtheater) in this context before and after the premiere caused heated discussions]). During the Second World War at Heldenplatz were held outdoor exhibitions (for example, "The victory in the West", 1940).

Second Republic

1945-1953 the Heldenplatz by the Soviet Element of the Allied Council (which had housed his "officers' house" and other facilities in the Hofburg) was used for events which one wanted to give a military context. From 31 October 1953 followed on Heldenplatz the ceremony for the handover of the command of the Vienna Inter Allied Command, taking place monthly; until its dissolution this practice was continued. Furthermore, the space has been used for large gatherings and events (for example, 1983 rally to mark the visit of Pope John Paul II, 1984 rally against the construction of the Danube power plant Hainburg, 1993 final rally of the campaign "SOS Fellow Human Being" ["Sea of ​​Light"]). - Military Celebration of the Armed Forces (compilation of Martin Senekowitsch [according to Guard Chronicle of Guard Battalion]): The Heldenplatz was in the Second Republic often the scene of military celebrations. From November 2, 1955 every year: Heroes ceremony for the fallen soldiers of both World Wars at the crypt of the Castle gate. March 13, 1963: commemoration of the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938. 18 October 1963: 300th anniversary of Prince Eugene. February 12, 1964: commemoration of February 1934. April 27, 1965: commemoration of the victims of the Nazi regime. 16 May 1965, 14 May 1966, 15 May, 1967 to 1970: Big Tattoo. 8 July 1974 and 8 July 1980: Swearing-in of Federal President Dr Rudolf Kirchschläger. September 6, 1975: Big tattoo (20 years Garrison Wien). April 27, 1981: Republic Celebration. July 7, 1986: Big Tattoo (departure of President Rudolf Kirchschläger). July 8, 1986 respectively July 6, 1992: Big Tattoo (swearing-in respectively departure of Federal President Dr Kurt Waldheim). July 8, 1992: Swearing-in of Federal President Dr Thomas Klestil.

Symbolic meaning

The Heroes Square already by the Habsburgs was laid out as a place of political representation. In the First Republic it served the Nazis before being banned as a symbolic parade ground. This was opposed by the Dolfuss-Schuschnigg regime holding the pan-German Catholics Day 1933 and other celebrations. However, a particular importance gained the Heldenplatz on March 15, 1938 after the Nazi takeover. On this day, Adolf Hitler as part of a mass event announced "the entry of my homeland into the German Reich". Due to this symbolic charging, the Heldenplatz also in the Second Republic in the collective memory remained connected with the "Annexation", although there was no lack of attempts of a new symbolic connotation. Artistic expression this found in the play by Thomas Bernhard entitled "Heldenplatz" and premiered in 1988 and in a poem by Ernst Jandl. From the 1990s, however, events as the Sea of Light of the action "Fellow Human Being" on January 23, 1993 as well as the demonstration against the new government of ÖVP (Austrian People's Party) and FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) on February 19, 2000 increased who saw themselves as counterpoints to March 15, 1938.

 

1933-1945

Das Äußere Burgtor wurde 1933/1934 zu einem Heldendenkmal umgestaltet. In den 30er Jahren begann es sich einzubürgern, den Platz für Massenveranstaltungen zu benutzen, wobei die Redner meist vom Balkon der Neuen Burg zur Menge sprachen (1932 Kundgebung beim Hermann-Göring-Besuch, 1934 Kundgebung der Vaterländischen Front, 1938 nationalsozialistische Kundgebung für Adolf Hitler [wodurch der Heldenplatz international zu einem Synonym für den "Anschluss" wurde; das Stück "Heldenplatz" von Thomas Bernhard (Uraufführung 4. November 1988 im Burgtheater) sorgte in diesem Zusammenhang vor und nach der Premiere für erregte Diskussionen]). Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurden auf dem Heldenplatz Freiluftausstellungen veranstaltet (beispielsweise "Der Sieg im Westen", 1940).

Zweite Republik

1945-1953 wurde der Heldenplatz vom sowjetrussischen Element des Alliierten Rats (das in der Hofburg sein "Offiziershaus" und andere Einrichtungen untergebracht hatte) für Veranstaltungen genutzt, denen man einen militärischen Rahmen geben wollte. Ab 31. Oktober 1953 erfolgte auf dem Heldenplatz die monatlich stattfindende Zeremonie der Kommandoübergabe der Wiener Interalliierten Kommandantur; bis zu deren Auflösung wurde an dieser Praxis festgehalten. Weiterhin wurde der Platz für große Versammlungen und Veranstaltungen genutzt (beispielsweise 1983 Kundgebung anlässlich des Besuchs Papst Johannes Pauls II., 1984 Kundgebung gegen den Bau des Donaukraftwerks Hainburg, 1993 Abschlusskundgebung der Aktion "SOS Mitmensch" ["Lichtermeer"]). - Militärische Feiern des Bundesheeres (Zusammenstellung von Martin Senekowitsch [laut Gardechronik des Gardebataillons]): Der Heldenplatz war in der Zweiten Republik oftmals Schauplatz militärischer Feierlichkeiten. Ab 2. November 1955 jedes Jahr: Heldenehrung für die Gefallenen beider Weltkriege bei der Krypta des Äußeren Burgtors. 13. März 1963: Gedenkfeier anlässlich des "Anschlusses" Österreichs 1938. 18. Oktober 1963: 300. Geburtstag des Prinzen Eugen. 12. Februar 1964: Gedenken an den Februar 1934. 27. April 1965: Gedenken an die Opfer des NS-Regimes. 16. Mai 1965, 14. Mai 1966, 15. Mai 1967-1970: Großer Zapfenstreich. 8. Juli 1974 und 8. Juli 1980: Angelobung von Bundespräsident Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger. 6. September 1975: Großer Zapfenstreich (20 Jahre Garnison Wien). 27. April 1981: Republikfeier. 7. Juli 1986: Großer Zapfenstreich (Verabschiedung von Bundespräsident Rudolf Kirchschläger). 8. Juli 1986 beziehungsweise 6. Juli 1992: Großer Zapfenstreich (Angelobung beziehungsweise Verabschiedung von Bundespräsident Dr. Kurt Waldheim). 8. Juli 1992: Angelobung von Bundespräsident Dr. Thomas Klestil.

Symbolische Bedeutung

Der Heldenplatz wurde schon von den Habsburgern als Ort der politischen Repräsentation angelegt. In der Ersten Republik diente er vor deren Verbot den Nationalsozialisten als symbolischer Aufmarschplatz. Dem setzte das Dolfuss-Schuschnigg-Regime die Abhaltung des gesamtdeutschen Katholikentages 1933 und andere Feiern dagegen. Eine besondere Bedeutung erhielt der Heldenplatz jedoch am 15.3.1938 nach der NS-Machtübernahme. An diesem Tag verkündete Adolf Hitler im Rahmen einer Massenveranstaltung "den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich". Auf Grund dieser symbolischen Aufladung blieb der Heldenplatz auch in der Zweiten Republik im kollektiven Gedächtnis mit dem "Anschluss" verbunden, obwohl es nicht an Versuchen einer symbolischen Neubestzung des Ortes fehlte. Künstlerischen Ausdruck fand dies auch im 1988 uraufgeführten Theaterstück Thomas Bernhards mit dem Titel "Heldenplatz" und in einem Gedicht von Ernst Jandl. Ab den 1990er Jahren mehrten sich allerdings Veranstaltungen wie das Lichtermeer der Aktion Mitmensch" am 23.1.1993 sowie die Demonstration gegen die Regierungsbildung von ÖVP und FPÖ am 19.2.2000 die sich als Kontrapunkte zum 15.3.1938 verstanden haben.

www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php?title=Heldenplatz

Low Force is an 18-foot (5.5m) high set of falls on the River Tees, England, UK. Further upstream is the High Force waterfall. Low Force is also the site of the Wynch Bridge, completed in 1830. It is suggested by signs at each end that only one person at a time should cross the bridge as it may be unstable.

 

Low Force is within the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and European Geopark. Low Force lies on the historic county boundary between the North Riding of Yorkshire on the south bank, and County Durham on the north bank; since the local government reforms of 1974, however, the south bank of the Tees in Teesdale has also been included within County Durham for administrative purposes.

 

Sections of the film 1917 were shot near the site in June 2019. The production staff had to install signs warning walkers in the area not to be alarmed at the prosthetic bodies strewn around the site.

 

The River Tees in England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for 85 miles (137 km) to reach the North Sea in the North East of England. The modern day history of the river has been tied with the industries on Teesside in its lower reaches, where it has provided the means of import and export of goods to and from the North East England. The need for water further downstream also meant that reservoirs were built in the extreme upper reaches, such as Cow Green.

 

Etymology

The name Tees is possibly of Brittonic origin. The element *tēs, meaning "warmth" with connotations of "boiling, excitement" (Welsh tes), may underlie the name. *Teihx-s, a root possibly derived from Brittonic *ti (Welsh tail, "dung, manure"), has also been used to explain the name Tees (compare River Tyne).

 

Geography

The river drains 710 square miles (1,800 km2) and has a number of tributaries including the River Greta, River Lune, River Balder, River Leven and River Skerne. Before the reorganisation of the historic English counties, the river formed the boundary between County Durham and Yorkshire. In its lower reaches it now forms the boundary between the ceremonial counties of County Durham and North Yorkshire, while in the highest part of its course it forms the boundary between the historic counties of Westmorland and Durham. The head of Teesdale (the name of valley especially at this end), has a desolate grandeur, surrounded by moorland and hills, some exceeding 2,500 feet (760 m). This area is part of the North Pennine Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

 

The source of the river at Teeshead just below Cross Fell lies at an elevation of approximately 2,401 feet (732 m). It flows east-north-east through an area of shake holes through Carboniferous Limestone. Below Viewing Hill, it turns south to the Cow Green Reservoir constructed to store water to be released in dry conditions to satisfy the industrial need for water on Teesside.

 

Emerging from the reservoir at Cauldron Snout the river traverses a series of hard black basalt and dolerite rocks that intrude through the softer limestone, in a succession of falls or rapids. From this point downstream the Tees forms the boundary between the traditional counties of Durham and Yorkshire almost without a break, although since 1974 much of it lies wholly in Durham. The dale widens below Cauldron Snout, and trees appear, contrasting with the broken rocks where the water descends over High Force. After a short turn northwards, the river continues to meander south-easterly. Close to where the B6277 road begins to run parallel to the river is the 69-foot (21 m) High Force waterfall. About 1+1⁄2 miles (2.4 km) downstream is the smaller Low Force waterfall.

 

The scenery becomes gentler and more picturesque as the river descends past Middleton-in-Teesdale (Durham). This locality has lead and ironstone resources. Just to the east of Middleton-in-Teesdale, the River Lune joins the Tees. After passing the village of Romaldkirk to the west, the river is joined by the River Balder at Cotherstone. The ancient town of Barnard Castle, Egglestone Abbey, and Rokeby Park, known through Sir Walter Scott's poem Rokeby, are all passed. At Rokeby the Tees is joined by the River Greta. From the area near Eggleston, the river is crossing over millstone grit. From here the valley begins to open out, and traverses the rich plain east and south of Darlington in large meandering curves.

 

The course of the valley down to here has been generally east-south-east, but it now turns north-east near the village of Whorlton. Passing Ovington and Winston it runs parallel to the A67 south-east past Gainford and Piercebridge to Darlington, passing under the A1 and A66. The section from Piercebridge to Hurworth flows over magnesian limestone. It is at Croft-on-Tees that the River Skerne joins the Tees. The river now flows south past Croft-on-Tees before swinging northwards past Hurworth-on-Tees. A series of large meanders takes the course past Neasham, Low Dinsdale and Sockburn to Middleton St George. In the lower reaches of the river valley the water flows over bunter sandstone and pebble beds.

 

Just past Yarm, the River Leven joins the Tees, before passing the settlements of Eaglescliffe, Ingleby Barwick and Thornaby-on-Tees. Now nearing the sea, the Tees becomes an important commercial waterway, with the ports of Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough on its banks. It passes through the Tees Barrage between these ports, turning tidal downstream from the barrage.

 

Teesport is built on reclaimed land on the south side of the Tees estuary below Middlesbrough.

 

Seal Sands

Before the heavy industrialisation of the Tees, the flats at Seal Sands in the estuary were home to common seals. For around 100 years this species was absent from the estuary but have now returned and can be seen on the flats at Seal Sands. The Seal Sands area is now designated as the Teesmouth National Nature Reserve.

 

Alterations

A proposal was made in 1769 to make cuts in the river which would straighten the course and enable ships to save time and money in navigation. Between Stockton-on-Tees and Middlesbrough, the river previously meandered first south and then north of its current channel. Two "cuts", known as the Mandale Cut and the Portrack Cut, were made to straighten its course in 1810 and 1831 respectively. Before these cuts were made, the journey by sailing barge from Thornaby to the mouth of the Tees, allowing for tides and other factors, could take as long as seven days. The Mandale Cut was the shorter of the two, at about 220 yards (200 m), with the Portrack Cut being considerably longer (1,100 yards (1,000 m)), although the northern meander it removed was smaller than the southern meander. Neither meander is visible today, except for the flow of Stainsby Beck into a waterway which is marked on maps first as "The Fleet" and then "Old River Tees". The current Tees Barrage is close to the site of the Mandale Cut.

 

Since the cuts were made, the river has continued to undergo alterations to its bed and banks to make it deeper and more navigable. The channel has been made considerably narrower by dumping ship's ballast and ironworks slag along the former banks, increasing the scouring due to its natural flow. Maps made prior to 1900 show that between Stockton and Middlesbrough the river flowed in a channel up to 330 yards (300 m) wide in places, with many shoals and sandbars. The modern channel varies between about 110 yards (100 m) and 220 yards (200 m).

 

In October 2021 the UK engineering company, GRAHAM, started work on the 1.2km South Bank Quay project to provide a deep water facility. It is expected that two million tonnes of material will be dredged to allow GE Renewable Energy to load huge wind turbine blades onto ships. The 107m long blades are destined for the Dogger Bank wind farm. The Heavy Fuel Oil Farm and Tarmac jetties are to be removed.

 

Industry

The River Tees has been used for transporting industrial goods since the Industrial Revolution, particularly for the shipment of coal from the Durham Coalfields and also for the steel industries that later developed around Middlesbrough. In the early years merchant ships left the River Tees after loading in Yarm and Stockton on Tees; but as merchant ships became bigger, these smaller docks were superseded by bigger and deeper docks in Middlesbrough, and later even further downstream at Teesport close to the mouth of the River Tees. The emergence of the Steel industry in the late 19th century earned it the nickname "The Steel River" owing to the many steelworks that operated along the banks of the Tees. In the 20th century the river also became important to the developing chemical industry, contributing particularly to the development of Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) who used reclaimed land on the north bank for import/export facilities.

 

The move to loading coal on bigger ships in Middlesbrough was the economic driver for the development not only of the town of Middlesbrough itself but also of the railway between Stockton and Darlington. This is where George Stephenson developed his railway engine "Locomotion" and this railway was the first steam railway to carry passengers, as well as industrial materials. The Stockton and Darlington Railway was founded after an initial shareholders' meeting in a room in a public house in Yarm.

 

Today Teesport is owned by PD Ports; it is located close to the North Sea and 3 miles (5 km) east of Middlesbrough. Teesport is currently the third largest port in the United Kingdom, and among the ten biggest in Western Europe, handling over 56 million tonnes of domestic and international cargo per year. The vast majority of these products are still related to the steel and chemical industries made by companies that are members of the Northeast of England Process Industry Cluster (NEPIC). The areas where large scale commodity chemical industry continues to be based are Billingham and Seal Sands, both on the north bank of the River Tees, and Wilton on the south bank. The Teesside Steelworks at Redcar operated until closure in 2015.

 

Other industrial companies that use the River Tees are manufacturing and servicing the North Sea oil and gas industry as well as the renewable energy industry sector, including offshore wind turbines. The south bank of the mouth of the River Tees has the 62-megawatt Teesside Offshore Wind Farm, built 2011–13.

 

Near the mouth of the River Tees is the large dry dock facility of ABLE UK, named TERRC (Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre), used to dismantle or oil rigs and other large vessels. Hartlepool Nuclear Power Station is adjacent to the east.

 

2021 North-East England shellfish die-off

In early October 2021 thousands of dead crabs and lobsters were washed up on the Tees estuary and beaches along the North-East coast of England. The deaths were first reported in Seaton Carew, Redcar and Seaham. A 95% decline in the lobster and crab catch was noticed by those employed in the local fishing industry. A spokesperson for the UK Environment Agency said, "Samples of water, sediment, mussel and crab have been collected and are being sent to our labs for analysis to consider whether a pollution incident could have contributed to the deaths of the animals." The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) labs were also testing crustaceans for disease. There is no evidence of any link to recent strandings of marine mammals and seabirds across the UK and countries along the North Sea coast, according to the EA.

 

By late November the crustacean die-off had spread as far south as Robin Hood's Bay and was affecting catches in Whitby. The Environment Agency has ruled out chemical pollution as the cause of the mass shellfish deaths. Dredging was also rejected as the cause of the environmental disaster. Environment Agency operations manager Sarah Jennings said, "We've used both traditional and innovative screening methods to analyse samples of water, sediment and crab looking for traces of contamination. We’ve screened for over 1,000 potential chemical contaminants but found no anomalies that could lead to an event of this scale."

 

In early February 2022 it was reported that, "Defra and partner agencies have completed a thorough investigation of the cause of dead crabs and lobsters which were found washed up on the North East coast between October and December 2021. Following significant testing and modelling to rule out possible causes, Defra and partner agencies consider that the deaths of the crabs and lobsters potentially resulted from a naturally occurring harmful algal bloom." In June 2022 George Monbiot wrote in The Guardian, "Astonishingly, although there is no evidence that it conducted such sampling, the government concluded not only that a bloom had occurred, but that it was caused by a particular, toxic species: Karenia mikimotoi. This is the stuff of science fiction. Karenia thrives in temperatures between 20 and 24 °C [68 and 75 °F]. The average water temperature on this coast in October is 13 °C [55 °F]. There is no plausible mechanism by which a Karenia bloom could cause the mass death of lobsters and crabs without also killing large numbers of fish, sea urchins and many other species." Monbiot reported that when he asked the UK government to publish its evidence the government refused.

 

Legends and folklore

Peg Powler is a hag in English folklore who is said to inhabit the River Tees.

 

In popular culture

The River Tees was featured in the television series Seven Natural Wonders as one of the wonders of the North, and in the post-apocalyptic drama The Last Train having blown its banks.

Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

Continued from: www.flickr.com/photos/42093313@N00/52649997760/in/datepos...

 

The Seed of Tauba

 

أسْتَغْفِرُ اللهَ رَبي مِنْ كُلِ ذَنبٍ

وَأتُوبُ إلَيهِ

 

I ask forgiveness of my sins from Allah who is my Lord

and I turn towards Him.

 

توبوا من ذنوبكم و سوء أدبكم

هذه التوبة غرسي في أرض قلوبكم بناء أبنيه عندكم،

أنقض بناء الشيطان

و أبن بناء الرحمن

و ألحقكم بمولاكم و ربكم عزوجل

 

“Repent for your misdeeds and your inappropriate regard!

This repentance is my seed in the soil of your hearts

so that I will make the foundation of a building for you.

I will demolish the building of Shaitaan

and make a building of Allah Ar Rahman

and I will make you rejoin with your Maula and Rabb, your Master

and your Lord, Exalted is His Majesty.”

Ghaus Pak (ra)

 

Ahmed Javaid Sahib had said that identifying flaws and shortcoming of character and behaviour were essential. Just identify them, he had said. I realized why the emphasis on the exercise was heavy.

 

From that identification by the aql to make disappear ignorance of one’s own self would follow remorse. It would be inevitable. At least for the person who might reflect truthfully on how that feature of their personality had come as an obstacle between them and their Lord.

 

From that regret would be expressed tauba. The repentance would ask, insist, of forgiveness. A prayer would be uttered. A dua would save the day!

 

Only days ago I had come across one of the most powerful verses around forgiveness. Giving it was truly Allah Al Ghaffar’s Declaration of love as well as mercy. The former was for His Love (salutations and greetings upon the Mercy of the Universe by His Lord of the Universe). The latter was for his enemies. For it was offered before it was asked for!

 

First Subhanahu said He wouldn’t destroy them whilst Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon Ar Rauf by Allah Ar Rauf) was amidst them even though that is what they deserved for rejecting him. A trial for them would become a trial for him. Instead then He would grant them leeway because they might seek forgiveness and so He would forgive them.

 

وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ لِیُعَذِّبَهُمۡ وَأَنتَ فِیهِمۡۚ

وَمَا كَانَ ٱللَّهُ مُعَذِّبَهُمۡ وَهُمۡ یَسۡتَغۡفِرُونَ

 

But Allah will not punish them while you (are) among them,

Allah will not punish them while they seek forgiveness.

Surah Al Anfal, Verse 33

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa ma kana Allahu li-yuaddibahum: And Allah has nothing to gain from punishing them, although they were deserving of intense punishment and an exemplary chastisement and destruction complete because of their refuting you and rejecting your Book…

 

Wa anta fi-him: whilst you are among them meaning that as long as you are among them and in their midst and in their places, then if Allah punished them, certainly it would afflict you like it would afflict them…

 

Wa: and if it became possible that We would choose you and save you in the moment of punishing them…

 

Ma kana Allahu mu’addibahum: Allah will still not punish them and will not intend to torment them and uproot them…

 

Wa hum yastaghfiroon: while they are supplicating before Him for forgiveness i.e. it is expected from them, despite their opposing imaan, faith that they might seek forgiveness in the future, unlike those nations who were destroyed before (because they would not ask for forgiveness ever).

 

It was extraordinary!

 

The Quran says that Subhanahu creates veils between Man and his heart when he is disobedient:

 

وَٱعْلَمُوٓا۟ أَنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَحُولُ بَيْنَ ٱلْمَرْءِ وَقَلْبِهِۦ

وَأَنَّهُۥٓ إِلَيْهِ تُحْشَرُونَ

 

And know that Allah comes between Man and his heart,

and that to Him you will be gathered.

Surah Al Anfal, Verse 24

 

Wa’lamo annallaha: And be certain that Allah Al Muttali’u, The Perfect Informer, who knows what is hidden in His Servants…

 

Yahoolu: diverts and creates an envelope…

 

Bayna al mar’ay: between Man, the one who has structured himself in a human skeleton, which is specific upon on the fixture of true balance…

 

Wa qalbihi: and his qalb, the Seat of Recognition within the heart, which encompasses within it Allah Al Haqq, The Truth who is Allah Al Munazza, The One Purified of all, free of being imprisoned, and Allah Al Mubri’o, The One Above Everything in being encompassed or in any limitation, (He creates between Man and his qalb) many veils.

 

So these veils and coverings always remain, hanging, between Man and his qalb, so the scent of love and closeness cannot reach him, that scent which is Al Muwaddi’, which leads towards fana, dissolution which results in baqa, everlastingness.

 

And this opening of the doors of Divine Love and Closeness is received only with ikhlas, sincerity, and tasleem, surrender and tafweed, submission and tawakkal, reliance and tabbattal, detachment and Tauheed Al Musqit, One-ness which makes drop everything extra.

 

Wa: And over all…

 

Annahu: Indeed, He…

 

Ilayhi: towards him, Subhanahu and no one else but Him, will rise the shadows in dissolution and will rise the invalid tangibles…

 

Tuhsharoon: gathered, returned like shadows return to the Creator of Shadows.

 

That was my favourite image of myself, being a shadow returning to the Creator of Shadows.

 

Each choice was like a road that had a fork in it. Even when it overtly seemed like there was no option. One path was always of obedience to the nafs and Shaitaan, the other to hear and answer the call of the one sent to teach as the guide, the warner, the witness, the bringer of glad tidings, the sun lit; Nabi Kareem, who Ghaus Pak (ra) calls Al Mazhar Al Ilahaya Az Zaati, the appearance of the Essence of The Divine.

 

He, who was Allah’s Jamaal, Beauty (Allah Al Jameel pours his greetings and salutations upon him and his family) was the only one for whom Subhanahu deliberately uses a verb (singular when the dual exists in Arabic) in the Quran so as to render them one and not two when it came to the invitation towards His Tauheed, His One-ness.

 

“Because the calling of the Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) is in fact the calling of Allah Al Haqq…”

 

‏يَٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱسْتَجِيبُوا۟ لِلَّهِ وَلِلرَّسُولِ إِذَا دَعَاكُمْ لِمَا يُحْيِيكُمْ ‎

 

O you who believe!

Respond to Allah and His Messenger when he calls you to what gives you life.

Surah Al Anfal, Verse 24

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then said Allah Subhanahu, as a call to the believers, as a reminder for them and as a teaching:

 

Ya ayyohalladina aamino: O ye who attained to faith, it is the requirement of your imaan, faith, to answer the Call of Allah and answer the call of His Rasool (peace be upon him and his family)…

 

Istajeebo lillahe: respond to Him, be obedient to what is His Command and His Order and stay away from what He forbids…

 

Wa lir-Rasool: and His Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) adopt his sunnat, practice, and his adaab, manners and his ikhlaq, etiquette.

 

Ida da’akum: When he calls you, any one of them, because the calling of the Rasool (peace be upon him and his family) is in fact the calling of Allah Al Haqq…

 

Lima yuhhyeekum: because he gives you life-giving messages from the Al Aloom Ad Dineeya, knowledges of religion and Al Ma’aaraf Al Haqeeqa, the recognitions of the realities, bearing fruits of Mukashafaat, unveilings and Mushahidaat, witnessings which had become faded for the people who were on the right path and the ones on the wrong path, both (i.e. forgotten by them both and unclear for them).

 

Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his family by their Lord God) was the reminder for all in the Universe. Those on the right path and those on the wrong. For both would forget again and again.

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) saying was the reason Rajab came into my focus last year. A 90 day cycle was unheard of in spirituality. 900 years of striving couldn’t ensure a result!

 

رجب شھر الزرع و شعبان شھر السقی و رمضان شھر الحصاد

و کل یحصد ما زرع و یجزی ما صنع

و من ضیع الزراعۃ ندم یوم حصادہ و احلف ظنہ مع سوء معادہ

 

Rajab is the month for sowing seeds, Sha’ban is the month for watering, and Ramadan is the month for reaping.

And all reap what they sow and will be rewarded for what they did.

And the one who wasted the (season of) planting regretted it on the day of harvest

and found it to be against what he thought would be the result.

 

Then the seeds had been about increased, never before performed, extra rituals of worship, nawafil. They were offered from the mind though, not the essence of my being, even though the intention to do them came out of a love for the Imam (as) in my heart.

 

This time I longed for my acts to be only be about adab and akhlaq, regard and manners, behaviour, character and morality.

 

Whether they were inspired by the most honoured Ahl e Bait, the family of Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon them by Subhanahu), his companions or his followers who became the Friends of Allah. For there was only one standard that was in replication anyway.

 

“Glory be to Allah, whose praise should precede every writing and every speech!

 

May the blessings of Allah rest upon Muhammad, His Prophet and His Apostle, and on his family and companions, by whose guidance error is escaped!”

 

Imam Al Ghazali (ra)

 

At first I wanted my seeds to come from what I had heard were the foundational traits of Nabi Pak (salutations and greetings upon his perfection of manner by his Lord who raised him and his family such):

 

Haya – modesty.

Sakha – generosity.

Murrawwat – affection.

Tawadda’a – humility.

 

All took their root in sincerity. That sincerity of obedience and surrender was expressed in perfection by one.

 

‏قُلْ إِنِّىٓ أُمِرْتُ أَنْ أَعْبُدَ ٱللَّهَ مُخْلِصًۭا لَّهُ ٱلدِّينَ ‎

 

Say, "Indeed, I, I am commanded that I worship Allah,

being sincere to Him in the religion.

 

Surah Az Zumar, Verse 11

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then said Subhanahu, Exalted is He, commanding His Habeeb (salutations and greetings be upon him and his family by His Lord and His Angels) in order to guide him and to convey to His (other) ordinary worshippers, a thing He said that is specified for wisdom, a wisdom empty of the desires of the nafs of showing-off (of the self), only and only for wishing well and perfection (for others);

 

Qul: Say O Messenger who completes Messenger-hood (peace be upon you)…

 

Inni umirtu: Indeed I have been ordered from My Lord…

 

An a’buda Allaha: that I worship Allah as is His Right to be worshipped and be obedient to Him as His Right to be obeyed…

 

Mukhlisal lahu deen: bringing sincerity into the religion and offering surrender from myself in such a way that I make both, my obedience with sincerity and my surrender with sincerity, the means of reaching Him.

 

So that I gain recognition of Him as is His Right to be recognized and He pours upon my heart the purified waters of His Tauheed, One-ness and His Karamat, His Honour.

Waters from seas sweet!

 

But then Ghaus Pak (ra) told me what the seed should be. It was a seed of tauba.

 

“Repent for your misdeeds and your inappropriate regard!

This repentance is my seed in the soil of your hearts

so that I will make the foundation of a building for you.

I will demolish the building of Shaitaan

and make a building of Allah Ar Rahman

and I will make you rejoin with your Maula and Rabb, your Master

and your Lord, Exalted is His Majesty.”

 

If I chose repentance, then the seed wouldn’t even be mine. He had promised that he would become the seed. In the soil of my own heart. Shaitaan would lose influence over me as just he did over Amir Muawia (ratu). My remorse, my regret at all times would protect me from him.

 

The watering of that seed happens in Shabaan. It is the month that Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon his mercy upon us and his family’s) calls his own. So I thought that perhaps he, himself, would be the water that is poured on that seed.

 

Like rain that Subhanahu describes thus:

 

Anzalna: We sent down from the Station of Our Generosity…

Mina: from…

 

As Sama’i ma’an tahooran: the skies, rain pure, utmost in purity, highest, extreme in its purpose (of purification).

 

The month of Ramadan, Subhanahu calls His Own. Fasting is for Him. It is the only ritual for which He makes Himself the reward. Could it be His Qurb?

 

It was making sense why Ghaus Pak (ra) only mentioned one seed and no other. In my spiritual journey that I write about incessantly, one thing had made crystal clear these past months. The relationship between possibilities and shirrk, the intertwining of taqwa and tauba.

 

What had been in my control all along, in all of my decisions, was the exercising of the don’ts. I did things because I didn’t want to do them anymore. I didn’t want to do them because I started to care about the consequences, the most imperative of which became Subhanahu’s Displeasure, His Ghadab. That only came because when the first time I was terrified of my Master’s displeasure. Before that I was unaware of the gravity of my actions careless about their consequences, forgetting both. I was ghafil.

 

The connection between taqwa and tauba, then I learnt, is that one lies within the other. From the refrain follows naturally the repentance for not doing it earlier. It comes because the forgiveness of Subhanahu is a “breeze of good news and glad tidings and spirituality.”

 

The Chosen Ones, the Extraordinary, they live in a state of tauba from the start. It in kneaded in their essence.

 

Ghaus Pak: “The one who was loved by Allah from the beginning, He makes them pure in the world from that which might distract him even for a single moment from His Being.”

 

The ordinary reach it by way of mindfulness.

 

قُلۡ یَـٰعِبَادِ ٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱتَّقُوا۟ رَبَّكُمۡۚ

 

Say, "O My Servants those who attained to faith!

Be mindful of your Lord.”

Surah Az Zumar, Verse 10

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Qul: Say, Ya Akmal Ar Rusul (Allah sends blessings and salutations upon you since the beginning of Creation till the end), O Messenger who completes the Messenger-hood, give this message on Our Behalf, calling out to the selected sincere amongst my Servants…

 

Ya ibadi: O My Worshippers, by attaching them with His Essence making them special and honouring them…

 

Alladina aamano: those who attained to faith from amongst you in the One-ness of My Essence and My Appearance according to My Affairs and My Ever changing-ness in accordance with My Names and Attributes, the requirement of your faith is taqwa, mindfulness from the demands of your desires…

 

Ittaqu Rabbukum: be conscious of your Lord and stay away from what is forbidden by Him and what He has ordered prevented for you and characterize yourself with His Commands and know that He…

 

Stay away…from the forbidden, the prevented. It was a don’t!

It made me remember the beginning of the Quran. The second line of Al Baqarah. It said in total clarity; the Book was only a guidance for the one who was Muttaqi, who were conscious of being seen by Him at all times and therefore exercised restraint.

 

Since the verses in the Quran appear in the order of importance, in terms of a ranking it seemed to be; seeking refuge from Shaitaan, then praise of Subhanahu, the expression of gratitude, a supplication (all in Surah Fateha) and then taqwa, being in a constant state of mindfulness of Him. The start of Al Baqarah.

 

ذَٰلِكَ ٱلۡكِتَـٰبُ لَا رَیۡبَۛ فِیهِۛ هُدࣰى لِّلۡمُتَّقِینَ

 

That (is) the book, there is no doubt in it, it is a guidance for the ones conscious of Allah.

Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 2

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Dalika al Kitab-u: That is the Book لَّا یَأۡتِیهِ ٱلۡبَـٰطِلُ مِنۢ بَیۡنِ یَدَیۡهِ وَلَا مِنۡ خَلۡفِهِۦۖ falsehood cannot approach it (the Quran) from before or from behind. The levels of its exaltedness are far from comprehension. It is the gatherer of the ranks of the Exalted Names and Attributes in the Realms of the Unseen and Seen. It is gradually revealed upon your qalb, O Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who completes the Messenger-hood (salutations and greetings upon you and your family by your Lord), compiling in totality the order of the creation of the Universe from the beginning till the end, such that there is no inconsistency in it at all…

 

La raiba fihi: (such that) there is no possibility of doubt in it because, indeed, it is revealed from Us, its words and its meanings.

 

Words: Ghaus Pak (ra) means that they make helpless the most prominent of the orators and the most famous of the well-spoken from competing with the shortest verse of it, even though their claims were boastful.

 

Where as the meaning, it is inclusive of the totality of all the states of realities seen and secrets unseen, which were and which will be in both the worlds, this and the next and it is not possible to know it (that totality) and describe what all is in it, in terms of its wonderful patterns, except for the one who is the knower of the Unseen.

 

And We only sent it upon you, O one who is deserving of the matter of Messenger-hood and Vice-regency, so you (salutations and blessings upon your qalb that receives and reveals the Quran) can guide by it towards the Ocean of Divine Reality and you can guide through it also the one who is obedient to you from the ones who are walking in bewilderment in the wilderness of being astray, because in it…

Huda-n: is guidance, great…

 

Lil Muttaqeen: for the ones who safe-guard with compliance to His Commands and avoid what He disallows for their selves from the impurities of sins forbidden with true purification and a reaching towards the real rank and destination.

 

Safe-guards, avoids, disallows – don’ts!

 

I could not become grateful. I could only decide I didn’t want to be ungrateful. I could not become generous. I could only decide not to be a miser. I could not decide I will be patient. I could only decide I didn’t want to be impatient. I couldn’t decide to be selfless. I could only want to not be selfish. I couldn’t become sensitive. I could just desire to not be insensitive. Even in rituals, I could not decide to pray the two

Sunnah of Fajr without fail. I could only intend to not miss it.

Each time I exercised a don’t, mindful of it, conscious of it like the Imam Ghazali (ra) became, in my being rather than my mind, I reaped a fruit. I was rewarded for the taqwa, for the restraint. When I failed in the don’t, I felt regret.

 

The best example of in following something Maula e Kayinaat (as) said which was also the most difficult. “Even if a man came to you riding on a red camel (the most expensive of the time) and asks you for something, don’t let him leave empty handed.”

 

He said empty handed for us. He probably gave the man everything he possessed!

 

I could not tell myself to always say yes to everyone who asked me for money. That would never happen. My nafs, which I trained to be a miser, would never allow it. Most often I found that when I didn’t give many people anything at all I thought nothing of it.

 

But if I consciously decided I didn’t want to say no to anyone, then I would at least always give them something. A little, a lot, something. Why? Because the promise was to myself. If I broke it, I was a liar. If I didn’t, I felt remorse. If for nothing else, then for being a liar.

 

Any change that came within me was the fruit of emulating a practice of Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his beloved family) or a Prophet (as) or a Friend of God (ra). Because they did it and they told me to do it. They told me how to do it. When I connected the act with them, the manner of executing it became “excellent.”

 

It came with ease.

 

فَأَمَّا مَنۡ أَعۡطَىٰ وَٱتَّقَىٰ

وَصَدَّقَ بِٱلۡحُسۡنَىٰ

فَسَنُیَسِّرُهُۥ لِلۡیُسۡرَىٰ

 

Then as for (him) who gives and is mindful,

and believes in the best,

then We will ease him towards the ease.

Surah Al Layl, Verses 5-8

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Fa amma man aa’ta: So as for the one who gives from that which he was given from Al Haqq from rizq, sustenance, in (both) form and meaning, along with khushu, humility and khudu, submission and khuloos, sincerity, of intention and inner most feelings and different kinds of obedience and worship commanded for him…

 

Wa attaqa: and is mindful in totality of that which is forbidden and that which is prohibited about which Allah’s warnings of restraint have come in them…

 

Wa saddaqa bil husna: and he affirms the limitless demands of the Names of Allah and the effects of His Exalted Attributes which can never be counted and never be enumerated…

 

Fa sanuyassirruhu: then We will prepare for him and give him ability…

 

Lil yusra: for ease towards the way, which is easy, connecting towards the goal of Tauheed, One-ness and Ma’rifa, Divine Recognition, that brings deliverance from the darkness of doubts and the shadows of paranoia.

 

Tauba was my wish to not be the same person. It was my wish that I was dying to change. It was my reward for being forgiven.

  

Forgiveness

 

قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّی ظَلَمۡتُ نَفۡسِی فَٱغۡفِرۡ لِی فَغَفَرَ لَهُۥۤۚ

إِنَّهُۥ هُوَ ٱلۡغَفُورُ ٱلرَّحِیمُ

 

He, the Prophet Musa (as) said, "My Lord! Indeed, I [I] have wronged my soul, so forgive me."

Then He, Subhanahu, forgave him.

Indeed He, He (is) the Oft-Forgiving, the Most Merciful.

Surah Al Qasas, Verse 16

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Qala: He said, the Prophet Musa (as), in humility before Allah Al Haqq, returning to Him, repentant of that which happened from him, pleading with Him with only regret…

 

Rabbi: O my Lord who raises me with the different kinds of Lutf, Affection and Karam, Generosity between me and my enemy and purifies me from the distress that is causing me suffering xxx by the demand of Your Jood, Your Bounty…

 

Inni: Indeed, I, with the steps taken in this matter loathsome…

 

Dalamtu nafsi: wronged my own self and offer it to you for Your Punishment because of the exiting from the demands of Your Boundaries by the killing of this man without the permission of the Shari’a…

 

Faghfir li: so forgive me, O my Lord, my sin after that I repented before you and returned to you from my sin, remorseful and seeking refuge, towards Your Door, returning…

 

Faghafara lahu: so his Lord forgave him his sin after he returned to him sincerely…

 

Innahu huwa al Ghafoor-u: Indeed, He is Al Ghafoor, The Forgiver of all sins of His Servants after they returned to him, in humility, disappointed, as losers…

 

Ar Rahim: He is Merciful for them accepting their tauba, repentance, after they were sincere in it and after he repented and returned about what was they did in error.

 

Ahmed Javaid Sahib said in a lecture once that a relationship loses its meaning when the emotion attached to it disappears. It is the emotion that defines the rights and duties attached to any bond between two people. With a younger person, its shafqat, kindness. With an older its ehtaram, respect. With a contemporary, its muhabbat, love.

 

Hence, he says, the absence of the emotion makes it devoid of ehsaas, feeling. Then it is simply rendered to be a delusion. It has no existence. It bears no reality.

 

It made sense. That was why extreme carelessness and indifference, total unawareness could come to exist in behaviour. No matter how paramount the relationship. Why akhlaq experienced sudden death in relationships that should have been life-long. There was no longer a fear of consequence from displeasing the other. The relationship being void of emotion is what allowed that indifference.

 

What kills emotion? I don’t know. So I asked Qari Sahib.

 

He told me this, “The first thing is that Allah Subhanahu places the inclination for another in one’s heart. It cannot be created. It cannot be caused. When it is pure, it is a blessing and it is endowed. It is the people themselves that make the feeling leave.

 

One reason is the tongue and what comes forth from it. That is from the prodding of Shaitaan in terms of anger etc. Another is lust that corrupts that feeling. For the world or others in relationships which are forbidden. Again Shaitaan.

The other even more important reason emotions become numb, appear dead is ingratitude.”

 

The effect of the blessing had to appear, be seen.

 

If you hide the blessings from Allah Azzo Jal and did not express gratitude for it, He will sieze it from you.

 

Those who were in a state of mindfulness of their akhlaq, its effect on others, taufeeq, ability, was granted. They became of the Saliheen; the ones who corrected and reformed themselves.

 

It was perfectly expressed in the prayer of the Prophet Yusuf (as) that I had been saying for months not realizing the effect it was having on my life:

 

تَوَفَّنِى مُسْلِمًۭا وَأَلْحِقْنِى بِٱلصَّلِحِينَ ‎ رَبِّ

 

Cause me to die as a Muslim, and join me with the righteous."

Surah Yusuf, Verse 101

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then prayed Hazrat Yousuf (as) for himself and he said softly to his Lord, a prayer, that uttered from him only with wisdom, intellect and reasoning, with his invocation:

 

Rabbi: O my Lord who raises me, by Your Unmerited Affection and Your Bounty, with different kinds of guidance and favour that you have granted me…

…

Tawwafini: Make me die and take my soul…

 

Muslim-an: surrendering, entrusting all my matters to you…

 

Walhiqni: and enjoin me, with Your Special Favour…

 

Bi saliheen: with the righteous ones who are the ones who reformed their selves in this life and the Hereafter until they achieved success from You with the honour of meeting You.

 

The same blessed Prophet who taught me that self-deceit would only yield me living like the dead. Unable to see, unable to hear. Veil upon veil upon veil. I had to stop absolving my nafs, no matter the circumstance. It was

 

Shaitaan’s trap: “rationalizations.” In any situation with anyone, I had to take its failing upon my self. Regardless of who did what. Regardless of innocence and guilt.

No one offered the proof of that like Sayyadna Yusuf (as).

 

‏ وَمَآ أُبَرِّئُ نَفْسِىٓ ۚ

إِنَّ ٱلنَّفْسَ لَأَمَّارَةٌۢ بِٱلسُّوٓءِ إِلَّا مَا رَحِمَ رَبِّىٓ ۚ

إِنَّ رَبِّى غَفُورٌۭ رَّحِيمٌۭ ‎

 

"And yet I am not trying to absolve myself.

Indeed, the nafs Ammara is a certain inciter of evil,

unless my Lord bestows Mercy.

Indeed, my Lord (is) Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful."

Surah Yusuf, Verse 53

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

The he, Hazrat Yusuf (as) said:

 

Wa ma ubarri’o: And I do not absolve and do not justify…

 

Nafsi: my nafs, my self, from furataat, excessiveness and ghafalaat, forgetfulness and shameful thoughts and repulsive deeds according to the demands of the organs of lust and animalistic desires and how can I absolve myself and justify it?

 

Inna an nafsa: Indeed the nafs, the base self, that has been embodied in the nature of human beings…

 

La-Ammaarat-un: the forceful commanding of which is by its nature towards …

 

Bis su’: wrong-doing and fasaad, corruption and its focus upon that whenever it’s free and is its nature…

 

Illa ma rahima Rabbi: except for the one upon whom is bestowed the Mercy of my Lord i.e. Allah protects that nafs by His Endless Mercy and Affection from its transgressions and the whisperings of Satan towards it.

 

Inna Rabbi: Indeed my Lord, who has raised me with safeguarding from sin and with virtuousness…

 

Ghafoor-an: is All Forgiving of that which has happened from me from the occurences of my nafs…

 

Raheem-un: is All Merciful. He bestows Mercy towards me with His Fazal, Bounty and He preserves me with His Lutf, Kindness, from those things that make me distant from His Kunuf, Protection and His Jawaar, Safety.

 

The idea of focusing upon what not to do yielded a revelation. What applies to my own self also applied to a relationship with another.

 

If there was a problem that emerged in it I should not focus on what I could do but rather on what I should NOT do. The first took its root in desperation. The overtures, when unreturned, caused heartache and agonizing disappointment. The doing of the action caused the birth of hope that it would be reciprocated. It created the expectation that it would be noticed, appreciated.

 

I knew the drill. It would begin with me thinking of myself as “good” courtesy of Shaitaan’s imprisoning of my nafs with that whispering. Never would I reach the realization that my expectation of an outcome, of a change in another, was the cardinal sin; shirrk!

 

I had just experienced that with the young man in Karachi with whom I exercised patience simply but vowing not to be impatient. With a prayer, calling upon Subhanahu as my Musta’aan as did Hazrat Yaqoub (as) and leaving the matter with Him for resolve.

 

Along side the dua I practiced the attribute of murrawwat from the akhlaq from the blessed person who Allah’s Beloved (salutations and greetings upon the one declared the guide of the Universe by Allah Al Hadi). His instruction to not demean others publicly. There was no one else from the world then left in the equation. It was me, my guide and my Lord.

 

Then ability was granted. The nafs could not grant ability. It only stoked its egoism when it took on missions. Ability was only granted by Allah Al Mutawaffiq, The Granter of taufeeq. Sometimes it arrived with simply a tear that held in it helplessness. In the utterance of a prayer in the words of the Chosen!

 

Every time my nafs tried to do something good, it lasted but for a short time. Then I regressed. My qalb changed and then changed back again. What promised steadfastness, stability was up to The Divine. Hence the prayer of Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon his heart):

 

يَا مُقَلِّبَ الْقُلُوبِ ثَبِّتْ قَلْبِي عَلَى دِينِكَ ‏

 

O Changer of Hearts forever changing!

Make my qalb steadfast upon your religion.

 

When I pondered upon Ghaus Pak (ra) being the seed in my heart I felt overwhelmed. Who would have thought my heart would one day become hallowed ground!

 

The blessed of Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon that name) only appears in the Quran four times. When I came across an instance in writing this piece where it did, I was excited to study the context of its appearance.

 

وَٱلَّذِینَ ءَامَنُوا۟ وَعَمِلُوا۟ ٱلصَّـٰلِحَـٰتِ وَءَامَنُوا۟ بِمَا نُزِّلَ عَلَىٰ مُحَمَّدࣲ وَهُوَ ٱلۡحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمۡ كَفَّرَ عَنۡهُمۡ سَیِّءَاتِهِمۡ وَأَصۡلَحَ بَالَهُمۡ

 

And those who believe and do righteous deeds, and believe in what is revealed to Muhammad (salutations and greetings upon him and his deeds),

and it (is) the truth from their Lord,

He will remove from them their misdeeds, and relieve their concerns.

Surah Muhammad, Verse 2

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Walladina aamano: And those who attained to imaan, faith in Allah and in His Rasool (salutations and greetings upon him and his honoured family by their Lord)…

 

Wa: and along with that…

 

Aamilo salihaat: do righteous deeds persistently, that create closeness for them with Allah…

 

Wa aamilu ala bima nuzzila ala Muhammad: and believe in what was revealed upon Muhammad (salutations and greetings upon his blessed name) i.e. in the totality of what has been revealed to him…

 

Wa: and they attest to all that is descent upon him…

 

Huwa al haqq: it is the truth, truthful according to the happenings, (the truth that is) descending…

 

Mir Rabbihim: from their Lord, without doubt and confusion…

 

Kaffara: He erases and removes…

 

Anhum: from them, Subhanahu…

 

Sayyiatihim: their bad deeds i.e. their consequences and their punishment from them…

 

Wa aslaha: and He reforms what was attached to them (those sinful deeds), and He changes the consequences that follow…

 

Baalahum: in their states of being i.e. He makes their states the best in religion and in the world according to the measure of this world and the Hereafter and He compensates them with the best of rewards.

 

Wa aslaha: He, Subhanahu, reforms…

 

The definition of aslaha, to reform, was different when it was Subhanahu doing the reforming for His Servant. It was the reward of deeds that were mindful of disobedience, thus allowing closeness. It was the reward of believing in His Seal of Prophet-hood (salutations and greetings upon his noor). Sins would be erased, their consequences would be removed, they would change so that states changed. To become the best!

 

Subhan Allah!

 

One page that would keep opening for me at the shrines was from the end of Surah Al Mo’minoon. It was always the last page. I kept translating different verses from it until I reached the last verse. It was a supplication that Subhanahu was teaching His Beloved (salutations and greetings upon the mercy of the Universe and his blessed family by His Lord Ar Raheem).

 

It became my dua!

 

وَقُل رَّبِّ ٱغۡفِرۡ وَٱرۡحَمۡ وَأَنتَ خَیۡرُ ٱلرَّٰحِمِینَ

 

And say, "My Lord! Forgive and have mercy,

and You are the Best of those who show mercy."

Surah Al Mo’minoon, Verse 118

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Wa: And after that Subhanahu made it certain, the success for the Mo’mineen, the believers, Al Muwwahideen, who are certain in the One-ness of Allah, in the beginning of this Surah and He deprived the Kafireen, the deniers of truth, Al Mushrikeen, the ones who associate others with Allah in the end (of the Surah)…

 

Qul: Say O Akmal Ar Rusul, O Messenger who completes the Messenger-hood (greetings and salutations upon him and his family by His Allah who loves him), educating everyone who considers you his leader and follows in your footsteps and warning them as well of this and reminding them…

 

Rabbi: O my Lord, who raised me by your Kunf, Protection and Jawar, Safe Guarding…

 

Ighfir: forgive me and hide for me my selfish, egoistic self from my inner eyes…

 

Warham: and have mercy upon me by the negation of the essence of my nature and dissolve it in Your Essence.

 

Wa anta: And You with Your Essence and Your Names and Your Attributes…

 

Khair ur Rahimeen: are the Best of the Merciful, who are also demands of Your Attributes and reflections of Your Names and everything is with You and from You and there is no one who is Merciful except You and there is no Lord for me other than You.

 

For the first time I noticed that ask did not have in it a time frame. It was a plea for now as well as the Day of Judgement. It was a plea for now!

 

Normally in my translations of the tafseer of the verses, Qari Sahib and I never got into how Ghaus Pak (ra) starts and ends the exegesis of each Surah. There would be the opening section addressing the ones especially chosen by Allah Subhanahu. At the end would then be a section addressing the ordinary.

 

For some reason, Qari Sahib sent me the closing section of Surah Al Mo’minoon and we translated it.

 

Khatim as Surah – Al Mo’minoon

 

“O Muhammadi (his servant)! Upon you, as Al Mutahaqqiq, the one steadfast upon the station of worship, is compulsory this prayer (above) which you were made to hear by Allah Al Haqq through the tongue of your Prophet (greetings and salutations upon him and his family O Beloved by your Lord who chose his words) and be forever in its utterance, especially in your seclusion and after your prayers, determined upon it, holding on to this firmly.

 

Hear this prayer with acceptance and willingness until it becomes rooted in your heart and be trained in it till your state speaks through it without help from your tongue.

 

And when you are certain and settled in this rank, you will have completed the station of worship.

 

So for you, after that the progression of your worship is perfected by taufeeq, ability, granted from Allah and love from Him (you will reach) towards the rank of dissolution in Allah and being everlasting in His Permanence.

 

And this will not be completed except by the disappearance of your nature and vanishing of your personality and your being (an ordinary) human, until it is dropped from you, your personality completely and your individuality is dissolved overall.

 

And at this point you will be successful by how much you will be fated in success and you will reach what you are ordained to reach and there is no purpose except Allah and no end except Him.

 

It was comforting that all I had to do is bring a verse in to my state. Be in synch with the ask in it with the sincerity of my heart. That was easy; I awaited forgiveness. I was desperate for my selfish ego to be hidden from me. I wanted my tabyat, the acquired nature to be dissolved, to entirely disappear.

I memorized the prayer and its utterance came forth from my tongue through my days and in my nights.

 

The other prayer that had impacted my life had come by way of Imam Zain ul Abedin (as). After I had heard that his prayers “are the saplings for nisbat, association, with Nabi Pak’s (salutations and greetings upon him and his family by Allah Al Wudood) duas, I asked Qari Sahib if he had the book mentioned in the lecture; It was called Saheefa e Sajjadia.

He did and he sent it to me. It was in pdf format. I could barely read anything, the print was so small. I decided to do what I always do. Go to a random page and see what came up for me.

 

Almost all the prayers were long spanning several lines on an entire page. On the one I landed, the title was “The prayer for his own self and his loved ones in his family and his friends.”

On the translated Urdu page was a paragraph break. The first line of that paragraph was the supplication I picked and it was this:

 

اللَّهُمَّ أَغْنِنَا عَنْ هِبَةِ الْوَهَابِيْنَ بِهِبَتِكَ،

وَاكْفِنَا وَحْشَةَ الْقَاطِعِين بِصِلَتِكَ،

حَتّى لا نَرْغَبَ إلَى أحَد مَعَ بَذْلِكَ،

وَلاَ نَسْتَوْحِشَ مِنْ أحَد مَعَ فَضْلِكَ

 

Allahuma aghnina an hibbat il wahhabiyaani bi-hibatika

wakfina wahshat-il qaatiyeena bi silatika hatta la narghaba ila ahdim ma’ bi-dalika

wa la nastauhisha min ahdim ma’ fadlika

 

My first focus was upon the words that took their root in the Exalted Names of Allah. One was in the 99, Al Ghani. I looked up the exact meaning to understand the plea. What was I asking for myself when I said, ‘Aghnina - Make us ghani…?’

 

Ghani: From the root gha-noon-yeh which has the following classical Arabic connotations: to be free from wants or needs, to be self-sufficient, independent, to be able to do without help from others, to be content, satisfied, flourishing.

 

The other Beautiful Name was Al Kafi also meaning The Sufficient One as in He is Sufficient for all His Servants’ needs.

 

O Lord!

 

Make us free of the need of being gifted by others with only being granted by You

and make us self-sufficient from being melancholy because of the cutting off of ties by

others with the attachment of Your Being,

until we do not ask anything from anyone else because of it (that Gifting and Attachment)

and we do not ever feel the misery of loneliness because of anyone as a resut of Your Bounty upon us.

 

Ameen summa Ameen summa Ameem

 

I felt elated!

 

The universality of the prayers of Subhanahu’s Chosen always touched my heart. The pronoun was always, without fail, “us.” The words would be spoken by one but it would be asked for all of Mankind. No one was left outside. Everybody was included in the circle of humanity.

 

There is no such thing as coincidence in Islam. Everything is in the Knowledge of Allah Al Aleem. Where we land is a function of our choices, courtesy of our free will. Those choices are ours. The outcome is just pre-known and recorded in the Lauh e Mahfooz, the Tablet of Fate. That is what the Arif is gifted access to. All he has to do is glance at it whenever he wishes for anyone.

 

Imam Zain ul Abedin’s (as) prayer was a God-send, there is no doubt about that. I started memorizing it in Arabic. My need was certainly captured in it perfectly. Other cutting off ties suddenly appeared like a blessing instead of a trial. The closing of doors was necessary, as Ghaus Pak (ra) had said, for the Greatest Door of Subhanahu to open.

 

A mushrik would never be allowed any nearness at all. A person with ugly manners would never come close to it. Those people who were mean to me were making me in turn be mean to them. I hated that the most about being around them. The sarcasm that would spill from my tongue, the barbs impolite, the impatience rude. It was a nightmare. That a month ago my nafs, knowing that would be its behaviour, still pined for!

 

The thing about truth is that whenever it appears it challenges the status quo, whatever it might be. That is the Sunnah of Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his family and those who gained imaan, faith, by bowing in obedience to him. Love is the purest form of truth. That is why the rank of the beloved is the highest in the rungs of spirituality.

 

Al Fath Ar Rabbani:

 

“You are not of the ones who are without fear (as in the ones who don’t feel it) because without deed, the rote memorization of knowledge is all you possess. Therefore you cannot be an inheritor of the Prophets. Their inheritance only comes from knowledge and deed accompanied by sincerity.

 

Be in a state of awareness of your station and do not move towards that which is has not been apportioned for you.

 

Be in agreement with that has been destined for you by Allah Azzo Jal in your fate. If you do that, for sure, He will grant you ability and bestow kindness upon you and lift the burdens from your head and will treat you with an attitude of softness in this world and the Hereafter.”

 

A promise!

 

“When the imaan, the faith, of the Mo’min, the believer, becomes strong only then he is given the title of Sahib e Iqaan, the person of certainty. When that iqaan becomes strong, he is called the Arif, the one who knows Allah. When his knowledge becomes strong, he is named Muhibb, the lover. And when that love becomes steadfast, he is called the Mehboob, the beloved.”

 

Each time love appeared in my life, it forced me to change. Luckily I submitted to that change because I loved love. It’s swooning effect, its joy, its appearance. Even when later it almost always turned out to be an illusion. I was always overcome by it so I had no interest in preserving whatever version of myself I was then. I was in submission to it.

 

Yet I practiced my faith taking submission to my Lord who created me for granted. Even though it always formed the first layer of my identity.

 

I started reading about my faith fervently in my 30s but nothing changed in my behaviour till I went to Iraq. Till I went to Imam Ali (as), the Door of the City of Knowledge. That’s why I tell anyone and everyone I care for. If they want a relationship with Allah and His Beloved (salutations and greetings upon him and his family eternally) that possesses in it an ever evolving truth, an appearance before Maula e Ali (as) is the first step. It is incumbent.

 

He is the one who opens the door for knowledge to meet deed.

 

Rajab is his month. As I pray my new-found prayers, I wish for my identity to be shed and my states to be altered in it.

 

Forever!

 

I couldn’t help but think that I was brought full circle to a beginning. A thought that began in Damascus on the roof of a hotel, staring at a mountain was meant to show me that my thoughts, almost of them were mere imkaan, possibilities.

 

Each one reflected the state of my heart which was like a cupboard stacked with idols of hopes and statues of expectations. All of which were coated in ill-will. Both were flip sides of the same coin of shirrk!

 

And only two broke idols. Then or now!

 

As recorded by Allama Haysmi (ra) in Majma’ az Zawaid:

Imam Ali (as) narrates: “I accompanied Rasool Allah (salutations and greeting upon him and his family) until we reached the Ka’aba. Then Rasool Allah (salutations and greeting upon him and his family) stood upon my shoulders.

I tried to stand up and Rasool Allah (salutations and greeting upon him and his family) felt the weakness in me so he said, “Sit.”

 

I sat and he came down and said again, “You stand upon my shoulders,” so I climbed his shoulders and stood up.

 

Then I felt that if I wanted to, I could hold onto the edges of the sky.

 

I reached upwards inside the Ka’aba and there was a statue there of copper and bronze. I started taking it apart from the left and the right and from the front and back, until I had successfully dismantled it.

 

Nabi Kareem (salutations and greeting upon him and his family most eminent in the blessings of Allah) said, “Throw it,” so I threw it. Then I broke it into pieces the way glass is broken into pieces. Then I descended and he and I left the Ka’aba without coming across anyone.”

 

Only two are our friends.

 

‏إِنَّمَا وَلِيُّكُمُ ٱللَّهُ وَرَسُولُهُۥ وَٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ ٱلَّذِينَ يُقِيمُونَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةَ وَيُؤْتُونَ ٱلزَّكَوٰةَ وَهُمْ رَكِعُونَ ‎

 

Your only ally is Allah and His Messenger, and those who believe, and those who establish prayer and give zakat and they are those who bow down in prayer.

Surah Al Maida’, Verse 55

 

Except that the verse was sent down in praise of one person’s deed:

 

“Huzoor Ghaus Pak (ra) says the verse is revealed for Maula Ali (may Allah gives honour to his countenance), when a beggar asked him (for alms) while he was in ruku’, bowing in prayer, and he loosened his ring so that it dropped (for him to take).”

 

Tafseer e Jilani

Then when Allah, Exalted is He, forbade the Mo’mineen from friendships with the Kuffar, the infidels, and love towards them and Allah, in emphasis, decided to inform them as to who is deserving of friendship and love and the reality of the two, He said…

 

Inna walliyyukum Allah: Indeed, Allah is your Friend, The One who is in charge of your matters as related to all kinds of ordinary love…

 

Wa Rasooluhu: and so is His Messenger (peace be upon him), who is His Vice-regent second to Him, also in charge…

 

Walladina aamino: and those who brought faith in Allah with a special love (extraordinary) because of their following the Prophet (peace be upon him) and they…

 

Alladina yuqeemoona: are the one who are forever…

As salat: in prayer that brings one close to Allah’s Essence…

And yu’toona az zakata: and they give charity which cleanses their batin, inner being, from focus on anything other than Allah…

 

Wa: in the state of…

 

Hum rak’ioon: bowing in their prayer.

 

The Imam’s prayer brought one closer to Allah’s Essence. The emulation of his charity cleansed the batin from shirrk.

 

The perfect manifestation of spirituality, jurisprudence, akhlaq – morality, character, behaviour, all stemmed from them and theirs. Whether they were the family and lineage by blood or companions or through the spiritual silsilas, all linked together in a chain from Master to disciple and so on.

 

One person of utmost importance before Subhanahu is Syeda Bibi Zainab (as). She was what made Damascus Paradise, the title given to the city by her beloved grand-father (salutations and greetings upon the life of the Universe and his honoured family) years before her entrance into it.

 

She was the reason the city was enclosed in a dome of Divine Mercy that brought souls into their most exalted state, Mutma’inna, effortlessly. I knew she was the reason that I was shown how that state of contentedness could come to exist elsewhere and everywhere, even for the ordinary.

 

That is what I realized from all the verses where Allah Al Muqtadir declares that He only does what He wills and nothing impedes in that.

 

He purifies whom He wills from Shaitaan.

 

وَلَكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُزَكِّى مَن يَشَآءُ ۗ

…but Allah purifies whom He wills.

Surah An-Nur, Verse 21

 

Wa lakinn Allah: But Allah Ta’ala, the One who manages the affairs of His Servants…

 

Yuzzaki: inserts sincerity and purifies them from the traps of Satan and his evil promptings…

 

Mayyasha: whom so ever He wills, by virtue of His Wisdom and His Control by which He forms the human being…

He guides and misguides who he wills as a function of their obedience to His Beloved (salutations and greetings upon him and his softness by his Lord who keep him and his family in His Eyes at all times):

 

فَإِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يُضِلُّ مَن يَشَآءُ وَيَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُۖ

فَلَا تَذْهَبْ نَفْسُكَ عَلَيْهِمْ حَسَرَتٍۚ

 

For verily, Allah lets him go astray who wills to go astray, just as he guides him that wills to be guided.

Hence, O Allah’s Habeeb (salutations of peace be upon you and your family eternally),

don’t let your sorrow over them destroy you.

Surah Fatir, Verse 8

 

Fa Innallaha: The One who possess all Honour (Al-Mutazziz), who has Supreme Authority and Majesty, who controls all He wants…

 

Yudillu: He makes (some) wayward from the Path of Tauheed, according to His Wrath and according to His Majesty…

 

Mayya sha’: those of His Creation who are disobedient, sinking them in waywardness and making them lost…

 

Wa yahdi maayya sha’: and He guides and gives guidance (to others), for indeed, this is what is asked for as help by them first of all. This (Decision) is a function only and only of Allah’s Will and His Choice. Nothing is allowed to interrupt that or become involved in it in any way whatsoever.

 

Fa la tadhab nafsuka: So don’t exhaust yourself, O Beloved (peace be upon him), and don’t be a cause of your own extreme anguish and torment…

 

Alaihim: over the ones who are astray, though you love for them guidance and wish it for them…

 

Hasaraat: feeling sad for them and sorry for them, pining over this wish of yours for them again and again feeling that sorrow for them, layering grief upon grief because of their waywardness and refusal to accept guidance.

 

The exercise of my don’ts. That was the only hope for my obedience.

 

In repeating the meaning of the verse again Ghaus Pak (ra) says for emphasis:

 

“For that person who thinks his sin is goodness and thinks the deed is good for his nafs and believes it to be correct, all the time being unaware that it is in fact falsehood. This is the reason he has turned from the Right Path, thus totally distancing himself from guidance.

 

And you, O Beloved Messenger (peace be upon him) who completes The Message, will you torture yourself over them in sorrow wondering all the whole; “Why don’t they accept guidance and why don’t they bring faith?” Indeed, Allah makes astray those He wishes to make astray and guides those He wishes to guide. So don’t feel badly for them.”

 

The verses went on and on. In reference to every aspect of life. It was Subhanahu’s Will to bestow His Rahma, Mercy, Fazal, Bounty, Rizq, livelihood, Noor, His Light, Taqwa, His Consciousness. Darajaat, ranks of closeness leading to Him, Nasr, His Help, Huda, His Guidance, Sama’, inner hearing, Baseera, seeing from the eyes of the heart, Izza, honour in both the worlds upon whoever He wants, whenever He wishes. It was a sustenance complete, mental, emotional, physical, material and spiritual and it was for a person as well as their family.

 

If heaven and hell are states, as Iqbal says, hell is possibilities. Heaven is surrender.

 

Thus I come to await Rajab this year like no other month and the 13th like no other day I have ever waited for before. It will begin with asking Allah Al Haailo, The Only One who comes between, to be the barzakh, the separation of mercy between my states of being a Mo’min and my states of being a Kafir. I was both the seas, salty and sweet.

 

It will end with the last verse of Surah Al Baqarah, the series of prayers gifted to The Beloved (salutations and greetings upon him and his family who are the source of Allah’s Forgiveness in the Universe).

 

َعَن ابْن عَبَّاس قَالَ: بَيْنَمَا جِبْرِيلُ قَاعِدٌ عِنْدَ النَّبِيِّ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ سَمِعَ نَقِيضًا مِنْ فَوْقِهِ فَرَفَعَ رَأْسَهُ فَقَالَ: «هَذَا بَابٌ مِنَ السَّمَاءِ فُتِحَ الْيَوْمَ لَمْ يُفْتَحْ قَطُّ إِلَّا الْيَوْمَ فَنَزَلَ مِنْهُ مَلَكٌ فَقَالَ هَذَا مَلَكٌ نَزَلَ إِلَى الْأَرْضِ لَمْ يَنْزِلْ قَطُّ إِلَّا الْيَوْمَ فَسَلَّمَ وَقَالَ أَبْشِرْ بِنُورَيْنِ أُوتِيتَهُمَا لَمْ يُؤْتَهُمَا نَبِيٌّ قَبْلَكَ فَاتِحَةُ الْكِتَابِ وَخَوَاتِيمُ سُورَةِ الْبَقَرَةِ لَنْ تَقْرَأَ بِحَرْفٍ مِنْهُمَا إِلَّا أَعْطيته» . رَوَاهُ مُسلم

 

Hazrat Ibn e Abbas (ratu) narrates:

 

Hazrat Gibrael (as) was sitting near the Prophet (salutations and greetings upon him and his family) when they heard a loud sound above them so they turned to look up and he said,

“This door has been opened for the first time in the skies and an angel has descended from it.”

 

Hazrat Gibrael (as) said, “This angel has not come to the Earth ever before.”

 

He, the angel, presented his salam and said, “Glad tidings come for you with two nur, Divine Lights, that have been sent only for you and not for any Prophet before you. Al Fatiha and the ending verses of Surah Al Baqarah.

 

Not will a word of them be uttered that will not be granted.

 

Rabbana…O my Lord who raises me with His Lutf, Affection and Fazl, Bounty…

 

رَبَّنَا لَا تُؤَاخِذۡنَاۤ إِن نَّسِینَاۤ أَوۡ أَخۡطَأۡنَاۚ

 

"Our Lord! (Do) not take us to task if we forget or we err.

Surah Al Baqarah, Verse 286

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Then when he pointed, Subhanahu, towards the secret behind obligations, He willed towards the performance of what was commanded to do, which is not possible except by His granting ability and a pulling from Him. For this purpose He has directed the dua, prayer and ista’anat, the asking of help and munajaat, the silent supplication in His Words:

 

Rabbana: O Our Lord, The One who raises us by His Lutf, Kindness, for the acceptance of Your Obligations (upon us) so we can reach towards the Atmosphere of Your Tauheed, One-ness and Your Glorification…

 

La tu-aakhid-na in naseena: do not take us to task for being forgetful about performing what You commanded us to do because of (the delusions of) our possibilities…

 

Au akhtaana: or our erring in it because of the lack of our understanding.

 

رَبَّنَا وَلَا تَحۡمِلۡ عَلَیۡنَاۤ إِصۡرࣰا كَمَا حَمَلۡتَهُۥ عَلَى ٱلَّذِینَ مِن قَبۡلِنَاۚ

رَبَّنَا وَلَا تُحَمِّلۡنَا مَا لَا طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِۦۖ

وَٱعۡفُ عَنَّا وَٱغۡفِرۡ لَنَا وَٱرۡحَمۡنَاۤۚ

أَنتَ مَوۡلَىٰنَا فَٱنصُرۡنَا عَلَى ٱلۡقَوۡمِ ٱلۡكَـٰفِرِینَ

 

And (do) not lay upon us a burden like that (which) You laid on those who (were) from before us.

Our Lord! [And] (do) not lay on us what we don’t have (the) strength (to bear).

And pardon us, and forgive us and have mercy on us.

You (are) our Protector, so help us against the people - [the] disbelievers.

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Rabbana wa la tahmil alayna isran: O Our Lord, do not lay upon us a burden of a veil thick and a curtain heavy which blinds the vision of Our quloob, the station within Our hearts that recognizes You, from the comprehension of Nur, the light of Your Tauheed, Your One-ness…

 

Kama hamalta-hu alladina min qabli-na Rabbana wa la tuhammil-na: the way you burdened the ones who came before us. Our Lord, do not burden us with the exhaustion of our ritualistic exercises and the hardships of obligations intensive due to the filth of imkaan, possibilities and ambiguities in relationships…

 

Ma la taqata lana bihi wa’fu: (exhaustion and hardship) that we don’t have the strength to bear and remove them, erase (them), by Your Favour…

 

An-na: for us (these burdens) from the demands of the characteristics of possibilities (in our nature)…

 

Waghfir lana: and forgive us i.e. conceal for us, O our Lord, our selfishness and ego-ism and the true nature of our personality from our own eyes….

 

Wa: and after that…

 

Irham-na: have mercy upon us with Your Mercy Expansive.

 

Anta Maulana: You are Our Lord and Master, The Controller of our blessings …

 

Fan sur na: so help us with your help and your succour so we can make well known Your Tauheed…

 

Ala qaum il Kafireen: against the nation of the deniers of truth and the ungrateful, As Saatireen, the ones covered by the haze of their false natures from the sun of the truth apparent on the horizon.

 

Ghaus Pak (ra) prays: Make us steadfast by Your Lutf, Affection and by Your Ultimate Truth and by Your Tauheed, One-ness, Ya Khair ul Nasireen, O Best of Helpers, Ya Hadi-il Muddaleen, O Guide of the Astray!

 

In another tradition by Imam Abd bin Hameed the incident of the descent of the blessed verses ends with the line: “When the angel Gibrael (as) read the last two verses of Surah Al Baqarah, Nabi Kareem (salutations and greetings upon him and his family by his Lord who taught them prayers that bring us relief) said, “Ameen.”

 

In the echo of that “Ameen,” the one uttered by the Beloved of Allah Subhanahu (salutations or greetings upon his prayers and those of his blessed family’s prayers for us which are always answered by their Lord), “Ameen summa Ameena summa Ameen…”

 

رَبِّ ٱجۡعَلۡنِی مُقِیمَ ٱلصَّلَوٰةِ وَمِن ذُرِّیَّتِیۚ

رَبَّنَا وَتَقَبَّلۡ دُعَاۤءِ

رَبَّنَا ٱغۡفِرۡ لِی وَلِوَٰلِدَیَّ وَلِلۡمُؤۡمِنِینَ یَوۡمَ یَقُومُ ٱلۡحِسَابُ

 

My Lord! Make me an establisher (of) the prayer, and from my offsprings.

Our Lord! and accept my prayer.

Our Lord! Forgive me and my parents and the believers (on) the Day of Reckoning.

Surah Ibrahim, Verse 40-41

 

Tafseer e Jilani

 

Rabbi ja’alni muqeem as salati: O my Lord! Make me steadfast in prayer in the manner of khudu’, intense compliance (of the heart) and khushu’, submission and tabattal, devotion and ikhlas, sincerity…

 

Wa: and make…

 

Min zurriyati: from my offspring as well ones who are steadfast in it like the etiquettes mentioned previously.

 

Rabbana: O Our Lord! Respond to my supplication…

 

Wa taqabbal dua: and accept (my) prayer in my favour and in favour of my children.

 

Rabbana aghfir-li: O Our Lord, Forgive me by your Favour, for if You do not, I don’t have control for my self over harm or benefit…

 

Wa liwalidayya wa lil Mo’mineena: and forgive my parents and the believers, all of them, and forgive in accordance with the demands of your Jood, Generosity, my errors and their errors…

 

Youma yaqoom ul hisaab: on the Day of Reckoning when the Register of deeds will be opened and accountability be asked for everything which happened in sin.

 

Ameen!

 

With several 'bods' aboard, Royal Navy 'Presentation Team's' Westland Wessex HU.5 XT764/RN heads out from a hazy Shoreham to an unknown venue back in June 1980.

 

At some point her codes was also noted as 'PT' to reflect the Presentation Team - however maybe someone realised that had other connotations so they changed it to RN......??

 

Scanned 35mm Transparency

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1907_Postcard_with_Navajo_Swas...

 

en.wiktionary.org/wiki/swastika

 

I find it interesting that among both types of Indians, i.e. real Indians from India, and those called Indians, i.e. indigenous people from the American Southwest, that the symbol means the same thing, 'good luck'.

 

It's unfortunate it has also picked up other, less savoury connotations.

 

Remington spent much time in the Southwest, and he lived at a time when the swastika meant 'good luck' in both Southwestern indigenous cultures and Sanskrit, and was well-known to mean that, and was much adopted throughout the English-speaking world.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Remington

 

Frederic Remington Art Museum; Ogdensburg, New York.

In October 1981, flying tiger ancient human remains from Guizhou Provincial Museum trial excavation, the accumulation of complex, broadly divided into early and late phases. Early formation of yellow or grayish yellow, unearthed panda, Stegodon fossils, stone products are made for the late Paleolithic culture era. Advanced formation is black, black, unearthed animal genetic pulp for extant species, and human mandibular and chipped stone, grinding stone, grinding bone, pottery and other large, geological time for the Holocene, culture in the age of the Neolithic age, that about 4000 years ago to 6000 years.

 

Unearthed stone products made a total of 532 pieces of raw materials, mainly to flint stone, there is, nuclear, stone etc.. The stone to stone, with the forward direction of processing processing, types of hit device, a scraper, tip like device and dolabriform etc.. The scraper accounted for 76%, tip like device is small but fine processing. The axe is a symbol of the transformation of Neolithic culture. 27 pieces of polished stone, delicate process, a stone axe, stone adzes, stone spinning wheels, stone scraper, stone arrow head, small stones (spear) 8. The number of stone adzes, regular shape, with long oblique cutting tool representative. 79 pieces of bone, in addition to the 1 pieces of grinding residual bone scraper, are making bone, bone and bone shovel cone. The three notches in the teeth may be scratching the porcupine symbol. In addition to pottery and ball spinning round round cake 1, the rest are all pieces of artifacts. 1494 tablets. The uneven thickness, thickness of 1.2 cm, thickness of only 0.2 cm, high temperature, hard texture. About 70% of sand pottery, pottery sand shale pottery class accounted for 30%, very little. Sand and sand are mainly sand. Pottery ornamentation is complicated, there are thick rope lines and Fang Gewen cone, tattoo, carved lines and lines and other additional cone. There are 3 pieces of pottery pottery, which has 1 pieces of orange powder is subjected to pottery coating inside and outside the grey clay, on the exterior is painted with two parallel red bands. This is the first time in Guizhou, Guizhou is also the earliest pottery record.

 

The site has a new and old stone formation, and the cultural connotation is rich. Pottery appear more attractive, but considerable differences in advanced culture. These have great significance to the study of the relationship between the new and the old stone culture in Guizhou and the time continuity of the times.

 

In February 23, 1982, the Guizhou Provincial People's Government approved the publication of the provincial cultural relics protection units. 1981年10月，飞虎山古人类遗址由贵州省博物馆试掘，洞内堆积复杂，大致分早、晚两期。早期地层呈黄色或灰黄色，出土大熊猫、剑齿象等化石，石制品均为打制，文化时代为旧石器时代晚期。晚期地层呈黑色、灰黑色，出土动物遗髓为现生属种，并出人类下颌件和打制石器、磨制石器、磨制骨器、大量的陶片等，地质时代为全新世，文化时代属新石器时代，推测距今约4000年至6000年。

遗址出土打制的石制品共532件，原料以燧石为主，有是核、石片、石器等。石器以石片为主，加工方向以正向加工为主，类型有砸器、刮削器、尖状器和斧形器等。其中刮削器占76%，尖状器虽少但加工精细。斧形器似为向新石器文化转化的象征。磨制石器27件，加工精致，有石斧、石锛、石纺轮、石刮刀、石箭(矛)头、小石块等8种。石锛数量多，形制规整，以长形斜刃具代表性。骨器79件，除1件残的磨制骨刮刀外，均为打制骨器，有骨锥和骨铲。其中豪猪牙上的三道刻痕可能是刻划符。陶器除圆饼式及圆珠纺轮各1件外，其余全是器物碎片。计1494片。其厚度不匀，厚者达1.2厘米，薄者仅0.2厘米，火候高，质地坚硬。夹砂灰陶约占70%，夹砂黑陶占30%，泥质类陶极少。夹砂陶以夹细砂为主。陶片纹饰复杂多样，有粗细绳纹、方格纹、锥刺纹、刻划纹和附加锥纹等。陶片中有3片彩陶，其中有1片是在泥质灰陶的内外施以粉澄色陶衣，再于外表绘有两条平行的红色条带。这是贵州首次发现，也是贵州迄今最早的彩陶记录。

遗址具有新、旧石器地层叠压，文化内涵丰富。彩陶的出现更引人瞩目，但中、晚期文化差异颇大。这些对研究贵州新、旧石器文化的相互关系和时代延续问题具有重要的意义。

1982年2月23日，经贵州省人民政府批准公布为省级文物保护单位。

 

Bali is an island and province of Indonesia. The province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and Nusa Ceningan. It is located at the westernmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, between Java to the west and Lombok to the east. Its capital of Denpasar is located at the southern part of the island.

 

With a population of 3,890,757 in the 2010 census, and 4,225,000 as of January 2014, the island is home to most of Indonesia's Hindu minority. According to the 2010 Census, 83.5% of Bali's population adhered to Balinese Hinduism, followed by 13.4% Muslim, Christianity at 2.5%, and Buddhism 0.5%.

 

Bali is a popular tourist destination, which has seen a significant rise in numbers since the 1980s. It is renowned for its highly developed arts, including traditional and modern dance, sculpture, painting, leather, metalworking, and music. The Indonesian International Film Festival is held every year in Bali.

 

Bali is part of the Coral Triangle, the area with the highest biodiversity of marine species. In this area alone over 500 reef building coral species can be found. For comparison, this is about 7 times as many as in the entire Caribbean. There is a wide range of dive sites with high quality reefs, all with their own specific attractions. Many sites can have strong currents and swell, so diving without a knowledgeable guide is inadvisable. Most recently, Bali was the host of the 2011 ASEAN Summit, 2013 APEC and Miss World 2013.

 

HISTORY

ANCIENT

Bali was inhabited around 2000 BC by Austronesian people who migrated originally from Southeast Asia and Oceania through Maritime Southeast Asia. Culturally and linguistically, the Balinese are closely related to the people of the Indonesian archipelago, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Oceania. Stone tools dating from this time have been found near the village of Cekik in the island's west.

 

In ancient Bali, nine Hindu sects existed, namely Pasupata, Bhairawa, Siwa Shidanta, Waisnawa, Bodha, Brahma, Resi, Sora and Ganapatya. Each sect revered a specific deity as its personal Godhead.

 

Inscriptions from 896 and 911 don't mention a king, until 914, when Sri Kesarivarma is mentioned. They also reveal an independent Bali, with a distinct dialect, where Buddhism and Sivaism were practiced simultaneously. Mpu Sindok's great granddaughter, Mahendradatta (Gunapriyadharmapatni), married the Bali king Udayana Warmadewa (Dharmodayanavarmadeva) around 989, giving birth to Airlangga around 1001. This marriage also brought more Hinduism and Javanese culture to Bali. Princess Sakalendukirana appeared in 1098. Suradhipa reigned from 1115 to 1119, and Jayasakti from 1146 until 1150. Jayapangus appears on inscriptions between 1178 and 1181, while Adikuntiketana and his son Paramesvara in 1204.

 

Balinese culture was strongly influenced by Indian, Chinese, and particularly Hindu culture, beginning around the 1st century AD. The name Bali dwipa ("Bali island") has been discovered from various inscriptions, including the Blanjong pillar inscription written by Sri Kesari Warmadewa in 914 AD and mentioning "Walidwipa". It was during this time that the people developed their complex irrigation system subak to grow rice in wet-field cultivation. Some religious and cultural traditions still practised today can be traced to this period.

 

The Hindu Majapahit Empire (1293–1520 AD) on eastern Java founded a Balinese colony in 1343. The uncle of Hayam Wuruk is mentioned in the charters of 1384-86. A mass Javanese emigration occurred in the next century.

 

PORTUGUESE CONTACTS

The first known European contact with Bali is thought to have been made in 1512, when a Portuguese expedition led by Antonio Abreu and Francisco Serrão sighted its northern shores. It was the first expedition of a series of bi-annual fleets to the Moluccas, that throughout the 16th century usually traveled along the coasts of the Sunda Islands. Bali was also mapped in 1512, in the chart of Francisco Rodrigues, aboard the expedition. In 1585, a ship foundered off the Bukit Peninsula and left a few Portuguese in the service of Dewa Agung.

 

DUTCH EAST INDIA

In 1597 the Dutch explorer Cornelis de Houtman arrived at Bali, and the Dutch East India Company was established in 1602. The Dutch government expanded its control across the Indonesian archipelago during the second half of the 19th century (see Dutch East Indies). Dutch political and economic control over Bali began in the 1840s on the island's north coast, when the Dutch pitted various competing Balinese realms against each other. In the late 1890s, struggles between Balinese kingdoms in the island's south were exploited by the Dutch to increase their control.

 

In June 1860 the famous Welsh naturalist, Alfred Russel Wallace, travelled to Bali from Singapore, landing at Buleleng on the northcoast of the island. Wallace's trip to Bali was instrumental in helping him devise his Wallace Line theory. The Wallace Line is a faunal boundary that runs through the strait between Bali and Lombok. It has been found to be a boundary between species of Asiatic origin in the east and a mixture of Australian and Asian species to the west. In his travel memoir The Malay Archipelago, Wallace wrote of his experience in Bali:

 

I was both astonished and delighted; for as my visit to Java was some years later, I had never beheld so beautiful and well-cultivated a district out of Europe. A slightly undulating plain extends from the seacoast about ten or twelve miles inland, where it is bounded by a fine range of wooded and cultivated hills. Houses and villages, marked out by dense clumps of coconut palms, tamarind and other fruit trees, are dotted about in every direction; while between them extend luxurious rice-grounds, watered by an elaborate system of irrigation that would be the pride of the best cultivated parts of Europe.

 

The Dutch mounted large naval and ground assaults at the Sanur region in 1906 and were met by the thousands of members of the royal family and their followers who fought against the superior Dutch force in a suicidal puputan defensive assault rather than face the humiliation of surrender. Despite Dutch demands for surrender, an estimated 200 Balinese marched to their death against the invaders. In the Dutch intervention in Bali, a similar massacre occurred in the face of a Dutch assault in Klungkung.

 

AFTERWARD THE DUTCH GOVERNORS

exercised administrative control over the island, but local control over religion and culture generally remained intact. Dutch rule over Bali came later and was never as well established as in other parts of Indonesia such as Java and Maluku.

 

n the 1930s, anthropologists Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson, artists Miguel Covarrubias and Walter Spies, and musicologist Colin McPhee all spent time here. Their accounts of the island and its peoples created a western image of Bali as "an enchanted land of aesthetes at peace with themselves and nature." Western tourists began to visit the island.

 

Imperial Japan occupied Bali during World War II. It was not originally a target in their Netherlands East Indies Campaign, but as the airfields on Borneo were inoperative due to heavy rains, the Imperial Japanese Army decided to occupy Bali, which did not suffer from comparable weather. The island had no regular Royal Netherlands East Indies Army (KNIL) troops. There was only a Native Auxiliary Corps Prajoda (Korps Prajoda) consisting of about 600 native soldiers and several Dutch KNIL officers under command of KNIL Lieutenant Colonel W.P. Roodenburg. On 19 February 1942 the Japanese forces landed near the town of Senoer [Senur]. The island was quickly captured.

 

During the Japanese occupation, a Balinese military officer, Gusti Ngurah Rai, formed a Balinese 'freedom army'. The harshness of war requisitions made Japanese rule more resented than Dutch rule. Following Japan's Pacific surrender in August 1945, the Dutch returned to Indonesia, including Bali, to reinstate their pre-war colonial administration. This was resisted by the Balinese rebels, who now used recovered Japanese weapons. On 20 November 1946, the Battle of Marga was fought in Tabanan in central Bali. Colonel I Gusti Ngurah Rai, by then 29 years old, finally rallied his forces in east Bali at Marga Rana, where they made a suicide attack on the heavily armed Dutch. The Balinese battalion was entirely wiped out, breaking the last thread of Balinese military resistance.

 

INDIPENDENCE FROM THE DUTCH

In 1946, the Dutch constituted Bali as one of the 13 administrative districts of the newly proclaimed State of East Indonesia, a rival state to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed and headed by Sukarno and Hatta. Bali was included in the "Republic of the United States of Indonesia" when the Netherlands recognised Indonesian independence on 29 December 1949.

 

CONTEMPORARY

The 1963 eruption of Mount Agung killed thousands, created economic havoc and forced many displaced Balinese to be transmigrated to other parts of Indonesia. Mirroring the widening of social divisions across Indonesia in the 1950s and early 1960s, Bali saw conflict between supporters of the traditional caste system, and those rejecting this system. Politically, the opposition was represented by supporters of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI), with tensions and ill-feeling further increased by the PKI's land reform programs. An attempted coup in Jakarta was put down by forces led by General Suharto.

 

The army became the dominant power as it instigated a violent anti-communist purge, in which the army blamed the PKI for the coup. Most estimates suggest that at least 500,000 people were killed across Indonesia, with an estimated 80,000 killed in Bali, equivalent to 5% of the island's population. With no Islamic forces involved as in Java and Sumatra, upper-caste PNI landlords led the extermination of PKI members.

 

As a result of the 1965/66 upheavals, Suharto was able to manoeuvre Sukarno out of the presidency. His "New Order" government reestablished relations with western countries. The pre-War Bali as "paradise" was revived in a modern form. The resulting large growth in tourism has led to a dramatic increase in Balinese standards of living and significant foreign exchange earned for the country. A bombing in 2002 by militant Islamists in the tourist area of Kuta killed 202 people, mostly foreigners. This attack, and another in 2005, severely reduced tourism, producing much economic hardship to the island.

 

GEOGRAPHY

The island of Bali lies 3.2 km east of Java, and is approximately 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait. East to west, the island is approximately 153 km wide and spans approximately 112 km north to south; administratively it covers 5,780 km2, or 5,577 km2 without Nusa Penida District, its population density is roughly 750 people/km2.

 

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 3,000 metres in elevation. The highest is Mount Agung (3,031 m), known as the "mother mountain" which is an active volcano rated as one of the world's most likely sites for a massive eruption within the next 100 years. Mountains range from centre to the eastern side, with Mount Agung the easternmost peak. Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility and its tall mountain ranges provide the high rainfall that supports the highly productive agriculture sector. South of the mountains is a broad, steadily descending area where most of Bali's large rice crop is grown. The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply to the sea and is the main coffee producing area of the island, along with rice, vegetables and cattle. The longest river, Ayung River, flows approximately 75 km.

 

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand while those in the north and west have black sand. Bali has no major waterways, although the Ho River is navigable by small sampan boats. Black sand beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukuh are being developed for tourism, but apart from the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet used for significant tourism.

 

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the southern coast. Its population is around 491,500 (2002). Bali's second-largest city is the old colonial capital, Singaraja, which is located on the north coast and is home to around 100,000 people. Other important cities include the beach resort, Kuta, which is practically part of Denpasar's urban area, and Ubud, situated at the north of Denpasar, is the island's cultural centre.

 

Three small islands lie to the immediate south east and all are administratively part of the Klungkung regency of Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Ceningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

 

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographical division between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia. The transition is known as the Wallace Line, named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes. When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene ice age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the mainland of Asia and shared the Asian fauna, but the deep water of the Lombok Strait continued to keep Lombok Island and the Lesser Sunda archipelago isolated.

 

CLIMATE

Being just 8 degrees south of the equator, Bali has a fairly even climate year round.

 

Day time temperatures at low elevations vary between 20-33⁰ C although it can be much cooler than that in the mountains. The west monsoon is in place from approximately October to April and this can bring significant rain, particularly from December to March. Outside of the monsoon period, humidity is relatively low and any rain unlikely in lowland areas.

 

ECOLOGY

Bali lies just to the west of the Wallace Line, and thus has a fauna that is Asian in character, with very little Australasian influence, and has more in common with Java than with Lombok. An exception is the yellow-crested cockatoo, a member of a primarily Australasian family. There are around 280 species of birds, including the critically endangered Bali myna, which is endemic. Others Include barn swallow, black-naped oriole, black racket-tailed treepie, crested serpent-eagle, crested treeswift, dollarbird, Java sparrow, lesser adjutant, long-tailed shrike, milky stork, Pacific swallow, red-rumped swallow, sacred kingfisher, sea eagle, woodswallow, savanna nightjar, stork-billed kingfisher, yellow-vented bulbul and great egret.

 

Until the early 20th century, Bali was home to several large mammals: the wild banteng, leopard and the endemic Bali tiger. The banteng still occurs in its domestic form, whereas leopards are found only in neighbouring Java, and the Bali tiger is extinct. The last definite record of a tiger on Bali dates from 1937, when one was shot, though the subspecies may have survived until the 1940s or 1950s. The relatively small size of the island, conflict with humans, poaching and habitat reduction drove the Bali tiger to extinction. This was the smallest and rarest of all tiger subspecies and was never caught on film or displayed in zoos, whereas few skins or bones remain in museums around the world. Today, the largest mammals are the Javan rusa deer and the wild boar. A second, smaller species of deer, the Indian muntjac, also occurs. Saltwater crocodiles were once present on the island, but became locally extinct sometime during the last century.

 

Squirrels are quite commonly encountered, less often is the Asian palm civet, which is also kept in coffee farms to produce Kopi Luwak. Bats are well represented, perhaps the most famous place to encounter them remaining the Goa Lawah (Temple of the Bats) where they are worshipped by the locals and also constitute a tourist attraction. They also occur in other cave temples, for instance at Gangga Beach. Two species of monkey occur. The crab-eating macaque, known locally as "kera", is quite common around human settlements and temples, where it becomes accustomed to being fed by humans, particularly in any of the three "monkey forest" temples, such as the popular one in the Ubud area. They are also quite often kept as pets by locals. The second monkey, endemic to Java and some surrounding islands such as Bali, is far rarer and more elusive is the Javan langur, locally known as "lutung". They occur in few places apart from the Bali Barat National Park. They are born an orange colour, though by their first year they would have already changed to a more blackish colouration. In Java however, there is more of a tendency for this species to retain its juvenile orange colour into adulthood, and so you can see a mixture of black and orange monkeys together as a family. Other rarer mammals include the leopard cat, Sunda pangolin and black giant squirrel.

 

Snakes include the king cobra and reticulated python. The water monitor can grow to at least 1.5 m in length and 50 kg and can move quickly.

 

The rich coral reefs around the coast, particularly around popular diving spots such as Tulamben, Amed, Menjangan or neighbouring Nusa Penida, host a wide range of marine life, for instance hawksbill turtle, giant sunfish, giant manta ray, giant moray eel, bumphead parrotfish, hammerhead shark, reef shark, barracuda, and sea snakes. Dolphins are commonly encountered on the north coast near Singaraja and Lovina.

 

A team of scientists conducted a survey from 29 April 2011 to 11 May 2011 at 33 sea sites around Bali. They discovered 952 species of reef fish of which 8 were new discoveries at Pemuteran, Gilimanuk, Nusa Dua, Tulamben and Candidasa, and 393 coral species, including two new ones at Padangbai and between Padangbai and Amed. The average coverage level of healthy coral was 36% (better than in Raja Ampat and Halmahera by 29% or in Fakfak and Kaimana by 25%) with the highest coverage found in Gili Selang and Gili Mimpang in Candidasa, Karangasem regency.

 

Many plants have been introduced by humans within the last centuries, particularly since the 20th century, making it sometimes hard to distinguish what plants are really native.[citation needed] Among the larger trees the most common are: banyan trees, jackfruit, coconuts, bamboo species, acacia trees and also endless rows of coconuts and banana species. Numerous flowers can be seen: hibiscus, frangipani, bougainvillea, poinsettia, oleander, jasmine, water lily, lotus, roses, begonias, orchids and hydrangeas exist. On higher grounds that receive more moisture, for instance around Kintamani, certain species of fern trees, mushrooms and even pine trees thrive well. Rice comes in many varieties. Other plants with agricultural value include: salak, mangosteen, corn, kintamani orange, coffee and water spinach.

 

ENVIRONMENT

Some of the worst erosion has occurred in Lebih Beach, where up to 7 metres of land is lost every year. Decades ago, this beach was used for holy pilgrimages with more than 10,000 people, but they have now moved to Masceti Beach.

 

From ranked third in previous review, in 2010 Bali got score 99.65 of Indonesia's environmental quality index and the highest of all the 33 provinces. The score measured 3 water quality parameters: the level of total suspended solids (TSS), dissolved oxygen (DO) and chemical oxygen demand (COD).

 

Because of over-exploitation by the tourist industry which covers a massive land area, 200 out of 400 rivers on the island have dried up and based on research, the southern part of Bali would face a water shortage up to 2,500 litres of clean water per second by 2015. To ease the shortage, the central government plans to build a water catchment and processing facility at Petanu River in Gianyar. The 300 litres capacity of water per second will be channelled to Denpasar, Badung and Gianyar in 2013.

 

ECONOMY

Three decades ago, the Balinese economy was largely agriculture-based in terms of both output and employment. Tourism is now the largest single industry in terms of income, and as a result, Bali is one of Indonesia's wealthiest regions. In 2003, around 80% of Bali's economy was tourism related. By end of June 2011, non-performing loan of all banks in Bali were 2.23%, lower than the average of Indonesian banking industry non-performing loan (about 5%). The economy, however, suffered significantly as a result of the terrorist bombings 2002 and 2005. The tourism industry has since recovered from these events.

 

AGRICULTURE

Although tourism produces the GDP's largest output, agriculture is still the island's biggest employer; most notably rice cultivation. Crops grown in smaller amounts include fruit, vegetables, Coffea arabica and other cash and subsistence crops. Fishing also provides a significant number of jobs. Bali is also famous for its artisans who produce a vast array of handicrafts, including batik and ikat cloth and clothing, wooden carvings, stone carvings, painted art and silverware. Notably, individual villages typically adopt a single product, such as wind chimes or wooden furniture.

 

The Arabica coffee production region is the highland region of Kintamani near Mount Batur. Generally, Balinese coffee is processed using the wet method. This results in a sweet, soft coffee with good consistency. Typical flavours include lemon and other citrus notes. Many coffee farmers in Kintamani are members of a traditional farming system called Subak Abian, which is based on the Hindu philosophy of "Tri Hita Karana". According to this philosophy, the three causes of happiness are good relations with God, other people and the environment. The Subak Abian system is ideally suited to the production of fair trade and organic coffee production. Arabica coffee from Kintamani is the first product in Indonesia to request a Geographical Indication.

 

TOURISM

The tourism industry is primarily focused in the south, while significant in the other parts of the island as well. The main tourist locations are the town of Kuta (with its beach), and its outer suburbs of Legian and Seminyak (which were once independent townships), the east coast town of Sanur (once the only tourist hub), in the center of the island Ubud, to the south of the Ngurah Rai International Airport, Jimbaran, and the newer development of Nusa Dua and Pecatu.

 

The American government lifted its travel warnings in 2008. The Australian government issued an advice on Friday, 4 May 2012. The overall level of the advice was lowered to 'Exercise a high degree of caution'. The Swedish government issued a new warning on Sunday, 10 June 2012 because of one more tourist who was killed by methanol poisoning. Australia last issued an advice on Monday, 5 January 2015 due to new terrorist threats.

 

An offshoot of tourism is the growing real estate industry. Bali real estate has been rapidly developing in the main tourist areas of Kuta, Legian, Seminyak and Oberoi. Most recently, high-end 5 star projects are under development on the Bukit peninsula, on the south side of the island. Million dollar villas are being developed along the cliff sides of south Bali, commanding panoramic ocean views. Foreign and domestic (many Jakarta individuals and companies are fairly active) investment into other areas of the island also continues to grow. Land prices, despite the worldwide economic crisis, have remained stable.

 

In the last half of 2008, Indonesia's currency had dropped approximately 30% against the US dollar, providing many overseas visitors value for their currencies. Visitor arrivals for 2009 were forecast to drop 8% (which would be higher than 2007 levels), due to the worldwide economic crisis which has also affected the global tourist industry, but not due to any travel warnings.

 

Bali's tourism economy survived the terrorist bombings of 2002 and 2005, and the tourism industry has in fact slowly recovered and surpassed its pre-terrorist bombing levels; the longterm trend has been a steady increase of visitor arrivals. In 2010, Bali received 2.57 million foreign tourists, which surpassed the target of 2.0–2.3 million tourists. The average occupancy of starred hotels achieved 65%, so the island is still able to accommodate tourists for some years without any addition of new rooms/hotels, although at the peak season some of them are fully booked.

 

Bali received the Best Island award from Travel and Leisure in 2010. The island of Bali won because of its attractive surroundings (both mountain and coastal areas), diverse tourist attractions, excellent international and local restaurants, and the friendliness of the local people. According to BBC Travel released in 2011, Bali is one of the World's Best Islands, ranking second after Santorini, Greece.

 

In August 2010, the film Eat Pray Love was released in theatres. The movie was based on Elizabeth Gilbert's best-selling memoir Eat, Pray, Love. It took place at Ubud and Padang-Padang Beach at Bali. The 2006 book, which spent 57 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the New York Times paperback nonfiction best-seller list, had already fuelled a boom in Eat, Pray, Love-related tourism in Ubud, the hill town and cultural and tourist center that was the focus of Gilbert's quest for balance through traditional spirituality and healing that leads to love.

 

In January 2016, after music icon David Bowie died, it was revealed that in his will, Bowie asked for his ashes to be scattered in Bali, conforming to Buddhist rituals. He had visited and performed in a number of Southest Asian cities early in his career, including Bangkok and Singapore.

 

Since 2011, China has displaced Japan as the second-largest supplier of tourists to Bali, while Australia still tops the list. Chinese tourists increased by 17% from last year due to the impact of ACFTA and new direct flights to Bali. In January 2012, Chinese tourists year on year (yoy) increased by 222.18% compared to January 2011, while Japanese tourists declined by 23.54% yoy.

 

Bali reported that it has 2.88 million foreign tourists and 5 million domestic tourists in 2012, marginally surpassing the expectations of 2.8 million foreign tourists. Forecasts for 2013 are at 3.1 million.

 

Based on Bank Indonesia survey in May 2013, 34.39 percent of tourists are upper-middle class with spending between $1,286 to $5,592 and dominated by Australia, France, China, Germany and the US with some China tourists move from low spending before to higher spending currently. While 30.26 percent are middle class with spending between $662 to $1,285.

 

SEX TOURISM

In the twentieth century the incidence of tourism specifically for sex was regularly observed in the era of mass tourism in Indonesia In Bali, prostitution is conducted by both men and women. Bali in particular is notorious for its 'Kuta Cowboys', local gigolos targeting foreign female tourists.

 

Tens of thousands of single women throng the beaches of Bali in Indonesia every year. For decades, young Balinese men have taken advantage of the louche and laid-back atmosphere to find love and lucre from female tourists—Japanese, European and Australian for the most part—who by all accounts seem perfectly happy with the arrangement.

 

By 2013, Indonesia was reportedly the number one destination for Australian child sex tourists, mostly starting in Bali but also travelling to other parts of the country. The problem in Bali was highlighted by Luh Ketut Suryani, head of Psychiatry at Udayana University, as early as 2003. Surayani warned that a low level of awareness of paedophilia in Bali had made it the target of international paedophile organisations. On 19 February 2013, government officials announced measures to combat paedophilia in Bali.

 

TRANSPORTATION

The Ngurah Rai International Airport is located near Jimbaran, on the isthmus at the southernmost part of the island. Lt.Col. Wisnu Airfield is found in north-west Bali.

 

A coastal road circles the island, and three major two-lane arteries cross the central mountains at passes reaching to 1,750m in height (at Penelokan). The Ngurah Rai Bypass is a four-lane expressway that partly encircles Denpasar. Bali has no railway lines.

 

In December 2010 the Government of Indonesia invited investors to build a new Tanah Ampo Cruise Terminal at Karangasem, Bali with a projected worth of $30 million. On 17 July 2011 the first cruise ship (Sun Princess) anchored about 400 meters away from the wharf of Tanah Ampo harbour. The current pier is only 154 meters but will eventually be extended to 300–350 meters to accommodate international cruise ships. The harbour here is safer than the existing facility at Benoa and has a scenic backdrop of east Bali mountains and green rice fields. The tender for improvement was subject to delays, and as of July 2013 the situation remained unclear with cruise line operators complaining and even refusing to use the existing facility at Tanah Ampo.

 

A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed by two ministers, Bali's Governor and Indonesian Train Company to build 565 kilometres of railway along the coast around the island. As of July 2015, no details of this proposed railways have been released.

 

On 16 March 2011 (Tanjung) Benoa port received the "Best Port Welcome 2010" award from London's "Dream World Cruise Destination" magazine. Government plans to expand the role of Benoa port as export-import port to boost Bali's trade and industry sector. The Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry has confirmed that 306 cruise liners are heading for Indonesia in 2013 – an increase of 43 percent compared to the previous year.

 

In May 2011, an integrated Areal Traffic Control System (ATCS) was implemented to reduce traffic jams at four crossing points: Ngurah Rai statue, Dewa Ruci Kuta crossing, Jimbaran crossing and Sanur crossing. ATCS is an integrated system connecting all traffic lights, CCTVs and other traffic signals with a monitoring office at the police headquarters. It has successfully been implemented in other ASEAN countries and will be implemented at other crossings in Bali.

 

On 21 December 2011 construction started on the Nusa Dua-Benoa-Ngurah Rai International Airport toll road which will also provide a special lane for motorcycles. This has been done by seven state-owned enterprises led by PT Jasa Marga with 60% of shares. PT Jasa Marga Bali Tol will construct the 9.91 kilometres toll road (totally 12.7 kilometres with access road). The construction is estimated to cost Rp.2.49 trillion ($273.9 million). The project goes through 2 kilometres of mangrove forest and through 2.3 kilometres of beach, both within 5.4 hectares area. The elevated toll road is built over the mangrove forest on 18,000 concrete pillars which occupied 2 hectares of mangroves forest. It compensated by new planting of 300,000 mangrove trees along the road. On 21 December 2011 the Dewa Ruci 450 meters underpass has also started on the busy Dewa Ruci junction near Bali Kuta Galeria with an estimated cost of Rp136 billion ($14.9 million) from the state budget. On 23 September 2013, the Bali Mandara Toll Road is opened and the Dewa Ruci Junction (Simpang Siur) underpass is opened before. Both are ease the heavy traffic congestion.

 

To solve chronic traffic problems, the province will also build a toll road connecting Serangan with Tohpati, a toll road connecting Kuta, Denpasar and Tohpati and a flyover connecting Kuta and Ngurah Rai Airport.

 

DEMOGRAPHICS

The population of Bali was 3,890,757 as of the 2010 Census; the latest estimate (for January 2014) is 4,225,384. There are an estimated 30,000 expatriates living in Bali.

 

ETHNIC ORIGINS

A DNA study in 2005 by Karafet et al. found that 12% of Balinese Y-chromosomes are of likely Indian origin, while 84% are of likely Austronesian origin, and 2% of likely Melanesian origin. The study does not correlate the DNA samples to the Balinese caste system.

 

CASTE SYSTEM

Bali has a caste system based on the Indian Hindu model, with four castes:

 

- Sudra (Shudra) – peasants constituting close to 93% of Bali's population.

- Wesia (Vaishyas) – the caste of merchants and administrative officials

- Ksatrias (Kshatriyas) – the kingly and warrior caste

- Brahmana (Bramhin) – holy men and priests

 

RELIGION

Unlike most of Muslim-majority Indonesia, about 83.5% of Bali's population adheres to Balinese Hinduism, formed as a combination of existing local beliefs and Hindu influences from mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. Minority religions include Islam (13.3%), Christianity (1.7%), and Buddhism (0.5%). These figures do not include immigrants from other parts of Indonesia.

 

Balinese Hinduism is an amalgam in which gods and demigods are worshipped together with Buddhist heroes, the spirits of ancestors, indigenous agricultural deities and sacred places. Religion as it is practised in Bali is a composite belief system that embraces not only theology, philosophy, and mythology, but ancestor worship, animism and magic. It pervades nearly every aspect of traditional life. Caste is observed, though less strictly than in India. With an estimated 20,000 puras (temples) and shrines, Bali is known as the "Island of a Thousand Puras", or "Island of the Gods". This is refer to Mahabarata story that behind Bali became island of god or "pulau dewata" in Indonesian language.

 

Balinese Hinduism has roots in Indian Hinduism and Buddhism, and adopted the animistic traditions of the indigenous people. This influence strengthened the belief that the gods and goddesses are present in all things. Every element of nature, therefore, possesses its own power, which reflects the power of the gods. A rock, tree, dagger, or woven cloth is a potential home for spirits whose energy can be directed for good or evil. Balinese Hinduism is deeply interwoven with art and ritual. Ritualizing states of self-control are a notable feature of religious expression among the people, who for this reason have become famous for their graceful and decorous behaviour.

 

Apart from the majority of Balinese Hindus, there also exist Chinese immigrants whose traditions have melded with that of the locals. As a result, these Sino-Balinese not only embrace their original religion, which is a mixture of Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism and Confucianism, but also find a way to harmonise it with the local traditions. Hence, it is not uncommon to find local Sino-Balinese during the local temple's odalan. Moreover, Balinese Hindu priests are invited to perform rites alongside a Chinese priest in the event of the death of a Sino-Balinese. Nevertheless, the Sino-Balinese claim to embrace Buddhism for administrative purposes, such as their Identity Cards.

 

LANGUAGE

Balinese and Indonesian are the most widely spoken languages in Bali, and the vast majority of Balinese people are bilingual or trilingual. The most common spoken language around the tourist areas is Indonesian, as many people in the tourist sector are not solely Balinese, but migrants from Java, Lombok, Sumatra, and other parts of Indonesia. There are several indigenous Balinese languages, but most Balinese can also use the most widely spoken option: modern common Balinese. The usage of different Balinese languages was traditionally determined by the Balinese caste system and by clan membership, but this tradition is diminishing. Kawi and Sanskrit are also commonly used by some Hindu priests in Bali, for Hinduism literature was mostly written in Sanskrit.

 

English and Chinese are the next most common languages (and the primary foreign languages) of many Balinese, owing to the requirements of the tourism industry, as well as the English-speaking community and huge Chinese-Indonesian population. Other foreign languages, such as Japanese, Korean, French, Russian or German are often used in multilingual signs for foreign tourists.

 

CULTURE

Bali is renowned for its diverse and sophisticated art forms, such as painting, sculpture, woodcarving, handcrafts, and performing arts. Balinese cuisine is also distinctive. Balinese percussion orchestra music, known as gamelan, is highly developed and varied. Balinese performing arts often portray stories from Hindu epics such as the Ramayana but with heavy Balinese influence. Famous Balinese dances include pendet, legong, baris, topeng, barong, gong keybar, and kecak (the monkey dance). Bali boasts one of the most diverse and innovative performing arts cultures in the world, with paid performances at thousands of temple festivals, private ceremonies, or public shows.

 

The Hindu New Year, Nyepi, is celebrated in the spring by a day of silence. On this day everyone stays at home and tourists are encouraged to remain in their hotels. On the day before New Year, large and colourful sculptures of ogoh-ogoh monsters are paraded and finally burned in the evening to drive away evil spirits. Other festivals throughout the year are specified by the Balinese pawukon calendrical system.

 

Celebrations are held for many occasions such as a tooth-filing (coming-of-age ritual), cremation or odalan (temple festival). One of the most important concepts that Balinese ceremonies have in common is that of désa kala patra, which refers to how ritual performances must be appropriate in both the specific and general social context. Many of the ceremonial art forms such as wayang kulit and topeng are highly improvisatory, providing flexibility for the performer to adapt the performance to the current situation. Many celebrations call for a loud, boisterous atmosphere with lots of activity and the resulting aesthetic, ramé, is distinctively Balinese. Often two or more gamelan ensembles will be performing well within earshot, and sometimes compete with each other to be heard. Likewise, the audience members talk amongst themselves, get up and walk around, or even cheer on the performance, which adds to the many layers of activity and the liveliness typical of ramé.

 

Kaja and kelod are the Balinese equivalents of North and South, which refer to ones orientation between the island's largest mountain Gunung Agung (kaja), and the sea (kelod). In addition to spatial orientation, kaja and kelod have the connotation of good and evil; gods and ancestors are believed to live on the mountain whereas demons live in the sea. Buildings such as temples and residential homes are spatially oriented by having the most sacred spaces closest to the mountain and the unclean places nearest to the sea.

 

Most temples have an inner courtyard and an outer courtyard which are arranged with the inner courtyard furthest kaja. These spaces serve as performance venues since most Balinese rituals are accompanied by any combination of music, dance and drama. The performances that take place in the inner courtyard are classified as wali, the most sacred rituals which are offerings exclusively for the gods, while the outer courtyard is where bebali ceremonies are held, which are intended for gods and people. Lastly, performances meant solely for the entertainment of humans take place outside the walls of the temple and are called bali-balihan. This three-tiered system of classification was standardised in 1971 by a committee of Balinese officials and artists to better protect the sanctity of the oldest and most sacred Balinese rituals from being performed for a paying audience.

 

Tourism, Bali's chief industry, has provided the island with a foreign audience that is eager to pay for entertainment, thus creating new performance opportunities and more demand for performers. The impact of tourism is controversial since before it became integrated into the economy, the Balinese performing arts did not exist as a capitalist venture, and were not performed for entertainment outside of their respective ritual context. Since the 1930s sacred rituals such as the barong dance have been performed both in their original contexts, as well as exclusively for paying tourists. This has led to new versions of many of these performances which have developed according to the preferences of foreign audiences; some villages have a barong mask specifically for non-ritual performances as well as an older mask which is only used for sacred performances.

 

Balinese society continues to revolve around each family's ancestral village, to which the cycle of life and religion is closely tied. Coercive aspects of traditional society, such as customary law sanctions imposed by traditional authorities such as village councils (including "kasepekang", or shunning) have risen in importance as a consequence of the democratisation and decentralisation of Indonesia since 1998.

 

WIKIPEDIA

America Omen Days - There Is No Climate Change ! - Climate Is Changed By America's Enemies

 

A New Series America Omen Days - The World After T - Omens of a Fascist America

 

A Intriguing Disquieting future World and the omens of a future if Fascism one day ruled America

 

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Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità e diritti. Essi sono dotati di ragione e di coscienza e devono agire gli uni verso gli altri in spirito di fratellanza.

 

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres et égaux en dignité et en droits. Ils sont doués de raison et de conscience et doivent agir les uns envers les autres dans un esprit de fraternité.

 

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales en dignidad y derechos. Están dotados de razón y conciencia y deben comportarse fraternalmente los unos con los otros.

 

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

 

Österreichisches Parlament. Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einnander im Geiste der Brüderlichkeit begegnen.

 

1933-1945

The outer castle gate was 1933/1934 converted into a war memorial. In the 30s it became common practice to use the space for mass events, the speakers most of the time speaking from the balcony of the New Castle to the crowd of people (1932 rally during the visit of Hermann Goring, 1934 rally of the Fatherland Front, 1938 Nazi rally for Adolf Hitler [whereby the Heroe's square internationally became the synonym for Annexation; the play "Heldenplatz" by Thomas Bernhard (premiere November 4, 1988 at the Burgtheater) in this context before and after the premiere caused heated discussions]). During the Second World War at Heldenplatz were held outdoor exhibitions (for example, "The victory in the West", 1940).

Second Republic

1945-1953 the Heldenplatz by the Soviet Element of the Allied Council (which had housed his "officers' house" and other facilities in the Hofburg) was used for events which one wanted to give a military context. From 31 October 1953 followed on Heldenplatz the ceremony for the handover of the command of the Vienna Inter Allied Command, taking place monthly; until its dissolution this practice was continued. Furthermore, the space has been used for large gatherings and events (for example, 1983 rally to mark the visit of Pope John Paul II, 1984 rally against the construction of the Danube power plant Hainburg, 1993 final rally of the campaign "SOS Fellow Human Being" ["Sea of ​​Light"]). - Military Celebration of the Armed Forces (compilation of Martin Senekowitsch [according to Guard Chronicle of Guard Battalion]): The Heldenplatz was in the Second Republic often the scene of military celebrations. From November 2, 1955 every year: Heroes ceremony for the fallen soldiers of both World Wars at the crypt of the Castle gate. March 13, 1963: commemoration of the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938. 18 October 1963: 300th anniversary of Prince Eugene. February 12, 1964: commemoration of February 1934. April 27, 1965: commemoration of the victims of the Nazi regime. 16 May 1965, 14 May 1966, 15 May, 1967 to 1970: Big Tattoo. 8 July 1974 and 8 July 1980: Swearing-in of Federal President Dr Rudolf Kirchschläger. September 6, 1975: Big tattoo (20 years Garrison Wien). April 27, 1981: Republic Celebration. July 7, 1986: Big Tattoo (departure of President Rudolf Kirchschläger). July 8, 1986 respectively July 6, 1992: Big Tattoo (swearing-in respectively departure of Federal President Dr Kurt Waldheim). July 8, 1992: Swearing-in of Federal President Dr Thomas Klestil.

Symbolic meaning

The Heroes Square already by the Habsburgs was laid out as a place of political representation. In the First Republic it served the Nazis before being banned as a symbolic parade ground. This was opposed by the Dolfuss-Schuschnigg regime holding the pan-German Catholics Day 1933 and other celebrations. However, a particular importance gained the Heldenplatz on March 15, 1938 after the Nazi takeover. On this day, Adolf Hitler as part of a mass event announced "the entry of my homeland into the German Reich". Due to this symbolic charging, the Heldenplatz also in the Second Republic in the collective memory remained connected with the "Annexation", although there was no lack of attempts of a new symbolic connotation. Artistic expression this found in the play by Thomas Bernhard entitled "Heldenplatz" and premiered in 1988 and in a poem by Ernst Jandl. From the 1990s, however, events as the Sea of Light of the action "Fellow Human Being" on January 23, 1993 as well as the demonstration against the new government of ÖVP (Austrian People's Party) and FPÖ (Freedom Party of Austria) on February 19, 2000 increased who saw themselves as counterpoints to March 15, 1938.

 

1933-1945

Das Äußere Burgtor wurde 1933/1934 zu einem Heldendenkmal umgestaltet. In den 30er Jahren begann es sich einzubürgern, den Platz für Massenveranstaltungen zu benutzen, wobei die Redner meist vom Balkon der Neuen Burg zur Menge sprachen (1932 Kundgebung beim Hermann-Göring-Besuch, 1934 Kundgebung der Vaterländischen Front, 1938 nationalsozialistische Kundgebung für Adolf Hitler [wodurch der Heldenplatz international zu einem Synonym für den "Anschluss" wurde; das Stück "Heldenplatz" von Thomas Bernhard (Uraufführung 4. November 1988 im Burgtheater) sorgte in diesem Zusammenhang vor und nach der Premiere für erregte Diskussionen]). Während des Zweiten Weltkriegs wurden auf dem Heldenplatz Freiluftausstellungen veranstaltet (beispielsweise "Der Sieg im Westen", 1940).

Zweite Republik

1945-1953 wurde der Heldenplatz vom sowjetrussischen Element des Alliierten Rats (das in der Hofburg sein "Offiziershaus" und andere Einrichtungen untergebracht hatte) für Veranstaltungen genutzt, denen man einen militärischen Rahmen geben wollte. Ab 31. Oktober 1953 erfolgte auf dem Heldenplatz die monatlich stattfindende Zeremonie der Kommandoübergabe der Wiener Interalliierten Kommandantur; bis zu deren Auflösung wurde an dieser Praxis festgehalten. Weiterhin wurde der Platz für große Versammlungen und Veranstaltungen genutzt (beispielsweise 1983 Kundgebung anlässlich des Besuchs Papst Johannes Pauls II., 1984 Kundgebung gegen den Bau des Donaukraftwerks Hainburg, 1993 Abschlusskundgebung der Aktion "SOS Mitmensch" ["Lichtermeer"]). - Militärische Feiern des Bundesheeres (Zusammenstellung von Martin Senekowitsch [laut Gardechronik des Gardebataillons]): Der Heldenplatz war in der Zweiten Republik oftmals Schauplatz militärischer Feierlichkeiten. Ab 2. November 1955 jedes Jahr: Heldenehrung für die Gefallenen beider Weltkriege bei der Krypta des Äußeren Burgtors. 13. März 1963: Gedenkfeier anlässlich des "Anschlusses" Österreichs 1938. 18. Oktober 1963: 300. Geburtstag des Prinzen Eugen. 12. Februar 1964: Gedenken an den Februar 1934. 27. April 1965: Gedenken an die Opfer des NS-Regimes. 16. Mai 1965, 14. Mai 1966, 15. Mai 1967-1970: Großer Zapfenstreich. 8. Juli 1974 und 8. Juli 1980: Angelobung von Bundespräsident Dr. Rudolf Kirchschläger. 6. September 1975: Großer Zapfenstreich (20 Jahre Garnison Wien). 27. April 1981: Republikfeier. 7. Juli 1986: Großer Zapfenstreich (Verabschiedung von Bundespräsident Rudolf Kirchschläger). 8. Juli 1986 beziehungsweise 6. Juli 1992: Großer Zapfenstreich (Angelobung beziehungsweise Verabschiedung von Bundespräsident Dr. Kurt Waldheim). 8. Juli 1992: Angelobung von Bundespräsident Dr. Thomas Klestil.

Symbolische Bedeutung

Der Heldenplatz wurde schon von den Habsburgern als Ort der politischen Repräsentation angelegt. In der Ersten Republik diente er vor deren Verbot den Nationalsozialisten als symbolischer Aufmarschplatz. Dem setzte das Dolfuss-Schuschnigg-Regime die Abhaltung des gesamtdeutschen Katholikentages 1933 und andere Feiern dagegen. Eine besondere Bedeutung erhielt der Heldenplatz jedoch am 15.3.1938 nach der NS-Machtübernahme. An diesem Tag verkündete Adolf Hitler im Rahmen einer Massenveranstaltung "den Eintritt meiner Heimat in das Deutsche Reich". Auf Grund dieser symbolischen Aufladung blieb der Heldenplatz auch in der Zweiten Republik im kollektiven Gedächtnis mit dem "Anschluss" verbunden, obwohl es nicht an Versuchen einer symbolischen Neubestzung des Ortes fehlte. Künstlerischen Ausdruck fand dies auch im 1988 uraufgeführten Theaterstück Thomas Bernhards mit dem Titel "Heldenplatz" und in einem Gedicht von Ernst Jandl. Ab den 1990er Jahren mehrten sich allerdings Veranstaltungen wie das Lichtermeer der Aktion Mitmensch" am 23.1.1993 sowie die Demonstration gegen die Regierungsbildung von ÖVP und FPÖ am 19.2.2000 die sich als Kontrapunkte zum 15.3.1938 verstanden haben.

www.wien.gv.at/wiki/index.php?title=Heldenplatz

Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea (after Sicily and before Cyprus). It is an autonomous region of Italy, and the nearest land masses are (clockwise from north) the French island of Corsica, the Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Tunisia and the Spanish Balearic Islands.

The name Sardinia is from the pre-Roman noun *sard[ ], romanised as sardus (feminine sarda); that the name had a religious connotation is suggested from its use also as the adjective for the ancient Sardinian mythological hero-god Sardus Pater "Sardinian Father" (misunderstood by many modern Sardinians/Italians as being "Father Sardus"), as well as being the stem of the adjective "sardonic". Sardinia was called Ichnusa, the Latinised form of the Greek Hyknusa, Sandalion, Sardinia and Sardo by the ancient Greeks and the Romans.

Terrain map of SardiniaSardinia is the second largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 23,821 km虏. It is situated between 38掳 51' and 41掳 15' latitude north and 8掳 8' and 9掳 50' east longitude.

The coasts of Sardinia (1,849 km long) are generally high and rocky, with long, relatively straight stretches of coastline, many outstanding headlands, a few wide, deep bays, rias, many inlets and with various smaller islands off the coast.

The island has an ancient geoformation and, unlike Sicily and the mainland of Italy, is not earthquake-prone. Its rocks date from the Palaeozoic Era (up to 500 million years old). Due to long erosion processes the island's highlands, formed of granite, schist, trachyte, basalt (called "jars" or "gollei"), sandstone and dolomite limestone (called tonneri or "heels"), average at between 300 to 1,000 metres. The highest peak is Punta La Marmora (1,834 m), part of the Gennargentu Ranges in the centre of the island. Other mountain chains are Monte Limbara (1,362 m) in the northeast, the Chain of Marghine and Goceano (1,259 m) running crosswise for 40 km (24.85 mi) towards the north, the Monte Albo (1057 metres), the Sette Fratelli Range in the southeast, and the Sulcis Mountains and the Monte Linas (1236 metres) in the southwest. The island's ranges and plateaux are separated by wide alluvial valleys and flatlands, the main ones being the Campidano in the southwest between Oristano and Cagliari and the Nurra in the northwest.

A proportionate graph of Sardinian typography: 13.6% of the island is mountainous, 18.5% is flat, and 67.9% is hilly.Sardinia has few major rivers, the largest being the Tirso, 151 km (93.83 mi) long, which flows into the Sea of Sardinia, the Coghinas (115 km) and the Flumendosa (127 km). There are 54 artificial lakes and dams which supply water and electricity. The main ones are Lake Omodeo and Lake Coghinas. The only natural freshwater lake is Lago di Baratz. A number of large, shallow, salt-water lagoons and pools are located along the 1,850 km (1,149.54 mi) of the coastline.

The island has a typical Mediterranean climate. During the year there are approximately 300 days of sunshine, with a major concentration of rainfall in the winter and autumn, some heavy showers in the spring and snowfalls in the highlands. The average temperature is between 11 to 17 掳C (52 to 63 掳F).[2] The Mistral from the northwest is the dominant wind on and off throughout the year, though it is most prelavent in winter and spring. It can blow quite strongly, but it is usually dry and cool and makes for a sailor's paradise.

 

La Sardegna (in sardo Sardigna; in latino Sardinia; in spagnolo Cerdeña; in catalano Sardenya; in portoghese Sardenha; in francese Sardaigne; in inglese Sardinia; in tedesco Sardinien) è la seconda isola più estesa del Mar Mediterraneo, l'ottava in Europa e la quarantaseiesima nel mondo. Come ente amministrativo è denominata Regione Autonoma della Sardegna, ed è, quindi, una regione autonoma a statuto speciale facente parte della Repubblica Italiana. Lo statuto speciale, sancito nella Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana del 1948, garantisce una larga autonomia amministrativa e culturale alle istituzioni di una regione depositaria di una millenaria civiltà con singolari peculiarità etniche e linguistiche. Nonostante l'accentuata insularità, la posizione strategica al centro del mar Mediterraneo ha favorito sin dall'antichità l'interesse delle varie potenze coloniali, agevolando sì i rapporti commerciali e culturali ma anche un succedersi di varie dominazioni straniere. In epoca moderna molti viaggiatori e scrittori hanno esaltato la bellezza della Sardegna, immersa in un ambiente in gran parte incontaminato, che ospita un paesaggio botanico e faunistico con specie uniche, nel quale si trovano poi le vestigia della civiltà nuragica.Ben conosciuta nell'antichità sia dai Fenici che dai Greci, fu da questi ultimi chiamata Hyknusa o Ichnussa (Ιχνουσσα), o ancora Sandalyon per la somiglianza dell'intera conformazione costiera all'impronta di un piede[3], mentre i Latini la identificavano con il nome di Sardinia. In una stele in pietra risalente all'VIII / IX secolo a.C. ritrovata nell'odierna Pula, città corrispondente dell'antica Nora, appare scritto in fenicio la parola b-šrdn che significa in Sardegna, a testimonianza che tale toponimo era già presente sull'Isola all'arrivo dei mercanti fenici. La stele di Nora rappresenta il più antico documento scritto della storia occidentale e secondo gli studiosi costituisce un dato linguistico riguardante la Sardegna in Sardegna, confermando che l'origine del toponimo è da attribuire agli Shardana, una popolazione di navigatori-guerrieri identificata con le genti sardo-nuragiche.

Per estensione costituisce la seconda isola italiana e dell'intero Mediterraneo (23.821 km²) nonché la terza regione italiana, avendo una superficie complessiva di 24.090 km². La lunghezza tra i suoi punti più estremi (Punta Falcone a nord e Capo Teulada a sud) è di 270 km, mentre 145 sono i km di larghezza (da Capo dell'Argentiera a ovest, a Capo Comino ad est). Gli abitanti sono 1,68 milioni, per una densità demografica di 69 abitanti per km². Dista 187 km dalle coste della Penisola, dalla quale è separata dal Mar Tirreno, mentre il Canale di Sardegna la divide dalle coste tunisine che si trovano 184 km più a sud. A nord, per 11 km, le bocche di Bonifacio la separano dalla Corsica e il Mar di Sardegna, a ovest, dalla Penisola iberica e dalle isole Baleari. Si situa tra il 41º ed il 39º parallelo, mentre il 40º la divide praticamente quasi a metà.

Più dell'80% del territorio è montuoso e collinare; per il 67,9% è formato da colline e da altopiani rocciosi (per 16.352 km²). Alcuni di questi altopiani sono molto caratteristici e vengono chiamati giare o gollei se granitici o basaltici, tacchi o tonneri se in arenaria o calcarei. L'altimetria media è di 334 m s.l.m. Le montagne sono il 13,6% del territorio (4.451 km²) e sono formate da rocce molto antiche e livellate dal lento e continuo processo di erosione. Culminano nella parte centrale dell'Isola con Punta La Marmora, a 1.834 m s.l.m, nel Massiccio del Gennargentu[5]. Da nord, si distinguono i Monti di Limbara (1.362 m), i Monti di Alà (1.090 m), il Monte Rasu (1.259 m), il Monte Albo (1.127 m) e il Supramonte con il Monte Corràsi di Oliena (1.463 m). Sotto il Gennargentu ci sono i tacchi d'Ogliastra con Punta Seccu alta 1000 mt in territorio di Ulassai. A sud il Monte Linas (1.236 m) e i Monti dell'Iglesiente che digradano verso il mare con minori altitudini.

Le zone pianeggianti occupano il 18,5% del territorio (per 3.287 km²); la pianura più estesa è il Campidano che separa i rilievi centro settentrionali dai monti dell'Iglesiente, mentre la piana della Nurra si trova nella parte nord-occidentale tra le città di Sassari, Alghero e Porto Torres. I fiumi hanno prevalentemente carattere torrentizio. I più importanti sono il Tirso, il Flumendosa, il Coghinas, il Cedrino, il Temo, il Flumini Mannu. I maggiori sono sbarrati da imponenti dighe che formano ampi laghi artificiali utilizzati principalmente per irrigare i campi, tra questi il bacino del lago Omodeo, il più vasto d'Italia. Seguono poi il bacino del Flumendosa, del Coghinas, del Posada. L'unico lago naturale è il lago di Baratz situato a nord di Alghero.

Le coste si articolano nei golfi dell'Asinara a settentrione, di Orosei a oriente, di Cagliari a meridione e di Alghero e Oristano a occidente. Per complessivi 1.897 km, sono alte, rocciose e con piccole insenature che a nord-est diventano profonde e s'incuneano nelle valli (rias)[7]. Litorali bassi e sabbiosi, talvolta paludosi si trovano nelle zone meridionali e occidentali: sono gli stagni costieri, zone umide importanti dal punto di vista ecologico. Molte isole ed isolette la circondano e tra queste la più grande è l'isola di Sant'Antioco (109 km²), seguono poi l'isola dell'Asinara (51 km²), l'isola di San Pietro (50 km²), l'isola della Maddalena (20 km²), Caprera (15 km²).

La Sardegna è suddivisa in regioni storiche che derivano direttamente, sia nella denominazione che nell'estensione, dai distretti amministrativi, giudiziari ed elettorali dei regni giudicali, le curatorie (in sardo curadorias o partes) che probabilmente ricalcavano una suddivisione territoriale ben più antica operata dalle tribù nuragiche[9]. Alcune denominazioni non sono più in uso, mentre altre hanno resistito dal Medioevo fino ad oggi e sono ancora correntemente utilizzate. Ecco quelle più conosciute: Anglona, Barbagia, Barigadu, Baronie, Campidano, Logudoro, Gallura, Goceano, Mandrolisai, Marghine, Marmilla, Meilogu, Monteacuto, Montiferru, Nurra, Ogliastra, Planargia, Quirra, Romangia, Sarcidano, Sarrabus-Gerrei, Sulcis Iglesiente, Trexenta.

 

Font : Wikipedia

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_ncG0-vl2M

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfVJ9gvbWxQ

Paper: Octagon with a height of 16 cm, glassine

Model: Matthias Eichel

Book: Convention book 28. Treffen OD p. 128-135

 

This star was designed for a depression/burnnout self-help group, therefore named "Zuversicht". There's no real english expression for that, leo.org say "reliance" or "confidence" but I like neither, they miss the connotation "hope" which the german bears.

Back to the origami: A nice fold, not too many layers, so could be folded with smaller paper too.

Also the place where I took my last shot. The lighting around this area is kinda special, I didn't on any lights, just natural lighting, without editing. I did an overexposure.

 

Inspired by candida holfer ( though I wasn't thinking of the old gal when I took this)

 

This photographer is special to me because her photo book was the first one I've seen and all her photos really connect with me.

 

Its real Fate, though I don't really like saying the word due to the cliche connotation to it.

  

In October 1981, flying tiger ancient human remains from Guizhou Provincial Museum trial excavation, the accumulation of complex, broadly divided into early and late phases. Early formation of yellow or grayish yellow, unearthed panda, Stegodon fossils, stone products are made for the late Paleolithic culture era. Advanced formation is black, black, unearthed animal genetic pulp for extant species, and human mandibular and chipped stone, grinding stone, grinding bone, pottery and other large, geological time for the Holocene, culture in the age of the Neolithic age, that about 4000 years ago to 6000 years.

 

Unearthed stone products made a total of 532 pieces of raw materials, mainly to flint stone, there is, nuclear, stone etc.. The stone to stone, with the forward direction of processing processing, types of hit device, a scraper, tip like device and dolabriform etc.. The scraper accounted for 76%, tip like device is small but fine processing. The axe is a symbol of the transformation of Neolithic culture. 27 pieces of polished stone, delicate process, a stone axe, stone adzes, stone spinning wheels, stone scraper, stone arrow head, small stones (spear) 8. The number of stone adzes, regular shape, with long oblique cutting tool representative. 79 pieces of bone, in addition to the 1 pieces of grinding residual bone scraper, are making bone, bone and bone shovel cone. The three notches in the teeth may be scratching the porcupine symbol. In addition to pottery and ball spinning round round cake 1, the rest are all pieces of artifacts. 1494 tablets. The uneven thickness, thickness of 1.2 cm, thickness of only 0.2 cm, high temperature, hard texture. About 70% of sand pottery, pottery sand shale pottery class accounted for 30%, very little. Sand and sand are mainly sand. Pottery ornamentation is complicated, there are thick rope lines and Fang Gewen cone, tattoo, carved lines and lines and other additional cone. There are 3 pieces of pottery pottery, which has 1 pieces of orange powder is subjected to pottery coating inside and outside the grey clay, on the exterior is painted with two parallel red bands. This is the first time in Guizhou, Guizhou is also the earliest pottery record.

 

The site has a new and old stone formation, and the cultural connotation is rich. Pottery appear more attractive, but considerable differences in advanced culture. These have great significance to the study of the relationship between the new and the old stone culture in Guizhou and the time continuity of the times.

 

In February 23, 1982, the Guizhou Provincial People's Government approved the publication of the provincial cultural relics protection units. 1981年10月，飞虎山古人类遗址由贵州省博物馆试掘，洞内堆积复杂，大致分早、晚两期。早期地层呈黄色或灰黄色，出土大熊猫、剑齿象等化石，石制品均为打制，文化时代为旧石器时代晚期。晚期地层呈黑色、灰黑色，出土动物遗髓为现生属种，并出人类下颌件和打制石器、磨制石器、磨制骨器、大量的陶片等，地质时代为全新世，文化时代属新石器时代，推测距今约4000年至6000年。

遗址出土打制的石制品共532件，原料以燧石为主，有是核、石片、石器等。石器以石片为主，加工方向以正向加工为主，类型有砸器、刮削器、尖状器和斧形器等。其中刮削器占76%，尖状器虽少但加工精细。斧形器似为向新石器文化转化的象征。磨制石器27件，加工精致，有石斧、石锛、石纺轮、石刮刀、石箭(矛)头、小石块等8种。石锛数量多，形制规整，以长形斜刃具代表性。骨器79件，除1件残的磨制骨刮刀外，均为打制骨器，有骨锥和骨铲。其中豪猪牙上的三道刻痕可能是刻划符。陶器除圆饼式及圆珠纺轮各1件外，其余全是器物碎片。计1494片。其厚度不匀，厚者达1.2厘米，薄者仅0.2厘米，火候高，质地坚硬。夹砂灰陶约占70%，夹砂黑陶占30%，泥质类陶极少。夹砂陶以夹细砂为主。陶片纹饰复杂多样，有粗细绳纹、方格纹、锥刺纹、刻划纹和附加锥纹等。陶片中有3片彩陶，其中有1片是在泥质灰陶的内外施以粉澄色陶衣，再于外表绘有两条平行的红色条带。这是贵州首次发现，也是贵州迄今最早的彩陶记录。

遗址具有新、旧石器地层叠压，文化内涵丰富。彩陶的出现更引人瞩目，但中、晚期文化差异颇大。这些对研究贵州新、旧石器文化的相互关系和时代延续问题具有重要的意义。

1982年2月23日，经贵州省人民政府批准公布为省级文物保护单位。

 

'His wife Sophia here personifies two conflicting notions of femininity. While her painted lips, bared teeth, visible nipples and overly complex hairstyle carried traditional connotations of sexual immorality, the sewing basket acted as a sign of virtuous domesticity. The same basket may also allude to the ancient Greek myth of Pandora, who by opening her notorious box unleashed a host of misfortunes onto humankind.'

Autumn is in full swing on the Shropshire Union Canal

 

The word autumn comes from the ancient Etruscan root autu- and has within it connotations of the passing of the year.[9] It was borrowed by the neighbouring Romans, and became the Latin word autumnus. After the Roman era the word continued to be used as the Old French word autompne (automne in modern French), and was later normalised to the original Latin. In the Medieval period there are rare examples of its use as early as the 12th century, but by the 16th century it was in common use.

.

Before the 16th century, harvest was the term usually used to refer to the season, as it is common in other West Germanic languages to this day However, as more people gradually moved from working the land to living in towns, the word harvest lost its reference to the time of year and came to refer only to the actual activity of reaping, and autumn, as well as fall, began to replace it as a reference to the season.

 

The alternative word fall for the season traces its origins to old Germanic languages. The exact derivation is unclear, with the Old English fiæll or feallan and the Old Norse fall all being possible candidates. However, these words all have the meaning "to fall from a height" and are clearly derived either from a common root or from each other. The term came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year".

 

During the 17th century, English emigration to the British colonies in North America was at its peak, and the new settlers took the English language with them. While the term fall gradually became obsolete in Britain, it became the more common term in North America.

 

Shropshire Union Canal

24th September 2014

In October 1981, flying tiger ancient human remains from Guizhou Provincial Museum trial excavation, the accumulation of complex, broadly divided into early and late phases. Early formation of yellow or grayish yellow, unearthed panda, Stegodon fossils, stone products are made for the late Paleolithic culture era. Advanced formation is black, black, unearthed animal genetic pulp for extant species, and human mandibular and chipped stone, grinding stone, grinding bone, pottery and other large, geological time for the Holocene, culture in the age of the Neolithic age, that about 4000 years ago to 6000 years.

 

Unearthed stone products made a total of 532 pieces of raw materials, mainly to flint stone, there is, nuclear, stone etc.. The stone to stone, with the forward direction of processing processing, types of hit device, a scraper, tip like device and dolabriform etc.. The scraper accounted for 76%, tip like device is small but fine processing. The axe is a symbol of the transformation of Neolithic culture. 27 pieces of polished stone, delicate process, a stone axe, stone adzes, stone spinning wheels, stone scraper, stone arrow head, small stones (spear) 8. The number of stone adzes, regular shape, with long oblique cutting tool representative. 79 pieces of bone, in addition to the 1 pieces of grinding residual bone scraper, are making bone, bone and bone shovel cone. The three notches in the teeth may be scratching the porcupine symbol. In addition to pottery and ball spinning round round cake 1, the rest are all pieces of artifacts. 1494 tablets. The uneven thickness, thickness of 1.2 cm, thickness of only 0.2 cm, high temperature, hard texture. About 70% of sand pottery, pottery sand shale pottery class accounted for 30%, very little. Sand and sand are mainly sand. Pottery ornamentation is complicated, there are thick rope lines and Fang Gewen cone, tattoo, carved lines and lines and other additional cone. There are 3 pieces of pottery pottery, which has 1 pieces of orange powder is subjected to pottery coating inside and outside the grey clay, on the exterior is painted with two parallel red bands. This is the first time in Guizhou, Guizhou is also the earliest pottery record.

 

The site has a new and old stone formation, and the cultural connotation is rich. Pottery appear more attractive, but considerable differences in advanced culture. These have great significance to the study of the relationship between the new and the old stone culture in Guizhou and the time continuity of the times.

 

In February 23, 1982, the Guizhou Provincial People's Government approved the publication of the provincial cultural relics protection units. 1981年10月，飞虎山古人类遗址由贵州省博物馆试掘，洞内堆积复杂，大致分早、晚两期。早期地层呈黄色或灰黄色，出土大熊猫、剑齿象等化石，石制品均为打制，文化时代为旧石器时代晚期。晚期地层呈黑色、灰黑色，出土动物遗髓为现生属种，并出人类下颌件和打制石器、磨制石器、磨制骨器、大量的陶片等，地质时代为全新世，文化时代属新石器时代，推测距今约4000年至6000年。

遗址出土打制的石制品共532件，原料以燧石为主，有是核、石片、石器等。石器以石片为主，加工方向以正向加工为主，类型有砸器、刮削器、尖状器和斧形器等。其中刮削器占76%，尖状器虽少但加工精细。斧形器似为向新石器文化转化的象征。磨制石器27件，加工精致，有石斧、石锛、石纺轮、石刮刀、石箭(矛)头、小石块等8种。石锛数量多，形制规整，以长形斜刃具代表性。骨器79件，除1件残的磨制骨刮刀外，均为打制骨器，有骨锥和骨铲。其中豪猪牙上的三道刻痕可能是刻划符。陶器除圆饼式及圆珠纺轮各1件外，其余全是器物碎片。计1494片。其厚度不匀，厚者达1.2厘米，薄者仅0.2厘米，火候高，质地坚硬。夹砂灰陶约占70%，夹砂黑陶占30%，泥质类陶极少。夹砂陶以夹细砂为主。陶片纹饰复杂多样，有粗细绳纹、方格纹、锥刺纹、刻划纹和附加锥纹等。陶片中有3片彩陶，其中有1片是在泥质灰陶的内外施以粉澄色陶衣，再于外表绘有两条平行的红色条带。这是贵州首次发现，也是贵州迄今最早的彩陶记录。

遗址具有新、旧石器地层叠压，文化内涵丰富。彩陶的出现更引人瞩目，但中、晚期文化差异颇大。这些对研究贵州新、旧石器文化的相互关系和时代延续问题具有重要的意义。

1982年2月23日，经贵州省人民政府批准公布为省级文物保护单位。

 

Limestone

Ptolemaic Period, 305-30 B.C.

 

Contemporary writers sometimes deny the existence of sexual images in ancient Egyptian art, insisting that erotica offended Egyptian religious sensibilities. The objects here demonstrate the fallacy of those dams Nonetheless, what may appear to us as pure obscenity was not necessarily seen as such by the Egyptians. Humour was surely intended by some sexually laden images. and other meanings were sometimes present as well.

 

The large group composition here has significant religious connotations such as fertility and re-generation, and a famous graffito near the funerary temple of Hatshepsut in Thebes that shows the woman pharaoh copulating with one of her officials is both satirical and political as well as scatological. Beginning in 18th Dynasty, sex and music were intimately connected in Egyptian art, no doubt because they were both associated with the goddess Hathor. Female musicians and dancers were often shown naked or wearing transparent garments. Occasionally they were depicted as being ravished by sexually frenzied men.

 

In the Late and Ptolemaic Periods, small compositions with musical themes and sexual imagery became popular. All these works feature a man wit an enormous phallus, sometimes with a harp on top.

 

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The Brooklyn Museum, sitting at the border of Prospect Heights and Crown Heights near Prospect Park, is the second largest art museum in New York City. Opened in 1897 under the leadership of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences president John B. Woodward, the 560,000-square foot, Beaux-Arts building houses a permanent collection including more than one-and-a-half million objects, from ancient Egyptian masterpieces to contemporary art.

 

The Brooklyn Museum was designated a landmark by the New York Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966.

 

National Historic Register #770009