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Explainer: While I wish I could fully dress, wig-up and make-up regularly, those days are rare. So I post these AI renderings. FYI: the photos are AI generated, from actual photos of me, enhanced slightly with FaceApp and then dressed from outfits I see and love on the interweb. Enjoy them or not! I do, that's all that matters! Love, Crystal
For Macro Mondays, theme: Comforting.
After the stress of previous Macro Mondays, Badly Cast man finds comfort in being extremely comfortable.
For anyone who's paying attention, this isn't the rug ... it's a cushion in the same style, which explains the colour difference. It's also very comfortable.
The HUGE amount of text to follow here is mainly for my own reference (because I'm having some memory issues at the moment and really don't want to forget this, plus I need to work out the order things happened cause my head was in a rather thick fog at the time....)
I'm writing this like I'm explaining it to you, well because I thought it would make more sense than me just talking to myself... And who knows, it may be of some interest to you if immersive theatre is your kind of thing..........
This Saturday saw my return to Temple studios in Paddington for my second visit to Punchdrunks The Drowned Man
On my previous visit, I had no idea what the hell was happening!
We were handed white masks, bundled into a lift, told this was a wrap party for the filming of 'the drowned man' and then the lift doors opened and we were let loose.
As soon as we stepped out of the lift we were greeted with the most chilling music that actually made every single one of my hairs stand up on end.
And there we were...
Alone in a dark hall way....
Not knowing where to go or what to do.
We spent most of the first hour rummaging around the set/studio. Wandering (and wondering) around film sets, prosthetic room, wig rooms, Dr's office, cinema, motel rooms, shops in a town, mirror mazes, pitch black mazes, woods, caravan parks (complete with caravans) a masonic temple, a bloody desert!
(I shit you not, this place in it's self is a farking epic! master piece)
We roamed in and out of dark room, full of objects, scripts and pieces of information.
Information we didn't have a clue about...
But saying that, even as bunch of numpties fumbling their way through the dark, trying to piece together clues to a story we knew next to nothing about, the details and attention taken to create this amazingly intricate 4 store set was not lost on us.
We took in every sight, sound and smell around us. And as we continued on our masked journey we slowly started to run into the members of the cast.
The only unmasked people around...
That trip I took in various snippets of scenes. The fool and Lila, the psychotic seamstress (with a Frankie fetish), Frankie, the evil Dr doing his experiments on people. A fair bit of story line from Ramola, Faye, Dwayne, Miguel and the ill fated Marshall and Wendy.
But with all the exploring we had done I still didn't have a bloody clue what the hell was going on!
And of course when I came out after the finale, where I'd seen just how many characters I'd missed out on, I knew I had to go back.
I had to know more about what the hell was going on in that place!
I started searching the interweb on the train ride home.
I found various bits of information about the story lines going on within temple studio. Partly based on The day of the locusts and Woyzeck. (yep...read em both)
Then I found the spoiler group on facebook. And that was me hooked!
I booked my next show.
Sadly because I got ill I had to postpone until last weekend (which is probably lucky or else I know I would have tried to fit in a 3rd maybe a 4th visit before it closes it's doors next week.... (yes...it's THAT good!) )
And of course because the way I am physically (and mentally) affected at the moment, I now had to take into account that running up and down 3 flights of stairs trying to follow characters would probably fucking kill me (or kick off the paralysis....not sexy at all.)
Running up to the weekend just gone I was on the hunt for information. Without wanting to know too much. But still needing to know more.
In simple terms, the whole story line is an hour long. Then it resets, runs for another hour and resets a final time before the big finale.
That gave me time to work out which parts I was interested in seeing.
Funnily enough I wasn't interested in pursuing the 4 main characters William and Mary (William kills Mary for her infidelity) and Wendy and Marshall (Wendy kills Marshall for his infidelity)
You're given a card at the beginning with their story line on it, so I kinda knew that part all ready.
But there were 2 certain dance scenes that were kind of the main scenes for those character, that also involved a lot of the cast so I figured those were a good place to start.
If I could make it to the Orgy for one loop where Wendy kills Marshall, and then to the hoedown for the second loop I'd see Mary cheating on William as well
Ta da a plan of attack!
(3rd loops just mill around and rest....)
So I went to the 5000 strong group of spoilers (some of whom have been over 30 times!!!!) and asked which characters I could follow that wouldn't be too energetic for me (no way I was I gonna miss this last visit because my damn brain fucking hates me! Screw you brain!!!!!)
And with their help I had a set route and characters to follow.
Saturday arrived and I woke up feeling like shit.
My heart was feeling really tight in my chest (don't know why it does that, but it does) my speech was fucked and my left hand side was not in the mood to function without great effort (and pain)
Great..... Just what I need......
I then spent the rest of the day trying to chill the fuck out.
I became a master of Zen.
I meditated like a bad ass mother fucker!
I became completely anti social and drowned the world out with the most chilled music I could get my mitts on.
And you know what...
I actually worked!
By the time it was time to head to Paddington I was pretty functional.
Ok, so my head was cloudy as fuck. My speech was painfully slow and my left arm still ached.... I owned the underground that day!
I owned sitting on the floor while queuing.
And despite my heart pounding away in my chest (nerves I guess?) I made it in! :D
I have my plan. I'm going to get out of the lift, head to the town and follow the green grocer.
Only the lift takes us to the basement....
DAMN!
That's 2 flights of stairs I need to get up!!!
Rushing is just not an option at this point.
I head into the masonic temple. And there are weird masked people (not with masks like we have on, weird bald headed mask, kind of like the president masks in point break)
And then there is Stanford.
The head of the studio.
If I were such a spaz I'd be following him cause he is pure evil! And dark personalities have always intrigued me...
I may as well stick around and see whats going on.
The 3 masked people have baseball bats and are dancing around the black and white checkered floor harassing Frankie (the studio's up and coming star)
They start beating him, shove an orange in his mouth and as the music reaches it's crescendo Stanford pulls out and gun, shoves it in Frankie's face and.......
They all laugh.
This is Frankie's initiation into the evil that is temple studio.
YAY! I'd actually really wanted to see that scene because those masked characters appear on the guide book(?) thingie. Ha ha ha!
I decide I'll make my way up to the 2nd floor and see if I can play catch up with the grocer who I need to follow for the Hoedown.
On my way towards the town I run into (quite literally as he was storming towards me) a man in a suit (no mask)
No one is following him....
SCORE!
I whole actor to myself!!!!!!!!
(this is hard to find especially later on with the amount of people around)
Now I haven't mentioned yet that the characters interact with the white masked audience. We had witnessed it the first show, when the Dr took a woman into the room and locked the door on all her friends. And when the toy shop owner did the same
Which is why I'm so excited to have this dude (whoever he is) all to myself.
Who knows... Maybe I'll get lucky and land a bit of interaction with him...?
I follow him into the board room
He has a collection of pictures of Frankie with him and spreads them all over the table where he dances and writhes around on top of them.
When he is done he tidies them up and then stares me straight in the eye.
He looks kind of pissed at me, like I'm there invading his private moment.
As he slowly moves around the room he is still holding my gaze (I feel like I'm in a stare out, no way I'm looking away first! Even though he is very intimidating)
He exits and I'm right behind him striding down the corridors.
Holy crap he is bloody fast!
Uh oh....
From this moment on my mind has blurred all the events into a kind of mash of happening, so I'm using a cheat sheet for his loop to help me piece it all back together in order....
We go into a studio and he watches Frankie and Andrea dancing/auditioning, then somehow (and I can't quite remember how) we are chasing Frankie down the stairs, where suited man seems to sexually harass Frankie, who eventually gives in and the pair full on snog at the bottom of the stairs right under a spotlight (perfectly timed and positioned if I say so myself!)
Then we're back in the masonic temple for the orgy. Oh my gosh I LOVED this scene!
The choreography and music are amazing!
It's a good scene to see as it help me figure out the cast members I don't know the names of.
Delores seduces Marshall as Wendy watches on horrified.
When the orgy is done and the other characters have left the suited man tries to seduce Frankie again, and seems to spurn him this time.
So that's that, we're off at a trot again (fuck it, I'm not giving up now!)
He leads us (cause I'm not alone with him anymore. Other white masks have joined us) to a corridor with head shots of the 'stars' all over the floor.
He stops and has a little dance over them, then we're off to a room full of the head shots with their eyes cut out. (cause that's not creepy at all.....)
He's looking really fucked off now.
He find a picture of Frankie.
He comes towards me and places the picture up against my mask and starts to slow rip it.....
When he rips it down past my eye I can see that he is right up against me, his face nearly touching my mask.....
His eyes are intensely staring into mine again and he looks crazed!!!!
Yet again I dare not blink, or take my eyes from his.
He takes the ripped up picture and stuff it in my pocket.
Then we're off again!
By now I am so hyper reflexive that EVERY little noise is making me jump. Even the ones I can see coming (like doors opening and closing. It's mental!)
My heart is BANGING double time in my chest and I'm vaguely aware my left arm hurts.
I'm guessing my speech has fucked off my this point, but that's cool cause we're supposed to be silent the whole time, so who cares!
My head is so fuzzy the whole thing feels like a dream. Like I'm somewhere else watching what is going on.
We're in the snow set now (I forgot to mention earlier there is bloody snow as well! They have EVERYTHING in this place!)
He's watching Andrea dance. (She's Wendy's friend I think)
He goes up the snow hill through an open door and behind a wall where I can't see him.
I honestly thought I'd lost him at this point.
And have to admit I felt a little sad.
But no!
He's still in that little snow filled room, standing in front of a bright light, making the huge shadow of his hand move slowly and menacingly towards Andrea who's laid on the floor.
He comes back down, picks her up and takes her off to the dressing room.
I remember being in the dressing room, seeing the fool from the corner of my eye, but for the life of me can't remember what the hell he did in there.
It may have been where he gave Andrea and Wendy the invite to the orgy (insuring that Wendy see's Marshall infidelity with Delores)
Damn.
Such a shame I can't remember.
Now we're in the casting office with Alice Estee. And finally I learn that he is in fact Claude Estee (her husband I'm guessing)
The pair of them are characters taken from The day of the locust and dropped into the world of temple studio.
They are an evil pair, who are laughing and joking about the fact that they are rooting through piles of head shots dismissing almost all of them.
Until they get to Frankie.
They seem to really LOVE him.
After they have done a very cleverly choreographed chair dance, he heads out into the hall way off somewhere else.
And of course I'm hot on his heels.
He suddenly stops.
Turns and makes eye contact with me again.
He starts slowly moving towards me, holding my gaze all the while.
He pushed me up against the wall.
His face right up to mine.
His eyes burning into mine again
All I can think is 'damn it Elana, unfold you hands, they're going to be touching his balls if he gets any closer!!!!'
I manage to get them unfolded and down by my side just in time as he then pins me against the wall, puts his lips right on my ear and hisses something about me having talent, and that I should come find him later...
Makes all my hairs stand on end.....
Damn!
He pressed himself against me so hard he left a sweat patch behind!
maybe I should have grabbed his balls after all! ha ha ha ha ha!
And just like that he turns away, and we're off again.
This time he's with Stanford.
The pair look so threatening together as poor Faye comes in for an audition (I met Faye a few times last visit and she's quite a big part of The day of the locust)
I actually feel quite sorry for her, which is odd because before I didn't really like her as she was such a tease and rather irritating wanna be (even more so in the book!)
But the presence of the evil, unblinking, poker faced Stanford and the lecherous Claude makes me feel for the poor girl.
yep... I'm getting right into this story line now!
I guess Stanford and Faye leave, cause now it's Claude's turn in the big bosses chair.
He goes straight for me again, with those penetrating eyes
(I swear he could see me blushing under my mask he was staring that hard!)
He motions for me to move into the middle of the room (which is surrounded by white masks most of whom were watching the last scene)
He then motions for me to turn around.
Ha ha ha ha!
Cause I'm not already dizzy as fuck, hyper reflexive and completely fuzzy headed.
I make a rather lame attempt at giving him a twirl (which is more of a shuffle round in a rather lame circle)
He gets up, comes right up to me so his lips are once again on my ear and whispers 'I remember you.... You've got talent'
Seriously, he is such a slimy character and played so well it made me shudder!
While I recover from my public humiliation (damn I wish I'd put a bit more effort into that twirl....) Andrea comes in for her audition.
William is there as well, and Claude (still in the bosses chair) watches them audition for a scene that is dictated by the amazing disembodied voice of Stanford (even when that man's not present somewhere, he still manages to be everywhere.....)
We're in a hallway again and Claude bumps into the Dr and they have a pill together.
(Cause why the hell not I suppose, guess they are all into the drugging thing together)
Then we're off to the dressing room again.
Delores is in there and she and Claude do a little dance number. Which ends in him mocking her and telling her that she's getting old.
Off to another part of the set, where Alice is with Frankie auditioning him.
The 3 of them do a dance number.
I miss nearly the whole thing because there are LOADS of people and I'm way to short to see over their heads. So I sit it out.
After that Claude and Alice ask Frankie if he wants to meet the boss.
They rush down the stairs.
Claude disappears into a room and materialize
wearing the creepy point break mask just as the rest music sounds telling me I've just unknowingly and unintentionally followed his whole loop!
And a hell of a loop it was as well.
I oh so slowly make my way up their two flights of stairs to seek out the town where I know I can go sit and watch the drugstore girl for a bit. (Kinda hoping she'll offer me a drink cause I feel like I'm going to die!!!!)
In the town I finally find the drugstore (totally missed it first time round)
She's there behind the counter so I park my arse on a stool and watch her for a bit.
She's reading a script, I would read it, but my brain is beyond fucked now.
I'd be surprised if I'd manage to read the first line of it!
She heads out of the drugstore, I figure I'll follow. (I've sat down long enough, and if I stop any longer I'll start noticing my symptoms kicking in)
As luck would have it she goes to see the grocer and gives him an invite to the hoe down.
I'm guessing he got ready and went straight there (cause I'm fucked if I can remember him doing anything else)
And there we have the hoedown. Another beautifully choreographed scene with kick ass music!
William see's Mary cheating on him with Dwayne goes a little mental.
I'm wanting low impact after Claude's loop, so follow the grocers back to his store.
Back in his shop he turns to me.
Stares at me long and hard and then hold out his hand for me to take.
He leads me into his back room and locks the door behind us.
Pushes me against the door and fiddles about for a bit, before taking me around the shoulders and leading me through a low dark tunnel.
He sits me down and takes my mask off.
He then hands me a script to read (ahahahahaha! Are you kidding me, My brain stop cooperating waaaaay back with bloody Claude)
I manage to read the first few line.
I could be hallucinating at this point, but I'm pretty sure there is a voice (Stanford maybe) narrating what he is doing and what he is doing is exactly what's in the script....
My mind is fucked anyway so I just give up on pretending to read whats on the script.
He sits opposite me and takes my hands.
He starts to tell me a sad story about a boy who had a dream his mother died and he was left with his cruel father.
He seems really heart broken so I assume he is telling me his story.
He leans forward and gives me a really long sweaty hug.
I feel for the bloke so I give him a hug back and do the whole 'there, there' back pat thing (he's upset, what else was I gonna do, offer him a kleenex from my bra?)
Can't fucking remember the rest of what he said, but as he lead me back out of the dark tunnel he said some more stuff. Told me that his name is Eugene and that this is all a dream. They are stuck inside a dream and not to get stuck too.....
Which ties in with something the fool had said about it all being a dream when I saw him with Lila the first time round.
Fuck me, the old wheels started turning after that!
After he emerges out of the room he lead me into I follow him to the drugstore where he has a script for the drugstore girl.
They sit down and read it together.
They are acting out what is on the script and what is on the script is being said by the voice of (Stamford again) they repeat the scene over and over again and both seem to realize that they are trapped inside this loop.
Both aware yet unable to stop doing what is in the script and what Stanford is saying!
The drugstore girl gets up goes over to the phone box and falls down dead (of an overdoes apparently)
Eugene sadly and knowingly walks over moves her body (as he has done a thousand times before) and leaves.
He leads us downstairs to the birthday tent in the woods.
Where he strips down to his underwear.
Plus out a red sequin dress, wig, heels and red lipstick and starts to dress himself up.
He puts the red lipstick on and takes me hand. Plus me close and kisses my mask.
Just then Delores and Frankie turn up.
It's Delores's birthday and Eugene is the entertainment. Impersonating her.
Wendy and Marshall rock up to the party as well.
Eugene gives them a bit of a show and then pulls Wendy up on stage.
He and Frankie distract her by dressing her up in Eugene's red sequin frock, while Delores seduces Marshall.
Eugene and Frankie finish, Wendy is all dressed up, looking ridiculous and laughing at how funny she looks.
She see's that Marshall is looking very comfortable with Delores, and Delores begins to laugh as well.
A nasty cruel laugh, at Wendy.
From there they all go off and the orgy scene happens not long after.
I've already seen that, so I hang around to see the rest of Eugene's loop.
Alice Estee comes into the tent just as Eugene has put his normal clothes back on.
She looks at the heels and wig and scoffs at him.
She then says she has a part for him.
A grocer!
He seems hesitant to take the role and she tells him that he will be the grocer.
He agrees and takes the script from her and heads back up to the shop.
'Abe's general store.'
Guess that's why he wanted me to know his name. Because he's not really Abe. He knows his real name and is trying to hang on to that before he becomes nothing more than the role he has been given in the script, on a constantly repeating loop in a tragic dream he can't get out of...
This time he takes someone else into the back room, I dig out the script from the draw.
And sure enough, it's his script. All the things I have seen him do as the grocer (he dusts off peas a lot and served some customers as well while I was in the shop) and sure enough, the scene with the drugstore girl is in there. exactly as it played out. So he must know in advance that she is going to die.
I'm curious if the script she was reading when I went in to the drugstore is the same one as this now only with her story inside in it....
Then the reset music sounds again and it's the third loop.
Time to head up to the top floor desert to get some sand in my shoes and see if I can find the dust which, who I have yet to see in any shape or form even during the finale!
First I bump into Mary (who I haven't seen before) she's dancing with someone on a car.
Don't know who it was! ha!
Getting really tired now and not giving much of crap about where I'm heading.
I head up to the sand dunes to find Miguel, who is having a fight with Dwayne.
I already know what's going to happen because I caught this scene on my first visit, so instead I have a nose around to see if I can find the secret tunnel in the sand dune.
Go in there, have a nose around.
No dust witch.
Miguel heads down to the hoedown.
I've already seen that as well so I go into the town to see if anyone of any interest is about.
And sure as shit there is a big crowd around the toy shop because the owner Mr Tuttle is about.
White masks love him!
Mainly because he drags you into the back of his shop for a 1 on 1, much like I had with Eugene, but does a whole load of batshit crazy stuff and then covers your mask in blood (red paint)
This time hes off out on a mission.
He heads to where the car is with his pot of paint and must be finishing off some graffiti he has been doing in his previous loops. 'Beware. the red moon is rising'
No idea what that means (I'll ask the spoilers at some point) I'm guessing there is a shit ton of red moon shaped clues and objects around this place. It's bound to make sense to the folk who have searched for the stuff (in their 30 odd visits....)
The security guard sees him and comes running over and chases him (I'm not fucking running, so I miss what is said between the 2 of them)
Tuttle heads back to his shop and Miguel and Faye come out of the hoedown. I decide to pick up following Miguel.
The have a little sexy, flirty dance and Faye leads him off the a motel room.
He lays on the bed. She starts taking her clothes off.
Something suddenly catches his attention outside so he bolts.
Faye sits and starts to cries. I get the fuck outta there to follow Miguel into the street, where he is holding tarot card. Couldn't see what it had on it though I'm guessing death?
He starts saying 'Mary' over and over. Then leaves the card in the rafters of William and Mary's house before heading up to the sand dunes.
I'm moving at a crawl now so kind miss what hes doing in the shack up there.
My guess is this is usually when Mary get's kill by William, as Miguel was repeating her name a hell of a lot.
But this is the end of the 3rd loop which means that we are discreetly lead away and back down to the wooded area where the finale of Wendy killing Marshall (with scissors) takes place.
I search the entire cast on the stage for the dust witch. Still can't see her!
Oh well.
And that...
Is what I can only describe as another mind boggling final trip to temple studios to see the breathtaking, bewildering master piece that is the drowned man.
I'll be fucking amazed if anyone has read up to here! ha ha!
I guess now I'm going to have to resort to go and read all the spoilers for all the characters, and read all the conspiracy theories that surround this to see if anyone has worked the whole thing out.... ( though I highly doubt it)
Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.
Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.
Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.
ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES
Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.
The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).
Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).
A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".
In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.
In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.
ICONOGRAPHY
Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.
Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.
The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.
COMMON ATTRIBUTES
Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.
Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.
VAHANAS
The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.
Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.
The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.
ASSOCIATIONS
OBSTACLES
Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."
Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.
BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)
Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".
AUM
Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:
(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).
Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.
FIRST CHAKRA
According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".
FAMILY AND CONSORTS
Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.
The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.
Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.
The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.
WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS
Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.
Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).
Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.
Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."
GANESH CHATURTI
An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.
TEMPLES
In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.
There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.
T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.
RISE TO PROMINENCE
FIRST APEARANCE
Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:
What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.
POSSIBLE INFLUENCES
Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:
In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.
Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."
One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.
A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.
First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).
VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE
The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .
Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".
Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.
PURANIC PERIOD
Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.
In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:
Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.
Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.
SCRIPTURES
Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.
The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.
R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.
BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM
Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.
Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.
Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.
Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.
Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.
The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
WIKIPEDIA
This image is part of explaining how f stops work going from 1.4 to f16. You will get a feel for how the image is effected.
Explaining the towel: while it may seem a strange accessory to some of you, any local looking at this picture would immediately realise there was a baby tied to the young woman's back :-)
Ganesha, also spelled Ganesh, and also known as Ganapati and Vinayaka, is a widely worshipped deity in the Hindu pantheon. His image is found throughout India and Nepal. Hindu sects worship him regardless of affiliations. Devotion to Ganesha is widely diffused and extends to Jains, Buddhists, and beyond India.
Although he is known by many attributes, Ganesha's elephant head makes him easy to identify. Ganesha is widely revered as the remover of obstacles, the patron of arts and sciences and the deva of intellect and wisdom. As the god of beginnings, he is honoured at the start of rituals and ceremonies. Ganesha is also invoked as patron of letters and learning during writing sessions. Several texts relate mythological anecdotes associated with his birth and exploits and explain his distinct iconography.
Ganesha emerged as a distinct deity in the 4th and 5th centuries CE, during the Gupta Period, although he inherited traits from Vedic and pre-Vedic precursors. He was formally included among the five primary deities of Smartism (a Hindu denomination) in the 9th century. A sect of devotees called the Ganapatya arose, who identified Ganesha as the supreme deity. The principal scriptures dedicated to Ganesha are the Ganesha Purana, the Mudgala Purana, and the Ganapati Atharvashirsa.
ETYMOLOGY AND OTHER NAMES
Ganesha has been ascribed many other titles and epithets, including Ganapati and Vighneshvara. The Hindu title of respect Shri is often added before his name. One popular way Ganesha is worshipped is by chanting a Ganesha Sahasranama, a litany of "a thousand names of Ganesha". Each name in the sahasranama conveys a different meaning and symbolises a different aspect of Ganesha. At least two different versions of the Ganesha Sahasranama exist; one version is drawn from the Ganesha Purana, a Hindu scripture venerating Ganesha.
The name Ganesha is a Sanskrit compound, joining the words gana, meaning a group, multitude, or categorical system and isha, meaning lord or master. The word gaņa when associated with Ganesha is often taken to refer to the gaņas, a troop of semi-divine beings that form part of the retinue of Shiva. The term more generally means a category, class, community, association, or corporation. Some commentators interpret the name "Lord of the Gaņas" to mean "Lord of Hosts" or "Lord of created categories", such as the elements. Ganapati, a synonym for Ganesha, is a compound composed of gaṇa, meaning "group", and pati, meaning "ruler" or "lord". The Amarakosha, an early Sanskrit lexicon, lists eight synonyms of Ganesha : Vinayaka, Vighnarāja (equivalent to Vighnesha), Dvaimātura (one who has two mothers), Gaṇādhipa (equivalent to Ganapati and Ganesha), Ekadanta (one who has one tusk), Heramba, Lambodara (one who has a pot belly, or, literally, one who has a hanging belly), and Gajanana; having the face of an elephant).
Vinayaka is a common name for Ganesha that appears in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. This name is reflected in the naming of the eight famous Ganesha temples in Maharashtra known as the Ashtavinayak (aṣṭavināyaka). The names Vighnesha and Vighneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) refers to his primary function in Hindu theology as the master and remover of obstacles (vighna).
A prominent name for Ganesha in the Tamil language is Pillai. A. K. Narain differentiates these terms by saying that pillai means a "child" while pillaiyar means a "noble child". He adds that the words pallu, pella, and pell in the Dravidian family of languages signify "tooth or tusk", also "elephant tooth or tusk". Anita Raina Thapan notes that the root word pille in the name Pillaiyar might have originally meant "the young of the elephant", because the Pali word pillaka means "a young elephant".
In the Burmese language, Ganesha is known as Maha Peinne, derived from Pali Mahā Wināyaka. The widespread name of Ganesha in Thailand is Phra Phikhanet or Phra Phikhanesuan, both of which are derived from Vara Vighnesha and Vara Vighneshvara respectively, whereas the name Khanet (from Ganesha) is rather rare.
In Sri Lanka, in the North-Central and North Western areas with predominantly Buddhist population, Ganesha is known as Aiyanayaka Deviyo, while in other Singhala Buddhist areas he is known as Gana deviyo.
ICONOGRAPHY
Ganesha is a popular figure in Indian art. Unlike those of some deities, representations of Ganesha show wide variations and distinct patterns changing over time. He may be portrayed standing, dancing, heroically taking action against demons, playing with his family as a boy, sitting down or on an elevated seat, or engaging in a range of contemporary situations.
Ganesha images were prevalent in many parts of India by the 6th century. The 13th century statue pictured is typical of Ganesha statuary from 900–1200, after Ganesha had been well-established as an independent deity with his own sect. This example features some of Ganesha's common iconographic elements. A virtually identical statue has been dated between 973–1200 by Paul Martin-Dubost, and another similar statue is dated c. 12th century by Pratapaditya Pal. Ganesha has the head of an elephant and a big belly. This statue has four arms, which is common in depictions of Ganesha. He holds his own broken tusk in his lower-right hand and holds a delicacy, which he samples with his trunk, in his lower-left hand. The motif of Ganesha turning his trunk sharply to his left to taste a sweet in his lower-left hand is a particularly archaic feature. A more primitive statue in one of the Ellora Caves with this general form has been dated to the 7th century. Details of the other hands are difficult to make out on the statue shown. In the standard configuration, Ganesha typically holds an axe or a goad in one upper arm and a pasha (noose) in the other upper arm.
The influence of this old constellation of iconographic elements can still be seen in contemporary representations of Ganesha. In one modern form, the only variation from these old elements is that the lower-right hand does not hold the broken tusk but is turned towards the viewer in a gesture of protection or fearlessness (abhaya mudra). The same combination of four arms and attributes occurs in statues of Ganesha dancing, which is a very popular theme.
COMMON ATTRIBUTES
Ganesha has been represented with the head of an elephant since the early stages of his appearance in Indian art. Puranic myths provide many explanations for how he got his elephant head. One of his popular forms, Heramba-Ganapati, has five elephant heads, and other less-common variations in the number of heads are known. While some texts say that Ganesha was born with an elephant head, he acquires the head later in most stories. The most recurrent motif in these stories is that Ganesha was created by Parvati using clay to protect her and Shiva beheaded him when Ganesha came between Shiva and Parvati. Shiva then replaced Ganesha's original head with that of an elephant. Details of the battle and where the replacement head came from vary from source to source. Another story says that Ganesha was created directly by Shiva's laughter. Because Shiva considered Ganesha too alluring, he gave him the head of an elephant and a protruding belly.
Ganesha's earliest name was Ekadanta (One Tusked), referring to his single whole tusk, the other being broken. Some of the earliest images of Ganesha show him holding his broken tusk. The importance of this distinctive feature is reflected in the Mudgala Purana, which states that the name of Ganesha's second incarnation is Ekadanta. Ganesha's protruding belly appears as a distinctive attribute in his earliest statuary, which dates to the Gupta period (4th to 6th centuries). This feature is so important that, according to the Mudgala Purana, two different incarnations of Ganesha use names based on it: Lambodara (Pot Belly, or, literally, Hanging Belly) and Mahodara (Great Belly). Both names are Sanskrit compounds describing his belly. The Brahmanda Purana says that Ganesha has the name Lambodara because all the universes (i.e., cosmic eggs) of the past, present, and future are present in him. The number of Ganesha's arms varies; his best-known forms have between two and sixteen arms. Many depictions of Ganesha feature four arms, which is mentioned in Puranic sources and codified as a standard form in some iconographic texts. His earliest images had two arms. Forms with 14 and 20 arms appeared in Central India during the 9th and the 10th centuries. The serpent is a common feature in Ganesha iconography and appears in many forms. According to the Ganesha Purana, Ganesha wrapped the serpent Vasuki around his neck. Other depictions of snakes include use as a sacred thread wrapped around the stomach as a belt, held in a hand, coiled at the ankles, or as a throne. Upon Ganesha's forehead may be a third eye or the Shaivite sectarian mark , which consists of three horizontal lines. The Ganesha Purana prescribes a tilaka mark as well as a crescent moon on the forehead. A distinct form of Ganesha called Bhalachandra includes that iconographic element. Ganesha is often described as red in color. Specific colors are associated with certain forms. Many examples of color associations with specific meditation forms are prescribed in the Sritattvanidhi, a treatise on Hindu iconography. For example, white is associated with his representations as Heramba-Ganapati and Rina-Mochana-Ganapati (Ganapati Who Releases from Bondage). Ekadanta-Ganapati is visualized as blue during meditation in that form.
VAHANAS
The earliest Ganesha images are without a vahana (mount/vehicle). Of the eight incarnations of Ganesha described in the Mudgala Purana, Ganesha uses a mouse (shrew) in five of them, a lion in his incarnation as Vakratunda, a peacock in his incarnation as Vikata, and Shesha, the divine serpent, in his incarnation as Vighnaraja. Mohotkata uses a lion, Mayūreśvara uses a peacock, Dhumraketu uses a horse, and Gajanana uses a mouse, in the four incarnations of Ganesha listed in the Ganesha Purana. Jain depictions of Ganesha show his vahana variously as a mouse, elephant, tortoise, ram, or peacock.
Ganesha is often shown riding on or attended by a mouse, shrew or rat. Martin-Dubost says that the rat began to appear as the principal vehicle in sculptures of Ganesha in central and western India during the 7th century; the rat was always placed close to his feet. The mouse as a mount first appears in written sources in the Matsya Purana and later in the Brahmananda Purana and Ganesha Purana, where Ganesha uses it as his vehicle in his last incarnation. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa includes a meditation verse on Ganesha that describes the mouse appearing on his flag. The names Mūṣakavāhana (mouse-mount) and Ākhuketana (rat-banner) appear in the Ganesha Sahasranama.
The mouse is interpreted in several ways. According to Grimes, "Many, if not most of those who interpret Gaṇapati's mouse, do so negatively; it symbolizes tamoguṇa as well as desire". Along these lines, Michael Wilcockson says it symbolizes those who wish to overcome desires and be less selfish. Krishan notes that the rat is destructive and a menace to crops. The Sanskrit word mūṣaka (mouse) is derived from the root mūṣ (stealing, robbing). It was essential to subdue the rat as a destructive pest, a type of vighna (impediment) that needed to be overcome. According to this theory, showing Ganesha as master of the rat demonstrates his function as Vigneshvara (Lord of Obstacles) and gives evidence of his possible role as a folk grāma-devatā (village deity) who later rose to greater prominence. Martin-Dubost notes a view that the rat is a symbol suggesting that Ganesha, like the rat, penetrates even the most secret places.
ASSOCIATIONS
OBSTACLES
Ganesha is Vighneshvara or Vighnaraja or Vighnaharta (Marathi), the Lord of Obstacles, both of a material and spiritual order. He is popularly worshipped as a remover of obstacles, though traditionally he also places obstacles in the path of those who need to be checked. Paul Courtright says that "his task in the divine scheme of things, his dharma, is to place and remove obstacles. It is his particular territory, the reason for his creation."
Krishan notes that some of Ganesha's names reflect shadings of multiple roles that have evolved over time. Dhavalikar ascribes the quick ascension of Ganesha in the Hindu pantheon, and the emergence of the Ganapatyas, to this shift in emphasis from vighnakartā (obstacle-creator) to vighnahartā (obstacle-averter). However, both functions continue to be vital to his character.
BUDDHI (KNOWLEDGE)
Ganesha is considered to be the Lord of letters and learning. In Sanskrit, the word buddhi is a feminine noun that is variously translated as intelligence, wisdom, or intellect. The concept of buddhi is closely associated with the personality of Ganesha, especially in the Puranic period, when many stories stress his cleverness and love of intelligence. One of Ganesha's names in the Ganesha Purana and the Ganesha Sahasranama is Buddhipriya. This name also appears in a list of 21 names at the end of the Ganesha Sahasranama that Ganesha says are especially important. The word priya can mean "fond of", and in a marital context it can mean "lover" or "husband", so the name may mean either "Fond of Intelligence" or "Buddhi's Husband".
AUM
Ganesha is identified with the Hindu mantra Aum, also spelled Om. The term oṃkārasvarūpa (Aum is his form), when identified with Ganesha, refers to the notion that he personifies the primal sound. The Ganapati Atharvashirsa attests to this association. Chinmayananda translates the relevant passage as follows:
(O Lord Ganapati!) You are (the Trinity) Brahma, Vishnu, and Mahesa. You are Indra. You are fire [Agni] and air [Vāyu]. You are the sun [Sūrya] and the moon [Chandrama]. You are Brahman. You are (the three worlds) Bhuloka [earth], Antariksha-loka [space], and Swargaloka [heaven]. You are Om. (That is to say, You are all this).
Some devotees see similarities between the shape of Ganesha's body in iconography and the shape of Aum in the Devanāgarī and Tamil scripts.
FIRST CHAKRA
According to Kundalini yoga, Ganesha resides in the first chakra, called Muladhara (mūlādhāra). Mula means "original, main"; adhara means "base, foundation". The muladhara chakra is the principle on which the manifestation or outward expansion of primordial Divine Force rests. This association is also attested to in the Ganapati Atharvashirsa. Courtright translates this passage as follows: "[O Ganesha,] You continually dwell in the sacral plexus at the base of the spine [mūlādhāra cakra]." Thus, Ganesha has a permanent abode in every being at the Muladhara. Ganesha holds, supports and guides all other chakras, thereby "governing the forces that propel the wheel of life".
FAMILY AND CONSORTS
Though Ganesha is popularly held to be the son of Shiva and Parvati, the Puranic myths give different versions about his birth. In some he was created by Parvati, in another he was created by Shiva and Parvati, in another he appeared mysteriously and was discovered by Shiva and Parvati or he was born from the elephant headed goddess Malini after she drank Parvati's bath water that had been thrown in the river.
The family includes his brother the war god Kartikeya, who is also called Subramanya, Skanda, Murugan and other names. Regional differences dictate the order of their births. In northern India, Skanda is generally said to be the elder, while in the south, Ganesha is considered the first born. In northern India, Skanda was an important martial deity from about 500 BCE to about 600 CE, when worship of him declined significantly in northern India. As Skanda fell, Ganesha rose. Several stories tell of sibling rivalry between the brothers and may reflect sectarian tensions.
Ganesha's marital status, the subject of considerable scholarly review, varies widely in mythological stories. One pattern of myths identifies Ganesha as an unmarried brahmacari. This view is common in southern India and parts of northern India. Another pattern associates him with the concepts of Buddhi (intellect), Siddhi (spiritual power), and Riddhi (prosperity); these qualities are sometimes personified as goddesses, said to be Ganesha's wives. He also may be shown with a single consort or a nameless servant (Sanskrit: daşi). Another pattern connects Ganesha with the goddess of culture and the arts, Sarasvati or Śarda (particularly in Maharashtra). He is also associated with the goddess of luck and prosperity, Lakshmi. Another pattern, mainly prevalent in the Bengal region, links Ganesha with the banana tree, Kala Bo.
The Shiva Purana says that Ganesha had begotten two sons: Kşema (prosperity) and Lābha (profit). In northern Indian variants of this story, the sons are often said to be Śubha (auspiciouness) and Lābha. The 1975 Hindi film Jai Santoshi Maa shows Ganesha married to Riddhi and Siddhi and having a daughter named Santoshi Ma, the goddess of satisfaction. This story has no Puranic basis, but Anita Raina Thapan and Lawrence Cohen cite Santoshi Ma's cult as evidence of Ganesha's continuing evolution as a popular deity.
WOSHIP AND FESTIVALS
Ganesha is worshipped on many religious and secular occasions; especially at the beginning of ventures such as buying a vehicle or starting a business. K.N. Somayaji says, "there can hardly be a [Hindu] home [in India] which does not house an idol of Ganapati. [..] Ganapati, being the most popular deity in India, is worshipped by almost all castes and in all parts of the country". Devotees believe that if Ganesha is propitiated, he grants success, prosperity and protection against adversity.
Ganesha is a non-sectarian deity, and Hindus of all denominations invoke him at the beginning of prayers, important undertakings, and religious ceremonies. Dancers and musicians, particularly in southern India, begin performances of arts such as the Bharatnatyam dance with a prayer to Ganesha. Mantras such as Om Shri Gaṇeshāya Namah (Om, salutation to the Illustrious Ganesha) are often used. One of the most famous mantras associated with Ganesha is Om Gaṃ Ganapataye Namah (Om, Gaṃ, Salutation to the Lord of Hosts).
Devotees offer Ganesha sweets such as modaka and small sweet balls (laddus). He is often shown carrying a bowl of sweets, called a modakapātra. Because of his identification with the color red, he is often worshipped with red sandalwood paste (raktacandana) or red flowers. Dūrvā grass (Cynodon dactylon) and other materials are also used in his worship.
Festivals associated with Ganesh are Ganesh Chaturthi or Vināyaka chaturthī in the śuklapakṣa (the fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of bhādrapada (August/September) and the Gaṇeśa jayanti (Gaṇeśa's birthday) celebrated on the cathurthī of the śuklapakṣa (fourth day of the waxing moon) in the month of māgha (January/February)."
GANESH CHATURTI
An annual festival honours Ganesha for ten days, starting on Ganesha Chaturthi, which typically falls in late August or early September. The festival begins with people bringing in clay idols of Ganesha, symbolising Ganesha's visit. The festival culminates on the day of Ananta Chaturdashi, when idols (murtis) of Ganesha are immersed in the most convenient body of water. Some families have a tradition of immersion on the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, or 7th day. In 1893, Lokmanya Tilak transformed this annual Ganesha festival from private family celebrations into a grand public event. He did so "to bridge the gap between the Brahmins and the non-Brahmins and find an appropriate context in which to build a new grassroots unity between them" in his nationalistic strivings against the British in Maharashtra. Because of Ganesha's wide appeal as "the god for Everyman", Tilak chose him as a rallying point for Indian protest against British rule. Tilak was the first to install large public images of Ganesha in pavilions, and he established the practice of submerging all the public images on the tenth day. Today, Hindus across India celebrate the Ganapati festival with great fervour, though it is most popular in the state of Maharashtra. The festival also assumes huge proportions in Mumbai, Pune, and in the surrounding belt of Ashtavinayaka temples.
TEMPLES
In Hindu temples, Ganesha is depicted in various ways: as an acolyte or subordinate deity (pãrśva-devatã); as a deity related to the principal deity (parivāra-devatã); or as the principal deity of the temple (pradhāna), treated similarly as the highest gods of the Hindu pantheon. As the god of transitions, he is placed at the doorway of many Hindu temples to keep out the unworthy, which is analogous to his role as Parvati’s doorkeeper. In addition, several shrines are dedicated to Ganesha himself, of which the Ashtavinayak (lit. "eight Ganesha (shrines)") in Maharashtra are particularly well known. Located within a 100-kilometer radius of the city of Pune, each of these eight shrines celebrates a particular form of Ganapati, complete with its own lore and legend. The eight shrines are: Morgaon, Siddhatek, Pali, Mahad, Theur, Lenyadri, Ozar and Ranjangaon.
There are many other important Ganesha temples at the following locations: Wai in Maharashtra; Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh; Jodhpur, Nagaur and Raipur (Pali) in Rajasthan; Baidyanath in Bihar; Baroda, Dholaka, and Valsad in Gujarat and Dhundiraj Temple in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Prominent Ganesha temples in southern India include the following: Kanipakam in Chittoor; the Jambukeśvara Temple at Tiruchirapalli; at Rameshvaram and Suchindram in Tamil Nadu; at Malliyur, Kottarakara, Pazhavangadi, Kasargod in Kerala, Hampi, and Idagunji in Karnataka; and Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh.
T. A. Gopinatha notes, "Every village however small has its own image of Vighneśvara (Vigneshvara) with or without a temple to house it in. At entrances of villages and forts, below pīpaḹa (Sacred fig) trees [...], in a niche [...] in temples of Viṣṇu (Vishnu) as well as Śiva (Shiva) and also in separate shrines specially constructed in Śiva temples [...]; the figure of Vighneśvara is invariably seen." Ganesha temples have also been built outside of India, including southeast Asia, Nepal (including the four Vinayaka shrines in the Kathmandu valley), and in several western countries.
RISE TO PROMINENCE
FIRST APEARANCE
Ganesha appeared in his classic form as a clearly recognizable deity with well-defined iconographic attributes in the early 4th to 5th centuries. Shanti Lal Nagar says that the earliest known iconic image of Ganesha is in the niche of the Shiva temple at Bhumra, which has been dated to the Gupta period. His independent cult appeared by about the 10th century. Narain summarizes the controversy between devotees and academics regarding the development of Ganesha as follows:
What is inscrutable is the somewhat dramatic appearance of Gaņeśa on the historical scene. His antecedents are not clear. His wide acceptance and popularity, which transcend sectarian and territorial limits, are indeed amazing. On the one hand there is the pious belief of the orthodox devotees in Gaņeśa's Vedic origins and in the Purāṇic explanations contained in the confusing, but nonetheless interesting, mythology. On the other hand there are doubts about the existence of the idea and the icon of this deity" before the fourth to fifth century A.D. ... [I]n my opinion, indeed there is no convincing evidence of the existence of this divinity prior to the fifth century.
POSSIBLE INFLUENCES
Courtright reviews various speculative theories about the early history of Ganesha, including supposed tribal traditions and animal cults, and dismisses all of them in this way:
In the post 600 BC period there is evidence of people and places named after the animal. The motif appears on coins and sculptures.
Thapan's book on the development of Ganesha devotes a chapter to speculations about the role elephants had in early India but concludes that, "although by the second century CE the elephant-headed yakṣa form exists it cannot be presumed to represent Gaṇapati-Vināyaka. There is no evidence of a deity by this name having an elephant or elephant-headed form at this early stage. Gaṇapati-Vināyaka had yet to make his debut."
One theory of the origin of Ganesha is that he gradually came to prominence in connection with the four Vinayakas (Vināyakas). In Hindu mythology, the Vināyakas were a group of four troublesome demons who created obstacles and difficulties but who were easily propitiated. The name Vināyaka is a common name for Ganesha both in the Purāṇas and in Buddhist Tantras. Krishan is one of the academics who accepts this view, stating flatly of Ganesha, "He is a non-vedic god. His origin is to be traced to the four Vināyakas, evil spirits, of the Mānavagŗhyasūtra (7th–4th century BCE) who cause various types of evil and suffering". Depictions of elephant-headed human figures, which some identify with Ganesha, appear in Indian art and coinage as early as the 2nd century. According to Ellawala, the elephant-headed Ganesha as lord of the Ganas was known to the people of Sri Lanka in the early pre-Christian era.
A metal plate depiction of Ganesha had been discovered in 1993, in Iran, it dated back to 1,200 BCE. Another one was discovered much before, in Lorestan Province of Iran.
First Ganesha's terracotta images are from 1st century CE found in Ter, Pal, Verrapuram and Chandraketugarh. These figures are small, with elephant head, two arms, and chubby physique. The earliest Ganesha icons in stone were carved in Mathura during Kushan times (2nd-3rd centuries CE).
VEDIC AND EPIC LITERATURE
The title "Leader of the group" (Sanskrit: gaṇapati) occurs twice in the Rig Veda, but in neither case does it refer to the modern Ganesha. The term appears in RV 2.23.1 as a title for Brahmanaspati, according to commentators. While this verse doubtless refers to Brahmanaspati, it was later adopted for worship of Ganesha and is still used today. In rejecting any claim that this passage is evidence of Ganesha in the Rig Veda, Ludo Rocher says that it "clearly refers to Bṛhaspati—who is the deity of the hymn—and Bṛhaspati only". Equally clearly, the second passage (RV 10.112.9) refers to Indra, who is given the epithet 'gaṇapati', translated "Lord of the companies (of the Maruts)." However, Rocher notes that the more recent Ganapatya literature often quotes the Rigvedic verses to give Vedic respectability to Ganesha .
Two verses in texts belonging to Black Yajurveda, Maitrāyaṇīya Saṃhitā (2.9.1) and Taittirīya Āraṇyaka (10.1), appeal to a deity as "the tusked one" (Dantiḥ), "elephant-faced" (Hastimukha), and "with a curved trunk" (Vakratuņḍa). These names are suggestive of Ganesha, and the 14th century commentator Sayana explicitly establishes this identification. The description of Dantin, possessing a twisted trunk (vakratuṇḍa) and holding a corn-sheaf, a sugar cane, and a club, is so characteristic of the Puranic Ganapati that Heras says "we cannot resist to accept his full identification with this Vedic Dantin". However, Krishan considers these hymns to be post-Vedic additions. Thapan reports that these passages are "generally considered to have been interpolated". Dhavalikar says, "the references to the elephant-headed deity in the Maitrāyaṇī Saṃhitā have been proven to be very late interpolations, and thus are not very helpful for determining the early formation of the deity".
Ganesha does not appear in Indian epic literature that is dated to the Vedic period. A late interpolation to the epic poem Mahabharata says that the sage Vyasa (Vyāsa) asked Ganesha to serve as his scribe to transcribe the poem as he dictated it to him. Ganesha agreed but only on condition that Vyasa recite the poem uninterrupted, that is, without pausing. The sage agreed, but found that to get any rest he needed to recite very complex passages so Ganesha would have to ask for clarifications. The story is not accepted as part of the original text by the editors of the critical edition of the Mahabharata, in which the twenty-line story is relegated to a footnote in an appendix. The story of Ganesha acting as the scribe occurs in 37 of the 59 manuscripts consulted during preparation of the critical edition. Ganesha's association with mental agility and learning is one reason he is shown as scribe for Vyāsa's dictation of the Mahabharata in this interpolation. Richard L. Brown dates the story to the 8th century, and Moriz Winternitz concludes that it was known as early as c. 900, but it was not added to the Mahabharata some 150 years later. Winternitz also notes that a distinctive feature in South Indian manuscripts of the Mahabharata is their omission of this Ganesha legend. The term vināyaka is found in some recensions of the Śāntiparva and Anuśāsanaparva that are regarded as interpolations. A reference to Vighnakartṛīṇām ("Creator of Obstacles") in Vanaparva is also believed to be an interpolation and does not appear in the critical edition.
PURANIC PERIOD
Stories about Ganesha often occur in the Puranic corpus. Brown notes while the Puranas "defy precise chronological ordering", the more detailed narratives of Ganesha's life are in the late texts, c. 600–1300. Yuvraj Krishan says that the Puranic myths about the birth of Ganesha and how he acquired an elephant's head are in the later Puranas, which were composed from c. 600 onwards. He elaborates on the matter to say that references to Ganesha in the earlier Puranas, such as the Vayu and Brahmanda Puranas, are later interpolations made during the 7th to 10th centuries.
In his survey of Ganesha's rise to prominence in Sanskrit literature, Ludo Rocher notes that:
Above all, one cannot help being struck by the fact that the numerous stories surrounding Gaṇeśa concentrate on an unexpectedly limited number of incidents. These incidents are mainly three: his birth and parenthood, his elephant head, and his single tusk. Other incidents are touched on in the texts, but to a far lesser extent.
Ganesha's rise to prominence was codified in the 9th century, when he was formally included as one of the five primary deities of Smartism. The 9th-century philosopher Adi Shankara popularized the "worship of the five forms" (Panchayatana puja) system among orthodox Brahmins of the Smarta tradition. This worship practice invokes the five deities Ganesha, Vishnu, Shiva, Devi, and Surya. Adi Shankara instituted the tradition primarily to unite the principal deities of these five major sects on an equal status. This formalized the role of Ganesha as a complementary deity.
SCRIPTURES
Once Ganesha was accepted as one of the five principal deities of Brahmanism, some Brahmins (brāhmaṇas) chose to worship Ganesha as their principal deity. They developed the Ganapatya tradition, as seen in the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana.
The date of composition for the Ganesha Purana and the Mudgala Purana - and their dating relative to one another - has sparked academic debate. Both works were developed over time and contain age-layered strata. Anita Thapan reviews comments about dating and provides her own judgement. "It seems likely that the core of the Ganesha Purana appeared around the twelfth and thirteenth centuries", she says, "but was later interpolated." Lawrence W. Preston considers the most reasonable date for the Ganesha Purana to be between 1100 and 1400, which coincides with the apparent age of the sacred sites mentioned by the text.
R.C. Hazra suggests that the Mudgala Purana is older than the Ganesha Purana, which he dates between 1100 and 1400. However, Phyllis Granoff finds problems with this relative dating and concludes that the Mudgala Purana was the last of the philosophical texts concerned with Ganesha. She bases her reasoning on the fact that, among other internal evidence, the Mudgala Purana specifically mentions the Ganesha Purana as one of the four Puranas (the Brahma, the Brahmanda, the Ganesha, and the Mudgala Puranas) which deal at length with Ganesha. While the kernel of the text must be old, it was interpolated until the 17th and 18th centuries as the worship of Ganapati became more important in certain regions. Another highly regarded scripture, the Ganapati Atharvashirsa, was probably composed during the 16th or 17th centuries.
BEYOND INDIA AND HINDUISM
Commercial and cultural contacts extended India's influence in western and southeast Asia. Ganesha is one of a number of Hindu deities who reached foreign lands as a result.
Ganesha was particularly worshipped by traders and merchants, who went out of India for commercial ventures. From approximately the 10th century onwards, new networks of exchange developed including the formation of trade guilds and a resurgence of money circulation. During this time, Ganesha became the principal deity associated with traders. The earliest inscription invoking Ganesha before any other deity is associated with the merchant community.
Hindus migrated to Maritime Southeast Asia and took their culture, including Ganesha, with them. Statues of Ganesha are found throughout the region, often beside Shiva sanctuaries. The forms of Ganesha found in Hindu art of Java, Bali, and Borneo show specific regional influences. The spread of Hindu culture to southeast Asia established Ganesha in modified forms in Burma, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Indochina, Hinduism and Buddhism were practiced side by side, and mutual influences can be seen in the iconography of Ganesha in the region. In Thailand, Cambodia, and among the Hindu classes of the Chams in Vietnam, Ganesha was mainly thought of as a remover of obstacles. Today in Buddhist Thailand, Ganesha is regarded as a remover of obstacles, the god of success.
Before the arrival of Islam, Afghanistan had close cultural ties with India, and the adoration of both Hindu and Buddhist deities was practiced. Examples of sculptures from the 5th to the 7th centuries have survived, suggesting that the worship of Ganesha was then in vogue in the region.
Ganesha appears in Mahayana Buddhism, not only in the form of the Buddhist god Vināyaka, but also as a Hindu demon form with the same name. His image appears in Buddhist sculptures during the late Gupta period. As the Buddhist god Vināyaka, he is often shown dancing. This form, called Nṛtta Ganapati, was popular in northern India, later adopted in Nepal, and then in Tibet. In Nepal, the Hindu form of Ganesha, known as Heramba, is popular; he has five heads and rides a lion. Tibetan representations of Ganesha show ambivalent views of him. A Tibetan rendering of Ganapati is tshogs bdag. In one Tibetan form, he is shown being trodden under foot by Mahākāla, (Shiva) a popular Tibetan deity. Other depictions show him as the Destroyer of Obstacles, and sometimes dancing. Ganesha appears in China and Japan in forms that show distinct regional character. In northern China, the earliest known stone statue of Ganesha carries an inscription dated to 531. In Japan, where Ganesha is known as Kangiten, the Ganesha cult was first mentioned in 806.
The canonical literature of Jainism does not mention the worship of Ganesha. However, Ganesha is worshipped by most Jains, for whom he appears to have taken over certain functions of Kubera. Jain connections with the trading community support the idea that Jainism took up Ganesha worship as a result of commercial connections. The earliest known Jain Ganesha statue dates to about the 9th century. A 15th-century Jain text lists procedures for the installation of Ganapati images. Images of Ganesha appear in the Jain temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
WIKIPEDIA
With the rain falling harder, it was a bit of a route march to Holborn and my next church, the stunning St Sepulchre, which was also open.
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St Sepulchre-without-Newgate, also known as the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (Holborn), is an Anglican church in the City of London. It is located on Holborn Viaduct, almost opposite the Old Bailey. In medieval times it stood just outside ("without") the now-demolished old city wall, near the Newgate. It has been a living of St John's College, Oxford, since 1622.
The original Saxon church on the site was dedicated to St Edmund the King and Martyr. During the Crusades in the 12th century the church was renamed St Edmund and the Holy Sepulchre, in reference to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The name eventually became contracted to St Sepulchre.
The church is today the largest parish church in the City. It was completely rebuilt in the 15th century but was gutted by the Great Fire of London in 1666,[1] which left only the outer walls, the tower and the porch standing[2] -. Modified in the 18th century, the church underwent extensive restoration in 1878. It narrowly avoided destruction in the Second World War, although the 18th-century watch-house in its churchyard (erected to deter grave-robbers) was completely destroyed and had to be rebuilt.
The interior of the church is a wide, roomy space with a coffered ceiling[3] installed in 1834. The Vicars' old residence has recently been renovated into a modern living quarter.
During the reign of Mary I in 1555, St Sepulchre's vicar, John Rogers, was burned as a heretic.
St Sepulchre is named in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons as the "bells of Old Bailey". Traditionally, the great bell would be rung to mark the execution of a prisoner at the nearby gallows at Newgate. The clerk of St Sepulchre's was also responsible for ringing a handbell outside the condemned man's cell in Newgate Prison to inform him of his impending execution. This handbell, known as the Execution Bell, now resides in a glass case to the south of the nave.
The church has been the official musicians' church for many years and is associated with many famous musicians. Its north aisle (formerly a chapel dedicated to Stephen Harding) is dedicated as the Musicians' Chapel, with four windows commemorating John Ireland, the singer Dame Nellie Melba, Walter Carroll and the conductor Sir Henry Wood respectively.[4] Wood, who "at the age of fourteen, learned to play the organ" at this church [1] and later became its organist, also has his ashes buried in this church.
The south aisle of the church holds the regimental chapel of the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), and its gardens are a memorial garden to that regiment.[5] The west end of the north aisle has various memorials connected with the City of London Rifles (the 6th Battalion London Regiment). The church was designated a Grade I listed building on 4 January 1950.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Sepulchre-without-Newgate
The Early History of St. Sepulchre's—Its Destruction in 1666—The Exterior and Interior—The Early Popularity of the Church—Interments here—Roger Ascham, the Author of the "Schoolmaster"—Captain John Smith, and his Romantic Adventures—Saved by an Indian Girl— St. Sepulchre's Churchyard—Accommodation for a Murderess—The Martyr Rogers—An Odd Circumstance—Good Company for the Dead—A Leap from the Tower—A Warning Bell and a Last Admonition—Nosegays for the Condemned—The Route to the Gallows-tree— The Deeds of the Charitable—The "Saracen's Head"—Description by Dickens—Giltspur Street—Giltspur Street Compter—A Disreputable Condition—Pie Corner—Hosier Lane—A Spurious Relic—The Conduit on Snow Hill—A Ladies' Charity School—Turnagain Lane—Poor Betty!—A Schoolmistress Censured—Skinner Street—Unpropitious Fortune—William Godwin—An Original Married Life.
Many interesting associations—Principally, however, connected with the annals of crime and the execution of the laws of England—belong to the Church of St. Sepulchre, or St. 'Pulchre. This sacred edifice—anciently known as St. Sepulchre's in the Bailey, or by Chamberlain Gate (now Newgate)—stands at the eastern end of the slight acclivity of Snow Hill, and between Smithfield and the Old Bailey. The genuine materials for its early history are scanty enough. It was probably founded about the commencement of the twelfth century, but of the exact date and circumstances of its origin there is no record whatever. Its name is derived from the Holy Sepulchre of our Saviour at Jerusalem, to the memory of which it was first dedicated.
The earliest authentic notice of the church, according to Maitland, is of the year 1178, at which date it was given by Roger, Bishop of Sarum, to the Prior and Canons of St. Bartholomew. These held the right of advowson until the dissolution of monasteries by Henry VIII., and from that time until 1610 it remained in the hands of the Crown. James I., however, then granted "the rectory and its appurtenances, with the advowson of the vicarage," to Francis Phillips and others. The next stage in its history is that the rectory was purchased by the parishioners, to be held in fee-farm of the Crown, and the advowson was obtained by the President and Fellows of St. John the Baptist College, at Oxford.
The church was rebuilt about the middle of the fifteenth century, when one of the Popham family, who had been Chancellor of Normandy and Treasurer of the King's Household, with distinguished liberality erected a handsome chapel on the south side of the choir, and the very beautiful porch still remaining at the south-west corner of the building. "His image," Stow says, "fair graven in stone, was fixed over the said porch."
The dreadful fire of 1666 almost destroyed St. Sepulchre's, but the parishioners set energetically to work, and it was "rebuilt and beautified both within and without." The general reparation was under the direction of Sir Christopher Wren, and nothing but the walls of the old building, and these not entirely, were suffered to remain. The work was done rapidly, and the whole was completed within four years.
"The tower," says Mr. Godwin, "retained its original aspect, and the body of the church, after its restoration, presented a series of windows between buttresses, with pointed heads filled with tracery, crowned by a string-course and battlements. In this form it remained till the year 1790, when it appears the whole fabric was found to be in a state of great decay, and it was resolved to repair it throughout. Accordingly the walls of the church were cased with Portland stone, and all the windows were taken out and replaced by others with plain semi-circular heads, as now seen—certainly agreeing but badly with the tower and porch of the building, but according with the then prevailing spirit of economy. The battlements, too, were taken down, and a plain stone parapet was substituted, so that at this time (with the exception of the roof, which was wagon-headed, and presented on the outside an unsightly swell, visible above the parapet) the church assumed its present appearance." The ungainly roof was removed, and an entirely new one erected, about 1836.
At each corner of the tower—"one of the most ancient," says the author of "Londinium Redivivum," "in the outline of the circuit of London" —there are spires, and on the spires there are weathercocks. These have been made use of by Howell to point a moral: "Unreasonable people," says he, "are as hard to reconcile as the vanes of St. Sepulchre's tower, which never look all four upon one point of the heavens." Nothing can be said with certainty as to the date of the tower, but it is not without the bounds of probability that it formed part of the original building. The belfry is reached by a small winding staircase in the south-west angle, and a similar staircase in an opposite angle leads to the summit. The spires at the corners, and some of the tower windows, have very recently undergone several alterations, which have added much to the picturesqueness and beauty of the church.
The chief entrance to St. Sepulchre's is by a porch of singular beauty, projecting from the south side of the tower, at the western end of the church. The groining of the ceiling of this porch, it has been pointed out, takes an almost unique form; the ribs are carved in bold relief, and the bosses at the intersections represent angels' heads, shields, roses, &c., in great variety.
Coming now to the interior of the church, we find it divided into three aisles, by two ranges of Tuscan columns. The aisles are of unequal widths, that in the centre being the widest, that to the south the narrowest. Semi-circular arches connect the columns on either side, springing directly from their capitals, without the interposition of an entablature, and support a large dental cornice, extending round the church. The ceiling of the middle aisle is divided into seven compartments, by horizontal bands, the middle compartment being formed into a small dome.
The aisles have groined ceilings, ornamented at the angles with doves, &c., and beneath every division of the groining are small windows, to admit light to the galleries. Over each of the aisles there is a gallery, very clumsily introduced, which dates from the time when the church was built by Wren, and extends the whole length, excepting at the chancel. The front of the gallery, which is of oak, is described by Mr. Godwin as carved into scrolls, branches, &c., in the centre panel, on either side, with the initials "C. R.," enriched with carvings of laurel, which have, however, he says, "but little merit."
At the east end of the church there are three semicircular-headed windows. Beneath the centre one is a large Corinthian altar-piece of oak, displaying columns, entablatures, &c., elaborately carved and gilded.
The length of the church, exclusive of the ambulatory, is said to be 126 feet, the breadth 68 feet, and the height of the tower 140 feet.
A singularly ugly sounding-board, extending over the preacher, used to stand at the back of the pulpit, at the east end of the church. It was in the shape of a large parabolic reflector, about twelve feet in diameter, and was composed of ribs of mahogany.
At the west end of the church there is a large organ, said to be the oldest and one of the finest in London. It was built in 1677, and has been greatly enlarged. Its reed-stops (hautboy, clarinet, &c.) are supposed to be unrivalled. In Newcourt's time the church was taken notice of as "remarkable for possessing an exceedingly fine organ, and the playing is thought so beautiful, that large congregations are attracted, though some of the parishioners object to the mode of performing divine service."
On the north side of the church, Mr. Godwin mentions, is a large apartment known as "St. Stephen's Chapel." This building evidently formed a somewhat important part of the old church, and was probably appropriated to the votaries of the saint whose name it bears.
Between the exterior and the interior of the church there is little harmony. "For example," says Mr. Godwin, "the columns which form the south aisle face, in some instances, the centre of the large windows which occur in the external wall of the church, and in others the centre of the piers, indifferently." This discordance may likely enough have arisen from the fact that when the church was rebuilt, or rather restored, after the Great Fire, the works were done without much attention from Sir Christopher Wren.
St. Sepulchre's appears to have enjoyed considerable popularity from the earliest period of its history, if one is to judge from the various sums left by well-disposed persons for the support of certain fraternities founded in the church—namely, those of St. Katherine, St. Michael, St. Anne, and Our Lady—and by others, for the maintenance of chantry priests to celebrate masses at stated intervals for the good of their souls. One of the fraternities just named—that of St. Katherine— originated, according to Stow, in the devotion of some poor persons in the parish, and was in honour of the conception of the Virgin Mary. They met in the church on the day of the Conception, and there had the mass of the day, and offered to the same, and provided a certain chaplain daily to celebrate divine service, and to set up wax lights before the image belonging to the fraternity, on all festival days.
The most famous of all who have been interred in St. Sepulchre's is Roger Ascham, the author of the "Schoolmaster," and the instructor of Queen Elizabeth in Greek and Latin. This learned old worthy was born in 1515, near Northallerton, in Yorkshire. He was educated at Cambridge University, and in time rose to be the university orator, being notably zealous in promoting what was then a novelty in England—the study of the Greek language. To divert himself after the fatigue of severe study, he used to devote himself to archery. This drew down upon him the censure of the all-work-and-no-play school; and in defence of himself, Ascham, in 1545, published "Toxophilus," a treatise on his favourite sport. This book is even yet well worthy of perusal, for its enthusiasm, and for its curious descriptions of the personal appearance and manners of the principal persons whom the author had seen and conversed with. Henry VIII. rewarded him with a pension of £10 per annum, a considerable sum in those days. In 1548, Ascham, on the death of William Grindall, who had been his pupil, was appointed instructor in the learned languages to Lady Elizabeth, afterwards the good Queen Bess. At the end of two years he had some dispute with, or took a disgust at, Lady Elizabeth's attendants, resigned his situation, and returned to his college. Soon after this he was employed as secretary to the English ambassador at the court of Charles V. of Germany, and remained abroad till the death of Edward VI. During his absence he had been appointed Latin secretary to King Edward. Strangely enough, though Queen Mary and her ministers were Papists, and Ascham a Protestant, he was retained in his office of Latin secretary, his pension was increased to £20, and he was allowed to retain his fellowship and his situation as university orator. In 1554 he married a lady of good family, by whom he had a considerable fortune, and of whom, in writing to a friend, he gives, as might perhaps be expected, an excellent character. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, in 1558, she not only required his services as Latin secretary, but as her instructor in Greek, and he resided at Court during the remainder of his life. He died in consequence of his endeavours to complete a Latin poem which he intended to present to the queen on the New Year's Day of 1569. He breathed his last two days before 1568 ran out, and was interred, according to his own directions, in the most private manner, in St. Sepulchre's Church, his funeral sermon being preached by Dr. Andrew Nowell, Dean of St. Paul's. He was universally lamented; and even the queen herself not only showed great concern, but was pleased to say that she would rather have lost ten thousand pounds than her tutor Ascham, which, from that somewhat closehanded sovereign, was truly an expression of high regard.
Ascham, like most men, had his little weaknesses. He had too great a propensity to dice and cock-fighting. Bishop Nicholson would try to convince us that this is an unfounded calumny, but, as it is mentioned by Camden, and other contemporary writers, it seems impossible to deny it. He died, from all accounts, in indifferent circumstances. "Whether," says Dr. Johnson, referring to this, "Ascham was poor by his own fault, or the fault of others, cannot now be decided; but it is certain that many have been rich with less merit. His philological learning would have gained him honour in any country; and among us it may justly call for that reverence which all nations owe to those who first rouse them from ignorance, and kindle among them the light of literature." His most valuable work, "The Schoolmaster," was published by his widow. The nature of this celebrated performance may be gathered from the title: "The Schoolmaster; or a plain and perfite way of teaching children to understand, write, and speak the Latin tongue. … And commodious also for all such as have forgot the Latin tongue, and would by themselves, without a schoolmaster, in short time, and with small pains, recover a sufficient habilitie to understand, write, and speak Latin: by Roger Ascham, ann. 1570. At London, printed by John Daye, dwelling over Aldersgate," a printer, by the way, already mentioned by us a few chapters back (see page 208), as having printed several noted works of the sixteenth century.
Dr. Johnson remarks that the instruction recommended in "The Schoolmaster" is perhaps the best ever given for the study of languages.
Here also lies buried Captain John Smith, a conspicuous soldier of fortune, whose romantic adventures and daring exploits have rarely been surpassed. He died on the 21st of June, 1631. This valiant captain was born at Willoughby, in the county of Lincoln, and helped by his doings to enliven the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. He had a share in the wars of Hungary in 1602, and in three single combats overcame three Turks, and cut off their heads. For this, and other equally brave deeds, Sigismund, Duke of Transylvania, gave him his picture set in gold, with a pension of three hundred ducats; and allowed him to bear three Turks' heads proper as his shield of arms. He afterwards went to America, where he had the misfortune to fall into the hands of the Indians. He escaped from them, however, at last, and resumed his brilliant career by hazarding his life in naval engagements with pirates and Spanish men-of-war. The most important act of his life was the share he had in civilising the natives of New England, and reducing that province to obedience to Great Britain. In connection with his tomb in St. Sepulchre's, he is mentioned by Stow, in his "Survey," as "some time Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England."
Certainly the most interesting events of his chequered career were his capture by the Indians, and the saving of his life by the Indian girl Pocahontas, a story of adventure that charms as often as it is told. Bancroft, the historian of the United States, relates how, during the early settlement of Virginia, Smith left the infant colony on an exploring expedition, and not only ascended the river Chickahominy, but struck into the interior. His companions disobeyed his instructions, and being surprised by the Indians, were put to death. Smith preserved his own life by calmness and self-possession. Displaying a pocket-compass, he amused the savages by an explanation of its power, and increased their admiration of his superior genius by imparting to them some vague conceptions of the form of the earth, and the nature of the planetary system. To the Indians, who retained him as their prisoner, his captivity was a more strange event than anything of which the traditions of their tribes preserved the memory. He was allowed to send a letter to the fort at Jamestown, and the savage wonder was increased, for he seemed by some magic to endow the paper with the gift of intelligence. It was evident that their captive was a being of a high order, and then the question arose, Was his nature beneficent, or was he to be dreaded as a dangerous enemy? Their minds were bewildered, and the decision of his fate was referred to the chief Powhatan, and before Powhatan Smith was brought. "The fears of the feeble aborigines," says Bancroft, "were about to prevail, and his immediate death, already repeatedly threatened and repeatedly delayed, would have been inevitable, but for the timely intercession of Pocahontas, a girl twelve years old, the daughter of Powhatan, whose confiding fondness Smith had easily won, and who firmly clung to his neck, as his head was bowed down to receive the stroke of the tomahawks. His fearlessness, and her entreaties, persuaded the council to spare the agreeable stranger, who could make hatchets for her father, and rattles and strings of beads for herself, the favourite child. The barbarians, whose decision had long been held in suspense by the mysterious awe which Smith had inspired, now resolved to receive him as a friend, and to make him a partner of their councils. They tempted him to join their bands, and lend assistance in an attack upon the white men at Jamestown; and when his decision of character succeeded in changing the current of their thoughts, they dismissed him with mutual promises of friendship and benevolence. Thus the captivity of Smith did itself become a benefit to the colony; for he had not only observed with care the country between the James and the Potomac, and had gained some knowledge of the language and manners of the natives, but he now established a peaceful intercourse between the English and the tribes of Powhatan."
On the monument erected to Smith in St. Sepulchre's Church, the following quaint lines were formerly inscribed:—
"Here lies one conquered that hath conquered kings,
Subdued large territories, and done things
Which to the world impossible would seem,
But that the truth is held in more esteem.
Shall I report his former service done,
In honour of his God, and Christendom?
How that he did divide, from pagans three,
Their heads and lives, types of his chivalry?—
For which great service, in that climate done,
Brave Sigismundus, King of Hungarion,
Did give him, as a coat of arms, to wear
These conquered heads, got by his sword and spear.
Or shall I tell of his adventures since
Done in Virginia, that large continent?
How that he subdued kings unto his yoke,
And made those heathens flee, as wind doth smoke;
And made their land, being so large a station,
An habitation for our Christian nation,
Where God is glorified, their wants supplied;
Which else for necessaries, must have died.
But what avails his conquests, now he lies
Interred in earth, a prey to worms and flies?
Oh! may his soul in sweet Elysium sleep,
Until the Keeper, that all souls doth keep,
Return to judgment; and that after thence
With angels he may have his recompense."
Sir Robert Peake, the engraver, also found a last resting-place here. He is known as the master of William Faithorne—the famous English engraver of the seventeenth century—and governor of Basing House for the king during the Civil War under Charles I. He died in 1667. Here also was interred the body of Dr. Bell, grandfather of the originator of a well-known system of education.
"The churchyard of St. Sepulchre's," we learn from Maitland, "at one time extended so far into the street on the south side of the church, as to render the passage-way dangerously narrow. In 1760 the churchyard was, in consequence, levelled, and thrown open to the public. But this led to much inconvenience, and it was re-enclosed in 1802."
Sarah Malcolm, the murderess, was buried in the churchyard of St. Sepulchre's in 1733. This coldhearted and keen-eyed monster in human form has had her story told by us already. The parishioners seem, on this occasion, to have had no such scruples as had been exhibited by their predecessors a hundred and fifty years previous at the burial of Awfield, a traitor. We shall see presently that in those more remote days they were desirous of having at least respectable company for their deceased relatives and friends in the churchyard.
"For a long period," says Mr. Godwin (1838), "the church was surrounded by low mean buildings, by which its general appearance was hidden; but these having been cleared away, and the neighbourhood made considerably more open, St. Sepulchre's now forms a somewhat pleasing object, notwithstanding that the tower and a part of the porch are so entirely dissimilar in style to the remainder of the building." And since Godwin's writing the surroundings of the church have been so improved that perhaps few buildings in the metropolis stand more prominently before the public eye.
In the glorious roll of martyrs who have suffered at the stake for their religious principles, a vicar of St. Sepulchre's, the Reverend John Rogers, occupies a conspicuous place. He was the first who was burned in the reign of the Bloody Mary. This eminent person had at one time been chaplain to the English merchants at Antwerp, and while residing in that city had aided Tindal and Coverdale in their great work of translating the Bible. He married a German lady of good position, by whom he had a large family, and was enabled, by means of her relations, to reside in peace and safety in Germany. It appeared to be his duty, however, to return to England, and there publicly profess and advocate his religious convictions, even at the risk of death. He crossed the sea; he took his place in the pulpit at St. Paul's Cross; he preached a fearless and animated sermon, reminding his astonished audience of the pure and wholesome doctrine which had been promulgated from that pulpit in the days of the good King Edward, and solemnly warning them against the pestilent idolatry and superstition of these new times. It was his last sermon. He was apprehended, tried, condemned, and burned at Smithfield. We described, when speaking of Smithfield, the manner in which he met his fate.
Connected with the martyrdom of Rogers an odd circumstance is quoted in the "Churches of London." It is stated that when the bishops had resolved to put to death Joan Bocher, a friend came to Rogers and earnestly entreated his influence that the poor woman's life might be spared, and other means taken to prevent the spread of her heterodox doctrines. Rogers, however, contended that she should be executed; and his friend then begged him to choose some other kind of death, which should be more agreeable to the gentleness and mercy prescribed in the gospel. "No," replied Rogers, "burning alive is not a cruel death, but easy enough." His friend hearing these words, expressive of so little regard for the sufferings of a fellow-creature, answered him with great vehemence, at the same time striking Rogers' hand, "Well, it may perhaps so happen that you yourself shall have your hands full of this mild burning." There is no record of Rogers among the papers belonging to St. Sepulchre's, but this may easily be accounted for by the fact that at the Great Fire of 1666 nearly all the registers and archives were destroyed.
A noteworthy incident in the history of St. Sepulchre's was connected with the execution, in 1585, of Awfield, for "sparcinge abrood certen lewed, sedicious, and traytorous bookes." "When he was executed," says Fleetwood, the Recorder, in a letter to Lord Burleigh, July 7th of that year, "his body was brought unto St. Pulcher's to be buryed, but the parishioners would not suffer a traytor's corpse to be laid in the earth where their parents, wives, children, kindred, masters, and old neighbours did rest; and so his carcass was returned to the burial-ground near Tyburn, and there I leave it."
Another event in the history of the church is a tale of suicide. On the 10th of April, 1600, a man named William Dorrington threw himself from the roof of the tower, leaving there a prayer for forgiveness.
We come now to speak of the connection of St. Sepulchre's with the neighbouring prison of Newgate. Being the nearest church to the prison, that connection naturally was intimate. Its clock served to give the time to the hangman when there was an execution in the Old Bailey, and many a poor wretch's last moments must it have regulated.
On the right-hand side of the altar a board with a list of charitable donations and gifts used to contain the following item:—"1605. Mr. Robert Dowe gave, for ringing the greatest bell in this church on the day the condemned prisoners are executed, and for other services, for ever, concerning such condemned prisoners, for which services the sexton is paid £16s. 8d.—£50.
It was formerly the practice for the clerk or bellman of St. Sepulchre's to go under Newgate, on the night preceding the execution of a criminal, ring his bell, and repeat the following wholesome advice:—
"All you that in the condemned hold do lie,
Prepare you, for to-morrow you shall die;
Watch all, and pray, the hour is drawing near
That you before the Almighty must appear;
Examine well yourselves, in time repent,
That you may not to eternal flames be sent.
And when St. Sepulchre's bell to-morrow tolls,
The Lord above have mercy on your souls.
Past twelve o'clock!"
This practice is explained by a passage in Munday's edition of Stow, in which it is told that a Mr. John Dowe, citizen and merchant taylor of London, gave £50 to the parish church of St. Sepulchre's, under the following conditions:—After the several sessions of London, on the night before the execution of such as were condemned to death, the clerk of the church was to go in the night-time, and also early in the morning, to the window of the prison in which they were lying. He was there to ring "certain tolls with a hand-bell" appointed for the purpose, and was afterwards, in a most Christian manner, to put them in mind of their present condition and approaching end, and to exhort them to be prepared, as they ought to be, to die. When they were in the cart, and brought before the walls of the church, the clerk was to stand there ready with the same bell, and, after certain tolls, rehearse a prayer, desiring all the people there present to pray for the unfortunate criminals. The beadle, also, of Merchant Taylors' Hall was allowed an "honest stipend" to see that this ceremony was regularly performed.
The affecting admonition—"affectingly good," Pennant calls it—addressed to the prisoners in Newgate, on the night before execution, ran as follows:—
"You prisoners that are within,
Who, for wickedness and sin,
after many mercies shown you, are now appointed to die to-morrow in the forenoon; give ear and understand that, to-morrow morning, the greatest bell of St. Sepulchre's shall toll for you, in form and manner of a passing-bell, as used to be tolled for those that are at the point of death; to the end that all godly people, hearing that bell, and knowing it is for your going to your deaths, may be stirred up heartily to pray to God to bestow his grace and mercy upon you, whilst you live. I beseech you, for Jesus Christ's sake, to keep this night in watching and prayer, to the salvation of your own souls while there is yet time and place for mercy; as knowing to-morrow you must appear before the judgment-seat of your Creator, there to give an account of all things done in this life, and to suffer eternal torments for your sins committed against Him, unless, upon your hearty and unfeigned repentance, you find mercy through the merits, death, and passion of your only Mediator and Advocate, Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return to Him."
And the following was the admonition to condemned criminals, as they were passing by St. Sepulchre's Church wall to execution:—" All good people, pray heartily unto God for these poor sinners, who are now going to their death, for whom this great bell doth toll.
"You that are condemned to die, repent with lamentable tears; ask mercy of the Lord, for the salvation of your own souls, through the [merits, death, and passion of Jesus Christ, who now sits at the right hand of God, to make intercession for as many of you as penitently return unto Him.
"Lord have mercy upon you;
Christ have mercy upon you.
Lord have mercy upon you;
Christ have mercy upon you."
The charitable Mr. Dowe, who took such interest in the last moments of the occupants of the condemned cell, was buried in the church of St. Botolph, Aldgate.
Another curious custom observed at St. Sepulchre's was the presentation of a nosegay to every criminal on his way to execution at Tyburn. No doubt the practice had its origin in some kindly feeling for the poor unfortunates who were so soon to bid farewell to all the beauties of earth. One of the last who received a nosegay from the steps of St. Sepulchre's was "Sixteen-string Jack," alias John Rann, who was hanged, in 1774, for robbing the Rev. Dr. Bell of his watch and eighteen pence in money, in Gunnersbury Lane, on the road to Brentford. Sixteen-string Jack wore the flowers in his button-hole as he rode dolefully to the gallows. This was witnessed by John Thomas Smith, who thus describes the scene in his admirable anecdotebook, "Nollekens and his Times:"—" I remember well, when I was in my eighth year, Mr. Nollekens calling at my father's house, in Great Portland Street, and taking us to Oxford Street, to see the notorious Jack Rann, commonly called Sixteenstring Jack, go to Tyburn to be hanged. … The criminal was dressed in a pea-green coat, with an immense nosegay in the button-hole, which had been presented to him at St. Sepulchre's steps; and his nankeen small-clothes, we were told, were tied at each knee with sixteen strings. After he had passed, and Mr. Nollekens was leading me home by the hand, I recollect his stooping down to me and observing, in a low tone of voice, 'Tom, now, my little man, if my father-in-law, Mr. Justice Welch, had been high constable, we could have walked by the side of the cart all the way to Tyburn.'"
When criminals were conveyed from Newgate to Tyburn, the cart passed up Giltspur Street, and through Smithfield, to Cow Lane. Skinner Street had not then been built, and the Crooked Lane which turned down by St. Sepulchre's, as well as Ozier Lane, did not afford sufficient width to admit of the cavalcade passing by either of them, with convenience, to Holborn Hill, or "the Heavy Hill," as it used to be called. The procession seems at no time to have had much of the solemn element about it. "The heroes of the day were often," says a popular writer, "on good terms with the mob, and jokes were exchanged between the men who were going to be hanged and the men who deserved to be."
"On St. Paul's Day," says Mr. Timbs (1868), "service is performed in St. Sepulchre's, in accordance with the will of Mr. Paul Jervis, who, in 1717, devised certain land in trust that a sermon should be preached in the church upon every Paul's Day upon the excellence of the liturgy o the Church of England; the preacher to receive 40s. for such sermon. Various sums are also bequeathed to the curate, the clerk, the treasurer, and masters of the parochial schools. To the poor of the parish he bequeathed 20s. a-piece to ten of the poorest householders within that part of the parish of St. Sepulchre commonly called Smithfield quarter, £4 to the treasurer of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and 6s. 8d. yearly to the clerk, who shall attend to receive the same. The residue of the yearly rents and profits is to be distributed unto and amongst such poor people of the parish of St. Sepulchre's, London, who shall attend the service and sermon. At the close of the service the vestry-clerk reads aloud an extract from the will, and then proceeds to the distribution of the money. In the evening the vicar, churchwardens, and common councilmen of the precinct dine together."
In 1749, a Mr. Drinkwater made a praiseworthy bequest. He left the parish of St. Sepulchre £500 to be lent in sums of £25 to industrious young tradesmen. No interest was to be charged, and the money was to be lent for four years.
Next to St. Sepulchre's, on Snow Hill, used to stand the famous old inn of the "Saracen's Head." It was only swept away within the last few years by the ruthless army of City improvers: a view of it in course of demolition was given on page 439. It was one of the oldest of the London inns which bore the "Saracen's Head" for a sign. One of Dick Tarlton's jests makes mention of the "Saracen's Head" without Newgate, and Stow, describing this neighbourhood, speaks particularly of "a fair large inn for receipt of travellers" that "hath to sign the 'Saracen's Head.'" The courtyard had, to the last, many of the characteristics of an old English inn; there were galleries all round leading to the bedrooms, and a spacious gateway through which the dusty mail-coaches used to rumble, the tired passengers creeping forth "thanking their stars in having escaped the highwaymen and the holes and sloughs of the road." Into that courtyard how many have come on their first arrival in London with hearts beating high with hope, some of whom have risen to be aldermen and sit in state as lord mayor, whilst others have gone the way of the idle apprentice and come to a sad end at Tyburn! It was at this inn that Nicholas Nickleby and his uncle waited upon the Yorkshire schoolmaster Squeers, of Dotheboys Hall. Mr. Dickens describes the tavern as it existed in the last days of mail-coaching, when it was a most important place for arrivals and departures in London:—
"Next to the jail, and by consequence near to Smithfield also, and the Compter and the bustle and noise of the City, and just on that particular part of Snow Hill where omnibus horses going eastwards seriously think of falling down on purpose, and where horses in hackney cabriolets going westwards not unfrequently fall by accident, is the coach-yard of the 'Saracen's Head' inn, its portals guarded by two Saracen's heads and shoulders, which it was once the pride and glory of the choice spirits of this metropolis to pull down at night, but which have for some time remained in undisturbed tranquillity, possibly because this species of humour is now confined to St. James's parish, where doorknockers are preferred as being more portable, and bell-wires esteemed as convenient tooth-picks. Whether this be the reason or not, there they are, frowning upon you from each side of the gateway; and the inn itself, garnished with another Saracen's head, frowns upon you from the top of the yard; while from the door of the hind-boot of all the red coaches that are standing therein, there glares a small Saracen's head with a twin expression to the large Saracen's head below, so that the general appearance of the pile is of the Saracenic order."
To explain the use of the Saracen's head as an inn sign various reasons have been given. "When our countrymen," says Selden, "came home from fighting with the Saracens and were beaten by them, they pictured them with huge, big, terrible faces (as you still see the 'Saracen's Head' is), when in truth they were like other men. But this they did to save their own credit." Or the sign may have been adopted by those who had visited the Holy Land either as pilgrims or to fight the Saracens. Others, again, hold that it was first set up in compliment to the mother of Thomas à Becket, who was the daughter of a Saracen. However this may be, it is certain that the use of the sign in former days was very general.
Running past the east end of St. Sepulchre's, from Newgate into West Smithfield, is Giltspur Street, anciently called Knightriders Street. This interesting thoroughfare derives its name from the knights with their gilt spurs having been accustomed to ride this way to the jousts and tournaments which in days of old were held in Smithfield.
In this street was Giltspur Street Compter, a debtors' prison and house of correction appertaining to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex. It stood over against St. Sepulchre's Church, and was removed hither from the east side of Wood Street, Cheapside, in 1791. At the time of its removal it was used as a place of imprisonment for debtors, but the yearly increasing demands upon the contracted space caused that department to be given up, and City debtors were sent to Whitecross Street. The architect was Dance, to whom we are also indebted for the grim pile of Newgate. The Compter was a dirty and appropriately convictlooking edifice. It was pulled down in 1855. Mr. Hepworth Dixon gave an interesting account of this City House of Correction, not long before its demolition, in his "London Prisons" (1850). "Entering," he says, "at the door facing St. Sepulchre's, the visitor suddenly finds himself in a low dark passage, leading into the offices of the gaol, and branching off into other passages, darker, closer, more replete with noxious smells, than even those of Newgate. This is the fitting prelude to what follows. The prison, it must be noticed, is divided into two principal divisions, the House of Correction and the Compter. The front in Giltspur Street, and the side nearest to Newgate Street, is called the Compter. In its wards are placed detenues of various kinds—remands, committals from the police-courts, and generally persons waiting for trial, and consequently still unconvicted. The other department, the House of Correction, occupies the back portion of the premises, abutting on Christ's Hospital. Curious it is to consider how thin a wall divides these widely-separate worlds! And sorrowful it is to think what a difference of destiny awaits the children—destiny inexorable, though often unearned in either case—who, on the one side of it or the other, receive an eleemosynary education! The collegian and the criminal! Who shall say how much mere accident— circumstances over which the child has little power —determines to a life of usefulness or mischief? From the yards of Giltspur Street prison almost the only objects visible, outside of the gaol itself, are the towers of Christ's Hospital; the only sounds audible, the shouts of the scholars at their play. The balls of the hospital boys often fall within the yards of the prison. Whether these sights and sounds ever cause the criminal to pause and reflect upon the courses of his life, we will not say, but the stranger visiting the place will be very apt to think for him. …
"In the department of the prison called the House of Correction, minor offenders within the City of London are imprisoned. No transports are sent hither, nor is any person whose sentence is above three years in length." This able writer then goes on to tell of the many crying evils connected with the institution—the want of air, the over-crowded state of the rooms, the absence of proper cellular accommodation, and the vicious intercourse carried on amongst the prisoners. The entire gaol, when he wrote, only contained thirty-six separate sleeping-rooms. Now by the highest prison calculation—and this, be it noted, proceeds on the assumption that three persons can sleep in small, miserable, unventilated cells, which are built for only one, and are too confined for that, being only about one-half the size of the model cell for one at Pentonville—it was only capable of accommodating 203 prisoners, yet by the returns issued at Michaelmas, 1850, it contained 246!
A large section of the prison used to be devoted to female delinquents, but lately it was almost entirely given up to male offenders.
"The House of Correction, and the Compter portion of the establishment," says Mr. Dixon, "are kept quite distinct, but it would be difficult to award the palm of empire in their respective facilities for demoralisation. We think the Compter rather the worse of the two. You are shown into a room, about the size of an apartment in an ordinary dwelling-house, which will be found crowded with from thirty to forty persons, young and old, and in their ordinary costume; the low thief in his filth and rags, and the member of the swell-mob with his bright buttons, flash finery, and false jewels. Here you notice the boy who has just been guilty of his first offence, and committed for trial, learning with a greedy mind a thousand criminal arts, and listening with the precocious instinct of guilty passions to stories and conversations the most depraved and disgusting. You regard him with a mixture of pity and loathing, for he knows that the eyes of his peers are upon him, and he stares at you with a familiar impudence, and exhibits a devil-may-care countenance, such as is only to be met with in the juvenile offender. Here, too, may be seen the young clerk, taken up on suspicion—perhaps innocent—who avoids you with a shy look of pain and uneasiness: what a hell must this prison be to him! How frightful it is to think of a person really untainted with crime, compelled to herd for ten or twenty days with these abandoned wretches!
"On the other, the House of Correction side of the gaol, similar rooms will be found, full of prisoners communicating with each other, laughing and shouting without hindrance. All this is so little in accordance with existing notions of prison discipline, that one is continually fancying these disgraceful scenes cannot be in the capital of England, and in the year of grace 1850. Very few of the prisoners attend school or receive any instruction; neither is any kind of employment afforded them, except oakum-picking, and the still more disgusting labour of the treadmill. When at work, an officer is in attendance to prevent disorderly conduct; but his presence is of no avail as a protection to the less depraved. Conversation still goes on; and every facility is afforded for making acquaintances, and for mutual contamination."
After having long been branded by intelligent inspectors as a disgrace to the metropolis, Giltspur Street Compter was condemned, closed in 1854, and subsequently taken down.
Nearly opposite what used to be the site of the Compter, and adjoining Cock Lane, is the spot called Pie Corner, near which terminated the Great Fire of 1666. The fire commenced at Pudding Lane, it will be remembered, so it was singularly appropriate that it should terminate at Pie Corner. Under the date of 4th September, 1666, Pepys, in his "Diary," records that "W. Hewer this day went to see how his mother did, and comes home late, telling us how he hath been forced to remove her to Islington, her house in Pye Corner being burned; so that the fire is got so far that way." The figure of a fat naked boy stands over a public house at the corner of the lane; it used to have the following warning inscription attached:— "This boy is in memory put up of the late fire of London, occasioned by the sin of gluttony, 1666." According to Stow, Pie Corner derived its name from the sign of a well-frequented hostelry, which anciently stood on the spot. Strype makes honourable mention of Pie Corner, as "noted chiefly for cooks' shops and pigs dressed there during Bartholomew Fair." Our old writers have many references—and not all, by the way, in the best taste—to its cookstalls and dressed pork. Shadwell, for instance, in the Woman Captain (1680) speaks of "meat dressed at Pie Corner by greasy scullions;" and Ben Jonson writes in the Alchemist (1612)—
"I shall put you in mind, sir, at Pie Corner,
Taking your meal of steam in from cooks' stalls."
And in "The Great Boobee" ("Roxburgh Ballads"):
"Next day I through Pie Corner passed;
The roast meat on the stall
Invited me to take a taste;
My money was but small."
But Pie Corner seems to have been noted for more than eatables. A ballad from Tom D'Urfey's "Pills to Purge Melancholy," describing Bartholomew Fair, eleven years before the Fire of London, says:—
"At Pie-Corner end, mark well my good friend,
'Tis a very fine dirty place;
Where there's more arrows and bows. …
Than was handled at Chivy Chase."
We have already given a view of Pie Corner in our chapter on Smithfield, page 361.
Hosier Lane, running from Cow Lane to Smithfield, and almost parallel to Cock Lane, is described by "R. B.," in Strype, as a place not over-well built or inhabited. The houses were all old timber erections. Some of these—those standing at the south corner of the lane—were in the beginning of this century depicted by Mr. J. T. Smith, in his "Ancient Topography of London." He describes them as probably of the reign of James I. The rooms were small, with low, unornamented ceilings; the timber, oak, profusely used; the gables were plain, and the walls lath and plaster. They were taken down in 1809.
In the corner house, in Mr. Smith's time, there was a barber whose name was Catchpole; at least, so it was written over the door. He was rather an odd fellow, and possessed, according to his own account, a famous relic of antiquity. He would gravely show his customers a short-bladed instrument, as the identical dagger with which Walworth killed Wat Tyler.
Hosier Lane, like Pie Corner, used to be a great resort during the time of Bartholomew Fair, "all the houses," it is said in Strype, "generally being made public for tippling."
We return now from our excursion to the north of St. Sepulchre's, and continue our rambles to the west, and before speaking of what is, let us refer to what has been.
Turnagain Lane is not far from this. "Near unto this Seacoal Lane," remarks Stow, "in the turning towards Holborn Conduit, is Turnagain Lane, or rather, as in a record of the 5th of Edward III., Windagain Lane, for that it goeth down west to Fleet Dyke, from whence men must turn again the same way they came, but there it stopped." There used to be a proverb, "He must take him a house in Turnagain Lane."
A conduit formerly stood on Snow Hill, a little below the church. It is described as a building with four equal sides, ornamented with four columns and pediment, surmounted by a pyramid, on which stood a lamb—a rebus on the name of Lamb, from whose conduit in Red Lion Street the water came. There had been a conduit there, however, before Lamb's day, which was towards the close of the sixteenth century.
At No. 37, King Street, Snow Hill, there used to be a ladies' charity school, which was established in 1702, and remained in the parish 145 years. Dr. Johnson and Mrs. Thrale were subscribers to this school, and Johnson drew from it his story of Betty Broom, in "The Idler." The world of domestic service, in Betty's days, seems to have been pretty much as now. Betty was a poor girl, bred in the country at a charity-school, maintained by the contributions of wealthy neighbours. The patronesses visited the school from time to time, to see how the pupils got on, and everything went well, till "at last, the chief of the subscribers having passed a winter in London, came down full of an opinion new and strange to the whole country. She held it little less than criminal to teach poor girls to read and write. They who are born to poverty, she said, are born to ignorance, and will work the harder the less they know. She told her friends that London was in confusion by the insolence of servants; that scarcely a girl could be got for all-work, since education had made such numbers of fine ladies, that nobody would now accept a lower title than that of a waiting-maid, or something that might qualify her to wear laced shoes and long ruffles, and to sit at work in the parlour window. But she was resolved, for her part, to spoil no more girls. Those who were to live by their hands should neither read nor write out of her pocket. The world was bad enough already, and she would have no part in making it worse.
"She was for a long time warmly opposed; but she persevered in her notions, and withdrew her subscription. Few listen, without a desire of conviction, to those who advise them to spare their money. Her example and her arguments gained ground daily; and in less than a year the whole parish was convinced that the nation would be ruined if the children of the poor were taught to read and write." So the school was dissolved, and Betty with the rest was turned adrift into the wide and cold world; and her adventures there any one may read in "The Idler" for himself.
There is an entry in the school minutes of 1763, to the effect that the ladies of the committee censured the schoolmistress for listening to the story of the Cock Lane ghost, and "desired her to keep her belief in the article to herself."
Skinner Street—now one of the names of the past—which ran by the south side of St. Sepulchre's, and formed the connecting link between Newgate Street and Holborn, received its name from Alderman Skinner, through whose exertions, about 1802, it was principally built. The following account of Skinner Street is from the picturesque pen of Mr. William Harvey ("Aleph"), whose long familiarity with the places he describes renders doubly valuable his many contributions to the history of London scenes and people:—"As a building speculation," he says, writing in 1863, "it was a failure. When the buildings were ready for occupation, tall and substantial as they really were, the high rents frightened intending shopkeepers. Tenants were not to be had; and in order to get over the money difficulty, a lottery, sanctioned by Parliament, was commenced. Lotteries were then common tricks of finance, and nobody wondered at the new venture; but even the most desperate fortune-hunters were slow to invest their capital, and the tickets hung sadly on hand. The day for the drawing was postponed several times, and when it came, there was little or no excitement on the subject, and whoever rejoiced in becoming a house-owner on such easy terms, the original projectors and builders were understood to have suffered considerably. The winners found the property in a very unfinished condition. Few of the dwellings were habitable, and as funds were often wanting, a majority of the houses remained empty, and the shops unopened. After two or three years things began to improve; the vast many-storeyed house which then covered the site of Commercial Place was converted into a warehousing depôt; a capital house opposite the 'Saracen's Head' was taken by a hosier of the name of Theobald, who, opening his shop with the determination of selling the best hosiery, and nothing else, was able to convince the citizens that his hose was first-rate, and, desiring only a living profit, succeeded, after thirty years of unwearied industry, in accumulating a large fortune. Theobald was possessed of literary tastes, and at the sale of Sir Walter Scott's manuscripts was a liberal purchaser. He also collected a library of exceedingly choice books, and when aristocratic customers purchased stockings of him, was soon able to interest them in matters of far higher interest…
"The most remarkable shop—but it was on the left-hand side, at a corner house—was that established for the sale of children's books. It boasted an immense extent of window-front, extending from the entrance into Snow Hill, and towards Fleet Market. Many a time have I lingered with loving eyes over those fascinating story-books, so rich in gaily-coloured prints; such careful editions of the marvellous old histories, 'Puss in Boots,' 'Cock Robin,' 'Cinderella,' and the like. Fortunately the front was kept low, so as exactly to suit the capacity of a childish admirer. . . . . But Skinner Street did not prosper much, and never could compete with even the dullest portions of Holborn. I have spoken of some reputable shops; but you know the proverb, 'One swallow will not make a summer,' and it was a declining neighbourhood almost before it could be called new. In 1810 the commercial depôt, which had been erected at a cost of £25,000, and was the chief prize in the lottery, was destroyed by fire, never to be rebuilt—a heavy blow and discouragement to Skinner Street, from which it never rallied. Perhaps the periodical hanging-days exercised an unfavourable influence, collecting, as they frequently did, all the thieves and vagabonds of London. I never sympathised with Pepys or Charles Fox in their passion for public executions, and made it a point to avoid those ghastly sights; but early of a Monday morning, when I had just reached the end of Giltspur Street, a miserable wretch had just been turned off from the platform of the debtors' door, and I was made the unwilling witness of his last struggles. That scene haunted me for months, and I often used to ask myself, 'Who that could help it would live in Skinner Street?' The next unpropitious event in these parts was the unexpected closing of the child's library. What could it mean? Such a well-to-do establishment shut up? Yes, the whole army of shutters looked blankly on the inquirer, and forbade even a single glance at 'Sinbad' or 'Robinson Crusoe.' It would soon be re-opened, we naturally thought; but the shutters never came down again. The whole house was deserted; not even a messenger in bankruptcy, or an ancient Charley, was found to regard the playful double knocks of the neighbouring juveniles. Gradually the glass of all the windows got broken in, a heavy cloud of black dust, solidifying into inches thick, gathered on sills and doors and brickwork, till the whole frontage grew as gloomy as Giant Despair's Castle. Not long after, the adjoining houses shared the same fate, and they remained from year to year without the slightest sign of life—absolute scarecrows, darkening with their uncomfortable shadows the busy streets. Within half a mile, in Stamford Street, Blackfriars, there are (1863) seven houses in a similar predicament— window-glass demolished, doors cracked from top to bottom, spiders' webs hanging from every projecting sill or parapet. What can it mean? The loss in the article of rents alone must be over £1,000 annually. If the real owners are at feud with imaginary owners, surely the property might be rendered valuable, and the proceeds invested. Even the lawyers can derive no profit from such hopeless abandonment. I am told the whole mischief arose out of a Chancery suit. Can it be the famous 'Jarndyce v. Jarndyce' case? And have all the heirs starved each other out? If so, what hinders our lady the Queen from taking possession? Any change would be an improvement, for these dead houses make the streets they cumber as dispiriting and comfortless as graveyards. Busy fancy will sometimes people them, and fill the dreary rooms with strange guests. Do the victims of guilt congregate in these dark dens? Do wretches 'unfriended by the world or the world's law,' seek refuge in these deserted nooks, mourning in the silence of despair over their former lives, and anticipating the future in unappeasable agony? Such things have been—the silence and desolation of these doomed dwellings make them the more suitable for such tenants."
A street is nothing without a mystery, so a mystery let these old tumble-down houses remain, whilst we go on to tell that, in front of No. 58, the sailor Cashman was hung in 1817, as we have already mentioned, for plundering a gunsmith's shop there. William Godwin, the author of "Caleb Williams," kept a bookseller's shop for several years in Skinner Street, at No. 41, and published school-books in the name of Edward Baldwin. On the wall there was a stone carving of Æsop reciting one of his fables to children.
The most noteworthy event of the life of Godwin was his marriage with the celebrated Mary Wollstonecraft, authoress of a "Vindication of the Rights of Women," whose congenial mind, in politics and morals, he ardently admired. Godwin's account of the way in which they got on together is worth reading:—"Ours," he writes, "was not an idle happiness, a paradise of selfish and transitory pleasures. It is, perhaps, scarcely necessary to mention, that influenced by ideas I had long entertained, I engaged an apartment about twenty doors from our house, in the Polygon, Somers Town, which I designed for the purpose of my study and literary occupations. Trifles, however, will be interesting to some readers, when they relate to the last period of the life of such a person as Mary. I will add, therefore, that we were both of us of opinion, that it was possible for two persons to be too uniformly in each other's society. Influenced by that opinion, it was my practice to repair to the apartment I have mentioned as soon as I rose, and frequently not to make my appearance in the Polygon till the hour of dinner. We agreed in condemning the notion, prevalent in many situations in life, that a man and his wife cannot visit in mixed society but in company with each other, and we rather sought occasions of deviating from than of complying with this rule. By this means, though, for the most part, we spent the latter half of each day in one another's society, yet we were in no danger of satiety. We seemed to combine, in a considerable degree, the novelty and lively sensation of a visit with the more delicious and heartfelt pleasure of a domestic life."
This philosophic union, to Godwin's inexpressible affliction, did not last more than eighteen months, at the end of which time Mrs. Godwin died, leaving an only daughter, who in the course of time became the second wife of the poet Shelley, and was the author of the wild and extraordinary tale of "Frankenstein."
wishing u a heavenly friday...may it be filled wit many blessings...
^i^
*i'm not over* ~ carolina liar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eieVsCmCPDE
What a waste of time, the thought crossed my mind
But I never missed a beat
Can't explain the who or what I was
Trying to believe
What would you do?
What would you do?
Do you know?
I once had a grip on everything
It feels better to let go
I'm not over
I'm not over you just yet
Cannot hide it
You're not that easy to forget
I'm not over
Never took the chance, could've jump the fence
I was scared of my own two feet
Couldn't cross the line, it was black and white
No contrast to be seen
What would you do?
What would you do?
Do you know?
Was it all a joke, never had control
I'm not better on my own
I'm not over
I'm not over you just yet
Cannot hide it
You're not that easy to forget
I'm not over
What a waste of time
The thought crossed my mind
Can't explain this thing, or what I mean
I'm trying to let go
I'm not over
I'm not over you just yet
Cannot hide it
You're not that easy to forget
I'm not over
I'm not over you just yet
Cannot hide it
You're not that easy to forget
I'm not over
I'm not over
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (Paramount, 1979).
putlocker.bz/watch-star-trek-the-motion-picture-online-fr... Full Feature
Starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Majel Barrett, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Persis Khambatta, Stephen Collins, Grace Lee Whitney, Mark Lenard. Directed by Robert Wise.
In Klingon space, three Klingon battle cruisers encounter a huge cloud-like anomaly. On the bridge of one of the ships, the captain (Mark Lenard) orders his crew to fire torpedoes at it, but they have no effect. The ships take evasive action.
Meanwhile, in Federation space, a monitoring station, Epsilon 9, picks up a distress signal from one of the Klingon ships. As the three ships are attempting to escape the cloud, energy beams shoot out and engulf each ship one by one, and they vanish. On Epsilon 9, the crew tracks the course of the cloud and discovers that it is headed for Earth.
On Vulcan, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) has been undergoing the kohlinahr ritual, in which he has been learning how to purge all of his emotions, and is nearly finished with his training. A female Vulcan Master (Edna Glover), surrounded by two men, is about to give him an ornate necklace as a symbol of pure logic, when Spock holds out his hand to stop her. Confused, she mind-melds with him and senses a consciousness calling to him from space that is affecting his human side. She drops the necklace. "You have not yet achieved kohlinahr. You must look elsewhere for your answer," she says as they leave Spock. "You will not find it here."
In San Francisco, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) arrives at Starfleet Headquarters in a shuttlecraft. He sees Commander Sonak (Jon Rashad Kamal), a Vulcan science officer who is joining the Enterprise crew and recommended for the position by Kirk himself. Kirk is bothered as to why Sonak is not on board yet. Sonak explains that Captain Willard Decker (Stephen Collins), the new captain of the Enterprise, wanted him to complete his science briefing at Headquarters before they left on their mission. The Enterprise has been undergoing a complete "refitting" for the past 18 months and is now under final preparations to leave, which would take at least 20 hours, but Kirk informs him that they only have 12. He tells Sonak to report to him on the Enterprise in one hour; he has a short meeting with Admiral Nogura and is intent on being on the ship.
Kirk transports to an office complex orbiting Earth and meets Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), the Enterprise's chief engineer. Scotty expresses his concern about the tight departure time. The cloud is less than three days away from Earth, and the Enterprise has been ordered to intercept it because they are the only ship in range. Scotty says that the refit can't be finished in 12 hours, and tries to convince him that the ship needs more work done as well as a shakedown cruise. Kirk insists that they are leaving, ready or not. They board a travel pod and begin the journey over to the drydock in orbit that houses the Enterprise.
Scotty tells Kirk that the crew hasn't had enough transition time with all the new equipment and that the engines haven't even been tested at warp power, not to mention that they have an untried captain. Kirk tells Scotty that two and a half years as Chief of Starfleet Operations may have made him a little stale, but that he wouldn't exactly consider himself untried. Kirk then tells a surprised Scotty that Starfleet gave him back his command of the Enterprise. Scotty doubts it, saying that he doesn't think it was that easy with Admiral Nogura, who gave Kirk his orders. They arrive at the Enterprise, and Scotty indulges Kirk with a brief tour of the new exterior of the ship.
Upon docking with the ship, Scotty is summoned to Engineering. Kirk goes up to the bridge, and is informed by Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) that Starfleet has just transferred command from Captain Decker over to him. Kirk finds Decker in engineering, whom is visibly upset when Kirk breaks the news that he is assuming command, but recognizes it is because Kirk has more experience. Decker will remain on the ship as 2nd officer. As Decker storms off, an alarm sounds. Someone is trying to beam over to the ship, but the transporter is malfunctioning. Kirk and Scotty race to the transporter room. Transporter operator Janice Rand (Grace Lee Whitney) is frantically trying to tell Starfleet to abort the transport, but it is too late. Commander Sonak and an unknown female officer are beaming in, but their bodies aren't re-forming properly in the beam. The female officer screams, and then their bodies disappear. Starfleet signals to them that they have died. Kirk tells Starfleet to express his sympathies to their families.
In the corridor, Kirk sees Decker and tells him they will have to replace Commander Sonak and wants another Vulcan. Decker tells him that no one is available that is familiar with the ship's new design. Kirk tells Decker he will have to double his duties as science officer as well.
In the recreation room, as Kirk briefs the assembled crew on the mission, they receive a transmission from Epsilon 9. Commander Branch (David Gautreaux) tells them they have analyzed the mysterious cloud. It generates an immense amount of energy and measures 2 A.U.s (300 million km) in diameter. There is also a vessel of some kind in the center. They've tried to communicate with it and have performed scans, but the cloud reflects them back. It seems to think of the scans as hostile and attacks them. Like the Klingon ships earlier, Epsilon 9 disappears.
Later on the bridge, Uhura informs Kirk that the transporter is working now. Lt. Ilia, (Persis Khambatta), a bald being from the planet Delta IV, arrives. Decker is happy to see her, as they developed a romantic relationship when he was assigned to her planet several years earlier. Ilia is curious about Decker's reduction in rank and Kirk interrupts and tells her about Decker being the executive and science officer. Decker tells her, with slight sarcasm, that Kirk has the utmost confidence in him. Ilia tells Kirk that her oath of celibacy is on record and asks permission to assume her duties. Uhura tells Kirk that one of the last few crew members to arrive is refusing to beam up. Kirk goes to the transporter room to ensure that "he" beams up.
Kirk tells Starfleet to beam the officer aboard. Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley) materializes on the platform. McCoy is angry that his Starfleet commission was reactivated and that it was Kirk's idea for him to be brought along on the mission. His attitude changes, however, when Kirk says he desperately needs him. McCoy leaves to check out the new sickbay.
The crew finishes its repairs and the Enterprise leaves drydock and into the solar system. Dr. McCoy comes up to the bridge and complains that the new sickbay is nothing but a computer center. Kirk is anxious to intercept the cloud intruder, and orders Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) to go to warp speed. Suddenly, the ship enters a wormhole, which was created by an engine imbalance, and is about to collide with an asteroid that has been pulled inside. Kirk orders the phasers to be fired on it, but Decker tells Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) to fire photon torpedoes instead. The asteroid and the wormhole are destroyed. Annoyed, Kirk wants to meet with Decker in his quarters. Dr. McCoy decides to go along.
Kirk demands an explanation from Decker. Decker pointed out that the redesigned Enterprise channeled the phasers through the main engines and because they were imbalanced, the phasers were cut off. Kirk acknowledged that he had saved the ship; however, he accuses Decker of competing with him. Decker tells Kirk that, because of his unfamiliarity with the ship's new design, the mission is in jeopardy. Decker tells Kirk that he will gladly help Kirk understand the new design. Kirk then dismisses him from the room. In the corridor, Decker runs into Ilia. Ilia asked if the confrontation was difficult, and he tells her that it was about as difficult as seeing her again, and apologizes. She asked if he was sorry for leaving Delta IV, or for not saying goodbye. He said that if he had seen her again, would she be able to say goodbye? She says "no," and walked around him and entered her quarters nearby.
Back in Kirk's quarters, McCoy accuses Kirk of being the one who was competing, and the fact that it was Kirk who used the emergency to pressure Starfleet into letting him get command of the Enterprise. McCoy thinks that Kirk is obsessed with keeping his command. On Kirk's console viewscreen, Uhura informs Kirk that a shuttlecraft is approaching and that the occupant wishes to dock. Chekov also pipes in and replies that it appears to be a courier vessel. Kirk tells Chekov to handle the situation.
The shuttle approaches the Enterprise from behind, and the top portion of it detaches and docks at an airlock behind the bridge. Chekov is waiting by the airlock doors and is surprised to see Spock come aboard. Moments later, Spock arrives on the bridge, and everyone is shocked and pleased to see him, yet Spock ignores them. He moves over to the science station and tells Kirk that he is aware of the crisis and knows about the ship's engine design difficulties. He offers to step in as the science officer. McCoy and Dr. Christine Chapel (Majel Barret Roddenberry) come to the bridge to greet Spock, but Spock just stares alarmingly at their emotional outburst. Spock leaves to discuss fuel equations with Scotty in engineering.
With Spock's assistance, the engines are now rebalanced for full warp capacity. The ship successfully goes to warp to intercept the cloud. In the officers lounge, Spock meets with Kirk and McCoy. They discuss Spock's kohlinahr training on Vulcan, and how Spock broke off from his training to join them. Spock describes how he sensed the consciousness of the intruder, from a source more powerful that he has ever encountered, with perfect, logical thought patterns. He believes that it holds the answers he seeks. Uhura tells Kirk over the intercom that they have visual contact with the intruder.
The cloud scans the ship, but Kirk orders no return scans. Spock determines that the scans are coming from the center of the cloud. Uhura tries sending "linguacode" messages, but there is no response. Decker suggests raising the shields for protection, but Kirk determines that that might be considered hostile to the cloud. Spock analyzes the clouds composition, and discovers it has a 12-power energy field, the equivalent of power generated by thousands of starships.
Sitting at the science station, Spock awakens from a brief trance. He reveals to Kirk that the alien was communicating with him. The alien is puzzled; it contacted the Enterprise--why has the Enterprise not replied? A red alert sounds, and an energy beam from within the cloud touches the ship, and begins to overload the ship's systems. Bolts of lightning surround the warp core and nearly injure some engineering officers, and Chekov is also hurt--his hand is burned while sitting at the weapons station on the bridge. The energy beam then disappears. A medical team is summoned to the bridge, and Ilia is able to use her telepathic powers to soothe Chekov's pain.
Spock confirms to Kirk that the alien has been attempting to communicate. It communicates at a frequency of more than one million megahertz, and at such a high rate of speed, the message only lasts a millisecond. Spock programs to computer to send linguacode messages at that frequency. Another energy beam is sent out, but Spock transmits a message just in time, and the beam disappears. The ship continues on course through the cloud. They pass through many expansive and colorful cloud layers and upon clearing these, a giant vessel is revealed. It is roughly cylindrical in shape, with large spikes jutting out from the surface at equidistant angles between each other, forming a hexagon-like shape.
Kirk tells Uhura to transmit an image of the alien to Starfleet, but she explains that any transmission sent out of the cloud is being reflected back to them. Kirk orders Sulu to fly above and along the top of the vessel. The Enterprise is so small compared to the size of the alien vessel that it appears only as a little white dot next to it. The ship travels past many oddly-shaped structures, including a sunken area where the energy beams originate.
An alarm sounds, and yet another energy bolt approaches the ship. It appears on the bridge as a column of bright light that emits a very loud noise. The crew struggles to shield their eyes from its brilliant glow. Chekov asks Spock if it is one of the alien's crew, and Spock replies that it is a probe sent from the vessel. The probe slowly moves around the room and stops in front of the science station. Bolts of lightning shoot out from it and surround the console--it is trying to access the ship's computer. Spock manages to smash the controls to prevent further access, and the probe gives him an electric shock that sends him rolling onto the floor. The probe approaches the helm/navigation console and it scans Lt. Ilia. Suddenly, she vanishes, along with the probe.
Ahead of the ship looms another giant section of the vessel. A tractor beam is drawing the Enterprise toward an opening aperture. Decker calls for Chief DiFalco (Marcy Lafferty) to come up to the bridge as Ilia's replacement. The ship travels deep into the next chamber. Decker wonders why they were brought inside--they could have been easily destroyed outside. Spock deduces that the alien is curious about them. Uhura's monitor shows that the aperture is closing; they are trapped. The ship is released from the tractor beam and suddenly, an intruder alert goes off. Someone has come aboard the ship and is in the crew quarters section.
Kirk and Spock arrive inside a crewman's quarters to discover that the intruder is inside the sonic shower. It is revealed to be Ilia, although it isn't really her--there is a small red device attached to her neck. In a mechanized voice, she replies "You are the Kirk unit--you will listen to me." She explains that she has been programmed by an entity called "V'Ger" to observe and record the normal functions of the carbon-based units (humans) "infesting" the Enterprise. Kirk opens the shower door and "Ilia" steps out, wearing a small white garment that just materialized around her. Dr. McCoy and a security officer enter the room, and Kirk tells McCoy to scan her with a tricorder.
Kirk asks her who V'Ger is. She replies "V'Ger is that which programmed me." McCoy tells Kirk that Ilia is a mechanism and Spock confirms she is a probe that assumed Ilia's physical form. Kirk asks where the real Ilia is, and the probe states that "that unit" no longer functions. Kirk also asks why V'Ger is traveling to Earth, and the probe answers that it wishes to find the Creator, join with him, and become one with it. Spock suggests that McCoy perform a complete examination of the probe.
In sickbay, the Ilia probe lays on a diagnostic table, its sensors slowly taking readings. All normal body functions, down to the microscopic level, are exactly duplicated by the probe. Decker arrives and is stunned to see her there. She looks up at him and addresses him as "Decker", rather than "Decker unit," which intrigues Spock. Spock talks with Kirk and Decker in an adjoining room, and Spock locks the door. Spock theorizes that the real Ilia's memories and feelings have been duplicated by the probe as well as her body. Decker is angry that the probe killed Ilia, but Kirk convinces him that their only contact with the vessel is through the probe, and they need to use that advantage to find out more about the alien. Suddenly, the probe bursts through the door, and demands that Kirk assist her with her observations. He tells her that Decker will do it with more efficiency.
Decker and Ilia are seen walking around in the recreation room. He shows her pictures of previous ships that were named Enterprise. Decker has been trying to see if Ilia's memories or emotions can resurface, but to no avail. Kirk and McCoy are observing them covertly on a monitor from his quarters. Decker shows her a game that the crew enjoys playing. She is not interested and states that recreation and enjoyment has no meaning to her programming. At another game, which Ilia enjoyed and nearly always won, they both press one of their hands down onto a table to play it. The table lights up, indicating she won the game, and she gazes into Deckers eyes. This moment of emotion ends suddenly, and she returns to normal. "This device serves no purpose."
"Why does the Enterprise require the presence of carbon units?" she asks. Decker tells her the ship couldn't function without them. She tells him that more information is needed before the crew can be patterned for data storage. Horrified, he asks her what this means. "When my examination is complete, all carbon units will be reduced to data patterns." He tells her that within her are the memory patterns of a certain carbon unit. He convinces her to let him help her revive those patterns so that she can understand their functions better. She allows him to proceed.
Spock slowly enters an airlock room. He sees an officer standing at a console, his back to Spock. Spock quietly approaches him, and gives him the Vulcan nerve pinch to render him unconscious.
Decker, the probe, Dr. McCoy, and Dr. Chapel are in Ilia's quarters. Dr. Chapel gives the probe a decorative headband that Ilia used to wear. Chapel puts it over "Ilia's" head and turns her toward a mirror. Decker asks her if she remembers wearing it on Delta IV. The probe shows another moment of emotion, saying Dr. Chapel's name, and putting her hand on Decker's face, calling him Will. Behind them, McCoy reminds Decker that she is a mechanism. Decker asks "Ilia" to help them make contact with V'Ger. She says that she can't, and Decker asks her who the Creator is. She says V'Ger does not know. The probe becomes emotionless again and removes the headband.
Spock is now outside the ship in a space suit with an attached thruster pack. He begins recording a log entry for Kirk detailing his attempt to contact the alien. He activates a panel on the suit and calculates thruster ignition and acceleration to coincide with the opening of an aperture ahead of him. He hopes to get a better view of the spacecraft interior.
Kirk comes up to the bridge and Uhura tells him that Starfleet signals are growing stronger, indicating they are very close to Earth. Starfleet is monitoring the intruder and notifies Uhura that it is slowing down in its approach. Sulu confirms this and says that lunar beacons show the intruder is entering into orbit. Chekov tells Kirk that Airlock 4 has been opened and a thruster suit is missing. Kirk figures out that Spock has done it, and orders Chekov to get Spock back on the ship. He changes his mind, and instead tells him to determine his position.
Spock touches a button on his thruster panel and his thruster engine ignites. He is propelled forward rapidly, and enters the next chamber of the vessel just before the aperture closes behind him. The thruster engine shuts down, and the momentum carries Spock ahead further. He disconnects the thruster pack from his suit and it falls away from him.
Continuing his log entry, Spock sees an image of what he believes to be V'Gers home planet. He passes through a tunnel filled with crackling plasma energy, possibly a power source for a gigantic imaging system. Next, he sees several more images of planets, moons, stars, and galaxies stored and recorded. Spock theorizes that this may be a visual representation of V'Gers entire journey. "But who or what are we dealing with?" he ponders.
He sees the Epsilon 9 station, and notes to Kirk that he is convinced that all of what he is seeing is V'Ger; and that they are inside a living machine. Then he sees a giant image of Lt. Ilia with the sensor on her neck. Spock decides it must have some special meaning, so he attempts to mind-meld with it. He is quickly overwhelmed by the multitude of images flooding his mind, and is thrown backward.
Kirk is now in a space suit and has exited the ship. The aperture in front of the Enterprise opens, and Spock's unconscious body floats toward him. Later, Dr. Chapel and Dr. McCoy are examining Spock in sickbay. Dr. McCoy performs scans and determines that Spock endured massive neurological trauma from the mind-meld. Spock tells Kirk he should have known and Kirk asks if he was right about V'Ger. Spock calls it a conscious, living entity. Kirk explains that V'Ger considers the Enterprise a living machine and it's why "Ilia" refers to the ship as an entity and the crew as an infestation.
Spock describes V'Ger's homeworld as a planet populated by living machines with unbelievable technology. But with all that logic and knowledge, V'Ger is barren, with no mystery or meaning. He momentarily lapses into sleep but Kirk rouses him awake to ask what Spock should have known. Spock grasps Kirk's hand and tells him "This simple feeling is beyond V'Ger's comprehension. No meaning, no hope. And Jim, no answers. It's asking questions. 'Is this all that I am? Is there nothing more?'"
Uhura chimes in and tells Kirk that they are getting a faint signal from Starfleet. The intruder has been on their monitors for a while and the cloud is rapidly dissipating as it approaches. Sulu also comments that the intruder has slowed to sub-warp speed and is three minutes from Earth orbit. Kirk acknowledges and he, McCoy and Spock go up to the bridge.
Starfleet sends the Enterprise a tactical report on the intruders position. Uhura tells Kirk that V'Ger is transmitting a signal. Decker and "Ilia" come up to the bridge, and she says that V'Ger is signaling the Creator. Spock determines that the transmission is a radio signal. Decker tells Kirk that V'Ger expects an answer, but Kirk doesn't know the question. Then "Ilia" says that the Creator has not responded. An energy bolt is released from V'Ger and positions itself above Earth. Chekov reports that all planetary defense systems have just gone inoperative. Several more bolts are released, and they all split apart to form smaller ones and they assume equidistant positions around the planet.
McCoy notices that the bolts are the same ones that hit the ship earlier, and Spock says that these are hundreds of times more powerful, and from those positions, they can destroy all life on Earth. "Why?" Kirk asks "Ilia." She says that the carbon unit infestation will be removed from the Creator's planet as they are interfering with the Creator's ability to respond and accuses the crew of infesting the Enterprise and interfering in the same manner. Kirk tells "Ilia" that carbon units are a natural function of the Creator's planet and they are living things, not infestations. However "Ilia" says they are not true life forms like the Creator. McCoy realizes V'Ger must think its creator is a machine.
Spock compares V'Ger to a child, and suggests they treat it like one. McCoy retorts that this child is about to wipe out every living thing on Earth. To get "Ilia's" attention, Kirk says that the carbon units know why the Creator hasn't responded. The Ilia probe demands that the Creator "disclose the information." Kirk won't do it until V'Ger withdraws all the orbiting devices. In response to this, V'Ger cuts off the ship's communications with Starfleet. She tells him again to disclose the information. He refuses, and a plasma energy attack shakes the ship. McCoy tells Spock that the child is having a "tantrum."
Kirk tells the probe that if V'Ger destroys the Enterprise, then the information it needs will also be destroyed. Ilia says that it is illogical to withhold the required information, and asks him why he won't disclose it. Kirk explains it is because V'Ger is going to destroy all life on Earth. "Ilia" says that they have oppressed the Creator, and Kirk makes it clear he will not disclose anything. V'Ger needs the information, says "Ilia." Kirk says that V'Ger will have to withdraw all the orbiting devices. "Ilia" says that V'Ger will comply, if the carbon units give the information.
Spock tells Kirk that V'Ger must have a central brain complex. Kirk theorizes that the orbiting devices are controlled from there. Kirk tells "Ilia" that the information cant be disclosed to V'Ger's probe, but only to V'Ger itself. "Ilia" stares at the viewscreen, and, in response, the aperture opens and drags the ship forward with a tractor beam into the next chamber. Chekov tells Kirk that the energy bolts will reach their final positions and activate in 27 minutes. Kirk calls to Scotty on the intercom and tells him to stand by to execute Starfleet Order 2005; the self-destruct command. A female crewmember asks Scotty why Kirk ordered self-destruct, and Scotty tells her that Kirk hopes that when they explode, so will the intruder.
The countdown is now down to 18 minutes. DiFalco reports that they have traveled 17 kilometers inside the vessel. Kirk goes over to Spock's station, and sees that Spock has been crying. "Not for us," Kirk realizes. Spock tells him he is crying for V'Ger, and that he weeps for V'Ger as he would for a brother. As he was when he came aboard the Enterprise, so is V'Ger now--empty, incomplete, and searching. Logic and knowledge are not enough. McCoy realizes Spock has found what he needed, but that V'Ger hasn't. Decker wonders what V'Ger would need to fulfill itself.
Spock comments that each one of us, at some point in our lives asks, "Why am I here?" "What was I meant to be?" V'Ger hopes to touch its Creator and find those answers. DiFalco directs Kirk's attention to the viewscreen. Ahead of them is a structure with a bright light. Sulu reports that forward motion has stopped. Chekov replies that an oxygen/gravity envelope has formed outside of the ship. "Ilia" points to the structure on the screen and identifies it as V'Ger. Uhura has located the source of the radio signal and it is straight ahead. A passageway forms outside the ship as Kirk Spock, McCoy, Decker, and "Ilia" enter a turbolift.
The landing party exits an airlock on the top of the saucer section and walks up the passageway. At the end of the path is a concave structure, and in the center of it is an old NASA probe from three centuries earlier. Kirk tries to rub away the smudges on the nameplate and makes out the letters V G E R. He continues to rub, and discovers that the craft is actually Voyager 6. Kirk recalls the history of the Voyager program--it was designed to collect data and transmit it back to Earth. Decker tells Kirk that Voyager 6 disappeared through a black hole.
Kirk says that it must have emerged on the far side of the galaxy and got caught in the machine planet's gravity. Spock theorizes that the planet's inhabitants found the probe to be one of their own kind--primitive, yet kindred. They discovered the probe's 20th century programming, which was to collect data and return that information to its creator. The machines interpreted that instruction literally, and constructed the entire vessel so that Voyager could fulfill its programming. Kirk continues by saying that on its journey back, it amassed so much knowledge that it gained its own consciousness.
"Ilia" tells Kirk that V'Ger awaits the information. Kirk calls Uhura on his communicator and tells her to find information on the probe in the ship's computer, specifically the NASA code signal, which will allow the probe to transmit its data. Decker realizes that that is what the probe was signaling--it's ready to transmit everything. Kirk then says that there is no one on Earth who recognizes the old-style signal--the Creator does not answer.
Kirk calls out to V'Ger and says that they are the Creator. "Ilia" says that is not logical--carbon units are not true life forms. Kirk says they will prove it by allowing V'Ger to complete its programming. Uhura calls Kirk on his communicator and tells him she has retrieved the code. Kirk tells her to set the Enterprise transmitter to the code frequency and to transmit the signal. Decker reads off the numerical code on his tricorder, and is about to read the final sequence, but Voyager's circuitry burns out, an effort by V'Ger itself to prevent the last part of the code from being transmitted.
"Ilia" says that the Creator must join with V'Ger, and turns toward Decker. McCoy warns Kirk that they only have 10 minutes left. Decker figures out that V'Ger wanted to bring the Creator here and transmit the code in person. Spock tells Kirk that V'Ger's knowledge has reached the limits of the universe and it must evolve. Kirk says that V'Ger needs a human quality in order to evolve. Decker thinks that V'Ger joining with the Creator will accomplish that. He then goes over to the damaged circuitry and fixes the wires so he can manually enter the rest of the code through the ground test computer. Kirk tries to stop him, but "Ilia" tosses him aside. Decker tells Kirk that he wants this as much as Kirk wanted the Enterprise.
Suddenly, a bright light forms around Decker's body. "Ilia" moves over to him, and the light encompasses them both as they merge together. Their bodies disappear, and the light expands and begins to consume the area. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy retreat back to the Enterprise. V'Ger explodes, leaving the Enterprise above Earth, unharmed. On the bridge, Kirk wonders if they just saw the beginning of a new life form, and Spock says yes and that it is possibly the next step in their evolution. McCoy says that its been a while since he "delivered" a baby, and hopes that they got this one off to a good start.
Uhura tells Kirk that Starfleet is requesting the ship's damage and injury reports and vessel status. Kirk reports that there were only two casualties: Lt. Ilia and Captain Decker. He quickly corrects his statement and changes their status to "missing." Vessel status: fully operational. Scotty comes on the bridge and agrees with Kirk that it's time to give the Enterprise a proper shakedown. When Scotty offers to have Spock back on Vulcan in four days, Spock says that's unnecessary, as his task on Vulcan is completed.
Kirk tells Sulu to proceed ahead at warp factor one. When DiFalco asks for a heading, Kirk simply says "Out there, thataway." With that, the Enterprise flies overhead and engages warp drive.
youtu.be/4n2dGwYcp9k?t=8s Star Trek Theme
I could see the tower of a church from the main road. I saw it from a good two miles away, towering over the mature trees of a wood.
It must be one heck of a church I thought, turning down the lane leading to it, to find the lane lead to Worstead.
Worstead: that explained it. A village so associated with wool, a type of woolen cloth is named after it.
Beside the church is the market square, lined with fine buildings, and to the west, St Mary. A huge cathedral of a church. After snapping the village, I walk to the porch on the south side and go in, smiling.
I was met by a warden who saw the look of delight on my face, and took me on a grand tour. How lucky was I?
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In the reign of Edward the Confessor, the lordship of this town belonged to the abbot of St. Bennet of Holm, with 2 carucates and an half of land, 8 villains, 30 borderers, 2 carucates in demean, 3 among the tenants, 8 acres of meadow, paunage for 16 swine, a mill, and 3 socmen, valued at 60s. and at the survey at 4l.
There were 2 churches with 28 acres, valued therein, and was for the provision of the monks.
At the survey, Robert, an officer of the cross-bow-men, held it of the abbot; it was one leuca long, and half a leuca broad and a perch, and paid 18d. gelt. St. Bennet's abbey held also in the said town, in King Edward's time, a carucate of land, with 2 villains, 10 borderers, one carucate in demean, and 2 among the tenants and 2 acres of meadow, &c. valued at 40s. (fn. 1)
Odo, son of Robert, the cross-bowman, assumed, according to the custom of that age, the name of Warsted, from this his town and lordship; he held it of the abbot by one knight's fee, being the gift of King Canute to the abbey on his foundation of it. (fn. 2)
This Odo. and Robert his son, gave lands to the abbey, and the mill at Bordestede. He was father of Peter, whose son Philip held one fee in the 20th of Henry III.
Nicholas son of Philip de Wursted, gave to the abbot all his lands here by deed, dated in the 2d of Edward I. Henry being then abbot.
Richard de Worstede was also a son of Odo, and had by Margaret his wife, daughter of Robert de Manteby, Sir Robert de Worstede, who died sans issue.—This Sir Robert and Sir John de Worstede, were witnesses to a deed of confirmation, of Jeffrey, son of Bartholomew de Glanvile, to Bromholm priory.
The temporalities of the abbot in 1428, were 3l. 12s. ob. q. This came at the Dissolution, to the see of Norwich; and in the 3d and 4th of Philip and Mary, was farmed of the Bishop, at 41s. and 3d. per ann. by Bertram Themilthorp.
The prior of Pentney had a lordship, granted to that house by John de Worstede, containing a messuage, a carucate of land, a mill, 50s. rent, 10 acres of wood, with the whole pond of Worstede and Crowbeck, and the whole alder carr, regranted by Simon the prior, to John for life.
In the year 1328, the temporalities of this prory were valued at 8l. 10s. 4d.—On the Dissolution, May 22, in the 36th of Henry VIII. it was granted to John Spencer.
The prior also of Hempton had a manor, valued with a mill, &c. at 4l. 8s. 11d. which on the Dissolution was granted as above, to John Spencer. Leonard Spencer and Catherina his wife, sold both these lordships to Robert Paston, and Thomas Thimblethorp, with their appertenances in Sloley, Westwick, &c. on June 3, in the 8th of Elizabeth; and after they are said to be aliened to — Utber, and so to — Mitson.
Matthew de Gunton had a manor here which he granted to William, son of William de Stalham, on his marriage with Isabel his daughter, being 49s. 3d. rent. This came to Sir Jeffrey Wythe, by his marriage with the daughter and heir of Sir William Stalham.
In the 9th of Edward II. Nicholas de Salicibus or of the Willows, and Elen his wife, conveyed to Jeffrey Wythe, and Isabel his wife, the 5th part of 28 messuages, 114 acres of land, 5 of turbary, with 27s. and 8d. rent here, in Dilham and Smalburgh, settled on Isabel; and Wynesia, widow of Sir Oliver Wythe, released to William Dunning of this town, all her right of dower in this town, and Westwick.
After this it came to Sir William Calthorp, by the marriage of Amy, daughter and heir of Sir John Wythe, and was sold by Edward Calthorp, Esq. of Kirby Cane, December 8, in the 21st of Henry VIII. to Leonard Spencer of Blofield, Gent. for 40l. in hand paid, and 40 marks more on full assurance being made. John Spencer was lord in the 2d of Edward VI. and Leonard Spencer in 1572.
Erpingham and Gaines's manor in Irstede, held by John Gross, Esq. at his death in 1408, which he left to his widow Margaret, extended into this town. John Skarburgh, Gent. had a prœcipe to deliver it to Miles Bayspoole, Gent. in the first of James I.
Before this, in the 17th of Elizabeth, William Chytham conveyed it to William Tymberley. The Grosses were early enfeoffed of a lordship under the abbot of Holm. Reginald le Gross was lord in the reign of Henry III. and had a charter for a weekly mercate on Friday.
Sir Oliver de Ingham held here and in Ingham, a knight's fee of Robert de Tateshale, in the first of Edward I. This came afterwards by the heiress of Ingham to the Stapletons; and in the 2d of Richard II. Sir Roger Boys, &c. trustees, aliened to the prior of the Holy Trinity of Ingham, a messuage, with 84 acres of land, 3 of meadow, one of pasture, in Worstede and Scothow, by license.
Thomas Moore, &c. aliened to the said convent, in the 16th of that King, 8 messuages, 221 acres of land, 22 of meadow, 4 of moor, and the rent of 11s. 11d. per ann. in this town, Ingham, Walcot, &c. held of the honour of Eye.
In the 3d of Henry IV. the prior's manor, late Sir Oliver de Ingham's, was held of Sir Constantine Clifton, of the barony of Tateshale.
The prior of Bromholm had also a lordship. In the 3d of Henry IV. the heirs of William Smalburgh held here and in Barton, &c. half a fee of the prior, with William Sywardby, and they of the Earl of Suffolk, as part of the honour of Eye, in 1428. The temporalities of this monastery were 104s. 2d. ob.
After the Dissolution, on May 26, in the 6th year of Edward VI. it was granted to Henry Grey Duke of Suffolk.
William Gillet, son and heir of William, had a messuage, a garden, 100 acres of land, 6 of meadow, 20 of pasture, and 2 of wood, called Fenn's and Skitt's, in the 23d of Elizabeth. John Kempt aliened it September 1, in the 7th of King James I. to Edmund Themilthorpe.
Thomas Seive of Worsted, had land here by the marriage of Margarel, one of the daughters of Sir James de Ilketeshale, Knt. of Suffolk, in the reign of Henry VI. she dying about the 30th of that King, left 3 daughters and coheirs; Cecilia, married to John Ovy, who left his lands here by will, in 1472, to Thomas his son, &c. by Emme his wife. Jane, a daughter and coheir of Seive, married William Smith; and Margaret, the 3d, Thomas Jeffrey.
The tenths were 14l. 10s. ob. q Deducted 1l. 19s. 1d. ob.
The town is seated in a flat country, and has a weekly mercate on Saturday
Worsted stuffs are said to have taken that name from their being first manufactured here. I find them mentioned in the 2d year of Edward III. and the weavers and workers were then by parliament enjoined to work them up to a better assise than they had done; and an enquiry was to be made after the behaviour of Robert P - - - the alnager for these stuffs.
Many privileges were after granted to the workers of them, Ao. 1 Richard II. &c. the merchants came into England, as appears in the 37th of Edward III. to purchase them.
The Church is dedicated to St. Mary, has a nave, 2 isles, and a chancel covered with lead, and a square tower with 6 bells, and was a rectory in the patronage of the family of De Worstede.
Sir Robert de Worsted, son of Richard de Worstede, gave by deed, (fn. 3) sans date, to the priory of Norwich, the patronage of this church, about the beginning of the reign of King Henry III. to which Sir John de Wirstede, Bartholomew de Reedham, Eustace de Berningham, &c. were witnesses; and by another deed, he gave to them the chapel of St. Andrew, in this town: witnesses, Sir G. de Bocland, John de Wirstede, Jordan de Soukeville, then an itinerant justice in Norfolk, which was confirmed by Pandulf Bishop of Norwich.
He also gave them lands with certain villains, the abbot of Holm also confirmed it.
Sir Reginald le Gross quitclaimed all his right in the aforesaid church and chapel, to Simon the prior, and the convent of Norwich.
Thomas de Blundevile Bishop of Norwich, also confirmed to them the said church, to take place on the decease of John de Wurchestede, and Adam de Wurchestede, who then held it in 1226; and in 1256, on the 8th of the calends of August, a vicarage was settled on the appropriation of the said church to the monks of Norwich, when a manse or house was given to the vicar, with an acre of land, by the chapel of St. Andrew with all the altarage of the church, (except the tithes of the mills) and the rents of assise belonging to the said chapel, and the oblations thereof; but if the oblations and profits of the said chapel exceeded 5 marks, the remainder was to go to the prior and convent, and the vicar was to repair the said chapel, and to find all ornaments, &c.
The vicar was also to have tithe of flax, hemp, and all other small tithes, it was appropriated to the prior's table, and to the cellarer of the priory; but after this, in the first of April following, it was appropriated entirely to the prior's table, and the church of Hemlington in Norfolk, appropriated to him instead of this.
In the reign of Edward I. there belonged to the appropriated rectory, a house, with 27 acres and a rood of land, and the church was valued at 25 marks, the vicarage at 5l. Peter-pence, 12d. and the portion of Kerbrook preceptory was 3s.—The prior had also a manor, Edward I. in his 35th year granting him free warren.
Vicars.
1256, Warin de Festorton, instituted vicar, presented by the prior and convent of Norwich.
John occurs vicar in 1299.
1304, Edmund Johnes, vicar.
Peter de Reynham, vicar.
1346, William de Aldeby.
1353, Oliver de Wytton.
1355, Roger de Felthorp.
1357, John de Massingham.
1365, John de Kynneburle; in his time, Ao. 2d of Richard II. the chancel of this church was new built; the prior granted 13 oaks out of Plumsted wood, and timber also out of St. Leonard's wood; and the expenses in money were 24l. 4l. 4d.
1386, Edmund Martyn, vicar.
On the dissolution of the priory, the manor belonging to it, with the rectory, and the patronage of the vicarage, were granted to the dean and chapter of Norwich; and the vicarage is valued at 10l. per ann.
Mr. Henry Aldred, vicar.
In 1603, William Fleming, vicar, returned 296 communicants 1730.
1660, Edmund Wharton, (fn. 4) occurs vicar.
Mr. William Berney.
Richard Oram, by the dean and chapter of Norwich.
1762, Ephr. Megoe.
On a gravestone in the chancel,
Hic lapis in pannis Spicer tenet ossa Johannis Qui Quadringentesimo pius XL et iii - - - - Anno.
Hic jacet D'ns. Johs. Yop. quo'da' Rector. Ecclie de Boton.
¶Sir Robert Camownde, priest, was buried in 1482, in the chapel of St. John, of this church, and wills that all the said chapel be paved with marbyll stone, and to the gravestone of John Ovy, with his goods. (fn. 5) —Richard Watls buried in St. John Baptist's chapel 1509, and I will have a prest to sing and pray 6 years in the church except the Fryday in ev'ry week, in the chapel of St. Andrew of Worsted. Agnes Watts, his widow, buried in the said chapel, 1529, and benefactrix to the guilds of our Lady and St. Thomas, and to the repair of St. Andrew's chapel, and gives meadow land to find two lamps in the church for ever, if the King's laws will permit, otherwise to be sold and to buy cattle for that purpose.
Here was also St. John Baptist's guild. In the church were these arms; Gules, on a fess, argent, three flowers, azure, between three popinjays, borne by—prior of Norwich. Argent, a cross, sable, the priory arms. Calthorp and Stapleton.
www.british-history.ac.uk/topographical-hist-norfolk/vol1...
--------------------------------------------
As a measure of how civilised East Anglia is, it is a simple and cheap matter to explore the region by train and bicycle. There is a flat rate of nine pounds a day for unlimited travel between stations in Suffolk, Norfolk and East Cambridgeshire. You can take a bike on any train for a pound, although in reality conductors rarely charge for this service. This practice dates back to pre-privatisation days, and Anglia Railways and One Trains have continued to honour it, for which I am mightily grateful. The Suffolk and Norfolk Churches sites would not be so extensive without it.
I left Ipswich at twenty to eight. It was a thinly bright April morning, the sun without power beyond dazzling through the haze in the eastern sky. I was glad of my jacket, but also glad I had sun glasses with me - it was going to be a perfect day for a bike ride.
As the train plodded through Ipswich's monotonous northern suburbs, I examined the ordnance survey map. I flicked through Pevsner and Mortlock, as industrial units gave way to green fields, copses and the winding Gipping. Restless, I gazed out the window. A swan awoke on a lake near Needham Market, stretching itself and beating its wings into life. Crows raided a skip on rubble near the Stowmarket paint factory. Then we were really in the countryside, rushing headlong through the sleepy fields beyond Haughley and Mendelsham. Near Finningham, a large female deer cowered silently in the hedge, not ten metres from the track. A few minutes later, and a wise old hare huddled in a furrow, flat-eared, patient.
The train pulled into the gathering surprise of Norwich. I hauled my bike a couple of platforms over to the Sheringham line. Other people out for the day got on, including a couple dressed in vintage railway costumes. I assumed they were bound for the steam line at Sheringham. Again, the monotony of another city's suburbs petered out into agricultural business, this time in bright sunshine, and so it was that just after nine o'clock we arrived at Worstead station. I was the only person to get off. "See you later" called the conductor cheerily as I rode off of the platform into the lane, and of course he was right. There is only one train that shuttles back and forth along this line all day, and he was in charge of it.
I cycled from the station up into the village, a distance of about two miles. I didn't pass anyone, and here in the large village there was nobody about, just a fat cat lazily rolling in the village square. The sun was cutting the haze, the sky wide and blue. It was like being in France.
The church is absolutely enormous, and hemmed in a tight little graveyard. My resolution to take more distant shots went right out the window. Like Salle, and Southwold in Suffolk, St Mary was all built in one go, pretty much. This happened in the late 14th century. As at Salle, it is reflective of a large number of bequests from different people over a short period rather than anyone fabulously rich doing it on their own, and the money, of course, came from wool. Worstead is still the name of a fabric today.
I said it was pretty much built at one go, but there was still plenty of money about in the 15th century to raise the clerestory and install a hammerbeam roof. This seems to have been such an ambitious project that flying buttresses had to be installed on top of the aisles to hold the top of the nave up, an expedient measure that has left the building both interesting and beautiful.
Inside, I feared another Happisburgh, but it was gorgeous. Stepping out of the sunlight into the slight chill of a vast open space, I wandered around feasting on this stunningly lovely building.
As regular users of the sites will know, I don't always warm to big churches, but St Mary is so pretty inside that it is hard not to love it. This is partly helped by the removal of all pews and benches from the aisle. Those that remain in the body of the church are lovely 18th century box pews, quite out of keeping with the medieval nature of the rest of the building, but quirky and oddly delightful. The great tower arch is elegant, and is thrown into relief by the towering font cover. The ringing gallery under the tower is dated 1501, and is reminiscent of the one at Cawston. The tower screen below it takes the breath away, and you find yourself looking around to see where it could have come from. In fact, it is almost certainly a work of the Victorians, but it is pretty well perfect. The paintings in the dado are apparently copies of windows by Sir Joshua Reynolds at New College, Oxford.
Worstead is rightly famous for its screen, but this is more because of its height, elegance and completeness than it is its authenticity. The figures on the dado have been repainted so recklessly that it is rather hard to see who some of them were ever meant to be. As at Woolpit in Suffolk, the Victorians appear to have repainted them more with an eye to enthusiasm than accuracy. I stood there, fantasising, making up stories, until, alongside familiar figures like St Peter, St James and St Matthew, I had identified St Lassitude, the patron Saint of a quiet night in, depicted reading his book. Other Saints, identified by their symbols, include St Quirinus with his hamster, and St Obligamus with his golden pineapple. Or so it seemed to me.
Not much less odd are the two figures on the extreme right. The Victorians do not appear to have repainted them. The first shows a man holding three nails, and is probably St William of Norwich, more familiar from the screen at Loddon. The second shows a figure crucified, arms tied to the spans. This may be the infamous Uncumber, the bearded lady of early medieval mythology - she grew a beard to fend off unwanted suitors, although you can't help thinking there'd be a niche market for that kind of thing somewhere on the internet. Later, she was crucified, probably upside down. This figure is probably a woman, so nothing seems to fit better, although she isn't bearded as far as I could see. Situated on the extreme right, she is reflected by a crucified Christ as the Man of Sorrows on the extreme left.
Across the top rail, a dedicatory inscription winds, mysterious and beautiful.
Either side of the chancel arch and screen, the two aisle chapels are both in use, which is unusual and lovely. Both have small screens, each with just four figures. That on the north side is particularly lovely, and is where the blessed sacrament is reserved. The four figures are St Peter, St Bartholomew, St John the Baptist and St John the Divine. At least three of these are also on the rood screen, suggesting that either the images there are wholly Victorian, or these aisle screens came originally from elsewhere.
The south aisle chapel is simpler - it is here you enter the church through the priest door. The screen features another St Bartholomew, along with St Lawrence, St Philip and a Bishop.
St Mary is a building to wander around in, a place to enjoy for its great beauty rather than to interrogate for its medieval authenticity. As you turn corners, vistas open up; the view from the font to the south door, for example, or that back to the west from the chancel. All perfect, all stunning. The high church nature of the modern furnishings chimes perfectly with these architectural treats. And there are other significant medieval survivals - a fine brass of a Catholic priest, scraps of wall painting beside the chancel arch, and so on.
As at other churches in this benefice, the war memorial is complemented by photographs of all those commemorated. What a splendid idea, and what a labour of love. Also in common with other churches around here, St Mary has a second hand bookstall. As I explored the Worstead area, I found myself buying more and more of them, until by the time I got back to Ipswich station that evening, my rucksack was laden down with a dozen or more.
Simon Knott, April 2005
My friend Brent and I finished with one last stranger. The weather was Hot (with a capital H) and the Buddy Brew Coffee location sounded refreshing. It is located in a covered breezeway with good light, and a breeze. Did I mention it was hot?
One sole young lady was seated drinking her coffee, so I introduced myself and our intent. She looked wary and said, “That sounds kinda weird!” So I further explained and showed her my Photostream on the phone. She reluctantly agreed. Her shirt was wrinkled, but I noticed the word 'Theater'. “Oh yes, I work at the Florida Studio Theater" (one block away).
Julie is from Minnesota, and got a degree in Theater Arts from the University of North Dakota. If one place sounds colder than Minnesota, it's North Dakota. Working at the Florida Studio Theater gives Julie a great source for networking. She hopes to move to the upper east coast or California, where there are more defined seasons.
After she got used to us, she warmed up and was very pleasant. Brent and I was surprised that a theater person would be reticent about being photographed.
Thank you, Julie, for allowing me to photograph you for my ongoing project.
So we cover off some of the guns you can have here in NZ see more on www.themancave.tv or www.facebook.com/themancavetvnz
It would explain the week. Mercury is wreaking havoc on the world at the moment. I want to take the keys and lock it away. I don't want to play the silly games Mercury likes to play. My tattoo machine tried to commit suicide, and little bumps in the day are trying to get things going. At least I can laugh it off, and give excuses for fuck ups.
The view of Monterey Bay from inside Bubba Gumps.
The windows are tinted.
Photography / Poetry,
Stanzas, color, shape and, rhythm.
Images explaining in finest detail
The impossible.
Like a poem.
In 1996, Malta was a paradise not just for fans of old UK and USA bus chassis but also cars which had long disappeared from Britain's streets-- Ford Anglias, BMC 1100s, early Datsuns and Toyotas. A few Skodas had been imported, including this neat model,which, thanks to the climate, may still be running today.
The German Wikipedia page explaining Maltese vehicle registration plates is here
I have to explain this one -
There is one large rock quite close to the shore between Rivaz and Cully. Every morning, my train passes by and I see a few cormorants and maybe a heron standing there still as statues. For the past few days, my train goes past just after the sun has risen and shines on the lake, and I see the cormorants stretching out their wings to dry them.
So, every morning, I sit in the train, camera poised, trying to get a photo of them. Every time, I have ended up with a lot of lake and a small black blob. So today, I tried with the zoom. I caught the cormorants the way I wanted, but somehow a bush got in the way.
But, well, there's something I like about it, and I clicked on the I feel lucky thing in picasa, and this is how it came out.
I just looked up the proper term for a group of cormorants and found gulp, flight, paddling or sunning - I thought "sunning" the best of all.
title.
In front of Brooklyn Bridge. Sunday. in the morning.
The Tokyo Big Sight booth has been decided.
It is as follows.
designfesta.com/about-artist-detail/?md=detail&id=t0%...
Booth No. H-40
■ Venue MAP (available in PDF)
designfesta.com/jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/vol49_map.pdf
If you have time, I will see you.
:)
( LUMIX G3 shot )
Manhattan . New York. USA. 2017. shot ... 4 / 6
(Today 's picture, it is unpublished.)
Images…
Cabaret Noir - Ballade Du Nuage
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Profile.
In November 2014, we caught the attention of the party selected to undertake the publicity for a mobile phone that changed the face of the world with just a single model, and will conclude a confidentiality agreement with them.
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/02/2019-profil...
youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/
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Interviews and novels.
About my book.
I published a book in old days.
At that time, I was uploading my interview on the net on the net.
That Japanese and English.
I will make it public for free.
Details were explained to the Amazon site.
How to write a novel.
How to take pictures.
Distance to the work.
They all have a common item.
I made a sentence about what I felt, and left it.
I hope that my text can be read by many people.
Thank you.
Mitsushiro.
1 Interview in English
「interview_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
2 novels. unforgettable 'English version.(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
「novel_unforgettable_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
3 Interview Japanese version
drive.google.com/file/d/1w5l2hrV5a6lraDiC_Lz2tG_HqatqUCO5...
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
4 novels. unforgettable ' JPN version.
「novel_unforgettable_jpn.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
5 A streamlined trajectory. only Japanese.
「streamlined_trajectory.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
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iBooks. Electronic Publishing. It is free now.
0.about the iBooks.
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2017/03/about-digit...
1.unforgettable '(ENG.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216576828?ls=1&...
2.unforgettable '(JNP.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216584262?ls=1&...
3. Streamlined trajectory.(For Japanese only.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/%E6%B5%81%E7%B7%9A%E5%BD%A2%E3%8... =11
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My Novel >> Unforgettable'
(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
Mitsushiro Nakagawa
All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
There are two reasons why a person faces the sea.
One, to enjoy a slice of shine in the sea like children bubbling over in the beach.
The other, to brush the dust of memory like an old man who misses old days, staring at the shine
quietly.
Those lead to only one meaning though they do not seem to overlap. It’s a rebirth.
I face myself to change tomorrow, a vague day into something certain.
That is the meaning of a rebirth.
I had a very sweet girlfriend when I was 18.
After she left, I knew the meaning of gentleness for the first time and also a true pain of loss. After
she left, how many times did I depend too much on her, doubt her, envy her and keep on telling lies
until I realized it is love?
I wonder whether a nobody like me could have given something to her who was struggling in the
daily life in those days. Giving something is arrogant conceit. It is nothing but self-satisfaction.
I had been thinking about such a thing.
However, I guess what she saw in me was because I had nothing. That‘s why she tried to see
something in me. Perhaps she found a slight possibility in me, a guy filled with ambiguous, unstable
tomorrow. But I wasted days depending too much on her gentleness.
Now I finally can convey how I felt in those days when we met.
1/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24577016535/in/dateposted...
2/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24209330259/in/dateposted...
3/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/23975215274/in/dateposted...
4/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24515964952/in/dateposted...
5/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24276473749/in/dateposted...
6/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24548895082/in/dateposted...
7/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24594603711/in/dateposted...
8/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24588215562/in/dateposted...
9/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24100804163/in/dateposted...
Fin.
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
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Title of my book > unforgettable'
Author : Mitsushiro Nakagawa
Out Now.
ISBN978-4-86264-866-2
in Amazon.
www.amazon.co.jp/Unforgettable’-Mitsushiro-Nakagawa/dp/...
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The schedule of the next novel.
Still would stand all time. (Unforgettable '2)
(It will not go away forever)
Please give me some more time. That is Japanese.
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An exhibition in 2019.
May 18th. 19th.
theme.
Silence Is the Way.
designfesta.com/about-artist-detail/?md=detail&id=t0%...
Booth No. H-40
■ Venue MAP (available in PDF)
designfesta.com/jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/vol49_map.pdf
place. Tokyo Big Site.
Sponsoring. Design festa.
2020.
Date unknown.
DIC Kawamura Memorial Art Museum attached gallery.
place. Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture.
theme.
From that day, forever ...
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flickr.
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/
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YouTube.
www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/
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instagram.
www.instagram.com/mitsushiro_nakagawa/
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Pinterest.
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YouPic
youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/
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fotolog
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twitter.
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facebook.
www.facebook.com/mitsushiro.nakagawa
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Do you want to hear my voice?
:)
I updated Youtube.
It is only in Japanese.
I explained comments on photos etc.
If your time is permitted, please look.
:)
1
About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. First type.
2
About the composition of the picture posted to Flicker. Second type.
3
About when I started Fotolog. Architect 's point of view.
Four
Why did not you have a camera so far?
Five
What is the coolest thing? The photo is as it is.
6
About the current YouTube bar. I also want to tell, I want to leave.
7
About Japanese photographers. Japanese YouTube bar is Pistols.
8
The composition of the photograph is sensibility. Meet the designers in Milan. Two questions.
9
What is a good composition? What is a bad composition?
Ten
What is the time to point the camera? It is slow if you are looking into the viewfinder or display.
11
Family photos. I can not take pictures with others. The inside of the subject.
12
About YouTube 's photographer. Camera technology etc. Sensibility is polished by reading books.
13
About the Japanese newspaper. A picture of a good newspaper is Reuters. If you continue to look at useless photographs, it will be useless.
14
About Japanese photographers. About the exhibition.
Summary. I wrote a novel etc. What I want to tell the most.
New Year’s greetings 2019.
www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/
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Japanese is the following.
Title of my book unforgettable' Mitsushiro Nakagawa Out Now. ISBN978-4-86264-866-2
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タイトル。
ブルックリンブリッジの手前。日曜日。午前中。
( LUMIX G3 shot )
２０１９年の展示。
5月１８日。１９日。
designfesta.com/about-artist-detail/?md=detail&id=t0%...
テーマ。
Silence Is the Way.
ブースNo.H-40
■会場MAP(PDFでご覧いただけます)
designfesta.com/jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/vol49_map.pdf
場所。東京ビッグサイト。
Sponsoring. Design festa.
Manhattan . New York. USA. 2017. shot ... 4 / 6
(Today 's picture, it is unpublished.)
Images…
Cabaret Noir - Ballade Du Nuage
次の小説のイメージ。
Still would stand all time.(unforgettable'2)
（いつまでもなくならないだろう）
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プロフィール。
2014年11月、たった1機種で世界を塗り替えた携帯電話の広告を請け負った選考者の目に留まり、秘密保持同意書を結ぶ。
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2019/02/2019-profil...
youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/
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インタビューと小説。
僕の本について。
僕は、昔に本を出版しました。
その際に、僕のインタビューをPDFでネット上へアップロードしていました。
その日本語と英語。
僕は、無料でを公開します。
詳細は、アマゾンのサイトへ解説しました。
小説の書き方。
写真の撮影方法。
作品への距離感。
これらはすべて共通項があります。
僕は、僕が感じたことを文章にして、残しました。
僕のテキストが多くの人に読んでもらえることを望みます。
ありがとう。
Mitsushiro.
１ インタビュー 英語版
「interview_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
２ 小説。unforgettable’ 英語版。
「novel_unforgettable_eng.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
３ インタビュー 日本語版
drive.google.com/file/d/1w5l2hrV5a6lraDiC_Lz2tG_HqatqUCO5...
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
４ 小説。unforgettable’ 日本語版。(この小説は未来のアーティストへ捧げます)
「novel_unforgettable_jpn.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
５ 流線形の軌跡。 日本語のみ。
「streamlined_trajectory.pdf」
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2018/08/interviews-...
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iBooks.電子出版。（現在は無料）
0.about the iBooks.
stealaway.cocolog-nifty.com/stealaway/2017/03/about-digit...
1.unforgettable’ ( ENG.ver.)(This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216576828?ls=1&...
For Japanese only.
2.unforgettable’ ( JNP.ver.)(この小説は未来のアーティストへ捧げます)
itunes.apple.com/us/book/unforgettable/id1216584262?ls=1&...
3.流線形の軌跡。
itunes.apple.com/us/book/%E6%B5%81%E7%B7%9A%E5%BD%A2%E3%8...
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僕の小説。英語版
My Novel Unforgettable' (This book is Dedicated to the future artist.)
Mitsushiro Nakagawa
All Translated by Yumi Ikeda .
1/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24577016535/in/dateposted...
2/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24209330259/in/dateposted...
3/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/23975215274/in/dateposted...
4/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24515964952/in/dateposted...
5/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24276473749/in/dateposted...
6/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24548895082/in/dateposted...
7/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24594603711/in/dateposted...
8/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24588215562/in/dateposted...
9/9
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/24100804163/in/dateposted...
Fin.
images.
U2 - No Line On The Horizon Live in Dublin
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oKwnkYFsiE&feature=related
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Title of my book > unforgettable'
Author : Mitsushiro Nakagawa
Out Now.
ISBN978-4-86264-866-2
in Amazon.
www.amazon.co.jp/Unforgettable’-Mitsushiro-Nakagawa/dp/...
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次の小説の予定。
Still would stand all time.(unforgettable'2)
（いつまでもなくならないだろう）
もう少し時間をください。それは日本語です。
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２０１９年の展示。
5月１８日。１９日。
テーマ。
Silence Is the Way.
designfesta.com/about-artist-detail/?md=detail&id=t0%...
ブースNo.H-40
■会場MAP(PDFでご覧いただけます)
designfesta.com/jp/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/vol49_map.pdf
場所。東京ビッグサイト。
Sponsoring. Design festa.
２０２０年。
日時未定。
DIC川村記念美術館付属ギャラリー。
場所。千葉県佐倉市。
テーマ。
あの日から、ずっと…
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flickr.
www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/
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YouTube.
www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/
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instagram.
www.instagram.com/mitsushiro_nakagawa/
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Pinterest.
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YouPic
youpic.com/photographer/mitsushironakagawa/
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fotolog
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twitter.
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facebook.
www.facebook.com/mitsushiro.nakagawa
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あなたは僕の声を聞きたいですか？
:)
僕はYoutubeを更新しました。
日本語だけです。
僕は写真などの解説をしました。
もしも、あなたの時間が許されれば、見てください。
:)
1
フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。１種類目。
2
フリッカーへ投稿した写真の構図について。２種類目。
3
Fotologを始めた時について。 建築家の視点。
4
なぜ、今までカメラを手にしなかったのか？
5
何が一番かっこいいのか？ 写真はありのままに。
6
現在のユーチューバーについて。僕も伝え、残したい。
7
日本人の写真家について。日本のユーチューバーはピストルズ。
8
写真の構図は、感性。ミラノのデザイナーに会って。二つの質問。
9
良い構図とは？ 悪い構図とは？
10
カメラを向ける時とは？ ファインダーやディスプレイを覗いていては遅い。
11
家族写真。他人では撮れない。被写体の内面。
12
ユーチューブの写真家について。カメラの技術等。感性は、本を読むことで磨く。
13
日本の新聞について。良い新聞の写真はロイター。ダメな写真を見続けるとダメになる。
14
日本の写真家について。その展示について。
まとめ。僕が書いた小説など。僕が最も伝えたいこと。
www.youtube.com/user/mitsushiro/
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新年の挨拶ほか
ブログに書きましたが、諸事情により今回アップした動画のフルバージョンは以下です。(^O^)／
Newyearsg2019.mov - drive.google.com/file/d/1-inz3c7QVLO3rFx1YYC9X3ukH1-eTRWh...
容量が大きいのでスマフォには落とさないように注意してください(^O^)／
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Japanese is the following.
Title of my book unforgettable' Mitsushiro Nakagawa Out Now. ISBN978-4-86264-866-2
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E
At the conclusion of my Astronomy class this noon I couldn’t resist passing by Dundas Square since it was only a few steps away. Dundas Square is in the heart of Downtown Toronto and is usually a hub of activity. I’ve met several of my past Strangers here so I thought I’d check it out before going home.
Sure enough, the Square was mostly fenced off while a number of delivery trucks and workmen were busily engaged in setting up for some kind of event. I asked a security guard and was told I was witnessing preparations for a videogame release party. The new videogame “Call of Duty – Ghost” was to be released at midnight tonight to an eagerly-awaiting audience of gamers. I thanked the guard for filling me in and upon turning away I was struck by this young man standing by the security fence, chatting with his friend. It was his colourful, high-altitude Mohawk hairstyle that first caught my eye but then I noticed the piercings decorating his face which appeared friendly and expressive. I tried waiting for a break in the conversation but his friend was a real talker and finally I just had to apologize for interrupting and commented on his impressive hairstyle and told him about my photo project. Meet Josh.
We shook hands and Josh agreed to participate in 100 Strangers almost before I had explained it to him. He had to have seen my camera and said he’s used to people wanting to take his photo, so “Sure.” Finding a decent background nearby was not easy and I was a bit concerned about the bright overcast light, but wasn’t going to miss photographing this interesting young man. I decided to simply pose him alongside the security fence he was standing near and he willingly shifted his body position as I requested in my effort to minimize background distractions and get some light reaching his eyes.
Josh will be 22 in 2 weeks and was born and raised in Toronto. He works as a body piercer and has the appropriate qualification for the work. He is also an apprentice tattoo artist, still working under supervision while he gains the experience to complete his qualification as a tattoo artist. He is between jobs and will be starting work at a new studio in a week or so. I found out that the Call of Duty game is something he has been waiting for with great anticipation – enough anticipation that he came down to Dundas Square at 4:00 this morning to become the first person standing in line for the midnight release! When I asked Josh how he would describe himself he said “I’m not as unusual as I look. Basically I’m just easy-going and down-to-earth.” We talked about the fact that I have a son with the same name (but not the same hair). I asked how he deals with his hair at night and he said he just washes out the gel and spray he uses each morning to spike it up into a Mohawk. As for the dye, he said it lasts months so he doesn’t have to reapply it very often at all.
I found Josh to have a very gentle and friendly manner and it was fun meeting him. He was very tolerant of my questions and happy to answer them. It was abundantly clear that he and I, though far apart in age and lifestyle, were quite similar in what really counts: respect, openness, and good-will. Our brief acquaintance on Dundas Square today proved that.
I decided to use the Mohawk photo as the main submission since this is the feature that first attracted me to Josh. I'm including the close-up as a comment photo because without the hair, it seems to open a different window into his personality.
Thank you Josh for participating in 100 Strangers. You are now Stranger #258 in Round 3 of my project. It was a pleasure getting to meet you and I hope the game proves worth your long, cold wait.
Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
To browse Round 1 of my 100 Strangers project click here: www.flickr.com/photos/jeffcbowen/sets/72157633145986224/
To browse Round 2 of my 100 Strangers project click here:www.flickr.com/photos/jeffcbowen/sets/72157634422850489/
November 7
Saint Vincent PHẠM HIẾU LIÊM
Dominican Priest
(1732-1773)
*Conference of Four Religions.
Reviewing the martyrs’ lives, we can see that they were witnesses for Christ twice: with their lives and with their words. They had talked to profess their faith. Some corrected falsifications, some explained theology. But the most fascinating story among the 117 Vietnamese martyrs’ stories was the three-day discussion between two Catholic priests, Fr. Vincent Liêm and his friend Fr. Jacinto Gia, and representatives of the three other major religions in Vietnam at the time: Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.
Where does man come from? What is the purpose of life? What happens after death? Those were the three biggest issues of mankind that were discussed in the conference of four religions. The polite and precise words, superb analysis on the history together with excerpts from writings from Confucius, Lao-tze as well as Buddhism as recorded in the book “Conference of Four Religions” which was reprinted 14 times in Sài gòn[1], will forever remind us of Fr. Vincent Liêm, the book’s author and one of the panelists as well as the first Vietnamese priest being martyred.
*Vincent of Peace.
Vincent Phạm Hiếu Liêm was welcomed into this world in 1732, in the hamlet of Thôn Đông, Trà Lũ village, Thiên Trường city, Sơn Nam Hạ province. His father, Mr. Antôn Doãn, was one of the hamlet leaders. His mother, Mrs. Maria Doãn, was very religious, devoting her life to raise her children. At 12, Liêm entered the monastic life at the seminary in Lục Thuỷ. After 6 years of education and training, he exhibited intelligent and spiritual traits that caught the eyes of Dominican priests working in the east vicariate of Tonkin. Vicar Espinoza Huy chose him as one of the men awarded scholarship from the king of Spain, and sent him to Manila (The Philippines) to further his education at the Juan de Letran institution.
After three years of overachieving at school, he joined the Dominican order and received his habits on 9/9/1753. The following year, he solemnly professed sacred vows along with three other Vietnameses[2], adopting the nom-de-guerre Vincent of Peace (VINHSƠN HOÀ BÌNH). Thereafter, Vincent of Peace started the four years of theology and was ordained a priest in 1758.
After the ordination Fr. Liêm began his repatriation to serve his homeland. On October 3rd, 1758, he could not hide his emotions saying farewell to his professors and friends before boarding the ship to go home after eight years of friendship. Arriving in Trung Linh on 1/20/1759, he could not hold his tears of joy reuniting with Vicar Huy who met him at the dock, as well as relatives, fellow villagers, and Christians who were also eagerly awaiting the “triumphant” homecoming of a priest returning from foreign studies.
*The Messenger of Good News.
Back in Vietnam, at first Fr. Vincent Liêm was appointed a professor at Trung Linh seminary. He poured all his skills and energy to transfer all his knowledge to students. But the real wish of Fr. Vincent of Peace was to spread the Good News of peace to others. Not too long after, he left the seminary to enter the field of evangelization. In turn, he assumed pastoral responsibilities for parishes: Quất Lâm, Lục Thuỷ, Trung Lễ, Trung Linh, Trung Lao and when Fr. Jacinto Gia was arrested, he also served the Lai Ổn region.
His missionary works were not only limited to the parishes but also expanded to the villages on non-believers, regardless of danger of the religious persecution, especially under Lord Trịnh Sâm (1767-1782). No matter where it was, he always demonstrated his ardent love and care to all, as a result people really loved him. He encouraged all to be brave; consoled those who were in anguish, and never hesitated doing things that would benefit them spiritually.
Although very successful in his missions, he was never satisfied with himself. In his letters, we can still read: “I beg the bishop and the provincial to ask God, during mass and in your prayers, for me to be better and to accept difficulties as God’s will.” Due to the work of missionaries, a prince, the sixth brother of Lord Trịnh Doanh, wanted to receive the sacrament of baptism before his death. Fr. Liêm received the news as the joy of the Vietnamese Church, and announced the news to the provincial in Manila[3].
*Testimonials in the Public Conference.
In 1773, Fr. Vincent Liêm was preaching at Lương Đống parish, preparing them for feast day of Our Lady of the Rosary. Informed, government officials ordered Mr. Điều Cam leading soldiers to arrest the priest at Mr. Nhiêu Nhuệ’s home on February 10th. After a bout of savage beatings, they tied him and the two altar boys, Matthew Vũ and Joseph Bích, and took them to the canton chief Xích Bích. The canton chief jailed him for 12 days. No longer able to wait for ransom money that never came, he sent the priest to the Phổ Hiền city officials. There, Fr. Vincent Liêm met up with another Dominican priest, Fr. Castaneda Gia, who was already in jail. The two were happy having the opportunity to share the hardship of prison life.
On October 10th, the city official ordered the two priests carrying a cangue inscribed with the words “French Missionary”, and then entrusted them to the Thần Khê mandarin for their transportation to the royal capital of Thăng Long (Hanoi) to appear before Lord Trịnh Sâm. Here was the place that the conference of four religions took place.
Lord Trịnh Sâm had an uncle who was also a high-ranking government official. The high-ranking official’s mother, Mrs. Thượng Trâm of Hải Dương, was a Christian convert who often advised her son to convert. So this official had the idea of calling on representatives of the four religions for a conference to talk about their religion. He said: “My heart which loves the truth wants to know which religion is the right one to follow.” The exchange lasted three days, each day on a topic on the origin of life, the purpose of life, and life after death. Fr. Liêm and Fr. Gia, representing Christianity, had explained so superbly that the mandarin applauded enthusiastically. But knowing that Lord Trịnh Sâm still banned Christianity, he did not convert[4].
A few days later, the two priests had an opportunity to talk about Christianity with the Queen Mother, Thái Tôn, Lord Trịnh Sâm’s mother. Due to her curiosity, she invited them in. The real conversation was never known, but the last question from the Queen Mother was: “If your religion is the only true one, then where non-believers go after their deaths?” Fr. Liêm replied: “Her Majesty, they will go to hell!”[5] Hearing that the Queen Mother, Thái Tôn, became enraged, and using her position as the mother, forced her son, Lord Trịnh Sâm, to sentence the two priests to die by beheading and to banish the two altar boys who were later freed after paying 100 piasters.
On November 7th, the two priests were led to their execution followed by a big crowd. When the procession arrived at the royal palace, a courtier read the sentence. According to royal tradition at the time, the king could pardon the prisoners. Another courtier raised his voice: “The European religion has been forbidden, but until now, no Vietnamese had been executed because of this religion[6], so His Majesty pardons the individual named Liêm.” Upon hearing that, Fr. Liêm quickly answered:
“Whatever reasons for which Fr. Gia will be executed, I should be executed for he same reasons. Fr. Gia is a priest and I am also a priest. If the laws of the land do not punish me, then they should not punish Fr. Gia. I am a Vietnamese, so I should follow the laws more than he does. If Fr. Gia is executed while I am pardoned, then the king’s sentence is unjust. I beg to pardon both or to execute both. Then the sentence is just.”
Fr. Liêm’s unmistakable words probably came from the spirit of brotherhood, unwilling to abandon a brother, or really were meant to petition for the pardon of the priest friend, because they really touched those present who all wanted both to be pardoned. Those words were also came from the desire to sacrifice his life to be a witness for the true faith.
Nevertheless the sentence did not change. The two heroes of faith cheerfully said the Nicennes’ creed and the prayer venerating Our Lady the Queen on the way to the execution field of Đông Mơ. The two fatal swings of the sabers helped them achieve their mission of being perfect witnesses for Christ. Their bodies were taken and buried in Trung Linh.
On 5/20/1906 Pope Pius X elevated to the rank of blessed. Separately Saint Vincent Phạm Hiếu Liêm was chosen to be patron saint of many schools among them is the Juan de Latran in the Philippines. The saint really was the shining symbol of honor for Vietnam to the outside world
This is taken in one of the most beautiful and impressive bldg.s I've toured anywhere, and the most iconic in Iran. The smaller Sheikh Lotfollah mosque on the same square could be the most beautiful. This was taken soon after I arrived in Esfahan city, and in the vast province of Esfahan, which is "the most Persian [province in Iran] in the sense that most foreigners understand the term" according to the LP.
- I made copies in a library in Ghazvin of chapters from an entertaining, edifying old book called 'Persian cities' (1960). Some excerpts follow, including this.:
The MASJID-I-SHAH [EMAM]: "At the southern end of the Maidan [see below] is the great Masjid-i-Shah, 'the Shah's mosque' [renamed the 'Masjed-e Emam' in 1979] with its beautiful dome, twin minarets, imposing portal and another pair of minarets. ... Work on it began in the spring of 1611 [1612 per Bradt]. So anxious was the Shah to see rapid progress made that he ordered his chief architect to commence construction of the walls before the foundations had had time to settle. The architect refused, pointing out that the safety of the bldg. would be endangered, but the Shah would not listen. Finally the architect, after taking careful measurements, went into hiding. As the work could not be carried out without his guidance, it came perforce to a standstill, much to the anger of Shah 'Abbas. When the architect deemed that enough time had elapsed for the foundations to bear the weight of the walls, he reappeared; on taking fresh measurements, he found that the foundations had sunk to an appreciable extent. He then went before the Shah, explained fully what he had done, and obtained the monarch's forgiveness. However, as another means of expediting construction, the Shah insisted on the use of ordinary painted and glazed tiles for most of the interior instead of tile-mosaic [as in the older Jame mosque at Yazd]; he nonetheless had the majestically tall entrance portal [30 m.s high] facing on to the maidan, the twin minarets flanking it [both 42 m.s high], the bulbous dome [54 m.s in height] and other conspicuous parts of the bldg. faced with glazed brick mosaic. Notwithstanding these measures, Shah 'Abbas died [in 1629] some years before the finishing touches could be put to the mosque. It's estimated that no less than 18 million bricks and half a million tiles were used in the construction of this great building."
- Inside the door, which is small relative to the portal, a short corridor and then a hallway lead to an inner courtyard surrounded by four eivans. youtube.com/shorts/WIwigbgOaqU?si=qIOJuCXHJt1SOg8c Three lead into vaulted sanctuaries, the largest (the dome chamber), to the south. The dome-chamber is flanked by two courtyards to the east and west containing a medreseh. The whole complex is lavishly decorated with sumptuous blue tiles which "take on a different hue according to the light conditions." (LP)
- According to Bradt, Shah Abbas ordered construction of this mosque in memory of his ancestor Shah Tahmasp I (d 1576). Construction was completed under Shah 'Abbas's grandson Shah Safi (1629-'42).
- "The entrance portal to the mosque is at the central of the south side of the maidan, but the mosque itself is set at an angle, to face Mecca. So successfully did the architects design this change of access, which occurs within the entrance complex, that it is almost imperceptible; nor is the general aspect from the square unbalanced." ('Architecture of the Islamic World' [AOTIW]) Shah 'Abbas clearly preferred the Maidan be oriented on a north-south axis. I wonder if this was for the lighting and the aesthetic.
- This is the underside of a Persian double-dome, "the inner one absorbing and distributing the structural load so allowing the outer dome to have a more eye-catching outline. There is a 14 m. gap /b/ the 2, the outer shell being supported on huge spars embedded into the inner dome."
- Some scenes from Pasolini's 'Arabian nights' were filmed in this incredible mosque. See from the 2 min. pt. in the video in the link.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=tX_vu5UdYvo Pasolini was openly gay if you can't tell from this clip. But the dialogue and tone fit with 'The 'Arabian nights', which is fun and a little racy. I like the fable about the young man in his home-town in Yemen who one day let out a great fart so loud that he had to leave town in disgrace. As an old man, he hoped that people in his town might've forgotten about the fart and that he might be able to return, and so one day he mustered the courage to travel there but soon after he arrived, walking through the streets of the town with hope and trepidation, he passed an open window and heard a young girl ask her mother "When did that happen Mommy?" and her mother replied "Oh that was long ago, back before the time of the great fart." He realized then with great sorrow that he could never return home.
- Pasolini filmed his 'Arabian Nights' in Iran (Esfahan and the Murcheh Khvort citadel), Yemen, the deserts of Ethiopia and Eritrea, and in Nepal (Bhaktapur, Patan and Kathmandu), with incredible settings. He fell in love with Yemen in particular, as anyone would who watches this film, a feast for the eyes, with scenes in Taiz, Zabid, Sana'a, Shibam, the Dar al-Hajar palace, and Seiyun. The beautiful Morricone soundtrack helps too.: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUUHykKvpKw
- "Shooting was complicated in Esfahan: military guards threw Pasolini and the crew out because they brought donkeys onto the premises of the Shah Mosque [so dumb] and Pasolini had women singing for the scene; this was explicitly prohibited and cost the production a few days delay." (Wikipedia)
- History.: "If the world had no Esfahan, the creator of the world would have no world."
"Esfahan is the meaning of the word 'world.'"
"'World' is the word and 'Esfahan' the meaning."
"The poets of Esfahan had no mean opinion of their city. Rather more modest is the boast of its citizens that "Esfahan is half the world", "Esfahan misf-i-jahan". ... [A]t the height of its glory in the 17th cent., Esfahan was one of the largest cities in the world, rivalling London in size. ... The city owes much to its situation. Not only does it stand in a wide and fertile valley, but it's far from any frontier and, unlike Tabriz, Nishapur, Damghan, and Hamadan, from any invasion route. The Zayandeh-rud (the 'Life-giving river') flows through it and the altitude of 5,200' gives the city a temperate climate. According to the author of the Pahlavi book Eranshahr "the accursed Alexander, the son of Philip" founded Esfahan. But "there are grounds for identifying Esfahan with Strabo's Gabae, where the Achaemenid monarchs at times resided. In default of conclusive evidence in support of these claims, one can safely say that, in light of its good situation and climate, an early origin can be ascribed to it.
- "The legendary hero, the blacksmith Kaveh, is said to have been a native of Esfahan. In his day, Persia groaned under the tyranny of the cruel usurper Zahak (Azhdahak, the dragon of the Avesta), who had a snake growing out of each shoulder. These snakes had to be fed daily on the brains of 2 of his unlucky subjects. When the news came that Zahak had put Kaveh's 2 sons to death to feed his snakes on their brains, the blacksmith incited the populace to rise, hoisted his leather apron on a pole to serve as a standard, and marched at their head against the usurper. The revolt ended with the defeat and death of Zahak.
- "The oldest part of Esfahan was named Gadh or Gai (Strabo's Gabae?), and later Shahristan or 'the Township'. Subsequently a Jewish community settled some 2 miles to the west-NW. In due course the two towns grew to such an extent that they coalesced to form one large city, but this fusion did not occur until @ the 10th cent. The name Esfahan (probably Aspadan, from the older Aspadana) had however been applied jointly to the two towns for some hundreds of years. Opinions differ as to the origins of the Jewish town. Only its Arabic name Yahudiyeh appears to have been preserved. Some authorities maintain that it was Nebuchadnezzar I (604-562 BC) who settled there some of the exiles from Jerusalem, but it's more probable that it was Queen Shushan-Dukht, the Jewish consort of the Sassanian king Yazdigird I (399-420), who founded the town @ 1,000 yr.s later. In Parthian times (249 BC - 226 AD) Esfahan was already the capital of a large province. When Ardeshir I revolted against Artabanus (Ardavan) V, he defeated and killed Shadh Shapur, the satrap of Esfahan, in the early stages of his rebellion. [@ 4 centuries later,] towards the close of the Sassanian era, the city became the place of residence of many of the 'vaspuhran' or members of the 7 great families of Persia. This might have been why Yazdigird III, the last of the Sassanians, sought refuge in Esfahan for a spell following his defeat by the Muslim Arabs before resuming his flight when his pursuers drew near. The city itself surrendered to the Arabs in @ 642 following a series of battles in the neighbourhood.
- "Esfahan became the capital of the province of al-Jibal under Muslim rule, and was renowned for the quality of its textiles ('attabi' in particular, a striped silk fabric named for Attabiyya, the quarter in Baghdad where it was originally made [the origin of the English word 'Tabby' {Huh!} which today applies only to cats with streaked or brindled coats]) and metalwork. The early 10th cent. geographer Ibn Rusta, a native, described the city as half a league in diameter, with 4 gates, a central fortress, and containing 'the Saruq' (likely the ancient Tabarak citadel) which he claimed predated the Flood. Esfahan was ruled in this period by the Persian House of Buwaih and then by the Persian Kakuyid until 1051 when the Seljuq Tughril Beg seized the city and made it the capital of his rapidly growing empire. The following year, the well-known Persian traveler and Isma'ili propagandist Nasir-i-Khusrau (whose teachings greatly influenced Hasan-i Sabbah, the founder of the Order of the Assassins) visited Esfahan, described the city in some detail, and wrote that he had "never seen, in any place where Persian is spoken, a finer, larger and more prosperous city."
- "Alp Arslan retained Esfahan as his capital while his son and successor, Sultan Malikshah (1072-'92) preferred it to any of his other cities.
- In the 1220s, the Mongol tsunami was "checked outside [the city] in a great battle waged against [it] by the heroic Jalal ad-Din Khwarazmshah", but which would only delay the Mongol conquest. "Like the Arabs 600 yr.s earlier, the Mongols refrained from sacking Esfahan and butchering its inhabitants. Rather, after acquiring some of the polish and refinement of the Persians, they became patrons of the arts and took some steps to embellish the city." (A famous stucco mihrab in the Jame masjid is Il-Khanid.) The Muzaffarids succeeded the Mongols, and Timur Leng (Tamerlane) took the city in 1388, sparing the city and the locals, but then slaughtered > 70,000 in his response to a revolt, and built a pyramid of their skulls.
- The Timurids were followed by the Qara-Qoyunlu (the 'Black Sheep' Turcomans), but "the fortunes of Esfahan took an upward turn with the arrival of the Safavid dynasty at the turn of the 16th cent. Shah Isma'il (r 1501-'24), the first Safavid, made Tabriz his capital, but would often visit Esfahan where he laid out the spacious park known as the Naqsh-i-Jahan ('the Picture of the World') in the area to the west of the Maidan." His successor, Shah Tahmasp I (r 1524-'76), spent much time at Esfahan, and would reside at the small Timurid palace fronting on to the great Maidan. (See the write-up for the Ali Qapu.) "It was doubtless in this palace that he entertained the Mughal emperor Hemayun when, in 1541, that monarch had temporarily to abandon his throne and seek sanctuary and support in Persia. Six years later, when the Shah's brother Ilkhas Mirza rebelled against him and allied himself with the Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, Turkish forces invaded Persia and occupied Esfahan for a time.
- "The Golden Age of Esfahan began during the reign of Shah 'Abbas the Great [r 1588-1629], the most capable and illustrious of the Safavids. Early in his reign, in the intervals /b/ his campaigns against the Turks and other foes, he visited Esfahan on several occasions. The situation of the city, its good climate, and, above all, its distance from any frontier [relative to Tabriz and Ghazvin], led him to transfer his court there permanently from Ghazvin in the spring of 1598. Over the remaining 31 years of his reign, he replanned and largely rebuilt the city, personally supervising a great part of the work. He was extremely well served by his own architects and master-masons, but didn't hesitate to supplement their work by importing artists and artisans from Italy and other European countries, as well as from India and even China. Once again, as in the time of Darius, craftsmen from many lands were brought to Persia to assist in the embellishment of the royal bldg.s, but in this case they were not all subjects of the king. His greatest achievement in Esfahan is undoubtedly the creation of the magnificent monuments which still grace the Maidan-i-[Imam, amongst which this mosque is pre-eminent]. In this task he consciously or subconsciously copied the Seljuqs' 12th cent. achievements at their Maidan-i-Kuhneh or 'Old Square'. Like them, he believed that his capital should have a fitting centre. The Maidan itself is of noble proportions, being 1,674' long and 540' wide.
- "In the course of his campaigns in Azerbaijan, Shah 'Abbas was impressed with the energy and ability of the Armenian inhabitants of the town of Jolfa, on the Aras (Araxes) river. To encourage trade and industry in Esfahan, he determined to [forcibly] transfer several thousand of them to a site on the south side of the Zayandeh-rud" (and did so at 'New Jolfa'. Cont. in the write-up for the Beit-ol Lahm [Bethlehem] church in New Jolfa.) The Shah was "amply rewarded" for the 'resettlement' "by the impetus which these clever traders and craftsmen gave to the commerce and industry" of the city.
- "With the death of Shah 'Abbas in Jan., 1629, the decline of the Safavid empire set in, but it was long before the process of decay became manifest. As for Esfahan, it continued, until the fall of the Safavid dynasty in 1722, to be the great metropolis of the empire. Shah 'Abbas was succeeded by his grandson Shah Safi (r 1629-'42), who was followed by Shah 'Abbas II (r 1642-'66), Shah Sulaiman (r 1666-'94), and the last Safavid, Shah Sultan Husain (1694-1722). The famous Huguenot John Chardin, court jeweller to Charles II, who lived in Esfahan for @ 10 yr.s /b/ 1664 and '77, noted that the city was "as populous as London, which was then, as he rightly remarked, "la ville la plus peuplée de l'Europe". As we know from other sources that London had some 670,000 inhabitants at the close of the 17th cent., we shall not be far wrong if we put the population of Esfahan at a little > 600,000 in those days. According to Chardin, Esfahan had in his time 162 mosques, 48 colleges, 273 hamams, no less than 1,802 caravanserais and 12 cemeteries." (Chardin recorded a couplet he found in one of the royal palaces, which read: "When I was about to marry, the married folk were dumb. Now that I am married, those who are about to marry are deaf." :D )
- "Alas for Esfahan! Its period of glamour and glory was soon to come to a sudden and terrible end. ... Disaster came like a bolt from the blue. From 1720 to '22 Persia suffered a series of shattering blows from the Ghalzai Afghans, the Turks and the Russians. Most of her territory was overrun, and Esfahan itself underwent a terrible siege at the hands of the barbarous Afghans. Muhammad Muhsin, a Persian historian who experienced the siege, has described how the citizens were at length reduced to [cannibalism of the dead]. On one occasion, Muhsin was sent with some others to look for hidden hoards of food. In the course of their search they came upon a cellar filled with sacks which, when they opened them, they found to contain coins worth a fabulous sum. He and his companions were so disappointed at finding $ instead of grain that they left sacks and their contents lying where they had found them." After a siege of seven months and the deaths of 100s of 1000s, the city was forced to surrender, and the Shah abdicated in favour of Mahmud, the Afghan leader, who threw him into prison and slaughtered most male members of the royal family. Fearing a revolt by the Esfahanis, who, despite the ravages of the siege, greatly outnumbered his Afghan troops, Mahmud ordered his men to commit a wholesale massacre. Esfahan has never fully recovered from the combined effects of the siege and this slaughter, in which over 90% of the population lost their lives. [! - I didn't know.] Moreover, large areas of the city were razed to the ground. Mahmud's successor, Ashraf, put the ex-Shah to death in 1727.
- "The famous general Nadr Quli Beg defeated the Afghans, drove them from Esfahan, seized the throne and reigned as Nadir Shah, but made Mashad his capital." (The capital would move to Shiraz under Karim Khan Zand in 1762 and to Tehran in 1786.) In the chaotic period that followed Nadir Shah's assassination in 1747 Esfahan was looted twice, first by the Bakhtiari tribe and later by Afghan rebels and Lurs, thus further adding to its misfortunes and those of its citizens. One James Morier, who visited Esfahan early in the 19th cent., wrote that "one might suppose that God's curse had extended over parts of the city, as it did over Babylon. Houses, bazaars, mosques, palaces, whole streets are to be seen in total abandonment; and I have rode for miles amongst its ruins without meeting with any living creature, except perhaps a jackal peeping over a wall, or a fox running to his hole" ('Persian Cities', 1960). This is hard to believe in light of how well-preserved and lovely the city's early 17th cent. monuments are today, but while "[t]he power and breadth of Shah 'Abbas's vision is still very much in evidence, what remains is just a small taste of what the city looked like at its height" during the early 17th-cent. reign of Shah 'Abbas I. (LP) Wow. Reza Shah Pahlavi is given credit for much of the renovation.
- Tourism in Esfahan is less cerebral than in any other city that I toured in Iran. With the exception of the fascinating Jame mosque, several early mosques and shrines and a collection of ancient minarets in the older, northern half of the city, and the adobe ateshkadeh complex at or past the edge of town, Esfahan for tourists is all about a series of exceptional 17th cent. Safavid monuments. In that way, tourism in Esfahan is akin to tourism in Ani (but which is more cerebral), Sivas, Beijing, St. Petersburg or Agra, an exploration of a flowering of art and architecture in a distinctive, magnificent style from a moment in time. Magnificent is truly the best word to describe Esfahan. I've also read that Esfahan has the greatest concentration of Islamic monuments in Iran.
- youtu.be/a9FVrJS4MzU?si=a-iwZjyTpqouJ3NF
- youtu.be/TEHC307aK_E?si=MR6GAoHM4BVrmtJ6
- This vlogger has a suitable level of appreciation and enthusiasm for Esfahan and the local culture.: youtu.be/eVzPH8RT6P0?si=sYuYYensO2U24ulq
- I write this is in November, 2024.: In early Jan., 2020, President-elect Trump threatened to target Iranian cultural sites "if Iran retaliates against the U.S." for the assassination of General Soleimani on Jan. 3. He's now set to nominate Fox news troll Pete Hegseth as U.S. Secretary of Defense, who also advocated to hit Iranian cultural sites. I don't know who put that idea in Trump's head, but the Iranian military and the IRGC have famously excavated very deep, extensive, subterranean tunnels and caves to house missile production facilities, etc., and would see no advantage in placing any of their assets at any cultural sites (certainly not after the IDF has repeatedly bombed every mosque, church, hospital, university, etc. in Gaza since Oct. 7, '23). This mosque and that of Sheikh Lotfollah, Esfahan's Jame mosque, the Sheikh Safi-ad Din Khanegah and shrine ensemble at Ardabil, and the Imam Reza shrine in Mashad are the greatest Islamic monuments in the country, and threats to destroy or damage them are nothing but sadistic, unless those threats involve some jealousy as well. But of course any bombing with bunker buster bombs thickly coated in depleted uranium (D.U.), as in Beirut this month, would be even worse, much worse, contaminating the bomb-site forever, causing cancers and birth defects as with Gulf War syndrome, Afghan syndrome, and Balkans syndrome, but worse still as it seems that much more D.U. was used in Beirut. Evil. (I'm not religious, but if I was I might take some interest in the similarity /b/ pentagons and pentagrams, or inverted pentagrams. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_of_Baphomet )
- I stayed in Esfahan over 9 days, but don't recall anything about the hotel or hostel where I stayed, although it would've been in the 'budget range' (very much so), and European tourists were staying there, more than I'd met in my first month in the country (which isn't saying much). One person I remember was Ellen, a pretty brunette with a hair-lip from Norway, a solo traveler, quiet but adventurous, who recruited my services as a chaperone one evening to accompany her in her search for Sufis. We walked quite a ways and asked anyone we came across who could speak English, but had no luck. It would've been easier to find Christians, Jews or Zoroastrians. (Kermanshah is known for Sufism, but it's officially discouraged in Iran, generally.) I don't know just what she expected from the Sufis, whether or how they would involve her in their observances or their cosmology, but she was on a quest. It seemed she'd come to Iran in a search for enlightenment, or maybe for love.
- "The Islamic Republic of Iran has harassed Sufis, reportedly for their lack of support for the government doctrine of "governance of the jurist" (i.e., that the supreme Shiite jurist should be the nation's political leader)." (Wikipedia) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Sufis According to that Wikipedia entry, the persecution and suppression of Sufis in Iran, or at least those in Shi'ite regions, has increased since 2000. Sufis are more or less suppressed across the Islamic world. "Sufism [has been perceived] as emotional and uncontrollable, reaching beyond reason to a state of ecstasy and Truth reached through practices of dancing and physical self-deprivation. It is regarded as a dissenting form of worship at odds with authoritarian power structures." (Wikipedia)
I toured the following sights and sites.:
Around the Maidan:
1. The MAIDAN: "This huge, open square, laid out in 1612, is one of the largest in the world (500 x 160 m.s), and a majestic example of town planning." (LP) "The mast or pole that was in the centre of the maidan has long since disappeared. Atop this pole, which was @ 25' high, was a target or mark which, on special occasions, was a golden cup; at other times a melon or an apple. It was the practice of the Shah and his nobles to ride at full gallop past the pole, and then, turning back in their saddles in Parthian fashion, to discharge their arrows at their mark. ... The original goalposts [from the Shah's polo ground] are still in place and to be seen at either end of the Maidan," which I don't recall. ('Persian cities')
2. The MOSQUE of SHEIKH LOTFOLLAH (1603-1618):
"On the eastern side of the [Maidan] is the superb Masjid-i-Lutfullah [or Lotfollah] aka the Masjid-i-Sadr, the mosque which Shah 'Abbas erected in honour of his saintly father-in-law and which he used for his private devotions. This mosque is much smaller than the Masjid-i-[Emam], but it's an even finer example of what the Shah's architects, builders and craftsmen could accomplish. Its exquisite dome, adorned with lovely arabesques, [and with "pale tiles that change colour from cream through to pink according to the light conditions" {LP}], eclipses in beauty that of its larger neighbour. The interior is covered with tile mosaic rivalled in quality only by similar contemporary work in the ... shrine of Iman Reza at Mashad." ('Persian Cities', 1960) (I didn't make it to Mashad.) The tile-mosaic of the facade has been largely restored but the interior is entirely covered with its original mosaic. The mosque is unusual in that it has no minaret nor a courtyard (as, again, it was private).
- "The portal dedication emphasizes the explicit Shi'a role of the shah as the "reviver of the virtues of his pure ancestors, and propagator of the doctrine of the pure Imams. ... Surface patterns of ceramic shapes, sometimes set into unglazed brick, disguise thick walls which support the single-shell dome (diameter 13 m.s) while turquoise barley-twist cables outlining the full-length squinches lead the eye into the dome. We always wonder how the pattern designer calculated for the diminishing size of the [lozenges] on the dome’s concave surface. No wonder geometry, algebra and mathematics developed in the Islamic world." (Bradt)
- "Sunlight filters through a series of double grilles in the drum, resting on squinches that rise directly from the floor. Each of the 8 pointed arches supporting the dome is outlined by [the said cables] framing a number of inlays with inscriptions or foliage." (AOTIW)
- This mosque is darker, cooler and more intimate than the crowded Masji-e Emam and I took my time to take it all in, and sat by a wall looking up and around, gawking in awe. (Photography in the interior was forbidden.) I should've bought a poster of a photo of the inner dome on sale in a shop or 2 across the Maidan. Here it is.: youtube.com/shorts/i6ymddxcGKs?si=QNKkwKqZCUFDFE_a youtu.be/spSPAKEvFXI?si=xnlMhcpvTFPTnTCQ It's certainly one of the 5 most beautiful buildings I've ever toured. I don't know what most of those five might be, but I know they include the Taj Mahal. So at least 2 of those most beautiful bldg.s were designed by Iranians (or Iranians and Ustad A. Lahori, a Punjabi of Iranian heritage and ethnicity). My top 5 likely includes the Masjed-e Emam as well.
-The Maidan (with the Shiekh Lotfollah dome seen at the start): youtube.com/shorts/gJeCuyaYCKc?si=nnoHH8L2QzGaiOcD
3. The 'ALI QAPU palace: (See my write-up for my photo taken inside it.)
4. The perimeter of the Maidan (i.e. the Emam Khomeini square): "In the centre of the northern side of the Maidan is the high, tiled gateway of the Qaisariyeh, the Imperial bazaar. Flanking this gateway were the two galleries of the Naqqareh-Khaneh where [back in the day] orchestras of trumpets and kettle-drums played violently and discordantly at dusk and again at 2 a.m. [?] [Here a vlogger explores beautiful, restored "VIP" music rooms on the upper floor of this 'gateway' bldg., which were probably closed to tourism in 2000.: youtu.be/llcax66iOCg?si=D_Xn8AykrwfcvU0h ] A line of 2-storeyed bldg.s of uniform, arcaded design runs right @ the square /b/ [the Maidan's] monuments. The ground floor was and still is used to accommodate shops, and dwellings were on the upper floor. Shah 'Abbas housed many of his skilled craftsmen in these bldg.s. ... On great occasions and at times merely for his own pleasure, the Shah would have these bldg.s surrounding the Maidan illuminated with small lamps, of which, we are told, there were no less than 50,000." ('Persian Cities') I bought some good quality books with old photos and quality postcards in shops lining the Maidan, and enjoyed the atmosphere and the views on repeated visits. The LP writes that the square is "(usually) beautifully illuminated" at 8 p.m. when local families visit.
- I patronized a popular cafe on a high, upper level at the NW corner of the square, above and next to the entrance to the bazaar, with great views over the Maidan, and took a few puffs of flavoured smoke from a hookah (although I don't smoke).
- The QAISARIYEH or GRAND bazaar (1620): Originally constructed in the 11th cent., this bazaar grew to become one of the largest and most luxurious trading centres in the Middle East, a vaulted, 2-km.-long street linking the older Seljuk neighborhood in the north with the 17th cent. Safavid hood in the south (and with @ 5 km.s of corridors and walkways in total per the LP) and incl. "mosques, tea-shops, hamams and even gardens". Destroyed several times, it dates to the 17th cent. in its current form. I was more impressed with it and its decorative and visibly ancient aspects than any other bazaar that I toured in Iran. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Isfahan_Grand_Bazaar#...
- youtube.com/shorts/4-YOa2_aAnI?si=77F1doJg0QcOC7IX
- The CHEHEL SOTOUN ('40 Columns') palace and museum (Cheh-hell So-toon, Safavid, 1647): Shah 'Abbas II built this beautiful palace pavilion for coronations (Solayman aka Safi II was crowned within on March 20, 1668) and the reception of foreign embassies, around a small pavilion built for 'Abbas I (57.8 x 37 m.s). 20 16-m.-tall, wooden columns on the large, open verandah (tālār) are reflected in a pool which provides the other 20, hence the name. But another theory has it that "40 was once used synonymously with 'many' in ancient Persian, and still is in some quarters." (LP) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chehel_Sotoun,_Isfahan,_I...
- "The 4 columns in the centre [of the portico], surrounding a small basin, rest on bases carved as [stylized] lions, while the alcove at the rear of the portico is decorated with the remains of the mirror-mosaics that, originally, entirely covered the walls." (AOTIW)
- The small, crowded museum within exhibits the obligatory ceramics, old coins, militaria and several Qurans, incl. "one said to be in the handwriting of the 2nd Imam". (LP) Six murals painted on ceramic panels on the interior walls of the banquet hall could be the most famous murals or paintings in Iran. They depict such scenes as:
1. The famous reception of the Mughal Emperor Hemayun, who took refuge in Iran in 1544, by Shah Tahmasp I (r 1524-'76), with a large retinue, musicians and very un-Islamic dancing girls in the foreground. (It's no surprise that this and the two of the other murals that depict banquets were covered up for @ 15 - 20 yr.s following the Islamic revolution. [LP]) It fascinates Indian visitors. Could it be the most famous painting in the country? It's the best represented Persian mural or painting on all the postcard racks. ranasafvi.com/the-famous-humayun-and-shah-tahmasp-fresco-...
2. The reception and entertainment of Walī Moḥammad Khan, Uzbek ruler of Turkistan, by Shah ʿAbbas I, with more dancing girls et al. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painting_in_Chehel_Sotoun...
3. The reception by Shah ʿAbbās II of an Uzbek ambassador in 1646. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Iran,_Chehel_Sotoun,_Cult...
4. The victory of Isma'il I (r 1501-'24) over the Uzbek Saybani Khan at the Battle of Marv in 1510. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marv#/media/File:Fresco_c... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chehel_Sotoun#/media/File:Chehel_So...
5. A later, Qajar-era mural of a battle, Nadir Shah's victory over the Mughal emperor Mohammad of India at Karnal in 1739 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chehel_Sotoun_%D8%B9%D9%8... and
6. Another Qajar-era depiction of a battle, Shah Isma'il's "triumph over the Janissary aga at Chaldiran" (Iranicaonline.org) ? - But Chaldiran was a rout for Selim the Grim's Ottomans on Aug. 23, 1514. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Painting_in_Chehel_Sotoun... commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_painting_in_Chehel_Soto...
The walls of the banquet hall are otherwise coated in dazzling decorative detail, of course, with floral arabesques, muqarnas vaulting, etc.
- More murals were discovered in the flanking rooms under a coat of whitewash applied in the Qajar period, incl. landscapes, figural compositions, scenes from Persian poetry with Khosrow and Shirin, et al., etc. (Iranicaonline.org) Two women in one scene in one mural wear garments that are see-through above the waist. (!) commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sathi.jpg
- Alterations have been made over the centuries. The 20 columns in the porch and the exterior walls behind were coated in reflective mirrors in the renovation of 1706 such that "the mass of structure appear[ed] to be of glass, and when new must have glittered with magnificent splendour." (J.J. Morier)
- The superb gardens, 67,000 m.s2 [formerly @ 7 ha.s], with a large pool, 110 x 16 m.s, are included in the collective Unesco site 'Persian Gardens', designated in 2011, one of nine in Iran. And there's much early-19th-cent., stylized stone sculpture in the round of lions and standing maidens on the grounds too. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chehel_Sotoun_%D8%B9%D9%8...
- youtu.be/fVSAFpa1XvM?si=H03IZVoRntBDs323
- The HASHT BEHESHT palace (1669, Safavid): (See my comment for my photo taken inside it.)
- Safavid BRIDGES across the Zayandeh-rud, incl. the Khaju and the Si-o-SePol: (See my comment for my photo taken on the latter bridge.)
- The MEDRESEH-ye CHAHAR BAGH ('School of the Four Gardens'), built by the mother of Shah Sultan Husain, previously known as the Medrese-ye Madar-e Shah ('Seminary of the Shah's mother'), and completed in 1715, is "one of the most beautiful and attractive of the monuments of the whole Safavid era." It includes a mosque with a dome similar to that of the Masjed-e Emam but smaller, and 160 rooms behind rows and rows of pointed-arched eivans, all covered in fine tiles with arabesques, etc. Allegedly Shah Husain spent the night before his execution in 1727 (by the Afghan warlord Ashraf) in one of the small rooms or cells (one of the eivans) looking out onto the courtyard. (I've read that a scene in Pasolini's 'Arabian nights' was filmed in that courtyard.) I walked and gawked through it at least a few times in transit.
- I also took a look @ the former early 18th-cent. caravanserai which became the luxury Abbasi Hotel in 1955 with its fine courtyard and which is handy to the medreseh.
- The VANK CATHEDRAL aka the Holy Savior Cathedral aka the Church of the Saintly Sisters (Armenian Apostolic, 1606) and museum, the BEIT-OL LAHM (Bethlehem) aka Bedkhem church (Armenian, 1628), and NEW JOLFA (the Armenian quarter): (See my comment for my photo taken in the Beit-ol Lahm church.)
- The GOLESTAN-E SHOHADA cemetery: (See my comment for my photo taken there.)
- The KETER DAVID SYNAGOGUE (Kenisa-ye Keter David aka the 'Cathedral Synagogue' aka the Kanise-ye Esfahan [per the LP], 1940): I visited this relatively large, modern synagogue one evening or late one afternoon, @ 800 m.s SW of the Maidan, as it had an entry in my LP guide (the only synagogue with a mention, despite the importance of Judaism to the city's early medieval history, see above). Built in the 'Pahlavi style', I've read that it houses 500-yr.-old copies of the Torah written on vellum, and has a popular mikveh (or 'miqwa', 1944). This article includes photos taken inside.: en.shafaqna.com/171487/living-conditions-are-now-better-t... Sadly, my visit involved another miss a bit similar to that in the Falak ol-aflak in Khorramabad, one of my bigger misses in the country. The bldg. was open, I walked in and immediately met some very friendly, warm, and welcoming locals. My memory's fuzzy but I recall it was wide with pews or rows of chairs (the latter), and with a friendly, grinning woman sitting at the left. The people inside and I had a discussion and they were happy to talk about their lives in Esfahan. I can only paraphrase, but they said they were happy there and had no desire to leave for Israel nor anywhere else. (Again, these are 'the Children of Esther', members in a community with roots that run very deep in the country, back to the early 1st mill. B.C. The 'Aryans', aka Arya, the ancestors of the Persians themselves and the Kurds, arrived only @ millenium or so earlier.) It's possible they were just being charming and agreeable, but they were open, candid and seemed entirely sincere. (This was in 2000, which seems like a long time ago in this context, but this CNN article from 2015 is consistent with my impression.: www.cnn.com/2015/03/11/middleeast/iran-jews-esfahan/index... ) I can't recall what else was said, but near the end of the discussion I remarked that the synagogue seemed relatively new and that there must be older, much more historic synagogues in town, and they responded "Oh yes", nodding with eyebrows raised, etc. and one older man offered to take me to visit some on a tour in his car for a fee. I had the impression they would've been hard to find and to access otherwise, hidden away in alleyways (even Armenian churches in New Jolfa were a trick to find) but that was likely an assumption. It was a fair one (as I explain below). Whatever his fee was it was very reasonable, @ as little as the equivalent of $10.00 or more, and I was tempted but I was on the tightest budget ever and had to decline. (I was paying @ $5.00 per night for a bed most nights, albeit in the cheapest or the worst digs. Most sights and sites were free and every dollar saved prolonged my trip.) I've wondered ever since what he would have shown me. Well the internet to the rescue! I've learned that there are from 16 to 24 synagogues in Esfahan, 7 of which are registered in the list of National monuments of Iran, and that at least 8 are in a cluster in a neighborhood named Joubareh, aka Yahudiyeh (per Google maps) in the older, Seljuk part of town, only 150-400 m.s NE of the world-famous Jame mosque. Most date from the 19th and 20th cent.s (many built over older synagogues), consist of fired mud-brick with adobe cladding, and most have octagonal skylight-towers, some visibly ancient, through which sunlight shines down on the cantor and the dukhan or bimah (typically 3 x 3 m.s) at the centre of each sanctuary. "The entire interior space of the synagogue is “separated” from the outside world and has minimal connection to it. To reach this space, one must follow a path, one that is generally dark and long; a path that cuts off the ongoing connection with the mortal world and prepares one for a renewed “presence”; a presence before the creator of light and illumination." www.7dorim.com/en/pictures/joubareh-neighborhood-isfahan-... maps.app.goo.gl/XaYnbSL9e5SmBD9j6 The Golbahar Mohammad Safari synagogue (8th cent.), @ 100 m.s SW of the Imam Ali square, is said to be the oldest in the city, although apart from an ancient plaque and its stone-carved dukhan, it appears almost new. youtu.be/eOEAhiywLAk?si=WrDl7mD54_29r4-7 The loveliest of the city's synagogues is the Molla Nisan (early 20th cent.) in Joubareh, with its muqarnas vaulting, Persian floral frescos, etc. www.7dorim.com/en/pictures/the-molla-nisan-synagogue-of-i... So I imagine that that man would've taken me to the Golbahar synagogue and then to Joubareh to show me @ the synagogues there, most of which (all?) are locked up today and hard to find. And of course I regret declining his offer. (Several in the site in the next link are unbeknownst to Google maps.)
- Here's a site that's a vault of photos taken in the synagogues in Joubareh, etc.: www.7dorim.com/en/?s=Esfahan
- According to this article re the 'Molla (Mulla) Yaghoob (Jacob) synagogue' archive.diarna.org/site/detail/public/782/ , geniza records from Cairo suggest that Persian communities in ancient times had been quite large. While the community was often highly respected, there were times when its members were under duress to convert, such as during the reign of 'Abbas II, through the threat of confiscation of inheritance. "By 1889 there were only @ 400 Jewish families left in Esfahan and most were poor. The Alliance Israelite Universelle established a school in the city in 1901. By 1968 the school had expanded to provide both a high school and an elementary school for Jewish students. ... Of the 18 functioning synagogues, now only one [the Keter David] is in use" (although the Golbahar looks to be in occasional use at least, in the video in the 3rd-last link above).
- Here a vlogger explores and films at Joubareh. (The lovely panel of 12 tiles [which looks to be Qajar] with 2 angels and the Decalogue above an entrance at the 42 sec. pt. was recently removed or stolen, per photos on google maps.): youtu.be/8XSDI8BigmY?si=ZiAQB04ZCNykooNF
- youtu.be/MhJ16uH0ETI?si=f15RpKuz0LNMuDH9
- Watch 'Jewish journey to Iran', an interesting discussion on 'Israel Hayom' /b/ a guy with a Buffalonian accent and a Jewish columnist re her two visits to Iran, specifically to Jewish communities in Tehran, Hamadan and Esfahan.: youtu.be/MHcugV6vgDU?si=Wj9kLWrbqPb5neh8 She was impressed. She's critical, but considers that Iran is filled with "beautiful contradictions", and when asked what surprised her most on her trip (at the 11:40 min. pt.), she (very) readily responds: "How much I loved the country. Aside from Israel, I've never fallen that deeply in love with a country. ... The people, the mentality, the Persian and the Jewish mentality are quite alike. I mean we're very academic, very family-oriented, warm, respectful people, both of us, and I felt a strong connection to the people, and it's beautiful." But she says (at the 45 sec. pt.) that before she visited she rarely thought of Iranian Jews "outside of a pogrom context." Travel's always the best education. (A 2nd cousin of mine repeats a great quote. [I forget from whom.]: "I don't like those people much. I'll have to get to know them better.")
- All that said, the main challenge facing Iranian Jewry today is their low population (only 9,826 in 2016 according to a census, although the largest in the Middle and Near East after Israel), and the strict prohibition against Muslim apostasy. Their population can only grow from within or from marriage to foreigners who would then immigrate, a tall order. A far greater number of Iranian Jews live in Israel today than in Iran.
- youtu.be/dUP571KQyRQ?si=Ggmhr_H46uewaYRp
- The MASJED-E JAME, the 11th-18th cent. 'Museum of Islamic archictecture': (See my comment for my photo taken in an eivan in that mosque.)
- The IMAM ALI MINARET and MOSQUE (Seljuk, 1118-'57): This incredible minaret, the oldest in Esfahan, is 52 m.s high (I've also read 48), 2 m.s shy of the Sarban minaret near Joubareh (if so), the tallest in Esfahan province. A tapering cylindrical shaft built entirely of brick with decorative brick-work in recess, a prominent 'girdle' or balcony near the top, and 4 Kufic inscriptions, 3 highlighted with blue, glazed tiles, it was built together with the Imam Ali mosque during the reign of the Seljuk Khan Sanjar (r 1118-1157). The mosque was designed in the classic 4-eivan plan with a domed sanctuary in the qibla wing, and was renovated during the reign of Shah Isma'il I (1501-'24), much of it covered in tiles with floral and geometric motifs in blue, turquoise and white, a band with a Kufic inscription on the exterior of the dome, etc. www.archnet.org/sites/1611
- "The Chihil Dukhtaran and other Seljuq minarets [such as the Ali minaret] appear to have had considerable influence on the successive Ghurid victory towers built over Afghanistan and North of the Indian Subcontinent in the 12th to 13th cent.s." www.archnet.org/sites/1614
- The IMAMZADEH HARUN-e-VILAYET (Safavid, 1512-'13, restored in 1656-'57): "There are many accounts of Harun Vilayet," the man buried within, including that he's the son of the 10th Imam, the son of the 11th, the grandson of the 6th, and of the 7th. Whoever he was, his shrine is "the most important historical structure related to the early Safavid era" and "greatly influenced Safavid Esfahan's urban design in the 16th cent. The square of Harun-i Vilayet was at the centre of the city from the time of the reign of Shah Isma'il, the first Safavid ruler, until Shah 'Abbas I shifted the focus to the Maidan-i Shah in 1590." The shrine's construction is "attributed to Mirza Shah Husain, a vassal of Durmish Khan Shamlu, Isfahan's governor under Safavid Shah Ismail I." www.archnet.org/sites/3904 The interior is "only accessible during performances" of passion plays (Archnet), and was closed when I was there. Interesting murals and paintings with figural compositions of Ali, Fatima et al. adorn the walls of the antechamber as seen on google maps. Devotions here are reputed to work miracles. Some Armenian Christians worship here as well (?).
- Unusually, in 2000, huge (roof-high), very non-iconoclastic (un-Islamic?) portraits of Khomeini and Khamenei loomed to the left and right, respectively, of the ornate, tile-clad eivan in the entrance portal to the medreseh (adjoining the shrine itself), beside and beneath the minaret of Imam Ali. (They reminded me of Ataturk's cult of personality. I'll scan a photo.)
- the IMAMZADEH JA'FAR (Il-Khanid, 1320s): This slender, free-standing, octagonal tomb tower was built for a descendant of the 5th Imam. (For some strange reason, a Wikipedia entry writes at length that the occupant was a famous companion of Muhammad [who was also entombed in Jordan]. - ?) It's built with yellow, fired brick, has 2 impressive bands of tile mosaic inscription @ the top, and looks fairly new. (I don't recall it, but I took a photo of it.) www.archnet.org/sites/1617 See this older photo of the bands of tiles from the Smithsonian and be amazed at how much and how well it's been restored since it was taken.: www.si.edu/object/archives/components/sova-fsa-a-06-ref28...
- The DARB-e-IMAM ('The Shrine of the Imams', Qara Qoyunlu, from 1453, much of it restored in the 17th and 18th cent.s): This is a funerary complex with 2 shrines, a mosque, a mausoleum with a royal cemetery, and a stone sculpture that I photographed in its courtyard of a lion with a man's head in its open mouth. The cemetery dates to the Seljuk era and "[t]he first bldg. in the complex was built [in 1453 by Jahan Shah, two yr.s after Esfahan fell to the 'Qara Qoyunlu', to house the tomb of his mother, and] ... as an Imamzadeh for two saints, Ibrahim Tabatabai and Zayn al-'Abidin Ali, [alleged] descendants of Ali ibn Abi Talib", THE Ali, Muhammad's son-in-law, the 4th Imam, "through Ja'far al-Sadiq", the 6th. 12 more of Ali's descendants are buried there according to tradition. The complex grew to become a venerated burial ground for Safavid princes and dignitaries. "Shah 'Abbas I exhumed the remains of his predecessor Shah Tahmasp, who was defiled by Mongols in Mashhad," and reburied him there. The complex is known for the "brilliance of quality and colour of [its] early Timurid tile work" and its plaster inscription friezes. Its raised tile mosaic patterns and thuluth inscriptions were an influence on later Safavid architects. www.archnet.org/sites/3901
- The DARDASHT MINARETS and the TOMB of SULTAN BOKHT AGHA (late 14th cent.): The occupant Sultan (the wife or queen of the Shah and the niece of the last Injuid ruler, Sheikh Abu Ishaq Inju, executed by her husband or her father-in-law in 1357, and celebrated in Persian literature, incl. in the works of Hafez) was married to the Muzaffarid Shah Mahmud Ibn Amir Mobarez al-Din Muhammad, who, "although he was fascinated by [her] perfection," murdered her in a drunken rage one night during Hamadan, and then blamed her for an alleged plot to (somehow) capture and surrender him to his enemy Shah Shoia Ibn Amir Mobarez alDin Muhammad, for whom she would open the gates of Esfahan, all "to avenge the blood of her uncle." An inscription on her tomb reads: "This is the sacred stone which was created by the Great Khatun Sultan Bokht Agha, the daughter of Al-Amir Khosrow Shah. May God grant her success after her death in Ramadan in the year 753." According to popular legend, the Sultan foresaw that her husband would murder her at Ramadan that year, and she ordered her own tombstone and wrote her own epitaph. I've also read that the mausoleum was built in 1375 by her husband the Shah's successor, Shah Shoja Mozaffari, who imprisoned her husband and conquered Esfahan, and that he built it "to honour [the Sultan's] bravery." (I knew none of this then.)
- The twin, cylindrical minarets (15 m.s tall) and the dome of the mausoleum are built in fine, yellow fired brick with interlocking geometric designs and Kufic inscriptions in lines of turquoise and azure glazed bricks and faience, but much missing from the pattern on the dome in 2000. I saw a tall portal topped by twin minarets, one broken and truncated, the other with a crown or 'girdle' near the top (as seen in this photo www.archnet.org/sites/1615 ). Both the broken minaret and the dome have been so well-restored with missing parts replaced since (as seen in photos on-line) that it's hard to believe they weren't entirely intact these past 700 years. The complex includes a large courtyard with a fine eivan that leads to the tomb.
- youtu.be/UgrB3XPLxgk?si=tP0nNDfC1RPTw77Z
- I was taken on a tour through the back-streets and alleyways in neighborhoods just west of the Jame mosque (although all these many years I thought we drove north of the mosque) on the back of the seat of a motorbike (see my write-up for my photo taken at the Jame mosque) on which I saw a photogenic, new mosque (I've read that the number of mosques in Iran has increased from @ 25,000 in 1979 to @ 75,000 today) with a large, onion dome above a tall drum with tall windows, not yet tiled, and the dome of this old tomb with the truncated minarets, and either asked to stop to tour it or returned to it later. (I looked [and looked] for these needles in a haystack on google maps, but found the tomb and minarets while checking a list of sites in town in 'Persian Cities'.) Many old houses with ancient balconies and courtyards with elaborate porches or talars, incl. many old fixer-uppers, were seen on that tour too. Impressive interior walls and doors decorated with stucco were exposed in ruins here and there, including one beside that new mosque. I took a photo of an impressive wall of old windows made with stained glass and wooden panes in a ruined courtyard which has not only been restored since, it's now the 'Javaheri Historical House'. youtu.be/Z3Va46LyWEo?si=cZYv--Z4POHKvs9M
- This short video gives a good impression of the time capsuley quality of those old neighborhoods near the Jame mosque.: youtu.be/wHfsufNIZa0?si=WlEMEFOJ0mfonP5E
- The ATESHKADE (or ĀTAŠKADA)-ye ESFAHAN (Zoroastrian fire-temple): This ancient adobe complex, said to be that of a Sassanian Zoroastrian ateshkade (ātaškada), is perched atop a 105-m.-high hill @ 7 km.s west of town which affords good views back to the city and of the Zayandeh-rud. It was threatening to rain when I was there, and I took some good photos of structures at the top of the hill with the dark clouds behind. (I'll scan and upload one.)
- The complex includes the remains of a citadel consisting of @ 20 rooms or small bldg.s, several with the classic chartaq, 'four-arch' floor plan, characteristic of Sassanian fire-temples. (Wikipedia) The Arab historian Masudi visited the site in @ 1970, and "recorded [a] local tradition that the [temple] was converted from one of idol worship to fire worship by King Yustasf (aka Vishtaspa, the patron of Zoroaster) when he adopted the religion of the Magi." Since then, carbon-14 tests have revealed that the oldest elements of the temple (or fortress? whatever it was) date from the Elamite period (!).
- The most distinctive feature of the complex is a plain, adobe, circular tower atop the hill with one door and 7 windows. It "appears to have been a watch-tower" within which a fire served as a beacon, and may date to the Islamic period. It's been partly reconstructed in modern times. (Wikipedia) upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Atashgah_Isfa... According to a brochure, the complex is at 1,680 m.s above sea level and occupies an area of @ 36,000 m.s2.
- itto.org/iran/itemgallery/atashgah-zoroastrian-fire-templ...
- "The bldg.s [in the complex] were used by members of Esfahan's Isma'ili community in the 10th cent. to avoid tax collectors." I relate.
- I'd forgotten, but I wrote on the back of a photo that I walked the 7 or so clicks west to this site.
- After scrambling up to and @ the top and taking it all in, I headed east to the Manar Jomban (but missed a famous pigeon tower or 2 in the area).
- youtube.com/shorts/wy5991letwk?si=HuSQ0Nb4uoEOHzHl
- The MANAR JONBAN (Il-khanid, I337, and Safavid): A shrine built over the tomb of the early 14th cent. gnostic Amu Abdollah Karladani, @ 7 km.s west of the city centre, is known as Manar Jonban, 'Shaking Minarets'. Twin minarets stand at the corners of the roof of the 10 m. tall shrine with its single eivan. When one shakes one minaret from within at the top, causing it to wobble or sway back and forth, its twin does so as well at the same frequency. "Although by no means unique in this respect, these 'Shaking Minarets' are probably the most famous of their kind. The minarets [which at 7.5 m.s each aren't so tall,] probably date from the late Safavid period, while the tomb beneath them was built in the 14th cent." (LP) The Doppler effect seen here is a function of the use of light-weight materials in the construction of the minarets, their low height, their distance from one another, and the installation of wooden 'spreaders' in the upper and lower parts of the minarets. The architect designed them specifically for this effect. (That said, local legend has it that both minarets shake as Abu Abdollah shakes in his grave "with fury at being disturbed yet again.") I climbed up a flight of stairs to the roof, and then climbed up a minaret, shook it by leaning back and forth, causing it to sway, and observed its twin get into the act, so I can confirm the reports. (A visit here is a bit like a trip to 'Magnetic Hill' in Moncton on some level.) Tourists aren't permitted to climb up and mess with the minarets anymore, so the custodian puts on a demonstration 5 x a day.
- youtu.be/AJDatkvuXIo?si=Hod-O9Dbshu8jMKB
- I had a memorable exchange with a man in a mosque in Esfahan, and was about to include the mosque's name in the following account of the exchange (seeing as I'm writing this in 2024, 24 yr.s later), but I've thought better of it. I was looking around within it, taking in the details, as is my wont, and spoke briefly with a local man who suddenly and very kindly offered to help me to access a portion of it that was closed to the public at the time, about which I knew nothing. (This isn't to say that it wasn't closed to the public at all times in 2000, nor that it isn't closed to the public today. I wouldn't know.) He indicated that I should wait there for him and left for a few minutes. I later learned that he'd gone to look for the caretaker or custodian, the man with the keys, which I gathered from his limited English and his body-language as follows. When he returned he shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, and made a gesture with one arm (his left I think) extended outwards and with the palm of his right hand facing up and positioned close to the crook in his left, outstretched arm, while pointing the thumb of his right hand a few times toward the space /b/ the 2nd and 3rd fingers of that hand and to the crook in his left arm. (See how a picture is worth a thousand words?) He was imitating the action of injecting a needle into his outstretched arm, and was efficiently and effectively communicating that the caretaker of this famous mosque was unavailable to admit me to the said wonderful but mysterious locked portion of it because he was SHOOTING UP! What the ...?! Wow. That's how bad the situation had become locally with the flood of opiates across the Afghan border only @ 900 km.s to the East. I'd heard that this had become a real problem for Iran, and I'd already come across a junkie's needles in an adobe hollow of sorts at Susa, and would later seem them at Tappe Sialk where some kids pointed some out in a similar spot, and then found them by the toilet in a mosque at Firouzabad a few weeks later. I shouldn't have been surprised. Milk from the seeds of poppies grown in the vast poppy fields of Afghanistan (which have grown in total area to that of Rhode Island) has been converted to opium and morphine since ancient times, and increasingly to heroin since the late 19th cent. Annual Afghani production rose from @ 100 tons in the 70s to 2,000 in 1990, the year of the "conclusion" of the C.I.A.'s 10 year 'secret war' against the Soviets with the Afghan Mujahideen, "Operation Cyclone", and to 4,600 tons by 1999. (The Taliban famously attempted to destroy or greatly reduce production in 2000, the year of this trip, and achieved "an almost overnight drop to 185 tons harvested [in 2001]", but that just wouldn't do, and the U.S. invaded later that year, very coincidentally, hot on the heels of 9-11.) Afghanistan is now said to be "the source of over 90% of all the world’s illicit opium." mronline.org/2021/06/29/geopolitics-profit-and-poppies-ho... I'd heard or read that Iranian authorities had made inquiries (to their credit) with Western governments in the late 90s as to how they might address and seek to reduce opiate abuse and mitigate the levels of addiction Iran was facing. I also heard or read that "if the mullahs have resorted to asking for help or advice from the West, you know the situation MUST be bad." I heard that the situation in the city of Kerman, further east (which I didn't visit) was especially bad. Someone, somewhere that trip told me that Afghani suppliers had been training camels to run supply routes while addicting them to heroin, for which they would book it back and forth across the desert in the west and SW for their fix, laden with heroin. And to think that I was in Esfahan less than a year before 9-11, the American invasion of Afghanistan, and the expansion of opiate production to unprecedented levels.
- Of course I hope that that caretaker or custodian managed to turn things around and overcome his addiction to one of the most powerfully addictive drugs out there (at least in 2000). It's not a habit you can maintain without losing control of your life, so I assume his employers or supervisors learned about his problem and that either he prevailed against it or was let go.
Younus AlGohar explains how the Iranian concept of Imam Mehdi being the 12th Imam is completely false.
Main points:
- There were 11 Imams from the Household of Prophet Mohammad. Then, Shariat was given to Imam Abu Hanifa and Tariqat was given to Abdul Qadir Jilani.
- There is no concept of the 12th Imam in Islam. It is a concocted, fabricated story created by Shias. If anyone could be considered the 12th Imam, it would be Imam Abu Hanifa.
- 'Imam Mehdi' is a title. Imam Mehdi is not an Imam. The literal meaning of Imam is one who is in front of everyone else. It refers to someone who leads prayers in the mosque. The only difference between an Imam and common Muslim: a common Muslim remembers God 5000 times a day; an Imam remembers God 25 000 times a day.
- The problem with Shias is that they are not aware of spirituality and the system of sainthood. Therefore, they wrongly equate Imams with saints. There are two types of sainthood: 'Wilayat' and 'Walayat'. Wilayat is when you are appointed by the Prophet (Faqr-e-Bakaram). Walayat is when you are directly appointed by God (Faqr-e-Bakamiliyat). Ali was granted Walayat. The other 10 Imams were granted Wilayah.
- Saudi Arabia has destroyed history of Islam; Iran is trying her best to destroy our future. The future of humanity belongs to the Awaited One Lord Ra Riaz Gohar Shahi. No matter what Iran says about destroying Israel, Imam Mehdi Gohar Shahi, the Messenger of Love and Peace, will give Jews the Promised Land.
- What we see today is a tug of war between two different sects of Islam: Shiaism and Wahhabism. Saudi Arabia (financier of Wahhabism) and Iran (supporter of Shiaism) both want to colonise the South Asian region. Iran wants to colonise Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. At the same time, Saudi Arabia wants to continue its stronghold in Yemen, Syria and Iraq. Prophet Mohammad said that mischief will emerge from among Muslims and to Muslims, it will return. They'll kill each other. Then Imam Mehdi and Jesus will rule hearts of people.
so, like i explained on the previous photo, on the second day in Cinque Terre we did a 2 hours and a half trail from Monterosso to Vernazza, and this photo is of the moment we arrived to Vernazza, after a long and tiring walk. it felt so good to be there at last, knowing that in half an hour we'll be eating a good pizza :)
Having explained everything to my Stranger N°91 I was able to get straight on with taking my photos of my Stranger N°92.
Meet Laurence, she's Jean-Louis's wife, she was married before and has 3 children from that marriage. She was born in the region and they now live near Lannion (about 10km from here). They were in Perros for an afternoon out.
Laurence is a nurse and when she was younger she had wanted to be a doctor. When she's not working she enjoys sport, especially "footing" which I think is called "shore walking" in English. Walking in the sea at a depth of about waist height. She also enjoys just walking too.
I took my photos where I had taken Jean-Louis but at least in my main photo of her the red awning hasn't shown up quite so much. I have added a second photo of her too, which I liked as she wasn't looking at the camera. I also wanted to keep her scarf in the shots as I love the colour and that it went so well with her colouring.
I then asked her what she hadn't liked as a child. When I'd asked Jean-Louis I had asked Laurence if she'd walk away a bit, so she didn't hear the question. I found that if I had two people in front of me and both were willing to take part it, I got a better "Don't like" photo from the 2nd person, when they hadn't heard the question. Laurence didn't and still doesn't like café au lait, but loves black coffee.
Before I took my "Don't like" photo I had to stop as I hadn't shown her the results of her main photos as I had to Jean-Louis. Once she'd seen that they were OK I got my last photo, which I had to take 3 of before I was happy with it!
We all chatted about photography, the project and food dislikes before we said our thanks and went our separate ways.
100 Strangers (Round I) www.flickr.com/photos/44506883@N04/sets/72157627810663376/
100 Strangers (Round II) www.flickr.com/photos/44506883@N04/sets/72157632333365533/
100 Strangers (Round III) www.flickr.com/photos/44506883@N04/sets/72157634454644547...
100 Strangers Group www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/
Merci beaucoup Laurence.
Thank you for your favourites. :O)