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Get those greens in your image...
Just a close-up of a Tiger is boring...given a situation, I always try to include out of focus greens in the image which adds to the colours of the frame.
It is important to keep your eyes glued to the viewfinder as you get just once chance when you have good eye contact with the Tiger. Well, it may happen again, but that particular frame will not repeat.
When there is a Tiger sighing, there's a lot of noise created as everyone wants to get a glimpse of it. But that's natural. I see photographers getting distracted and they keep looking at other vehicles to see what's happening. Avoid that. Always stay focused on your work and you will get your frame.
Wildlife photography is indeed serious work when it comes to making good images.
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Sudhir Shivaram Photography - for the love of learning
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Sony A77 + Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 135mm f1.8 ZA SAL135F18Z lens
In Buddhism, alms or almsgiving is the respect given by a lay Buddhist to a Buddhist monk, nun, spiritually-developed person or other sentient being. It is not charity as presumed by Western interpreters. It is closer to a symbolic connection to the spiritual realm and to show humbleness and respect in the presence of the secular society.[note 1] The act of alms giving assists in connecting the human to the monk or nun and what he/she represents. As the Buddha has stated:
Householders & the homeless or charity [monastics]
in mutual dependence
both reach the true Dhamma....
—Itivuttaka 4.7[1][note 2]
In Theravada Buddhism, monks (Pāli: bhikkhus) and nuns go on a daily almsround (or pindacara) to collect food. This is often perceived as giving the laypeople the opportunity to make merit (Pāli: puñña). Money should not be accepted by a Buddhist monk or nun in lieu of or in addition to food, although nowadays not many monks and nuns keep to this rule (the exception being the monks and nuns of the Thai Forest Tradition and other Theravada traditions which focus on vinaya and meditation practice). In countries that follow Mahayana Buddhism, it has been impractical for monks to go on a daily almsround. In China, Korea and Japan, monasteries were situated in remote mountain areas in which the distance between the monastery and the nearest towns would make a daily almsround impossible. In Japan, the practice of a weekly or monthly takuhatsu replaced the daily round. In the Himalayan countries, the large number of bikshus would have made an almsround a heavy burden on families. Competition with other religions for support also made daily almsrounds difficult and even dangerous; the first Buddhist monks in the Shilla dynasty of Korea were said to be beaten due to their minority at the time.
Since about 1997 I have wanted to go inside the Tate Gallery at St. Ives. There used to be an old exhibition poster blue-tacked to the wall in the portacabin where I studied A-Level Art, from some exhibition that had been to Tate St. Ives. I remember my Art Tutor telling me that the light was so much better down on the coast and that was why a lot of Artists flocked down here.
I made it here once about 5 years ago, arriving bang on 5 o'clock- closing time :(
So, Olivier and I decided to make our way there and see what was on. We had a great day! It took quite a while to find the gallery from the harbour, wandering (up-hill) randomly for a while but we got there in the end.
I shot this from from the Mezzanine above where the installation by Martin Creed is.
The artwork is called 'Half the air in the space given' Creed calculates the volume of the space and fills half of it with balloons to show this space in a physical form. Visitors are then invited to engage in this space, the balloons evoking a sense of celebration and childhood, literally changing our behaviour and mood.
Our hair was on end with all the static electricity, it smelled like balloons and you could bury your way through it all.....it was ace :)
Given a brief 90 seconds with their families, cadet candidates are ushered out of Eisenhower Hall and bus after bus sends them to Thayer Hall for inprocessing and company assignments. Afterward, the new cadets become acquainted with such things as drill and ceremony and chain of command as they begin their initial transformation from civilian to West Point cadet. Mike Strasser, West Point Public Affairs
North Toraja (or Toraja Utara) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and the home of the Toraja ethnic group. The local government seat is in Rantepao which is also the center of Toraja culture. Formerly this regency was part of Tana Toraja Regency.
The Tana Toraja boundary was determined by the Dutch East Indies government in 1909. In 1926, Tana Toraja was under the administration of Bugis state, Luwu. The regentschap (or regency) status was given on October 8, 1946, the last regency given by the Dutch. Since 1984, Tana Toraja has been named as the second tourist destination after Bali by the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. Since then, hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors have visited this regency. In addition, numerous Western anthropologists have come to Tana Toraja to study the indigenous culture and people of Toraja.
GEOGRAPHY
Tana Toraja is located on the Sulawesi island, 300 km north of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. Its geographical location is between latitude of 2°-3° South and longitude 119°-120° East (center: 3°S 120°ECoordinates: 3°S 120°E). The area of the new North Toraja Regency is 1,151.47 km², about 2.5% of the total area of South Sulawesi province. The topography of Tana Toraja is mountainous; its minimum elevation is 150 m, while the maximum is 3,083 above the sea level.
Tana Toraja Regency (Indonesian for Torajaland or Land of the Toraja, abbreviated Tator) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and home to the Toraja ethnic group. The local government seat is in Makale, while the center of Toraja culture is in Rantepao. But now, Tana Toraja has been divided to two regencies that consist of Tana Toraja with its capital at Makale and North toraja with its capital at Rantepao.
The Tana Toraja boundary was determined by the Dutch East Indies government in 1909. In 1926, Tana Toraja was under the administration of Bugis state, Luwu. The regentschap (or regency) status was given on 8 October 1946, the last regency given by the Dutch. Since 1984, Tana Toraja has been named as the second tourist destination after Bali by the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. Since then, hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors have visited this regency. In addition, numerous Western anthropologists have come to Tana Toraja to study the indigenous culture and people of Toraja.
GEOGRAPHY
Tana Toraja is centrally placed in the island of Sulawesi, 300 km north of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. It lies between latitude of 2°-3° South and longitude 119°-120° East (center: 3°S 120°ECoordinates: 3°S 120°E). The total area (since the separation of the new regency of North Toraja) is 2,054.30 km², about 4.4% of the total area of South Sulawesi province. The topography of Tana Toraja is mountainous; its minimum elevation is 150 m, while the maximum is 3,083 above the sea level.
ADMINISTRATION
Tana Toraja Regency in 2010 comprised nineteen administrative Districts (Kecamatan), tabulated below with their 2010 Census population.
The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja").[1] Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognised this animistic belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word Toraja comes from the Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colourful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism development and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model—in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo—to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.
ETHNIC IDENTITY
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonisation and Christianisation, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders—such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi—than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups—the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).
HISTORY
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognised in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to Christianity.
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognised religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognised, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalised as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.
SOCIETY
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.
FAMILY AFFILIATION
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin)—except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.
CLASS AFFILIATION
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.
Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women—a crime punishable by death.
RELIGIOUS AFFILATION
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.
The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.
CULTURE
TONGKONAN
Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
Architecture in the style of a tongkonan is still very common. Various administration buildings were built in this style in recent years, e.g. the Kecamatan building in Rantepao.
WOOD CARVINGS
To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolise some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolise fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. Torajan wood carvings are composed of numerous square panels, each of which can represent various things, for example buffaloes as a wish of wealth for the family; a knot and a box, symbolizing the hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony; aquatic animals, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.
FUNERAL RITES
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased's family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.
DANNCE AND MUSIC
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.
COGENDER VIEWS
Among the Saʼadan (eastern Toraja) in the island of Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia, there are homosexual male toburake tambolang shamans; although among their neighbors the Mamasa (western Toraja) there are instead only heterosexual female toburake shamanesses.
LANGUAGE
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.
Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae, Talondo, Toala, and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages.
A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterised their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.
ECONOMY
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market.
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies—to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.
Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s—including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi—tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.
TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure—an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialised. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.
A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.
WIKIPEDIA
06 December 2013, Hangachafa Village, Hawassa (Awasa Zuria Woreda, Sidama Zone, SNNP region), Ethiopia - Mabrat Eyiso sifts beans from dirt, dust and hay. The hay is given to his cows to eat. FAO provided the seeds. The beans harvested from the seeds are sold to the cooperative that is supported by IFAD and WFP. FAO and WFP are jointly implementing the Purchase from Africans to Africa project. The objective is to improve food security and income generation activities of smallholder farmers by promoting local food production using the demand for food from the local schools. WFP is responsible for purchasing food produced by FAO-supported smallholder farmers’ organizations. The project has distributed seeds to farmers on credit basis and each farmer has started to return 25kg of beans as seed to disseminate to the other non-beneficiary farmers as a multiplication effect.The food procured is distributed through WFP’s school meals programme, reaching more than 8,000 students in 7 primary schools in the district.
Most of Henok's nine children attend classes at the WFP supported Anja Chefa school. Farmers grow beans for three reasons; home consumption, to produce next year's seeds and to sell beans at the market. Henok says from 400 kgs of harvested beans, 250 kgs is sold at the market, 100 kgs is for home consumption and 50 kgs will be the seeds for next year's planting. FAO, IFAD and WFP work closely together in Ethiopia. The Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region (SNNPR) is one of the nine administrative regions of Ethiopia, with Hawassa the capital. The SNNP region has a population estimated at over 16 million people and the majority -- 90 percent -- are smallholder farmers living in rural areas. With 136 Woredas, the region mainly produces maize, haricot beans, teff and coffee, while various populations are agro-pastoralists and pastoralist.
The projects supported by IFAD, FAO and WFP provide an array of complimentary support to small-scale farmers and cooperative unions. Food-security interventions are boosting access to some basic financial services, including bank loans, which were previously unavailable to agricultural cooperative unions and their members. Increased access to those services is, in turn, helping the farmers build a more food-secure future for themselves and their families. Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands (UN Secretary General Special Advocate for Financial Inclusion, UNSGSA) and the three food agencies of the United Nations are teaming up in Ethiopia and Tanzania to raise awareness of how access to financial services – such as bank accounts, short-term credit, small loans, savings and insurance – can help improve the lives and livelihoods of smallholder farmers and the rural poor.
Photo credit must be given: ©FAO/IFAD/WFP/Petterik Wiggers. Editorial use only.
PLEASE NOTE - THE SCANS ARE THE BEST THAT I CAN DO GIVEN THE STATE OF THE MANUSCRIPT.
This is a bifolium from William Durand's “Speculi clarissimi pars tertia et quarta”, also known as the “Speculum judiciale” or “The Illustrious Mirror of Life, Parts III and IV” that was probably produced in Bologna, Italy, in the fourteenth century.
The text is from Book IIII, Perticula III.
Page 1 begins in “ De apostolis seu libel dimissoriis” (The Apostles discharge the libel) which is followed by “De clericis coniugatis” (The married clerics). This continues on to page 2 and is followed by “De clericis non residdentibus in eccllesia, vel praebenda “ (The clerics are not resident or in their given church) and “De praebendis et dignitatibus” (The representatives and dignitaries). Page 3 begins with a different text. It begins in “De actionibus empti et uenditi” (The actions of the bought and sold) and this continues through to, and beyond, the end of page 4
The maximum size of the bifolium is 420mm 568mm (16 1/2ins. x 22 4/10ins.).
The maximum size of a leaf is 420mm x 284mm (16 1/2ins. x 11 2/10ins.).
In the top outside corners of pages 1 and three are page numbers - c and c
ii xxxix ii xliiii
The page numbers 239 and 244 would indicate that the bifolium consists of the second and seventh leaves if it was part of an eight leaf gathering.
OVERALL CONDITION: -
There is no doubt that the condition of this bifolium leavers a lot to be desired. It has evidently been a wrapper of some sort from at least 1557 and it is creased horizontally as well as vertically, has several small holes, vellum has been removed from parts of both outside margins and the bottom margin of pages 1-2, is quite dirty on pages 1 and 4 and the wear to pages 1 an4 makes parts of them difficult to read.
GENERAL COMMENTS: -
Not withstanding the overall condition of the bifolium, it is a very interesting addition to the collection as it is from a significant legal text that I have been unable to find any examples of being sold since before the end of the nineteenth century. It can only be concluded that it must be quite rare in the truest sense.
GUILLAUME DURAND: -
Born c.1230 (at Puimisson near Beziers, in France), died 1st. November 1296, was a French canonist and liturgical writer and Bishop of Mende who studied law at Bologna. By 1264 he was teaching Canon law at Modena. In 1274 he helped to draw up the constitutions of the Second Council of Lyons and in 1278 he received, in the name of the pope, the homage of Bologna and the other cities of Romagna. Amidst various struggles he successfully defended the papal territories by both diplomacy and arms. Although elected Bishop of Mende in 1286, he remained in Bologna until 1291. He refused the archbishopric of Revenna in 1295 and in 1296 withdrew to Rome where he died.
“SPECULUM IUDICIALE”: -
William Durand's “Speculum Iudiciale” (also known as “Speculi clarissimi” and sometimes referred to as “The Illustrious Mirror of Life”) was compiled in 1271 and revised in 1286 and 1291. It is a general explanation of civil, criminal and canonical procedure, and also includes a survey of the subject of contracts. It is a remarkable encyclopedic synthesis Roman and ecclesiastical law, distinguished by its clarity, its method, and especially its practical sense, and its repute was as great and lasting in the courts as in the schools. This work won Durand the nickname “Doctor Speculator”.
Given the right conditions even Burlington Northern Santa Fe D9-44CWs can look good. Of course, it helps that all three Dash 9s at the head of this train are wearing different liveries. This is Heritage III No. BNSF 4121, Heritage I No. BNSF 1087 and ex ATSF 'Warbonnet' No. BNSF 623 leading yet another double stack intermodal working around the 'S' curve just east of Cosnino Road, near Flagstaff, Arizona, on April 21st, 2007.
Pussy willow is a name given to many of the smaller species of the genus Salix (willows and sallows) when their furry catkins are young in early spring. Before the male catkins of these species come into full flower they are covered in fine, greyish fur, leading to a fancied likeness to tiny cats, also known as “pussies”. The catkins appear long before the leaves, and are one of the earliest signs of spring.
Pussy willow is a favourite flower for Chinese New Year. The fluffy white blossoms of the pussy willow resemble silk, and they soon give forth young shoots the colour of green jade. The Chinese enjoy such signs of growth, which represent the coming of prosperity. The stalks of pussy willow are frequently decorated with gold and red ornaments that signify prosperity and happiness.
The flowering shoots of pussy willow are also used both in Europe and America for spring religious decoration on Palm Sunday, as a replacement for palm branches, which do not grow that far north. Ukrainian and Russian Orthodox, Ruthenian, Polish, Bavarian and Austrian Roman Catholics, Finnish Lutherans and Orthodox and various other Eastern European peoples carry pussy willow branches on Palm Sunday instead of palm branches. This custom has continued to this day among Romanian Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Ruthenian Catholic, Ukrainian Catholic, Kashubian Catholic and Polish Catholic emigrees to North America. Sometimes, on Palm Sunday they will bless both palms and pussy willows in church. The branches will often be preserved throughout the year in the family's icon corner.
On October 4 1957 the Archives Act (1957) was enacted, creating a repository to be known as The National Archives in which public archives were to be deposited and preserved.
The care of government archives was the responsibility of the Colonial Secretary's Department (renamed the Department of Internal Affairs in 1907) since 1840. In 1926, the Chief Librarian of the General Assembly Library, G.A. Schofield, was given the additional title, Controller of Dominion Archives, but was given no additional resources to carry out his extra functions. The Hope Gibbons Fire of 1952 where a number of government records were lost was seen as a catalyst for the formal legislation passed in 1957 to raise the standard of archives management in New Zealand. After the 1952 fire, the Public Service Commission accepted the proposal to appoint a Chief Archivist, but it was not put into effect until the passing of the Archives Act in 1957.
The Dominion Archives moved from the General Assembly Library attic to the Employers Federation Building, 12 The Terrace in 1954, along with a name change of Dominion Archives to National Archives. However, not until the passing of the Archives Act in 1957 was there statutory provision for the existence of the National Archives as a branch of the Department of Internal Affairs and for the appointment of a Chief Archivist.
National Archives moved to Borthwick House, 85 The Terrace, Wellington in 1966, before moving to the Air NZ Building, Vivian St, Wellington in 1977. In 1989 the Government Printing Office building in Mulgrave Street was purchased and set to be the new home of National Archives of Wellington. It officially opened in 1991. In 2005 Public Records Act (2005) became legislation, replacing the Archives Act of 1957.
During the early 1960s National Archives opened record centres in Auckland and Wellington for the storage of semi-current records. The Auckland Regional Office of National Archives opened in 1984. The office was managed by Regional Archivist, Mark Stevens. The Office was initially located in the BJ Ball Building, Hardinge Street, Auckland. The Christchurch Office of The National Archives opened in 1985 and the Dunedin Office in 1993.
Seen here, is archivist Grant Pittams, examining watercolours in the Internal Affairs Department's papers.
Archives New Zealand Reference: ARCH 458 1 / x AR1/59 collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search#/?q=21921506
For further enquiries email research.archives@dia.govt.nz
Material from Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga
Given to members of a chorus at Hammar Glassworks. Roland Karlsson was the choir leader. Only 16 bottles were made.
PELTON COLLIERY ESTABLISHES A REMARKABLE RECORD IN AMBULANCE WORK.
Pelton Colliery has established a remarkable model in St. John Ambulance work. Sixty of the local members of the Brigade are serving their country, thirteen being in French hospitals and in the field, and fifteen in the Dardanelles. In addition to its fine contribution of workers, Pelton has also risen to the occasion in respect to the appeal for funds with which to equip the S.J.A.B. Hospital for foreign service, and has given enough money to provide two beds.
This photograph was published in the Illustrated Chronicle on the 23rd of July 1915.
During the Great War the Illustrated Chronicle published photographs of soldiers and sailors from Newcastle and the North East of England, which had been in the news. The photographs were sent in by relatives and give us a glimpse into the past.
The physical collection held by Newcastle Libraries comprises bound volumes of the newspaper from 1910 to 1925. We are keen to find out more about the people in the photographs. If you recognise anyone in the images please comment below.
Copies of this photograph may be ordered from us, for more information see: www.newcastle.gov.uk/tlt Please make a note of the image reference number above to help speed up your order.
Whyalla. Population 21,200.
Hummock Hill was sighted and named by Matthew Flinders in 1802 and soon after given French names by Captain Baudin. The first pastoral runs were taken out here in the 1850s as it had the Middle Back ranges, coastal access and Port Augusta not too far distant. One of the early pastoralists was James Patterson who took out the Iron Knob leasehold of over 160 square miles in 1854 near Iron Knob. To the north and west of his leasehold was that of James Loudon who took out Caroona station in 1862. Other leaseholds in the region of Whyalla were Point Lowly, Pandurra and Middleback. In the early 1870s Loudon sold Caroona to Sir Samuel Davenport and Sir John Morphett and it was Davenport, with his interest in minerals and mining, who sent the first ore samples to England in 1878 for analysis. This resulted in a mining lease taken out in 1880 by Ernest Siekman. The lease lapsed as he did not pay the annual rental. BHP took out nine mining leases in 1896 and the future of iron Knob and the future Whyalla began. BHP began taking iron ore for smelting to Port Augusta in 1899 which took bullock drays two days. The Hundred of Randell which covered this area was declared in 1895 as interest in the ore deposits increased.
In 1896 the government released land fronting Spencers Gulf for lease. One of the first to take up land where Whyalla stands was Humphrey Cowled who leased 30,000 acres on the gulf which he called Nonowie. The town of Hummock Hill emerged in 1900 after BHP developed their ore leases. The ore was used for flux in the Port Pirie smelter and it was shipped across Spencers Gulf. Most of the early settler families at Hummock Hill also came by ship across the gulf from Port Pirie. These families remained the backbone of the Whyalla population until World War Two. In 1900 BHP proposed to the government of SA to enact a bill that would allow them to build a tramway from Iron Knob to Hummock Hill on the coast with a permanent leasehold of the route. Port Augusta Council opposed this as they wanted the tramway built to Port Augusta and its already existing port. There was some logic in this opposition as a tramway to Port Augusta would be 46 miles in length whereas the tramway to Hummock Hill was about 35 miles, not a significantly shorter distance. The government enacted legislation for a BHP tramway to Hummock Hill in 1901 and BHP had developed a small jetty and port by 1903. At the same time the town of Hummock Hill emerged partly on BHP leasehold land. By 1905 the settlement had its first school, a general store and a tin Institute in which the school was conducted. Church services were also held in the hall. In 1903 the community was pleased when Mr Delprat, the general manager of the Broken Hill mine visited Hummock Hill and Iron Knob. The first hotel opened in 1905 on the site that later became the Whyalla Hotel 20 or so years later. The beer was shipped to the hotel from Port Pirie. The isolation of Hummock Hill was reduced when a telephone service began in 1911. Gradually stone houses replaced early tin and timber houses and the town took shape. The government officially surveyed and changed the name of the town to Whyalla in 1914 which means “sound of the sea” in a local Aboriginal language. The new solid Institute was opened in 1920 by Mr Delprat the BHP manager in Broken Hill. At the time Whyalla had a population of around 1,000 people with sporting clubs, RSL, banks, and commercial enterprises. Water was shipped from Port Pirie when necessary. BHP established a dairy to provide milk for the residents and a small desalination plant was built to provide additional fresh water. The impressive red ironstone buildings, often in the Art Deco style were erected in the late 1930s or early 1940s as the city’s industrial base expanded to steel making and ship building. The iron stone Whyalla Hotel opened in 1933. It was enlarged in 1940. This was a company town run by BHP with the exception of the Post Office, the School and the Police Station run by the government and the commercial enterprises of the town. BHP was a paternalistic employer and during the Depression of the 1930s as work slowed BHP found other jobs for married male employees such as re grading the tramway from Iron Knob etc.
During World War One Mr Delprat had suggested a steel furnace and steel works in Whyalla but this did not happen. The steel industry in Australia began with a small furnace and plant at Lithgow in the Blue Mountains in 1901. This plant was superseded by the bigger steel works in Newcastle in 1915 and Whyalla jetty was then expanded to ship iron ore direct to Newcastle. The third steel plant in Australia was established at Port Kembla (Wollongong) in 1928 and Iron Knob ore was also shipped there. With the rise of Hitler and Third Reich in Europe in 1933 and the ominous threat of world war Australia began to be concerned about its future as it was clear we were no longer isolated from the rest of the world. In 1937 the SA government passed legislation for the Morgan to Whyalla Murray River water pipeline to ensure water reliability for Whyalla and this was an essential for the first production of steel by BHP. The 1937 act set aside 1,000 acres for BHP to establish the plant and adjacent harbour. Progress was not hasty and the furnace and harbour began in 1939. After the outbreak of World War Two work progressed quickly. The first steel was produced in 1941 and called pig iron. Port Kembla also produced pig iron or steel and its export to Japan in 1938 led to the Attorney General Robert Menzies being called Pig Iron Bob by striking wharf unionists. The union slogan at the time was “No scrap for the Jap.” At that time Japan was fighting the Sino-Japanese War and needed more steel. The industrial dispute at Port Kembla ended in January 1939 when the waterside workers loaded the ships at Port Kembla. In 1940 the Royal Australia Navy asked BHP if they could build ships in Whyalla and this became urgent with the war and work began in 1940 on the hulls of several ships before the steel blast furnace was completed. The town grew rapidly with an influx of new workers and the construction of the hospital, an abattoirs, the Spencer Hotel, and the establishment of a Whyalla newspaper in 1941/42. During the War the population rose from 1,350 in 1937 to 7,900 in 1944. During most of World War Two BHP employed around 2,500 men and women with a peak of 2,750 employees in 1941. During the War BHP also established an ammunitions annex to produce shells for war arms. In a couple of years Whyalla produced 748,000 shell cases. The Combined Unions Council negotiated with BHP for workers’ wages and conditions. The newly employed women to offset the war time labour shortage were employed in the war effort in the shell annex, the tool room and in ship building. The women received 90% of the men’s wages for the same job.
The first ship was launched in 1941 and named the HMAS Whyalla (650 tonnes) which is now part of the Information Centre and Maritime Museum. It was one of four corvettes made in Whyalla for the Royal Australia Navy and they mainly worked as minesweepers and surveillance. During and after World War Two Whyalla built 36 ships for the Australian Navy, four for Indian navy and 20 for the British Admiralty. After the War most of the ships built in Whyalla shipyards were mainly cargo and iron ore carriers. A total of 63 ships, one oil rig and two barges were built in Whyalla by 1978 when shipbuilding was closed down. Most of the corvettes manufactured in Whyalla had South Australian town names- Whyalla, Gawler and Pirie. Whyalla also built the Kalgoorlie corvette for the Royal Navy. Other SA named corvettes built interstate were the Kapunda, the Glenelg and the Wallaroo. After the war BHP built commercial ships and eventually in 1958 they decided to build an integrated steel works in Whyalla (completed 1965) to process the ore into steel. Railway lines and ships were among the steel products produced.
As a shipbuilding site and producer of ammunition shells Whyalla needed special consideration and defence during World War Two. Defence installations were erected on Hummock Hill during the Second World War (1942) as Whyalla was a potential Japanese bombing target. Four anti-aircraft guns were on the ready at Hummock Hill. Other defence installations were built south of Cowell at Port Gibbon to forewarn of a Japanese attack. Complacency about war threats was overturned when German shipping mines were discovered in Spencers Gulf in 1940 designed to impede BHP ore carriers to Newcastle and Wollongong. Across the Gulf Port Pirie produced half of Britain’s lead so it too needed special protection. A survey recommended special defences for both Iron Triangle cities but only Whyalla got special protection. As the threat of Japan increased anti-aircraft guns were sent to Hummock Hill and arrived on 4 February 1942. Ten days later (14 th February) Singapore fell to the Japanese and on 19th February 1942 Darwin was bombed and partially destroyed by the Japanese. The hummock Hill anti-aircraft guns were operational by 23rd March. One Royal Navy ship guarded the entrance to Whyalla for most of the War until 1944. Search lights were installed at Hummock Hill late in 1942. But no threat emerged during the War. Air raid practices were conducted by BHP from time to time warning people to take cover when the BHP siren sounded. Despite the practices and preparations no raid occurred but the need for precaution was not unfounded. Three of BHP’s merchant ships were sunk off the coast of NSW on their way to or from Whyalla with a total loss of 85 lives. By early 1944 Australia’s home defences were known to be out of danger but gunners at Whyalla had been withdrawn in August 1943 and their tasks taken over by civilian defence.
By 1943 Whyalla had a population of 5,000 people and people began to query the lack of local government as the city was run by BHP. Local government was instituted in 1944 with three elected and three BHP appointed councillors. 1944 was also the year the Morgan to Whyalla water pipeline was completed. In 1960 Whyalla became a city as it had around 14,000 residents. The Commission system of local government was ended in 1970 when locals could finally elect all councillors to their city. By 1976 Whyalla had 33,000 residents, the largest city outside of Adelaide but with the loss of shipbuilding in 1978 the city’s population declined to about 20,000. BHP sold their Whyalla works to OneSteel in 2000 which changed its name to Arrium. Sanjeev Gupta bought the insolvent Arrium steelworks in 2017 and has revitalised it albeit with recent difficulties. The Whyalla steel works are critical to the whole of Australia as steel is only made at Whyalla and Port Kembla. Whyalla is the only plant to make steel rail for all sorts of uses not just railways. In late 2024 Whyalla steel works employed 4,800 people directly and countless more indirectly in other firms. (Port Kembla employs around 3,000 people.) Perhaps the future of the city will be revitalised even more if the hydrogen hub proceeds. Whether that happens or not billions of dollars of investment are needed to move Whyalla steel works away from coal fired furnaces to gas or hydrogen fired furnaces. On the way to Hummock Hill lookout in Gay St. we pass the Whyalla Institute with a classical façade with the date as 1920. This was also the site of the first timber Institute opened in February 1905. The first Whyalla School opened in this Institute in April 1905.The current port of Whyalla exports iron ore and steel mainly. Port Bonython 16 kms north of Whyalla mainly exports crude oil and liquid gas from South Australia’s Cooper basin.
My wife was given a lovely food hamper at Christmas and it is full of wonderful food and nibbles ~ all the packaging is blue and white!
Flickr Lounge - Saturday Theme (Week 52) ~ Blue and /or White ....
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... thanks to you all.
At the end of World War II, the victorious Allies captured both German scientists and research papers in aerodynamics which had given the Germans a slight edge in technology during the war. Among this was research into swept wings, which promised better handling at high speeds, a feature used successfully in the Messerschmitt Me 262. All the combatant nations had been developing jet fighters at the end of the war, and the Soviet Union was no different: like the Western Allies, it found the swept wing concept to be a perfect solution to add speed without sacrificing stability; unlike the West, the Soviets could not take advantage of it due to a lack of adequate jet engines. Soviet metallurgy was simply not up to the task, and experimental jet fighters were severely underpowered.
Engine designer Vladimir Klimov, however, came up with a novel idea: he asked the British in 1946 if they could provide a few examples of their latest engine. To the stunned surprise of Klimov, the Mikoyan-Gurevich design bureau, and Josef Stalin, the British complied, providing Klimov with the plans for the Rolls-Royce Nene turbojet, one of the most successful jet engines in history. Klimov quickly reverse engineered it as the VK-1, and just like that, the Soviets had the perfect engine for their planned jet interceptors.
MiG OKB already had a jet fighter in service, the MiG-9, but it was a poor performer. By modifying a MiG-9 into the I-310 prototype, with VK-1 propulsion and swept wings and tail surfaces, the resultant aircraft was superb: it was very manueverable and fast. It was placed into production as the MiG-15. This in turn was superseded by the more advanced and reliable MiG-15bis, which added airbrakes and a few minor avionics changes. Though pilots hated the cramped cockpit, which forced them to fly without heated or pressurized flight suits—a real concern in frigid Russian winters—they loved its responsiveness and speed. Though the MiG-15 was designed to intercept the B-29 Superfortress, hence its heavy cannon armament, it could hold its own in a dogfight. It rapidly replaced most propeller-driven fighters in the Soviet inventory, and was quickly supplied to Soviet client states.
The MiG-15 would get its first taste of action during the Chinese Civil War, when Russian-flown MiG-15s flew on behalf of the Communist Chinese against the Nationalists; a P-38L was shot down on 28 April 1950 for the type’s first victory. By far, however, it would be Korea where the MiG-15 would see the most action.
After starting out well, the North Korean armies were, by fall 1950, in full rout from South Korea, pursued by United Nations forces. The World War II-era North Korean People’s Air Force had been annihilated by UN aircraft, and though China intended to intervene on behalf of North Korea, it lacked trained pilots. Stalin agreed to secretly provide both MiG-15s and the pilots to fly them, operating from bases in China across the Yalu River from North Korea. The pilots, under command of Soviet top ace Ivan Kozhedub, were instructed to speak in what little Korean they knew, and never fly over territory where they might be captured. The former was rarely heeded in the heat of combat, while the short range of the MiG-15 limited pilots to flying in and around the Yalu valley in any case. This rapidly became known as “MiG Alley.” By November 1950, Russian-flown MiG-15s were in combat against American and British aircraft, and both sides fielded pilots who had already flown combat in World War II. Both sides were to find they were close to evenly matched as well: the Russians claimed the first jet-to-jet victory on 1 November, when a MiG-15 shot down a USAF F-80C; four days later, they suffered their first loss, to a US Navy F9F Panther. Most engagements were to occur between the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15.
Once more, the two were closely matched. The MiG-15 had a better rate of climb, was superior above 33,000 feet, and had harder hitting cannon armament. The F-86’s six machine guns were often ineffective against the rugged MiG, but it was more manueverable, especially at low level, and if the machine guns did not cause as much damage, they fired at three times the rate of the MiG-15’s cannons, and usually hit what they aimed at, due to a superior radar-ranging gunsight. Both sides had to deal with instability at high speeds: if the MiG pilot got into trouble, he would climb out of danger, whereas the Sabre pilot would dive. The pilots were evenly matched, though the Russians would later admit that the Americans were better trained. Both sides overclaimed during the war, with both Soviet and American pilots claiming 12 to 1 kill ratios: the truth may never be known, though 40 Russians were awarded the title of ace during the war.
After the end of the Korean War, the MiG-15 remained in service, though it slowly began to be replaced by the MiG-17 and MiG-19. Nonetheless, MiG-15s were involved in eleven separate incidents during the Cold War, shooting down several US and British reconnaissance aircraft and an Israeli airliner. By the mid-1950s, however, the MiG-15 was beginning to show its age, and in combat with Sidewinder-equipped F-86s of Taiwan and Israeli Super Mysteres, it came off second best. Gradually, single-seat MiG-15s were retired from active service, though hundreds of two-seat MiG-15UTI “Midget” trainers remained in service; the MiG-15UTI is still flown by several air forces to this day. About 16,000 MiG-15s were produced in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechslovakia, and a good number remain in existence today in museums and numerous flyable examples, including 43 in the United States.
With the knowledge that the MiG-15 would be a handful to fly for pilots used to propeller aircraft, some MiG-15s were modified with a cramped but serviceable rear cockpit; the student either used a periscope from the rear cockpit, or flew up front with the instructor behind him. The Midget was so successful that the Soviets did not build two-seat versions of the MiG-17 and MiG-19. Like most MiG-15UTIs on display in the United States, this is a former Polish SBLim-1, a MiG-15UTI built under license in Poland. It flew with the Polish Air Force through the 1960s to the 1990s as Bort 114, but was retired and put up for sale in 2003. It was acquired by the Southwest Florida Defense Antiquities Museum in Fort Myers, but in 2013, it was sold to the Inde Motorsports Ranch in Willcox, Arizona.
Like most of the collection at Inde Motorsports, this Midget is in great shape, painted as a Soviet Air Force MiG-15UTI in 1980s-era tactical camouflage, as Bort 625. Interestingly, this aircraft retains its guns and possibly its ejection seats as well.
Given the current wildfire situation in BC, which is expected to worsen over the weekend, the Province is asking people to not travel to parts of the Interior region until further notice.
Learn more:
GIVEN A MASS OF OLD CROCHET PATTERNS SOME TIME BACK .THESE ARE THE ONES I KEPT,MUST ADMIT I USUALLY MAKE UP MY PATTERNS NOW AS I GO.
St George, Stowlangtoft, Suffolk
Given that our parish churches almost without exception underwent restorations in the 19th Century, it should be obvious that when we enter a medieval church, we are encountering a Victorian vision of the medieval. Even when the actual furnishings and fittings are medieval, the whole piece is still a Victorian conception.
Inevitably, the question arises of what was there before the restoration and what wasn't. The obvious answer is that we must assume that nothing is as it first appears.
A prime example of a church that assumes a continuity that may not actually be the truth is here in the flat fields between Woolpit and Ixworth. This part of Suffolk can be rather bleak in winter, but in summer the churchyard here is verdant and golden, as beautiful a place as any in the county. The church is large, and yet unusually narrow. It sits on a mound that has been cut down on one side by the road. In the churchyard you'll find the well-known memorial to the art critic Peter Fuller and his unborn son, killed in a car crash in 1990.
In the churchyard wall there is what appears to be broken medieval window tracery, which is worth noticing, for hereby hangs a tale.
St George is one of the great Suffolk churches. Although it may externally appear a little severe, and is by no means as grand as Blythburgh, Long Melford and the rest, it is a treasure house of the medieval inside. Unusually for a church of its date, it was all rebuilt in one go, in the late 14th century, and the perpendicular windows are not yet full of the 'walls of glass' confidence that the subsequent century would see. The tracery appears to have been repaired, and possibly even renewed, which may explain the tracery in the churchyard wall. However, it doesn't take much to see that the tracery in the wall is not perpendicular at all, but decorated. So it may be that the broken tracery is from the original church that the late 14th century church replaced. But the wall itself isn't medieval, so where had it been all those years? Is it possible that the current window tracery is not medieval at all?
Stowlangtoft church featured in Simon Jenkins' book England's Thousand Best Churches, which sends plenty of visitors to its locked door, and may help stave off the inevitable for a while, for there is no real congregation here any more and the church is moribund. Regular services are held across the fields at Pakenham, and St George is now only used on special occasions. The key is kept across the road, where the very nice lady told me in February 2018 that the church is now headed for redundancy. It seems likely that care of it will be conveyed into the hands of the Churches Conservation Trust.
You step in through the chancel door (the lock here is very awkward, but do persevere) and if you are anything like me you will head straight down to the west end where you will find the font. Likethe window tracery, it asks some questions. Unusually, it features a Saint on seven of the panels, Christ being on the westwards face. Mortlock dates it to the early 14th century, and the Saints it shows are familiar cults from that time: St Margaret, St Catherine, St Peter and St Paul, and less commonly St George. The cult of St George was at its height in the early years of the 14th century. Mortlock describes the font as mutilated, and it certainly isn't looking its best. But I think there is more going on here than meets the eye. Fonts were plastered over in Elizabethan times, and only relief that stood proud of the plaster was mutilated. These are all shallow reliefs, and I do not think they have been mutilated at all. To my eye at least, this stonework appears weathered. I wonder if this font was removed from the church, probably in the mid-17th century, and served an outdoor purpose until it was returned in the 19th century.
The story of this church in the 19th century is well-documented. In 1832, as part of his grand tour of Suffolk, David Davy visited, and was pleased to find that the church was at last undergoing repair. The chancel had been roofless, and the nave used for services. A new Rectory was being built. Who was the catalyst behind all this? His name was Samuel Rickards, and he was Rector here for almost the middle forty years of the 19th century. Roy Tricker notes that he was a good friend of John Henry Newman, the future Cardinal, and they often corresponded on the subject of the pre-Reformation ordering of English churches. It is interesting to think how, at this seminal moment, Rickards might have informed the thought of the Oxford Movement. Sadly, when Newman became a Catholic, Rickards broke off all correspondence with him.
During the course of the 1840s and 1850s, Rickards transformed Stowlangtoft church. He got the great Ipswich woodcarver Henry Ringham in to restore, replicate and complete the marvellous set of bench ends - Ringham did the same thing at Woolpit, a few miles away. Ringham's work is so good that it is sometimes hard for the inexperienced eye to detect it. However, as at Woolpit, Ringham only copied animals here, and the weirder stuff is all medieval, and probably dates from the rebuilding of the church. The glory of Stowlangtoft's bench ends is partly the sheer quantity - there are perhaps 60 carvings - but also that there are several unique subjects.
The carvings appear to be part of the same group as Woolpit and Tostock - you will recognise the unicorn, the chained bear, the bull playing a harp, the bird with a man's head, from similar carvings elsewhere. And then hopefully that little alarm bell in your heard should start to go "Hmmmm....." because some of the carvings here are clearly not from the same group. It is hard to believe that the mermaid and the owl, for example, are from the same workshop, or even from the same decade. The benches themselves are no clue, as it was common practice in the 19th century to replace medieval bench ends on modern benches, or on medieval benches, or even on modern benches made out of medieval timber (as happened at Blythburgh). Could it be that Samuel Rickards found some of these bench ends elsewhere? Could he have been the kind of person to do a thing like that?
Well, yes he could. As Roy Tricker recalls, the medieval roof at the tractarian Thomas Mozley's church at Cholderton in Wiltshire is East Anglian. Rickards acquired it after finding it in storage in Ipswich docks. It presumably came from one of the Ipswich churches. In the ferment of the great 19th century restoration of our English churches, there was loads of medieval junk lying around, much of it going begging. But was Samuel Rickards the kind of person to counterfeit his church's medieval inheritance?
Well, yes he probably was. The faux-medieval roundels in the windows of the nave are clearly not medieval at all, but were in fact the work of the young Lucy Rickards, daughter of Samuel Rickards himself. Some are clearly to the young girl's design, and Pevsner notes that others are copied from medieval manuscript illustrations in the British Museum, although the Holy Kinship and Presentation in the Temple roundels at least are very close copies of the Flemish roundels of the same subjects in Nowton church on the other side of Bury St Edmunds.
Truly medieval is the vast St Christopher wall-painting still discernible on the north wall. It was probably one of the last to be painted. The bench ends are medieval, of course, as is the fine rood-screen dado, albeit repainted. There is even some medieval figure glass in the upper tracery of some of the windows, including St Agnes holding a lamb and four Old Testament prophets. The laughable stone pulpit is Rickard's commission, and the work of William White. What can Rickards have been thinking of? But we step through into the chancel, and suddenly the whole thing moves up a gear. For here are some things that are truly remarkable.
In a county famous for its woodwork, the furnishings of Stowlangtoft's chancel are breathtaking, even awe-inspiring. Behind the rood screen dado is Suffolk's most complete set of return stalls. Most striking are the figures that form finials to the stall ends. They are participants in the Mass, including two Priests, two servers and two acolytes. The figure of the Priest at a prayer desk must be one of the best medieval images in Suffolk, and Mortlock thought the stalls the finest in England.
The benches that face eastwards are misericords, and beneath them are wonderful things: angels, lions and wodewoses, evangelistic symbols and crowned heads. A hawk captures a hare, a dragon sticks out its tongue. Between the seats are weird oriental faces.
Now, you know what I am going to ask next. How much of this is from this church originally? It all appears medieval work, and there is no reason to believe it might not have been moved elsewhere in the church when the chancel was open to the elements. What evidence have we got?
Firstly, we should notice that the only other Suffolk church with such a large number of medieval misericords of this quality is just a mile away, at Norton. I don't ask you to see this as significant, merely to notice it in passing. Secondly, I am no carpenter, but it does look to me as though two sets of furnishings have been cobbled together; the stalls that back on to the screen appear to have been integrated into the larger structure of stalls and desks that front them and the north and south walls.
However, if you look closely at the figures of the two Deacons, you will see that they are bearing shields of the Ashfield and Peche families. The Ashfield arms also appear on the rood screen, and the Ashfields were the major donors when the church was rebuilt in the 14th century. So on balance I am inclined to think that the greater part of the stall structure was in this church originally from when it was rebuilt. And the misericords? Well, I don't know. But I think they have to be considered as part of the same set as those at Norton. In which case they may have come from the same church, which may have been this one, but may not have been. Almost certainly, the stalls at Norton did not come from Norton church, and folklore has it that they were originally in the quire of Bury Abbey.
Other remarkable things in St George include FE Howard's beautiful war memorial in the former north doorway, and in the opposite corner of the nave Hugh Easton's unexpectedly gorgeous St George, which serves the same purpose. He's not an artist I usually admire, but it is as good as his work at Elveden. Back up in the chancel is a delightful painted pipe organ which was apparently exhibited at, and acquired from, the Great Exhibition of 1851.
But St George at Stowlangtoft is, of course, most famous for the Flemish carvings that flank the rather heavy altarpiece. They were given to the church by Henry Wilson of Stowlangtoft Hall, who allegedly found them in an Ixworth junk shop. They show images from the crucifixion story, but are not Stations of the Cross as some guides suggest. They date from the 1480s, and were almost certainly the altarpiece of a French or Flemish monastery that was sacked during the French Revolution. The carvings were once brightly painted, and piled up in a block rather than spread out in a line. The niches, and crowning arches above them, are 19th century.
One cold winter's night in January 1977, a gang of thieves broke into this locked church and stole them. Nothing more was seen or heard of them until 1982, when they were discovered on display in an Amsterdam art gallery. Their journey had been a convoluted one. Taken to Holland, they were used as security for a loan which was defaulted upon. The new owner was then burgled, and the carvings were fenced to an Amsterdam junk dealer. They were bought from his shop, and taken to the museum, which immediately identified them as 15th century carvings. They put them on display, and a Dutch woman who had read about the Stowlangtoft theft recognised them.
The parish instituted legal proceedings to get them back. An injunction was taken out to stop the new owner removing them from the museum. The parish lost the case, leaving them with a monstrous legal bill, but the story has a happy ending. A Dutch businessman negotiated their purchase from the owner, paid off the legal bills, and returned the carvings to Stowlangtoft. Apparently this was all at vast cost, but the businessman gave the gift in thanks for Britain's liberation of Holland from the Nazis. No, thank you, sir.
Today, the carvings are fixed firmly in place and alarmed, so they won't be going walkabout again. But a little part of me wonders if they really should be here at all. Sure, they are medieval, but they weren't here originally, and they weren't even in England originally. Wouldn't it be better if they were displayed somewhere safer, where people could pay to see them, and provide some income for the maintenance of the church building? And then, whisper it, when St George is taken on by the CCT they might even be able to leave it open.
Puerto Rico
San Juan's picturesque cobblestone streets, plazas and chapels reflect its Spanish heritage. But the second oldest city in the Americas also boasts fine beaches, lush rainforests, verdant mountainsides, imposing forts and an tropical climate.
Puerto Rico officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico / Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean.
San Juan, Puerto Rico was founded in 1521.
In 1917, the U.S. granted citizenship to Puerto Ricans. In 1948, Puerto Ricans were given the right to elect their own governor.
A referendum on the political status of Puerto Rico was held in Puerto Rico on November 6, 2012. It was the fourth referendum on status to be held in Puerto Rico and the first in which a majority voted for statehood.
Puerto Rico has been an unincorporated territory of the United States since the Spanish–American War in 1898.
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Symbols of Puerto Rico
Animal: Coqui frog
Bird: Puerto Rican Woodpecker
Flower: Puerto Rican Hibiscus (Maga)
Motto: "Joannes Est Nomen Eius" "John is his name"
Tree: Kapok tree
San Juan - Capital city
San Juan postal zip code 00901
El Capitolio de Puerto Rico is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places
El Yunque National Forest - is the only tropical rain forest in the United States National Forest System
Medalla Light beer is made in Puerto Rico
Don Q - Puerto Rico's top-selling rum is produced in Ponce
Boricua - Common way to refer to someone born in Puerto Rico
Cession from SpainDecember 10, 1898
Official languages
Spanish (first official language) English (second official language)
Famous Puerto Rican singers include:
Carlos Ponce - Santurce
Chayanne Figueroa - Río Piedras
Don Omar - Carolina
Ivy Queen - Añasco
José Feliciano "Feliz Navidad" - Lares
Kany García - Toa Baja
La India - Río Piedras
Luis Fonsi - San Juan
Nina Flowers - Bayamón
Noelia Monge - San Juan
Olga Tañón - Santurce, San Juan
Ricky Martin ( Menudo ) - San Juan
Shalim Ortiz - San Juan
Wisin Morera - Cayey
Yandel Veguilla - Cayey
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Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas Cruise Ship
9 Night Bermuda And Caribbean Cruise
June 4th thru June 12th 2015
Destinations:
USA (New Jersey)
Bermuda - Royal Naval Dockyard
Netherlands (St. Maarten)
France (Saint Martin)
San Juan Puerto Rico
Haiti
- Fifth visit to Puerto Rico -
Hashtag metadata tag
#PR #Puerto #Rico #Ricans #PuertoRico #PuertoRicans #Old #San #Juan #OldSanJuan #SanJuan #NewSanJuan #SanJuanBautista #Latin #Latino #Latinos #Boricua #Boricuas #Borinquen #Spanish #Espanol #Commonwealth #CommonwealthofPuertoRico #UnincorporatedTerritory #Unincorporatedterritories #GreaterAntilles #Antilles #Island #Islands #Caribbean #CaribbeanIsland #CaribbeanIsland #CaribbeanIslands #NorthAmerica
Photo
San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA Unincorporated Territory, Greater Antilles Islands, North America continent
June 9th 2015
GIVEN A MASS OF OLD CROCHET PATTERNS SOME TIME BACK .THESE ARE THE ONES I KEPT,MUST ADMIT I USUALLY MAKE UP MY PATTERNS NOW AS I GO.
Houmas House / Burnside Plantation
40136 Highway 942
Darrow, Louisiana
Ascension Parish
NRHP Reference#:80001694
Added to NRHP:September 27, 1980
The first owners of the plantation were the indigenous Houmas Indians, who were given a land grant to occupy the fertile plain between the Mississippi and Lake Maurepas to the north.
The Houmas sold the land to Maurice Conway and Alexander Latil in 1774 by Celapane, Chief of the Bayou Goula and Houmas Indians.
The original French Provincial house that Latil erected on the property in is situated directly behind the Mansion, adjoined by a carriageway to the grand home described during its antebellum heyday as "The Sugar Palace." The original home was later used as living quarters for the staff that served the great house.
Click HERE to see a film showing the history of the property
By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the plantation was established and producing sugar.
In 1810, Revolutionary War hero Gen. Wade Hampton of Virginia purchased the property and shortly thereafter began construction on the Mansion. However, it was not until 1825 when Hampton's daughter, Caroline, and her husband, Col. John Preston, took over the property that the grand house truly began to take shape.
Construction on the Mansion was completed in 1828. At the same time, Houmas House began to build its sugar production and continued to increase its land holdings, which ultimately grew to 300,000 acres.
Irishman John Burnside bought the plantation in 1857 for $1 million. A businessman and a character, Burnside increased production of sugar until Houmas House was the largest producer in the country, actively working the crop on 98,000 acres. During the Civil War, Burnside saved the Mansion from destruction at the hands of advancing Union forces by declaring immunity as a subject of the British Crown. In addition to building a railway to carry his products to market —"The Sugar Cane Train (1862)" — Burnside, a bachelor, is also said to have offered payment to any parents in the parish who would name their sons "John."
An avid sportsman who wagered heavily in horse races, Burnside once secretly purchased a champion thoroughbred back East with the intent of defeating the steeds of fellow local businessmen in a big race. He quietly slipped the racehorse into the billiard room of the Mansion where it was "stabled" until Burnside's surprise was unveiled at the starting line and hailed in the winner's circle.
Houmas House flourished under Burnside's ownership, but it was under a successor, Col. William Porcher Miles that the plantation grew to its apex in the late 1800's when it was producing a monumental 20 million pounds of sugar each year.
In 1927, the Mississippi came out of its banks in the epic "great flood." While Houmas House was spared, the surrounding areas were inundated. The ensuing economic havoc was but a prelude to the devastation of the Great Depression just two years later.
Houmas House Plantation withered away. The Mansion closed and fell into disrepair, a condition in which it remained until 1940 when Dr. George B. Crozat purchased it.
Crozat bought Houmas House to be a summer home away from his native New Orleans. He renovated the property with the intent to give it a more "Federal" look than the stately Greek Revival style in which it was conceived. The structure was painted white inside and out. Crown moldings and ceiling medallions were removed and both interior and exterior forms and finishes were simplified.
Eventually, the Crozat heirs opened the property to tourists. In 1963, the defining Bette Davis film "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" was shot in the property. The room in which Ms. Davis stayed while filming is preserved as part of today's Houmas House tour.
Current owner, Kevin Kelly, who fulfilled a lifelong dream by acquiring the property in the Spring of 2003, the mansion today reflects the best parts of each period in its rich history alongside the big bend in the Mississippi River.
As per www.houmashouse.com/history.htm
HABS Documentation: lcweb2.loc.gov/pnp/habshaer/la/la0000/la0019/data/la0019d...
Given the popularity of Fodens on the funfair it was inevitable that at least a couple would find their way into my present-day model fleet. This one is a Fleetmaster hand cast in whitemetal by an eBay seller called 'fairchasers' and improved by me; the trailer is a Kentoys plastic model.
Pūjā is a prayer ritual performed by Hindus to host, honour and worship one or more deities, or to spiritually celebrate an event. Sometimes spelled phonetically as Pooja or Poojah, it may honour or celebrate the presence of special guest(s), or their memories after they pass away. The word Pūjā (Devanagari: पूजा) comes from Sanskrit, and means reverence, honour, homage, adoration, and worship. Puja rituals are also held by Buddhists, Jains and Sikhs.
In Hinduism, puja is done on a variety of occasions, frequency and settings. It may include daily puja done in the home, to occasional temple ceremonies and annual festivals, to few lifetime events such as birth of a baby or a wedding, or to begin a new venture. The two main areas where puja is performed are in the home and at temples to mark certain stages of life, events or some festivals such as Durga Puja and Lakshmi Puja. Puja is not mandatory; it may be a routine daily affair for some Hindus, periodic ritual for some, and infrequent for other Hindus. In some temples, various pujas may be performed daily at various times of the day; in other temples, it may be occasional.
Puja varies according to the school of Hinduism. Within a given school, puja may vary by region, occasion, deity honored, and steps followed. In formal Nigama ceremonies, a fire may be lit in honour of deity Agni, without an idol or image present. In contrast, in Agama ceremonies, an idol or image of deity is present. In both ceremonies, a diya or incense stick may be lit while a prayer is chanted or hymn is sung. Puja is typically performed by a Hindu worshipper alone, though sometimes in presence of a priest who is well versed in procedure and hymns. In temples and priest-assisted event puja, food, fruits and sweets may be included as offerings to the deity, which, after the prayers, becomes prasad - blessed food shared by all present at the puja.
Both Nigama and Agama puja are practiced in Hinduism in India. In Hinduism of Bali Indonesia, Agama puja is most prevalent both inside homes and in temples. Puja is sometimes called Sembahyang in Indonesia.
ETYMOLOGY
Puja (Sanskrit: पूजा) is an ancient word, with unclear origins. Joshi claims the word puja was first used in vedic times when Sūtra were composed, to describe prayers and worship before yajna or homa - fire deity, Agni. Charpentier suggests the origin of the word Puja may lie in the Dravidian languages. Two possible Tamil roots have been suggested: Poosai "to smear with something" and Poochei "to do with flowers".
ORIGNS
According to scholars, one of the earliest mentions of Pūjā is in the Grihya Sutras, which provide rules for domestic rites. These Sutras, dated to be about 500 BC, use the term puja to describe the hospitality to honor priests who were invited to one’s home to lead rituals for departed ancestors. As Hindu philosophy expanded and diversified, with developments such as the bhakti movement, the vedic puja ritual were modified and applied to the deities. As with vedic times, the general concept of puja remained the same, but expanded to welcoming the deity along with the deity's spiritual essence as one's honored guest. The Puranic corpus of literature, dating from about 6th century CE, contain extensive outline on how to perform deity puja (deva pūjā). Deity puja thus melds Vedic rites with devotion to deity in its ritual form. As with many others aspects of Hinduism, both Vedic puja and devotional deity puja continued, the choice left to the Hindu.
As a historical practice, Pūjā in Hinduism, has been modeled around the idea of hosting a deity, or important person, as an honored and dearest guest in the best way one can, given one's resources, and receiving their happiness and blessing in return. Paul Thieme suggests from passages in the Rāmāyaṇa that the word pūjā referred to the hospitable reception of guests and that the things offered to guests could be offered to the gods and their dwellings. The rituals in question were the "five great sacrifices" or pañcamahāyajña recorded in the Gṛhyasūtra texts (for this literature, see Kalpa). The development of pūjā thus emerged from Vedic domestic traditions and was carried into the temple environment by analogy: just as important guests had long been welcomed in well-to-do homes and offered things that pleased them, so too were the gods welcomed in temple-homes and offered things that pleased them. Copper-plate charters recording grants of lands to temples show that this religious practice was actively encouraged from the mid-4th century.
SIGNIFICANCE OF PUJA
In the earliest texts describing Vedic puja, the significance of puja was to host the priest so that he could make direct requests to the gods. An example petition prayer made during a Vedic puja, according to Wade Wheelock, is:
Indra-Agni, slayers of Vrtra with the beautiful thunderbolt, prosper us with new gifts;
O Indra, bring treaures with your right hand;
O Agni grant the enjoyments of a good household;
Give (us) vigor, wealth in cattle, and possession of good horses.
- ÄsvSü
In contrast to Vedic pujas, the significance of deity pujas shifted from petitions and external goals to the experience of oneness with the deities and their spiritual essence. It became a form of yoga whose final result aimed to be the consciousness of god through homage to god. Nevertheless, even with this evolved theoretical spiritual significance, for many people, puja continued to be a vehicle to petition desires and appeals, such as for good health of one's child, speedy recovery from illness, success in venture envisioned or such. In the structure and practice of puja, the mantras and rituals focus on spirituality, and any petitions and appeals are tacked only to the end of the puja.
Zimmer relates puja to yantras, with the rituals helping the devotee focus on the spiritual concepts. Puja in Hinduism, claims Zimmer, is a path and process of transformation of consciousness, where the devotee and the spiritual significance of the deity are brought together. This ritual puja process, in different parts of India, is considered to be liberating, releasing, purifying and a form of yoga of spirit and emotions.
Puja in Hinduism sometimes involves themes beyond idols or images. Even persons, places, rivers, concrete objects or anything is seen as manifestations of divine reality by some Hindus. The access to the divine is not limited to renunciatory meditation as in yoga school of Hinduism or idols in bhakti school. For some the divine is everywhere, without limit to its form, and a puja to these manifestations signifies the same spiritual meaning to those who choose to offer a prayer to persons, places, rivers, concrete objects or anything else.
TEMPLE PUJA
Temple (Mandir) pūjā is more elaborate than the domestic versions and typically done several times a day. They are also performed by a temple priest, or pujari. In addition, the temple deity (patron god or goddess) is considered a resident rather than a guest, so the puja is modified to reflect that; for example the deity is "awakened" rather than "invoked" in the morning. Temple pujas vary widely from region to region and for different sects, with devotional hymns sung at Vaishnava temples for example. At a temple puja, there is often less active participation, with the priest acting on behalf of others.
ELABORATE PUJA
A full home or temple puja can include several traditional upacaras or "attendances". The following is an example puja; these steps may vary according to region, tradition, setting, or time particularly in ways the deity is hosted. In this example, the deity is invited as a guest, the devotee hosts and takes care of the deity as an honored guest, hymns and food are offered to the deity, after an expression of love and respect the host takes leave and with affection expresses good bye to the deity. Indologist Jan Gonda has identified 16 steps (shodasha upachara) that are common in all varieties of puja:
1. Avahana (“invocation”). The deity is invited to the ceremony from the heart.
2. Asana. The deity is offered a seat.
3. Padya. The deity’s feet are symbolically washed.
4. Water is offered for washing the head and body
5. Arghya. Water is offered so the deity may wash its mouth.
6. Snana or abhisekha. Water is offered for symbolic bathing.
7. Vastra (“clothing”). Here a cloth may be wrapped around the image and ornaments affixed to it.
8. Upaveeda or Mangalsutra. Putting on the sacred thread.
9. Anulepana or gandha. Perfumes and ointments are applied to the image. Sandalwood paste or kumkum is applied.
10. Pushpa. Flowers are offered before the image, or garlands draped around its neck.
11. Dhupa. Incense is burned before the image.
12. Dipa or Aarti. A burning lamp is waved in front of the image.
13. Naivedya. Foods such as cooked rice, fruit, clarified butter, sugar, and betel leaf are offered.
14. Namaskara or pranama. The worshipper and family bow or prostrate themselves before the image to offer homage.
15. Parikrama or Pradakshina. Circumambulation around the deity.
16. Taking leave.
Sometimes additional steps are included:
1. Dhyana (“Meditation”). The deity is invoked in the heart of the devotee.
2. Acamanıya. Water is offered for sipping.
3. Aabaran. The deity is decorated with ornaments.
4. Chatram. Offering of umbrella.
5. Chamaram Offering of fan or fly-whisk (Chamara).
6. Visarjana or Udvasana. The deity is moved from the place.
There are variations in this puja method such as:
1. Pancha upachara pooja (puja with 5 steps).
2. Chatushasti upachara puja (puja with 64 steps).
The structure of elaborate puja also varies significantly between temples, regions and occasions.
QUICK PUJA
A quick puja has the same structure as acts ordinary people would perform for a quick reception, hospitality and affectionate interaction with a beloved guest. First the deity is greeted, acknowledged by name and welcomed, sometimes with a diya or lighted incense stick. The devotee proceeds to connect with the spiritual manifestation by meditating (a form of darshan), or chanting hymns and mantras, then personal prayers follow. After prayer is finished, the spiritual visitor as guest is affectionately thanked and greeted good bye. A quick meditative puja is sometimes offered by some Hindus without an idol or image. According to Fuller, Hindu texts allow flexibility and abbreviated puja according to occasion, needs and personal preferences.
PUJA IN BALINESE HINDUISM
In Hinduism of Bali Indonesia, puja is sometimes called Sembahyang. The word originates from two words in old Javanese: sembah and hyang. Sembah means to respect and bow down; Hyang means divine, God/Shang Hyang Widhi, holy man, and ancestors. So to pray means to respect, bow down, surrender to the divine and ancestors.
Sembahyang (Puja) is an obligation for Balinese Hindus, the prayers and hymns are derived from the Vedas. A family typically offers prayers everyday, with Kewangen and other offerings. Kewangen means aromatic, and it is made from leaves and flowers in form of auspicious Vedic symbols. Balinese use kewangen to worship the divine, both in form of Purusha (soul) and Pradana (body). As with India, Balinese make offerings, including symbolic inclusion of fire, incense and mantras.
GURU PUJA
In the case of great spiritual masters, there is also a custom to perform puja for a living person. Gurus are sometimes chosen as objects of puja and honored as living gods or seen the embodiment of specific deities. Gurus are sometimes adorned with symbolic clothes, garlands and other ornaments, and celebrated with incense, washing and anointing their feet, giving them fruits, food and drinks and meditating at their feet, asking for their blessing.
PUJA AS A SOCIAL, HUMAN RIGHTS EVENT
As with Church services in Christianity, Pūjā in Hinduism has served as a means for Hindu communities outside India to gather, socialize, discover new friends and sometimes discuss ways to address social discrimination of Hindus. For example, Marion O'Callaghan reports that the Hindu diaspora brought as indentured laborers to Trinidad by the British colonial government, suffered discriminatory laws that did not recognize traditional Hindu marriages or inheritance rights of children from a traditional Hindu marriage, nor did the non-Hindu majority government allow pyre cremation or construction of crematorium. These Hindu rituals were considered pagan and uncivilized. Pujas offered a way for Hindus to meet, socially organize and petition their human rights. Over time, pujas became as much as social and community recreational event, as a religious event.
CRITIQUE OF PUJA IN THE PURVA MIMAMSAKA SCHOOL
Although pūjā is accepted as a valid religious activity by Hindus at large, it has long been criticised by Mīmāṃsā thinkers. The foundational work of this school is the Karmamīmāṃsāsūtra or "Aphorisms for Enquiry into the Act," composed by Jaimini. The earliest surviving commentary is by Śabara who lived around the end of the fourth century. Śabara's commentary, known as Śabarabhāṣya holds pride of place in Mīmāṃsā in that Sabara's understanding is taken as definitive by all later writers. In his chapter entitled Devatādikaraṇa (9 : 1: 5: 6-9), Śabara examines the popular understanding of the gods and attempts to refute the belief that they have material bodies, are able to eat the offerings made to them, and are capable of being pleased and so able to reward worshippers. Basing himself on the Vedas (he refused to accept the Mahābhārata, Purāṇa texts or even the Smṛti literatures as valid sources of authority), Śabara concludes that the gods are neither corporeal nor sentient and thus unable to enjoy offerings or own property. For this he appeals to empirical observation, noting that offerings do not decrease in size when given to the gods; any decrease is simply due to exposure to the air. Likewise he argues that substances are offered to gods not according to the wishes of the gods, but that "what is vouched for by direct perception is that the things are used according to the wishes of the temple servants (pratyakṣāt pramāṇāt devatāparicārakāṇām abhiprāyaḥ). In the course of his discussion, Śabara's asserts that "there is no relation between the case of guests and the sacrificial act." This incidental remark provides sound historical proof that pūjā was built on analogy with atithi, the ancient Vedic tradition of welcoming guests. What Śabara is maintaining is that this analogy is not valid. While the Mīmāṃsakas continued to maintain this interpretation for centuries, their defeat in debate at the hands of Śaṅkarācārya led to theirs being a minority view. It is a remarkable testament to the plurality and tolerance of Indian civilization that Mīmāṃsakas flourished even into the 17th century, as evidenced by the commentaries of Nīlakaṇṭha.
REGIONAL NAMES
Puja, sometimes spelled pooja, is called பூஜை in Tamil, and bucha (บูชา) in Thai.
WIKIPEDIA
Shot for Week 24 of my "52 of Twenty Eleven" flickr group given the theme of "Emotion".
This shot represents two emotions, DETERMINED and HAPPY as I will explain below.
This was not my original plan for the shot this week, but you can see that my son Tony was so DETERMINED to score here, that I just had to go with this.
Tony had been called out earlier in the game on a similar play at the plate. He told me afterward, if the catcher ever covered the plate again, he would just run right through him. And that's exactly what he ended up doing here.
If you look closely, you can see the ball just starting to come out of the catcher's glove. In the next frame, it's all the way out. Tony was safe, and very HAPPY to have scored this run for his team!
Given the bleak history of so many lives lost at sea from the fishing village of Dunmore East, Co. Waterford, I felt the aspect and form of this tree overlooking the harbour, with its limbs outstretched towards Heaven, implied, perhaps, a prayer or entreaty for mercy and courage...
it is dedicated to the families and friends of all who are lost at sea.
GIVEN A MASS OF OLD CROCHET PATTERNS SOME TIME BACK .THESE ARE THE ONES I KEPT,MUST ADMIT I USUALLY MAKE UP MY PATTERNS NOW AS I GO.
Biography
Gordon E. Keith
Artist and Designer
(NOTE) ALL OF THE ARTWORK HERE IS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE. IF INTERESTED SEND US A MESSAGE.
From Captain Kangaroo to Rome, Italy.
Gordon Keith has made his mark in the world. This artist is well versed, in many different fields, from painting and sculpture to design of all kinds. He studied under Alice Schille of Columbus, Ohio and the late Chester Nichodemes, a sculptor. He served honorably in World War II in the 1621 st model making detachment where he was attached to the 5th army and made invasion models for Italy and Southern France. And work along side of Conger Metcalf another great painter for four years during the war effort.
In 1948 after the war, Gordon started his own store fixture and design company in boston called Gordon Keith Originals, Later move to Indian lake with his sister and did plaster castings before going back to his home town (Columbus Ohio) and setting up shop, In his hay day he had a company with store in the front call Gordon Keith’s Red Barn. Many that remember the barn will remember a giant rooster by the road side and when driving down into the complex seeing a fiberglass horse and cart outside the front door, A horse head above the entrance. This was the place to buy small nick nacks like glitter, ribbon and trinkets to grandma’s porch were one could get a bit to eat or a cold soda while enjoying a country setting. A second store on Wall St next to Lazarus and even one in side the Union Company. He created the Yankee Candle risers, Macy’s 1st foor cosmetics tables risers, Henry Bendel pink chandeliers Juicy Couture Carts
And the Macy’s, Waterford Crystal millennium collection, and over 300 hundred other major department stores coast to coast and abroad.
For over 65 years Keith has designed and installed major displays in eight different countries. From Talking Tree for Lazarus 6th floor for Christmas, Including the television show Captain Kangaroo and Lucy’s Toy Shop props to the Electric Company and the Union Company. From Downtown Christmas parades and Fourth of July parades to the State Auto Nativity Scene that at one time graced our State Capital building. The lighted trees in the windows of the German Village Tower and the doll cases at 180 West Broad street were also two very notable projects. Gordon Keith is a life time member of COSI for creating and building the Street of Yesterday Year in the old COSI location, On west Broad St. Complete with hoof prints in the cement to the five cent theater and penny candy store.
If you think Mr. Keith was one to rest while on vacation, think again. Gordon traveled to Tiki Gardens in Indian Rocks Beach where he visited life-long friends Frank and Jo Byars and designed a theme park that millions toured each year complete with Tiki Gods, fire torches and a Polynesian flavor. He went to Liberty parks and designed the hound dog plush animal for their theme park that is located in Tennessee, hometown to Elvis. Long term friend, Congressman Chalmers P. Wylie had Gordon do all of his campaign headquarters, from the Statue of Liberty of his TV spots. Keith also designed the famous 12 panel fiberglass screens that still ride the train to this day and voice over for the freedom train when it was here in 1976 depicting Betty Ross to landing on the moon. Gordon has helped with and contributed to special interest groups including Pilot Dogs Inc., the Symphony Ball, ARC, and the Candy Cane Ball. Gordon’s latest venture was selling 95 of his original paintings to the Le Veque tower for there renovations in 2012
Gordon’s art and sculptures have been exhibited in museums and galleries nationwide and are in many permanent collections. Some noteworthy exhibitions occurred at the French Art Colony, in Gallipolis, Ohio, the Licking County Arts Center, Middletown Ohio, and the Schumacher Gallery, in Columbus, Ohio, Springfield Art Gallery. Gordon’s work is also included in a private collection included in the Cincinnati Union Train Terminal in Cincinnati, Ohio. Gordon worked with Steve Silken and created all the hanging train art that graced all of the hallways of the building as well as many of the store designs which still remain today.
His works have been shown at the Art Expo in New York, Columbus Museum of Fine Arts, Grant Medical Center, Springfield Museum, Southern Hotel art gallery, and the Columbus City Hall where he has sold many original pieces of work.
Hand painted murals by Gordon Keith span from Tampa FL, Hilton Hotels all the way to Algiers, Africa, Malaga, Spain, Naples, Caserta, and Rome Italy. Several of his paintings are at the Tokyo Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan and Brenan, University Granville.
If there is such a thing as a renaissance man of the century --- this is he. Look what God has given him to create with his heart, mind and talent.
Image credit: © Pedro A. Gomez Bastar.
Published in: RSOC Vol. 13 No. 17 2016. Published online 31 March 2017 cehjournal.org/sante-oculaire-communautaire/
For devirginification, Jesse is given the unique task of being assigned to simulate sex with an inflatable cow. As he put it later, "The best part was fucking the cow!" He really got into it.
BACKSTORY: We went to Rocky Horror Picture Show on graduation night again, and it was quite awesome, as usual.
Jesse.
inflatable cow.
movie: Rocky Horror Picture Show.
sexual comedy.
University Mall, theater, Fairfax, Virginia.
May 17, 2008.
Pic by Casey.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... View Jesse's MySpace at www.myspace.com/Yi_Zong/
... View Casey's photos at www.flickr.com/photos/CaseyLea/
Hinxhill is a small village in the shadow of Wye down. I say a village, its a couple of houses and the Hinxhill Estate, which you can't see from the road.
St Mary has been a church I have wanted to see inside for many years, and I have never found it open. But for this Heritage weekend, I had high hopes.
And I wasn't disappointed.
St Mary has a very fine 17th century memorial on the wall, two nice figures on it, and as well as some nice Victorian glass, the light coming in at just gone four in the afternoon made photography perfect.
One of those visits you remember for the lights, so a church well worth waiting for to visit.
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Remote and peaceful Hinxhill is the archetypal country church. Almost all dating from the 13th century, the narrow north aisle is a typical give way – designed to be used as a processional space without benches. The lovely lancet windows, with trefoil headed tops are small and low whilst the north chapel has one with a rere-arch, a sign of wealth in the latter 13th century. The odd chancel screen is dated to the 17th century and the woodwork of the pulpit is probably of that date too. The stained glass is Victorian and mostly by the Scottish firm of Ballantyne – a catalogue of changing fashion. The south chancel window of Christ weeping is particularly good. The fine Royal Arms is one of several in Kent by Marten of Tenterden and well worth a look. To the north of the chancel is a seventeenth century tomb with good effigies and skulls beneath – which legend says was walled up with plaster for two hundred years before being re displayed by the Victorians. In the vestry is a delightful piece of continental glass of probable seventeenth century date.
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Hinxhill
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HINXHILL,
USUALLY called Hinexsell, and in very antient times written Hengestelle, is the next parish eastward from Kennington. The manor of Bilsington claims over a great part of this parish.
HINXHILL is an obscure parish, but little known, and having very little traffic through it. The village consists of only four or five houses, one of which, is the principal farm-house of Sir John Honywood's estate here, and another the parsonage. It stands on high ground, with the church on the west side of it. The antient mansion stood close to the south-west corner of the church-yard, having a fine prospect over the adjoining country. The kitchen is all that remains of it now, being made use of as an oast and stowages for hops. Not far from the church, northward, are Great and Little Plumpton, the former was for some time the residence of the Andrew's, the latter of the Whitwick's. Below the hill from the village to the north and west, it is a deep and most unpleasant country, the soil a stiff clay, with much boggy ground, especially westward, where it is joined by the river Stour. About the village it it tolerable fertile land, but southward there is much sand, mixed with the quarry or rag stone.
A fair is held here yearly on the Saturday in Whitsun-week, for toys and pedlary.
In the year 1727, a species of subterraneous fire was taken notice of in the valley between Goodcheape in this parish and Wye. This fire began in a marshy field, on the side of a little brook, near the water, and continued to burn along its bank without spreading much for some days; afterwards it appeared on the other side, and extended itself for the space of some acres over the field, consuming all the earth where it burnt into red ashes, quite down to the springs, which in most places lay four feet and more deep. In the space of about six weeks it had consumed about three acres of ground, at which time it burnt in many places, and sent forth a great smoak and a strong smell very like that of a brick-kiln; but it never flamed, except when the earth was turned and stirred up. For some space where it was burnt the ground felt hot, though the grass seemed no more parched than might be reasonably expected from the dryness and heat of the season. In several places where the earth was turned up, it was found to be hot and wet near four feet deep, and much hotter about two feet deep than nearer the surface; and when this earth was exposed to the air, though it was very moist, and not hotter than might be easily borne by the hand, yet the heat of it increased so fast, that in a few minutes it was all over on fire, like phosphorus made with allum and flour. The soil of the field is of the same nature with that the turs is made of in Holland. The surface of it is always wet, except in extreme dry seasons; but this season it was somewhat more parched and harder than usual. It was difficult to carry any of this away, on account of its firing; one piece in particular firing in the pocket of one who was bringing it away, had almost burnt its way through before it was perceived. (fn. 1)
In the stone-quarry by Swatfield-bridge, at the southern boundary of this parish, as well as in many of the rag-stones about the adjoining parishes of Sevington and Willesborough, is found the ostracites stone, very large; and on a rag-stone at Lacton, in the latter parish, the flat shell of one measured eight inches diameter; and the late Mr. Thorpe, of Bexley, had two in his possession, very large and fair, with the convex parts entirely filled up with solid stone, which were given to his father, Dr. Thorpe, by the earl of Winchelsea.
ONE ÆTHELFERH, a servant of the abbot of St. Augustine's monastery, about the year 864, by will gave the land of Hengesteselle, which was a parish, as Thorne says in his Chronicle, contiguous to that of Willesborough northward, to that monastery; but Hugo de Montfort, in the time of the Conqueror, got possession of it, in spite of all the efforts of the monks to oppose it: and accordingly this estate seems to have been thus entered in the survey of Domesday as follows, among his possessions:
In Langebrige hundred, Gislebert holds of Hugo one yoke, which a certain Sochman held of king Edward. It is and was worth four shillings. There was nothing there nor is.
Of Etwelle, which Herbert the son of Ivo, holds without the division of Hugo, he himself holds fourteen acres of land within his division, and it is worth two shillings.
And still further in the same record, under the like title, is the following entry, which evidently relates to his possessions, part of, or at least adjoining to those before-mentioned:
In Langebrige hundred. In the same hundred, is one rood of land in Suestone, which one Sochman held of king Edward. There is now one borderer paying twelve pence. In the time of king Edward the Confessor it was worth thirty pence, and afterwards eighteen, now three shillings.
Robert de Montfort, grandson of Hugo above-mentioned, having afterwards incurred the displeasure of king Henry II. all his estates, and these among them, them, came into the king's hands, after which it appears that THE MANOR OF HINXHILL, with that of SWATFORD, alias SWATFIELD, was afterwards held by the family of Strabolgie, earls of Athol; but Alexander Baliol, lord of Chilham, became possessed of them at the latter end of king Henry III.'s reign, in right of Isabel his wife, widow of David de Strabolgie, earl of Athol, and held them, by the courtesy of England, during her life, she having been, on the death of her brother Richard de Dover, s.p. become entitled to them for her life, the inheritance of them belonging to John, earl of Athol, her son by her former husband, as heir to her brother before-mentioned. At length they descended down to David, earl of Athol, who died in the 49th year of king Edward III. leaving two daughters his coheirs, Elizabeth, the eldest, married to Sir Thomas Percy, a younger son of Henry, lord Percy, and Philippa to John Halsham, of Halsham, in Sussex; the latter of whom, by her father's will, became entitled to these manors. At length her grandson Sir Hugh Halsham, in the beginning of king Henry VI.'s reign, passed them away, in the 3d year of that reign, to Sir Robert Scott, lieutenant of the tower of London, brother of Sir William Scott, of Braborne, and afterwards of Scotts-hall, whose only daughter and heir Alice, marrying William Kempe, nephew to cardinal archbishop Kempe, he, in her right, became entitled to them; but his grandson Sir William Kempe, about the latter end of king Henry VIII.'s reign, alienated them to Browning; from which family, about the reign of queen Elizabeth, they were alienated to Robt. Edolph, esq. son of Robert Edolph, of Brenset, and brother of Simon Edolph, of St. Radigunds, who bore for his arms, Ermine, on a bend, sable, three cinquesoils, argent, (fn. 2) who afterwards resided at Hinshill court, as did his son Sir Robert Edolph, who kept his shrievalty here in the 6th year of king James I. but his son Robert Edolph, esq. dying s.p. in 1631, gave these manors of Hinxhill and Swatford, together with the court leet of the half hundred of Longbridge, by will to Cecilia his wife, for her life, or so long as she continued unmarried; but she afterwards remarrying Sir Francis Knolles, of Reading, forfeited her interest in them, upon which they came to Mr. Samuel Edolph, her former husband's next brother, who some years afterwards conveyed them to his brother in-law Mr. John Angel, of Surry, for the more effectual performance of his will; and he, sometime after the death of king Charles I. passed them away to Edward Choute, esq. of Bethersden, who afterwards resided at Hinxhill-court, as did his son Sir George Choute likewise, who was succeeded in them by his son George Choute, esq. who was created a baronet in 1684. He pulled down this mansion, and removed to Bethersden, where he died s.p. in 1721, (fn. 3) having devised these manors by will to Edward Austen, esq. of Tenterden, afterwards baronet, who sold them not long afterwards to Sir William Honywood, bart. of Evington, who died possessed of them in 1748, and his direct descendant Sir John Honywood, bart. of Evington, is the present possessor of these manors.
The courts baron for the manors of Hinxhill and Swatford, have been for some time disused; and the court leet for the half hundred of Longbridge has been for several years past held by the constable of it, solely for the appointment of a successor in his office, as will be further taken notice of hereafter.
WALTHAM is a place here, which was once accounted a manor, and antiently belonged to the family of Criol, from whom it went by marriage into that of Rokesle, and thence again in like manner to the family of Poynings, in which it continued till Sir Edward Poynings, governor of Dover castle, and lord warden, dying possessed of it anno 14 Henry VIII. 1522, not only without legitimate issue, but even without any collateral kindred, who could make claim to his estates, this manor, among others, escheated to the crown, whence it was immediately afterwards granted to Sir Richard Damsell, who not long after passed it away to Goldhill; as he did about the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, to Mr. Robert Edolph, of Hinxhillcourt; since which it has passed in like manner as the manor of Hinxhill before-described, down to Sir John Honywood, bart. who is the present possessor of it.
GOODCHEAPES, as it is now called, but more properly Godchepes, is an estate in the northern part of this parish, which for a series of many generations had owners of that surname, one of whom, Thomas Godchepe, as appears by the inquisition taken after his death, died possessed of it in the 31st year of king Edward I. and in his name and descendants it remained fixed until the latter end of king Henry VIII.'s reign, and then it came by the will of one of them, named also Thomas Godchepe, after the limitation of it, to several different persons, who were become extinct without issue, to the last person mentioned in remainder in the will, Mr. John Barrow. The circumstances of which bequest is thus related: Mr. John Barrow, being an attorney, was called upon to make the will of Thomas Godchepe, and by his direction inserted the names of eight persons, who were to succeed each other in the inheritance of this estate in tail, and being asked by Barrow, whom he should add more, he was answered by the testator, that as there had been a reciprocal friendship between them, he should place his own name next after them all; and they all deceasing in course of time s.p. this estate in the end devolved to him and his heirs. Circumstances similar to the above have happened in relation to other estates in this county, particularly to the Leeds abbey estate, by Sir Roger Meredith's will, who died in 1742, s.p. who having sent for Mr. Walter Hooper, an attorney, to make his will, after having devised his estates to several different persons successively in tail, seemed at a loss who to name next in the entail, when Mr. Hooper mentioned himself and his nephew; and all the prior remainders having ceased, they both successively enjoyed that estate by the will. (fn. 4) Mr. Barrow, who bore for his arms, Lozengy, or, and azure, a grissin, salient, ermine, resided afterwards here, and died in 1578, leaving two daughters his coheirs, whose eldest daughter and coheir Elizabeth, marrying Mr. Robert Edolph, the purchaser of Hinxhill-court as before-mentioned, he became entitled to it sometime about the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign; since which it has passed in like succession of ownership as the manors of Hinxhill and Waltham before-mentioned, down to Sir John Honywood, bart. who is the present possessor of them.
Charities.
MARTHA WADE, by will in 1722, gave an annuity of forty shillings, out of lands in this parish and Wye, to the use of the poor not receiving alms, vested in the churchwardens and overseers.
The poor constantly relieved are about twelve, casually eight.
THIS PARISH is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURIADICTION of the diocese of Canterbury, and deanry of Limne.
The church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is a small building, consisting of two isles and two chancels, having a low spire steeple at the west end, in which are three bells. In the high chancel, on the north side, there is a handsome monument, well preserved, for Robert Edolph, esq. and Cicely Browne his wife, having their effigies kneeling on it. He died in 1631. In the south isle are memorials for Coveney, arms, On a bend, three trefoils slipt. The north isle is very narrow indeed; in it is a memorial for Kennet Backe, gent. captain of the train-bands, obt. 1687. On the south side, in the church-yard, are several memorials for the Wightwicks, and a very antient stone, coffinshaped, with a cross story on it. It appears by the parish register, that many of the Edolphs are buried in this church, from the year 1588, when Mr. Robt. Edolph, sen. gent. was buried in it, to the present century. Mr. John Barrow in 1578, Sir Edward Chute in 1634, and others of some note in life, appear likewise to have been buried in it, for whom there are not any memorials.
¶The church of Hinxhill was antiently appendant to the manor, and continued with it till Robert Edolph, esq. by will in 1631, gave the manor of Hinxhill to his wife Cecilie, for her life, or until she remarried, and the advowson and patronage of this church to her and her heirs for ever. By which means the advowson being separated from the manor, became an advowson in gross, and though it afterwards was possessed by the same owners as the manor, yet having been once separated it could never afterwards be appendant to it again. (fn. 5) She soon afterwards remarrying Sir Francis Knolles, forfeited her life-estate in the manor to her late husband's next heir and brother, Mr. Sam. Edolph, and some years afterwards alienated the reversion of the advowson, (for she appears to have presented to the Rectory in 1666) to him. Since which it has continued, in like succession of ownership with the manor of Hinxhill, and his other estates in this parish, to Angel, Choute, and Austen, and from the latter to Sir William Honywood, bart. whose descendant Sir John Honywood, bart. is the present owner and patron of this church.
This rectory is valued in the king's books at 7l. 16s. 8d. It is now a discharged living, of the clear yearly certified value of thirty-four pounds. In 1578 here were communicants seventy-one. In 1640 it was valued at sixty pounds, communicants seventy. There are ten acres of glebe.
United States Penitentiary, Alcatraz Island, also known simply as Alcatraz ("the gannet") or The Rock, was a maximum security federal prison on Alcatraz Island, 1.25 miles (2.01 km) off the coast of San Francisco, California, United States. The site of a fort since the 1850s, the main prison building was built in 1910–12 as a U.S. Army military prison.
The United States Department of Justice acquired the United States Disciplinary Barracks, Pacific Branch, on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933. The island became adapted and used as a prison of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in August 1934 after the buildings were modernized and security increased. Given this high security and the island's location in the cold waters and strong currents of San Francisco Bay, prison operators believed Alcatraz to be escape-proof and America's most secure prison.
The three-story cellhouse included the four main cell blocks – A-block through D-block – the warden's office, visitation room, the library, and the barber shop. The prison cells typically measured 9 feet (2.7 m) by 5 ft (1.5 m) and 7 ft (2.1 m) high. The cells were primitive and lacked privacy. They were furnished with a bed, desk, washbasin, a toilet on the back wall, and few items other than a blanket. African Americans were segregated from other inmates in cell designation due to racism during the Jim Crow era. D-Block housed the worst inmates, and six cells at its end were designated "The Hole". Prisoners with behavioral problems were sent to these for periods of often brutal punishment. The dining hall and kitchen extended from the main building. Prisoners and staff ate three meals a day together. The Alcatraz Hospital was located above the dining hall.
Prison corridors were named after major U.S. streets, such as Broadway and Michigan Avenue, of New York and Chicago, respectively. Working at the prison was considered a privilege for inmates. Those who earned privileges were employed in the Model Industries Building and New Industries Building during the day, actively involved in providing for the military in jobs such as sewing and woodwork, and performing various maintenance and laundry chores.
The prison closed in 1963, but Alcatraz was reopened as a public museum. The island and prison were occupied by Native Americans from 1969 to 1971. It is one of San Francisco's major tourist attractions, attracting some 1.5 million visitors annually. Now operated by the National Park Service's Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the former prison is being restored and maintained.
The main cellhouse was built incorporating some parts of Fort Alcatraz's citadel, a partially fortified barracks from 1859 that had come to be used as a jail during the Civil War for alleged Confederate sympathizers. C. L. Weller, the Chairman of the State Democratic Committee and brother of California Governor John B. Weller was among one of the first prisoners housed there. A new cellhouse was built from 1910 to 1912 on a budget of $250,000 (approximately $7,810,000 in 2023). Upon completion, the 500-foot (150 m) long concrete building was reputedly the longest concrete building in the world at the time. This building was modernized in 1933 and 1934 and became the main cellhouse of the federal penitentiary. The building closed in 1963.
When the new concrete prison was built, many materials were reused in its construction. Iron staircases in the interior and the cellhouse door near the barber's shop at the end of A-block were retained from the old citadel and massive granite blocks originally used as gun mounts were reused as the wharf's bulkheads and retaining walls. Many of the old cell bars were used to reinforce the walls, causing structural problems later due to the fact that many placed near the edge were subject to erosion from the salt air and wind over the years.
After the United States Army's use of the island for over 80 years, it was transferred to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which hoped an escape-proof jail would help break the crime wave of the 1920s and 1930s. The Department of Justice acquired the Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz on October 12, 1933, and it became a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility in August 1934. $260,000 was spent to modernize and improve it from January 1934. George Hess of the United States Public Health Service was appointed chief medical officer and Edward W. Twitchell became a consultant in psychiatry for Alcatraz in January 1934.
The hospital was checked by three officials from the Marine Hospital of San Francisco. The Bureau of Prisons personnel arrived on Alcatraz in early February; among them was acting chief clerk Loring O. Mills. In April 1934, the old material was removed from the prison; holes were cut in the concrete and 269 cell fronts were installed, built using four carloads of steel ordered from the Stewart Iron Works.
Two of four new stairways were built, as were 12 doors to the utility corridors and gratings at the top of the cells. On 26 April, a small accidental fire broke out on the roof and an electrician injured his foot by dropping a manhole cover on it. The Anchor Post Fence Company added fencing around Alcatraz and the Enterprise Electric Works added emergency lighting in the morgue and switchboard operations.
In June 1934, the Teletouch Corporation of New York began the installation of an "electro-magnetic gun or metal detecting system" at Alcatraz; detectors were added on the wharf, at the front entrance into the cellblock, and at the rear entrance gate. The correctional officers were instructed on how to operate the new locking devices in July 1934, and both the United States Coast Guard and the San Francisco Police Department tested the new radio equipment.[9] Final checks and assessments were made on the first two days of August.
Alcatraz Island is a small island 1.25 miles (2.01 km) offshore from San Francisco, California, United States. The island was developed in the mid-19th century with facilities for a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison. In 1934, the island was converted into a federal prison, Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. The strong currents around the island and cold water temperatures made escape nearly impossible, and the prison became one of the most notorious in American history. The prison closed in 1963, and the island is now a major tourist attraction.
Beginning in November 1969, the island was occupied for more than 19 months by a group of Native Americans, initially primarily from San Francisco, who were later joined by AIM and other urban Indians from other parts of the country, who were part of a wave of Native American activists organizing public protests across the US through the 1970s. In 1972, Alcatraz was transferred to the Department of Interior to become part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. It was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
Today, the island's facilities are managed by the National Park Service as part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Visitors can reach the island by ferry ride from Pier 33, located between the San Francisco Ferry Building and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco. Hornblower Cruises, operating under the name Alcatraz Cruises, is the official ferry provider to and from the island.
Alcatraz Island is the site of the abandoned federal prison, the oldest operating lighthouse on the West Coast of the United States, early military fortifications, and natural features such as rock pools and a seabird colony (mostly western gulls, cormorants, and egrets). According to a 1971 documentary on the history of Alcatraz, the island measures 1,675 feet (511 m) by 590 feet (180 m) and is 135 feet (41 m) at highest point during mean tide. The total area of the island is reported to be 22 acres (8.9 ha).
Landmarks on the island include the Main Cellhouse, Dining Hall, Lighthouse, the ruins of the Warden's House and Social Hall, Parade Grounds, Building 64, Water Tower, New Industries Building, Model Industries Building, and the Recreation Yard.
San Francisco officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, financial, and cultural center in Northern California. With a population of 808,437 residents as of 2022, San Francisco is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of California. The city covers a land area of 46.9 square miles (121 square kilometers) at the end of the San Francisco Peninsula, making it the second-most densely populated large U.S. city after New York City and the fifth-most densely populated U.S. county, behind only four New York City boroughs. Among the 92 U.S. cities proper with over 250,000 residents, San Francisco was ranked first by per capita income and sixth by aggregate income as of 2022. Colloquial nicknames for San Francisco include Frisco, San Fran, The City, and SF (although Frisco and San Fran are generally not used by locals).
Prior to European settlement, the modern city proper was inhabited by the Yelamu, who spoke a language now referred to as Ramaytush Ohlone. On June 29, 1776, settlers from New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco at the Golden Gate, and the Mission San Francisco de Asís a few miles away, both named for Francis of Assisi. The California Gold Rush of 1849 brought rapid growth, transforming an unimportant hamlet into a busy port, making it the largest city on the West Coast at the time; between 1870 and 1900, approximately one quarter of California's population resided in the city proper. In 1856, San Francisco became a consolidated city-county. After three-quarters of the city was destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, it was quickly rebuilt, hosting the Panama-Pacific International Exposition nine years later. In World War II, it was a major port of embarkation for naval service members shipping out to the Pacific Theater. In 1945, the United Nations Charter was signed in San Francisco, establishing the United Nations and in 1951, the Treaty of San Francisco re-established peaceful relations between Japan and the Allied Powers. After the war, the confluence of returning servicemen, significant immigration, liberalizing attitudes, the rise of the beatnik and hippie countercultures, the sexual revolution, the peace movement growing from opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War, and other factors led to the Summer of Love and the gay rights movement, cementing San Francisco as a center of liberal activism in the United States.
San Francisco and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area are a global center of economic activity and the arts and sciences, spurred by leading universities, high-tech, healthcare, finance, insurance, real estate, and professional services sectors. As of 2020, the metropolitan area, with 6.7 million residents, ranked 5th by GDP ($874 billion) and 2nd by GDP per capita ($131,082) across the OECD countries, ahead of global cities like Paris, London, and Singapore. San Francisco anchors the 13th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the United States with 4.6 million residents, and the fourth-largest by aggregate income and economic output, with a GDP of $729 billion in 2022. The wider San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland Combined Statistical Area is the fifth-most populous, with 9.0 million residents, and the third-largest by economic output, with a GDP of $1.32 trillion in 2022. In the same year, San Francisco proper had a GDP of $252.2 billion, and a GDP per capita of $312,000. San Francisco was ranked fifth in the world and second in the United States on the Global Financial Centres Index as of September 2023. Despite an ongoing post-COVID-19 pandemic exodus of over 30 retail businesses from the northeastern quadrant of San Francisco, including the downtown core, the city is still home to numerous companies inside and outside of technology, including Salesforce, Uber, Airbnb, X Corp., Levi's, Gap, Dropbox, and Lyft.
In 2022, San Francisco had more than 1.7 million international visitors - the fifth-most visited city from abroad in the United States after New York City, Miami, Orlando, and Los Angeles - and approximately 20 million domestic visitors for a total of 21.9 million visitors. The city is known for its steep rolling hills and eclectic mix of architecture across varied neighborhoods, as well as its cool summers, fog, and landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Alcatraz, along with the Chinatown and Mission districts. The city is home to a number of educational and cultural institutions, such as the University of California, San Francisco, the University of San Francisco, San Francisco State University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the de Young Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the San Francisco Opera, the SFJAZZ Center, and the California Academy of Sciences. Two major league sports teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Golden State Warriors, play their home games within San Francisco proper. San Francisco's main international airport offers flights to over 125 destinations while a light rail and bus network, in tandem with the BART and Caltrain systems, connects nearly every part of San Francisco with the wider region.
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
The economy of the state of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.4 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2022, behind Germany and ahead of India, as well as the 37th most populous. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.5 trillion respectively as of 2020). The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018, and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.
Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire. In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including large-scale immigration into California, a worldwide economic boom, and the California genocide of indigenous people. The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, following the Compromise of 1850.
Notable contributions to popular culture, for example in entertainment and sports, have their origins in California. The state also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, environmentalism, economics, and politics. It is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, which has had a profound influence upon global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, and the personal computer, among other innovations. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse: 58% of it is based on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific, and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. California's ports and harbors handle about a third of all U.S. imports, most originating in Pacific Rim international trade.
The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate and monsoon seasonal weather. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during at least the last 13,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population have ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests. These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups.
The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island. Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey. Despite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century.
The Portolá expedition of 1769-70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California, resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay.
After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along the Californian coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition. Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others.
Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established city in California.
The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions.
During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established a trading post and small fortification at Fort Ross on the North Coast. Fort Ross was primarily used to supply Russia's Alaskan colonies with food supplies. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by 1841.
During the War of Mexican Independence, Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution, though many Californios supported independence from Spain, which many believed had neglected California and limited its development. Spain's trade monopoly on California had limited the trade prospects of Californians. Following Mexican independence, Californian ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá presided over the transition from Spanish colonial rule to independent.
In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government. The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Hispanics native of California) who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants. Beef did not become a commodity until the 1849 California Gold Rush.
From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California. The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. During this tumultuous political period Juan Bautista Alvarado was able to secure the governorship during 1836–1842. The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California, including Isaac Graham. In 1840, one hundred of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham Affair, which was resolved in part with the intercession of Royal Navy officials.
One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route". His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.
After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced these men that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship. This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States.
In 1846, a group of American settlers in and around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide,[65] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders.
The California Republic was short-lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay in 1846 and began the U.S. military invasion of California, with Northern California capitulating in less than a month to the United States forces. In Southern California, Californios continued to resist American forces. Notable military engagements of the conquest include the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Dominguez Rancho in Southern California, as well as the Battle of Olómpali and the Battle of Santa Clara in Northern California. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.
Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848) that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico. In 1846, the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans, down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.
In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances. Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. The population burgeoned with United States citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By the time of California's application for statehood in 1850, the settler population of California had multiplied to 100,000. By 1854, more than 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.
The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate had also been located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.
In 1849, a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U.S. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union. However, due to the existence of a large contingent of pro-South sympathizers within the state, the state was not able to muster any full military regiments to send eastwards to officially serve in the Union war effort. Still, several smaller military units within the Union army were unofficially associated with the state of California, such as the "California 100 Company", due to a majority of their members being from California.
At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the First transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.
Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.
In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work. Even though the Chinese proved indispensable in building the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah, perceived job competition with the Chinese led to anti-Chinese riots in the state, and eventually the US ended migration from China partially as a response to pressure from California with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity. Under its new American administration, California's harsh governmental policies towards its own indigenous people did not improve. As in other American states, many of the native inhabitants were soon forcibly removed from their lands by incoming American settlers such as miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians" were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were also massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed.
Between 1850 and 1860, the California state government paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.
In the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese people migrated to the US and California specifically to attempt to purchase and own land in the state. However, the state in 1913 passed the Alien Land Act, excluding Asian immigrants from owning land. During World War II, Japanese Americans in California were interned in concentration camps such as at Tule Lake and Manzanar. In 2020, California officially apologized for this internment.
Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to the greatest in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.
To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.
Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. California however easily ranked first in production of military ships during the war (transport, cargo, [merchant ships] such as Liberty ships, Victory ships, and warships) at drydock facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of agricultural production. Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.
In the mid and late twentieth century, a number of race-related incidents occurred in the state. Tensions between police and African Americans, combined with unemployment and poverty in inner cities, led to violent riots, such as the 1965 Watts riots and 1992 Rodney King riots. California was also the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren. Additionally, Mexican, Filipino, and other migrant farm workers rallied in the state around Cesar Chavez for better pay in the 1960s and 1970s.
During the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S. history.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze known as "smog" has been substantially abated after the passage of federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company came under heavy criticism.
Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase; a modest home which in the 1960s cost $25,000 would cost half a million dollars or more in urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in the urban areas. Speculators bought houses they never intended to live in, expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months, then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were compliant, as everyone assumed the prices would keep rising. The bubble burst in 2007–8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and foreclosures soared as many financial institutions and investors were badly hurt.
In the twenty-first century, droughts and frequent wildfires attributed to climate change have occurred in the state. From 2011 to 2017, a persistent drought was the worst in its recorded history. The 2018 wildfire season was the state's deadliest and most destructive, most notably Camp Fire.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze that is known as "smog" has been substantially abated thanks to federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
One of the first confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States that occurred in California was first of which was confirmed on January 26, 2020. Meaning, all of the early confirmed cases were persons who had recently travelled to China in Asia, as testing was restricted to this group. On this January 29, 2020, as disease containment protocols were still being developed, the U.S. Department of State evacuated 195 persons from Wuhan, China aboard a chartered flight to March Air Reserve Base in Riverside County, and in this process, it may have granted and conferred to escalated within the land and the US at cosmic. On February 5, 2020, the U.S. evacuated 345 more citizens from Hubei Province to two military bases in California, Travis Air Force Base in Solano County and Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, where they were quarantined for 14 days. A state of emergency was largely declared in this state of the nation on March 4, 2020, and as of February 24, 2021, remains in effect. A mandatory statewide stay-at-home order was issued on March 19, 2020, due to increase, which was ended on January 25, 2021, allowing citizens to return to normal life. On April 6, 2021, the state announced plans to fully reopen the economy by June 15, 2021.
St Margaret of Antioch, Cowlinge, Suffolk
Given its proximity to the Cambridgeshire border, some people would argue that this Suffolk church is closer to civilisation than most, and yet St Margaret of Antioch, Cowlinge, has a decidedly remote feel to it. Gentle hills enfold these pretty villages, and St Margaret stands distant from the houses it serves. Cowlinge, pronounced coo-linj, stands about a mile north of the Haverhill to Bury road, not far from the better-known Denston. You approach it up a track from the north, where it is rather hemmed in, but the graveyard opens up widely beyond on the other side.
The first impression is one of redness. From the outside, Cowlinge seems a rather pretty accretion of centuries' work, its tower a typical red brick 18th century rebuilding - there are similar ones across the county at Grundisburgh and Layham. The chancel and nave appear to have met each other by chance as much as intention, and all is pleasantly patched up, with solid red-brick buttressing and just about every kind of window you can think of. There are aisles, there is a clerestory, but this is not a grand church. Rather, it is the kind of building a DIY enthusiast might put together if he wanted a late medieval one in his back garden.
And somehow, this makes it beautiful, especially if seen from the south-east or north-east. You might expect the interior to be similarly ramshackle, but you step through the north door into cool whiteness, and as you walk through this treasure chest of a church, unusual vistas open up at each turn. This is a complex church.
Facing east to start with, the first impression is of the wall-painting above the chancel arch, and the gated rood screen beneath. There are gates in the screens at nearby Withersfield and Denston, but unlike those these doors rise to the full height of the screen. The screen itself is perhaps not as beautiful as the parclose screen enclosing the chapel in the south aisle. Mortlock points out how similar it is to the one up the road at Dalham. The paleness of the wood is very pleasing.I thought it compared very well with the parclose at Dennington, which has been repainted gaudily. Another good parclose of the same age is at Westhorpe. A memorial window contains 1920s glass by Christopher Webb of Christ with the fishermen at Galilee.
One the wall beside the parclose in the south aisle is a small exposed area of wall painting. It appears to be an unbearded male saint holding something that may well be a chalice, in which case it is St John the Evangelist. The better-known wall painting here is the one I mentioned earlier, above the chancel arch. It is often referred to as a doom, but it is organised rather differently to others of its kind. Instead of the day of judgement, with God in Majesty overseeing the parting of the ways into hell on his right and heaven on his left, it depicts St Michael, to the south of the arch, balancing a set of scales in which a sinner is being weighed against his sins.
St Michael is a common feature of doom paintings - he appears nearby at Stoke by Clare and on the famous doom at Wenhaston. The unusual aspect of this one, however, is to the north of the arch, where the Virgin Mother of God stands. She reaches out with a wand, and tips the balance of the scales. Simon Jenkins, in his England's Thousand Best Churches, suggests that she is tipping the balance in the favour of the virtuous. This is, of course, exactly what she is not doing. The virtuous had no need of intervention; the good in them would outweigh their sins in any case. Mary is intervening on behalf of sinners who have prayed to her for her help, and she is tipping the scales in the favour of those sinners. It represents the efficacy of intercessions to Our Blessed Lady, and as such it was anathema to the 16th century reformers.
In common with other wall paintings, this priceless art treasure was whitewashed over rather than destroyed. It would be interesting to know when this happened. We know that during William Dowsing's iconoclastic progress through Suffolk and Cambridgeshire in 1644, he found no wall paintings still in existence. It has always been assumed that they were covered by the Anglicans when the new Church of England took possession of our parish churches a century earlier. But I do wonder if they might have been done away with a century before even that, perhaps around the middle of the 15th century, when the ruling classes were enforcing orthodox Catholic dogma in the face of the superstitions of the ordinary people. Part of this process involved setting up larger roods at the east end of the nave, and I think this wall-painting may have been covered before that happened here.
The chancel arch beneath the doom is also extensively painted, and also of interest on all of the pillars a large amount of medieval graffiti, some of which is described as being consecration crosses. This, of course, cannot be so, for the medieval church ordered its liturgical needs rather better than this, and these are no doubt the work of some bored 17th century vandal.
Stepping through into the chancel, it is at once one of the loveliest in Suffolk, and one of the most dominated, since Peter Scheemakers' ugly 18th century memorial for Francis Dickins glowers against the north wall. Dickins was responsible for the building of the tower. The figures are life size, and the monument is wholly secular, even pagan. They look like nothing so much as a couple on their way to a toga party pausing to pose with the FA Cup.
Near the north door, a plaque on the wall records the visitation of 1618 when permission was given for the local house of correction to set up seating here for its inmates. There are still banked benches below, but these are later, and were probably intended for the village schoolchildren. Seating on a similar scale can be seen at nearby Kedington, divided there into boys' and girls' sections. On a somewhat larger scale they can also be seen at Laxfield.
A fine view of this church can be had by climbing to the spacious gallery beneath Dickins' tower. Once up here, the space is dominated by another huge classical memorial to Dickins and above it a George II royal arms, which also records that George Finton and Henry Seabrook were the churchwardens who set it up in 1731.
St Margaret is everything a historic church should be. Well-ordered, welcoming, suited to its Protestant present and mindful of its Catholic past. It used to be left open all the time, but a traumatic assault on the building some five years ago by a mentally ill man suffering from a religious mania, during which both screens and the altar were set fire to, means that it is now kept locked, but with a very cheerful churchwarden who was most happy to come and open up.
Given its beautiful but highly venomous spines, the Lionfish need not worry about other predators on the reef. They all avoid it. And that leaves this invasive species -- one with a voracious appetite -- free to kill off populations of native reef fish throughout the Caribbean and the east-coast Atlantic waters of the U.S.
BR35-13 Gresley A4 60009 "Union of South Africa" & Royal Train nears Watherston, Borders Railway Official Opening - 9th September 2015
This was the occasion when Her Majesty the Queen, celebrating her 90th birthday, decided to embark on travel by train to Tweedbank to mark the official opening of the Borders Railway from Edinburgh to Tweedbank. Her Majesty and The Duke of Edinburgh travelled in the second coach on the train.
60009 was permanently retired from running on the main line on 22nd April 2020.
*** As a footnote, 60009 is due to be permanently retired in a museum in Fife, Scotland once, and if, planning permission is given.
" The approval given last week by the VoG Planning Committee to gas-drilling activity showed a disgraceful bias towards the company Coastal Oil & Gas. The officers let the company get away with minimal information and falsely ignoring the toxic waste water and radioactive sludges likely to be produced.
Both the officers and the Natural Resources Agency ignored flooding risks and environmental impacts as allegedly short-term, yet the precautionary principle and environmental impact (EIA) regulations do cover short-term harm.
The VoG officers quoted the Llandow inquiry decision. Yet no other authority takes that seriously, as the Vale Council failed to make a proper case on drilling noise disturbance and local water supplies at risk. They accepted noise levels used for regulating quarrying (nighttime quarry working excluded) to apply to all-night drilling for gas; they ignored the WHO (World Health Organisation) 30 decibel level for disturbance to sleep.
The Vale's new LDP does give the chance to write into our local plan strong requirements on shale-gas drilling. Official support for this comes in EU Commission and European parliament resolutions both saying that EIA should apply to all shale gas activities.
At the committee on 3rd October, Councillors pressed the VoG officer to assure them that extracting shale gas would require EIA, but he was not even ready to promise this.
Building a strong policy into the LDP will enable us to stand up to pro-fracking interests and the hands-off Welsh Government, who see only profits from exploitation.
Basic to this policy should be requiring EIA and normal restrictions on night-time noise for 'unconventional' gas exploration as well as its exploitation. It should also mandate the precautionary principle is to be used until all questions on pollution and gas leakage have been satisfied. "
Max Wallis
Barry & Vale Friends of the Earth
14 Robert Street, Barry
Because it is test drilling. There will be stimulation (fracking) to test the productivity.
The Llantrthyd application is for “gas testing”
The ‘supporting information’ does not explain this protracted process anywhere, but it involves pumping of water with chemicals to “stimulate” the release of gas. At Balcombe, Cuadrilla use the word “stimulation” to describe this gas-testing process, but Coastal Oil&Gas’s Supporting Information refers to ’stimulation’ only in:
the shale gas boom in recent years has been due to modern technology in stimulation techniques to create extensive artificial fractures around well bores.
The BBC denial refers only to this use of the term.
See supporting information here vogonline.planning-register.co.uk/PlaRecord.aspx?AppNo=20...
Ref: Application for Planning Permission.
7. Waste Storage and Collection
Do the plans incorporate areas to store and aid the collection of waste? Yes
please provide details:
The drilling cuttings will be placed in a skip and disposed of at a licensed facility. Any waste water will be tankered to a licensed treatment plant.
Planning Application Details for : 2013/00335/FUL
vogonline.planning-register.co.uk/PlaRecord.aspx?AppNo=20...
Dangerous levels of radioactivity found at fracking waste site in Pennsylvania. This area is a high Radon area, the waste material will be deal with how and where?
www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/02/dangerous-rad...
What is the Minerals Planning Authority (MPA) for Wales criteria for determining if a Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) is required and what have their assessments been for all fracking applications in Wales.
The MPA determines if an EIA is required. When an operator wishes to drill an exploration well, their first step is to negotiate access with landowners for the drilling pad area and the surface under which any drilling extends. Permission must also be obtained from the Coal Authority if the well encroaches on coal seams. Then the operator needs to seek planning permission from the MPA. The operator must obtain the appropriate environmental authorisation/permit from the Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
The MPA will determine if an EIA is required, such assessments are required if the scale of the operations meets certain' thresholds', or if, depending on their nature, scale and location, they may have significant environmental impacts. If an EIA is required, it must be completed by the applicant and submitted to the MPA before the MPA decides on planning permission.
There is a bill being put to EU Parliament on 8th October to get this amended so that it is mandatory for EIAs to be carried out for both the exploration and production phases of all unconventional fossil fuel projects.
I recommend you write to your local MEP’s and ask them to support amendments 31 and 79 in the Zanoni report and that they reject amendment 112 which excludes exploration phase from mandatory EIAs.
On top of this the Government is planning to amend UK planning laws so that fracking companies don’t need to notify you if they plan to frack under your property. Given that in the states people struggle to sell their houses if they have been fracked under as they can’t get insurance and thus mortgages and we live in old coal mining areas prone to subsidence this could be an issue for valley property.
The whole of the Vale needs to realise the potential scale if shale gas is to be viable here, how many wells, lorries, polluted water (10,000 to 30,000 tonnes per well), gas pipes, infrastuctures to be put into place? The whole of the Vale is pretty much available for fracking license, are the communities there aware of this? What is Alun Cairns MP (conservative) for the Vale of Glamorgan doing, and Jane Hutt Labour AM for The Vale Of Glamorgan doing to help these communities?
I felt that site visit was pointless, the planning officers and councilors had already made their minds up.
Please Attend:
Tomorrows Planning C'ttee, THURSDAY, 3RD OCTOBER, 2013 AT 6.00 P.M. Venue COMMITTEE ROOM 2, CIVIC OFFICES. Holton Rd, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.
www.facebook.com/events/204260026421416/?ref_newsfeed_sto...
Todays site meeting www.llantrithyd.com/
Llantrithyd 'Villagers Against Drilling' The Vale of Glamorgan
Frack Free Wales www.facebook.com/groups/394027893948761/
Future fracking fears as south Wales drilling bids considered (with my photos) www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-24376142
Twitter @nspugh twitter.com/nspugh
Because it is test drilling. There will be stimulation (fracking) to test the productivity.
The Llantrthyd application is for “gas testing”
The ‘supporting information’ does not explain this protracted process anywhere, but it involves pumping of water with chemicals to “stimulate” the release of gas. At Balcombe, Cuadrilla use the word “stimulation” to describe this gas-testing process, but Coastal Oil&Gas’s Supporting Information refers to ’stimulation’ only in:
the shale gas boom in recent years has been due to modern technology in stimulation techniques to create extensive artificial fractures around well bores.
The BBC denial refers only to this use of the term.
See supporting information here vogonline.planning-register.co.uk/PlaRecord.aspx?AppNo=20...
Ref: Application for Planning Permission.
7. Waste Storage and Collection
Do the plans incorporate areas to store and aid the collection of waste? Yes
please provide details:
The drilling cuttings will be placed in a skip and disposed of at a licensed facility. Any waste water will be tankered to a licensed treatment plant.
Planning Application Details for : 2013/00335/FUL
vogonline.planning-register.co.uk/PlaRecord.aspx?AppNo=20...
Dangerous levels of radioactivity found at fracking waste site in Pennsylvania. This area is a high Radon area, the waste material will be deal with how and where?
www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/02/dangerous-rad...
What is the Minerals Planning Authority (MPA) for Wales criteria for determining if a Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) is required and what have their assessments been for all fracking applications in Wales.
The MPA determines if an EIA is required. When an operator wishes to drill an exploration well, their first step is to negotiate access with landowners for the drilling pad area and the surface under which any drilling extends. Permission must also be obtained from the Coal Authority if the well encroaches on coal seams. Then the operator needs to seek planning permission from the MPA. The operator must obtain the appropriate environmental authorisation/permit from the Natural Resources Wales (NRW).
The MPA will determine if an EIA is required, such assessments are required if the scale of the operations meets certain' thresholds', or if, depending on their nature, scale and location, they may have significant environmental impacts. If an EIA is required, it must be completed by the applicant and submitted to the MPA before the MPA decides on planning permission.
There is a bill being put to EU Parliament on 8th October to get this amended so that it is mandatory for EIAs to be carried out for both the exploration and production phases of all unconventional fossil fuel projects.
I recommend you write to your local MEP’s and ask them to support amendments 31 and 79 in the Zanoni report and that they reject amendment 112 which excludes exploration phase from mandatory EIAs.
On top of this the Government is planning to amend UK planning laws so that fracking companies don’t need to notify you if they plan to frack under your property. Given that in the states people struggle to sell their houses if they have been fracked under as they can’t get insurance and thus mortgages and we live in old coal mining areas prone to subsidence this could be an issue for valley property.
The whole of the Vale needs to realise the potential scale if shale gas is to be viable here, how many wells, lorries, polluted water (10,000 to 30,000 tonnes per well), gas pipes, infrastuctures to be put into place? The whole of the Vale is pretty much available for fracking license, are the communities there aware of this? What is Alun Cairns MP (conservative) for the Vale of Glamorgan doing, and Jane Hutt Labour AM for The Vale Of Glamorgan doing to help these communities?
I felt that site visit was pointless, the planning officers and councilors had already made their minds up.
Please Attend:
Tomorrows Planning C'ttee, THURSDAY, 3RD OCTOBER, 2013 AT 6.00 P.M. Venue COMMITTEE ROOM 2, CIVIC OFFICES. Holton Rd, Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.
www.facebook.com/events/204260026421416/?ref_newsfeed_sto...
Todays site meeting www.llantrithyd.com/
Llantrithyd 'Villagers Against Drilling' The Vale of Glamorgan
Frack Free Wales www.facebook.com/groups/394027893948761/
Future fracking fears as south Wales drilling bids considered (with my photos) www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-24376142
Twitter @nspugh twitter.com/nspugh
I was given free tickets to Disney World last summer by someone, and this past May, my lady Jess came over from the UK to go with me, and also to see me, I'm pretty sure that was part of it too :) It was the most amazing day, I'd been as a kid, but watching her face when we got there, walking through the archway onto main street, and the light in her eyes...god it was worth more than i could ever imagine. It truly is the most magical place in the world, and if you're there, STAY for the fireworks at the end. We were both in tears by the time the last ember fell, and I've never experienced anything like it in my life.
North Toraja (or Toraja Utara) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and the home of the Toraja ethnic group. The local government seat is in Rantepao which is also the center of Toraja culture. Formerly this regency was part of Tana Toraja Regency.
The Tana Toraja boundary was determined by the Dutch East Indies government in 1909. In 1926, Tana Toraja was under the administration of Bugis state, Luwu. The regentschap (or regency) status was given on October 8, 1946, the last regency given by the Dutch. Since 1984, Tana Toraja has been named as the second tourist destination after Bali by the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. Since then, hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors have visited this regency. In addition, numerous Western anthropologists have come to Tana Toraja to study the indigenous culture and people of Toraja.
GEOGRAPHY
Tana Toraja is located on the Sulawesi island, 300 km north of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. Its geographical location is between latitude of 2°-3° South and longitude 119°-120° East (center: 3°S 120°ECoordinates: 3°S 120°E). The area of the new North Toraja Regency is 1,151.47 km², about 2.5% of the total area of South Sulawesi province. The topography of Tana Toraja is mountainous; its minimum elevation is 150 m, while the maximum is 3,083 above the sea level.
Tana Toraja Regency (Indonesian for Torajaland or Land of the Toraja, abbreviated Tator) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and home to the Toraja ethnic group. The local government seat is in Makale, while the center of Toraja culture is in Rantepao. But now, Tana Toraja has been divided to two regencies that consist of Tana Toraja with its capital at Makale and North toraja with its capital at Rantepao.
The Tana Toraja boundary was determined by the Dutch East Indies government in 1909. In 1926, Tana Toraja was under the administration of Bugis state, Luwu. The regentschap (or regency) status was given on 8 October 1946, the last regency given by the Dutch. Since 1984, Tana Toraja has been named as the second tourist destination after Bali by the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. Since then, hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors have visited this regency. In addition, numerous Western anthropologists have come to Tana Toraja to study the indigenous culture and people of Toraja.
GEOGRAPHY
Tana Toraja is centrally placed in the island of Sulawesi, 300 km north of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. It lies between latitude of 2°-3° South and longitude 119°-120° East (center: 3°S 120°ECoordinates: 3°S 120°E). The total area (since the separation of the new regency of North Toraja) is 2,054.30 km², about 4.4% of the total area of South Sulawesi province. The topography of Tana Toraja is mountainous; its minimum elevation is 150 m, while the maximum is 3,083 above the sea level.
ADMINISTRATION
Tana Toraja Regency in 2010 comprised nineteen administrative Districts (Kecamatan), tabulated below with their 2010 Census population.
The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja").[1] Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognised this animistic belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word Toraja comes from the Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colourful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism development and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model—in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo—to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.
ETHNIC IDENTITY
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonisation and Christianisation, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders—such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi—than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups—the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).
HISTORY
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognised in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to Christianity.
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognised religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognised, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalised as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.
SOCIETY
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.
FAMILY AFFILIATION
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin)—except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.
CLASS AFFILIATION
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.
Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women—a crime punishable by death.
RELIGIOUS AFFILATION
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.
The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.
CULTURE
TONGKONAN
Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
Architecture in the style of a tongkonan is still very common. Various administration buildings were built in this style in recent years, e.g. the Kecamatan building in Rantepao.
WOOD CARVINGS
To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolise some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolise fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. Torajan wood carvings are composed of numerous square panels, each of which can represent various things, for example buffaloes as a wish of wealth for the family; a knot and a box, symbolizing the hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony; aquatic animals, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.
FUNERAL RITES
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased's family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.
DANNCE AND MUSIC
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.
COGENDER VIEWS
Among the Saʼadan (eastern Toraja) in the island of Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia, there are homosexual male toburake tambolang shamans; although among their neighbors the Mamasa (western Toraja) there are instead only heterosexual female toburake shamanesses.
LANGUAGE
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.
Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae, Talondo, Toala, and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages.
A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterised their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.
ECONOMY
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market.
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies—to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.
Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s—including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi—tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.
TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure—an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialised. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.
A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.
WIKIPEDIA
given the focal length, the landscape, and the fact that we obviously was in a moving, just, I might add, vehicle, if it hadn`t been for that I caught a glimpse of her white tail-tip, never in a thousand years would I`ve spotted her in the vegetation of this dry riverbed. These are masters of their environment! This young, just independent, leopardess was stalking some female nyalas, with no luck that time sadly..