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VA’s annual Brain Trust summit offers platform for innovations in brain health and head trauma
From a software platform for traumatic brain injury to a virtual reality device that assists Veterans with behavioral health issues, 15 competitors pitched a diversity of ideas during demo day at the Brain Trust: Pathways to InnoVAtion summit, hosted by VA on May 18 in Boston. The annual two-day event assembled more than 350 invited participants from the federal government, private industry, professional sports, medical research, caregivers and Veteran communities to collaborate and advance discussions around the prevention and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and concussion. “We have an unbelievable opportunity to accelerate the speed of change,” said retired Army Lt. Gen. Patricia Horoho, CEO of Optum Military and Veterans Group, to the 15 industry and academic innovators who had come to pitch their ideas on TBI and head trauma to a panel of judges. “Today, the impossible gets challenged.”After reviewing a series of short presentations from competitors, the judges selected three winners: The Daptly Display, a gesture and voice-controlled assistant for the home or office; Save a Warrior: A peer-to-peer, archetypal approach for healing combat trauma and moral injury; and Recovery Acceleration Program for mild TBI by King-Devick Technologies. The winners will have the potential opportunity to implement and deploy their innovations with VA. “We feel incredibly honored to be selected as a winner of the VA Innovation awards, which will further our opportunity to provide services to our Veterans,” said Steve Devick, CEO of King-Devick Technologies, who explained how his project would help Veterans impacted by TBI. “The King-Devick technologies innovations are related to the fact that eye movements and vision are responsible for approximately 55 percent of brain function. “As a result, implementing our recovery acceleration program by involving these pathways leads to faster concussions and TBI recovery when used with standard remediation. Additionally, caregivers can measure defects in eye movements, which may lead to dosage changes in chronic degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. ” During the event, VA officials announced key partnerships with several influential organizations, including: Amazon, which donated 100 Echo devices with Alexa voice service to VA’s Assistive Technology Labs to help meet the needs of Veterans; Cohen Veterans Bioscience, which is coordinating efforts with VA to integrate data across dozens of labs to facilitate breakthroughs in trauma-related disorders; Booz Allen Hamilton; Comcast; Concussion Legacy Foundation; GE; IBM; Infinite Hero Foundation; Johnson & Johnson; Optum; Outward Bound; PenFed Foundation, Philips; the Warrior Care Network and the National Institutes of Health, which is co-hosting a ‘State of the Science’ workshop in 2018 that will focus on Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and other neurodegenerative diseases. (By Paula Paige. VA photo/ Robert Turtil)
Darlene Lane offers an escape to Provence, France on Salt Spring Island. She travels to the South of France to source the finest of French fabrics in the most current of contemporary designs. The result is a market booth that seems to glow with the bright colours of Mediterranean sunshine from bags, cushions and table linens. Her most popular items are table cloths with a protective "wipe clean" surface. Table cloths are available in a range of sizes for square, round or rectangular tables.
(If you'd like to use any of these photos for anything pls contact Kris Krüg first - kriskrug@gmail.com or 778. 898. 3076. Thank you! (c) (r) (tm) 2016)
This model is a thorough conversion of a 1:60 "SEE Type-7 Brocken" IP kit from Bandai, and it is part of a Group Build at whatifmodelers.com under the theme "De-/Militarize it" (which still runs until the end of August 2015).
The mecha belongs into the Patlabor anime TV series. Anime is certainly not everyone's business, but it has a lot to offer.
The charm of the Patlabor universe is that these vehicles exist (these are no robots, except for rare cases there's a pilot inside) in everyday life. When the series was conceived in the 80ies it was a near-future setting in the nineties - SF, but VERY down to earth and "realistic".
The 'Labors', how these more or less humanoid vehicles are called, are special duty heavy machinery, e. g. for construction, loading, hazmat handling. They are also employed by the police (hence the title of the series, Patlabor, which circles around a police unit which fights labor crime) and by the military.
The Brocken is one of the dedicated military designs. It actually comes from Germany, hence probably the plate mail armor design. I am not certain if its name, Brocken, is the German word for hulk, or the mountain close to the inner German border in FRG/GDR times, because the Brocken was designed to patrol and protect this border - the Cold War was still part of the series' script!
There are actually firefighting Labors in the TV series, and the background story is built around the two types I am aware of. And in order to de-militarize the Brocken and change its look so far that the kit appears like a different vehicle, a lot of things had to be modified.
The head is completely new and supposed to remind of typical firefighter helmets. The cockpit section (in the breast) was changed, too, as well as the knee sections and different hands. Parts from other mecha kits (e. g. from a 1:72 Battroid VF-1 , a 1:100 Gerwalk VF-1, a 1:100 Destroid Phalanx, a 1:144 Gundam Zaku and even from an NGE EVA) were intergrated, but a lot of details were scratched.
For instance, the head with its sensor booms and the complex shape consists of ~30 pieces and putty, and the flashlights were completely scratched from clear sprue, styrene sheet and parts of PET toothbrush head protectors!
Having a dedicated duty, a lot of special equipment had to be integrated - in a fashion that it looks plausible and as an integral part, not just an add-on. Therefore, several light installations were added, two water cannons (one on the shoulder, one on the right forearm), a scratched winch, plus several protection bars all around the hull.
A CO2 tank was added on the back, plus a turbo pump installation that would drive the two water cannons and allow external water supply. An extandable hydraulic crusher on the right forearm was added, too, when knocking on the door simply does not meet the situation. Integrating the stuff into the hull meant much body work, and all the devices were meant to appear plausible and functional.
The paint scheme was simple: an all-red livery, inspired by typical German fire engines which wear RAL 3000 as official color. With some shading this eventually turned into a rather orange hue, but the Florian still looks like a fire fighting vehicle.
The yellow trim for a more international look was created with decals from several HO scale firefighting vehicle aftermarket sheets. Finally, after a black ink wash and some dry-painting, the kit received a coating with semi-matt acrylic varnish, and some pigment dust around the legs.
Stokely Carmichael, chair of the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party, is shown outside the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington, D.C. November 3, 1972 where he offered support to Native Americans who had seized the building.
Participants in the Trail of Broken Treaties took over the building the previous day after police attempted to evict them despite the group having permission to stay.
Carmichael offered to “support this movement 100 percent. The question of Native Americans is not just a question of civil rights. This land is their land,”
Carmichael continued, “…we have to agree to do whatever we can to provide help…there can be no settlement until their land is returned to them.”
A civil rights leader, antiwar activist, and Pan-African revolutionary, Stokely Carmichael is best known for popularizing the slogan “Black Power,” which in the mid 1960s galvanized a movement toward more militant and separatist assertions of black identity, nationalism, and empowerment and away from the liberal, interracial pacifism of Martin Luther King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC).
Carmichael was born in 1941 in Port of Spain, Trinidad. His family moved to New York City, New York when he was eleven. He showed promise as a young student and was accepted into the mostly white Bronx High School of Science in 1956.
He began his radicalization through his high school friendship with Eugene Dennis Jr., son of a U.S. Communist Party leader.
He attended Howard University and joined the local Non-Violent Action Group (NAG) and the newly formed Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1960.
He participated in local Washington, D.C. actions, including staging a sit-in at the offices of Attorney General Robert Kennedy when former NAG activist Dion Diamond was arrested for insurrection when he walked onto the campus of Southern University.
He participated in SNCC sit-ins and Freedom Rides throughout the Deep South, and when SNCC turned its attention to voter registration, Carmichael led the campaign that established the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, a symbolic forerunner to the Black Panther Party.
In 1964 Carmichael graduated from Howard and, along with other young SNCC activists, became increasingly frustrated with the movement’s reliance on white liberals and its advocacy of non-violent reform, especially in the wake of the Democratic Party’s betrayal of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
In May 1965 Carmichael was elected to replace John Lewis as SNCC chairman, formalizing the shift in SNCC ideology.
During a 1966 march in Selma, Alabama, Carmichael first proclaimed “Black Power.” The slogan, and Carmichael’s subsequent efforts to both define it and put it into practice, turned him into a media celebrity and a lightning rod for white criticism and government repression.
“Black Power” fragmented the liberal civil rights coalition of the 1950s and early 1960s but inspired subsequent groups such as the Black Panther Party, which despite ideological disagreements named Carmichael as its Honorary Prime Minister in 1968.
Carmichael spent the last decades of his life abroad, denouncing U.S. racism and imperialism while working to build the All African Peoples Revolutionary Party.
He changed his name to Kwame Ture in 1978, in honor of his friends and political allies, Pan-African leaders Sekou Touré and Kwame Nkrumah. In 1969 Ture settled permanently in Conakry, Guinea where he died of prostate cancer in 1998.
--Carmichael biography is partially excerpted from The Black Past.
For more information and related images, see flic.kr/s/aHsjEuaSjJ
Photo by Joseph Silverman. The image is courtesy of the D.C. Public Library Washington Star Collection © Washington Post.
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His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros offered a Memorial Service for the Gasparis Family today Saturday of Souls for Kyriakoula who lost her life in a tragic accident a year ago at St. Markella Greek Orthodox Church in Wantagh, L.I. and Blessed the Icon of Kimissis in the honor of the deceased.
Photos:© GOA/DIMITRIOS PANAGOS
"I have nothing to offer but #blood, toil, #tears and #sweat." That is what Winston #Churchill said back in the days. .
Little he knew these were going to be my life
Today, I say I need a #manicure, that's no lie!
I gotta stop cutting myself and get some #sleep
Voice sounds like it's been autotuned better start counting the sheep!!
17 Likes on Instagram
The particular art that will goes with the way you package deal and offer foods affects precisely how other people get that. Precisely what is pleasant to the vision has a tendency to begin to see the palate. In one tiny community within the Belgium, where people are recognized for their sweets and berries quickly pull, care is used gift wrapping their special delicacieshttp://www.vegetablefruitcarving.com.
Raymond Castelo as well as Luz Ocampo, throughout Bulacan shared their own classic fine art. Luz has been known as the "Master within Fresh fruit Carving and also Chocolate Wrapper Producing.In .
According to Raymond and also Luz, "Deliciously fairly sweet!Inches sufficiently explains your town's jam areas of expertise created from pomelo, lime, become gourd, breadfruit, blueberry, jackfruit, local grapefruits, and soursop, and others. They are maintained see how to avoid see-thorugh syrup, and after that held in cup containers.
The particular craftsmanship which goes with organizing and presentation these people will be exceptional. Very first, the many fruits are made or perhaps designed along with plants, leaves, rosettes and varied patterns. These are canned using the style facing outwards. Make a store-shelf, filled with quickly pull special treats. They look to become inviting a person in the many fetching fashion to be able to crave for such delicacies.
Under, their particular teaching regarding how to prepare your very own quickly pull as well as chocolate.
One particular. Lime green as well as blueberry jam
Get ready the materials as well as ingredients. (Lime, pomelo, sweets, berries caver, container, kettle, along with a method container)
Embroider or perhaps carve the fruit together with your sought after layout.
Wash your fruit along with domestic hot water.
Peel the particular fresh fruit cautiously, as well as slowly and gradually take away the seed products.
Saturate in water for just one day and one nighttime.
Fill in syrup made out of sugar to be able to sustain your fruit.
Retailer inside sanitized cisterns.
Only two. Milk sweets produced from dairy as well as glucose. Your sweets are not only found famous for their style, but for their vibrant, cherry wrappers, as well.
These are wrapped with Japoneses cardstock, that are cut into stars, simply leaves, flowers or holiday greetings routine producing a veritable display involving design as well as shade. The actual dairy goodies, which are normally somewhat greater than the in . lengthy, can be molded as desired (nevertheless typically the actual common rectangular form is going to do). They tend to be covered with your basic area of the cardstock. Your long, specially engineered, minimize patterns are used because outer masking. The particular goodies may be later displayed on "fiesta" as well as bash platforms.
Candy Gift wrapping Ideas coming from Ramon and Luz:
Put together the materials necessary: Japanese papers, pair of scissors, cutter machine, pencil
Minimize 1/4 and also 1/8 styles of Japan paper (the 1/4 size your exterior wrapper as well as the 1/8 measurement the inside wrapper).
Collapse the particular 1/4 measurement wrapper in to four elements, putting aside the 1/8 measurement.
Pull drawing of your exclusive layout.
Reduce your made layout meticulously.
Set up along with store the stripped made items, which might be right now ready to be used in wrapping the particular candies/sweets.
. . . 2. 3. 2007 - this is the first day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week. Today we will see the showing of the water buffalos, pigs, cow, horse, deer and chicken. All these animals are offered to be the servants of the died woman in her new life after death in Puya. We will see buffalo fighting. Men bet for the winner of those fightings. Two buffalos fight each other - the one running away lost the fight!
If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.
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The Toraja 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"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugis 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 colorful 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 developers 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 colonization and Christianization, 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 recognized 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 recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, 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 legalized 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 AFFILIATION
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.
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 symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize 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. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
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 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.
DANCE 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.
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 characterized 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 commercialized. 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
ENAI SWIM offers swimming and survival skills lessons for babies and young children with real results in as little as 4 weeks. Lessonsn offered in Thibodaux and Houma, Louisiana.
ENAI ofrece clases de natacion y sobrevivencia en el agua a bebes y niños con resultados reales en tan poco como 4 semanas. Las clases las damos en Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
Kersh Wellness offers hassle free corporate wellness programs that reduce health care costs, increase participation, and improve employee health.
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Offer on These please. Looking to get rid of. Top row is polo, stance, then nike. And bottom row is all nike. No hole in any of them
FCA dealers offered more Jeeps to sell if they open a Jeep-alone dealership
Posted By: Alysha Webbon: September 13, 2017In: Contributors Print
By Alysha Webb, Editor and Publisher
FCA dealers that chose to open a stand-alone Jeep store will be rewarded with more than just a boost in Jeep sales. They will also receive more Jeeps to sell, Alistair J. Gardner, head of dealer network development, NAFTA at FCA USA tells Automotive Buy Sell Report.
In return for creating a Jeep-only facility, dealers will receive one unit of Jeep allocation for every $8,500 invested, says Gardner. The allocations will be in whatever model mix the dealership’s unit sales reflect and will broken out in 12 equal parts over the course of a year, he says.
“It will pay for a proportion of the new facility,” says Gardner.
Beginning in 2008, dealers were asked by FCA to invest in dealerships that brought Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, and Ram franchises under one roof. More than 90 percent of the dealerships now have all four under one roof, according to Ralph Kisiel, manager, sales and dealer network media relations.
Now, in a bid to grow sales of its most successful brand, FCA is asking its dealers to invest in another facility. In late 2016, FCA announced plans to have stand-alone Jeep stores at some of its 2,439 dealerships in the U.S.
Every FCA dealer can chose whether or not to participate in the stand-alone Jeep store program, says Gardner. “We aren’t going to force anyone to do it,” he says.
But, “the reality is we are targeting only those stores that really need to expand capacity. We need to increase sales dramatically,” says Gardner.
Jeep is facing a capacity squeeze in the U.S. partly a result of the forced closure of hundreds of Chrysler dealerships when the automaker driven into bankruptcy in 2009. It left the automaker short of not just sales space, but also service lanes.
“Unfortunately, during bankruptcy we reduced the dealership count by 800,” says Gardner. “That is 800 less service departments. We need more service capacity.”
Jeep sales are already rising, just not fast enough.
According to FCA, in 2015, Jeep brand sales in the U.S. were 872,908 units. The Jeep Cherokee was the best-selling model. In 2016, sales grew to 926,376 units and the Grand Cherokee was the top seller. Through August of 2017, 548,833 Jeeps have been sold, with the Grand Cherokee again ruling the roost.
FCA is heavily reliant on Jeep sales, not just in the U.S. but globally. The Jeep brand accounted for 41.3 percent of all FCA sales in the U.S. in 2016, and 46.3 percent of global sales, the automaker says.
China, the world’s largest vehicle market, is a crucial Jeep market. Despite media reports, FCA has no plans to sell the Jeep brand alone to a Chinese company, Gardner says. “We would never sell Jeep without Chrysler, Dodge and Ram,” he insists.
And if the Jeep brand were to be acquired, it would still need a dealership network, he points out.
A lifestyle brand
Performance Auto Network’s Jeep store in Centerville, Ohio
Two of the Jeep stand-alone stores are already finished; some 22 should be completed this year. Ninety more dealers have signed letters of intent. FCA aims to have 300 to 325 Jeep stores nationally by 2020, says Gardner.
“The results coming off the first stores were great,” he says.
The Jeep stores that are already in operation saw a 30 percent boost in sales in the first three months and a 10 percent sales boost in the first eight months in a flat market, says Gardner.
The Jeep stores must meet a facility image requirement, but the size will be different depending on the dealership’s sales volume, says Gardner.
Pollard Jeep dealership in Boulder, Colo.
Pollard Jeep dealership in Boulder, Colo.
The Performance Automotive Network of Ohio just had a soft opening for its Jeep-only store, in Centerville, Ohio. The grand opening is on September 23.
Shane Dever, vice president and director of operations for the Cincinnati/Dayton markets, says Performance had an empty building that had been a used car center. It was remodeled to become the Jeep store.
He is looking forward to selling not just more Jeeps, but also an array of Jeep accessories. Selling accessories is “the whole idea. It is a lifestyle brand,” says Dever, whose family owns the dealership group.
Indeed, creating a unique customer experience is “the number one reason” FCA decided to launch the Jeep-only stores, says Gardner. “We want [the customer] to have … all Jeep, all the time.”
Pollard Jeep in Boulder, Colo. accessory display
Pollard Jeep in Boulder, Colo. accessory display
Valuation hit
While the new Jeep stores may help dealers sell more Jeeps, they will hurt the value of the remaining Chrysler Dodge Ram dealerships, say buy sell professionals.
“Surely if this is to be rolled out as a national initiative it would apply downward pressure on the blue sky value of an FCA franchise,” Len Bellavia, senior partner at Bellavia Blatt & Crossett PC, tells Automotive Buy Sell Report. “The expense of construction would have to come from somewhere – and blue sky is the logical category.”
The two truck franchises – Jeep and Ram – are the most valuable part of the multi-franchise dealerships, points out Fred O’Halloran, a consultant with MD Johnson, Inc.
“When you cut that in half, taking off Jeep, I believe the two individual stores are worth less than the four-franchise dealership,” he says.
The stand-alone store may also take a bite out of the dealership’s income, says O’Halloran.
“You have split your operating income for the two stores, but your overhead costs increase because there are two stores,” he says.
Then there is the question of adding bricks and mortar at a time when the retail sales model may be changing, says Nancy Phillips of Nancy Phillips Associates Inc.
“Separation in all its glory will require yet another conglomeration of bricks and mortar all in an era looking out to an unforeseen future when it comes to the bottom line of facilities investment and how vehicles may be sold five to ten years from today,” she says.
There is also the question of state franchise laws, which “are set up to make it equal for everyone who owns the franchise,” says James Taylor, managing director of The Presidio Group
Gardner argues that the Jeep stores are not an expansion of the network. Rather, they are an expansion of the existing stores within that network.
He also wants to clear up the story floating around that FCA said it would add an additional 400 stores in the U.S.
“We have never said to anyone that we want to add 400 stores,” says Gardner. “We have no plans to add 400 stores.”
As for franchise laws, “I guarantee you it will not do anything to the state franchise laws,” says Gardner. “The first thing we did was take it to the National Dealer Council and make sure that they were comfortable with it [and that it] didn’t break any state franchise laws.”
What FCA is doing is preparing its dealers to sell “a staggering amount of Jeeps,” he says.
“Our job here is to prepare the network for an expansion of the Jeep volume in retail. Our direction is we expect to sell a lot more Jeeps even if the market is flat or slightly down.”
. . . 2. 3. 2007 - this is the first day of a funeral ceremony in Bori for a High Class Woman. She died on 18. 1. 2007 at the age of 85 years. The ceremony will last for one week. Today we will see the showing of the water buffalos, pigs, cow, horse, deer and chicken. All these animals are offered to be the servants of the died woman in her new life after death in Puya. We will see buffalo fighting. Men bet for the winner of those fightings. Two buffalos fight each other - the one running away lost the fight!
If you wonder why the quality of the pictures is a little less: these are no photographs - it all are snapshots of my videos! So sorry for the less resolution, but I think, they are worth to be shown.
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The Toraja 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"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugis 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 colorful 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 developers 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 colonization and Christianization, 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 recognized 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 recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, 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 legalized 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 AFFILIATION
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.
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 symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize 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. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
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 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.
DANCE 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.
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 characterized 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 commercialized. 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
Luxury suites with ensuite private bathroom on a tree lined street close to everything in downtown Toronto. We’re in a safe, vibrant and diverse neighborhood of Toronto. Walk-out to the back garden creates an Oasis for relaxation in the heart of the city. Close to University of Toronto, Entertainment District, Financial District and University Hospital Network. Within 5 minutes walk are bistro & restaurants that offer a variety of dinning experiences for all tastes and budget. Fantastic breakfasts and Parking available. Tel: 416-898-8461 www.suitedreamstoronto.com
Thank you for your interest in Suite Dreams Toronto B&B.
Please select the room and dates to make Webervation at your convenient. www.webervations.com/magic-scripts/resbook.asp?memberid=j...
Room Description:
(1) Garden Suite is Very spacious with 325 sq. ft. (36 sq.m.) It is very comfortable suite - Queen sized bed, writing desk, Electric Fire Place & shared bathroom. We provide guests with Complimentary Full Breakfast. Our suite is for maximum occupancy of two people.
(2) Sunrise Suite has 225 sq. ft. (25 sq. m.) Cozy Suite with Queen Bed, Writing Desk, Private en-suite private Bathroom, Seating Area, Color / Cable TV. FREE Wi-Fi Internet Access; Free Long Distance Phone Call. We provide guests with Complimentary Full Breakfast. Our suite is for maximum occupancy of two people.
(3) Sunset Suite has 325 sq. ft. (36 sq. m.) Full Queen Bed, Writing Desk, Seating Area, en-suite private Bathroom, Colour/Cable TV. FREE WI-FI Internet Access & Long Distance Phone. Walk-In Closet, Fridge and ironing table. with Complimentary Full Breakfast. Our suite is for maximum occupancy of two people.
(4) Cathedral Suite is located on the third floor with 18’ Cathedral Ceiling and 700 Sq. Ft. (77.7 sq. m.) of living space is a quiet, charming escape from the rest of the house with sun deck. It has a comfortable Queen Bed, Writing Desk, Seating Area with two Club Chairs. Private Bathroom with Bath Tub and a Shower Room. Cable TV. FREE WI-FI Internet Access & Long Distance Phone. Complimentary Breakfast. Our suite is for maximum occupancy of two people.
Our house has central air-conditioning and guest can use the phone to make long distance call free to anywhere in Canada and Continental U.S.A.
We provide free Internet broadband Wi-Fi access.
We served full breakfast each morning between 8:00 - 9:30AM:
* Tea, Coffee and juice
* A bowl of fruit salad: strawberries, blue berries, grapes, orange, apple and banana top up with yogurt.
* Hot meals - Choose one item from: scramble eggs, cheese omelet, grilled cheese omelet, French toast or oatmeal porridge.
* Vegetarian or vegan breakfast with one day advance request.
To check Room Rates and availability:
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For more information and to view pictures of our suites, please visit our website www.suitedreamstoronto.com/
Please view Guest Reviews in Tripadvisor: www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g155019-d568253-Reviews-...
Thank you for choosing Suite Dreams Toronto B&B and I am looking forward to have you as valued guests at Suite Dreams Toronto B&B.
Warmest regards,
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Suite Dreams Toronto B&B
390 Clinton Street
Ontario M6G 2Z2
Tel: 416-538-0417
I OFFER:
- full make ups
- partial make ups (like eyebrows, lips, rouge...)
- tattoos
- body shading
- change of chips on pullips and taes. Adding brows and some kind of detail (talking about it first with the owner to see if I am able to do what is requested)
- having into account the state of a doll I can try to fix it or make it look like the original
I USE
- water pencils
- rembrandts
- vallejo varnish
- acrylic paints
- varnish
- "borrador mágico" (a kind of sponge to erase make ups and/or flaws)
TERMS OF USE
- I work with BJD (I am also recast friendly), pullips, dals, taes, byuls, hujoos...
- you only have to send the head unless you want shading on the body or some tattoo
- payment would be expected when you sent the head or when it is received by me
- i will ask pics of the head before it being sent
- once the head is received and the payment transfered there won't be backing off. If the make up has begun it will be ended. In some cases in which a cancellation can be worked (as long as the make up wasn't being done) the client will pay for the shipping back
- you can send pics or drawings of the kind of make up you want. I don't do plagiarism
- I'll be sharing pics of the process with the client.
- If the client decides to change the make up after it being approved he/she will have to pay for a new one
- all the shippings have to be tracked. It has to be sent well protected and with a box or sth that can be re used to send it back once I am done
PRICES
- full make up: 20€
- erasing a previous make up: 5€. Although it is preferable that the doll is sent with the make up erased
- To matte a doll: between 5-9€ (I still got to think about it)
- blushing: 5€
- adding eyebrows: between 5-10€
- adding new eye chips provided by the client: 2€
- if brows have to be added as a part of a make u p: free of charge but given by the client
- I accept payments using paypal or bank transfer
We are proud to offer both in Stock Crystal Tattoos and Custom Sticker Tattoos design pieces, all made to the highest standards. Buzz Tattoos offers a variety of conventional and modern designs at really highly competitive prices. Each item we make is designed and produced by skilled craftsmen. We invite you to explore our site; you will find that it is our craftsmanship, materials, and quality that set us apart. They make a great set worn all together but you can easily use each piece alone to mix with any other outfit and make them more precious and stylish. They can be perfect complement to any another outfit but they can also look great as contemporary jewelry.
Sticker Body Tattoos (Crystal Tattoos, Belly Tattoos, Lower Back Tattoos, Glitter Tattoos, Crystal Pasties & various kind of Sticker Temporary Tattoos) come in different colored plastic stones and are available in all sorts of swirly patterns, flowers, tribal, butterflies, celtic and stars. They're easy to use too - with peel off backs and self-adhesives that sticks to your skin without any problem & the glue used on our Temporary Tattoos is skin friendly & lab tested. We can also provide Customized & OEM Packaging as per the need of client which makes it easier for our client to sell & promote.
We are the Manufacturer & Supplier of Sticker Tattoos, Personalized Temporary Tattoos, Crystal Tattoos, Glitter Tattoos, Belly Tattoos, Crystal Armbands, Fake Tattoos, Sticker Tattoo Manufacturer (Sticker Body Tattoos Supplier, Jewel Tattoo Makers) with a difference.
Our clients are from all over the world, from USA, Sweden, New Zealand, Russia, Italy, Canada, France, Australia, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Austria, Spain, UK, Romania & various other countries of Europe & all over the world.
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For more information call us on 098108 53306 or email us – info@temporarytattoos.in
All images available for licensing via me. I offer commercial and editorial pet photography on a commissioned basis. And with a pet picture database with thousands of hand-picked images of dogs, cats, as well as horses, I might already have what you are looking for. All pictures here can be licensed.
For licensing and commission requests: info{at}elkevogelsang.com -
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Why don't you offer a book that one cannot find at the store? (even better if that's one of mines !)
Darlene Lane offers an escape to Provence, France on Salt Spring Island. She travels to the South of France to source the finest of French fabrics in the most current of contemporary designs. The result is a market booth that seems to glow with the bright colours of Mediterranean sunshine from bags, cushions and table linens. Her most popular items are table cloths with a protective "wipe clean" surface. Table cloths are available in a range of sizes for square, round or rectangular tables.
(If you'd like to use any of these photos for anything pls contact Kris Krüg first - kriskrug@gmail.com or 778. 898. 3076. Thank you! (c) (r) (tm) 2016)
Divan Beds
If you are looking for Divan beds then we have plenty to offer you regardless of what style you are looking for. From single Divan beds to kingsize Divan beds there is something to suit everyone’s tastes and every kind of room.
The sizes of the Divan beds we offer range from 2 foot 6 inches for the small single divans all the way up to 6 feet for the super kingsize Divans. This means that no matter how big or how small your room is you are bound to find something that will fit perfectly in your bedroom.
It is not just the size of the divan beds that can be varied, there are also many different styles that are available which means that you can pick out your ideal bed. You can opt to have no turn mattresses, drawers in the base of the bed if you need the extra storage space and even mattresses that contain Aloe Vera which will help you to sleep well and wake up feeling refreshed and ready for the day ahead.
Whatever your requirements are when it comes to Divan beds, here at KD beds we are more than happy to help you find exactly what you are looking for.
Taman Budaya Sarawak (Sarawak Cultural Village), Pantai Damai, Santubong, Sarawak.
A unique award-winning living museum that offers an excellent fascinating glimpse of rural Sarawak life as it was, before the old skills and older ways of life were lost to modernity. Located at the foot of the legendary Mount Santubong, the Sarawak Cultural Village portrays the cultures and traditional lifestyles of the seven major ethnic groups of Sarawak.
Orang Ulu, an ethnic designation politically coined to group together roughly 27 very small but ethnically diverse tribal groups in Sarawak, with a population ranging from less than 300 persons to over 25,000 persons. Some of the tribes collectively called Orang Ulu meaning "up-river dwellers" are given collective names such as Kenyah, Kayan, Klemantan (also referred as the Kedayan or Kadazan), Kelabit, the Lun Bawang (consisting several sub-ethnic tribes but collectively called Murut; in the Krayan highland in Kalimantan, they are more commonly known as Lundayeh or Lun Daye) , also including the Penan (the most primitive) as well as a few minor tribes in the interior. Generally, the tribes are so heterogeneous and culturally diverse that even ethnologists in disagreement with the confusing classifications. The Orang Ulu are also former head-hunters and conveniently also called the Dayak tribes.
Wood shaving, called kelebu and used for decorations, shamanic rituals and as fire kindle.
Orang Ulu tribes except the Penans build imposing longhouses or rumah panjang of similar architecture but the finishing and skill differs widely. The houses are always located close to rivers. The massive 7-10 m stilted longhouse, utilizing the durable Belian or Borneo ironwood as the principal material, including the roof shingles, were built to last and spacious to accommodate as many as one hundred families in the old days. The replica of the vernacular house at the Cultural Park is a mix bag of several tribes including, the ornate motifs, artifacts and others being displayed. Basically, each sub-ethnic tribes have their own unique brand of culture, language, lifestyle and handicraft.
Ref. and suggested reading:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orang_Ulu
www.journeymalaysia.com/MCUL_orangulu.htm
www.pustaka-sarawak.com/Pustaka-Sarawak/Sarawakiana/pelah...
blog.sarawaktourism.com/2012/10/our-people-orang-ulu.html
www.artsborneo.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenyah_people
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kayan_people_%28Borneo%29
healntland.blogspot.com/2012/02/klemantan-people-tribes-k...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelabit_people
Secretts abundant vegetables on offer :
Beetroot,Carrots, broccoli, Cabbages,leeks,
Parsnips, Celeriac, etc ..
The Monthly Farmer's Market - High Street -
Guildford .
Kaiserslautern garrison welcomes new commander
By Rick Scavetta, U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern
KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany – Lt. Col. Lars Zetterstrom grabbed hold of U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s guidon Friday, accepting responsibility to provide support and services to thousands of U.S. Soldiers, civilians and family members in the Kaiserslautern area.
Zetterstrom took command of the garrison during a ceremony held at Armtstrong’s Club on Vogelweh Housing Area. Dozens of U.S. and German military officials and civilians attended the event. Zetterstrom is looking forward to his new job, he said.
“I have been thoroughly impressed with the quality and professionalism of the garrison staff,” Zetterstrom said. “I look forward to working with the outstanding Soldiers and civilians of the garrison headquarters.”
The highlight of the ceremony was the traditional passing of the unit colors. Throughout history, the guidon has showed the commander is present and it served as a rally point for troops on the battlefield. Soldiers from U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern’s Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment served as color bearers and color guards.
During the ceremony, both incoming and outgoing commanders offered remarks.
Lt. Col. Kevin Hutchison, who now heads to Fort Sill, Okla., for his next assignment, took time to thank garrison staff and other leaders in the Kaiserslautern Military Community. He also spoke in German to thank local officials for supporting the command. His time in command will not be forgotten, he said.
“I will miss the job, the camaraderie and the great team that we have in the Kaiserslautern garrison,” Hutchison said.
Commanding a garrison in Kaiserslautern in unique, due to its collocation with a large U.S. Air Force contingent, said Col. William Butcher, commander of United States Army Garrison Baden-Württemberg. The Kaiserslautern garrison supports dozens of tenant units, to include the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Stars and Stripes and the 357th Air and Missile Defense Detachment.
Under Hutchison, the garrison supported the deployment of 31 units from the area and the reintegration of more than 4,000 Soldiers, civilians and family members following deployments, Butcher said.
Hutchison led the garrison as the Army acquired Sembach Kaserne from the U.S. Air Force and began preparing the installation for new Army units moving from Mannheim and Heidelberg.
That included developing relationship with key German leaders in the Sembach area. During his command, the garrison underwent countless renovations and construction projects to support Kaiserslautern’s growing military community – most recently opening new child care centers at Sembach and Landstuhl.
For officers, a command is an honor and privilege that is often tough, demanding and arduous, Butcher said.
“It’s fitting that we gather together on occasions like this one and recognize contributions, bid farewell and welcome new blood,” Butcher said.
Zetterstrom, an Army engineer and West Point graduate from Clifton Park, N.Y., most recently served a tour in southern Afghanistan. Previously, he served as deputy commander with the Buffalo, N.Y.-district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
For Zetterstrom, the command position returns him and his family to Germany, where he began his Army career as a platoon leader with the Bamberg-based 82nd Engineer Battalion. Other assignments include both staff and command positions with the 18th Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C., and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. During his career, Zetterstrom has deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo and Afghanistan.
He and his wife Erin, also a New Yorker, have three children. He holds a master's degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the University of Missouri.
“He is no stranger to the business of military construction, which will serve the command well considering the breadth of construction and renovation which will occur in the coming years,” Butcher said.
Dutch officers who served with Zetterstrom in Afghanistan also attended the ceremony, as did many local German officials.
“I look forward to continuing and building the critical relationships with our German and European friends and allies,” Zetterstrom said.
(Photos by Rick Scavetta, U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern)
Some of you may have noticed that, unfortunately, owing to the fact that a certain person who sells truck photos on eBay commercially has been lifting my images from this album and selling them I have had to remove 2300 photos that didn't have a watermark. I have now run around 1700 through Lightroom and added a watermark with the intention of bulk uploading them again. Rather than watermark the existing (hidden) files in Flickr one at a time it will be easier to do it this way. I definitely won’t be adding individual tags with the make and model of each vehicle I will just add generic transport tags. Each photo is named after the vehicle and reg in any case. For anyone new to these images there is a chapter and verse explanation below. It is staggering how many times I get asked questions that a quick scan would answer or just as likely I can’t possibly answer – I didn’t take them, but, just to clarify-I do own the copyright- and I do pursue copyright theft.
This is a collection of scanned prints from a collection of photographs taken by the late Jim Taylor A number of years ago I was offered a large number of photographs taken by Jim Taylor, a transport photographer based in Huddersfield. The collection, 30,000 prints, 20,000 negatives – and copyright! – had been offered to me and one of the national transport magazines previously by a friend of Jim's, on behalf of Jim's wife. I initially turned them down, already having over 30,000 of my own prints filed away and taking space up. Several months later the prints were still for sale – at what was, apparently, the going rate. It was a lot of money and I deliberated for quite a while before deciding to buy them. I did however buy them directly from Jim’s wife and she delivered them personally – just to quash the occasional rumour from people who can’t mind their own business. Although some prints were sold elsewhere, particularly the popular big fleet stuff, I should have the negatives, unfortunately they came to me in a random mix, 1200 to a box, without any sort of indexing and as such it would be impossible to match negatives to prints, or, to even find a print of any particular vehicle. I have only ever looked at a handful myself unless I am scanning them. The prints are generally in excellent condition and I initially stored them in a bedroom without ever looking at any of them. In 2006 I built an extension and they had to be well protected from dust and moved a few times. Ultimately my former 6x7 box room office has become their (and my own work’s) permanent home.
I hope to avoid posting images that Jim had not taken his self, however should I inadvertently infringe another photographers copyright, please inform me by email and I will resolve the issue immediately. There are copyright issues with some of the photographs that were sold to me. A Flickr member from Scotland drew my attention to some of his own work amongst the first uploads of Jim’s work. I had a quick look through some of the 30 boxes of prints and decided that for the time being the safest thing for me to do was withdraw the majority of the earlier uploaded scans and deal with the problem – which I did. whilst the vast majority of the prints are Jims, there is a problem defining copyright of some of them, this is something that the seller did not make clear at the time. I am reasonably confident that I have since been successful in identifying Jims own work. His early work consists of many thousands of lustre 6x4 prints which are difficult to scan well, later work is almost entirely 7x5 glossy, much easier to scan. Not all of the prints are pin sharp but I can generally print successfully to A4 from a scan.
You may notice photographs being duplicated in this Album, unfortunately there are multiple copies of many prints (for swapping) and as I have to have a system of archiving and backing up I can only guess - using memory - if I have scanned a print before. The bigger fleets have so many similar vehicles and registration numbers that it is impossible to get it right all of the time. It is easier to scan and process a print than check my files - on three different PC’s - for duplicates. There has not been, nor will there ever be, any intention to knowingly breach anyone else's copyright. I have presented the Jim Taylor collection as exactly that-The Jim Taylor Collection- his work not mine, my own work is quite obviously mine.
Unfortunately, many truck spotters have swapped and traded their work without copyright marking it as theirs. These people never anticipated the ease with which images would be shared online in the future. I would guess that having swapped and traded photos for many years that it is almost impossible to control their future use. Anyone wanting to control the future use of their work would have been well advised to copyright mark their work (as many did) and would be well advised not to post them on photo sharing sites without a watermark as the whole point of these sites is to share the image, it is very easy for those that wish, to lift any image, despite security settings, indeed, Flickr itself, warns you that this is the case. It was this abuse and theft of my material that led me to watermark all of my later uploads. I may yet withdraw non-watermarked photos, I haven’t decided yet. (I did in the end)
To anyone reading the above it will be quite obvious that I can’t provide information regarding specific photos or potential future uploads – I didn’t take them! There are many vehicles that were well known to me as Jim only lived down the road from me (although I didn’t know him), however scanning, titling, tagging and uploading is laborious and time consuming enough, I do however provide a fair amount of information with my own transport (and other) photos. I am aware that there are requests from other Flickr users that are unanswered, I stumble across them months or years after they were posted, this isn’t deliberate. Some weekends one or two “enthusiasts” can add many hundreds of photos as favourites, this pushes requests that are in the comments section ten or twenty pages out of sight and I miss them. I also have notifications switched off, I receive around 50 emails a day through work and I don’t want even more from Flickr. Other requests, like many other things, I just plain forget – no excuses! Uploads of Jim’s photos will be infrequent as it is a boring pastime and I would much rather work on my own output.
Marlow Cars offer a selection of over 60 prestige motor cars at any one time. Our range of cars consist of Bentley, Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes & Rolls Royce. Marlow Cars prides itself with over 30 years experience in the motor trade. Having extensive market knowledge and resources available makes our service unrivalled. We can supply finance on our cars, please visit our finance page for more information. Our web site hosts a gallery of the most significant marques we have sold. Endeavoring to buy and sell quality vehicles at value for money ranging from Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Land Rover & BMW.
VISIT WWW.MARLOWCARS.CO.UK FOR 24 IMAGES AND VIDEO OF THIS VEHICLE.
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This is a photograph is one of a set of photographs from the Castlepollard 5KM Road Race and Fun Run 2013 which was held in Castlepollard, Co. Westmeath, Ireland on Wednesday 14th August 2013 at 20:00. The race is hosted by North Westmeath Athletic Club. The race has grown in stature and popularity over the years and is now one of the most well attended road races in the midlands. The race offers prizes in all categories. Castlepollard 5KM Road Race attempts to support young runners and walkers by organising a range of underage races around the town square before the adult race at 20:00. Profits from the race go towards grassroots athletics in the region - North Westmeath Athletics, Schools Cross Country, and local community games. Due to the slightly late start and the fading light it was difficult to capture as many photographs as normal and we ended up with many blurs and mistakes. This photograph belongs to a larger set of photographs from the race event which are accessible at this link [http://www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157635070120285/]
Event Management and Race Timing were provided by PRECISION TIMING: See their website at [www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer] and their Facebook Page at [www.facebook.com/davidprecisiontiming?fref=ts]
The Castlepollard 5KM can be considered as the final major race in summer road racing in the midlands as with the fading light of the late summer comes less opportunities to hold races in the evening time. Castlepollard is a small town located in North County Westmeath amongst the lakes of Lough Lene and Lough Derravagh.
Viewing this on a smartphone device?
If you are viewing this Flickr set on a smartphone and you want to see the larger version(s) of this photograph then: scroll down to the bottom of this description under the photograph and click the "View info about this photo..." link. You will be brought to a new page and you should click the link "View All Sizes".
Overall Race Summary
Participants: There was about 470 participants which is a significant increase on previous years.
Weather: This was a warm humid night. There was little or no breeze which made for very favourable conditions for 5KM racing.
Course: The race begins near the Church and ino the town square and proceeds directly out the R395 towards Coole and Edgeworthstown. The first KM is flat and quick allowing the field to spread out. The race then enters the Tullynally Castle estate and proceeds up the tree-lined avenue. The gardens, like the castle are on a magnificent scale, taking in nearly 12 acres. This allows the race to make a big loop of the gardens with a quick downhill stretch followed by a sharp climb before the race rejoins it's outgoing path for the final 1.5KM of the race. The final 800M from the gate of the Castle grounds to the finish is as the first - fast and flat and allows for a great finish at the GAA grounds.
Location Map: See the links below: goo.gl/maps/J6HUl (Google Satellite Imagery)
Refreshments: There was a very impressive selection of refreshments provided for participants in the GAA hall afterwards.
Some Useful Links
Homepage of Tullynally Castle and Gardens: www.tullynallycastle.com/
Castlepollard Wikipedia Page: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castlepollard
Race start line: goo.gl/maps/Ge9ro (Google Satellite Imagery)
Race finish line: goo.gl/maps/J6HUl (Google Satellite Imagery)
Showers and Changing Area: Castlepollard GAA club grounds (about 500m from race start and very close to race finish) goo.gl/maps/Aab9M (Google Satellite Imagery)
Our Flickr Photographs from Castlepollard 5KM 2011: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157627404031092/
Our Flickr Photographs from Castlepollard 5KM 2010: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157624655001130/
Our Flickr Photographs from Castlepollard 5KM 2009: www.flickr.com/photos/peterm7/sets/72157622023529006/
Castlepollard 5KM 2013 RESULTS will be available on PRECISION TIMING www.precisiontiming.net/result/racetimer
Castlepollard 5KM Event Page on Facebook www.facebook.com/events/322287434568207/
How can I get a full resolution copy of these photographs?
All of the photographs here on this Flickr set have a visible watermark embedded in them. All of the photographs posted here on this Flickr set are available offline, free, at no cost, at full image resolution WITHOUT watermark. We take these photographs as a hobby and as a contribution to the running community in Ireland. Our only "cost" is our request that if you are using these images: (1) on social media sites such as Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter,LinkedIn, Google+, etc or (2) other websites, web multimedia, commercial/promotional material that you provide a link back to our Flickr page to attribute us. This also extends the use of these images for Facebook profile pictures. In these cases please make a separate wall or blog post with a link to our Flickr page. If you do not know how this should be done for Facebook or other social media please email us and we will be happy to help suggest how to link to us.
Please email petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com with the links to the photographs you would like to obtain a full resolution copy of. We also ask race organisers, media, etc to ask for permission before use of our images for flyers, posters, etc. We reserve the right to refuse a request.
In summary please remember - all we ask is for you to link back to our Flickr set or Flickr pages. Taking the photographs and preparing them for online posting does take a significant effort. We are not posting photographs to Flickr for commercial reasons. If you really like what we do please spread the link around your social media, send us an email, leave a comment beside the photographs, send us a Flickr email, etc.
If you would like to contribute something for your photograph(s)?
Many people offer payment for our photographs. As stated above we do not charge for these photographs. We take these photographs as our contribution to the running community in Ireland. If you feel that the photograph(s) you request are good enough that you would consider paying for their purchase from other photographic providers we would suggest that you can provide a donation to any of the great charities in Ireland who do work for Cancer Care or Cancer Research in Ireland.
I ran in the race - but my photograph doesn't appear here in your Flickr set! What gives?
As mentioned above we take these photographs as a hobby and as a voluntary contribution to the running community in Ireland. Very often we have actually ran in the same race and then switched to photographer mode after we finished the race. Consequently, we feel that we have no obligations to capture a photograph of every participant in the race. However, we do try our very best to capture as many participants as possible. But this is sometimes not possible for a variety of reasons:
►You were hidden behind another participant as you passed our camera
►Weather or lighting conditions meant that we had some photographs with blurry content which we did not upload to our Flickr set
►There were too many people - some races attract thousands of participants and as amateur photographs we cannot hope to capture photographs of everyone
►We simply missed you - sorry about that - we did our best!
You can email us petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com to enquire if we have a photograph of you which didn't make the final Flickr selection for the race. But we cannot promise that there will be photograph there. As alternatives we advise you to contact the race organisers to enquire if there were (1) other photographs taking photographs at the race event or if (2) there were professional commercial sports photographers taking photographs which might have some photographs of you available for purchase. You might find some links for further information above.
Don't like your photograph here?
That's OK! We understand!
If, for any reason, you are not happy or comfortable with your picture appearing here in this photoset on Flickr then please email us at petermooney78 AT gmail DOT com and we will remove it as soon as possible. We give careful consideration to each photograph before uploading.
I want to tell people about these great photographs!
Great! Thank you! The best link to spread the word around is probably www.flickr.com/peterm7/sets
Marlow Cars offer a selection of over 60 prestige motor cars at any one time. Our range of cars consist of Bentley, Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes & Rolls Royce. Marlow Cars prides itself with over 30 years experience in the motor trade. Having extensive market knowledge and resources available makes our service unrivalled. We can supply finance on our cars, please visit our finance page for more information. Our web site hosts a gallery of the most significant marques we have sold. Endeavoring to buy and sell quality vehicles at value for money ranging from Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Mercedes Benz, Jaguar, Land Rover & BMW.
VISIT WWW.MARLOWCARS.CO.UK FOR 24 IMAGES AND VIDEO OF THIS VEHICLE.
FOR LATEST STOCK UPDATES FOLLOW US ON:
It's cheap to buy in the market on Saturdays. For a couple of euros, I can buy a pound of steak, and for another couple of euros, another pound of cheese. Eggs price today is 1,90 euros the dozen.
Some people are willing to pay more if the pig whose muscles are sold at the butchers, or the cow who milked her calf or the hen who lay the eggs are reared in better conditions. As for me, I don't believe there is an acceptable price for exploitation. It will always be very expensive for them.
I could fill my cart with products derived from non-human exploitation for a few euros. On saturdays, animal exploitation is on offer.
Belladonna offers clothing in custom prints and designs catering to women of alternative fashion taking inspiration from Japanese street fashions. Everything is made in the USA by designers Michelle S. Ramon and Rachel M. Decker. All Rights Reserved.
TruckSkin® offers both temporary and permanent window graphics using a variety of media. Our transparent (view-thru) or opaque static cling and low-tack graphics are well suited for support of promotions in any venue and can be easily applied and removed by store personnel.
Phoenix Pro Theater offers a theatrical experience brought to your living room. Sitting in the comfort of your home, you can sense the real feeling of watching a movie in an enriched theater. Any movie of choice, available in your PC or laptop, can be played in Phoenix Pro Theater.
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Phoenix Pro Theater, elevates you to the ownership of a personal theater. The ambiance excels to that of a real theater. The player is provided with all facilities to choose and play any movie available in your system. It is meticulously designed to cater to your taste, comfort and convenience.
In order to improve the ambiance and magnificence of the theater, facilities have been provided to customize the theater to your liking.
To the viewers’ delight, Phoenix Pro Theater offers surround sound, animated audience captured to visualize real life situation. The theater ambiance light mimics and adjusts to that of the brightness and color tone present in the movie played. The Theater is illuminated with pleasing lights, and movie can be watched either with the lights on or off, as per the liking of the viewers.
An array of choices offered are
(i) Selection of seats, in six Zones viz. Front (Left, Middle or Right) or Rear (Left Middle or Right),
(ii) 15 types of Leather Seat Upholstery,
(iii) Movie Brightness can be increased,
(iv) Choose from any one of the 6 Colors of lights displayed on Side Walls,
(v) Color tone of the movie played can be changed
(vi) Individual Color Theme, wherein the viewer can change the color of the dresses of all the characters in the movie offering a very unique experience not found in any main stream video player.
An impressive Control Panel has been provided to enable the viewer to select and exercise all available options and between choices. The LCD panel displays options selected.
Technically, Phoenix Pro Theater supports 12 video formats. It also supports vertical video playback plus video rotation and flip options. It is Full HD, 4K & 8K supported, making it future ready. The Auto resume option, remembers the last played scene and resumes playback from the last played position.
Ideally, the viewers’ long search for an ultimate theater is likely to stop at “PHOENIX PRO THEATER”.
Supported formats : mp4, mov, avi, mkv, wmv, m4v, webm, flv, vob, ogg, mpg, 3gp
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Johanna Annable of Johanna's Design Studio offers High-End Custom Murals, Venetian Plastering and Decorative Wall Finishes. Johanna prefers to create stunning details and wall finishes using all natural sustainable eco-friendly high performance paints, plasters and other low to no VOC materials for the health, comfort and peace of mind of her clients.
Our designs are inspired by nature, fresh colors, intriguing textures, and handcrafted details. We specialize in transforming your home into the ideal environment for you and your family. We are proud to provide you with the highest quality of craftsmanship and creativity, where excellence and beauty are foremost and where we look into the past, while moving into the future. Let Johanna's Design Studio capture your dream.
Any artist can paint a wall. Johanna's Design Studio will help you to create your dream home, with gorgeous wall techniques that inspire, evoke romanticism, enliven, calm, or take you an exotic world.
Your home becomes an environment you can truly call your own, expressing who you are, and reflecting your unique personality and style. No one will ever have your interior. All finishes are signed and stamped by the artist.
Your home is an investment — why not make it better? Beauty and uniqueness increase the value of any home. We use the highest quality plasters, glazes and finishes. We offer several hundred combinations of wall styles and textures. Combine personal touches such as stenciling and ornamental wall sculptures for a home that is truly one-of-a kind.
Elegant Finishes
■Authentic Italian Fresco
■Ceiling Designs
■Faux Cherry Wood
■Faux Lapis Lazuli
■Faux Leather
■Faux Malachite
■Faux Reptile, Alligator (and more)
■Faux Tortoise Shell
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■Gold or Silver Leaf
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■Italian Lime Plaster
■Lime Paint
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■Molded Stone
■Raised Damask Fabric
■Raw Silk
■Seashell or Fossil Texture
■Suede
■Wood Graining
As a decorative artisan concerned with improving indoor air quality, I would like to re-introduce you to the lovely attributes of lime and clay plaster wall finishes for homes and wineries.
Lime plaster surfaces have been around for thousands of years, and are perfectly suited for modern day wine cellars or other areas where moisture may be a concern, since lime plasters emit no VOC's and are mold, mildew and fungal resistant.
Clay and lime plaster walls and ceilings actually help the modern cooling system, in creating a stable climate for the room, holding the temperature and humidity in balance. Lime-based plasters dry hard and continue to cure for months by absorbing carbon dioxide from the air, and reverting back to the original limestone state.
Lime plasters are beautiful when applied, but become even more beautiful with age. Lime plasters are the real thing - the same ingredients that you will find on centuries-old walls in Europe.
Protection: Lime plaster surfaces can protect your home, family and business from some of the most common enemies...mold, mildew and dust through its unique natural properties such as a naturally high pH and dust resistance.
Durability: Lime wall finishes last many, many years against cracking, rotting, moisture and fire. They are easy to maintain and save you time and money.
Green: Clay and lime plaster finishes are rare in that they combine beauty, durability and are considered "Green and Sustainable" by industry professionals.
Thank you for your time in reading this blog post. I hope this helps lend an understanding of the wonderful and unique characteristics of lime and clay plasters, and how they can improve indoor comfort and quality of living in any interior environment.
An entrepreneur offers pedicure services from her home in the slums of Manila.
Here on this island nation, metro Manila is home to over 20 million people, and the inner city is arguably the most densely populated area on earth.
Photo:
Leica M9
ISO 160
35mm
f/2.8
1/60 sec
My NGO/nonprofit Flickr account: PeaceGospel
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These are being offered by the makers of DPM but they are on hold as they couldn't keep up with demand
Amex offers high quality alkaline water bottles for longer, healthier and happier life. This alkaline water bottle will help you to remove oxygen-free radical and very effective on the recovery from hangover.
We offer no win no fee credit repair Australia wide and guarantee the BEST credit repair service with FREE consultations available.
Visit: creditfixsolutions.com.au/best-credit-repair-service/
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The MQ-1C Gray Eagle Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) addresses the need for a long-endurance, armed (up to four HELLFIRE missiles), UAS that offers greater range, altitude, and payload flexibility.
For more information, go to asc.army.mil/web/portfolio-item/aviation_gray-eagle-uas/