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2nd shift, 12/13/2024, Nashville, TN
Apple iPhone 13
iPhone 13 back dual wide camera 1.54mm f/2.4
ƒ/2.4 1.5 mm 1/30 2000
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Some mornings require jars of tea, not mugs of tea.
#caffeinedependency
Also, fingers almost always come off second best in encounters with knives.
Look at the left sleeve of the Saxon cadets uniform. Clearly required to grow into it.
Cadet schools were completely separate from the civilian schools. You could enter into a lower cadet school and eventually graduate from an upper cadet school. Movement between civilian schools, and cadet schools certainly happened in both directions. The lower cadet schools were entitled Voranstalt. There were eight Prussian lower cadet schools: Bensberg, Köslin (formerly) Culm, Karlsruhe, Naumburg, Oranienstadt, Plön, Postdam, and Walstadt. There was also a lower cadet school in Dresden, Saxony and one in lower Bavaria. The Prussian upper cadet school was called the Hauptkadettenanstalt (HKA) located at Gross-Lichterfelde. Prussian, Württemberg cadets aspired to attend the Prussian upper cadet school. Bavarian cadet schools stood alone and arguably were always better. The Abitur was a prerequisite for commissioning in the Bavarian army.
Cadets were an interesting lot. By 1910, two-thirds of the cadets were non-noble. The major investiture was the quasi-formal clothing ceremony. This picture of a Saxon Cadet shows how indifferent the issuers were for the size of the uniforms of the lower cadet schools. Prussian lower schools did not wear helmets, but each school had a unique uniform. If it was too large, you had no recourse in this issue uniform but to grow into it.Cadet life seemed to revolve around efforts to find food as their normal fare was inadequate.
From the August 2016 return trip to Siem Reap and the Angkor complex:
I love the Angkor complex, Siem Reap, and the Cambodian people so much that I returned again for about a week to photograph as much of the “non-major” sites as I could. Some of them are slightly far from Angkor Wat (by that, I mean to say more than 10 kilometers away), and usually require a little more money to get to. Also, some of the sites (Beng Mealea, Phnom Kulen) are not included in the Angkor ticket price and have an additional admission fee.
I don’t know if there’s a set number of how many sites belong in the Angkor complex, though I’m sure it would vary. (Do you only count the major sites like Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Prohm? Do you add the sites that aren’t included in the standard “Angkor Pass,” but are clearly of the same era? Do you include sites that aren’t even named (as are one of the sites in this series)? All in all, I’ll put a very rough number at…50 sites in the Siem Reap area, and that includes the sites that are about 100 km away. Of those, I would say I’ve been to all but 5-10 now. All are included here with the exception, obviously, of the sites that I didn’t visit. (Off the top of my head, I can say they include Koh Ker & that respective group, which is about 120 km ENE of Siem Reap; Phnom Krom, one of the three “mountains” with temples; Ta Prohm Kel; and Mangalartha.)
In practical terms, I’m afraid that with the volume of shooting (about 1,500 frames in the past 7 days), photos will start to look redundant to those who don’t have the same interest in ancient/historical architecture or Angkor as I do. That being said, there are a few things besides temples here. The Old Market area (now Night Market/Pub Street) is represented – a little – and Phnom Kulen has a pretty nice waterfall which is also in this series. Also, I tried to catch a few people in here, though didn’t get as many as I would’ve liked.
I had my friend Mao (tuktuk driver) take me around for 5 of these 7 days this time around. As I mentioned last time, he may cost a little more than what you can arrange through a hotel/guesthouse, but he’s well worth the money (and, in the grand scheme of things, not too expensive; I paid less than $200 for the five days, two of which were “long” trips). He loves his country and heritage, he knows what he’s showing you, he’s flexible, he gives you enough ice water to keep you hydrated, and he’s just a good guy. (He even bought me a birthday cake for cryin’ out loud…) Anyway, I highly recommend Mao. You can find him here: www.facebook.com/mao.khvan (or on Trip Advisor: www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g297390-d10726821-R... )
Now that shameless plugs and other assorted rhetoric are out of the way, it’s time to get on to the temples, ruins, and other miscellany.
Today is really the excuse that I used to come back to Siem Reap for a week. Mao was nice enough not to schedule any other customers for today since it’s my 43rd birthday, and also for Saturday. (Another reason, I think, is that I wanted to see all of the non-major sites and most everyone else is only interested in the major ones. So…thanks to Mao for giving up a few bucks from others just to make sure I got to see all that I wanted these two days.)
Mao came to pick me up around 10:00 in the morning with his wife and adorable daughter. Today, we pretty much followed the small loop tour that we did yesterday (and that most tourists do). However, we skipped every spot from yesterday (Banteay Kdei, Ta Prohm’s main temple, Ta Keo, Thommanon, Chao Say Tevoda, Bayon) and opted for the others along the same route.
The first stop of the morning was Prasat Kravan. This is a particularly interesting – and small – temple that consists mainly of one building with a central tower, but five chambers lined up in a row. Prasat Kravan was built in the early 10th century (consecrated in 921) and is built of brick. It was built during the short reign of Harshavarman I. The name is the modern name (though I don’t know the original name) and means “cardamom sanctuary,” for a tree that once stood here. From an architectural standpoint, what is most interesting – and what caught my attention – is the brick bas-reliefs here. They are the only known representation of these in Khmer art and are reason alone to visit here. The central tower has a statue of Vishnu and the northernmost has a statue of his consort, Lakshmi.
After 15-20 minutes at Prasat Kravan, Mao took me to Bat Chum, which was quite near. (It wasn’t on my list, so kudos to Mao for adding a few stops that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen; as I said, the man knows the territory, and I highly recommend him to anyone who comes here.) Bat Chum is a very, very small site (under restoration, though it looks like even the restoration has been forgotten) a few hundred meters due south of Sra Srang, and a few hundred meters east of the road from Angkor Wat to Banteay Kdei. When Bat Chum was built in 960, there were houses and a Buddhist monastery nearby, which have long since vanished. This temple was built by the lone Khmer architect whose name we know: Kavindrarimathana. He also built the palace of the East Mebon and Sra Srang. This is a temple with three brick towers. There are stone lions and interesting inscriptions here as well.
From Bat Chum, we returned to the main road, skirted along the eastern and northern sides of Banteay Kdei’s outer wall, then along the southern and western sides of Ta Prohm’s outer wall. Most people enter Ta Prohm from the western gate (as evidenced by the massive throng of tuktuks here) or the eastern gate (where you will find a slew of souvenir vendors). As far as I can tell, there is no southern gate – as I imagine you’d see it flying by on the road. (Banteay Kdei does have a northern gate, though people don’t seem to stop here.) Ta Prohm does have a rather charming and rarely visited northern gate that I was unaware of. Again…thanks, Mao. Just stop on the road at the northwest corner of Ta Prohm’s outer wall and walk east along the north wall for about five minutes to find the northern gate, surrounded by jungle.
Next up on today’s tour is a very small site that, from what I know, doesn’t even have a name. (Mao didn’t even know the name of the place, so it’s just titled ‘Unnamed Site’ here.) It’s very small, almost an afterthought, but still worth a look. It’s on the road heading due north from Ta Prohm’s west gate about 100-200 meters south of where it heads to the west to Ta Keo. It’s barely 50 meters off the road, so is very easy to visit in 10 minutes or so.
Right at the point where the road takes a 90 degree turn to head west to Ta Keo, you have the option of going straight (down a fairly bumpy dirt road) to Ta Nei. This is actually a larger temple, but unlike the others nearby, it hasn’t gone under extensive restoration yet, so it isn’t visited very often. It’s 800 meters north of Ta Keo, set back in the woods, and is 200 meters west of the Eastern Baray’s western border. It was built by Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The highlights of coming here are simply the setting, the pediments, and the overall lack of visitors.
After half an hour or so at Ta Nei, Mao and I hopped back in the tuktuk and returned to the main road, heading west past Ta Keo before veering north and making a very quick stop at the Hospital Chapel that is 150 meters due west of Ta Keo (slightly north). This is a very quick – 5 minute – stop that interested me simply because it was/is part of a hospital that’s close to a thousand years old now. It was built by Jayavarman VII (like so many of the Angkor sites) in the late 12th century. This sandstone monument is one of four that were on site here (and, from what I’m reading, one of 102 that were found throughout the empire). Honestly, seeing this just makes me wonder about 12th century medicine. What would a Khmer hospital at the turn of the 13th century have been like?
Moving north from the Hospital Chapel, the road takes another 90 degree turn to the west. Before entering the Victory Gate of Angkor Thom, you pass Thommanon and Chao Say Tevoda (bypassed, as already mentioned), and then Spean Thma, near a bridge that crosses the Siem Reap River. (The Siem Reap River, today, is more like a gentle stream, though it was used to transport the quarried rock from Phnom Kulen to Angkor to build these massive temples a thousand years ago.) That aside, I decided to bypass Spean Thma for now.
Once inside the Victory Gate, which I mistakenly called the East Gate in May (it is on the eastern wall), we turned south on a dirt path about 100-200 meters inside Angkor Thom and traveled south, parallel to the wall. After less than 5 minutes, you arrive at the road that runs directly east from Bayon to the East Gate, otherwise known as the Slaves’ Gate or Gate of the Dead. (From the names, obviously, if anyone who didn’t belong to the royal family saw this gate…bad news for them.) According to Mao, the slaves were marched out this gate on the way to their execution. Grim history aside, it’s a rather nice gate, well-restored, with some good angles for shooting. It’s certainly worth a visit, especially since it’s so easily accessible – and there are rarely many people around.
After this quick stop, we took the road due west to the heart of Angkor Thom – Bayon – then headed up the road towards the North Gate, where the majority of Angkor Thom sites are located (just north of Bayon). Passing by Baphuon, Phimeanakas, the Elephant Terrace, Terrace of the Leper Kings (all on the west side of the main road), and the Kleangs and Suor Prat Towers (east side of the main road, with the towers being bisected by the road heading east through the Victory Gate), we turned off just north of the Terrace of the Leper Kings to the west to see Tep Pranam – very briefly – and Preah Pilalay.
Tep Pranam is simply a statue of a giant seated sandstone Buddha, still in use for worship today, that was built around the 16th century. If this were in an out-of-the-way place, it may not be worth the time. However, it’s in the heart of Angkor Thom and it’s impossible to go to Preah Pilalay without seeing it if you come by tuktuk. (This isn’t a complaint by any means; it’s rather nice.) Preah Pilalay is in the northwest section of Angkor Thom and is fairly remote (given the amount of tourists that the other nearby sites see). Its main features are a tall chimney-like structure, a few nagas, and its setting in the forest. It was built in either the 13th or 14th century, possibly by Jayavarman VIII or, perhaps, by Jayavarman VII. It’s about 200 meters north of the royal enclosure (Phimeanakas). Some of the larger trees that used to tower over the temple have been hewn resulting in a very different feel. However, it was a pleasant side trip.
Hopping back in the tuktuk and going directly across the road, the last stop for the day inside Angkor Thom was the Preah Pithu group. This is a collection of five temples/ruins in the northeastern section of Angkor Thom that is in a delightful wooded setting. If you can see them in early morning or late afternoon, you should get some wonderful lighting. You can spend as little as 15 minutes here or as much as an hour or two. They probably weren’t designed to be one cohesive group, though it’s not possible to say with certainty. They were built in the 13th century. (Though I mention this as the last stop, I’ve also included the North Kleang and Northern Suor Prat Towers here. Though I didn’t explore those in depth, I am giving them their own set here – Kleangs and Suor Prat Towers.)
On the way out of Angkor Thom, via the South Gate, we stopped outside the moat for a few pictures. Directly south of Angkor Thom are a few temples that I wanted to see: Thma Bay Kaek, Prasat Bei, and Baksei Chamkrong.
We visited them in that order. Thma Bay Kaek is nearest the road about 50 meters southwest of the bridge over the southern moat. All that remains here are the ruins of a square brick tower. It’s probably the remains of one of many temples that were here in the Bakheng area. It was built in the 10th century by Yasovarman I.
About a five minute walk - -if that – due west of Thma Bay Kaek is Prasat Bei (“Three Towers”). Unlike Thma Bay Kaek, these towers are still standing, so obviously, slightly more photogenic. They would probably be best photographed in early morning. The trees block it from the west in late afternoon. It, too, was built by Yasovarman I in the 10th century.
The last of the three temples in this area, Baksei Chamkrong, is the most impressive of the three. It’s from the early and middle 10th century (rededicated in 948) and was built by Harshavarman. This is a pyramid temple at the foot of Phnom Bakheng. The name means “the bird with sheltering wings,” though – like most temples here – this is a modern appellation that the builders wouldn’t have recognized. This tower is a single brick tower on a pyramidal base.
Finally, to finish up the day, Mao dropped me at Phnom Bakheng. It’s about a 20 minute walk up the hill around a winding path. This is considered to be one of the best places to watch sunset over Angkor Wat because of its panoramic view from the peak of the hill. However, everyone knows this, and this is the only place all day that was too crowded for my liking. In addition to its being under restoration to the point of making it a bit of an eyesore (for the time being), it was easily my least favorite place of the entire day. After waiting in line for 20 minutes and barely moving an inch, I decided to call it a day, taking 1-2 pictures (that you see here), and heading back down the hill.
Mao had disappeared into the throngs of people eating at restaurants. Fortunately for me, he spotted me. On the way back to the guesthouse, he stopped and picked up a birthday cake which we shared with the folks who happened to be at the guesthouse. All in all, it was a wonderful birthday. Tomorrow, too, would be just me and would include the lesser-visited sites on the Grand Tour Loop, in addition to 1-2 others.
As always, I hope you enjoy this set. I appreciate you taking time to look. If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message or leave it via comment.
In our avocation, there are those who require the presence of a train in the frame to take a rail photograph. This is far from true. There are times when the presence of a train is nOT necessary, and NOT desired. On this late winter afternoon near Sacramento, the universal symbol of a railroad, the crossbuck, sits silhouetted against a dramatic sunset. A train was not necessary. You don't always need a train to take a rail related photograph.
© 2013 Patrick Dirden Photography
All Rights Reserved
Illegal dumping on public lands damages the health of the land, harms wildlife habitat, and requires expensive clean-up.
Illegal dumping has been occurring on the BLM public lands for many years. State and Field Offices continue to encounter many illegal dumps within their jurisdictions. Such dump sites often encourage or engender additional illegal dumping in the same area, in what has come to be called “promiscuous dumps”. Illegal dumping involves mainly the dumping of solid waste such as white goods, yard wastes, household trash, vehicles, furniture, construction debris, and household hazardous waste. Illegal dumps are often created along rail roads, dirt roads, routes, and in the deserts. Illegal dumps also pose a tempting opportunity to dispose of hazardous waste in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. A major type of hazardous waste found in illegal dumps is those generated by clandestine drug labs.
Law enforcement officers encounter virtually every conceivable category of criminal activity on Oregon and Washington’s 16.1 million acres of public land. Sadly, each year, they document many of incidents involved illegal dumping. Over the past several years we've averaged 99 incidents of illegal dumping on public land in the Pacific Northwest – each year. If you see illegal dumping, report it immediately to your local law enforcement office.
Help us protect YOUR public lands!
Check out this video to learn more about this growing problem: bitly.com/Zw9mjt
Or read this great article about one man's mission to clean up your public lands one 67' Fairlane at a time...
VISA ....
2 weeks on arrival at the border. 10 dollars US or
500baht. 3 photos required. You leave your passport
iat immigration in Tachilek and are issued with a
folder which you hand in at the checkpoints and your
hotel to keep. The taxi drivers and hotel takes care
of all the paperwork for you.
CAREFUL if you wish to go to Mongla, you must
inform them at Tachilek. This stamp/permission can't
be obtained in Kengtung.
You have to have 37Yuan to pay to cross the border
into Mongla. The guard unhappily took my 5dollars US
as I had no Yuan. You can probably change money to
Yuan at the gold sellers at the market in Keng. where
I changed Yuan back to Kyet.
MONEY......
US dollars and thai baht can be used in
KENGTUNG/TACHILEK. They will often give change from
thai baht in thai baht. Small notes please. Keep some
small bills for last, as you don't want to be stuck
with Kyet before leaving.
MONGLA. Chinese currency only, and I changed mine
at a pharmacy upon arrival.
Get your US dollars before going to Mae Sai. 5
banks either had no USD, or only in 100 notes.
Exchange rates commonly rounded eg: 1,000 Kyet = 1
USD = 40baht=7.5 Yuan.
TRAVEL....
TACHILEK TO kENGTUNG Choose a driver at 8.30-9am
either at the end of the Tach bridge, or immigration
can organise this for you.
Thais paid 250b, but even if you can speak thai no one
we met paid under 450baht to Kengtung. Most of us paid
400b for the return trip.If there are less in the
taxi, the price goes up.
KENGTUNG TO MONGLA was 400 to 450b also.
Sometimes you can jump straight into a taxi and go,
another time I waited 3 hours at the guesthouse. I
think it would have been better if I had gone to the
taxi station myself.
Both these journeys took between 2 and a half to 3 and
a half hours. If your trip is shorter take some
mints...the road particularly to Mongla is very windy
and hilly/mountainous.
We often left our bags at the guesthouse when
arranging the taxi, as when they have 4 people, they
come and pick up other passengers anyway.
We didn't try the bus from Tach. as the station is
a couple of K's out of town, and I didn't fancy my
chances of getting a bus driver to drive back to the
border to immigration to wait an hour or more to
process the papers.
INTERNET....
Didn't see any anywhere.
LANGUAGE....
Lucky you if you can speak some thai already, as
the Shan people speak Thai Yai, which is similar, so
it is well understood and spoken in Tach. and Keng.
Mongla is a Wa state, so they speak chinese. Very
little English was spoken in the 2 days I was there,
apart from a few Burmese/Shan there who spoke thai and
a bit of english.
FOOD.....
My favorite subject....Tachilek and Kengtung you
can get chinese, burmese, Shan and thai.
Side of the road stalls sell Indianstyle
springrolls, samosas and bean patties similar to
felafel Yuuuuuuuuuum. Approx 50Kyet each.
KENGTUNG....Aung Naing restaurant on the street
next to the market has pots of mildly spiced burmese
curries which come with soup, 2 dipping sauces,
condiment and fresh cabbage/lettuce/herbs. All this
and a drink for 1,300kyet. Gorgeous. There are 2
restaurants in this street, this is the bigger and
better one.
There is a huge restaurant 2 doors down from
Shein Tip hotel on the airport road which is
fantastic. Thai, burmese and chinese food.
Shan food uses salty soybean sauce for flavor and
pickled vegies unlike other parts of burma that use
fermented fish sauce.
MONGLA....Chinese mostly.....and you can eat your
noodle soup to the sound of hacking and spitting on
the floor at the next table. mmmmm
MARKETS.....
The central market in Kengtung and Mongla sell a
lot of cheap chinese clothing, some fruits and vegies
and pots and pans....some sarongs as well. Nothing
special but ok for a look!
ACCOMMADATION....
TACHILEK. 9 stars hotel. 350-400b double with hot
water and tv.
Small rooms but cosy and comfortable.
KENGTUNG.... SAM YWET on airport road. 8-10 USD
per person even if you use the same room. Huge bunglow
with solar hot water....no sun, so fffreeezzzzing.
Damp and mouldy smelling, although this place would be
nice in the summer. free b'fast.
SAM YWET in town close to the market. Same price
as above.Nicer place with spasmodic hotwater and free
b'fast (egg, toast, fruit coffee) Very nice people.
Not good value for couples, as most paid 20dollars US
for the same room I paid 8USD for. You can bargain if
you stay longer.
HARRYS HOUSE... was full, but looked good. A
couple I met paid 10USD a room for the two of them,
but you can also get 5USD rooms with hotwater. It is a
little out of town but not too far to walk. It is only
2-300kyet by motorbike taxi or tuk tuk.
SHEIN TIP HOTEL... 7USD for small and a bit dingy
rooms with hotwater. Larger room available, and the
15USD room was much brighter and huge with 3 double
beds.Nice people, helpful manager who speaks good
english, and an outstanding restaurant 2 doors
down(forgot the name). Building works next door at
present. Also a bit of a walk from town on the airport
road.PH 084.22208
MONGLA....
I stayed at the big chinese place next to the
market...will post the name later. It is usually
100yuan, but due to the casinos and discos closed
down, has dropped to 60Yuan. It is a bargain, as it is
beautiful, huge room and bed, hotwater, tv, water
dispenser, furniture....very flash. And close to the
taxi stop.
PHONE..... My thai sim card still worked in Tachilek.
ELECTRIC PLUGS....Same as Thailand, with some like the
3 pronged ones in Australia.
FLIGHTS....Yangon air ...when changing flights it is
free to bring the date forward, but costs to delay
flight.
MONKS....In Kengtung. Naughty young boys who came
begging to the guesthouse everymorning around 9am when
they knew you were eating brekkie. They wouldn't leave
unless you gave them something, and often chanted
money money money. They didn't ask for anything from
other burmese. The owners of the GH and a guide told
us not to give to them as they were not hungry or
destitute, went to school and lived with their
families.
STRANGE KNOCKING STYLE.... Don'e be alarmed if when
they knock on your door they jiggle the door knob
backwards and forwards. They aren't trying to get in,
it is just their knocking style.
GOVT RUN?.....We had no idea which hotels were and
were not govt run. Our guidebook didn't cover these
areas.
BOOKS....Take plenty as we saw none in either a shop
or at the GH's. And very few travellers to swap with
at the time.
Phew, I think that's it. Feel free to PM me anyone if
you have any further q's...
Have a great trip, the people in Kengtung were
amazingly friendly, warm and welcoming, and interested
in travellers.
Bold and pointed: reconstruction of the Razumovsky palace in Vienna
(Many more pictures you can see by clicking on the link at the end of page!)
Two major art collectors acquired the palais, in need of renovation, from the city of Vienna and installed there an Art Foundation with Gallery, as well as an apartment flat in the attic. The conversion of the listed building required sensitivity. Not authentic components were removed, top floor and staircase completely renovated, an underground parking built - anything in concordance with the Heritage Office.
Architect: Baar-Baarenfels Architects
Location: Rasumofskygasse 23, 1030 - Vienna Landstraße, Austria
Reconstruction of the Razumovsky palace in Vienna, Baar-Baarenfels Architects
Photo: Vera Subkus
The palace was the in time of the Vienna Congress in 1806 built for Prince Andrew Kirillovitch Razumovsky, the diplomat of the Russian Tsar Alexander. Razumovsky was music patron and art collector and his palace is considered a jewel of the Viennese architectural heritage. Architect of the ensemble of three buildings with over 11,000 m² was the Belgian Louis Montoyer. During the Second World War the building suffered damages that were only provisionally repaired and in the postwar period the house fell into bad ways.
In the reinterpretation of the Razumovsky palace it was on the one hand a matter to comply with the historical form, on the other hand to develop a contemporary solution for the new spatial requirements.
The new aluminum clad roof, a steel truss structure, supported by a number of Vierendeel carriers, fits naturally into the existing ensemble. The penthouse apartment is surrounded by terraces and features floor to ceiling vertical glazing. Sun protection slats of extruded aluminum form the original roof shape, provide shade and frame the view to the outside.
The ground floor was, arguably completely in line with the art-loving first owner, converted in a six -meter-high gallery. The two larger rooms were connected by the insertion of a new additional level between two free-standing angled concrete slices.
The staircase designed Baar-Baarenfels completely new with an organically shaped staircase made of concrete, which is not mounted on the wall - a constructive feat, since the shape results from the static flow of forces. Thus, the mass of concrete nevertheless looks slimly and elegantly shaped, almost floating.
The elevator shaft of 13.70m consists of self-supporting glass walls, mounted on steel brackets to produce maximum brightness and transparency. The elevator cab consists on three sides of black glass and though the glass ceiling of the cabin the user should as clearly as possible perceive the vertical movement. The elevator constitutes at the same time the transition from the historical component to the modern apartment rooms in the attic. From there, one overlooks the park of the palace and the adjacent buildings .
The jury of the World Architecture Festival in 2013 praised the work of the architect Baar-Baarenfels: "There is perhaps only once in a lifetime the opportunity to influence a 200 year old building with great historical significance. The architect through his implementation has been successful in the architectural resolution of a paradox: a bold design concept that is in the expression tender and pointed."
For more photos and drawings in the gallery
Wardrobe, Photo: Vera Subkus
All winners of the World Architecture Festival 2013
(Linked Reports in English)
Civic and Community - Women's Opportunity Centre (Rwanda), Sharon Davis Design
Villa - House Namly (Singapore), CHANG Architects
Health - Rush University Medical Center New Hospital Tower (Chicago), Perkins + Will
Production/Energy/Recycling - A Simple Factory Building (Singapore), Pencil Office
Hotel/Leisure - Citizen M London Bankside (UK), Concrete
Sports - Splash Point Leisure Centre (UK), Wilkinson Eyre Architects
New and Old - Conversion of the Razumovsky palace (Austria), Baar-Baarenfels architects
Transportation - Sydney Cruise Terminal (Australia), Johnson Pilton Walker Architects
Culture and World Building of the Year - Aukland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki (New Zealand), Frances Jones Morehen Thorp and Archived Media
Future Projects Education - The Urban School in Elsinore (Denmark), EFFECT, Rubow
Future Projects Competition Entries - National Maritime Museum of China (China), Cox Rayner Architects
Future Projects Residential - Blossom Siamese (Thailand), Somdoon Architects Ltd.
Future Projects Experimental - White Collar Factory (UK), Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Completed Building House - The Left -Over Space House (Australia), Cox Rayner Architects, Casey and Rebekah Vallance
Completed Building Housing - 28th Street Apartments (USA), Koning Eizenberg Architecture
Completed Building Office - Regional and International offices Statoil (Norway) A-Lab
Completed Building Higher Education and Research - University of Exeter: Project Forum (UK), Wilkinson Eyre Architects
Completed Building Display - The Blue Planet (Denmark), 3XN
Completed Building Religion - Sancaklar Mosque (Turkey), EAA - Emre Arolat Architects
Completed Building Schools - Fontys Sports College (Netherlands) International Mecanoo
Completed Building Shopping - Emporia (Sweden), Wingardh Arkitektkontor
Future Projects Health - New Sulaibikhat Medical Center (Kuwait) AGi Architects
Future Projects House - Meditation House ( Lebanon ), MZ Architects
Future Projects Commercial Mixed Use - New Office in Central London (UK), Allford Hall Monaghan Morris
Future Projects Office - Headquarters Ecza Selcuk (Turkey), Tabanlioglu Architects
Future Projects Leisure -Led Development - Singapore Sports Hub (Singapore), Singapore Sports Hub design team (Arup Associates Architects + DP + AECOM )
Future Projects Master Planning - Earls Court Masterplan (UK) Farrell
Future Projects Infrastructure - Brisbane Ferry Terminals Post- Flood Recovery (Australia) , Cox Rayner Architects
www.detail.de/architektur/news/kuehn-und-pointiert-umbau-...
vancouver island
© All rights reserved. Written permission is required for use of any of my images .
Could someone out there in the Flickr verse Identify this bird for me? I got a brief chance at long range .
Thanks in advance
Copyright © 2014 by Ian J MacDonald. Permission required for any use. All rights reserved
Caption: Once huge schools swam up and down the Hudson Hudson River. The schools were so large one could easily catch them by hand. They were initially harvested for fertilizer and later for food - and valued for their delicate flavor. They are easily caught in stationary nets and since the late 1800s they have been severely over-fished. In the late 20th century their breeding grounds, in the mouths of small rivers leading to the Hudson, have been lost and damaged by upland damming, diversion, drainage, and development affecting streams... Waterfront development, hardening of shorelines, filling in wetlands, has directly eliminated much of their spawning grounds. Since WWII bioaccumulation of toxic chemicals has rendered them unsafe to eat and pollution from human waste, lawns, agriculture, runoff, etc... have further fouled (deoxygenation and contamination) their breeding grounds. There are recovery plans in place. These seek to restore breeding areas. Stationary net fishing has been banned and chemical pollution has been decreased since 1970.
General Story Idea: These are illustrations about the water in our lives. I am attempting to create a book about the environment that is both entertaining and interesting but also scientifically factual and realistic. I am working on a story that is interesting and clever but not patronizing and "cutesie". I do not want it to be an environmental engineering textbook or a rant against modernism but a thoughtful consideration of the environment as it was, as it is, and realistic ways in which we can we could live environmentally responsible and/or the consequences if we continue on the path we are on.
My environmental philosophy and training in engineering and science show through in illustrating how important water is and how misused it has been through human history. The animals depicted in the the scenes are not there just because they are cute and adorable - they are indicators of the health of our waters. An often used complaint against environmentalism is that it is geared to save animals. While it is surely a reasonable goal to preserve the life on earth these animals are not simply cute critters, but are indicators of the health of our environment, at the top of which we sit. The environment is a very complex system that was honed by millions of years of evolution. Like keystones in an arch the members of this complex system hold it together and when one is knocked out (extinct) the system veers. Some animals go extinct and others over-proliferate. Throughout the history of the earth there have been periodic, drastic climate shifts , land movement, species invasions etc... but there has not been a disruption that has been so sustained and unrelenting such as humans have carried out over the last 2000 years.
see the entire set www.flickr.com/photos/ianmacdonald/sets/72157639982848755/
This had been assembled but someone had more fun breaking it down .... here, I go again!!
Our Daily Challenge ~ Some Assembly Required ...
Stay Safe and Healthy Everyone!
Thanks to everyone who views this photo, adds a note, leaves a comment and of course BIG thanks to anyone who chooses to favourite my photo .... Thanks to you all!
Five car set 800024 climbs away from Swansea with the 1B20, 09.37 hrs London Paddington to Carmarthen Sundays only, usually made up of two 5 cars sets it's splits at Swansea with one 5 car set going west and connects back up at Swansea for the return to Paddington (Photo By Steve Powell)
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Contact in case a non-watermarked version is required.
A new carpet and a lick of paint required urgently at Talgarth Mental hospital to bring its decor up-to-date. Anyone who can wander round this place on their own without getting slightly creeped out is a braver person than me.
"You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality."
--Walt Disney
Looking down and out after their first three games, India stormed into the final of the Coca-Cola Cup at a sun bathed Sinhalese Sports Club today after their best batting performance of the tournament to date.
Required to chase the highest target of the triangular so far, an imposing 265, after a sloppy performance in the field, India powered to a seven wicket victory over New Zealand, as Virender Shewag, opening the innings in the absence of Sachin Tendulkar, thumped the seventh fastest century in the history of one-day cricket and the second fastest by an Indian.
Already famed for an uncanny likeness to Tendulkar, in both bowling and batting style, Shewag emerged from the shadow of India's star batsmen, with some exhilarating strokeplay in the opening 15 overs.
The Delhi batsmen made full use of the fielding restrictions, hitting Darryl Tuffey for 22 runs in his sixth over and 12 boundaries in all in his first fifty, which came from just 28 balls.
His second fifty was slower, as he focused his attention on a maiden one-day century, but he was still no slouch, reaching the landmark off just 69 balls. Only Shahid Alfridi (37), Brian Lara (45), Sanath Jayasuriya (48), Mohammad Azharuddin (62), Basit Ali (67) and Ijaz Ahmed (68) have reached three figures off lesser deliveries and not many of them would have been missed only once, like Shewag was by Parore when he had made 98.
This was not, however, just a one man show. When Shewag was bowled by McMillan's first ball, straight after his celebrations, Sourav Ganguly held the innings together with Rahul Dravid, who came to the wicket after the dismissal of VVS Laxman.
Ganguly, lucky to be playing at all after his verbal tirade last evening, for which he was let off by match referee Cammie Smith with just a fine and a slap on the wrists, added 33 with Rahul Dravid and scored 64 from 103 balls before paddling a tame catch to short fine leg.
With 86 runs required from 17.2 overs, India looked well in control having lost just three wickets, but those who have watched the team in the past would not have been totally convinced, especially with the out of touch Hemang Badani and normally slow scoring Dravid at the wicket.
Such fears were quickly soothed, as it became clear that Dravid was in a positive frame of mind and in fine form. He took the bowling by the scruff of the neck and shepherded his side home with an unbeaten 57 from 56 balls. Badani meanwhile chipped in with a fluent 36 from 38 balls that included two sixes.
Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first on a wicket, which was being re-used. Aware that the new ball in the morning represented their greatest threat, they batted cautiously at the start, scoring just 55 runs in the opening 15 overs, which compares unfavourably to the 101 scored by India.
Steadily and professionally, however, Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle raised the tempo, as they added 138 for the second wicket, before the captain was stumped for 66 as he jumped down the track to Yuvraj Singh.
Astle went on to score 108, his second century of the series, and was well supported by Lou Vincent, who came back into the side today. Vincent scored 45 from 37 deliveries; his highest ever score in ODIs.
India now take on Sri Lanka at the Premadasa International Stadium on Sunday. Full of confidence after three successive victories, they probably even start as favourites.
© Cricinfo
Our rear living room window, now repainted, from the inside. The only true single-pane window left in the house; this one would be over $1000 to replace thanks to government building codes requiring much more expensive tempered glass to be used, because this window is over stairs and could hurt someone on the stairs when it breaks. So government safety regulations actually made it so expensive to replace that we changed our mind and didn't -- actually making things less safe and less energy efficient. This is how government regulation often has the opposite effect, and are not a magic silver bullet that solves all societal problems. A non-tempered $500 would be safer than these loose panes! But no! Big Brother won't let me get that. So instead it's technically way more dangerous, as any pane could fall out once the glazing compound dries out.
Oops, painted this window shut too.
Sacrificial boards are used a lot in my house. I guess it's an "old wood window thing". I paid a good $5+ for another piece of crown moulding to put over the sill. The idea is that the sacrificial wood rots before the actual sill, much like sacrificial anodes on boats. In this window's case, the old sacrificial board was so rotten you could rip it off the nails and into pieces with your pinky finger. The sill itself was rotted out too. I spent a week or two building it up with successive layers of Elmer's wood filler. It kept raining on my wood filler and I'd have to start over! Eventually, though, it was built up enough to be flat enough to nail a NEW sacrificial board to. Hopefully this is the last paint job this sill will ever need. At some point in the future when we have more disposable income, we'll replace this window. (We need about $5,000 in new windows, so it's going to be awhile...)
And no, we didn't use edgers. We just got paint on the glass. BFD. I'm not focused on the window when I'm looking out of it. That stuff could be razor-bladed off if we cared enough. But what's the point? This window will likely be replaced someday. If we really wanted to, we could fix this with a scraper and a ladder. It would take at least 30 minutes (20 scraping, 10 ladder setup), and require 2 people (Carolyn as the ladder stabilizer, me as the elbow grease). Don't care enough to do that.
house maintenance, kudzu, living room window, sacrificial board.
upstairs, Clint and Carolyn's house, Alexandria, Virginia.
October 14, 2011.
... Read my blog at ClintJCL.wordpress.com
... Read Carolyn's blog at CarolynCASL.wordpress.com
BACKSTORY: So our homeowners insurance (Farmers) got dropped due to having peeling paint on our window sills (among other things). Weak. It was a LOT of work AND money for us to repaint all our sills. Wood windows SUCK!! Modern vinyl windows are MAINTANENCE-FREE!! Wood windows... You gotta re-glaze the panes when they fall out, and then the wood itself is always going to slowly rot away. We already had our cats knock a pane out, so we already had glazing compound for pane repairs. This came in handy when we painted our various window sills, as some also needed glazing compound.
It was quite a pain because it cost so much money and had our living room in disarray for so many months, and the whole insurance basis for the situation was pretty bullshitty in the first place. We're not going to make a property damage claim due to moisture that occurs because our windows let in moisture because their paint was peeling! Ridiculous... Is paint really all that's holding us back from having property damage through our windows? I DON'T THINK SO, as no moisture was getting in prior to repainting. Just total hassling from Farmers *AND* Progressive Insurance. NationWide, however, appears to finally be on my side.
North Toraja (or Toraja Utara) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and the home of the Toraja ethnic group. The local government seat is in Rantepao which is also the center of Toraja culture. Formerly this regency was part of Tana Toraja Regency.
The Tana Toraja boundary was determined by the Dutch East Indies government in 1909. In 1926, Tana Toraja was under the administration of Bugis state, Luwu. The regentschap (or regency) status was given on October 8, 1946, the last regency given by the Dutch. Since 1984, Tana Toraja has been named as the second tourist destination after Bali by the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. Since then, hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors have visited this regency. In addition, numerous Western anthropologists have come to Tana Toraja to study the indigenous culture and people of Toraja.
GEOGRAPHY
Tana Toraja is located on the Sulawesi island, 300 km north of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. Its geographical location is between latitude of 2°-3° South and longitude 119°-120° East (center: 3°S 120°ECoordinates: 3°S 120°E). The area of the new North Toraja Regency is 1,151.47 km², about 2.5% of the total area of South Sulawesi province. The topography of Tana Toraja is mountainous; its minimum elevation is 150 m, while the maximum is 3,083 above the sea level.
Tana Toraja Regency (Indonesian for Torajaland or Land of the Toraja, abbreviated Tator) is a regency (kabupaten) of South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, and home to the Toraja ethnic group. The local government seat is in Makale, while the center of Toraja culture is in Rantepao. But now, Tana Toraja has been divided to two regencies that consist of Tana Toraja with its capital at Makale and North toraja with its capital at Rantepao.
The Tana Toraja boundary was determined by the Dutch East Indies government in 1909. In 1926, Tana Toraja was under the administration of Bugis state, Luwu. The regentschap (or regency) status was given on 8 October 1946, the last regency given by the Dutch. Since 1984, Tana Toraja has been named as the second tourist destination after Bali by the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. Since then, hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors have visited this regency. In addition, numerous Western anthropologists have come to Tana Toraja to study the indigenous culture and people of Toraja.
GEOGRAPHY
Tana Toraja is centrally placed in the island of Sulawesi, 300 km north of Makassar, the provincial capital of South Sulawesi. It lies between latitude of 2°-3° South and longitude 119°-120° East (center: 3°S 120°ECoordinates: 3°S 120°E). The total area (since the separation of the new regency of North Toraja) is 2,054.30 km², about 4.4% of the total area of South Sulawesi province. The topography of Tana Toraja is mountainous; its minimum elevation is 150 m, while the maximum is 3,083 above the sea level.
ADMINISTRATION
Tana Toraja Regency in 2010 comprised nineteen administrative Districts (Kecamatan), tabulated below with their 2010 Census population.
The Torajans are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja").[1] Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognised this animistic belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word Toraja comes from the Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colourful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism development and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model—in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo—to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.
ETHNIC IDENTITY
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonisation and Christianisation, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders—such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi—than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups—the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).
HISTORY
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognised in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to Christianity.
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognised religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognised, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalised as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.
SOCIETY
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.
FAMILY AFFILIATION
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin)—except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.
CLASS AFFILIATION
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.
Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women—a crime punishable by death.
RELIGIOUS AFFILATION
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.
The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.
CULTURE
TONGKONAN
Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
Architecture in the style of a tongkonan is still very common. Various administration buildings were built in this style in recent years, e.g. the Kecamatan building in Rantepao.
WOOD CARVINGS
To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolise some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolise fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. Torajan wood carvings are composed of numerous square panels, each of which can represent various things, for example buffaloes as a wish of wealth for the family; a knot and a box, symbolizing the hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony; aquatic animals, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.
FUNERAL RITES
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased's family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.
DANNCE AND MUSIC
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.
COGENDER VIEWS
Among the Saʼadan (eastern Toraja) in the island of Sulawesi (Celebes), Indonesia, there are homosexual male toburake tambolang shamans; although among their neighbors the Mamasa (western Toraja) there are instead only heterosexual female toburake shamanesses.
LANGUAGE
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.
Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae, Talondo, Toala, and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages.
A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterised their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.
ECONOMY
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market.
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies—to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.
Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s—including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi—tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.
TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure—an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialised. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.
A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.
WIKIPEDIA
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Women Leaders debate: “This House believes that voluntary targets are not enough to fast forward gender equality. Quotas are required.”
The Institute for Government invites you to join six distinguished speakers to debate the case for and against legally binding quotas as a way of promoting gender equality in the workplace.
For the motion:
Silvana Koch-Mehrin was a German Member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2014. She is the Founder of the Women in Parliaments a Global Forum (WIP), the worldwide network of female Politicians. From 2009 to 2011 she was Vice-President of the European Parliament, and from 2004 to 2009 she was First Vice-President of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE).
Uschi Schreiber is EY’s Global Markets Leader. Prior to joining EY in 2007 she was a Director-General and Cabinet Secretary of delivery and central agency Government departments in Australia. Uschi has significant experience in driving transformation programs in large organisations. She is a leader in EY’s Diversity & Inclusiveness programs and in progressing women’s issues in an international context.
Dr Andre Spicer is Professor of Organisational Behaviour and the founding director of ETHOS: The Centre for Responsible Enterprise at Cass. He is a frequent guest on the BBC, and regularly writes for CNN, the Guardian and many other news sources. Professor Spicer has worked with a wide range of organisations including UK Houses of Parliament, Barclays. Transport for London, Old Mutual, City UK and New City Agenda. He is author of five books and dozens of research articles. He is currently writing a book about stupidity in organisations.
Against the motion:
Sue Owen became Permanent Secretary for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 1 October 2013. In July 2014 Sue became the Civil Service LGB&T Champion and was appointed overall Civil Service Diversity Champion in August 2015. She has championed diversity and inclusion throughout her career; as an academic working on women's lower lifetime earnings; working on parental leave at No. 10; as disability champion at HM Treasury, researching women's progress to the senior civil service since 2008, as LGB&T Champion in DFID and DWP.
Jo Swinson is a non-executive director of data intelligence company Clear Returns. Previously Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire (2005-15), Jo was a Minister in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and Minister for Women (2012-15) where she introduced shared parental leave, drove increases in the appointment of women to public and private sector boards, and secured government support for new laws on gender pay transparency.
Frances Dickens is Chief Executive and co-founder of Astus Group, which was founded in 2003 by Frances along with Paul Jackson. The company transformed perceptions of media barter in the UK and is now the UK’s biggest media barter company, with an estimated market share in excess of 40%. In December 2014 Frances made it to the finalist round of the NatWest Everywoman Awards 2014, which celebrate the business achievements of the UK’s female entrepreneurs
Photo's by Candice McKenzie
Free download under CC Attribution (CC BY 4.0). Please credit the artist and rawpixel.com.
This Julie de Graag collection is a compilation of human portraits, sketches and graphic arts from the 19th century by Julie de Graag (1877-1924), a Dutch graphic artist and painter. She mainly produced graphic works in a Art Nouveau style which has been described as being both sober yet refined.
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: https://www.rawpixel.com/board/466593
The Climate Group hosts the Under 2 General Assembly at Strathclyde University, attended by Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. 7th November 2021
Photography by Fergus Burnett
Accreditation required with all use - 'fergusburnett.com'
HISTORY
Blackburn Meadows electricity generating station was built by the Sheffield Corporation in 1921,mainly to support the steel industry in the Lower Don Valley. The station was expanded in the 1930s, requiring the construction of Cooling Towers 6 and 7 in 1937-8 to supplement earlier square cooling towers to the north east.
These new hyperbolic shaped towers were designed by LG Mouchell and Partners. This was the same partnership responsible for the first hyperbolic cooling towers in the country (built in Liverpool in 1925) and some 150 towers subsequently built across the United Kingdom. Blackburn Meadows was one of those power stations nationalised to form part of the National Grid after the Second World War. It was decommissioned and mainly demolished in the 1970s.
ASSESSMENT
The Blackburn Meadows cooling towers are nationally rare surviving remains of pre-nationalisation large scale electricity generation. They are thought to be the only pre-1950 hyperbolic cooling towers surviving nationally, with nearly all the other 500 or so towers in the country dating to 1960or later. In addition to their early date, the association with LG Mouchell, the design features such as the banding and the thinness of the shell all give the towers interest. The addition of the spray coating of concrete following the 1964 disaster at Ferrybridge adds further interest by showing a development in the industry.
Even without the clouds of steam that signify operational examples, the cooling towers are also very prominent landmark features, providing a visual indication of the former scale and importance of the Sheffield steel industry in the Lower Don Valley.
However the two hyperbolic cooling towers are just one component of an extensive complex that formerly existed. The plant at Blackburn Meadows generated electricity by using steam turbines to turn electric generators, with the steam produced using coal fired boilers, the coal supplied by rail.
The railway system, coal handling plant, boiler complex, turbine and generating halls, as well as the switchgear for connecting the plant to the electricity grid and the earlier square cooling towers have all been lost. Water used by the steam turbines would have been maintained within a closed system, the steam leaving the turbine then passing through a condenser to change it back to hot water before being reboiled to produce steam to turn the turbine.
The cooling towers were used to cool water circulating in a separate system that was used to cool the condensers other equipment.
With the demolition of the rest of the generating station, the surviving cooling towers have lost their context so it is difficult to see how they functioned as an integrated part of a much wider plant.
Functionally, cooling towers still in use consist of far more than just the shell of the tower that survives at Blackburn Meadows. In operation, water is piped into the lower portion of the cooling tower into a complex network of pipes or troughs ending with sprinklers.
A fine mist of water is then sprayed on to a timber or asbestos lattice of staging and screens filling the lower 4-5m of the tower, with the water being cooled via natural evaporation aided by air being drawn upwards by the tower above. Any water droplets carried by this updraft are intercepted by a layer of louvers positioned above the sprinklers. In addition, operational cooling towers have a network of maintenance access ways. All bar one pipe in one of the towers has been stripped out from the cooling towers at Blackburn Meadows, leaving very little indication of how the towers actually functioned.
The Blackburn Meadows cooling towers are thus not only a very partial survival of an electricity generating station, they are also only a very partial survival of a pair of cooling towers. Even given the national context of the highly fragmentary survival of the pre-nationalisation power generation industry, designation of the Blackburn Meadows cooling towers cannot be justified.
The rest of the generating station has been lost, depriving the towers of their functional context and the loss of pipe work, staging, screens and access ways means that a highly significant part of the interest of the towers as cooling towers has also been lost.
www.tinsley-towers.org.uk/pages/english_heritage.pdf
If you’ve ever driven into Sheffield from the M1, you’ll be familiar with the Tinsley Cooling Towers - a piece of industrial landscape that’s become one of the city’s most famous landmarks. For now at least.
Three quarters of the public want them saved
The BBC online poll established www.bbc.co.uk/southyorkshire/content/image_galleries/tins… that three quarters of the public want them saved. This makes more than half a million supporters in Sheffield and Rotherham alone. E.ON’s own poll was flawed by a mix-up of criteria.
English Heritage wrote www.tinsley-towers.org.uk/pages/english_heritage.pdf that the Towers, built in 1938, are the oldest surviving hyperbolic Cooling Towers in the UK and that their prominence provides a visual indication of the former scale and importance of Sheffield’s steel industry.
Transformer facilities required to power 5th Signal Command’s 59,000-square-foot Cyber Center Europe, located on Clay Kaserne in Wiesbaden, Germany, are installed October 30, 2013. A 130-foot truck crane and flatbed truck brought the facilities on post and placed them within inches of the intended destination. The huge crane was required to lift the facilities over existing buildings and trees. By avoiding tree cutting, the project earned significant points towards achieving a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Gold certification. The facility, scheduled to be complete in summer 2014, will feature 200 workstations, a detached parking structure and many sustainable design elements. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District, in partnership with the German construction agency, is managing the project, which broke ground in June 2012. The Cyber Center will capitalize on the use of natural light, thus minimizing the need for florescent lighting. It will also include low flow, water-saving plumbing, using 40 percent less water than a comparably sized building and saving more than 200,000 gallons of water annually. The center, recently dedicated to Lt. Gen. Robert E. Gray, a distinguished signal officer, will consolidate several key organizations under one roof. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Karl Klein)
Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2010
Pendleton, Oregon — This year marks the 100th anniversary of the famed Pendleton Round-Up (rodeo) and was the biggest event in its history.
One fashion accessory that will never go out of style as long as you have enough style to wear one, is the cowboy hat. Whether sold from street vendors across from the grand stands or from the walls within Hamley & Co., cowboy hats are the required dress code.
Canon 5D Mark II, EF 24-105mm f/4-5.6L IS USM.
All Rights Reserved © 2010 JB Studio / Jeff Burger
Identification required.Can anyone identify the operator? Presumably a city or corporation transport.
Rolleiflex 2.8F
A great tool for my toolbox. As much of a pleasure to use as it is to look at. I'm a user not a collector.
Testing out some expired Ilford FP4 film.
Nikon F100
50/1.4D
Kodak HC110 1+31
. . . 10. 3. 2007 - this is the fourth 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 buffalo fighting, cock fighting, the killing of the buffalos, the horse and the deer. The photos of the killing might look strange to you, to the torajian they are common. The souls of the killed buffalos are the servants of the deads. The more buffalos are killed the better life for the dead.
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.
_____________________________________
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
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