specific photos on Flickr

Wien, 14. Bezirk, Otto-Wagner-Kirche, am Steinhof (Zum Heiligen Leopold), la chiesa al San Leopoldo III di Babenberg, la iglesia al Leopoldo III di Babenberg (santo), l'église au Léopold III d'Autriche, Church to Leopold III, Margrave of Austria by Alfred Lex

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The Steinhof Church (also: Church of St. Leopold) was built in 1904-1907, designed by Otto Wagner, and is considered one of the most important buildings of the Vienna Art Nouveau. The Roman Catholic church building is located on the grounds of "Social Medical Center Baumgartnerhöhe" in the 14th district of Vienna Penzing.

History

The Church of "St. Leopold", better known as Steinhof church (or Otto Wagner church Steinhof ) arose from the construction of the Lower Austrian State Hospital and Nursing Home for nervous and mental patients at the stone courtyard (Steinhof) 1904 until 1907. The for the planning responsible architect Otto Wagner had to take into account that there is an asylum church for mentally ill patients, and elicited in discussions with doctors and nurses the specific requirements of such a structure. A doctor's room, toilets and emergency exits were planned, the pews have due to injury no sharp corners. Wagner, in which projects the hygienic aspects have always been a big concern, designed instead of an ordinary holy water basin, a variant with dripping holy water to reduce the risk of infections. He designed the ground sloping down to the altar, so that patients could see better in the back rows to the front. There were also separate inputs not only for nurses but also for male and female patients, since at that time in mental hospitals segregation was prescribed. Lack of money, however, both the Cross as well as the Unterkirchen (Lower Churches) for Protestants and Jews were not realized. Also a heater was not installed.

8 October 1907 the church was opened by Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Between the Archduke, who was not very fond of the Art Nouveau style, and Otto Wagner, however, there was already the beginning of creative disagreements, why Wagner was not mentioned in the opening statement, and subsequently by the Imperial Household got no more orders. These resulting from very different views on architecture and aesthetics gap misled the Neue Freie Presse in its issue of opening day to the question: "And it's not a pretty ironic history that pretty much the first sensible large-scale secession building in Vienna has been built for the insanes?".

After about six years of extensive renovation, the church was established and on October 1st 2006 reopened. Among other things, the dome was re-gilded using 2 kg of gold, replaced the drum base with artificially patinated copper sheets and the marble facade completely replaced. Windows, mosaics and figures have been carefully cleaned and restored. The now radiant with the new look and highly visible in the western part of Vienna golden dome, reminiscent of half a lemon, incidentally, owes the Baumgartnerhöhe on which the church stands, it's nickname" Lemoniberg" . The church, in 2007, got three new bells that were made by the Grassmayr bell foundry. The church is only open for worship, as well as on Saturdays and Sundays for a fee. On these days, also guided tours take place.

Architecture

The church of Steinhof is next to the Secession building one of the masterpieces of Art Nouveau in Vienna and has parallels with the design, designed by Otto Wagner student of Max Hegele and 1910 finished of Charles Borromeo Church in Vienna's central cemetery. One of the distinctive features of the church is based on a Byzantine motif golden dome, supported inside by a clad structure. On the bell towers on the west front are enthroned Saint Leopold as the patron of Lower Austria and Vienna and to the east the preacher Severin. The figures were created by Richard Luksch. As well as the orientation of the church to the south rather than east introduced the representation of saints sitting rather than standing a breakthrough

Under the cornice is a decorative strip with crosses and Loorbeerkränzen (laurel wreaths) that are often incorporated in Otto Wagner buildings, such as, for example, in the Postal Savings Bank or the cast iron railings of the metropolitain railway. Above the at that time only for larger celebrations used main entrance stand four angel figurines created by Othmar Schimkowitz with heads bowed to the church square. In a storm the second angel seen from the right the head was torn away and been re-soldered by the janitor, but with its head held high. This situation was remedied during the renovation.

Stained glass window

The physical virtues

The arrangement of the stained glass windows were designed by Otto Wagner, so that the church interior is flooded with natural light as possible. The glass mosaic window in Tiffany Style created by Koloman Moser. The west window with the motto "Verily I say unto you. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these my brethren ye have done it unto me " shows the physical virtues. The angels above the figures of Saints hold humbly the grave cloth of Jesus. The ministrants viewing from bottom to top lower the head.

St. Elizabeth with Roses: Feed the hungry

Saint Rebecca in offering the potion: The Thirsty soak

St. Bernard: The strangers house

St. Martin with the sword to divide the mantle: The naked clothe

Visit the sick: John of God, the founder of the Order of the Brothers of Charity

John of Matha, founder of the Order of the Trinity: The released prisoners

Tobias with a shovel: the dead bury

The intellectual virtues

The east window with the motto " Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy " shows the intellectual virtues. The angel looking up at a dove. The ministrants lift up the head.

John the Baptist: rebuke the sinner

Francis de Sales: instruct the ignorant

Clement Mary Hofbauer advise the doubters right

St. Therese: The afflicted comfort

Suffering injustice with patience: Joseph of Egypt

Stephan: To those who have offended us a pardon

Abraham ask for the living and the dead with God

The four windows in the dome, the four evangelists.

Altarpiece

The altarpiece the promise of heaven should be originally designed by Koloman Moser. Even with the side windows there had been criticism and objections of prelate Heinrich Swoboda, who had been entrusted with the supervision of the Church. However, as Moser married Ditha Mautner Markhof and he converted to Protestantism, he was removed from the job despite intercessions of Otto Wagner. The already operating in parallel at this time of the order Carl Ederer submitted a design that was similar to that of Moser and originated in this form at the urging of Swoboda. Moser Ederer consequently accused of plagiierens (plagiating), whereupon he had left at the urging of the other members of the Secession, of which Moser in 1905 had left, filed suit. The trial ended with a settlement and the apology of Moser expressing liveliest regret" about the " ignorance of the circumstances". At the opening of the church in 1907, thus, only the design of Ederer could be issued on cardboard. In agreement with Moser and Wagner 1910 was a renewed design of Remigius Geyling, but because of "lack of suitability" in 1911 he took off the job. The execution of 84.8 m2 and four-ton mosaic was ultimately performed by Leopold Forstner.

The altarpiece depicts in the middle the blessing Christ and two angels.

Stand at his right

The Virgin Mary

St. Dymphna, patron saint of the mentally ill

St. Aloysius, who took care of plague victims and the dignified burial

St. Margaret, patron saint of women in labor and in all wounds, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

St. Vitus, helpers in mental illness and the patron saint of epilepsy, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

Severin of Noricum, the patron saint of Bavaria, the prisoners, winegrowers and weavers as well as for fertility of the vines

Standing to his left

St. Joseph

St. Elizabeth of Thuringia, a symbol of active charity

Hermann the German, the first prior of a Dominican convent in the German speaking Friesach

St. Christopher, helpers against unsuspecting death, patron saint of travelers, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

St. Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the poor and social work. Helper for headaches and the plague

St. Pantaleon, Patron of doctors and midwives, one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers

On the steps of the Church kneels St. Leopold and he is handing over the Steinhof church. The figures at the side of the altarpiece are representing Paul with sword and Peter with keys. The altar was made according to designs by Otto Wagner. The mosaics of the side altars have been made by Rudolf Jettmar. The right shows the Annunciation left the Archangel Gabriel. The confessionals were manufactured by the Wiener Werkstätte.

Otto Wagner, Kirche Am Steinhof, 1904-07, Church Am Steinhof - Projekt Museum Am Steinhof, Otto-Wagner-Spital (Hospital)

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirche_am_Steinhof

India - Uttar Pradesh - Agra - Taj Mahal - 14 by Manfred Sommer

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The Taj Mahal (/ˌtɑːdʒ məˈhɑːl/, more often /ˈtɑːʒ/; from Persian and Arabic, "crown of palaces", pronounced [ˈt̪aːdʒ mɛˈɦɛl]) is a white marble mausoleum located on the southern bank of Yamuna River in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658) to house the tomb of his favorite wife of three, Mumtaz Mahal.

Construction of the mausoleum was essentially completed in 1643 but work continued on other phases of the project for an additional ten years. The Taj Mahal complex is believed to have been completed in its entirety in 1653 at a cost estimated at the time to be around 32 million Indian rupees, which in 2015 would be valued at around 52.8 billion Indian rupees ($827 million US). The construction project employed around 20,000 artisans under the guidance of a board of architects led by Ustad Ahmad Lahauri. The domed marble tomb is part of an integrated complex consisting of gardens and two red-sandstone buildings surrounded by a crenellated wall on three sides.

The Taj Mahal is regarded by many as the best example of Mughal architecture and is widely recognized as "the jewel of Muslim art in India". It is one of the world’s most celebrated structures and a symbol of India’s rich history. Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983, the Taj Mahal attracts some 3 million visitors a year.

INSPIRATION

In 1631, Shah Jahan, emperor during the Mughal empire's period of greatest prosperity, was grief-stricken when his favorite of three wives and beloved companion, Mumtaz Mahal, a Persian princess, died during the birth of their 14th child, Gauhara Begum. Construction of the Taj Mahal began in 1632. The court chronicles of Shah Jahan's grief illustrate the love story traditionally held as an inspiration for Taj Mahal. The principal mausoleum was completed in 1643 and the surrounding buildings and garden were finished about five years later.

ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN

The Taj Mahal incorporates and expands on design traditions of Persian and earlier Mughal architecture. Specific inspiration came from successful Timurid and Mughal buildings including; the Gur-e Amir (the tomb of Timur, progenitor of the Mughal dynasty, in Samarkand), Humayun's Tomb, Itmad-Ud-Daulah's Tomb (sometimes called the Baby Taj), and Shah Jahan's own Jama Masjid in Delhi. While earlier Mughal buildings were primarily constructed of red sandstone, Shah Jahan promoted the use of white marble inlaid with semi-precious stones. Buildings under his patronage reached new levels of refinement.

TOMB

The tomb is the central focus of the entire complex of the Taj Mahal. It is a large, white marble structure standing on a square plinth and consists of a symmetrical building with an iwan (an arch-shaped doorway) topped by a large dome and finial. Like most Mughal tombs, the basic elements are Persian in origin.

The base structure is a large multi-chambered cube with chamfered corners forming an unequal eight-sided structure that is approximately 55 metres on each of the four long sides. Each side of the iwan is framed with a huge pishtaq or vaulted archway with two similarly shaped arched balconies stacked on either side. This motif of stacked pishtaqs is replicated on the chamfered corner areas, making the design completely symmetrical on all sides of the building. Four minarets frame the tomb, one at each corner of the plinth facing the chamfered corners. The main chamber houses the false sarcophagi of Mumtaz Mahal and Shah Jahan; the actual graves are at a lower level.

The most spectacular feature is the marble dome that surmounts the tomb. The dome is nearly 35 metres high which is close in measurement to the length of the base, and accentuated by the cylindrical "drum" it sits on which is approximately 7 metres high. Because of its shape, the dome is often called an onion dome or amrud (guava dome). The top is decorated with a lotus design which also serves to accentuate its height. The shape of the dome is emphasized by four smaller domed chattris (kiosks) placed at its corners, which replicate the onion shape of the main dome. Their columned bases open through the roof of the tomb and provide light to the interior. Tall decorative spires (guldastas) extend from edges of base walls, and provide visual emphasis to the height of the dome. The lotus motif is repeated on both the chattris and guldastas. The dome and chattris are topped by a gilded finial which mixes traditional Persian and Hindustani decorative elements.

The main finial was originally made of gold but was replaced by a copy made of gilded bronze in the early 19th century. This feature provides a clear example of integration of traditional Persian and Hindu decorative elements. The finial is topped by a moon, a typical Islamic motif whose horns point heavenward.

The minarets, which are each more than 40 metres tall, display the designer's penchant for symmetry. They were designed as working minarets - a traditional element of mosques, used by the muezzin to call the Islamic faithful to prayer. Each minaret is effectively divided into three equal parts by two working balconies that ring the tower. At the top of the tower is a final balcony surmounted by a chattri that mirrors the design of those on the tomb. The chattris all share the same decorative elements of a lotus design topped by a gilded finial. The minarets were constructed slightly outside of the plinth so that in the event of collapse, a typical occurrence with many tall constructions of the period, the material from the towers would tend to fall away from the tomb.

EXTERIOR DECORATIONS

The exterior decorations of the Taj Mahal are among the finest in Mughal architecture. As the surface area changes, the decorations are refined proportionally. The decorative elements were created by applying paint, stucco, stone inlays or carvings. In line with the Islamic prohibition against the use of anthropomorphic forms, the decorative elements can be grouped into either calligraphy, abstract forms or vegetative motifs. Throughout the complex are passages from the Qur'an that comprise some of the decorative elements. Recent scholarship suggests that the passages were chosen by Amanat Khan.

The calligraphy on the Great Gate reads "O Soul, thou art at rest. Return to the Lord at peace with Him, and He at peace with you." The calligraphy was created in 1609 by a calligrapher named Abdul Haq. Shah Jahan conferred the title of "Amanat Khan" upon him as a reward for his "dazzling virtuosity". Near the lines from the Qur'an at the base of the interior dome is the inscription, "Written by the insignificant being, Amanat Khan Shirazi." Much of the calligraphy is composed of florid thuluth script made of jasper or black marble inlaid in white marble panels. Higher panels are written in slightly larger script to reduce the skewing effect when viewed from below. The calligraphy found on the marble cenotaphs in the tomb is particularly detailed and delicate.

Abstract forms are used throughout, especially in the plinth, minarets, gateway, mosque, jawab and, to a lesser extent, on the surfaces of the tomb. The domes and vaults of the sandstone buildings are worked with tracery of incised painting to create elaborate geometric forms. Herringbone inlays define the space between many of the adjoining elements. White inlays are used in sandstone buildings, and dark or black inlays on the white marbles. Mortared areas of the marble buildings have been stained or painted in a contrasting color which creates a complex array of geometric patterns. Floors and walkways use contrasting tiles or blocks in tessellation patterns.

On the lower walls of the tomb are white marble dados sculpted with realistic bas relief depictions of flowers and vines. The marble has been polished to emphasise the exquisite detailing of the carvings. The dado frames and archway spandrels have been decorated with pietra dura inlays of highly stylised, almost geometric vines, flowers and fruits. The inlay stones are of yellow marble, jasper and jade, polished and levelled to the surface of the walls.

INTERIOR DECORATION

The interior chamber of the Taj Mahal reaches far beyond traditional decorative elements. The inlay work is not pietra dura, but a lapidary of precious and semiprecious gemstones. The inner chamber is an octagon with the design allowing for entry from each face, although only the door facing the garden to the south is used. The interior walls are about 25 metres high and are topped by a "false" interior dome decorated with a sun motif. Eight pishtaq arches define the space at ground level and, as with the exterior, each lower pishtaq is crowned by a second pishtaq about midway up the wall. The four central upper arches form balconies or viewing areas, and each balcony's exterior window has an intricate screen or jali cut from marble. In addition to the light from the balcony screens, light enters through roof openings covered by chattris at the corners. The octagonal marble screen or jali bordering the cenotaphs is made from eight marble panels carved through with intricate pierce work. The remaining surfaces are inlaid in delicate detail with semi-precious stones forming twining vines, fruits and flowers. Each chamber wall is highly decorated with dado bas-relief, intricate lapidary inlay and refined calligraphy panels which reflect, in miniature detail, the design elements seen throughout the exterior of the complex.

Muslim tradition forbids elaborate decoration of graves. Hence, the bodies of Mumtaz and Shah Jahan were put in a relatively plain crypt beneath the inner chamber with their faces turned right, towards Mecca. Mumtaz Mahal's cenotaph is placed at the precise centre of the inner chamber on a rectangular marble base of 1.5 by 2.5 metres. Both the base and casket are elaborately inlaid with precious and semiprecious gems. Calligraphic inscriptions on the casket identify and praise Mumtaz. On the lid of the casket is a raised rectangular lozenge meant to suggest a writing tablet. Shah Jahan's cenotaph is beside Mumtaz's to the western side, and is the only visible asymmetric element in the entire complex. His cenotaph is bigger than his wife's, but reflects the same elements: a larger casket on a slightly taller base precisely decorated with lapidary and calligraphy that identifies him. On the lid of the casket is a traditional sculpture of a small pen box.

The pen box and writing tablet are traditional Mughal funerary icons decorating the caskets of men and women respectively. The Ninety Nine Names of God are calligraphic inscriptions on the sides of the actual tomb of Mumtaz Mahal. Other inscriptions inside the crypt include, "O Noble, O Magnificent, O Majestic, O Unique, O Eternal, O Glorious... ". The tomb of Shah Jahan bears a calligraphic inscription that reads; "He travelled from this world to the banquet-hall of Eternity on the night of the twenty-sixth of the month of Rajab, in the year 1076 Hijri."

GARDEN

The complex is set around a large 300-metre square charbagh or Mughal garden. The garden uses raised pathways that divide each of the four quarters of the garden into 16 sunken parterres or flowerbeds. Halfway between the tomb and gateway in the center of the garden is a raised marble water tank with a reflecting pool positioned on a north-south axis to reflect the image of the mausoleum. The raised marble water tank is called al Hawd al-Kawthar in reference to the "Tank of Abundance" promised to Muhammad.

Elsewhere, the garden is laid out with avenues of trees and fountains. The charbagh garden, a design inspired by Persian gardens, was introduced to India by Babur, the first Mughal emperor. It symbolises the four flowing rivers of Jannah (Paradise) and reflects the Paradise garden derived from the Persian paridaeza, meaning 'walled garden'. In mystic Islamic texts of the Mughal period, Paradise is described as an ideal garden of abundance with four rivers flowing from a central spring or mountain, separating the garden into north, west, south and east.

Most Mughal charbaghs are rectangular with a tomb or pavilion in the center. The Taj Mahal garden is unusual in that the main element, the tomb, is located at the end of the garden. With the discovery of Mahtab Bagh or "Moonlight Garden" on the other side of the Yamuna, the interpretation of the Archaeological Survey of India is that the Yamuna river itself was incorporated into the garden's design and was meant to be seen as one of the rivers of Paradise. Similarities in layout and architectural features with the Shalimar Gardens suggests both gardens may have been designed by the same architect, Ali Mardan. Early accounts of the garden describe its profusion of vegetation, including abundant roses, daffodils, and fruit trees. As the Mughal Empire declined, the Taj Mahal and its gardens also declined. By the end of the 19th century, the British Empire controlled more than three-fifths of India, and assumed management of the Taj Mahal. They changed the landscaping to their liking which more closely resembled the formal lawns of London.

OUTLYING BUILDINGS

The Taj Mahal complex is bordered on three sides by crenellated red sandstone walls; the side facing the river is open. Outside the walls are several additional mausoleums, including those of Shah Jahan's other wives, and a larger tomb for Mumtaz's favourite servant.

The main gateway (darwaza) is a monumental structure built primarily of marble, and reminiscent of the Mughal architecture of earlier emperors. Its archways mirror the shape of the tomb's archways, and its pishtaq arches incorporate the calligraphy that decorates the tomb. The vaulted ceilings and walls have elaborate geometric designs like those found in the other sandstone buildings in the complex.

At the far end of the complex are two grand red sandstone buildings that mirror each other, and face the sides of the tomb. The backs of the buildings parallel the western and eastern walls. The western building is a mosque and the other is the jawab (answer), thought to have been constructed for architectural balance although it may have been used as a guesthouse. Distinctions between the two buildings include the jawab's lack of a mihrab (a niche in a mosque's wall facing Mecca), and its floors of geometric design whereas the floor of the mosque is laid with outlines of 569 prayer rugs in black marble. The mosque's basic design of a long hall surmounted by three domes is similar to others built by Shah Jahan, particularly the Masjid-i Jahān-Numā, or Jama Masjid, Delhi. The Mughal mosques of this period divide the sanctuary hall into three areas comprising a main sanctuary and slightly smaller sanctuaries on either side. At the Taj Mahal, each sanctuary opens onto an expansive vaulting dome. The outlying buildings were completed in 1643.

CONSTRUCTION

The Taj Mahal is built on a parcel of land to the south of the walled city of Agra. Shah Jahan presented Maharajah Jai Singh with a large palace in the center of Agra in exchange for the land. An area of roughly three acres was excavated, filled with dirt to reduce seepage, and leveled at 50 metres above riverbank. In the tomb area, wells were dug and filled with stone and rubble to form the footings of the tomb. Instead of lashed bamboo, workmen constructed a colossal brick scaffold that mirrored the tomb. The scaffold was so enormous that foremen estimated it would take years to dismantle.

The Taj Mahal was constructed using materials from all over India and Asia. It is believed over 1,000 elephants were used to transport building materials. The translucent white marble was brought from Makrana, Rajasthan, the jasper from Punjab, jade and crystal from China. The turquoise was from Tibet and the Lapis lazuli from Afghanistan, while the sapphire came from Sri Lanka and the carnelian from Arabia. In all, twenty eight types of precious and semi-precious stones were inlaid into the white marble.

According to the legend, Shah Jahan decreed that anyone could keep the bricks taken from the scaffold, and thus it was dismantled by peasants overnight. A fifteen kilometer tamped-earth ramp was built to transport marble and materials to the construction site and teams of twenty or thirty oxen pulled the blocks on specially constructed wagons. An elaborate post-and-beam pulley system was used to raise the blocks into desired position. Water was drawn from the river by a series of purs, an animal-powered rope and bucket mechanism, into a large storage tank and raised to a large distribution tank. It was passed into three subsidiary tanks, from which it was piped to the complex.

The plinth and tomb took roughly 12 years to complete. The remaining parts of the complex took an additional 10 years and were completed in order of minarets, mosque and jawab, and gateway. Since the complex was built in stages, discrepancies exist in completion dates due to differing opinions on "completion". Construction of the mausoleum itself was essentially completed by 1643 while work continued on the outlying buildings. Estimates of the cost of construction vary due to difficulties in estimating costs across time. The total cost has been estimated to be about 32 million Indian rupees, which is around 52.8 billion Indian rupees ($827 million US) based on 2015 values.

LATER DAYS

Abdul Hamid Lahauri in his book Badshahnama refers to Taj Mahal as rauza-i munawwara, meaning the illumined or illustrious tomb. Soon after the Taj Mahal's completion, Shah Jahan was deposed by his son Aurangzeb and put under house arrest at nearby Agra Fort. Upon Shah Jahan's death, Aurangzeb buried him in the mausoleum next to his wife. In the 18th century, the Jat rulers of Bharatpur invaded Agra and attacked the Taj Mahal, the two chandeliers, one of agate and another of silver, which were hung over the main cenotaph, were taken away by them, along with the gold and silver screen. Kanbo, a Mughal historian, said the gold shield which covered the 15-foot high finial at the top of the main dome was also removed during the Jat despoliation.

By the late 19th century, parts of the buildings had fallen into disrepair. During the time of the Indian rebellion of 1857, the Taj Mahal was defaced by British soldiers and government officials, who chiselled out precious stones and lapis lazuli from its walls. At the end of the 19th century, British viceroy Lord Curzon ordered a sweeping restoration project, which was completed in 1908. He also commissioned the large lamp in the interior chamber, modelled after one in a Cairo mosque. During this time the garden was remodelled with British-style lawns that are still in place today.

THREATS

In 1942, the government erected a scaffolding to disguise the building in anticipation of air attacks by the Japanese Air Force. During the India-Pakistan wars of 1965 and 1971, scaffoldings were again erected to mislead bomber pilots.

More recent threats have come from environmental pollution on the banks of Yamuna River including acid rain due to the Mathura Oil Refinery, which was opposed by Supreme Court of India directives. The pollution has been turning the Taj Mahal yellow. To help control the pollution, the Indian government has set up the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), a 10,400-square-kilometre area around the monument where strict emissions standards are in place.

Concerns for the tomb's structural integrity have recently been raised because of a decline in the groundwater level in the Yamuna river basin which is falling at a rate of around 5 feet a year. In 2010, cracks appeared in parts of the tomb, and the minarets which surround the monument were showing signs of tilting, as the wooden foundation of the tomb may be rotting due to lack of water. In 2011 it was reported that some predictions indicated that the tomb could collapse within 5 years.

TOURISM

The Taj Mahal attracts a large number of tourists. UNESCO documented more than 2 million visitors in 2001, which increased to about 3 million in 2015. A two tier pricing system is in place, with a significantly lower entrance fee for Indian citizens and a more expensive one for foreigners. Most tourists visit in the cooler months of October, November and February. Polluting traffic is not allowed near the complex and tourists must either walk from parking lots or catch an electric bus. The Khawasspuras (northern courtyards) are currently being restored for use as a new visitor center.

The small town to the south of the Taj, known as Taj Ganji or Mumtazabad, was originally constructed with caravanserais, bazaars and markets to serve the needs of visitors and workmen. Lists of recommended travel destinations often feature the Taj Mahal, which also appears in several listings of seven wonders of the modern world, including the recently announced New Seven Wonders of the World, a recent poll with 100 million votes.

The grounds are open from 06:00 to 19:00 weekdays, except for Friday when the complex is open for prayers at the mosque between 12:00 and 14:00. The complex is open for night viewing on the day of the full moon and two days before and after, excluding Fridays and the month of Ramadan. For security reasons only five items - water in transparent bottles, small video cameras, still cameras, mobile phones and small ladies' purses - are allowed inside the Taj Mahal.

MYTHS

Ever since its construction, the building has been the source of an admiration transcending culture and geography, and so personal and emotional responses have consistently eclipsed scholastic appraisals of the monument. A longstanding myth holds that Shah Jahan planned a mausoleum to be built in black marble as a Black Taj Mahal across the Yamuna river. The idea originates from fanciful writings of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a European traveller who visited Agra in 1665. It was suggested that Shah Jahan was overthrown by his son Aurangzeb before it could be built. Ruins of blackened marble across the river in Moonlight Garden, Mahtab Bagh, seemed to support this legend. However, excavations carried out in the 1990s found that they were discolored white stones that had turned black. A more credible theory for the origins of the black mausoleum was demonstrated in 2006 by archaeologists who reconstructed part of the pool in the Moonlight Garden. A dark reflection of the white mausoleum could clearly be seen, befitting Shah Jahan's obsession with symmetry and the positioning of the pool itself.

No evidence exists for claims that describe, often in horrific detail, the deaths, dismemberments and mutilations which Shah Jahan supposedly inflicted on various architects and craftsmen associated with the tomb. Some stories claim that those involved in construction signed contracts committing themselves to have no part in any similar design. Similar claims are made for many famous buildings. No evidence exists for claims that Lord William Bentinck, governor-general of India in the 1830s, supposedly planned to demolish the Taj Mahal and auction off the marble. Bentinck's biographer John Rosselli says that the story arose from Bentinck's fund-raising sale of discarded marble from Agra Fort.

Another myth suggests that beating the silhouette of the finial will cause water to come forth. To this day, officials find broken bangles surrounding the silhouette.

In 2000, India's Supreme Court dismissed P. N. Oak's petition to declare that a Hindu king built the Taj Mahal. In 2005 a similar petition was dismissed by the Allahabad High Court. This case was brought by Amar Nath Mishra, a social worker and preacher who says that the Taj Mahal was built by the Hindu King Parmar Dev in 1196.

WIKIPEDIA

Jamin Platter by SweetSugarBelle

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The were for a baby shower. The customer was very specific about what she wanted included, so there was not a whole lot of leeway for creative ideas. I tried though, I elaborated on the blue and brown theme by including, light AND navy blue. I am also officially in need of a sanding sugar support group. I was not planning on using sanding sugar on these, I promise, but I am so used to it, they looked a little boring when I was done...so there I went again, LOL!

Intech Winchester by Adrian Pink

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INTECH Science Centre & Planetarium is an interactive centre administered by the educational charity, The Hampshire Technology Centre Trust Ltd, with the specific purpose of promoting the knowledge and understanding of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). The Trust was founded in 1985 by like-minded people in business, industry and higher education in response to the local shortage of scientists, engineers and technicians. From humble beginnings INTECH has grown into an important regional hub for informal science learning and a popular visitor attraction for schools and the general public.

INTECH is largely self-funded with more than 97% of its running costs being internally generated.

In 2002 INTECH was re-housed into this new 3,500 square metre purpose-built, award winning building at Morn Hill, near Winchester. The multi-million pound project was funded partly through the Millennium Commission, NTL, IBM, the DfES and DTI, SEEDA and HCC.

The exhibition inside consists of 100 hands-on exhibits, which communicate the fundamental principles of science and technology and their applications in industry and the home in a fun and interactive way. INTECH acts as an inspirational school visit destination and a unique and fun public visitor attraction.

Almost all of the exhibits are designed and built in-house utilising many years of experience to ensure that they are fun, educational and robust; the Workshop team also build exhibits for other science centres, museums and attractions.

The dome on the right is a planitarium which in 2008, with the support of the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), converted the auditorium into the largest capacity planetarium in the UK employing state of the art digital projection equipment and software. The planetarium programme comprises a full range of presenter-led and pre-recorded shows for schools and the general public.

As well as thhis all-weather centre INTECH offers a variety of flexible facilities for corporate meetings, conferences, launches and hospitality. The air conditioned planetarium provides a setting for business presentations with its 176 tiered seats, state of the art lighting and 7.1 surround sound.

Planetarium technology has advanced beyond recognition in recent years. It's not just stars; now full-screen video can be shown using a digital projection system. The cinema-grade surround sound system adds to the feeling of total immersion.

INTECH’s system, designed and installed by Global Immersion, relies on a bank of seven computers running six projectors arranged around the audience (hidden behind holes). There is no central projector to disrupt the view. Each projector creates one part of the image. The projections fade out at the edges to blend into the neighbouring sections to give a 'seamless' appearance. The projectors are reguarly calibrated to ensure brightness/contrast/colour matching across the entire dome.

In addition to playing pre-rendered shows, UniViewTM software by SCISS allows presenters to fly visitors through a virtual universe based on actual scientific data. Each star and galaxy is accurately plotted and planets are 'wrapped' in real images from spacecraft wherever possible. Nothing is pre-recorded, everything is rendered in real-time, making each show unique.

The presenter can set time and date to show objects in the correct locations/orientations for the time of the show and then pilot a seamless flight from Earth around the solar system and out to the edge of the visible universe, bringing in labels or markers as required, or speeding up or slowing down time to demonstrate the movement of objects.

Intech is inside the South Downs National Park which is England's newest National Park, having become fully operational on 1 April 2011. The park, covering an area of 1,627 square kilometres (628 sq mi) in southern England, stretches for 140 kilometres (87 mi) from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east through the counties of Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex. The national park covers not only the chalk ridge of the South Downs, with its celebrated chalk downland landscape that culminates in the iconic chalky white cliffs of Beachy Head, but also a substantial part of a separate physiographic region, the western Weald, with its heavily wooded sandstone and clay hills and vales. The South Downs Way spans the entire length of the park and is the only National Trail that lies wholly within a national park.

The sky here has been tinted for effect.

www.intech-uk.com/folders/visitor_info/index.cfm

These two women propose very specific responses to the overturning of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court. by Chris Goodwin

3

These two women propose very specific responses to the overturning of Roe v Wade by the Supreme Court.

very specific #sign by Buz Murdock Geotag

9

"Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels" by HIROKO TABUCHI via NYT https://t.co/prAVgzZkvo by Felipe Massone

"Sweeping Away Gender-Specific Toys and Labels" by HIROKO TABUCHI via NYT t.co/prAVgzZkvo (via Twitter twitter.com/felipemassone/status/659046658248998912)

Strange exhibition with hitler and nazi in Athens blue helmet sceptical documenta-kassel-athens-athen-d14-documenta14-thierry-geoffroy-colonel-sabsay-ultracontemporary-art-artist_33519665100_o by Thierry Geoffroy / Colonel : Artist

1

Collaboration beetween Biennalist and Ultracontemporay

Art Format

www.emergencyrooms.org/formats.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thierry_Geoffroy

Documenta From Wikipedia,

The Fridericianum during documenta (13)

documenta is an exhibition of contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau (Federal Horticultural Show) which took place in Kassel at that time.[1] It was an attempt to bring Germany up to speed with modern art, both banishing and repressing the cultural darkness of Nazism.[2] This first documenta featured many artists who are generally considered to have had a significant influence on modern art (such as Picasso and Kandinsky). The more recent documentas feature art from all continents; nonetheless most of it is site-specific.

Every documenta is limited to 100 days of exhibition, which is why it is often referred to as the "museum of 100 days".[3] Documenta is not a selling exhibition. It rarely coincides with the three other major art world events: the Venice Biennale, Art Basel and Skulptur Projekte Münster, but in 2017, all four were open simultaneously.

Etymology of documenta

The name of the exhibition is an invented word. The term is supposed to demonstrate the intention of every exhibition (in particular of the first documenta in 1955) to be a documentation of modern art which was not available for the German public during the Nazi era. Rumour spread from those close to Arnold Bode that it was relevant for the coinage of the term that the Latin word documentum could be separated into docere (Latin for teach) and mens (Latin for intellect) and therefore thought it to be a good word to describe the intention and the demand of the documenta.[4]

Each edition of documenta has commissioned its own visual identity, most of which have conformed to the typographic style of solely using lowercase letters, which originated at the Bauhaus.[5]

History

Stadtverwaldung by Joseph Beuys, oaktree in front of the museum Fridericianum, documenta 7

Art professor and designer Arnold Bode from Kassel was the initiator of the first documenta. Originally planned as a secondary event to accompany the Bundesgartenschau, this attracted more than 130,000 visitors in 1955. The exhibition centred less on "contemporary art“, that is art made after 1945: instead, Bode wanted to show the public works which had been known as "Entartete Kunst" in Germany during the Nazi era: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Blauer Reiter, Futurism and Pittura Metafisica. Therefore, abstract art, in particular the abstract paintings of the 1920s and 1930s, was the focus of interest in this exhibition.

Over time, the focus shifted to contemporary art. At first, the show was limited to works from Europe, but soon covered works by artists from the Americas, Africa and Asia. 4. documenta, the first ever to turn a profit, featured a selection of Pop Art, Minimal Art, and Kinetic Art.[6] Adopting the theme of Questioning Reality – Pictorial Worlds Today, the 1972 documenta radically redefined what could be considered art by featuring minimal and conceptual art, marking a turning point in the public acceptance of those styles.[7] Also, it devoted a large section to the work of Adolf Wolfli, the great Swiss outsider, then unknown. Joseph Beuys performed repeatedly under the auspices of his utopian Organization for Direct Democracy.[8] Additionally, the 1987 documenta show signaled another important shift with the elevation of design to the realm of art – showing an openness to postmodern design.[9] Certain key political dates for wide-reaching social and cultural upheavals, such as 1945, 1968 or 1976/77, became chronological markers of documenta X (1997), along which art's political, social, cultural and aesthetic exploratory functions were traced.[10] Documenta11 was organized around themes like migration, urbanization and the post-colonial experience,[11] with documentary photography, film and video as well as works from far-flung locales holding the spotlight.[7] In 2012, documenta (13) was described as "[a]rdently feminist, global and multimedia in approach and including works by dead artists and selected bits of ancient art".[12]

Criticism

documenta typically gives its artists at least two years to conceive and produce their projects, so the works are often elaborate and intellectually complex.[13] However, the participants are often not publicised before the very opening of the exhibition. At documenta (13), the official list of artists was not released until the day the show opened.[14] Even though curators have often claimed to have gone outside the art market in their selection, participants have always included established artists. In the documenta (13), for example, art critic Jerry Saltz identified more than a third of the artists represented by the renowned Marian Goodman Gallery in the show.[14]

Directors

The first four documentas, organized by Arnold Bode, established the exhibition's international credentials. Since the fifth documenta (1972), a new artistic director has been named for each documenta exhibition by a committee of experts. Documenta 8 was put together in two years instead of the usual five. The original directors, Edy de Wilde and Harald Szeemann, were unable to get along and stepped down. They were replaced by Manfred Schneckenburger, Edward F. Fry, Wulf Herzogenrath, Armin Zweite, and Vittorio Fagone.[15] Coosje van Bruggen helped select artists for documenta 7, the 1982 edition. documenta IX's team of curators consisted of Jan Hoet, Piero Luigi Tazzi, Denys Zacharopoulos, and Bart de Baere.[16] For documenta X Catherine David was chosen as the first woman and the first non-German speaker to hold the post. It is also the first and unique time that its website Documenta x was conceived by a curator (swiss curator Simon Lamunière) as a part of the exhibition. The first non-European director was Okwui Enwezor for Documenta11.[17]

TitleDateDirectorExhibitorsExhibitsVisitors

documenta16 July – 18 September 1955Arnold Bode148670130,000

II. documenta11 July – 11 October 1959Arnold Bode, Werner Haftmann3381770134,000

documenta III27 June – 5 October 1964Arnold Bode, Werner Haftmann3611450200,000

4. documenta27 June – 6 October 196824-strong documenta council1511000220,000

documenta 530 June – 8 October 1972Harald Szeemann218820228,621

documenta 624 June – 2 October 1977Manfred Schneckenburger6222700343,410

documenta 719 June – 28 September 1982Rudi Fuchs1821000378,691

documenta 812 June – 20 September 1987Manfred Schneckenburger150600474,417

documenta IX12 June – 20 September 1992Jan Hoet1891000603,456

documenta X21 June – 28 September 1997Catherine David120700628,776

documenta118 June – 15 September 2002Okwui Enwezor118450650,924

documenta 1216 June – 23 September 2007Roger M. Buergel/Ruth Noack[19]114over 500754,301

documenta (13)9 June – 16 September 2012Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev187[20]904,992[21]

documenta 148 April – 16 July 2017 in Athens, Greece;

10 June – 17 September 2017 in KasselAdam Szymczykmore than 1601500339.000 in Athens

891.500 in Kassel

documenta fifteen18 June 2022 – 25 September 2022 in Kasselruangrupa[22]

2012's edition was organized around a central node, the trans-Atlantic melding of two distinct individuals who first encountered each other in the "money-soaked deserts of the United Arab Emirates". As an organizing principle it is simultaneously a commentary on the romantic potentials of globalization and also a critique of how digital platforms can complicate or interrogate the nature of such relationships. Curatorial agents refer to the concept as possessing a "fricative potential for productive awkwardness," wherein a twosome is formed for the purposes of future exploration.[23]

Venues

documenta is held in different venues in Kassel. Since 1955, the fixed venue has been the Fridericianum. The documenta-Halle was built in 1992 for documenta IX and now houses some of the exhibitions. Other venues used for documenta have included the Karlsaue park, Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, the Neue Galerie, the Ottoneum, and the Kulturzentrum Schlachthof. Though Okwui Enezor notably tried to subvert the euro-centric approach documenta had taken, he instigated a series of five platforms before the Documenta11 in Vienna, Berlin, New Delhi, St Lucia, and Lagos, in an attempt to take documenta into a new post-colonial, borderless space, from which experimental cultures could emerge. documenta 12 occupied five locations, including the Fridericianum, the Wilhelmshöhe castle park and the specially constructed "Aue-Pavillon", or meadow pavilion, designed by French firm Lacaton et Vassal.[24] At documenta (13) (2012), about a fifth of the works were unveiled in places like Kabul, Afghanistan, and Banff, Canada.[13]

There are also a number of works that are usually presented outside, most notably in Friedrichsplatz, in front of the Fridericianum, and the Karlsaue park. To handle the number of artworks at documenta IX, five connected temporary "trailers" in glass and corrugated metal were built in the Karlsaue.[25] For documenta (13), French architects Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal constructed the temporary "Aue-Pavillon" in the park.

Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus Rucker und Co.

A few of the works exhibited at various documentas remained as purchases in Kassel museums. They include 7000 Eichen by Joseph Beuys; Rahmenbau (1977) by Haus-Rucker-Co; Laserscape Kassel (1977) by Horst H. Baumann; Traumschiff Tante Olga (1977) by Anatol Herzfeld; Vertikaler Erdkilometer by Walter De Maria; Spitzhacke (1982) by Claes Oldenburg; Man walking to the sky (1992) by Jonathan Borofsky; and Fremde by Thomas Schütte (one part of the sculptures are installed on Rotes Palais at Friedrichsplatz, the other on the roof of the Concert Hall in Lübeck).

documenta archive

The extensive volume of material that is regularly generated on the occasion of this exhibition prompted Arnold Bode to create an archive in 1961. The heart of the archive’s collection comes from the files and materials of the documenta organization. A continually expanding video and image archive is also part of the collection as are the independently organized bequests of Arnold Bode and artist Harry Kramer.

Management

Visitors

In 1992, on the occasion of documenta IX, for the first time in the history of the documenta, more than half a million people traveled to Kassel.[26] The 2002 edition of documenta attracted 650,000 visitors, more than triple Kassel's population.[27] In 2007, documenta 12 drew 754,000 paying visitors, with more than one-third of the visitors coming from abroad and guests from neighboring Netherlands, France, Belgium and Austria among the most numerous.[28] In 2012, documenta (13) had 904,992 visitors.[21]

References

Adrian Searle (June 11, 2012), "Documenta 13: Mysteries in the mountain of mud", The Guardian.

Roberta Smith (June 14, 2012), Art Show as Unruly Organism The New York Times.

Arnold Bode coined this phrase for the first time in the prologue of the first volume of the catalogue: documenta III. Internationale Ausstellung; Catalogue: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Sketches; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Print; Kassel/Köln 1964; p. XIX

Kimpel, Harald: documenta, Mythos und Wirklichkeit. Köln 1997, ISBN 3-7701-4182-2

Alice Rawsthorn (June 3, 2012), A Symbol Is Born The New York Times.

The documenta IV Exhibition in Kassel (1968) German History in Documents and Images (GHDI).

Helen Chang (June 22, 2007), "Catching the Next Wave In Art at Documenta", The Wall Street Journal.

Roberta Smith (September 7, 2007), "Documenta 5" The New York Times.

Gimeno-Martinez, Javier; Verlinden, Jasmijn (2010). "From Museum of Decorative Arts to Design Museum: The Case of the Design museum Gent". Design and Culture. 2 (3).

dX 1997 Archived 2013-06-14 at the Wayback Machine, documenta XII.

Stephan Valentin (June 12, 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale The New York Times.

Roberta Smith (June 14, 2012), Art Show as Unruly Organism The New York Times.

Kelly Crow (June 8, 2012), A Party, Every Five Years, for 750,000 Guests The Wall Street Journal.

Jerry Saltz (June 15, 2012), Jerry Saltz: "Eleven Things That Struck, Irked, or Awed Me at Documenta 13" New York Magazine.

Michael Brenson (June 15, 1987), "Documenta 8, Exhibition In West Germany", The New York Times.

Michael Kimmelman (July 5, 1992) "At Documenta, It's Survival Of the Loudest", The New York Times.

Jackie Wullschlager (May 19, 2012) Vertiginous doubt Financial Times.

Julia Halperin, Gareth Harris (July 18, 2014) How much are curators really paid? Archived July 20, 2014, at the Wayback Machine The Art Newspaper.

Holland Cotter (22 June 2007). "Asking Serious Questions in a Very Quiet Voice". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-08-29.

Ulrike Knöfel (8 June 2012). "What the 13th Documenta Wants You to See". Der Spiegel.

"904,992 people visit documenta (13) in Kassel". documenta und Museum Fridericianum Veranstaltungs-GmbH. 16 September 2012. Archived from the original on 25 February 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2013.

Russeth, Andrew (2019-02-22). "Ruangrupa Artist Collective Picked to Curate Documenta 15". ARTnews.com. Retrieved 2020-01-05.

"In Germany, Disguising Documentary As Art". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2015-09-28.

Stephan Valentin (June 12, 2007), An art show in Kassel, Germany, rivals Venice Biennale International Herald Tribune.

Roberta Smith (June 22, 1992), A Small Show Within an Enormous One The New York Times.

d9 1992 Archived 2014-02-22 at the Wayback Machine, documenta XII.

Adrian Searle (June 19, 2007), 100 days of ineptitude The Guardian.

Catherine Hickley (September 24, 2007), "Documenta Contemporary Art Show Draws Record 754,000 to Kassel", Bloomberg.

Carly Berwick (May 17, 2007), "Documenta 'Mystery' Artists Are Revealed; Buzz Strategy Fizzles", Bloomberg.

Rachel Donado (April 5, 2017), German Art Exhibition Documenta Expands Into Athens, The New York Times.

Catherine Hickley (November 27, 2017), Documenta manager to leave post after budget overruns The Art Newspaper.

See also Van Bart, M. & Van Rensburg A.

________________________________

Wording on Minaret:

IN MEMORY OF

SHEIKH YUSUF

MARTYR & HERO

OF BANTAM

1629 - 1699

THIS MINARET

WAS ERECTED BY

HAJEE SULLAIMAN

SHAHMAHOMED

IN THE REIGN OF

KING GEORGE V

MAY 1925

_____________________

THIS MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED

19TH DECEMBER 1925 BY

SIR FREDERIC DE WAAL

KCMG:LLD:FIRST ADMINISTRATOR

OF THE CAPE PROVINCE

IN THE YEAR WHEN THIS

DISTRICT WAS VISITED BY

HIS ROYAL HIGNESS

THE PRINCE OF WALES

4TH MAY 1925

_____________________

THE "DARGAN" OF ASHBAT

[COMPANIONS] OF SAINT SHEIKH YUSSUF

[GALERAN TUANSE] OF MACASSAR.

_____

HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF FOUR OF FORTY-NINE

FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS WHO AFTER SERVING

IN THE BANTAM WAR OF 1682-83, ARRIVED WITH

SHEIKH YUSSUF AT THE CAPE FROM CEYLON,

IN THE SHIP "VOETBOOG" IN THE YEAR 1694.

_____

THIS COMMEMORATION TABLET WAS ERECTED

DURING THE GREAT WAR ON 8 JANUARY 1918.

BY HAJEE SULLAIMAN SHAHMAHOMED.

SENIOR TRUSTEE.

Wording on plaque:

PRESIDENT SOEHARTO

OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

VISITED THIS SHRINE ON 21 NOVEMBER 1997

TO PAY RESPECT TO THE LATE SHEIKH YUSSUF OF

MACASSAR UPON WHOM THE TITLE OF NATIONAL

HERO WAS CONFERRED BY THE INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT

ON 7 AUGUST 1995

Writings about this Kramat of Sheikh Yusuf

Davids, Achmat. 1980. The Mosques of Bo-Kaap - A social history of Islam at the Cape. Athlone, Cape: The South African Institute of Arabic and Islamic Research. pp 37-40.

_______________________________________________

De Bosdari, C. 1971. Cape Dutch Houses and Farms. Cape Town: AA Balkema. pp 73.

_______________________________________________

De Kock, WJ. 1976. Suid-Afrikaanse biografiese woordeboek : Deel 1. Kaapstad: RGN/Tafelberg. pp 429-430.

_______________________________________________

Du Plessis, Izak David. 1944. The Cape Malays. Cape Town: Maskew Miller. pp 4-7.

_______________________________________________

Jaffer, M. 2001. Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape. Cape Town: Cape Mazaar (Kramat) Society. pp 17-19.

_______________________________________________

Jaffer, Mansoor. 1996. Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape. Cape Town: Cape Mazaar Kramat Society. pp 17.

_______________________________________________

Le Roux, SW. 1992. Vormgewende invloede op die ontwikkeling van moskee-argitektuur binne die Heilige Sirkel aan die Kaap tot 1950 . Pretoria: PhD-verhandeling: Universiteit van Pretoria. pp 201-202.

_______________________________________________

Oxley, John. 1992. Places of Worship in South Africa. Halfway House: Southern Book Publishers. pp 63-64.

_______________________________________________

Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1975. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 11 Tur-Zwe. Cape Town: Nasou. pp 567.

_______________________________________________

Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1972. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 6 Hun-Lit. Cape Town: Nasou. pp 454-455.

_______________________________________________

Rhoda, E. 2010. Hajee Sullaiman Shahmahomed and the shrine of Shayk Yusuf of Macassar at Faure. : Unpublished manuscript.

_______________________________________________

Van Selms, A. Joesoef, Sjeik: in De Kock, WJ. 1976. Suid-Afrikaanse biografiese woordeboek : Deel 1: pp 429-430

________________________________________

Shaykh Yusuf was born at Macassar in 1626. He was also known as Abadin Tadia Tjoessoep. He was of noble birth, a maternal nephew of King Biset of Goa. He studied in Arabia under the tutelage of several pious teachers.

When Shaykh Yusuf arrives at the Cape, on the Voetboeg, he was royally welcomed by Governor Simon van de Stel. His Indonesian background necessitated that he and his 49 followers be settled well away from Cape Town. They were housed on the farm Zandvliet, near the mouth of the Eeste River, in the general area now called Macassar. He received an allowance of 12rix dollars from the Cape authorities for support of himself and his party. At Zandvliet Shaykh Yusuf’s settlement soon became a sanctuary for fugitive slaves. It was here that the first cohesive Muslim community in S.A. was established. The first settlement of Muslims in South Africa was a vibrant one, despite its isolation. It was from here that the message of Islam was disseminated to the slave community living in Cape Town. When Shaykh Yusuf died on 23 May 1699, he was buried on the hill overlooking Macassar at Faure. A shrine was constructed over his grave. Over the years this shrine has been rebuilt and renewed. Today it remains a place of pilgrimage.

The Boxer Rebellion ...The Company Railway PLM (Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée), followed by municipalities and specific, undertook to promote the region through editing called "travel" posters. by Hughes Songe

1

Thanks to clever marketing campaigns, this vocation developed in the late nineteenth century. The Company Railway PLM (Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée), followed by municipalities and specific, undertook to promote the region through editing called "travel" posters. These were invented by Romanian Frederick Alési Hugo (1849-1906) who lived in Marseille before "mount" in Paris, where he engaged in lithographic printing from 1886 and is developing a technique it reserves the exclusive and that mimics watercolor. Very colorful, these posters show all aspects of the tourist Provence enchanting scenery, famous landmarks, quaint customs. By the 1890s, PLM takes 5,000 copies of the posters in the stations. Alongside non-native to the area artists, designers like Leo Lele Provence (1872-1947) and David Dellepiane (1866-1932) compete imagination to fulfill these orders. Like PLM, other agencies such as the National Shipping Company, founded in 1879 by Marc Fraissinet, publish beautiful posters published by Moullot eldest son in Marseille.Since its foundation, Societe Generale is a tool of modernization of the economy, turned to animation in the financial market and open to technological progress. It is in this capacity that the ambition to be the appointed partner of major projects in the industry. Railway construction is a priority for funding. To this surprising. The contractor Paulin Talabot, one of its founders, has built its reputation by working to develop the network of railways in France, notably through the exploitation of the "Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean" (PLM) - Online ancestor of the train - which has so stimulated the French economy. It was on his initiative that Société Générale, which he is a director (1865-1885), takes the lead in "shipping fever" caused by the industrial revolution.Societe Generale is interested in several Chinese lines and especially to that of Yun-Nan, whose construction allows France to extend its influence in northern Tonkin. In 1899, she participated in the issuance of bonds of Beijing-Hankou, for a railway 1 000 kilometers constructed by the Belgians and the French from 1898 Finally, in 1913, through the Russo-Asiatic Bank she designs projects for rail investment in the Shan-Hsi (Beijing-Setchuen) and Manchuria. Dynamism displayed around the world that prefigured the emergence of a large global banking group ...

Dès sa fondation, Société Générale se veut un outil de la modernisation de l’économie, tourné vers l’animation du marché financier et ouvert aux progrès technologiques. C’est à ce titre qu’elle nourrit l’ambition d’être la partenaire attitrée des grands chantiers de l’industrie. La construction ferroviaire est l’une de ses priorités en matière de financement. À cela, rien de surprenant. L’entrepreneur Paulin Talabot, l’un de ses fondateurs, a assis sa renommée en œuvrant au développement du réseau de chemins de fer en France, notamment à travers l’exploitation de la ligne « Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée » (PLM) – ancêtre de la SNCF – qui a tant stimulé l’économie française. C’est à son initiative que Société Générale, dont il est administrateur (1865-1885), occupe les devants dans la « fièvre des transports » engendrée par la révolution industrielle. À l’échelle nationale, la banque favorise l’extension du réseau ferroviaire de différentes manières. Suivant les cas de figure, elle épaule le lancement de firmes industrielles, par des prises de participations et l’octroi de crédits, ou consent à des emprunts communaux remboursables sur fonds d’État. Au tournant du siècle, elle s’impose, loin devant ses concurrentes, comme la banque de référence dans ce champ d’activité. Le réseau PLM, qui a incité à la circulation des biens et des hommes, lui doit en partie son prolongement, son équipement et son entretien. Cet effort, d’ailleurs, ne se limite pas à assurer la liaison entre la capitale et la Méditerranée à travers l’axe rhodanien. Fidèle à sa raison sociale, Société Générale accompagne la construction de lignes secondaires (Pyrénées, Midi, Médoc, Dauphiné, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, etc.) à l’heure où le plan Freycinet, lancé en 1878, entreprend de désenclaver le territoire national par une série de travaux publics. Devenue l’un des plus grands actionnaires de la Société des chemins de fer économiques, elle prend également une part active dans la construction de routes, de canaux, tramways et chantiers navals. Dès 1883, forte de son expertise, elle s’annonce comme partie prenante lorsque les négociations entre l’État et la Ville de Paris s’intensifient au sujet du projet de métropolitain parisien. Des travaux ambitieux, gages de modernité pour l’époque, auxquels elle s’associera au moment de leur mise en œuvre à la fin des années 1890.La Russie et l’Extrême-Orient ne sont pas négligés, loin s’en faut. Dans l’empire tsariste, Société Générale cherche à investir et à soutenir le développement métallurgique et ferroviaire qu’appellent de leurs vœux Alexandre III et son successeur Nicolas II pour lancer leur pays sur la voie de la modernité. La banque est très présente dans ces opérations qui animent la place parisienne. Elle place en France des titres émis par les sociétés ferroviaires, tandis que sa filiale, la Banque du Nord (1901), devenue la Banque russo-asiatique après sa fusion avec la Banque russo-chinoise en 1910, effectue des avances aux entrepreneurs de travaux. En 1908, elle co-conduit avec Paribas lorsque se monte la compagnie ferroviaire Nord-Donetz. Quelques années plus tard, elle apporte son concours à la construction d’un tronçon du transsibérien. Au-delà, Société Générale s’intéresse à plusieurs lignes chinoises et plus spécialement à celle du Yun-Nan, dont la construction permet à la France d’étendre son influence au nord du Tonkin. En 1899, elle participe à l’émission des obligations du Pékin-Hankéou, pour une voie ferrée de 1 000 kilomètres construite par les Belges et les Français à partir de 1898. Enfin, en 1913, par le biais de la Banque russo-asiatique, elle conçoit des projets d’investissements ferroviaires dans le Shan-Hsi (Pékin-Setchuen) et en Mandchourie. Un dynamisme affiché aux quatre coins du monde qui préfigure déjà l’éclosion d’un grand groupe bancaire mondial…A l’origine du PLM. Le littoral provençal était jadis peu sûr et isolé. Au XIXe siècle, la prise d'Alger (1830) et la colonisation du Maghreb mettent un terme aux raids des pirates barbaresques sur les bords de la Méditerranée, tandis que l'ouverture des lignes du chemin de fer sous la Monarchie de Juillet relie les rives de la Provence orientale à Paris. De riches étrangers prennent l'habitude de venir passer la mauvaise saison sur la "French Riviera", pour laquelle le publiciste Stephen Liégeard (1830-1925) invente le nom de "Côte d'Azur" en 1887 pour qualifier le littoral de Hyères à Gênes (Cf. son ouvrage "La Côte d'Azur" publié à Paris aux éditions Quantin en 1888). Grâce à d'habiles campagnes de promotion, cette vocation se développe dès la fin du XIXe siècle. La Compagnie du Chemin de fer PLM (Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée), suivie par les communes et certains particuliers, entreprend de faire connaître la région grâce à l'édition d'affiches dites "de voyages". Ces dernières ont été inventées par le Roumain Frédéric Hugo d'Alési (1849-1906) qui vécu à Marseille avant de "monter" à Paris où il se lança dans l'impression lithographique à partir de 1886. Il met au point une technique dont il se réserve l'exclusivité et qui imite l'aquarelle. Très colorées, ces affiches révèlent tous les aspects de la Provence touristique : paysages enchanteurs, monuments prestigieux, coutumes pittoresques. Dès les années 1890, le PLM tire à 5.000 exemplaires des affiches placardées dans les gares. Aux côtés des artistes non originaires de la région, les créateurs provençaux comme Léo Lelée (1872-1947) ou encore David Dellepiane (1866-1932) rivalisent d'imagination pour satisfaire ces commandes. A l'instar du PLM, d'autres organismes, comme la Compagnie Nationale de Navigation, créée en 1879 par Marc Fraissinet, publieront de magnifiques affiches éditées par Moullot fils aîné à Marseille.

La Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée (PLM)

La Compagnie des Chemins de fer de Paris à Lyon et à la Méditerranée, communément désignée sous le nom de Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée ou bien sous son sigle PLM, est l'une des plus importantes compagnies ferroviaires privées françaises. Elle é été créée le 19 juillet 1857 et sa nationalisation a eu lieu le 1er janvier 1938, lors de la création de la Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF).Desservant le Sud-Est de la France, et notamment la Côte d'Azur, la Provence, les Cévennes, et les Alpes, le PLM était la compagnie par excellence des départs en villégiature. La gare parisienne de cette compagnie était la Gare de Lyon. L'époque du PLM a duré quatre-vingt ans et elle a façonné la France moderne en réduisant les distances, rapprochant les hommes et les marchandises, et en modelant les villes et la campagne. PLM était de loin la plus importante des compagnies ferroviaires françaises par son traffic, le nombre de passagers transportés et la taille de son infrasctructure. A partir de 1929, de graves conflits sociaux éclatent dans l'ensemble du secteur ferroviaire. La nécessité de centraliser la gestion des infrastructures, du matériel et du personnel cheminot conduit à la nationalisation de l'ensemble des activités ferroviaires en France avec l'apparition de la SNCF en 1938.L’histoire du PLM est par la suite intimement liée à celle de la Cie Internationale des Wagons-Lits (CIWL) avec qui elle partage de nombreux contrats concernant les grands express de luxe (Orient Express, Côte d’Azur Express, Train Bleu…).La CIWL et la Cie du PLM eurent d’ailleurs de nombreux administrateurs communs au cours de leur histoire, dont Mr Noblemaire qui fut successivement président du PLM puis de la CIWL.La Méditerranée à portée de rail Si la côte d’azur est un lieu de villégiature pour les plus fortunés depuis le XVIIIe siècle, elle devient véritablement un lieu de tourisme au milieu du XIXe siècle. Encore réservée à une très petite minorité composée des classes les plus aisées de France et d’Europe, elle attire cependant de plus en plus de monde dans ses hôtels, casinos et villas plus ou moins luxueuses. Un essor notamment rendu possible par le développement du train à vapeur, qui rapproche la Méditerranée des grandes métropoles européennes, parmi lesquelles Londres ou Paris. Ainsi, et depuis les années 1840, le réseau ferré se développe, de même que les grandes compagnies ferroviaires, publiques et privées, qui exploitent ce dernier. Dans la lignée du PLM (Paris Lyon Marseille) créé en 1857, la Compagnie des wagons-lits voit le jour en 1872, avant d’être rebaptisée Compagnie internationale des wagons-lits et des grands express européens en 1884. L’entreprise française (d’origine belge) spécialisée dans les trains de luxe en wagons-lits salons et restaurants peut ainsi proposer à ses futurs clients un voyage sur le Méditerranée Express, comme en témoigne diverses affiches publicitaires. Une certaine idée du tourisme C’est logiquement par la voie de la publicité murale, elle aussi en plein essor dans les villes d’Europe à la fin du XIXème siècle, que la Compagnie entend séduire les potentiels touristes (français et anglais ici). En déployant de sa vocation commerciale, l’image nous renseigne aussi sur la perception et la représentation alors associées à la côte d’azur et au tourisme « de luxe » qu’elle permet. A ce titre, l’opposition « picturale » et symbolique entre Paris et la Méditerranée est éloquente. Dans un style rappelant celui de Cézanne ou même de Corot, la ville du sud ainsi rêvée présente effectivement un endroit attirant. La Compagnie internationale des wagons-lits et des grands express européens s’adresse à un public très aisé, leur proposant un service de luxe et confortable pour une villégiature de luxe. Le fait que l’affiche concerne aussi bien des anglais n’est pas non plus anodin, renvoyant au tourism et au tourist britanniques, synonymes d’une classe et d’une élégance raffinée que tentent de respecter la délicatesse, la qualité et la stylisation des images. Quant aux signes associés au tourisme sur la côte, ils renvoient à la représentation partagée à l’époque (y compris celui des classes plus modestes). Selon un procédé publicitaire en passe de devenir classique, les affiches du PLM contribuent à ancrer encore davantage ces derniers dans l’imaginaire collectif, tout en s’appuyant sur eux pour stimuler l’envie.Développement des Hotels du PLM et de l’activité touristique. A mesure de son développement, la Cie PLM se développe de plus en plus dans l’hôtellerie et l’organisation de voyages. Elle possède également des société d’autocars permettant d’organiser des visites des sites inaccessibles en train. Les hôtels du PLM se multiplient jusqu’à devenir une des principales chaînes d’hôtels en France, avec certains établissements mythiques. Après la nationalisation des activités ferroviaires en 1938 et la création de la SNCF, la Cie du PLM se recentre sur son activité hôtelière et touristique. Son actionnaire principal, la famille Rothschild, investit dans des grands hôtels et continue à développer cette activité jusqu’au rachat de la société PLM par la Cie des Wagons-Lits, puis la fusion-absorption par le groupe ACCOR dans les années 1990. Les affiches du PLM. Afin de faire la publicité pour ses trains et ses hôtels, la Cie du PLM a ainsi créé une des plus importantes collection d’affiches, commandées auprès d’artistes de talent, qui acquirent une grande notoriété grâce à ces commandes. Le plus doué et le plus connu d’entre eux est sans conteste Rogers Broders dont l’essentiel de l’œuvre est consacrée aux commandes du PLM.Avec plus de 800 affiches recensées, la Collection des affiches du PLM a contribué à façonner une image romantique de la France comme une des principales destinations touristiques à la belle époque. La côte d’Azur doit en grande partie sa renommée mondiale aux efforts commerciaux du PLM pour attirer les touristes fortunés vers les stations des Alpes et de la Côte d’Azur.Les premiers tirages des affiches du PLM sont particulièrement recherchées lors des nombreuses ventes aux enchères d’affiche dans le monde entier, et peuvent atteindre des prix dépassant les 50 000€ pour les plus connues.MÉDAILLE COMMÉMORATIVE DE L’EXPÉDITION DE CHINE 1900-1901 Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France JOURNAL OFFICIEL DE LA RÉPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISETrente-troisième année. — N° 262 Vendredi 27 septembre 1901 - Page 6147.Discours prononcé, le 26 septembre, par M. de Lanessan, ministre de la marine, lors de la réception du général Voyron à Marseille. Mon cher général, Au nom du gouvernement de la République, qui a bien voulu m'en confier l'agréable mission, et au nom de la marine, qui a eu l'honneur d'organiser l'expédition de Chine, je suis heureux de vous souhaiter la bienvenue en France.

Les souhaits que M. le Président de la République vous adressait, à cette même place, au moment de votre départ pour la Chine, ont été pleinement réalisés : vous nous revenez avec les succès militaires et avec la paix.Votre rôle et celui de nos belles troupes de la guerre et de la marine ont été celui qui convenait véritablement aux soldats d'un pays où l'on sait unir le souci de l'humanité aux sentiments du patriotisme le plus ardent. Partout où nos soldats et nos marins ont dû combattre, ils ont donné des exemples de bravoure, de vigueur, d'endurance, qui ont provoqué l'admiration générale et dont nous avons été fort heureux de trouver l'écho dans les rapports et les récits de tous les chefs des troupes étrangères. Après les combats, ils ont montré cette modération qui est le témoignage le moins douteux de la force consciente de soi et la caractéristique d'un peuple dont la prétention est de marcher à la tête de la civilisation. Devant vous, mon cher général, devant vous qui en fûtes le témoin et qui en avez pu suivre sur place l'histoire dans tous ses détails, je veux dire ici brièvement, pour l'édification du pays, quelle fut la conduite de nos marins, de nos soldats et de nos officiers dans les évènements militaires auxquels ils ont pris part. C'est un hommage que le Gouvernement leur doit, et ce sera, si je ne me trompe, la meilleure façon de vous remercier des services que vous-même avez rendus.

C'est d'abord, à Pékin, une poignée de matelots commandés par deux officiers de marine, qui tiennent tête pendant deux mois, du milieu de juin au milieu d'août 1900, dans les établissements français du Pétang et dans la légation de France, aux assauts incessants de rebelles et de réguliers chinois fortement armés et soutenus par de l'artillerie. Au Pétang, l'enseigne de vaisseau Henry et cinq marins sur trente sont tués, sept sont blessés. A la légation de France, les bâtiments qui protègent les défenseurs sont démolis les uns après les autres par l'artillerie ou par les mines souterraines des Chinois ; le jardin se peuple de tombes, et, le jour où le combat cesse, le lieutenant de vaisseau Darcy avait eu autour de lui 11 marins tués et 19 blessés sur un contingent de 45 hommes, et il avait vu tomber, frappé au front par une balle chinoise, le capitaine Labrousse, que les hasards d'un voyage avaient conduit à Pékin et qui sut y faire plus que son devoir.

Après ces deux mois de combats quotidiens, au Pétang comme à la légation de France, le drapeau français flottait invaincu. Honneur à ceux qui moururent en le protégeant ! Honneur aussi à ceux qui le purent remettre intact aux mains de nos officiers lorsque, le 15 août, les troupes françaises entrèrent dans Pékin.Pendant ce temps, à Takou d'abord, puis à Tien-tsin et sur la route de Pékin, nos marins et nos soldats étaient aux prises avec les troupes régulières de la Chine. A Takou, les forts chinois ouvrent le feu sur le Lion, canonnière française, et sur les bâtiments des alliés sans aucun avertissement préalable, leur tuant 23 hommes, en blessant un grand nombre et leur faisant des dégâts importants.

Dans la colonne qui partit de Tien-tsin le 10 juin 1900, sous les ordres de lord Seymour, dans le but de tenter la délivrance de Pékin, la France est représentée par cent marins que commande le capitaine de vaisseau de Marolles. L'amiral anglais a lui-même dit, dans une lettre que je me suis fait, à l'époque, un devoir de rendre publique, la belle conduite tenue par nos marins dans cette expédition infructueuse, mais où les troupes de toutes les nations firent preuve d'une remarquable résistance à la fatigue et d'un superbe sang-froid dans le mauvais destin.Un mois plus tard, à Tien-tsin, un millier de soldats de l'infanterie et de l'artillerie de marine, appelés du Tonkin et de la Cochinchine, témoignent, dès le lendemain de leur débarquement sur le sol chinois, des plus belles qualités militaires. Dédaigneux de la fatigue résultant d'un séjour déjà très long sous le dur climat de l'Indo-Chine, et sans souci de l'insuffisance des ressources que l'on avait pu mettre à leur disposition dans la hâte d'un départ précipité, ces vaillants se conduisirent avec un entrain et une bravoure au-dessus de tout éloge. Le 11 juillet, sous le commandement du colonel de Pélacot, ils assurent la conservation de la gare menacée par les Chinois et que les troupes alliées allaient être contraintes d'abandonner, laissant les concessions européennes à peu près sans défense. Cette victoire de nos troupes est payée par 10 tués et 34 blessés sur un effectif de moins de 400 hommes. Le 13 juillet, ils jouent un rôle capital dans la prise de la ville chinoise fortifiée de Tien-tsin que gardent de nombreuses troupes régulières. Pendant quatorze heures, par une température de 39 degrés et sans même qu'il soit possible de leur envoyer de l'eau potable, ils se battent sans interruption, gagnant pied à pied du terrain vers les remparts de la ville. Ils ont 2 officiers et 23 hommes tués, 10 officiers et 108 hommes blessés sur un effectif d'à peine un millier d'hommes.

Sur un total de 7,000 hommes de troupes des diverses nations qui prirent part aux multiples combats de cette journée, il y eut 800 hommes mis hors de combat. Les nôtres, qui avaient occupé la place d'honneur et fait l'effort le plus direct en vue de la prise de la ville, furent aussi les plus frappés par la mort. Mais la victoire était complète, car, pendant la nuit, alors que nos artilleurs se préparaient à ouvrir la brèche par laquelle on devait pénétrer dans l'enceinte fortifiée, toutes les troupes régulières chinoises, la plupart des Boxers et une grande partie des habitants évacuaient la ville. L'armée chinoise tout entière était complètement démoralisée. Les 20,000 hommes qui avaient été concentrés autour de Peï-tsang, à 12 kilomètres seulement en amont de Tien-tsin, en travers du Peï-Ho et de la voie ferrée, à l'abri de fortifications considérables et avec l'appui d'une artillerie puissante, pour empêcher les alliés de se porter vers Pékin, devaient céder au premier choc. Le 5 août, l'armée chinoise bat en retraite après un combat de quelques heures, dans lequel l'action décisive est exercée par l'artillerie française. Après cette déroute, la marche des alliés sur Pékin et l'entrée dans la capitale de l'empire du Milieu s'effectuaient sans obstacle.Cependant, un autre combat et une autre victoire nous étaient réservés dans la ville même. 600 Français, appuyés par quelques compagnies étrangères, avaient le périlleux devoir de s'emparer du Peï-tsang que gardaient plus de 6,000 réguliers et de nombreux Boxers. Le 16 août, ils en étaient maîtres, après un combat où nous perdions encore 4 hommes et où nous avions de nombreux blessés, dont plusieurs très grièvement.

Grâce à la rapidité et à l'énergie de l'action des troupes européennes, les représentants de l'Europe et les amis qu'elle compte parmi les indigènes étaient désormais à l'abri de toute menace et quelques milliers d'hommes avaient obtenu un résultat pour lequel, un mois auparavant les conseils militaires internationaux, réunis en rade de Takou, estimaient que 40,000 ou 50,000 hommes seraient indispensables.Dans cette belle œuvre de guerre, nos avant-gardes avaient accompli, suivant l'expression d'un ordre du jour adressé aux troupes européennes par le major général russe Stessel, après la prise de Tien-tsin, « des faits d'armes dignes d'être placés à la hauteur des actions célèbres de leurs ancêtres ».

Il ne restait plus qu'à occuper les territoires du Petchili, afin de les mettre à l'abri de toute atteinte des Boxers ou des réguliers chinois, tandis que les représentants de l'Europe, rentrés en jouissance de tous leurs droits après deux mois de souffrances morales et physiques vaillamment supportées, fixeraient les justes réparations auxquelles l'Europe avait droit.C'est à vous, mon cher général, qu'incomba cette tâche dont les difficultés étaient considérables, car il s'agissait, non seulement de réprimer avec énergie toute tentative nouvelle de rébellion ou de résistance, mais encore d'inspirer aux populations paisibles le sentiment qu'elles n'avaient rien à redouter de ces Européens contre lesquels on les avait tant, et depuis si longtemps, excitées, tandis qu'elles en pourraient recevoir l'initiation à tous les progrès économiques, politiques et sociaux de la civilisation.

Malgré la prudence avec laquelle vous avez accompli, mon cher général, la première partie de cette tâche délicate, vous avez eu encore, pendant les diverses opérations faites dans le Petchili, 4 tués, dont 1 officier, et 37 blessés, dont 1 officier. En diverses circonstances, en effet, la résistance des rebelles fut très énergique et nos pertes auraient été beaucoup plus considérables sans les sages précautions que, par vos ordres, prirent nos officiers pour les réduire autant que possible.Quant à la deuxième partie de la mission que vous aviez à remplir, elle l'a été dans des conditions telles que, d'après tous les témoignages venus à ma connaissance, c'est avec une faveur marquée que les populations chinoises accueillaient nos troupes. A défaut de ces témoignages, j'en trouverais encore l'irréfutable preuve dans ce fait que, partout où passaient nos soldats, les villages se hâtaient de hisser le drapeau tricolore sur leurs maisons afin de leur assurer sa protection et que les habitants se portaient de préférence dans les quartiers occupés par nos détachements. Je lis, en effet, dans un rapport du général Bailloud, que partout où sont les troupes françaises « la confiance renaît vite, les habitants rentrent dans les villages qu'ils avaient abandonnés, les marchés s'ouvrent et fonctionnent comme par le passé, et des relations amicales s'établissent entre les populations et les soldats ».Vous-même, mon cher général, en réponse à un commandant de troupes étrangères qui s'étonnait, je pourrais dire qui se plaignait, de voir flotter le drapeau français sur un trop grand nombre de maisons, vous écriviez : « Il nous est difficile d'empêcher les villages chinois d'essayer de trouver une protection sous nos couleurs ; nous avons toujours eu, vis-à-vis des populations paisibles, une attitude qui les a rapprochées de nous ; nous les avons traitées avec douceur et elles savent que leurs biens, leurs propriétés et leurs vies sont en sûreté à côté de nous ; c'est ce qui explique peut-être l'abus des drapeaux français qu'elles ont fait. Pour changer cet état de choses, il faudrait changer l'état d'esprit des populations à notre égard. Mais notre devoir est de continuer, dans la mesure de nos forces, à nous inspirer des idées d'humanité et de justice qui font l'honneur de toutes les nations civilisées et qui font souvent la force de leurs armes ».Dans ce noble et fier langage, mon cher général, vous traduisiez à merveille les sentiments qui animent le soldat français, sentiments dont j'ai pu constater moi-même les manifestations dans nos colonies et qui sont d'autant plus vivaces que leur source se trouve dans le cœur même de la famille française.

Le paysan chinois ne pouvait s'y tromper et c'est son jugement qu'un fin modeleur indigène a exprimé dans les deux charmantes figurines que l'amiral Pottier a bien voulu m'envoyer : un soldat français chaudement enveloppé dans sa longue capote bleue, coiffé d'un béret qui ombrage une figure gaillarde, tient sur ses bras un enfant chinois dont la physionomie s'épanouit en un bon sourire et dont le petit bras entoure le cou du troupier. « Voilà, m'écrit le commandant de notre division de l'Extrême-Orient, l'impression qui restera au pays chinois du passage du corps expéditionnaire français : des hommes bons pour les enfants. »Cette bonté n'a pas été, d'ailleurs, sans profiter à nos troupes : en facilitant leurs relations avec les indigènes, elle a rendu moins triste leur séjour dans les villages si éloignés et si distincts de ceux où ils avaient leurs affections et elle leur a permis d'ajouter sans peine les ressources matérielles du Petchili à celles que le gouvernement la République avait mises à leur disposition.Ceci me conduit, messieurs, à féliciter et remercier ici publiquement les collaborateurs dévoués et habiles qui m'ont assisté dans la préparation et dans l'organisation de l'expédition. Parmi eux, je tiens à féliciter particulièrement le vice-amiral Bien-aimé, chef d'état-major de la marine ; le colonel Famin, directeur des troupes ; le vice-amiral de Beaumont, préfet maritime à Toulon, et le contre-amiral Besson, ancien commandant de la marine à Marseille. Grâce au souci éclairé qu'ils apportèrent dans l'organisation de tous les services du corps expéditionnaire, nos troupes on pu jouir en Chine d'un bien-être tel que, fréquemment, elles purent le faire partager à leurs camarades moins favorisés des autres nations et que leur mortalité à été réduite aux proportions les plus faibles qu'il fût possible d'espérer. En effet, nos pertes par la maladie n'ont même pas atteint deux pour cent, c'est-à-dire qu'elles sont inférieures, dans une très forte proportion, à la moyenne des pertes subies dans toutes les expéditions antérieures. D'un autre côté pendant les traversées d'aller et de retour que les événements nous ont contraints d'effectuer dans les mois les plus chauds de l'année, qui sont aussi ceux où les mauvais temps sévissent avec le plus de rigueur dans les mers de l'Inde et de la Chine, nos pertes n'ont été que de 0,3 p. 100.Départ des troupes de Marseille pour la Chine ( illustration du Petit Journal ).Juge impartial d'une organisation à laquelle il fut entièrement étranger, mais qu'il a pu apprécier dans tous ses détails au cours des laborieuses manœuvres d'embarquement et de débarquement qu'il a dirigées avec tant d'intelligence et d'activité, l'amiral Pottier me donnait, dans son dernier rapport, une appréciation que je tiens à reproduire :« En résumé, disait-il, j'attribue la plupart des critiques qui ont été formulées à une connaissance imparfaite des situations où, de part et d'autre, on s'est trouvé. L'expédition a été organisée sous la pression d'événements qui ne permettaient aucun retard. Les navires de commerce disponibles étaient insuffisants. Sans parler des troupes envoyées d'Indo-Chine, près de 18,000 hommes et plus de 3,000 chevaux et mulets ont souffert, au cours d'une longue traversée, des températures les plus élevées de la mer Rouge. Matériel et vivres, encombrant 79,000 mètres cubes, devaient à tout prix être débarqués en Chine avant l'hivernage. Partout, à Paris, à Marseille, dans le Petchili, on s'est trouvé en présence de grandes difficultés à vaincre. L'opération n'en a pas moins été heureuse et brillante, grâce au zèle de chacun, et le déficit en hommes ne représente que le minimum des pertes auxquelles tout marin devait s'attendre. Sans doute, l'expérience qui vient d'avoir lieu contient des enseignements que nous mettrons à profit ; mais qu'une autre expédition du même genre devienne nécessaire, je souhaite au département qui en aura la direction d'y rencontrer, avec moins d'écueils, le succès dont l'évidence, en face de leurs mécomptes, a frappé les marines étrangères qui nous ont vus à l'œuvre. »Le général Voyron passant le détachement français en revue,à Shanghai ( illustration du Petit Journal ).Vous-même, mon cher général, dans le rapport par lequel vous avez clos l'exposé des actes du corps expéditionnaire, au moment où vous alliez vous séparer de ces troupes que vous aviez si bien conduites et entourées de tant de soins paternels, en indiquant les légitimes récompenses que vous demandiez pour elles, vous exprimiez la même pensée dans des paroles que mes collaborateurs immédiats seront heureux d'entendre reproduire ici, car c'est véritablement à eux qu'elles s'adressent :« J'ose espérer, m'écriviez-vous, que vous, qui avez présidé à l'organisation difficile et rapide du corps expéditionnaire de Chine, qui avez, grâce à votre haute prévoyance, su le doter de tout ce qui devait assurer son succès, vous serez encore une fois son interprète auprès du Gouvernement. Il compte sur cette nouvelle marque de votre haute bienveillance et de votre haute sympathie. »

Le Gouvernement et les Chambres ont bien voulu, mon cher général, entendre vos paroles et accorder au corps expéditionnaire de Chine les récompenses que vous m'aviez demandées pour lui. Je suis heureux de pouvoir aujourd'hui féliciter publiquement tous ceux qui les ont obtenues.Quant aux officiers, soldats et marins qui en été tués au cours de l'expédition de Chine, leurs noms seront publiés au Journal officiel avec l'hommage que j'adresse ici à leurs familles.Dans ces tristes et difficiles circonstances, notre armée et notre marine se sont montrées au plus haut degré dignes de la démocratie qui, depuis trente ans, les a entourées de tant de sympathies et leur a prodigué tant de marques d'intérêt, car elles ont su joindre aux plus belles qualités militaires les plus nobles sentiments d'humanité.Et c'est, j'en suis convaincu, dans cette simple constatation, faite ici au nom du Gouvernement et devant le pays, que vous-même, mon cher général, vous trouverez la récompense la plus digne des éminents services que vous avez rendus à la France et à la République.Tout est fait pour endormir un voyage de rêves à découvrir l'oriental dans la compagnie PLM, les transitaires pour Pékin sont saisis à la descente du train par les tigres-lion de la cité interdite, c'est renversant et émouvant, cette lumière de Marseille c'est le pied.

The Boxer Rebellion targeted both the Manchu dynasty in China and the influence of European powers within China. Though the Boxer Rebellion failed but it did enough to stir up national pride within China itself.In 1895, China had been defeated by Japan. This was a humiliation for the Chinese as Japan had always been considered as a lesser nation to China. China lost control of Korea and Formosa to Japan.Within the elite of Chinese society, it was believed that this defeat was entirely the blame of the Europeans who were dominant in China and that they alone were responsible for China’s defeat. Many Chinese began to feel the same. It was believed that the Europeans were driving China’s domestic and foreign policy and that the situation was getting out of control. By the end of the Nineteenth Century, a strong sense of nationalism swept over China and many wanted to reclaim China for the Chinese. In 1898, these feelings boiled over into rebellion. The rebellion began in north China in the Shantung Province. This province was a German sphere of influence and Germany dominated the rail lines, factories and coal mines that existed in Shantung. The Germans made considerable profits while the Chinese there were paid very poor wages and lived very poor lifestyles.In Shantung, gangs of Chinese people roamed the streets chanting "Kill the Christians" and "Drive out the foreign devils". Germans who lived in Shantung were murdered as were other European missionaries. Those Chinese who had converted to Christianity were also murdered. Those behind the Shantung rebellion belonged to a secret society called Yi Ho Tuan – which meant "Righteous Harmony Fists" when translated into English. This was shorten to Boxers and the rebellion has gone done in history as the Boxer Rebellion. By 1900, the rebellion had started to spread across northern China and included the capital Peking.One of the targets of the Boxers was the Manchu government. They were seen as being little more as unpatriotic stooges of the European ‘masters’ who did nothing for national pride.The inspiration behind the Manchu government was the Empress Dowager. She was nicknamed "Old Buddha" – but never to her face. She had been married to the former emperor and was a very clever person. China was a society where women were ‘kept in their place’, therefore, she was an oddity within that male dominated society. Empress Dowager Tzu realised what was going on and made secret contact with the Boxers offering them her support. This they accepted. This allowed the Boxers to turn their full attention to the Europeans.

Peking had many Europeans living in it in 1900. Their lifestyle was completely different to that of the Chinese who lived in the city. The Europeans effectively treated the Chinese in Peking as their slaves. It was not surprising that the Boxers found many ready supporters in Peking.In June 1900, it became clear that their lives were in danger and many prepared to leave the city. The German ambassador in China wanted to register one final protest at the way the Europeans were being treated in China. As he made his way to the Royal Palace to protest, he was dragged from his sedan chair (being carried by Chinese) and murdered. The message was clear. Even the high and mighty were not safe. The rest of the Europeans crowded into the British Legation for their own safety. They were defended by an assortment of 400 European soldiers and sailors nicknamed the "Carving Knife Brigade" because of their lack of proper weapons. They fought off the Boxers with great bravery who were joined in the attack by troops who guarded the Manchus.The Siege of the Legation lasted for 55 days until an international force marching from Tientsin on the coast managed to relieve them. 66 Europeans had been killed in this time and 150 had been wounded. This type of treatment was unforgivable from a European point of view. America had also been shocked by the treatment of the Europeans.The international force, as a punishment, went of the rampage in Peking – effectively urged on by the officers commanding them. Peking was extensively damaged. The Chinese government was also ordered to pay $450 million in compensation – a vast sum of money for any nation let alone one as poor as China. The European force, now supported by the Manchus, then took its revenge on the Boxers. Those caught were given little mercy and they were beheaded in public. The Manchus were effectively forgiven as was the Dowager Empress despite her apparent treachery. She and her family were allowed to return to the Forbidden Palace in Peking facing no punishment other than European nations re-establishing their authority over the Chinese. She had no other choice but to be compliant.

Myanmar - Yangon - Street Life - 9 by Manfred Sommer

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. . . the natural make-up of the women is called Thanaka. It is a cream made out of the bark of specific trees. Thanaka cream has been used by Burmese women for over 2000 years. It has a fragrant scent somewhat similar to sandalwood. The creamy paste is applied to the face in attractive designs, the most common form being a circular patch on each cheek, nose, sometimes made stripey with the fingers known as thanaka bè gya, or patterned in the shape of a leaf, often also highlighting the bridge of the nose with it at the same time. It may be applied from head to toe (thanaka chi zoun gaung zoun). Apart from cosmetic beauty, thanaka also gives a cooling sensation and provides protection from sunburn. It is believed to help remove acne and promote smooth skin. It is also an anti-fungal. The active ingredients of thanaka are coumarin and marmesin.

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Yangon (Burmese: ရန်ကုန်, MLCTS rankun mrui, pronounced: [jàɴɡòʊɴ mjo̰]; formerly known as Rangoon, literally: "End of Strife") is the capital of the Yangon Region of Myanmar, also known as Burma. Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government relocated the capital to the purpose-built city of Naypyidaw in central Myanmar. With over 7 million people, Yangon is Myanmar's largest city and is its most important commercial centre.

Yangon boasts the largest number of colonial-era buildings in the region, and has a unique colonial-era urban core that is remarkably intact. The colonial-era commercial core is centred around the Sule Pagoda, which reputed to be over 2,000 years old. The city is also home to the gilded Shwedagon Pagoda — Myanmar's most sacred Buddhist pagoda. The mausoleum of the last Mughal Emperor is located in Yangon, where he had been exiled following the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Yangon suffers from deeply inadequate infrastructure, especially compared to other major cities in Southeast Asia. Though many historic residential and commercial buildings have been renovated throughout central Yangon, most satellite towns that ring the city continue to be profoundly impoverished and lack basic infrastructure.

ETYMOLOGY

Yangon (ရန်ကုန်) is a combination of the two words yan (ရန်) and koun (ကုန်), which mean "enemies" and "run out of", respectively. It is also translated as "End of Strife". "Rangoon" most likely comes from the British imitation of the pronunciation of "Yangon" in the Arakanese language, which is [rɔ̀ɴɡʊ́ɴ].

HISTORY

EARLY HISTORY

Yangon was founded as Dagon in the early 11th century (c. 1028–1043) by the Mon, who dominated Lower Burma at that time. Dagon was a small fishing village centred about the Shwedagon Pagoda. In 1755, King Alaungpaya conquered Dagon, renamed it "Yangon", and added settlements around Dagon. The British captured Yangon during the First Anglo-Burmese War (1824–26), but returned it to Burmese administration after the war. The city was destroyed by a fire in 1841.

COLONIAL RANGOON

The British seized Yangon and all of Lower Burma in the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, and subsequently transformed Yangon into the commercial and political hub of British Burma. Yangon is also the place where the British sent Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal emperor, to live after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Based on the design by army engineer Lt. Alexander Fraser, the British constructed a new city on a grid plan on delta land, bounded to the east by the Pazundaung Creek and to the south and west by the Yangon River. Yangon became the capital of all British-ruled Burma after the British had captured Upper Burma in the Third Anglo-Burmese War of 1885. By the 1890s Yangon's increasing population and commerce gave birth to prosperous residential suburbs to the north of Royal Lake (Kandawgyi) and Inya Lake. The British also established hospitals including Rangoon General Hospital and colleges including Rangoon University.

Colonial Yangon, with its spacious parks and lakes and mix of modern buildings and traditional wooden architecture, was known as "the garden city of the East." By the early 20th century, Yangon had public services and infrastructure on par with London.

Before World War II, about 55% of Yangon's population of 500,000 was Indian or South Asian, and only about a third was Bamar (Burman). Karens, the Chinese, the Anglo-Burmese and others made up the rest.

After World War I, Yangon became the epicentre of Burmese independence movement, with leftist Rangoon University students leading the way. Three nationwide strikes against the British Empire in 1920, 1936 and 1938 all began in Yangon. Yangon was under Japanese occupation (1942–45), and incurred heavy damage during World War II. The city was retaken by the Allies in May 1945.

Yangon became the capital of Union of Burma on 4 January 1948 when the country regained independence from the British Empire.

CONTEMPORARY YANGON

Soon after Burma's independence in 1948, many colonial names of streets and parks were changed to more nationalistic Burmese names. In 1989, the current military junta changed the city's English name to "Yangon", along with many other changes in English transliteration of Burmese names. (The changes have not been accepted by many Burmese who consider the junta unfit to make such changes, nor by many publications, news bureaus including, most notably, the BBC and foreign nations including the United Kingdom and United States.)

Since independence, Yangon has expanded outwards. Successive governments have built satellite towns such as Thaketa, North Okkalapa and South Okkalapa in the 1950s to Hlaingthaya,

Shwepyitha and South Dagon in the 1980s. Today, Greater Yangon encompasses an area covering nearly 600 square kilometres.

During Ne Win's isolationist rule (1962–88), Yangon's infrastructure deteriorated through poor maintenance and did not keep up with its increasing population. In the 1990s, the current military government's more open market policies attracted domestic and foreign investment, bringing a modicum of modernity to the city's infrastructure. Some inner city residents were forcibly relocated to new satellite towns. Many colonial-period buildings were demolished to make way for high-rise hotels, office buildings, and shopping malls, leading the city government to place about 200 notable colonial-period buildings under the Yangon City Heritage List in 1996. Major building programs have resulted in six new bridges and five new highways linking the city to its industrial back country. Still, much of Yangon remains without basic municipal services such as 24-hour electricity and regular garbage collection.

Yangon has become much more indigenous Burmese in its ethnic make-up since independence. After independence, many South Asians and Anglo-Burmese left. Many more South Asians were forced to leave during the 1960s by Ne Win's xenophobic government. Nevertheless, sizable South Asian and Chinese communities still exist in Yangon. The Anglo-Burmese have effectively disappeared, having left the country or intermarried with other Burmese groups.

Yangon was the centre of major anti-government protests in 1974, 1988 and 2007. The 1988 People Power Uprising resulted in the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of Burmese civilians, many in Yangoon where hundreds of thousands of people flooded into the streets of the then capital city. The Saffron Revolution saw mass shootings and the use of crematoria in Yangoon by the Burmese government to erase evidence of their crimes against monks, unarmed protesters, journalists and students.

The city's streets saw bloodshed each time as protesters were gunned down by the government.

In May 2008, Cyclone Nargis hit Yangon. While the city had few human casualties, three quarters of Yangon's industrial infrastructure was destroyed or damaged, with losses estimated at US$800 million.

In November 2005, the military government designated Naypyidaw, 320 kilometres north of Yangon, as the new administrative capital, and subsequently moved much of the government to the newly developed city. At any rate, Yangon remains the largest city, and the most important commercial centre of Myanmar.

GEOGRAPHY

Yangon is located in Lower Burma (Myanmar) at the convergence of the Yangon and Bago Rivers about 30 km away from the Gulf of Martaban at 16°48' North, 96°09' East (16.8, 96.15). Its standard time zone is UTC/GMT +6:30 hours.

CLIMATE

Yangon has a tropical monsoon climate under the Köppen climate classification system. The city features a lengthy wet season from May through October where a substantial amount of rainfall is received; and a dry season from November through April, where little rainfall is seen. It is primarily due to the heavy rainfall received during the rainy season that Yangon falls under the tropical monsoon climate category. During the course of the year 1961 to 1990s, average temperatures show little variance, with average highs ranging from 29 to 36 °C and average lows ranging from 18 to 25 °C.

CITYSCAPE

Until the mid-1990s, Yangon remained largely constrained to its traditional peninsula setting between the Bago, Yangon and Hlaing rivers. People moved in, but little of the city moved out. Maps from 1944 show little development north of Inya Lake and areas that are now layered in cement and stacked with houses were then virtual backwaters. Since the late 1980s, however, the city began a rapid spread north to where Yangon International airport now stands. But the result is a stretching tail on the city, with the downtown area well removed from its geographic centre. The city's area has steadily increased from 72.52 square kilometres in 1901 to 86.2 square kilometres in 1940 to 208.51 square kilometres in 1974, to 346.13 square kilometres in 1985, and to 598.75 square kilometres in 2008.

ARCHITECTURE

Downtown Yangon is known for its leafy avenues and fin-de-siècle architecture. The former British colonial capital has the highest number of colonial period buildings in south-east Asia. Downtown Yangon is still mainly made up of decaying colonial buildings. The former High Court, the former Secretariat buildings, the former St. Paul's English High School and the Strand Hotel are excellent examples of the bygone era. Most downtown buildings from this era are four-story mix-use (residential and commercial) buildings with 4.3 m ceilings, allowing for the construction of mezzanines. Despite their less-than-perfect conditions, the buildings remain highly sought after and most expensive in the city's property market.

In 1996, the Yangon City Development Committee created a Yangon City Heritage List of old buildings and structures in the city that cannot be modified or torn down without approval. In 2012, the city of Yangon imposed a 50-year moratorium on demolition of buildings older than 50 years. The Yangon Heritage Trust, an NGO started by Thant Myint-U, aims to create heritage areas in Downtown, and attract investors to renovate buildings for commercial use.

A latter day hallmark of Yangon is the eight-story apartment building. (In Yangon parlance, a building with no elevators (lifts) is called an apartment building and one with elevators is called a condominium. Condos which have to invest in a local power generator to ensure 24-hour electricity for the elevators are beyond the reach of most Yangonites.) Found throughout the city in various forms, eight-story apartment buildings provide relatively inexpensive housing for many Yangonites. The apartments are usually eight stories high (including the ground floor) mainly because city regulations, until February 2008, required that all buildings higher than 23 m or eight stories to install lifts. The current code calls for elevators in buildings higher than 19 m or six stories, likely ushering in the era of the six-story apartment building. Although most apartment buildings were built only within the last 20 years, they look much older and rundown due to shoddy construction and lack of proper maintenance.

Unlike other major Asian cities, Yangon does not have any skyscrapers. Aside from a few high-rise hotels and office towers, most high-rise buildings (usually 10 stories and up) are "condos" scattered across prosperous neighbourhoods north of downtown such as Bahan, Dagon, Kamayut and Mayangon. The tallest building in Yangon, Pyay Gardens, is a 25-story condo in the city's north.

Older satellite towns such as Thaketa, North Okkalapa and South Okkalapa are lined mostly with one to two story detached houses with access to the city's electricity grid. Newer satellite towns such as North Dagon and South Dagon are still essentially slums in a grid layout. The satellite towns - old or new - receive little or no municipal services.

ROAD LAYOUT

Downtown Yangon's road layout follows a grid pattern, based on four types of roads:

Broad 49-m wide roads running west to east

Broad 30-m wide roads running south to north

Two narrow 9.1-m wide streets running south to north

Mid-size 15-m wide streets running south to north

The east-west grid of central was laid out by British military engineers Fraser and Montgomerie after the Second Anglo-Burmese War. The city was later developed by the Public Works Department and Bengal Corps of Engineers. The pattern of south to north roads is as follows: one broad 30 m wide broad road, two narrow streets, one mid-size street, two more narrow streets, and then another 30 m wide broad road. This order is repeated from west to east. The narrow streets are numbered; the medium and broad roads are named.

For example, the 30 m Lanmadaw Road is followed by 9.1 m-wide 17th and 18th streets then the medium 15 m Sint-Oh-Dan Road, the 30-foot 19th and 20th streets, followed by another 30 m wide Latha Road, followed again by the two numbered small roads 21st and 22nd streets, and so on.

The roads running parallel west to east were the Strand Road, Merchant Road, Maha Bandula (née Dalhousie) Road, Anawrahta (Fraser) Road, and Bogyoke Aung San (Montgomerie) Road.

PARKS AND GARDENS

The largest and best maintained parks in Yangon are located around Shwedagon Pagoda. To the south-east of the gilded stupa is the most popular recreational area in the city – Kandawgyi Lake. The 61-ha lake is surrounded by the 45-ha Kandawgyi Nature Park, and the 28-ha Yangon Zoological Gardens, which consists of a zoo, an aquarium and an amusement park. West of the pagoda towards the former Hluttaw (Parliament) complex is the 53-ha People's Square and Park, (the former parading ground on important national days when Yangon was the capital.) A few miles north of the pagoda lies the 15-ha Inya Lake Park – a favorite hangout place of Yangon University students, and a well-known place of romance in Burmese popular culture.

Hlawga National Park and Allied War Memorial at the outskirts of the city are popular day-trip destinations with the well-to-do and tourists.

Yangon Book Plaza, the first and biggest book shop in Myanmar was opened on February 26, 2017 on the fifth floor of Than Zay Market in Lanmadaw Township, Yangon.

ADMINISTRATION

Yangon is administered by the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC). YCDC also coordinates urban planning. The city is divided into four districts. The districts combined have a total of 33 townships. The current mayor of Yangon is Maung Maung Soe. Each township is administered by a committee of township leaders, who make decisions regarding city beautification and infrastructure. Myo-thit (lit. "New Towns", or satellite towns) are not within such jurisdictions.

TRANSPORT

Yangon is Burma's main domestic and international hub for air, rail, and ground transportation.

AIR

Yangon International Airport, located 19 km from the centre, is the country's main gateway for domestic and international air travel. The airport has three terminals, known as T1, T2 and T3 which is also known as Domestic. It has direct flights to regional cities in Asia – mainly, Doha, Dubai, Dhaka, Kolkata, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Beijing, Seoul, Guangzhou, Taipei, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Kunming and Singapore. Although domestic airlines offer service to about twenty domestic locations, most flights are to tourist destinations such as Bagan, Mandalay, Heho and Ngapali, and to the capital Naypyidaw.

RAILWAYS

Yangon Central Railway Station is the main terminus of Myanmar Railways' 5,403-kilometre rail network whose reach covers Upper Myanmar (Naypyidaw, Mandalay, Shwebo), upcountry (Myitkyina), Shan hills (Taunggyi, Lashio) and the Taninthayi coast (Mawlamyaing, Dawei).

Yangon Circular Railway operates a 45.9-kilometre 39-station commuter rail network that connects Yangon's satellite towns. The system is heavily utilized by the local populace, selling about 150,000 tickets daily. The popularity of the commuter line has jumped since the government reduced petrol subsidies in August 2007.

BUSES AND CARS

Yangon has a 4,456-kilometre road network of all types (tar, concrete and dirt) in March 2011. Many of the roads are in poor condition and not wide enough to accommodate an increasing number of cars. The vast majority of Yangon residents cannot afford a car and rely on an extensive network of buses to get around. Over 300 public and private bus lines operate about 6,300 crowded buses around the city, carrying over 4.4 million passengers a day. All buses and 80% of the taxis in Yangon run on compressed natural gas (CNG), following the 2005 government decree to save money on imported petroleum. Highway buses to other cities depart from Dagon Ayeyar Highway Bus Terminal for Irrawaddy delta region and Aung Mingala Highway Bus Terminal for other parts of the country.

Motor transportation in Yangon is highly expensive for most of its citizens. As the government allows only a few thousand cars to be imported each year in a country with over 50 million people, car prices in Yangon (and in Burma) are among the highest in the world. In July 2008, the two most popular cars in Yangon, 1986/87 Nissan Sunny Super Saloon and 1988 Toyota Corolla SE Limited, cost the equivalent of about US$20,000 and US$29,000 respectively. A sports utility vehicle, imported for the equivalent of around US$50,000, goes for US$250,000. Illegally imported unregistered cars are cheaper – typically about half the price of registered cars. Nonetheless, car usage in Yangon is on the rise, a sign of rising incomes for some, and already causes much traffic congestion in highway-less Yangon's streets. In 2011, Yangon had about 300,000 registered motor vehicles in addition to an unknown number of unregistered ones.

Since 1970, cars have been driven on the right side of the road in Burma, as part of a military decree. However, as the government has not required left hand drive (LHD) cars to accompany the right side road rules, many cars on the road are still right hand drive (RHD) made for driving on the left side. Japanese used cars, which make up most of the country's imports, still arrive with RHD and are never converted to LHD. As a result, Burmese drivers have to rely on their passengers when passing other cars.

Within Yangon city limits, it is illegal to drive trishaws, bicycles, and motorcycles. Since February 2010, pickup truck bus lines have been forbidden to run in 6 townships of central Yangon, namely Latha, Lanmadaw, Pabedan, Kyauktada, Botahtaung and Pazundaung Townships. In May 2003, a ban on using car horns was implemented in six townships of Downtown Yangon to reduce noise pollution. In April 2004, the car horn ban was expanded to cover the entire city.

RIVER

Yangon's four main passenger jetties, all located on or near downtown waterfront, mainly serve local ferries across the river to Dala and Thanlyin, and regional ferries to the Irrawaddy delta. The 35-km Twante Canal was the quickest route from Yangon to the Irrawaddy delta until the 1990s when roads between Yangon and the Irrawaddy Division became usable year-round. While passenger ferries to the delta are still used, those to Upper Burma via the Irrawaddy river are now limited mostly to tourist river cruises.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Yangon is the most populous city by far in Burma although estimates of the size of its population vary widely. All population figures are estimates since no official census has been conducted in Burma since 1983. A UN estimate puts the population as 4.35 million in 2010 but a 2009 U.S. State Department estimate puts it at 5.5 million. The U.S. State Department's estimate is probably closer to the real number since the UN number is a straight-line projection, and does not appear to take the expansion of city limits in the past two decades into account. The city's population grew sharply after 1948 as many people (mainly, the indigenous Burmese) from other parts of the country moved into the newly built satellite towns of North Okkalapa, South Okkalapa, and Thaketa in the 1950s and East Dagon, North Dagon and South Dagon in the 1990s. Immigrants have founded their regional associations (such as Mandalay Association, Mawlamyaing Association, etc.) in Yangon for networking purposes. The government's decision to move the nation's administrative capital to Naypyidaw has drained an unknown number of civil servants away from Yangon.

Yangon is the most ethnically diverse city in the country. While Indians formed the slight majority prior to World War II, today, the majority of the population is of indigenous Bamar (Burman) descent. Large communities of Indians/South Asian Burmese and the Chinese Burmese exist especially in the traditional downtown neighborhoods. A large number of Rakhine and Karen also live in the city.

Burmese is the principal language of the city. English is by far the preferred second language of the educated class. In recent years, however, the prospect of overseas job opportunities has enticed

some to study other languages: Mandarin Chinese is most popular, followed by Japanese, and French.

RELIGIONS

The primary religions practiced in Yangon are Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam. Shwedagon Pagoda is a famous religious landmark in the city.

MEDIA

Yangon is the country's hub for the movie, music, advertising, newspaper and book publishing industries. All media is heavily regulated by the military government. Television broadcasting is off limits to the private sector. All media content must first be approved by the government's media censor board, Press Scrutiny and Registration Division.

Most television channels in the country are broadcast from Yangon. TV Myanmar and Myawaddy TV are the two main channels, providing Burmese-language programming in news and entertainment. Other special interest channels are MWD-1 and MWD-2, MRTV-3, the English-language channel that targets overseas audiences via satellite and via Internet, MRTV-4 and Channel 7 are with a focus on non-formal education programs and movies, and Movie 5, a pay-TV channel specializing in broadcasting foreign movies.

Yangon has three radio stations. Myanmar Radio National Service is the national radio service and broadcasts mostly in Burmese (and in English during specific times.) Pop culture oriented Yangon City FM and Mandalay City FM radio stations specialize in Burmese and English pop music, entertainment programs, live celebrity interviews, etc. New radio channels such as Shwe FM and Pyinsawaddy FM can also be tuned with the city area.

Nearly all print media and industries are based out of Yangon. All three national newspapers – two Burmese language dailies Myanma Alin (မြန်မာ့အလင်း) and Kyemon (ကြေးမုံ), and the English language The New Light of Myanmar — are published by the government. Semi-governmental The Myanmar Times weekly, published in Burmese and in English, is mainly geared for Yangon's expatriate community. Over twenty special interest journals and magazines covering sports, fashion, finance, crime, literature (but never politics) vie for the readership of the general populace.

Access to foreign media is extremely difficult. Satellite television in Yangon, and in Burma, is very expensive as the government imposes an annual registration fee of one million kyats. Certain foreign newspapers and periodicals such as the International Herald Tribune and the Straits Times can be found only in a few (mostly downtown) bookstores. Internet access in Yangon, which has the best telecommunication infrastructure in the country, is slow and erratic at best, and the Burmese government implements one of the world's most restrictive regimes of Internet control. International text messaging and voice messaging was permitted only in August 2008.

COMMUNICATION

Common facilities taken for granted elsewhere are luxury prized items in Yangon and Burma. The price of a GSM mobile phone was about K1.1 million in August 2008. In 2007, the country of 55 million had only 775,000 phone lines (including 275,000 mobile phones), and 400,000 computers. Even in Yangon, which has the best infrastructure, the estimated telephone penetration rate was only 6% at the end of 2004, and the official waiting time for a telephone line was 3.6 years. Most people cannot afford a computer and have to use the city's numerous Internet cafes to access a heavily restricted Internet, and a heavily censored local intranet. According to official statistics, in July 2010, the country had over 400,000 Internet users, with the vast majority hailing from just two cities, Yangon and Mandalay. Although Internet access was available in 42 cities across the country, the number of users outside the two main cities was just over 10,000.

LIFESTYLE

Yangon's property market is the most expensive in the country and beyond the reach of most Yangonites. Most rent outside the centre and few can afford to rent such apartments. (In 2008, rents for a typical 60 to 70 m2 apartments in the centre and vicinity range between K70,000 and K150,000 and those for high end condos between K200,000 and K500,000.)

Most men of all ages (and some women) spend their time at ubiquitous tea-shops, found in any corner or street of the city. Watching European football (mostly English Premier League with occasional La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga) matches while sipping tea is a popular pastime among many Yangonites. The average person stays close to his or her residential neighbourhood. The well-to-do tend to visit shopping malls and parks on weekends. Some leave the city on weekends for Chaungtha and Ngwesaung beach resorts in Ayeyarwady Division.

Yangon is also home to many pagoda festivals (paya pwe), held during dry-season months (November – March). The most famous of all, the Shwedagon Pagoda Festival in March, attracts thousands of pilgrims from around the country.

Yangon's museums are the domain of tourists and rarely visited by the locals.

Most of Yangon's larger hotels offer some kind of nightlife entertainment, geared towards tourists and the well-to-do Burmese. Some hotels offer traditional Burmese performing arts shows complete with a traditional Burmese orchestra. The pub scene in larger hotels is more or less the same as elsewhere in Asia. Other options include karaoke bars and pub restaurants in Yangon Chinatown.

Due to the problems of high inflation, the lack of high denomination notes, and the fact that many of the population do not have access to checks, or credit or debit cards, it is common to see citizens carrying a considerable amount of cash. (The highest denomination of Burmese currency kyat is 10 000 (~US$10.)) Credit cards are only rarely used in the city, chiefly in the more lavish hotels. Credit cards are also accepted in the major supermarket and convenience store chains.

SPORTS

As the city has the best sporting facilities in the country, most national-level annual sporting tournaments such as track and field, football, volleyball, tennis and swimming are held in Yangon. The 40,000-seat Aung San Stadium and the 32,000-seat Thuwunna Stadium are the main venues for the highly popular annual State and Division football tournament. Until April 2009, the now defunct Myanmar Premier League, consisted of 16 Yangon-based clubs, played all its matches in Yangon stadiums, and attracted little interest from the general public or commercial success despite the enormous popularity of football in Burma. Most Yangonites prefer watching European football on satellite TV. Teams such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City are among the favorite European teams among the Yangonites. It remains to be seen whether the Myanmar National League, the country's first professional football league, and its Yangon-based club Yangon United FC will attract a sufficient following in the country's most important media market.

Yangon is also home to annual the Myanmar Open golf tournament, and the Myanmar Open tennis tournament. The city hosted the 1961 and 1969 South East Asian Games. During colonial times, cricket was played mostly by British officials in the city. First-class cricket was played in the city in January 1927 when the touring Marylebone Cricket Club played Burma and the Rangoon Gymkhana. Two grounds were used to host these matches, the BAA Ground and the Gymkhana Ground. These matches mark the only time Burma and Rangoon Gymkhana have appeared in first-class cricket, and the only time first-class cricket has been played in Burma. After independence cricket all but died out in the country.

Yangon has a growing population of skateboarders, as documented in the films Altered Focus: Burma and Youth of Yangon. German non-profit organization Make Life Skate Life has received permission from the Yangon City Development Committee to construct a concrete skatepark at Thakin Mya park in downtown, and plans to complete the park in November 2015.

ECONOMY

Yangon is the country's main centre for trade, industry, real estate, media, entertainment and tourism. The city represents about one fifth of the national economy. According to official statistics for FY 2010–2011, the size of the economy of Yangon Region was 8.93 trillion kyats, or 23% of the national GDP.

The city is Lower Burma's main trading hub for all kinds of merchandise – from basic food stuffs to used cars although commerce continues to be hampered by the city's severely underdeveloped banking industry and communication infrastructure. Bayinnaung Market is the largest wholesale centre in the country for rice, beans and pulses, and other agricultural commodities. Much of the country's legal imports and exports go through Thilawa Port, the largest and busiest port in Burma. There is also a great deal of informal trade, especially in street markets that exist alongside street platforms of Downtown Yangon's townships. However, on 17 June 2011, the YCDC announced that street vendors, who had previously been allowed to legally open shop at 3 pm, would be prohibited from selling on the streets, and permitted to sell only in their townships of residence, presumably to clean up the city's image. Since 1 December 2009, high-density polyethylene plastic bags have been banned by city authorities.

Manufacturing accounts for a sizable share of employment. At least 14 light industrial zones ring Yangon, directly employing over 150,000 workers in 4,300 factories in early 2010. The city is the centre of country's garment industry which exported US$292 million in 2008/9 fiscal year. More than 80 percent of factory workers in Yangon work on a day-to-day basis. Most are young women between 15 and 27 years of age who come from the countryside in search of a better life. The manufacturing sector suffers from both structural problems (e.g. chronic power shortages) and political.

problems (e.g. economic sanctions). In 2008, Yangon's 2500 factories alone needed about 120 MW of power; yet, the entire city received only about 250 MW of the 530 MW needed. Chronic power shortages limit the factories' operating hours between 8 am and 6 pm.

Construction is a major source of employment. The construction industry has been negatively affected by the move of state apparatus and civil servants to Naypyidaw, new regulations introduced in August 2009 requiring builders to provide at least 12 parking spaces in every new high-rise building, and the general poor business climate. As of January 2010, the number of new high-rise building starts approved in 2009–2010 was only 334, compared to 582 in 2008–2009.

Tourism represents a major source of foreign currency for the city although by south-east Asian standards the number of foreign visitors to Yangon has always been quite low - about 250,000 before the Saffron Revolution in September 2007. The number of visitors dipped even further following the Saffron Revolution and Cyclone Nargis. The recent improvement in the country's political climate has attracted an increasing number of businessmen and tourists. Between 300,000 and 400,000 visitors that went through Yangon International in 2011. However, after years of underinvestment, Yangon's modest hotel infrastructure - only 3000 of the total 8000 hotel rooms in Yangon are "suitable for tourists" - is already bursting at seams, and will need to be expanded to handle additional visitors. As part of an urban development strategy, a hotel zone has been planned in Yangon's outskirts, encompassing government- and military-owned land in Mingaladon, Hlegu and Htaukkyant Townships.

EDUCATION

Yangon educational facilities has a very high number of qualified teachers but the state spending on education is among the lowest of the world. Around 2007 estimate by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies puts the spending for education at 0.5% of the national budget. The disparity in educational opportunities and achievement between rich and poor schools is quite stark even within the city. With little or no state support forthcoming, schools have to rely on forced "donations" and various fees from parents for nearly everything – school maintenance to teachers' salaries, forcing many poor students to drop out.

While many students in poor districts fail to reach high school, a handful of Yangon high schools in wealthier districts such as Dagon 1, Sanchaung 2, Kamayut 2, Bahan 2, Latha 2, and TTC provide the majority of students admitted to the most selective universities in the country, highlighting the extreme shallowness of talent pool in the country. The wealthy bypass the state education system altogether, sending their children to private English language instruction schools such as YIEC or more widely known as ISM, or abroad (typically Singapore or Australia) for university education. In 2014, international schools in Yangon cost at least US$8,000 a year.

There are over 20 universities and colleges in the city. While Yangon University remains the best known (its main campus is a part of popular Burmese culture e.g. literature, music, film, etc.), the nation's oldest university is now mostly a graduate school, deprived of undergraduate studies. Following the 1988 nationwide uprising, the military government has repeatedly closed universities, and has dispersed most of undergraduate student population to new universities in the suburbs such as Dagon University, the University of East Yangon and the University of West Yangon. Nonetheless many of the country's most selective universities are still in Yangon. Students from around the country still have to come to study in Yangon as some subjects are offered only at its universities. The University of Medicine 1, University of Medicine 2, Yangon Technological University, University of Computer Studies and Myanmar Maritime University are the most selective in the country.

HEALTH CARE

The general state of health care in Yangon is poor. According to a 2007 estimate, the military government spends 0.4% of the national budget on health care, and 40% to 60% on defense. By the government's own figures, it spends 849 kyats (US$0.85) per person. Although health care is nominally free, in reality, patients have to pay for medicine and treatment, even in public clinics and hospitals. Public hospitals including the flagship Yangon General Hospital lack many of the basic facilities and equipment.

Wealthier Yangonites still have access to country's best medical facilities and internationally qualified doctors. Only Yangon and Mandalay have any sizable number of doctors left as many Burmese doctors have emigrated. The well-to-do go to private clinics or hospitals like Pun Hlaing International Hospital and Bahosi Medical Clinic. Medical malpractice is widespread, even in private clinics and hospitals that serve the well-to-do. In 2009 and 2010, a spate of high-profile deaths brought out the severity of the problem, even for the relatively well off Yangonites. The wealthy do not rely on domestic hospitals and travel abroad, usually Bangkok or Singapore, for treatment.

WIKIPEDIA

Prohibido cantar / No Singing. Jordi Colomer by Matadero Madrid

2

JORDI COLOMER

Prohibido Cantar / No Singing. Obra didáctica sobre la fundación de una ciudad paradisíaca.

Desde el 14 de septiembre

Precio: Entrada libre

Institución:

Abierto x Obras

Inauguración: Viernes 14 de septiembre a las 20 h.

Jordi Colomer es el encargado de esta nueva creación site specific en la antigua cámara frigorífica de Matadero. La obra de Colomer explora una singular visión de la escultura incorporando dispositivos escénicos, fotografía y videoinstalación.

'Os será más fácil sacarles el oro a los hombres que a los ríos'1

"La fundación de una ciudad no es forzosamente un acto heroico. Para las ciudades antiguas, la arqueología tantea un orden cronológico, desempolva las pruebas del suceso, mientras la Historia y la leyenda proponen sus relatos. Dice Jorge-Luis Borges: 'A mí se me hace cuento que empezó Buenos Aires: La juzgo tan eterna como el agua y como el aire'2.

Pero cada día, empiezan nuevas ciudades, construidas de agua, de hormigón, de sudor y de dinero. Algunas son -casi- pura idea. En su programa electoral el presidente Kubitschek prometió la creación de una moderna capital para Brasil y, en tres años, Brasilia se levantó entre las malezas del plano alto central, siguiendo fielmente los planes de Lucio Costa. A su vez los obreros que la pusieron en pie, venidos de todas las regiones del país, plantaron sus chamizos trémulos donde dormir y fundaron -sin saberlo- su propia ciudad. Hay ciudades de cristal que crecen en los despachos, y otras de lata y cartón que bailan al ritmo de sus propios habitantes. En una ocasión, a un grupo de forajidos a los que la policía les pisaba los talones se les estropeó el camión en pleno desierto. No podían seguir, ni ir hacia atrás. Fundaron entonces allí mismo una ciudad paradisíaca, la ciudad dorada, donde el mayor de los crímenes era no tener dinero. Esa ciudad se llama Mahagonny y Bertolt Brecht la imaginó al tiempo que Las Vegas brotaba con la forma de ciudad que hoy conocemos.

En Prohibido cantar / No Singing unos pocos personajes plantan un garito donde se ofrecen juegos de entretenimiento, trucos, amor y comida a bajo precio. La acción transcurre cerca de un camino polvoriento, en los mismos solares en los que hace un tiempo se proyectó una gran ciudad privada, con 32 casinos, llamada Gran Escala, que debía atraer a 25 millones de visitantes, pero que nunca vió la luz. Las imágenes que presentamos (en 7 pantallas) muestran cómo prospera la ciudad de Eurofarlete, bajo un sol inclemente y el cierzo soplando. Están compuestas de fragmentos de lo que allí sucedió durante dos días, y quizás ayuden a discernir una singular forma de organización por la supervivencia, donde todo está en venta, a precio de ganga y también a cualquier precio".

Jordi Colomer

1 Bertolt Brecht. Ascenso y caída de la ciudad de Mahagonny.1927-30.

2 Jorge Luis Borges. Fundación mítica de Buenos Aires in Fervor de Buenos Aires, 1923

BIOGRAFÍA

Jordi Colomer (1962) nació en Barcelona, ciudad en la que estudió Arte en EINA, Historia del Arte en la Universidad Autónoma y Arquitectura en la ETSAB. Vive y trabaja entre Barcelona y París.

Desde sus inicios el trabajo de Jordi Colomer ha ido incorporando a una singular visión de la escultura elementos de los dispositivos escénicos. Desde 1997 ha privilegiado el uso de la fotografía y la video-instalación. Sus primeros vídeos tomaban forma de micro-narraciones de raíz beckettiana, en los que los habitantes se debaten con objetos, decorados y espacios artificiales. En un segundo período estos personajes recorren la calle y el desierto con gestos y derivas que - (no exentos de cierto humor absurdo) - contagian un marcado espíritu crítico. Las obras de Colomer exploran las posibilidades de supervivencia poética que ofrece la urbe contemporánea. Así surgen obras como Anarchitekton (2002-2004), proyecto itinerante a través de cuatro ciudades (Barcelona, Bucarest, Brasilia, Osaka), No? Future! (rodada en Le Havre, 2004), Arabian stars (Yemen, 2005), Cinecito (La Habana, 2006), En la Pampa (realizada en el desierto de Atacama, Chile, 2008), Avenida Ixtapaluca (houses for México, 2009), The Istanbul Map (Istanbul, 2010), o más recientemente la trilogía What will come (Nueva York, 2010-11) donde los propios habitantes escriben el guión con sus desplazamientos en la suburbia americana ; o el proyecto Crier sur les toits (gritar a los cuatro vientos, 2011) donde se propone utilizar las azoteas como un pedestal a escala urbana, instituyendo una fiesta mundial. En l’Avenir (2011), inspirada en el Falansterio de Charles Fourier, las imágenes dan rostro a los habitantes de un proyecto utópico y son a la vez un comentario sobre sus posibilidades de materializarse. La instalación Prohibido cantar que aquí se presenta, investiga una vez más esa tensión entre proyecto y realidad, dibujando un espacio híbrido, a la vez totalmente físico y puramente mental; los proyectos de construcción de una ciudad de oro y casinos, que los medios anuncian tiene visos de precisarse y un lugar con mucho viento, contaminado por proyectos imaginarios del pasado y ahora ocupado por personas jugando a la ficción. Nótese que el propio espacio de Abierto x Obras ha quedado transformado por efecto de todas estas visitas.

Ha trabajado también como escenógrafo para el teatro en obras de Joan Brossa, Samuel Beckett, Valère Novarina así como en una ópera de Robert Ashley.

PROHIBIDO CANTAR / NO SINGING. JORDI COLOMER

(Didactic work on the foundation of a paradise city)

From 14 of september

to 09 of december

Price: Free

Institution:

Abierto x Obras

GALERÍA DE FOTOS

[ver + fotos]

'It's easier getting gold out of men than from rivers'. Bertolt Brecht,

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, 1927-30

The foundation of a city is not necessarily a heroic act. Everyday a new city begins to be built on water, concrete, sweat and money. Some are -almost- a pure idea. In his election manifesto president Juscelino Kubitschek promised the creation of a modern capital for Brazil in three years, Brasilia was built amongst the weeds of the high central plane, faithfully following the plans of Lucio Costa. At the same time the builders, who came on foot from all parts of the country, pitched their trembling huts where they slept and founded– without knowing it- their own city.

There are glass cities that grow out of offices and others made from tin and card that dance to the rhythm of their own inhabitants. On one occasion, a group of outlaws were being tailed by the police, when their truck broke down in the middle of the desert. They couldn't keep going or turn back. So they ended up founding a paradise city, the golden city, where the worst crime was not to have any money. That city was called Mahagonny and Bertolt Brecht envisioned it at the time when Las Vegas came about shaping the image of the city that we recognise today.

In Prohibido cantar / No Singing a few characters make a gambling den where they offer entertainment games, tricks, love and food at low prices. The action takes place close to a dusty road, on the same plot of land and during the time in which a great private city was planned, with 32 casinos, called Gran Escala, which was to attract 25 million visitors, and yet never saw the light of day. These images reveal how the city of Eurofarlete thrives, under a blazing sun and strong blowing winds. Fragments of what passed there over two days may help to discern the particular form of organisation needed for survival, where everything is on sale at a bargain price or indeed at any price.

Jordi Colomer (Barcelona, 1962) His work explores the possibility of poetic survival that is offered by the contemporary metropolis through a unique vision of sculpture incorporating scenic devices, photography and video installation. Prohibido Cantar / No Singing returns to investigate the tension between project and fiction and creates a hybrid space, on both a physical and mental plane. He has been educated in art, art history and architecture, among his latest solo shows are l'Avenir in the Palais de Beaux Arts (Brussels), What will come in the Argos Centre for Art and Media (Brussels), Co Op City at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York), Fuegogratis in the Laboratorio Arte Alameda (México D.F.), La Panera (Lleida) and Galerie du Jeu de Paume (Paris).

dAbisko-Sweden by tisdalem2001

1

Malmbanan and Narvik, 27 and 28 March 1980

While I was touring Europe by rail in March 1980, I made up the trip as I went along, generally not planning more than a few days in advance where I was going. Often it depended on where I was and were I could get to overnight on a train.

I had a few specific goals, among them riding Le Mistral and the Rheingold, the premier trains of France and Germany at the time and both TEEs. I saw a new item about Italy's Paola-Cosenza rack line still running steam in Continental Railway Journal, so I included it in my trip. I wanted to see some of Switzerland and had a day when I rode the Gotthard, Simplon and Lotschberg lines in a day trip from Luzern, where I was staying, to Milan and back. The now well worn February 1980 copy of Cook's International Timetalbe now on the table next to me was invaluable for figuring all this out.

My Euirailpass had come with a rail map of Europe, showing the lines where the pass was valid, and something I'd noticed was a line in far northern Sweden and Norway ending at Narvik, on the Norwegian coast. I don't think I knew much about the line at the time, other than that it was above the Arctic Circle and was as far north as I could reach by rail in western Europe. (Wikipedia says its northernmost point is 68.452 degrees north latitude.) I've since gone through my collection of rail magazines and realized that I might have read about the line to Narvik before I went there, but at the time it was an abstraction, a far away place that might as well have been Olympus Mons or the Sea of Tranquility for me. Anyway, I don't think I had any clue of what to expect when I boarded the Nordpilen (Northern Arrow) in Stockholm the night of 26 March.

Cook's had shown me that the train to Narvik left Stockholm at 1632 and was due into Narvik at 1400 the following afternoon. It was not really a through train as the sleeper and couchettes from Stockholm only went as far as Kiruna. Meanwhile, it would have picked up some coaches and 3 of those would continue on from Kriuna to Narvik. The train was a classic overnight run with cars for various destinations as it left Stockholm as well as picking up cars along the way..

My notes say that out of Stockholm, we had a Rc4, three 2nd class and one 1st class coach for Ostersund, a self service diner, a 2nd class coach for Ange, two couchettes and a sleeper for Krruna and three sleepers and a couchette for Lulea..

I had food with me as European train food was often expensive and not all trains had food service. Cooks says the Nordpilen had a diner for dinner and as far as Kiruna for breakfast.

Normally, on overnight trips, I'd sleep in a first class coach compartment as I had a first class Eurailpass, but on the Nordpilen, I was in a couchette, an economy sleeper with 6 berth compartments. I probably slept like a rock...whether the other people in the compartment did with my snoring is another matter.

At some point in the morning we stopped at the Arctic Circle sign., I thought it was a signal stop at first, but then saw the sign out the window and I presume the stop was made so people could see it and get photos if they wanted.

Kiruna was the last major community in Sweden on our route and it turned out to be a major iron mining center and the reason for the line's existence. The railroad reached Kiruna in 1899 and then was pushed over the mountains to Narvik to give the ore an Atlantic Ocean port, being completed in 1903.

In addition to shedding the couhettes and sleeper from Stockholm and a coach-diner from Lulea in Kriuna, the Nordpilen swapped its Rc4 electric for a Da 1-C-1 jackshaft drive electric. The Da series dated from the 1950s, had about 2500 HP and a maximum speed of 100 km/h. This was more than adequate for the train and railroad between Kiruna and Narvik.

We left Kriuna on time at 1100 and headed into some very remote country. There were a few towns along the way, but to give you a feel for how small they are, the Nordpilen stops at Abisko, which has 85 people.

At about 1310, we stopped at Bjornfjell, just inside Norway and stayed there for a while. Up to that point, we'd been on time. We heard there was a derailment ahead. another train was in the station, also 3 cars behind a Da. This train was also headed for Narvik, and my notes say that it was coupled to the end of our train when we left. Cook's lists a train that left Kiruna at 0700, so if that was the train already in the station, it had been there a while.

I got off the train and took some photos of the trains, station and snowsheds. The station had a cafe and I warmed up with coffee from it. At the time, there was not a road from Narvik to Sweden through Bjornfjell, but that changed in 1984.

At about 1515, with the other train's Da locomotive run around to the end of the train, we headed west, with Da, 6 cars, Da. It is 40 km from Bjornfjell to Narvik and the line is called the Ofotbanan in Norway, although the whole route if frequently referred to by the Swedish Malmbanan.

Bjornfjell is at 514 meters elevation and the line drops to sea level at Narvik. The 40 km separating the two stations is one of the most spectacular routes anywhere in the world and only its remoteness keeps it from being as well known as the Moffat line out of Denver, Donner Pass or various Swiss mountain railways. It runs along Narvik Fjord and the whole trip is nothing short of gorgeous. As we were two hours late, we had late afternoon light, as well.

We stopped again at Katterat, about 10 km from Bjornfjell and met an uphill ore train and a passenger train, probably the Nordpilen, which was scheduled to leave Narvik at 1500. My notes say we were going again at 1650 and arrived in Narvik at 1728, 3 1/2 hours late.

Railroading above the Arctic Circle presents challenges!

Several of us walked from the station to the hostel. I remember talking to one woman who lived somewhere near Narvik that would require a ferry ride to get to and the last ferry had already left for the evening, so she was spending the night at the hostel.

After getting checked in and having dinner, I went out and got photos of the sunset and the lights on the harbor. As this was after the spring equinox and we were above the Arctic Circle, the sky still had color at 10 at night.

The next day (28 March), I explored Narvik. Its main reason for being is as the port for the ore, and is the biggest community in the area with 20,000 people. The photos aren't really in order by time, but I grouped them by location with the station, ore dock and general harbor and city scenes together. My notes say that in addition to ore trains with the 3 unit jackshaft drive Dm3 electrics and NSB class 15s, I saw an NSB DMU train depart, then the Nordpilen arrive, although I don't seem to have a photo of the Nordpilen's arrival.

The Dm3s were quite a sight, They were 3 unit 1'D+D+D'1 jackshaft drive engines built from 1954 to 1971. The last were retired in 2011, but some are preserved. They had 9,700 HP and were geared for a maximum speed of 75 km/h. Not speed demons, but they got the ore up and down the mountain for decades.

The Nordpilen left on time at 1500, and afforded another sightseeing trip up the fjord. My notes say that the train's 5 cars filled up when we stopped at various Swedish stations with skiers. 28 March was a Friday, so, perhaps, people were also going from remote towns into larger communities for the weekend.

I switched to a couchette at Kiruna. We left almost on time at 1825, having replaced the Da with an Rc4 and added 3 couchettes and a sleeper (or maybe it was 2 and 2, I wasn't sure about one car) and a diner-coach. The coaches and diner would be taken off at Boden and continue to the port city of Lulea on the Gulf of Bothnia. Aslo at Boden, sleepers and couchettes from Lulea would be added to the train for the run to Stockholm.

After 3 days of beautiful weather in Stockholm and the far north, the weather turned wet. The Nordpilen arrived in Stockholm around 1315, which would have been maybe 5 minutes late. With the wet weather, I just hung around Stockholm station until my next train was due to leave, the 1547 train to Malmo and Copenhagen, which had a through cars to Hamburg and Berlin, the Berlin car being a Mitropa sleeper. (Mitropa was the East German sleeping dand dining car company.)

On the trip south from Stockholm, I rode in the the through car to Hamburg, a DB 1st/2nd composite car. It was packed. It seemed that a Danish gymnastic team had missed an earlier train and was on this one. I wound up on a jump seat in the aisle. At one point, someone saw me reading the International Herald-Tribune and asked if she could see it when I was done. When I said "Sure" she exclaimed, "He's American!" in shock, which got some laughs. Several of the gymnasts and I got to talking and I swapped addresses with one of them, whom I visited the following year.

After Copenhagen, I had a compartment to myself in the Copenhagen-Konstanz coach and rode that to Frankfurt overnight.

With Norwegian Airlines offering cheap flights on Oslo and Stockholm from Oakland, I have been itching to get back to Scandinavia and have another go at the Malmbanan. No Dm3s these days, but heavy ore trains still run along the fjord and I'd like a few days to do some linesiding at the little stations where we stopped. Perhaps when I retire.

IMG_3783g by francois f swanepoel

faure/macassar, western cape- kramat of sheikh yussuf

A Kramat is a shrine or mausoleum that has been built over the burial place of a Muslim who's particular piety and practice of the teachings of Islam is recognised by the community. I have been engaged in documenting these sites around Cape Town over several visits at different times over the last few years. They range widely from graves marked by an edge of stones to more elaborate tombs sheltered by buildings of various styles. They are cultural markers that speak of a culture was shaped by life at the Cape and that infuses Cape Town at large.

In my searches used the guide put out by the Cape Masaar Society as a basic guide to locate some recognised sites. Even so some were not that easy to find.

In the context of the Muslims at the Cape, historically the kramats represented places of focus for the faithful and were/are often places of local pilgrimage. When the Dutch and the VOC (United East India Company aka Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) set up a refuelling station and a settlement at the Cape, Muslims from their territories in the East Indies and Batavia were with them from the start as soldiers, slaves and 'Vryswarten'; (freemen). As the settlement established itself as a colony the Cape became a useful place to banish political opponents from the heart of their eastern empire. Some exiles were of royal lineage and there were also scholars amongst them. One of the most well known of these exiles was Sheik Yusuf who was cordially received by Govenor van der Stel as befitted his rank (he and his entourage where eventually housed on an estate away from the main settlement so that he was less likely to have an influence over the local population), others were imprisoned for a time both in Cape Town and on Robben island. It is said that the first Koran in the Cape was first written out from memory by Sheik Yusuf after his arrival. There were several Islamic scholars in his retinue and these men encouraged something of an Islamic revival amoung the isolated community. Their influence over the enslaved “Malay” population who were already nominally Muslim was considerable and through the ministrations of other teachers to the underclasses the influence of Islam became quite marked. As political opponents to the governing powers the teachers became focus points for escaped slaves in the outlying areas.

Under the VOC it was forbidden to practice any other faith other than Christianity in public which meant that there was no provision for mosques or madrasas. The faith was maintained informally until the end of the C18th when plans were made for the first mosque and promises of land to be granted for a specific burial ground in the Bo Kaap were given in negotiations for support against an imminent British invasion. These promises were honoured by the British after their victory.

There is talk of a prophecy of a protective circle of Islam that would surround Cape Town. I cannot find the specifics of this prophecy but the 27 kramats of the “Auliyah” or friends of Allah, as these honoured individuals are known, do form a loose circle of saints. Some of the Auliyah are credited with miraculous powers in legends that speak of their life and works. Within the folk tradition some are believed to be able to intercede on behalf of supplicants (even though this more part of a mystical philosophy (keramat) and is not strictly accepted in mainstream contemporary Islamic teaching) and even today some visitors may offer special prayers at their grave sites in much the same way as Christians might direct prayer at the shrine of a particular saint.

photographer's note-

sheikh yussuf was the brother of the king of Goa (Gowa) with it's capital of Makassar. yussuf fought in battles against the Dutch and was eventually captured. he was transferred to the cape of good hope in 1693. he died in 1699. he had 2 wives, 2 concubines, 12 children and 14 male and female slaves.

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

Die Kramat van Sjeg Yusuf, Faure

Die Kramat1 van Sjeg Yusuf (Abadin Tadia Tjoessoep)2 op 'n klein heuwel naby die mond van die Eersterivier in Makassar, Faure, is 'n terrein waarheen Kaapse Moslems oor die laaste drie eeue pelgrimstogte onderneem. Yusuf is op 23 April 1699 oorlede en op die heuwel begrawe. Volgens predikant en skrywer, Francois Valentyn (1666-1727), wat sy graf in 1705 besoek het, was dit "een cierlyke Mohammedaansch tombe, wat van zeer hoog opgezette steenen, verheerlykt was".3 Dit is nie heeltemal duidelik of hy van 'n hoog opgeboude graf of 'n struktuur daaroor praat nie.

Dié tombe moes mettertyd veranderings en verbouings het en volgens Biskop Patrick Griffith (1798-1862) wat dit meer as 'n eeu later op 25 Januarie 1839 besoek het, het dit heel anders daar uitgesien...

and proceeded to a Mr Cloete's where we took horses and road (sic) to a Malay Mosque [i.e. the kramat] situated on the summit of a hill, to which we ascended by a rude Stone Stair Case, rather Circular and partly cut out of Limestone rock, by an hundred steps. We left our horses below tied to the door of a Caravansery where the Pilgrims who come every year from Cape Town and all around, lodge while they go thro' their devotions. Both Lodging House and Mosque are at present deserted and we cd. only see the Exterior of both. The Mosque has a small Mineret (sic) in the centre and contains the Tomb of some Prince and Priest of the Sect. The Building is square and low with a portico: the windows are screened within and all that could be seen through some chinks in the walls was some drapery. A curious sight, however, exists outside: graves covered with white Clothes, five or six of which graves are enclosed together with a low wall round them; two or three more are apart; each has a round black stone at the head round which a Malay handkerchief is tied, with another black stone at foot, represents the feet, so that with the white sheet over the body, one wd. imagine at first view that it was a corpse was directly before him, the representation of it is so like reality. These White cloths (of calico) are renewed every year and we found some sixty or more rotten ones under each of the last white Coverings."1

Die terrein is in 1862 deur die imam van die Jamia-moskee in Chiappinistraat, Abdol Wahab, aangekoop,5 maar die gebou het tot vroeg in die 20ste eeu bewaar gebly, hoewel dit by verskeie geleenthede klein veranderings en herstelwerk moes ondergaan het.

Die Oostenrykse wetenskaplike, diplomaat en ontdekkingsreisiger, Karl Ritter von Scherzer (1821-1903) het die Kaap in Oktober 1857 aan boord die Novara, op 'n omseilingstog van die wêreld, aangedoen. Hy het die volgende waardevolle beskrywing, deurdrenk met sy eie voor- en afkeure, nagelaat:

"The following morning we drove to a hill, ahout a mile and a half distant from Zandvliet, known as Macassar Downs, on which is the spot of interment, (Krammat or Brammat), of a Malay prophet.

This individual, so honoured in death, was, if we are to believe the Malays, a direct descendant of Mahomet, named Sheikh Joseph, who, expelled from Batavia by the Dutch Government for political reasons, settled in the colony about a century and a half ago, and died and was buried in the neighbourhood of Zandvliet. An especial deputation came over from Malacca to Cape Colony to fetch away the corpse of the defunct prophet, for conveyance to the land of his birth; but at the disinterment it happened that the little finger of the prophet, in spite of the most persevering research, could nowhere be found. This circumstance appeared to those simple believers sufficient reason for erecting a monument over the spot in which the finger of a Malay prophet lay hid from view. Even to this day the Malays from time to time perform a pilgrimage to the Colony and celebrate their religious ceremonies at the Mausoleum. Four followers of the prophet are buried with him, two of them Mahometan priests, who are regarded with much veneration by the Malays.

An extensive flight of stone steps leads to the tomb, the exterior of which is very insignificant, and, but for a small pointed turret, hardly differs from an ordinary dwelling-house. On entering, a low-roofed vault is visible, a sort of front outhouse, which rather disfigures the facade, and much more resembles a cellar than the portal of a Mausoleum. Above the arch of this vault an Arabic inscription has been engraved with a stylus but this is so painted over in brick colour that it has already become almost illegible. Judging by the few words that have been deciphered, it seems to consist of the first propositions of the Koran.

The inner room, provided on two sides with modern glazed windows at irregular intervals, is about the size of an ordinary room of 12 feet long, 9 wide, and 7 high (3.66m long, 2.74 wide, and 2.13 high). In the middle rises the monument, to which access is had by some more brick steps. Immense quantities of unwashed white linen cloth are heaped upon it, which seem occasionally sprinkled with a brown odoriferous liquid (dupa). As at the head of Sheikh Joseph, so at his feet several figures, resembling those in enamel used to ornament tarts, are drawn upon the linen cloth with the overflowings of the unguent. These have undoubtedly been formed accidentally, and it appears wrong and unfair to attribute to them any more recondite significance. The monument rests upon four wooden pillars, with pyramidal pinnacles or ornaments, and is richly decorated with fine white muslin, which gives to the whole very much the appearance of an old-fashioned English "fourposter," with its costly drapery and curtains. While the curtains are spread out all around, several small green and white bannerets stand at the upper and lower end of the sarcophagus. The whole interior is, as it were, impregnated with the incense which devout Malay pilgrims from time to time burn here, especially after the forty days' fast (Ramadan), or leave behind upon the steps of the tomb in flasks or in paper-boxes. On such occasions, they always bring wax-candles and linen cloth as an offering, with the latter of which they deck the tomb afresh, so that a perfect mountain of white linen rises above the stone floor. During their devotions they unceasingly kiss this white mass of stuff, and as they are continually chewing tobacco, this filthy habit produces disgustingly loathsome stains.

On the same hill which boasts the tomb of Sheikh Joseph, there are also, in ground that is common property, nine other graves of eminent Malays, enclosed with carefully-selected stones, and likewise covered over with large broad strips of bleached linen cloth, protected by stones from any injury by weather or violence. At the head and foot of each individual interred, is a single stone of larger size. Formerly the black inhabitants of the neighbourhood made use of this store of linen cloth to make shirts for themselves, without further thought upon the propriety of the matter. Latterly, however, a shrewd Malay priest spread a report that one of these ebony linen stealers had lost all the fingers off one hand, since which the graves of those departed worthies remain inviolate and unprofaned.

At the foot of the hill are some small half-fallen-in buildings, near a large hall, painted white, red, and yellow, consisting of a small apartment and a kitchen, the whole in a most dirty, neglected, and desolate condition. At this point the Moslems must have accomplished certain prayers, before they can climb the hill and proceed to visit the tomb. Over the door of this singular house of prayer some words are likewise engraved in the Arabic character, which, however, are now entirely illegible.

On quitting the Malay Krammat, we next undertook a tolerably difficult walk to the Downs or sand-dunes, which at this point extend along the entire coast line, on which the wax-berry shrub, as already mentioned, grows wild in vast quantities, and visibly prevents the further encroachments of the moving sand. The Eerst Rivier (First River) may be regarded as the limit of demarcation between the sand-dunes and the soil adapted for vegetation."6

'n Britse joernalis en historikus, Ian Duncan Colvin (1877-1938), beskryf sy besoek aan die Kramat vyftig jaar later in die begin van die 20ste eeu:

"It was in springtime that we made the pilgrimage, in October, the springtime of the south... We passed through cow-scented pasture and the cornlands of Zandvliet, and so towards the sea, guided by the white star of the tomb.

It stands upon a sandstone rock which the Eerste River bends round on its way to the sea, and you can hear the breakers roaring, though unseen behind the sand-dunes. A little wooden bridge crosses the river beside the drift... On the farther side the little hill rises steeply, and under it nestles a row of very ancient and dilapidated cottages. One of them is used as a stable by the pilgrims and another as a mosque, and upon its porch you will see a little notice in English that 'women are not allowed inside the church', a warning signed with all the weight and authority of the late Haji Abdul Kalil... Inside, this little chapel is touchingly primitive and simple, with blue sky showing through the thatched roof, and a martin's nest plastered on the ceiling of the little alcove. Between these cottages and the stream is a field of sweet marjoram, no doubt grown for the service of the shrine, and the way up the hill is made easy by a flight of steps build perhaps centuries ago, and ruinous with age. With their white balustrades, and overgrown as they are with grass and wild-flowers, they are very beautiful, and in pilgrimage-time we may suppose them bright with Malays ascending and descending. We mounted them to the top, where they open on a little courtyard roughly paved and encinctured by a low white wall. On the farther side, opposite the top of the stairs, is the tomb itself, a little white building with an archway leading into a porch. Beyond is a door, of the sort common in Cape farm-houses, divided into two across the middle. Of course, we did not dare to open it and peep inside; but I am told by a Mahomedan friend that the inner tomb is of white stucco with four pillars of a pleasant design. It is upholstered in bright-coloured plush, and copies of the Koran lie open upon it. The inside of the room is papered in the best Malay fashion, and over the window is a veil of tinselled green gauze. From the roof several ostrich eggs hang on strings, and altogether it is the gayest and brightest little shrine. The ostrich eggs hanging on their strings made me think of a much more splendid tomb which Akbar, the first greatest of the Moguls, build for his friend Selim Chisti, a humble ascetic, in the centre of the mosque at Fatehpur Sikri.7 If any of my readers have made a pilgrimage to that wonderful deserted city, they will remember the tomb build of fretted marble, white and delicate as lace, in the centre of the great silent mosque of red sandstone – surely the finest testimonial to disinterested and spiritual friendship that exists in the world. And, if they look inside, they will recollect that around the inner shrine of mother o’pearl hang ostrich eggs just as they hang in Sheik Joseph’s tomb on the Cape Flats. But this digression is only to show that the Malay of Cape Town knows what is proper to the ornamentation of kramats. The shrine is tended with pious care, kept clean and white by the good Malays – a people of whom it may be said truly that they hold cleanliness as a virtue next to godliness."8

Hierdie beskrywing kom ooreen met dié van Scherzer en 'n foto in die Elliot-versameling in die Kaapse argief. Die minaret wat deur Biskop Griffith genoem en deur Scherzer geïllustreer is, en moontlik van hout gemaak was, het intussen verdwyn.

In 1925 het die Indiese filantroop, Hadji Sulaiman Sjah Mohamed Ali, opdrag vir 'n nuwe tombe gegee en is die huidige vierkantige en gekoepelde Moghul- of Delhi-inspireerde struktuur opgerig. Die argitek was F.K. KENDALL wat van 1896 tot 1918 in vennootskap met Herbert BAKER praktiseer het.

Die kramat vorm deel van die sogenaamde beskermende "Heilige Sirkel van Islam" wat strek van die kramatte teen die hange van Seinheuwel bo die klipgroef waar die eerste openbare Moslemgebede aan die Kaap gehou is, deur die kramatte op die rug van die heuwel en die kramat van Sjeg Noorul Mubeen by Oudekraal, en om die berg na die kramatte van Constantia, Faure, Robbeneiland, terug na Seinheuwel.

Sjeg Yusuf van Makassar (1626-1699)

Sjeg Yusuf (Abadin Tadia Tjoesoep) is in 1626 te Gowa by Makassar (Mangkasara), op die suidwestelike punt van die Sulawesi-eiland (voorheen Celebes) langs die Straat van Makassar, gebore. Toe die Portugese dit vroeg in die sestiende eeu bereik het, was dit 'n besige handelshawe waar Arabiese, Indiese, Javaanse, Maleise Siamese en Chinese skepe aangedoen en hulle produkte geruil en verkoop het. Met die koms van die Nederlanders, wat die speseryhandel wou monopoliseer en Britse deelname daaraan wou stuit, is die tradisie van vrye handel aan die begin van die 17de eeu omvergewerp. Nadat hulle die fort van Makassar ingeneem het, is dit herbou en as Fort Rotterdam herdoop. Van hier het hulle die vestings van die Sultan van Gowa geteiken.

Toe hy agtien jaar oud was, het Yusuf op 'n pelgrims- en studietog na Mekka vertrek waar hy verskeie jare deurgebring het. Met sy terugkeer het hy die Nederlanders in Makassar vermy en hom in Bantam in Wes-Java aan die hof van Sultan Ageng (Abulfatah Agung, 1631-1695) as onderwyser en geestelike rigter gevestig. Hy het die sultan se seuns onderrig en met een van sy dogters getrou. Hy was deeglik in die Shari'ah (Moslem kode en godsdienstige wet) onderlê en diep betrokke by die mistieke aspekte van sy geloof met die gevolg dat sy reputasie as 'n vrome persoon en heilige kenner en geleerde vinnig versprei het.

Hoewel die Nederlanders die handel op Java beheer het, het Bantam 'n sterk mate van onafhanklikheid behou. Yusuf was 'n vurige teenstander van die VOC en het en ook 'n rebellie teen die Europeërs gelei toe 'n ouer vredesooreenkoms tussen hulle in 1656 gebreek is. 'n Nuwe ooreenkoms is in 1659 bereik, maar 'n interne tweestryd in die Sultanaat het in die VOC se kraam gepas. Die sultan se seun, later as Sultan Hadji bekend, het met die hulle saamgespan teen sy vader en jonger broer wat voorkeur aan die Britse en Deense handelaars gegee het. Die breuk het in 1680 gekom toe Ageng oorlog teen Batavia (Jakarta) verklaar het. Hadji het 'n opstand teen sy vader gelei wat Ageng tot sy woning beperk het. Hoewel sy volgelinge teruggeveg het, het die Nederlanders Hadji te hulp gesnel en is Ageng na die hooglande verdryf waar hy in Maart 1683 oorgegee het. Hierna is hy na Batavia geneem waar hy oorlede is.

Yusuf het die verset voortgesit en is eers teen die einde van 1683 gevange geneem waarna hy ook na Batavia geneem is. Sy invloed in die Moslemgemeenskap van die VOC se hoofkwartier in die Ooste, waar hy as heilige vereer is, asook die aandrang op sy vrystelling deur die vorste van Gowa (Makassar) – wat toe bondgenote van die VOC was – het daartoe gelei dat Yusuf en sy gevolg eers na Ceylon (Sri Lanka) en daarna na die Kaap verban is. Sjeg Yusuf en sy "aanhang", soos in die notules van die Politieke Raad aangedui is, het op 31 Maart 1694 aan boord die Voetboog in Tafelbaai aangekom. Hier is hulle gul deur goewerneur Simon van der Stel ontvang, maar in die Kasteel gehou totdat daar in Junie besluit is om hulle na die mond van die Eersterivier, wat oor die plaas Zandvliet van ds P. Kalden uitgekyk het, te stuur.9

Hier in die duine, wat later as Makassar en Makassarstrand bekend sou word, het Yusuf en sy gevolg hulle gevestig. Volgens oorlewering was dit die eerste sentrum van Islam en Islamitiese onderrig in Suid-Afrika en het die terrein 'n sakrosante ereplek gebly na Yusuf se afsterwe op 23 April 1699 en sy begrafnis op die heuwel. Hoewel sommige skrywers nie oortuig is dat ook Yusuf se oorskot na die Ooste terug is nie, argumenteer André van Rensburg dat dit wel gebeur het.

"Hoewel 'n aanvanklike versoek van 31 Desember 1701 dat Yusuf se oorskot opgegrawe en na Indonesië gestuur word, geweier is, is in 'n verslag van 26 Februarie 1703 deur die Here XVII gelas dat die sjeg se naasbestaandes en sy oorskot na Indonesië weggebring moes word.

Op 26 Februarie 1704 het die amptelike geskrewe instruksies van die VOC in die Kaap aangekom. Die weduwee van Yusuf, hul jong kinders en ander lede van sy gevolg moes toegelaat word om na Indonesië terug te keer.

Daar is ook bepaal dat die oorskot van Yusuf onopsigtelik opgegrawe moes word sodat die naasbestaandes dit kon saamneem. Voorsorg moes egter getref word dat ander Oosterse bannelinge nie ontsnap deur voor te gee dat hulle naasbestaandes van sjeg Yusuf is nie."10

Die gevolg van Sjeg Yusuf het op 5 Oktober 1704 aan boord van De Spiegel uit Tafelbaai met sy oorskot vertrek en op 10 Desember in Batavia anker gegooi. Hierna is sy hulle na Makassar waar sy oorskot op 6 April 1705 op Lakiung in Ujung Pandang herbegrawe is. Bo-oor Yusuf se nuwe graf is 'n kramat of ko'bang deur die Chinese bouer Dju Kian Kiu opgerig. Ook hierdie Kramat word druk deur pelgrims besoek.

________________________________

Kramat is die algemeen Kaapse term vir die tombe van 'n [Moslem] heilige of Wali van Allah; in Urdu verwys karamat of keramat na die wonderwerking van 'n heilige, soms word dit ook as sinoniem vir heilige gebruik.

Die meer algemeen gebruikte spelling word hier in plaas van die erkende Afrikaanse "Joesoef" gebruik.

Raidt, E.H. 1971. François Valentyn Beshryvinge van de Kaap der Goede Hoop met de zaaken daar toe behoorende. Kaapstad: Van Riebeeck Vereniging, Vol. 1, p. 198.

Brain, J.S. (ed.). 1988. The Cape diary of bishop Patrick Raymond Griffith for the years 1837-1839. Cape Town: Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, pp. 189-90.

Aktekantoor, Kaapstad, Akte 6/3/1862, no. 121.

Scherzer, K. 1861. Narrative of the circumnavigation of the globe by the Austrian frigate Novara, (commodore b. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,): undertaken by order of the imperial government, in the years l857,1858, & 1859. London: Saunders, Otley & Co, pp. 244-248.

Seremoniële hoofstad [Fatehpur = stad van oorwinning] van 1569 tot 1574 deur die Mughale Keiser Akbar (1542-1605) by Sikri, die hermitage van sy spirituele gids, Sjeg Salim Chisti, opgerig. Die tombe wat deur Colvin beskryf word, is deur Shah Jahan (1592-1666) herbou.

Colvin, I.D. 1909. Romance of Empire, South Africa. London: TC & EL Jack, pp. 16168.

Böeseken, A.J. 1961. Resolusies van die Politieke Raad III 1681-1707. Kaapstad: Argiefkomitee, p. 283 (14.06.1694).

Van Rensburg, A. & Van Bart, M. 2004. Waar rus Sjeg Yusuf: van die Kaap tot in Makassar. Kultuurkroniek, Bylae by Die Burger, 10 Julie, pp. 12-13

Van Rensburg, A. & Van Bart, M. 2004. Waar rus Sjeg Yusuf: van die Kaap tot in Makassar. Kultuurkroniek, Bylae by Die Burger, 10 Julie, p.13.

________________________________

Schalk W le Roux, Gordonsbaai, Februarie 2013

See also Van Bart, M. & Van Rensburg A.

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Wording on Minaret:

IN MEMORY OF

SHEIKH YUSUF

MARTYR & HERO

OF BANTAM

1629 - 1699

THIS MINARET

WAS ERECTED BY

HAJEE SULLAIMAN

SHAHMAHOMED

IN THE REIGN OF

KING GEORGE V

MAY 1925

_____________________

THIS MEMORIAL WAS UNVEILED

19TH DECEMBER 1925 BY

SIR FREDERIC DE WAAL

KCMG:LLD:FIRST ADMINISTRATOR

OF THE CAPE PROVINCE

IN THE YEAR WHEN THIS

DISTRICT WAS VISITED BY

HIS ROYAL HIGNESS

THE PRINCE OF WALES

4TH MAY 1925

_____________________

THE "DARGAN" OF ASHBAT

[COMPANIONS] OF SAINT SHEIKH YUSSUF

[GALERAN TUANSE] OF MACASSAR.

_____

HERE LIE THE REMAINS OF FOUR OF FORTY-NINE

FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS WHO AFTER SERVING

IN THE BANTAM WAR OF 1682-83, ARRIVED WITH

SHEIKH YUSSUF AT THE CAPE FROM CEYLON,

IN THE SHIP "VOETBOOG" IN THE YEAR 1694.

_____

THIS COMMEMORATION TABLET WAS ERECTED

DURING THE GREAT WAR ON 8 JANUARY 1918.

BY HAJEE SULLAIMAN SHAHMAHOMED.

SENIOR TRUSTEE.

Wording on plaque:

PRESIDENT SOEHARTO

OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA

VISITED THIS SHRINE ON 21 NOVEMBER 1997

TO PAY RESPECT TO THE LATE SHEIKH YUSSUF OF

MACASSAR UPON WHOM THE TITLE OF NATIONAL

HERO WAS CONFERRED BY THE INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT

ON 7 AUGUST 1995

Writings about this Kramat of Sheikh Yusuf

Davids, Achmat. 1980. The Mosques of Bo-Kaap - A social history of Islam at the Cape. Athlone, Cape: The South African Institute of Arabic and Islamic Research. pp 37-40.

_______________________________________________

De Bosdari, C. 1971. Cape Dutch Houses and Farms. Cape Town: AA Balkema. pp 73.

_______________________________________________

De Kock, WJ. 1976. Suid-Afrikaanse biografiese woordeboek : Deel 1. Kaapstad: RGN/Tafelberg. pp 429-430.

_______________________________________________

Du Plessis, Izak David. 1944. The Cape Malays. Cape Town: Maskew Miller. pp 4-7.

_______________________________________________

Jaffer, M. 2001. Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape. Cape Town: Cape Mazaar (Kramat) Society. pp 17-19.

_______________________________________________

Jaffer, Mansoor. 1996. Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape. Cape Town: Cape Mazaar Kramat Society. pp 17.

_______________________________________________

Le Roux, SW. 1992. Vormgewende invloede op die ontwikkeling van moskee-argitektuur binne die Heilige Sirkel aan die Kaap tot 1950 . Pretoria: PhD-verhandeling: Universiteit van Pretoria. pp 201-202.

_______________________________________________

Oxley, John. 1992. Places of Worship in South Africa. Halfway House: Southern Book Publishers. pp 63-64.

_______________________________________________

Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1975. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 11 Tur-Zwe. Cape Town: Nasou. pp 567.

_______________________________________________

Potgieter, DJ (Editor-in-chief). 1972. Standard Encyclopaedia of South Africa [SESA] Volume 6 Hun-Lit. Cape Town: Nasou. pp 454-455.

_______________________________________________

Rhoda, E. 2010. Hajee Sullaiman Shahmahomed and the shrine of Shayk Yusuf of Macassar at Faure. : Unpublished manuscript.

_______________________________________________

Van Selms, A. Joesoef, Sjeik: in De Kock, WJ. 1976. Suid-Afrikaanse biografiese woordeboek : Deel 1: pp 429-430

________________________________________

Shaykh Yusuf was born at Macassar in 1626. He was also known as Abadin Tadia Tjoessoep. He was of noble birth, a maternal nephew of King Biset of Goa. He studied in Arabia under the tutelage of several pious teachers.

When Shaykh Yusuf arrives at the Cape, on the Voetboeg, he was royally welcomed by Governor Simon van de Stel. His Indonesian background necessitated that he and his 49 followers be settled well away from Cape Town. They were housed on the farm Zandvliet, near the mouth of the Eeste River, in the general area now called Macassar. He received an allowance of 12rix dollars from the Cape authorities for support of himself and his party. At Zandvliet Shaykh Yusuf’s settlement soon became a sanctuary for fugitive slaves. It was here that the first cohesive Muslim community in S.A. was established. The first settlement of Muslims in South Africa was a vibrant one, despite its isolation. It was from here that the message of Islam was disseminated to the slave community living in Cape Town. When Shaykh Yusuf died on 23 May 1699, he was buried on the hill overlooking Macassar at Faure. A shrine was constructed over his grave. Over the years this shrine has been rebuilt and renewed. Today it remains a place of pilgrimage.

Prohibido cantar / No Singing. Jordi Colomer by Matadero Madrid

1

JORDI COLOMER

Prohibido Cantar / No Singing. Obra didáctica sobre la fundación de una ciudad paradisíaca.

Desde el 14 de septiembre

Precio: Entrada libre

Institución:

Abierto x Obras

Inauguración: Viernes 14 de septiembre a las 20 h.

Jordi Colomer es el encargado de esta nueva creación site specific en la antigua cámara frigorífica de Matadero. La obra de Colomer explora una singular visión de la escultura incorporando dispositivos escénicos, fotografía y videoinstalación.

'Os será más fácil sacarles el oro a los hombres que a los ríos'1

"La fundación de una ciudad no es forzosamente un acto heroico. Para las ciudades antiguas, la arqueología tantea un orden cronológico, desempolva las pruebas del suceso, mientras la Historia y la leyenda proponen sus relatos. Dice Jorge-Luis Borges: 'A mí se me hace cuento que empezó Buenos Aires: La juzgo tan eterna como el agua y como el aire'2.

Pero cada día, empiezan nuevas ciudades, construidas de agua, de hormigón, de sudor y de dinero. Algunas son -casi- pura idea. En su programa electoral el presidente Kubitschek prometió la creación de una moderna capital para Brasil y, en tres años, Brasilia se levantó entre las malezas del plano alto central, siguiendo fielmente los planes de Lucio Costa. A su vez los obreros que la pusieron en pie, venidos de todas las regiones del país, plantaron sus chamizos trémulos donde dormir y fundaron -sin saberlo- su propia ciudad. Hay ciudades de cristal que crecen en los despachos, y otras de lata y cartón que bailan al ritmo de sus propios habitantes. En una ocasión, a un grupo de forajidos a los que la policía les pisaba los talones se les estropeó el camión en pleno desierto. No podían seguir, ni ir hacia atrás. Fundaron entonces allí mismo una ciudad paradisíaca, la ciudad dorada, donde el mayor de los crímenes era no tener dinero. Esa ciudad se llama Mahagonny y Bertolt Brecht la imaginó al tiempo que Las Vegas brotaba con la forma de ciudad que hoy conocemos.

En Prohibido cantar / No Singing unos pocos personajes plantan un garito donde se ofrecen juegos de entretenimiento, trucos, amor y comida a bajo precio. La acción transcurre cerca de un camino polvoriento, en los mismos solares en los que hace un tiempo se proyectó una gran ciudad privada, con 32 casinos, llamada Gran Escala, que debía atraer a 25 millones de visitantes, pero que nunca vió la luz. Las imágenes que presentamos (en 7 pantallas) muestran cómo prospera la ciudad de Eurofarlete, bajo un sol inclemente y el cierzo soplando. Están compuestas de fragmentos de lo que allí sucedió durante dos días, y quizás ayuden a discernir una singular forma de organización por la supervivencia, donde todo está en venta, a precio de ganga y también a cualquier precio".

Jordi Colomer

1 Bertolt Brecht. Ascenso y caída de la ciudad de Mahagonny.1927-30.

2 Jorge Luis Borges. Fundación mítica de Buenos Aires in Fervor de Buenos Aires, 1923

BIOGRAFÍA

Jordi Colomer (1962) nació en Barcelona, ciudad en la que estudió Arte en EINA, Historia del Arte en la Universidad Autónoma y Arquitectura en la ETSAB. Vive y trabaja entre Barcelona y París.

Desde sus inicios el trabajo de Jordi Colomer ha ido incorporando a una singular visión de la escultura elementos de los dispositivos escénicos. Desde 1997 ha privilegiado el uso de la fotografía y la video-instalación. Sus primeros vídeos tomaban forma de micro-narraciones de raíz beckettiana, en los que los habitantes se debaten con objetos, decorados y espacios artificiales. En un segundo período estos personajes recorren la calle y el desierto con gestos y derivas que - (no exentos de cierto humor absurdo) - contagian un marcado espíritu crítico. Las obras de Colomer exploran las posibilidades de supervivencia poética que ofrece la urbe contemporánea. Así surgen obras como Anarchitekton (2002-2004), proyecto itinerante a través de cuatro ciudades (Barcelona, Bucarest, Brasilia, Osaka), No? Future! (rodada en Le Havre, 2004), Arabian stars (Yemen, 2005), Cinecito (La Habana, 2006), En la Pampa (realizada en el desierto de Atacama, Chile, 2008), Avenida Ixtapaluca (houses for México, 2009), The Istanbul Map (Istanbul, 2010), o más recientemente la trilogía What will come (Nueva York, 2010-11) donde los propios habitantes escriben el guión con sus desplazamientos en la suburbia americana ; o el proyecto Crier sur les toits (gritar a los cuatro vientos, 2011) donde se propone utilizar las azoteas como un pedestal a escala urbana, instituyendo una fiesta mundial. En l’Avenir (2011), inspirada en el Falansterio de Charles Fourier, las imágenes dan rostro a los habitantes de un proyecto utópico y son a la vez un comentario sobre sus posibilidades de materializarse. La instalación Prohibido cantar que aquí se presenta, investiga una vez más esa tensión entre proyecto y realidad, dibujando un espacio híbrido, a la vez totalmente físico y puramente mental; los proyectos de construcción de una ciudad de oro y casinos, que los medios anuncian tiene visos de precisarse y un lugar con mucho viento, contaminado por proyectos imaginarios del pasado y ahora ocupado por personas jugando a la ficción. Nótese que el propio espacio de Abierto x Obras ha quedado transformado por efecto de todas estas visitas.

Ha trabajado también como escenógrafo para el teatro en obras de Joan Brossa, Samuel Beckett, Valère Novarina así como en una ópera de Robert Ashley.

PROHIBIDO CANTAR / NO SINGING. JORDI COLOMER

(Didactic work on the foundation of a paradise city)

From 14 of september

to 09 of december

Price: Free

Institution:

Abierto x Obras

GALERÍA DE FOTOS

[ver + fotos]

'It's easier getting gold out of men than from rivers'. Bertolt Brecht,

The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, 1927-30

The foundation of a city is not necessarily a heroic act. Everyday a new city begins to be built on water, concrete, sweat and money. Some are -almost- a pure idea. In his election manifesto president Juscelino Kubitschek promised the creation of a modern capital for Brazil in three years, Brasilia was built amongst the weeds of the high central plane, faithfully following the plans of Lucio Costa. At the same time the builders, who came on foot from all parts of the country, pitched their trembling huts where they slept and founded– without knowing it- their own city.

There are glass cities that grow out of offices and others made from tin and card that dance to the rhythm of their own inhabitants. On one occasion, a group of outlaws were being tailed by the police, when their truck broke down in the middle of the desert. They couldn't keep going or turn back. So they ended up founding a paradise city, the golden city, where the worst crime was not to have any money. That city was called Mahagonny and Bertolt Brecht envisioned it at the time when Las Vegas came about shaping the image of the city that we recognise today.

In Prohibido cantar / No Singing a few characters make a gambling den where they offer entertainment games, tricks, love and food at low prices. The action takes place close to a dusty road, on the same plot of land and during the time in which a great private city was planned, with 32 casinos, called Gran Escala, which was to attract 25 million visitors, and yet never saw the light of day. These images reveal how the city of Eurofarlete thrives, under a blazing sun and strong blowing winds. Fragments of what passed there over two days may help to discern the particular form of organisation needed for survival, where everything is on sale at a bargain price or indeed at any price.

Jordi Colomer (Barcelona, 1962) His work explores the possibility of poetic survival that is offered by the contemporary metropolis through a unique vision of sculpture incorporating scenic devices, photography and video installation. Prohibido Cantar / No Singing returns to investigate the tension between project and fiction and creates a hybrid space, on both a physical and mental plane. He has been educated in art, art history and architecture, among his latest solo shows are l'Avenir in the Palais de Beaux Arts (Brussels), What will come in the Argos Centre for Art and Media (Brussels), Co Op City at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York), Fuegogratis in the Laboratorio Arte Alameda (México D.F.), La Panera (Lleida) and Galerie du Jeu de Paume (Paris).

IMG_2878fx by francois f swanepoel