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A lady prepares temple offerings for the pilgrims who visits the temple in the evening at Parathasarathy Temple, Triplicane, Chennai.
A voyager stands at Platform 4 just beyond the impressive train shed at Bristol Temple Meads Station.
Where the Journey Begins
© 2021 Kurosawa Michiyo
長野県 のスタンプ／Stamps from Nagano-ken:
www.flickr.com/photos/love-gothiconnie/sets/7215762757464...
諏訪湖 ：
Apologies for the blue tint - a faulty setting on the camera was not noticed until too late !
Tō-ji (東寺 Tō-ji) (East Temple) is a Buddhist temple of the Shingon sect in Kyoto, Japan. It once had a partner, Sai-ji (West Temple) and, together, they stood alongside the Rashomon, gate to the Heian capital. It was formally known as Kyō-ō-gokoku-ji (教王護国寺 The Temple for the Defense of the Nation by Means of the King of Doctrines)[1] which indicates that it previously functioned as a temple providing protection for the nation. Tō-ji is located in Minami-ku near the intersection of Ōmiya Street and Kujō Street, southwest of Kyoto Station.
Tō-ji was founded in the early Heian period.[2] The temple dates from 796, two years after the capital moved to Heian-kyō. Together with its partner Sai-ji, and the temple Shingon-in (located in the Heian Palace), it was one of only three Buddhist temples allowed in the capital at the time, and is the only of the three to survive to the present.
Tō-ji is often associated with Kōbō Daishi (Kūkai). Though Tō-ji began to decline in the end of Heian period, it came back into the spotlight with the rise of Daishi Shinko (worshipping of Kōbō Daishi) in Kamakura period. The well-known Buddhist priest was put in charge of Tō-ji in 823 by order of Emperor Saga. The temple's principal image is of Yakushi Nyorai, the Medicine Buddha. Many religious services for Daishi are held in Miei-dō (御影堂) (or Daishi-dō (大師堂), in another name), the residence of Kōbō Daishi.[3]
Five-story pagoda
The Five-story pagoda of Tō-ji stands 54.8 meters (180 feet) high, and is the tallest wooden tower in Japan. It dates from the Edo period, when it was rebuilt by order of the third Tokugawa Shogun, Iemitsu. The pagoda has been, and continues to be, a symbol of Kyoto. Entrance into the pagoda itself is permitted only a few days a year.
Kondo
The Kondo or Golden Hall is the main hall of the temple, and contains a statue of Yakushi from 1603.
Miedo
The Miedo is dedicated to Kobo Daishi, also called Kukai, the temple's founder. It stands on the location of his original residence. The hall is opened on the 21st of each month, when a memorial service is held for Kukai.
Temple grounds
The grounds feature a garden and pond, in which turtles and koi swim. The grounds also house an academically rigorous private school, Rakunan, from which many students are sent to elite universities.
Recognizing the historical and spiritual significance of Tō-ji, UNESCO designated it, along with several other treasures in Kyoto Prefecture, as part of the "Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto" World Heritage Site.
The facade of the Temple of Horus at Edfu.
Perhaps the most striking features of the Temple of Horus are the gigantic pylons that stand at the entrance to the temple. At 118 feet high, they are decorated with battle scenes of King Ptolemy VIII defeating his enemies for Horus. It was constructed between 237 BC and 57 BC.
The Golden Temple in Amritsar attracts a lot of Indian and foreign tourists. This was my first trip to this magnificent destination. I went here both in the night and during the day. In the night the golden temple glitters with reflections in the pond. Unfortunately, i was not carrying my tripod so could not capture pictures in the night. Its the biggest temple i have ever visited. The whole complex is atleast 5X bigger than what you see in the picture above. The interior of the temple is even more beautiful than the outside.
A small temple at Mamallapuram, which is on the east coast an hour south of Chennai. And a boy who should have been in school, but instead was trying to sell us little carved animals.
The Tanah Lot Temple in Bali. Sitting on it's own little island off the coast of Bali was built around the 16th century and is one of seven sea temples around the balinese coast. Might be a good project to capture them all one day.
Title: Temple Place
Creator: Boston Landmarks Commission
Date: 1980-1990
Source: Boston Landmarks Commission research files, 5210.006
File name: 5210006_001_139
Rights: Rights status not evaluated
Citation: Boston Landmarks Commission research files, Collection 5210.006, City of Boston Archives, Boston
From the May 2016 trip to Thailand and Cambodia:
Baphuon is often times overlooked as it’s so close to Bayon at the heart of Angkor Thom. In comparison to neighboring Bayon, it’s quite small. This is a “temple mountain” and was the state temple of Yasodharapura in the 11th century. (It was built around 1060.) However, it’s quite attractive, has some interesting small panels, and a nice view from the summit. There’s also a reclining Buddha on the west face, though it’s built into the temple, so not quite so easy to see as, say, a statue. Baphuon is well worth the stop and can easily be enjoyed in an hour.
Well, this is it. Save for a return flight to Bangkok on Tuesday, May 17 (a formality, really, just to pick up the return flight to China on the 18th…and no shoots on the 17th in Bangkok), Siem Reap/Angkor Wat is the last stop – and the one I was most looking forward to.
The flight over was pretty uneventful, though amusing. At Phnom Penh International Airport, we checked in at the gate, then went outside and hopped on a bus to take us to the plane…which was literally less than 100 meters away. That amused me to no end. A quick, comfortable 45 minute flight on the prop jet later – over completely black terrain; it seems the countryside is either sparsely populated, or electricity is a premium, but we may as well have been flying over a moonless ocean – brought us to Siem Reap (which, I’m glad to say, had lights). Siem Reap is the small town (and it’s basically a tourist/party kind of town where it’s great to go out at night after spending a full day in the sweltering hot sun. It’s about 10 kilometers south of Angkor Wat.
In overview, Angkor Wat is the ancient capital of the Khmer kingdom. What remains today are temples…temples…and temples. Hindu temples. Buddhist temples. They were also a people who were animists, so some temples are reminiscent of that system, too.
The detail of the temples is also fascinating. There are more asparas here than you can shake a stick at. Of the roughly 20,000 asparas, only one is shown smiling (baring teeth, that is). It fascinates – and impresses – me that people have done such extensive research and restoration that they know this. Those are the details, though.
A macro view of the Siem Reap area is just as impressive in that these temples are a study of a civilization close to one thousand years old (yet another jaw-dropping aspect of Angkor: the longevity) and their durability. The earliest temples are over a thousand years old, and the most recent are from the 14th century. (If the guide book I bought is correct, they were all built between 790-1307.) What survives today is all original (though there have been reinforcements with stone – many foreign countries support renovations of specific temples; I recall China and India among them). It’s quite obvious to tell what’s old and what’s new in most cases. However, the restorations are all good and necessary. One last note regarding the longevity of these temples is this: If these stone temples are what remained…how impressive must the society have been who created them? (That’s to say…think of the temples, houses, and all that didn’t survive as they were built of wood; these are simply the temples built by the royals or the aristocracy.)
A tour of modern-day Angkor Wat can be done in one or two fairly vigorous days. However, if you’re looking for any classic shots, you’ll want to spend longer here. (Common sense: the more time here, the more chances for good shots.) For this trip – it may be the only time I come here, though you never know – we arrived on a Saturday night and checked into our hotel (My Home Tropical Garden Villa; $20/night)
Siem Reap feels, at first, like a small dusty outpost of a town. The center of town is about four square blocks of small dive restaurants (and a bar street) and slightly pricier restaurants. There is also a night market street, an art street…all in all, it’s quite nice and has a bit of a party feel to it in addition to the endless souvenir stands you would expect. Though we didn’t go out on Saturday night (since we didn’t get checked in until around 9:30 p.m.), we did get a chance to go on Sunday.
Sunday morning was an awfully early start. Before having left Phnom Penh, I jumped on Facebook and, by chance, found and hired a local tuktuk driver, Mao Khvan, for $25/day. He agreed to pick us up at 4:50 a.m. to catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat.
Now, a quick note on tuktuks: almost every single hotel/hostel/guesthouse probably has tuktuks available for hire. Also, when we were picked up at the airport, the taxi driver offered to drive us for the time we were there. In short…it’s a competitive market, and finding a driver for the day will be no problem. $25 may even be slightly pricy (you could probably find a driver for $15-20), however, I was so impressed with Mao’s service that, if I were to return, I’d gladly hire him again. He wasn’t rude or pushy, provides all the ice water you could possibly want to drink, and though he’s not an “official” guide, he’s very, very knowledgeable and made both days pleasant. I even had him take us to the airport the morning we left, and he brought his wife and daughter to meet us. He’s just a genuinely good and decent guy. (For anyone who goes to Angkor Wat, here’s Mao’s contact info if you want to arrange his services ahead of time: www.facebook.com/maotuktuksiemreap/?fref=ts )
Back to the actual touring itself, Angkor is geared towards tourism and they do it well. You can buy an admission ticket for either one, three, or seven days. ($20, $40, or…$60?). It’s also nice because they don’t have to be used in consecutive days (for the three and seven day passes, obviously). The three days can be used in a given week. The seven day pass, within a month.
Conventionally, two days is enough to see the “main” sites (albeit quickly) in about 8 hours each day. There’s a small loop (which we did the first morning) in which we caught the sunrise (not a great one, but…there was one, and it wasn’t terrible, by any stretch) at Angkor Wat, followed by a quick tour of the grounds – but not the temple itself. Afterwards (we were at Angkor Wat from 5:30 until 7:00 or 8:00, I’d say), we hopped back in the tuktuk and headed over to Ta Prohm, about 15-20 minutes away. Ta Prohm is famous for those who are fans of the Lara Croft Tomb Raider movies. (The first, I think. I’m not, so I don’t recall it vividly.) After those two spots – probably two of the three most famous – we went to the Khmer Country Kitchen for a rather nice, relaxing, and cheap breakfast where we spent an hour with the other two members of our group. Around 10:00, we went to our third stop: Ta Keo Temple. In 40 degree heat (roughly 104F), I was feeling a bit too exhausted to climb the somewhat steep stairs to the top of this temple, but I did enjoy the lower area just as well. From Ta Keo, we made a quick stop at two temples (they form a pair): Thommanon and Chau Say Tevoda for about 20 minutes. Between these three, I’d say we spent about an hour. Our last stop of the morning, around high noon, was the Bayon complex of Angkor Thom. Passing through Bayon’s east gate, we stopped for a few quick pictures before going to the main compound of Bayon, which I would say is the the last of the three most-recognizable places here. We spent a good hour, or a little longer, shooting here after which point we were completely spent. Mao would have gladly taken us back to Angkor for sunset, but we actually decided to call it a day around 1:00. 9 hours in high heat was more than enough.
Back at the hotel, we rested, and I enjoyed myself immensely in the swimming pool. In the early evening, we walked about 600 meters to the “happening” part of town where we wandered the various streets and had a rather nice Khmer dinner. After eating and walking off a rather good dinner, we called it a night and headed back to our room. (For what it’s worth, the afternoon sky clouded over quite a bit and I heard we didn’t miss much as far as sunsets go. Mao also told us the following morning that the sunrise was a wash, as was Tuesday morning’s. Perhaps he was just trying to make us feel good.)
Monday morning we gladly skipped the sunrise and had a late start around…10:00. After a good old-fashioned breakfast of a ham & cheese omelet, Mao came by and we spent the second full day on the large loop. The first stop of the day was at Ba Phuon, a lesser temple just north of Bayon in Angkhor Thom. This was accompanied by quick stops at the adjacent Elephant Terrace and Leper King Terrace. After about an hour in the Ba Phuon area, we rode off to the northeast and stopped at Preah Khan, which was a rather interesting ruins. Another hour or so gone, we continued along the northeastern loop, bypassing Neak Pean (which, following English pronunciation rules, could theoretically be pronounced “neck pain,” which amused me for some reason…). The next stop was a rather small temple named Ta Som on the eastern end of the outer loop. Just down the road from Ta Som, we stopped at the East Mebon temple. When it was constructed, this was an island, only accessible by boat. That, however, was centuries ago. Now, it’s just a very dry, dusty area – with the temple still standing – and it’s hard to imagine it was once surrounded by water. At any rate, it was a quick stop at East Mebon, followed by another nice meal at the Khmer Country Kitchen before we continued with the tour. The next stop on the list was due east of the restaurant (southeast corner of the outer loop, which is really slightly northeast of Angkor Wat). Pre Rup (or Bre Rup) was a fairly photogenic temple. By this point, the heat – also around 40 degrees, just like Sunday – was starting to take a toll, though we still managed to stay out and see all we could. The last “new” temple for us was Banteay Kdei, a citadel that is at the corner of where the inner and outer loop meet on the eastern side of Angkor Wat. Directly across the street from Bnateay Kdei is what should be a nice lake called Sra Srang. A long, rectangular lake, which is also across the street from the Khmer Country Kitchen, it’s now nothing but a dustbowl. Though it’s rainy season now, there’s been so little rain that the lake has completely dried up. (But, please don’t tell any “right”-thinking politicians in my country that global warming is a problem. It certainly isn’t, despite what your eyes see.) After some rather sad contemplation at Sra Srang, we went back to Angkor Wat around 4:00 and were there until 6:30 or so for sundown. However, a boomer of a thunderstorm (light rain, but heavy on thunder & lightning) came through and there wasn’t much to see. However, we did finally get to tour the interior of Angkor Wat, and found that a pretty fitting way to end the initial Siem Reap shoot. From there, we went back to the hotel where we passed out from exhaustion.
The only thing left to do was wake up on Tuesday for a quick 45 minute flight at noon to Bangkok. We concluded the trip as we started it: eating well at a Thai restaurant. Other than that, we just had a quiet night in Bangkok (no shooting at all) and a very early (3:30 a.m.) wake up call for our return flights out of Thailand. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing Thailand again soon.
Dharasuram, Airavatesvara Temple
Darasuram or Dharasuram is a town in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India. The town is known for the Airavateswara temple constructed by the Rajaraja Chola II in the 12th century AD.
Airavatesvara Temple is a Hindu temple of Dravidian architecture. This temple, built by Rajaraja Chola II in the 12th century CE is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, along with the Brihadeeswara Temple at Thanjavur, and the Gangaikondacholisvaram Temple at Gangaikonda Cholapuram that are referred to as the Great Living Chola Temples.
The Airavatesvara temple is dedicated to Lord Shiva. Shiva is here known as Airavateshvara, because he was worshipped at this temple by Airavata, the white elephant of the king of the gods, Indra.
This temple is a storehouse of art and architecture and has some exquisite stone carvings. Although this temple is much smaller than the Brihadeesvara Temple or the Gangaikondacholapuram Temple, it is more exquisite in detail. This is because this temple is said to have been built with nitya-vinoda, "perpetual entertainment", in mind.
(source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darasuram and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airavatesvara_Temple)
Buddhist temple at Lamlukka, Klong 6, Pathum thani. The temple houses this 60 feet tall golden Buddha which sits on the lotus flower.
Temple of Ramses III. The statues were in the Osiris Position with their arms folded. Osiris was the god of the underworld and crossing your arms after death would ensure you were with him.
The Karnak Temple Complex comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. This is a model of the complex.
The complex is a vast open site and includes the Karnak Open Air Museum. It is believed to be the second most visited historical site in Egypt. Only the Giza pyramid complex near Cairo receives more visits.
"The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued into Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming.
One famous aspect of Karnak is the Great Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 square feet with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. One hundred and twenty-two of these columns are 33 feet tall, and the other 12 are 69 feet tall with a diameter of 10 feet. The architraves on top of these columns are estimated to weigh 70 tons. These architraves may have been lifted to these heights using levers. This would be an extremely time-consuming process and also would require great balance to get to such great heights. A common alternative theory regarding how they were moved is that large ramps were constructed of sand, mud, brick or stone and that the stones were then towed up the ramps. If stone had been used for the ramps, they would have been able to use much less material. The top of the ramps presumably would have employed either wooden tracks or cobblestones for towing the megaliths.
Ram-headed sphinxes stand guard at the entrance to the temple. Two miles of these also line the two mile distance between this temple and the Temple of Luxor They were buried under the sands for over 1000 years before being excavated.
The Karnak Temple Complex comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. This is a model of the complex.
The complex is a vast open site and includes the Karnak Open Air Museum. It is believed to be the second most visited historical site in Egypt. Only the Giza pyramid complex near Cairo receives more visits.
"The key difference between Karnak and most of the other temples and sites in Egypt is the length of time over which it was developed and used. Construction of temples started in the Middle Kingdom and continued into Ptolemaic times. Approximately thirty pharaohs contributed to the buildings, enabling it to reach a size, complexity, and diversity not seen elsewhere. Few of the individual features of Karnak are unique, but the size and number of features are overwhelming.
One famous aspect of Karnak is the Great Hypostyle Hall in the Precinct of Amun-Re, a hall area of 50,000 square feet with 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. One hundred and twenty-two of these columns are 33 feet tall, and the other 12 are 69 feet tall with a diameter of over 10 feet."4 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. One hundred and twenty-two of these columns are 33 feet tall, and the other 12 are 69 feet tall with a diameter of over 10 feet."
Nestled in the hills of the Aravalli range is the Ranakpur Jain temple or Chaturmukha Dharana Vihara, dedicated to the first tirthankara (Supreme preacher) of Jainism, Adinath. The temple is one of the largest Jain temples and considered one of the five holiest Jain shrines in India.
The temple is a white marble structure spread over 4,500 square meters with 1444 marble pillars, twenty-nine halls, eighty domes and 426 columns. There are a total of 84 bhonyra (underground chambers) for storage and protection of idols from then marauders.
This temple is built in the Māru-Gurjara style of architecture.
Class 31/4 31406 waits to depart from Bristol Temple Meads at 14:45 having taken over the 1V26 12:10 Portsmouth Harbour to Cardiff Central from a Class 33/0.
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