Lao Temple: Mural and Burial Stupas

Most of the temples we saw in the Buddhist nation of Laos were noticeably less ornate and decorated than the many I've seen in Thailand. I found them serene and appealing.

The first photo shows you the intricately carved door of a small unassuming neighborhood temple we walked by in Vientiane, the nation's capital. I failed to find out its name (and googling came up empty).

I also regret cutting off the bottom of the door in this photo; my focus back then in 2002 was clearly on the wonderful mural (better seen enlarged) painted directly onto dry stucco. I've learned since that this mural most likely depicts scenes from the ancient Jakata Tales that Buddhist monks tell to develop the moral values of their listeners.

Vientiane, 2002 

Near the temple were a cluster of typical burial stupas. We saw many of these in Laos; around temples, in nature along the road we traveled, and in the gardens of private homes. And yet I was not able to discover any information at all about them.

Upon death, Lao people are generally cremated following Buddhist rituals, and so these would not be graves for bodies in coffins the way we often bury our dead in the West. I conclude, until I learn otherwise, that these funerary stupas are memorials erected for loved ones.

The only view of the entire temple building I photographed was this one from the back.

I am linking with the blogging communities at Monday Mural and Taphophile Tragics.

Ponte and Castel Sant'Angelo

This is a section of the beautiful Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome spanning the Tiber River.

Rome, 2007

Emperor Hadrian had this bridge built in 134 AD to give access from the city center to his grand mausoleum. The ten Bernini-designed angels lining the bridge were added much later, in the 17th century (unfortunately I did not cross over to get close ups of them, but images can easily be found online).

About Hadrian's tomb, from Wikipedia:

The tomb of the Roman emperor Hadrian, also called Hadrian's mole, was erected on the right bank of the Tiber, between 135 AD and 139 AD. Originally the mausoleum was a decorated cylinder, with a garden top and golden quadriga. Hadrian's ashes were placed here a year after his death in Baiae in 138 AD, together with those of his wife Sabina, and his first adopted son, Lucius Aelius, who also died in 138 AD. Following this, the remains of succeeding emperors were also placed here, the last recorded deposition being Caracalla in 217 AD. The urns containing these ashes were probably placed in what is now known as the Treasury room deep within the building.

More about Castel Sant'Angelo from Wikipedia:

Legend holds that the Archangel Michael appeared atop the mausoleum, sheathing his sword as a sign of the end of the plague of 590, thus lending the castle its present name.

Today the building is a museum.

My images today are offered to the blog-hop communities of Weekend Reflections, Sunday Bridges and Taphophile Tragics.

The Grand Millenium Reflected

This is part of the Grand Millenium Plaza building reflected in the windows of Sheung Wan Golden Centre in Central, Hong Kong.

First in monochrome for Weekend in Black and White. [Better seen enlarged.]

Hong Kong, 2007

And then, because I really couldn't decide which I liked better, a slightly different angle in color for Weekend Reflections.

When I took these photographs some years ago, we were on a fast walk and I really only noticed the clock tower and the art decoish details. I was expecting to find some interesting information about the architecture. It was therefore a bit of a disappointment to learn that this is a relatively new building completed in 1998 with no real historical significance.

What you would not realize just from looking at these photos is that right behind the clock tower the Grand Millenium Plaza is a 28-floor multi-purpose building. I didn't take a photo of it.

This was an urban renewal project started in 1988 on 7,200 sqm lot of land in a then rather dilapitaded area of Central on which the two towers were built: this one you see, plus another 52-story glass tower with a similar lower floor design (ranking 20th on the list of tallest buildings in HK). Between the two towers there is a 3,365 sqm Italian-inspired plaza, complete with fountain, trees and flower planters - an amazing little oasis in the urban center. This photo shows only a small part of it.

The buildings and plaza are worth a closer look. I found this 360-degree view online (and it gave permission to use it for non-commercial purposes). After clicking on the center red arrow and OK, click on full screen on the top left; then use your mouse to drag left-right-up-down to change your view. You can also zoom in or out. It's cool.

The Millenium Plaza

Hopsan (Iron) Bridge in Kaiping

Hopsan (Iron) Bridge, located at the border between Bahop and Hinkong townships in Kaiping, was built in 1934.

Kaiping, 2011

Several years earlier, Wong Le Yung, a Kaiping student studying in Japan, started a fund raising campaign to build this bridge. By 1934, he raised 16,200 silver dollars. With a local design, they bought steel from Germany to build this iron truss bridge without pillar supports, a great architectural achievement here at the time.

The length of the bridge is 67 meters and the width 9.5 meters.

Stories were told that the Japanese tried to bomb the bridge to stop the movements of the anti-Japanese guerillas during the Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), but their planes failed to find the bridge.

I am not clear whether the locks were built at the same tme, but my guess would be that they were a more recent addition.

A plaque on this tower says that the local government declared the Hopsan Bridge a heritage site in 1983. This is my contribution to Sunday Bridges.

The view from the bridge overlooks some run-down factory buildings I'd guess to be from the 1960s, except for that brand new blue roof. With the soft light of the setting sun, it gave me my shot for Weekend Reflections.

Monday Mural II - Peles Castle V

It's Monday and again I join a small group of bloggers posting interesting murals found around the world. Check them out... one in Ontario, one in Flint, MI, and the other where the mural blog-hop started, in Oakland, CA. Why not join and show us yours?

Today my mural is in Romania. This is the delightful fresco in a small courtyard near the public entrance to the fairytale Peles Castle in Sinaia. The link takes you to my earlier posts on this outstanding castle built between 1873 and 1914 (and a couple of other castles).

Sinaia, 2011

Heart of Vienna Reflected

 Vienna, 2011

Reflections of the heart of Vienna, Der Graben, including its most famous landmark Stephansdom (St Stephen's Cathedral) in store hours sign and store windows. [Better seen enlarged.]

Below is a longer view of the pedestrian street with the once exclusive apparel and fine linens store E Braun & Co established in this building (with the tower) in 1893, now the Swedish mid-range fashion chain store H&M.

Linking with reflections seekers at Weekend Reflections.

A is for Arc de Triomphe

I'd be astonished if you were not familiar with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the famous monument honoring the brave soldiers who fought for France, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars. But you may not know that there are other similar arch structures built around the globe in memory of valiant soldiers who lost their lives for a cause . 

I've seen four other arch monuments in my travels: in Rome, Delhi, Bucharest and Chişinău. Today, for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday and the letter A, I share with you my photos of the small Arc de Triomphe in the small country of Moldova.

We arrived in the capital in the late afternoon earlier this year and I made it to the monument just as the sun was setting. The massive building behind it is the Government House of Moldova.

Chişinău, 2011

Unfortunately, I've been unable to find out what triumph this monument commemorates. I've learned that it is also called the Holy Gates, but to what I don't know.

Built of white stone this triumphal arch is similar in design to the one in Paris, but much smaller. The architectural details are rather pretty, I think. 

Another confusing fact is that the references I found date this monument to 1841, yet the plaque offers the date 1846. It was restored in 1973.

I think these two plaques in the Moldovan Cyrillic alphabet (used only from 1938 until 1989) and the Russian Cyrillic alphabet... and I can't tell you which is what... are interesting and will fit sign seekers at Signs, Signs.

P is for Painting

A few weeks ago on a pleasant not-too-hot, not-yet-wet, fall day, my honey and I borrowed two bikes and rode out of the town we use as home base in Kaiping into the countryside to get a closer look at a couple of the nearby old villages we had so often passed by car.

This is the front of one of several villages we explored a bit. There were old gray-bricked houses, as well as a couple of new tiled ones. Aesthetically I much prefer the old houses.

Kaiping, 2011

What I found especially attractive here were the hand-painted scenes that adorn many of the doors and a few walls. On the doors of this first house you see a traditional auspicious spring couplet that reads (roughly translated):

Everything under the sun is glowing

The spring sun is spreading virtuous luster

The meaning of the couplet depends on the reader's own state of mind.
 

In this close-up you can see more painting on the ceiling and the permanent hooks meant to hold festival lanterns.

Another close-up of an old house's intricately painted entryway:

New houses built with cement and tiles, more often than not paid for by a migrant working - or family living - overseas, still keep the village tradition.

 

This next image gives you a closer look at the painting, as well as the good luck bundle hanging from the hook. This bundle typically consists of fruits and other edibles which in Chinese sound auspicious, like luck, wealth or longevity.

 

These paintings are for ABC Wednesday, where the letter today is P.

I share with you one more close-up from this village that shows more lovely ways the old gray houses are adorned.

The sore behinds we got from the hours of bicycling were well worth seeing these (and many other) treasures we discovered by taking it in at a slower speed.

V is for Vittoriano on Piazza Venezia

Rome, 2007

Vittoriano on Piazza Venezia was nicknamed "the type-writer" by the Romans and 'the wedding cake" by American GIs of WW2. I still can't help but be impressed by the grandeur of Mussolini's white elephant.

This is my letter V for Jenny's Alphabe-Thursday. 

Puddle Reflection I

Manila, 2011

An old government building reflected in a puddle.

This is a James shot - surely understood by those who follow his meme... Enlarge it to appreciate fully.

And it's linked with Weekend Reflections and Weekend in Black and White.

[SkyWatch] Washing the Skyscraper

Manila, 2011

Last week I had an errand to run in Makati, our financial district, and I spotted these window washers on this glass skyscraper. It's not the first time I tell you it's a job I couldn't do, but neither could I resist the shot. It still fascinates me.

Besides, it was one of the rare times I saw anything but gray in our skies these past weeks.

So here it is, for SkyWatch Friday and Weekend Reflections.

S is for School

When times are tough, the first things we go without are those we deem non-basics or luxuries. This goes for government budgets, too. Yet I find it incomprehensible and sad that we consider art and cultural programs, including art and music education for our youth in schools, among the dispensable, especially while the war machines are kept humming at full tilt. This value system does not speak well of us as civilized humans.

I am guessing that this once-handsome music school in Bucharest too had its funding slashed.

 Bucharest, 2011

The signs posted in front of the school show there is still a lively interest in a range of music in the city.

Posting for S at Alphabe-Thursday and Signs, Signs.

F is for Farmhouse

This florid fallen-in farmhouse near Sibiel was my favorite homestead in Transylvania. I found it on our foray through the fabulous old villages I posted a few months ago.

Sibiel, Romania, 2011

Check out the other fantastic F posts linked to ABC Wednesday.

Face of an Angel

Bucharest, 2011

Top part of a caryatid on a dilapidated building in Bucharest.

Linking with Weekend in Black and White.

D is for Dubrovnik

On one of the four days we were "stuck" in Cavtat (see last week's post), my mother and I took a ferry to Dubrovnik, a late medieval walled city in Croatia I had long wished to visit. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, this "Pearl of the Adriatic" on the Dalmatian coast was founded in the 7th century and became an important sea port from the 13th century onwards that once rivaled Venice.

Neither one day nor one post can adequate cover the richness and beauty to see and appreciate in the old walled town. Renaissance and Baroque churches, monasteries and monuments, with shiny marbled streets and small alleyways, make this a popular tourist destination. 

This is no dead historical tourist trap, however. It's very much a live city where children play and locals go about their business of living. A walk away from the main streets offered charming surprises around every corner.

This is just a brief photo tour to inspire you. [Photos enlarge with a click.]

 

Croatia, 2009

Linking with the community at ABC Wednesday with the letter D.