Bizarre attempts.

Hyderabad lights.

Manali, Haimalayas.

For a fresh feel.

10 EXCEPTIONAL TEMPLES

Chion-in Temple was built in 1234 CE to honor the founder of Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhism.(above)

In the 19th century, Dutch occupiers of Indonesia found a massive ancient ruin deep in the jungles of Java.
What they discovered was the complex of Borobudur,
a gigantic structure built with nearly 2 million cubic feet (55,000 m³) of stones.
The temple has nearly 2,700 relief panels and 504 Buddha statues. (below)

The Harmandir Sahib (meaning The Abode of God) or simply the Golden Temple in Punjab
is the most sacred shrine of Sikhism.(below)

The one below is the largest temple in history
and the inspiration to countless novels and action movies of Hollywood: Ankor Wat.

Tiger's nest Monastery, perched on the edge of a 3000- feet-high cliff in Paro Valley in Bhutan

Wat Rong Khun (a Buddhist temple) in Chiang Mai, Thailand


Prambanan is a Hindu temple in Central Java, Indonesia.
The temple was built in 850 CE, and is composed of 8 main shrines and 250 surrounding smaller ones.

No one knows exactly when the Shwedagon Paya (or Pagoda) in Myanmar was built.
Legend has it that it is 2,500 years old though archaeologists estimate that it was built between the 6th and 10th century.

Temple of Heaven is a Taoist temple in Beijing, China.
The temple was constructed in 14th century by Emperor Yongle of the Ming Dynasty.



The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Tiruchirapalli (or Trichy), is the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world.
Ankor Wat is the largest of all temple, but it is currently non-functioning as a temple - see below.
The last one is very special to me for two reasons.
1.Tiruchirapalli is my native place.
2.The Lord, Sri Ranganathaswamy, residing in this temple is God, Guide and Guardian to me.

Yoga for a healthy living.

Olympic 2008

WORLD FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHS

THE TRIANGLE SHIRTWAIST FIRE. [1911]
Picture of bodies at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company. Company rules were to keep doors closed to the factory so workers (mostly immigrant women) couldn't leave or steal. When a fire ignited, disaster struck. 146 people died that day.

Photographer: International Ladies Garmet workers Union ?!

PORTRAIT OF SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL[1941]
This photograph was taken by Yousuf Karsh, a Canadian photographer, when Winston Churchill came to Ottawa. The portrait of Churchill brought Karsh international fame. It is claimed to be the most reproduced photographic portrait in history. It also appeared on the cover of Life magazine.

SEGREGATED WATER FOUNTAINS [1950]

Picture of segregated water fountains in North Carolina taken by Elliott Erwitt

BURNING MONK- THE SELF IMMOLATION [1963]


June 11, 1963, Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk from Vietnam, burned himself to death at a busy intersection in downtown Saigon to bring attention to the repressive policies of the Catholic Diem regime that controlled the South Vietnamese government at the time. Buddhist monks asked the regime to lift its ban on flying the traditional Buddhist flag, to grant Buddhism the same rights as Catholicism, to stop detaining Buddhists and to give Buddhist monks and nuns the right to practice and spread their religion.
Photographer: Malcolm Browne

While burning Thich Quang Duc never moved a muscle.

AFGHAN GIRL [1984]
And of course the afghan girl, picture shot by National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry. Sharbat Gula was one of the students in an informal school within the refugee camp; McCurry, rarely given the opportunity to photograph Afghan women, seized the opportunity and captured her image. She was approximately 12 years old at the time. She made it on the cover of National Geographic next year, and her identity was discovered in 1992.

Steve McCurry never guessed at the time, that a 15 minute photo session of a young Afghan girl would lead to an image that would become the international symbol for the ‘reign of terror’ that has made Afghanistan a living hell for the last 23 years. And certainly he never knew that it would plague him every day since then. "Not a day has gone by, says McCurry, when someone has not asked about the whereabouts of her. I have wondered myself, whether or not she survived."

Sharbat Gula

Now he knows. Sharbat Gula is somewhere around the age of 29, with 3 daughters, one who is older than she was during her first and only other session in front of the camera...sitting for the same photographer. Along with her children, Ms. Gula lives, in Jalalabat, Afghanistan, with her husband who is a baker, her mother-in-law and her brother; the same one who escaped with her after their parents were murdered years ago.

The world renown, green-eyed woman traveled a mile or so, across the border to Peshawar, Pakistan to meet Steve, an interpreter and a TV film crew to share her life's story. The meeting took place not far from the schoolhouse where the first photos were taken.

When asked how she survived all these years, Sharbat answers, "It is god's will."


OMAYRA SANCHEZ- 1985

Omayra Sánchez was one of the 25,000 victims of the Nevado del Ruiz (Colombia) volcano which erupted on November 14, 1985. The 13-year old had been trapped in water and concrete for 3 days. The picture was taken shortly before she died and it caused controversy due to the photographer's work and the Colombian government's inaction in the midst of the tragedy, when it was published worldwide after the young girl's death.

photographer: Frank Fournier

STRICKEN CHILD CRAWLING TOWARDS THE FOOD CAMP- 1994

The photo is the "Pulitzer Prize" winning photo taken in 1994 during the Sudan Famine.
The picture depicts stricken child crawling towards an United Nations food camp, located a kilometer away.

The vulture is waiting for the child to die so that it can eat him. This picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what happened to the child, including the photographer Kevin Carter who
left the place as soon as the photograph was taken.

Three months later he committed suicide due to depression.

Photographer: Kevin Carter

THE PLIGHT OF KOSOVO REFUGEES. 1999

The photo is part of The Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning entry (2000) showing how a Kosovar refugee Agim Shala, 2, is passed through a barbed wire fence into the hands of grandparents at a camp run by United Arab Emirates in Kukes, Albania. The members of the Shala family were reunited here after fleeing the conflict in Kosovo.

Photographer: Carol Guzy

BLISS-2000

Bliss is the name of a photograph of a landscape in Napa County, California, east of Sonoma Valley. It contains rolling green hills and a blue sky with stratocumulus and cirrus clouds. The image is used as the default computer wallpaper for the "Luna" theme in Windows XP.

The photograph was taken by the professional photographer Charles O'Rear, a resident of St. Helena in Napa County, for digital-design company HighTurn. O'Rear has also taken photographs of Napa Valley for the May 1979 National Geographic Magazine article Napa, Valley of the Vine.

O'Rear's photograph inspired Windows XP's US$ 200 million advertising campaign Yes you can.

Courtesy: Shades. http://shadesotwilight.blogspot.com/