Wat Rong Khun : A Buddhist Temple

Wat Rong Khun, more well-known among foreigners as the White Temple, is an unconventional Buddhist temple in Chiang Rai, Thailand. Designed in 1997 by noted Thai painter-turned-architect Chalermchai Kositpipat, this magnificent temple is a bizarre blend of traditional Thai architecture and the surreal. The main building is painted white to symbolise Buddha’s purity, and is covered in mosaics of mirrors, sparkling in the sun. All around the complex are intricate sculptures of demons, skulls, severed heads handing from trees and other bizarre objects.

To reach the temple you have to walk over a bridge over a moat filled with innumerable sculptures of out-reaching arms, apparently symbolizing desire. Once inside, you will be greeted not by traditional Buddha life scenarios but by contemporary scenes and icons of popular culture. Instead of paintings of heroes fighting demons, the artist decided to take contemporary manifestations of good and evil and put it into a Buddhist context. Murals of Batman, Superman, Predator and even Keanu Reeves as Neo from The Matrix are seen in the interior. In one unfinished wall dominates image of a plane smashing into the Twin Towers. In another wall there are paintings of spaceships and a scene depicting a cataclysmic event annihilating planet earth.

Animation 165

Religious Thought 153

To commit no wrong, even against one's enemies, Is said to be supreme wisdom. Only the forgetful plot another's ruin; others remember That virtue itself devises a plotter's downfall.

- Tirukkural 21: 203-204

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Worldly afflictions are as extensive as an ocean, noisy and clamorous; but they all arise from the thoughts in your own mind. When not a single thought is conceived, you are liberated from them all.

- Ta-t

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Religious Thought 152

Self-control will place a man among the Gods, While lack of it will lead him into deepest darkness.

- Tirukkural 13:121

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You really have to know your own fundamental mind before you can stop and rest. If you know your mind and arrive at the fundamental, that is like space merging with space.

- Ta-tu

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Eye in the sky over India

Eye in the sky over India: Camera on a kite snaps fabulous photographs of the sub-continent

Taken from skies high above India these startling images provide a new perspective on the country's rich culture and vibrant landscapes.

Incredibly they were snapped not from the inside of an aeroplane but from camera hanging from a simple kite.

For the last nine years French photographer Nicolas Chorier has been attaching one of his four specialist cameras to a simple Japanese-style kite in order to take thousands of pictures of places from above.

The iconic white stonework of the Taj Mahal with the city of Agra behind - 47-year-old Nicolas developed his passion for photography after growing up in France with weekly slide shows around the fireplace

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कहाँ हैं भगवान ?

एक आदमी हमेशा की तरह अपने नाई की दूकान पर बाल कटवाने गया. 


बाल कटाते वक़्त अक्सर देश-दुनिया की बातें हुआ करती थीं…. 

आज भी वे सिनेमा, राजनीति और खेल जगत , इत्यादि के बारे में बातकर रहे थे 
कि अचानक भगवान् के अस्तित्व को लेकर बात होने लगी. 

नाई ने कहा , “ देखिये भैया ,आपकी तरह मैं भगवान् के अस्तित्व में यकीन नहीं रखता.” 

“तुम ऐसा क्यों कहते हो?”,आदमी ने पूछा . 

“अरे , ये समझना बहुत आसान है , 

बस गली में जाइए और आप समझ जायेंगे कि भगवान् नहीं है. 

आप ही बताइए कि अगर भगवान् होते तो क्या इतने लोग बीमार होते? 

इतने बच्चे अनाथ होते ? 

अगर भगवान् होते तो किसी को कोई दर्द कोई तकलीफ नहींहोती 

”,नाई ने बोलना जारी रखा , 

“मैं ऐसे भगवान के बारे में नहीं सोच सकता जो इन सब चीजों को होने दे .आप 
ही बताइए कहाँ है भगवान?” 

आदमी एक क्षण के लिए रुका , कुछ सोचा, पर बहस बढे ना इसलिए चुप ही रहा . 

नाई ने अपना काम ख़तम किया 

और आदमी कुछ सोचते हुए दुकानसे बाहर निकला और कुछ दूर जाकर खड़ा हो गया. . 

कुछ देर इंतज़ार करने के बादउसे एक लम्बी दाढ़ी – मूछ वाला अधेड़ 
व्यक्ति उस तरफ आता दिखाई पड़ा, 

उसे देखकर लगता था मानो वो कितने दिनोंसे नहाया-धोया ना हो. 

आदमी तुरंत नाई कि दुकान में वापस घुस गया और बोला , 

“ जानतेहो इस दुनिया में नाई नहीं होते!” 

“भला कैसे नहीं होते हैं?, नाई ने सवाल किया, “ मैं साक्षात तुम्हारे सामने हूँ!! ” 


“नहीं ” आदमी ने कहा, “ वो नहीं होते हैं, वरना किसी की भी लम्बी दाढ़ी – 
मूछ नहीं होती पर वो देखो सामने उस आदमी की कितनी लम्बी दाढ़ी-मूछ है !!” 

“अरे नहीं भाई साहब नाई होते हैं लेकिन बहुत से लोग हमारे पास नहीं आते .” नाई बोला 

“बिलकुल सही ” आदमी ने नाई को रोकते हुए कहा ,”यही तो बात है , भगवान भी 
होते हैं पर लोग उनके पास नहीं जाते और ना ही उन्हें खोजने का प्रयास 
करते हैं, इसीलिए दुनिया में इतना दुःख-दर्द है.” 

Some fun....

Stunning winter scenery at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon

Stunning Photos of Transparent (Centrolenidae) Frog

The Glass Frog is named for its semitransparent skin, where you can see its internal organs. The color of their skin is light green, with small spots of either yellow, white, black, or blue. The Glass Frog lives in southern Mexico, Central America, and South America, as far south as northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. There are currently between sixty and one hundred species of Glass Frogs living today. Glass Frogs live near rapid streams, or rivers, in the canopy level of trees in the rainforest. The Glass Frog is 20 to 30 millimeters long, and eats small insects.