Tag Archives: religion

FotoFolio: The Holy City of Jagannath Puri, Odisha, East India

As part of my great East Indian journey where I saw my first snow-capped mountain in Darjeeling and learned more about colonial India in Kolkata two years ago while volunteering in India, I paid my VSO batchmate co-volunteer Sue a visit at her placement area in Puri, Odisha.

Temple sand art for Lord Ganesha at Puri Beach (shamelessly taken from Sue’s blog)

Continue reading FotoFolio: The Holy City of Jagannath Puri, Odisha, East India

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#100Days Photo 29: The Small Pond and the Batu Caves, Selangor, Malaysia

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During the first time I set foot in Malaysia back in 2010, we only had one day and between Melaka, Genting Highlands and the Batu Caves, we decided to play with the clouds. It was only during the month-long Southeast Asia backpacking trip that I made it to Melaka and to the Batu Caves, both thanks to my fried Rajie who took time off her busy schedule to tour me, Lalai and Tetet! 🙂 Anyway, Batu Caves, as the name suggests (in Tagalog, batu, well bato, means stone), is a series of caves and cave temples inside a limestone hill. Batu Caves is a popular tourist spot and Hindu temple site around 13kms north of Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia. The area is surrounded by birds feeding on corn kernels the visitors throw around and by a small pond of ducks and koi fish. You’d need to climb up about 8-10 floors worth of stairs, alongside monkeys that can be pretty violent when they see food, to get inside the caves and the temples. Rajie, at the time at least, was not a devout Hindu so we were not sure whether the stories of Kartikeya (the massive golden statue at the foot of the caves to which the cave temples are dedicated to), and his family (daddy = Shiva, mommy = Parvati, brother = Ganapathi) and the peacock he’s riding, were as accurate as the scripts or just made up bedtime stories! It was quite entertaining though. 🙂 After visiting the caves, you might want to relax your legs and knees a bit and stay a while by the small pond, watching the ducks and koi fish glide and swim. Or, you can also pay a visit to Lord Hanuman, the monkey god, farther on the left.

Viahera Vlogs: Qutb Minar – revisiting the remnants of a new era

Qutb Minar and Alai Darwaza, entrance gate to the Quwwatu'l-Islam Mosque
Qutb Minar and Alai Darwaza, entrance gate to the Quwwatu’l-Islam Mosque

It was a pretty cold winter afternoon in New Delhi, January 2 if I’m not mistaken, when I met with Julie and her holidaying parents to visit the Qutb Minar and it monuments. It was my 5th attempt to visit Qutb Minar as I have been trying to do it every time I set foot in Delhi! Continue reading Viahera Vlogs: Qutb Minar – revisiting the remnants of a new era

Reblogged: Bodh Gaya: the journey to Nirvana

Reblogged is a series of blog posts on my life in India coming from the weblogs I set-up. It’s an attempt to put the stories all in one place! The post Bodh Gaya: the journey to Nirvana was originally posted on October 15, 2012, two weeks after the experience. Another post preceded this one, which has more text to tell the story of a full day’s trip to Bodh Gaya with VSO co-volunteers Julie and Amanda. This was part of the vacation I called “The Pilgrimage” as we visited the holy cities of Bodh Gaya and Varanasi.

 Ok. Actually, I just can’t think of an apt title at this moment that I am writing this. Hahaha 🙂 But, yeah, you can pretty much say that this post indeed is about the journey of Buddha, not necessarily into Nirvana but in the achievement of enlightenment. Also, this will be about the journey of me, Juls and Amanda as we tried to understand what Buddhism is and how it has began here in India.
 
my favorite of the snaps at Bodh Gaya: the “pilgrims” with the Giant Buddha

Reblogged: Bodh Gaya: the land of Buddha’s enlightenment

Reblogged is a series of blog posts on my life in India coming from the weblogs I set-up. It’s an attempt to put the stories all in one place! The post Bodh Gaya: the land of Buddha’s enlightenment was originally posted on September 30, 2012, written on the day things happened. Another post will follow after, which has more photos and videos as the way to tell the partial story about a full-week’s trip to North India with VSO co-volunteers Julie and Amanda, with their friend Laura. This was part of the vacation I called “The Pilgrimage” as we visited the holy cities of Bodh Gaya and Varanasi.

Oh yes! The stuff I used to hear from my history teachers is now coming into life! I am, at present, in Bodh Gaya, where prince Siddharta Gautama, later popularly known as Lord Buddha, was said to have achieved full enlightenment.