white relief

Sometimes I'd had it up to here with gold ornateness,
& my eyes would rest on white walls, or dappled shadows.
One day I happened on a small temple with mostly white
stucco decoration, fine work too, it was lovely.
Then I could welcome some more exuberant if not totally
over the top swirls upon swirls of gold & primary colours.
The variations on a theme are truly amazing.

If I did this before, watch it again, producing a book by hand,
don't you love it?

wired

crisscrossed over the crisscrosses..

An unenviable job in most parts of asia. No one, it seems,
ever had the thought to conceal the wires. Again, I found
myself deleting them from what I was seeing, though the
camera didn't censor. Makes you wonder
how much else we filter out of what's apparently there,
doesn't it?

eyemagazine
Heard a scary program on abc radio national, re the debate
on developing the coal & gas fields near Dalby/Tara/Chinchilla
in Queensland. Apparently the extraction process results in
large amounts of salt in the (farming) land. How stupid is that?
Lots of export $ but one more crucial area gone from
food production. (can't find the recent program, sorry)
My family lived around there in the early 50's.

fragments

One of Chiang Mai's most prominent temples has a smaller
side building with fragments of once superb
narrative paintings, that are still worth hours of looking.
Hard to photograph, as a flash will speed deterioration.

A short clip on Balthus in the lovely light of his
remarkable house, the whole thing looks like one of his pictures.
I hope your connection is speedier than mine, could be
many interesting pieces on the site .

democratic

While the lower 2 goddesses are in the market, the others are
in the grounds of a temple which I came to see as
the most democratic: along with the animals, there's a full range

of skill in the decorations, plus some very fine painting.
Everyone had a go, even donald duck was there.



& then..! in fact the effect was well balanced, in place.

Old backgrounds from animated movies ( I find them
interesting because I did that for 2 full length ones, way back)

dogs

At a forest temple near Chiang Mai, there were proverbs
nailed to trees, & these more modern posters,
most faded to blues, which appeared to illustrate the perils
of gambling, booze, the fast life. I find them funny,
especially since there are always lots of dogs & cats around
the temples ~ several bailed me up one day at a small
place, quite fiercely; as I grew up around
lots of animals, I knew what tone of voice to use.

some Jataka tales

good fortune

There's a tremendous interest, there, in luck, in having good
fortune helped along with the right amulet etc.
One morning in Bangkok I started looking for a tiny buddha
to wear around my neck. Everyone around got involved in
finding me the lucky one, then added extras, it was fun.

a lucky find: amulets with Kitaro on youtube

open smiles

A few of the beautiful smiles everywhere.
Perhaps the most affecting was one morning, quite early,
an old man (probably my age!) pedaling his rickshaw
slowly along, with, loaded onto the seat, a whole big tree
cut into pieces. He gave me the sweetest smile, it spoke
volumes, am still enjoying it.

paper forest, see the clip at March 6, (& many others)

songbirds

Many Thai people keep songbirds. To me it seems such a
contradiction, to admire the song yet cage the bird.
I know it's a very old practice. & we get to hear some
rare songs. Even so. One day I stopped to speak to a bird,
she quietly answered: sawadee ka.
Then I saw the sign 'tip the bird' but I was too busy
laughing.

Vishal Vaid on Ted

mouse

The girl dashed through the traffic (which slowed for her,
Thais can be very patient drivers) trying to catch some small
thing, the young monks nearby were laughing. She came back
to her friends clutching a tiny white mouse, & a cardboard
house with it's friends.
Tried to take more people shots this trip, usually asking
first, but am not sure about posting ~ of course I'll
remove if the people ask.

Art Spiegelman author of Maus

more flowers

So many different flowers to be seen

So it's really amazing to find florists & market stalls
specialising in artificial flowers.
I guess in full summer the live ones last only briefly.

Oliver Sacks on Ted ( cant play any of the
videos right now, but this is bound to be good.)
Someone just reminded me, it's the 3rd anniversary of being
in my place.. deepest thanks, love & hugs to Gordon & Wendy.

flowers

Of all the flowers in Thailand, these have to be
the most sublime: Sala (Sal in India)

In the grounds of many temples, it's a large tree, known as
the one beside which the mother of Buddha gave birth.
It's an interesting flower, &, looking at the long stems,
seems to have a lengthy flowering. Most remarkable is the
perfume.. divine comes close to describing it.
Uplifting.. captivating..intoxicating..

The story of the birth of the Buddha

silver

I'll try to show you some of the temples, without overload..

In the silver workers' area there's a whole temple made
from a silver coloured metal. Young boys from the country
are taught how to work in silver, while they are monks.

It gives a different feel to the decoration. I'm no expert on the
different elements, but motifs are repeated at each site,
nearly always with a different twist peculiar to that temple.
There are a few sublime masterpieces, & all have an energy
or a sense of fun, or a simple sanctity from the age of the site.
Even the neglected ones have a forlorn appeal.

An article about an abbot of a southern temple doing
great work with the poor.

late

Was in Chiang Mai for the Chinese new year,
there was a small parade ~ a bit late to post, but, so far,
I don't travel with a computer.

There's a big exhibition at the Queensland Art Gallery
I'd like to see. & a possible cyclone I'd rather not.

tableau

Something about this small tableau felt so sad..

..the chance encounters, & unexpected moments we come
across while travelling ~ at all times of course, yet the
senses are honed, in a way, while on the move.
(& then we make up stories to fit what we think we see..)

I don't know enough to comment on current events in Thailand;
perhaps they'll get to vote, I wish them well.

inspiring talk by V. Ramachandran on Ted.com

red

Took several hundred photos every day, that's a lot of temple
pictures.. in Thailand, Buddhism seems very much alive,
as are the temples: for instance the Sunday market in
Chiang Mai spills into several big temples, with
food stalls, massage etc. It's not separate from the everyday.

At this time of year there is a lot of burn off across Asia,
the air is thick with smoke, & its tragic to see the hills &
forests razed to the ground. In northern Thailand there
are serious complications with land use & ownership.
Some interesting general crop info here.
Can it be so hard to get it right?

mirrors

Many of the temples have some use of tiling with small
pieces of mirror, enjoy how the reflection fractures
like a cubist painting. It's so exhilarating to see new things
every day, also to see known things anew. Must have visited
at least 50 different temples.

Heard about the huge earthquake in Chile, but only just saw
these photos on the Big Picture

slow as

Feeling as slow as the proverbial wet week,
plus it's raining a lot. Here I am at a wild mirror-
tiled wall around a Chiang Mai temple. Maybe I'll
post less often, at least till I get the photos into
some sort of order.

Haven't been on the web for 5 weeks. The first
favourite I checked out: Phantasmaphile

returned

Got back to my house yesterday, a little the worse for wear.
Still uploading photos. Will I continue this blog?
Too much time deleting stupid ads that show up as
comments, also dozens of spam per day, for viagra &
watches & sleazy money schemes, on my email.
At the least I will leave off the comment function,
but then how do I hear from the ones
whose comments I'd enjoy?
Does blogger.com have a blocking option for spam?
If you know how, please leave a comment.

geckos

You see geckos everywhere too ~ including here in Byron
of course, there's a pair growing very large on insects
hunted near lighted window, every night.
Above were behind glass & at my guesthouse, in Thailand.
As a kid, I tried to photograph a small doll in front of a goanna
~ they were big out west, easy to imagine dinosaurs.. or dragons.

a 'persistence of vision' toy, the zoetrope