My entire readership (of 2) has requested that I add more photography to this blog. So, by (not very) popular demand, here are a couple more shots from SE Asia. The first is of some kids at a hill tribe in Laos. All of the adults would leave to go work the rice fields. They would be gone literally the entire day and the kids would entertain themselves. Judging by their activity level when we were there(which you can see in the picture), they weren't horribly successful. I found it funny that the kids had complete freedom and they chose to sit on their front porch and stare at strangers.
The second is from a temple in Lopburi, Thailand, a city that was literally overrun by monkeys. There were monkeys everywhere--on signs, on cars and walking on power lines. It seemed like the majority of the monkeys stuck to this Buddhist temple. Some of them were quite aggressive towards humans; others were violent with other monkeys. Every November, the monks have a big festival where they provide the monkeys with a big feast. We didn't see the festival, but it's nice to know that somewhere in the world, people are living in relative harmony with animals--even tragically flawed ones.
I don't know that I'd ever become Buddhist, but I certainly appreciate the Buddhist respect for all living things. It seems like most people just see animals as either tools or obstacles.
3 comments:
Neato pictures! I particularly liked getting the background info on them. Too many times people post things without that extra and while sometimes it's nice just to have a pretty picture, it can be lost on the viewer as to what it means or what the significance of taking it was.
And on the topic of animals in harmony with humans, that story reminded me of when I was doing research on Vodou culture. Considering that this is a culture that has animal sacrifices, I was surprised to find out that the religion believes that animals are not on a lower plane than humans and they have the right to decide for themselves what their fate will be. It's not a perfect system but they ask and if the animal responds in a certain way, it's viewed as accepting or rejecting the person. (And lest I give the wrong idea about the religion, there are those who prefer not to offer animal sacrifices and have had great success in their endeavors without it.) The point I'm laboriously trying to get to is that like with the feast for the monkeys, it's nice when a culture acknowledges animals as living beings and allows them that kind of respect.
Thanks! Vodou culture, eh? That sounds really interesting. Have you written anything on that or can you recommend a book?
No problem!
There are a couple of books on vodou culture that I found pretty informative. The first is The Serpent and the Rainbow by Wade Davis. He's an excellent writer who's done some wonderful work with National Geographic and that book really gives a good idea of what the culture of Haiti is like and what the religion is like to an outsider. If you want to know more about the religion itself, Vodou Visions by Sallie Ann Glassman is a good one to look at. She's from New Orleans and I found her experience to be a little bit more accesible than some of the other books on the subject. That and I found it pretty cool that she's an ordained Priestess (Mambo) and she's also a vegetarian so all her offerings are animal free.
If you have any questions or anything, let me know! ^_^
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