Best museum of the trip.
Much needed info on the Batak tribe who live around Lake Toba in Sumatra, where we bought some carvings a few years ago - now we know what they are supposed to represent, or be - figures of ancestors, and a medicine box.
And, more stuff on Chinese Buddhism - the buddha Maityana (sp?) mentioned in my last post is seemingly not a mere recent invention. There are 1300 yr-old stelae with representations of the 'future Buddha' on display. Doesn't mean it's not all made up post-hoc (how can a bodhisattva predate Buddha), but at least some of tis fakery is genuine.
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
Monday, March 02, 2015
Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, Singapore
Conventional Buddhism is based on the life of Shakyamuni Buddha, who was born in what is now Nepal about 2500 years ago. Now, there's a new Buddha on the block!
At the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (where there appeared to be nothing ancient at all), some devout Chinese have come up with a new myth - a second Buddha called Maityana. This chap appeared 42 aeons before Shakyamuni, and is supposedly scheduled to appear again 5,270 millenia hence, to rid the world of all known diseases.
The Temple contains thousands of Buddha images, most of which you can sponsor by buying a share for a few dozen dollars. Magically, there are splendid Boddhisatvas corresponding to the years of the rat, cat, goat, etc, and a good deal else. The Chinese love throwing money at a lucky charm, and the Temple is doing a roaring trade.
Buddha as business - a new standard in moral turpitude!
At the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (where there appeared to be nothing ancient at all), some devout Chinese have come up with a new myth - a second Buddha called Maityana. This chap appeared 42 aeons before Shakyamuni, and is supposedly scheduled to appear again 5,270 millenia hence, to rid the world of all known diseases.
The Temple contains thousands of Buddha images, most of which you can sponsor by buying a share for a few dozen dollars. Magically, there are splendid Boddhisatvas corresponding to the years of the rat, cat, goat, etc, and a good deal else. The Chinese love throwing money at a lucky charm, and the Temple is doing a roaring trade.
Buddha as business - a new standard in moral turpitude!
Sunday, March 01, 2015
Andy McNab, Niall Ferguson, Donna Tartt
Two-line reviews, hell yeah.
They don't half boost the page-viewings, so here goes...
Brute Force by Andy McNab ****
Top notch thriller caper, no questions asked, no messing about. If McNabb had wanted to get a Mann-Booker nomination, he'd have bribed the judges like everyone else; fuck it, I'm giving it four stars and I'm not even half way through.
Empire by Niall Ferguson *****
The British Empire wasn't all bad you know; though obviously it wasn't all good, what with slavery and moustaches and all. Some interesting economic angles make this revelatory reeading, including (when the game was well and truly up), Churchill borrowing an Empire's worth of cash from the USA in order to carry on the WW2 effort; the USA took the last repayment just a few years ago thanks very much, and we still wonder exactly what it was we won.
Red Strangers by Elspeth Huxley *****
Superb novel getting thoroughly inside the heads of three generations of Kikuyan tribespeople in Colonial Kenya, and a complete antidote to Empire. A masterclass in anthropological head-gaming, in which the British Empire seems utterly without rhyme, reason, or goats.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt ****
Annoyingly addictive whodunnit set in a New Hampshire Uni, in which all the characters behave like rubbery test-tubes full of bad chemicals, and never seem to go to the launderette, but the plot is good enough to take them onward and downward. Literary, pretentious and clever; almost as much as the insufferably smug Tartt might appear if she actually dared to go out.
They don't half boost the page-viewings, so here goes...
Brute Force by Andy McNab ****
Top notch thriller caper, no questions asked, no messing about. If McNabb had wanted to get a Mann-Booker nomination, he'd have bribed the judges like everyone else; fuck it, I'm giving it four stars and I'm not even half way through.
Empire by Niall Ferguson *****
The British Empire wasn't all bad you know; though obviously it wasn't all good, what with slavery and moustaches and all. Some interesting economic angles make this revelatory reeading, including (when the game was well and truly up), Churchill borrowing an Empire's worth of cash from the USA in order to carry on the WW2 effort; the USA took the last repayment just a few years ago thanks very much, and we still wonder exactly what it was we won.
Red Strangers by Elspeth Huxley *****
Superb novel getting thoroughly inside the heads of three generations of Kikuyan tribespeople in Colonial Kenya, and a complete antidote to Empire. A masterclass in anthropological head-gaming, in which the British Empire seems utterly without rhyme, reason, or goats.
The Secret History by Donna Tartt ****
Annoyingly addictive whodunnit set in a New Hampshire Uni, in which all the characters behave like rubbery test-tubes full of bad chemicals, and never seem to go to the launderette, but the plot is good enough to take them onward and downward. Literary, pretentious and clever; almost as much as the insufferably smug Tartt might appear if she actually dared to go out.
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