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.
Saturday, February 28, 2015
Twenty Nine Palms...
... is a place in California, not far from Palm Springs. It is, however, totally outclassed by Sarawak' s Kubah National Park, where there are alleged to be over 93 species of these leafy-fronded trees. I could clearly recognise at least three of them, even though I never listened in Botany class -I was asleep at the back. I suspect palms are angiosperms not gymnosperms, and monocotyledenous not dicotyledenous, but I really don't know. They make fruit, so they must have arrived on the planet fairly recently, after insects I suppose. Top geneticist Steve Jones says geneticists manage even to make sex boring, but it's really only insects who show any interest in plant sex. Them bees would be locked up for bestiary, or rather plantiary, if the religious Right ever get on their case.
Kubah has the usual multitude of lizards, plus other life-forms I've not seen in the wild hithertofore, icluding terrapins, long-tailed birds in trees, and tropical squirrels. Top notch. Linda noticed some butterflies and suffered in the heat. As this was never in silence, most of the wildlife had plenty of time to clear off before we saw it.
Yesterday we went to Bako NP, wher we saw big-nosed monkes and did some rather good bouldering at a splendid beach. Remote, you have to get a boat in, and it feels like an island, though that was mostly due to the price of beer.
All this was much better than the mediocre Fairy Cave we visited the day before. People come from all over the place to se the caves in Sarawak, but listen to me - don't bother with this one. There's a crag on the adjacent premises, but now it's under lock and key, so bring a crowbar if you want to go climbing.
Kuching, Sarawak is great. Of the stuff we did in Sabah, only snorkelling at Sapi Island was as much kop.
We fly tomorrow for Singapore...
Kubah has the usual multitude of lizards, plus other life-forms I've not seen in the wild hithertofore, icluding terrapins, long-tailed birds in trees, and tropical squirrels. Top notch. Linda noticed some butterflies and suffered in the heat. As this was never in silence, most of the wildlife had plenty of time to clear off before we saw it.
Yesterday we went to Bako NP, wher we saw big-nosed monkes and did some rather good bouldering at a splendid beach. Remote, you have to get a boat in, and it feels like an island, though that was mostly due to the price of beer.
All this was much better than the mediocre Fairy Cave we visited the day before. People come from all over the place to se the caves in Sarawak, but listen to me - don't bother with this one. There's a crag on the adjacent premises, but now it's under lock and key, so bring a crowbar if you want to go climbing.
Kuching, Sarawak is great. Of the stuff we did in Sabah, only snorkelling at Sapi Island was as much kop.
We fly tomorrow for Singapore...
Thursday, February 26, 2015
What Afterlife? What news?
It's been a while since the WA question has been asked in SE Asia, what with Buddhism and Hinduism already dealt with, and Islam given a sensibly short shrift - we all know about an afterlife of available virgins in Heaven for the blokes only, right?
Malaysia, ostensibly a Muslim nation, in fact hosts a muliplicity of ethnicities, including in Borneo, 30 tribes in Sabah and probably just as many in Sarawak. Many of these were headhunters, and all of these were animists. There are also Chinese, always trading or restauraunting; all Taiost for want of a better name. And then there are the aforementioned Buddhists and Hindus. And Sikhs, of whom there are many also in Nottingham and elsewhere. Here I'll attempt to elevate conciosusness levels only of animism and Sikhsism.
Alas, not much to tell, based on the available information.
Headhunters in Borneo all seem to have animist beliefs, such that spirits are in the forest and everywhere else, and all one's fortunes and misfortunes are associated with their influence, benign or otherwise. When you die, your spirit (of course) lives on to cause as much mischief as you want to extract from your living relatives if they haven't gathered enough heads. Simple.
Sikhism arose from the teachings of an Indian guru in the 16th century. A few other gurus followed, then worship continued in temples rife with the smell of sweaty feet until the present day. Nice guys, Sikhs will give a daily veggie meal to all-comers whatever their faith, creed or footwear. No idea what happens after death, but l'm working on it. Keen on turbans.
Malaysia, ostensibly a Muslim nation, in fact hosts a muliplicity of ethnicities, including in Borneo, 30 tribes in Sabah and probably just as many in Sarawak. Many of these were headhunters, and all of these were animists. There are also Chinese, always trading or restauraunting; all Taiost for want of a better name. And then there are the aforementioned Buddhists and Hindus. And Sikhs, of whom there are many also in Nottingham and elsewhere. Here I'll attempt to elevate conciosusness levels only of animism and Sikhsism.
Alas, not much to tell, based on the available information.
Headhunters in Borneo all seem to have animist beliefs, such that spirits are in the forest and everywhere else, and all one's fortunes and misfortunes are associated with their influence, benign or otherwise. When you die, your spirit (of course) lives on to cause as much mischief as you want to extract from your living relatives if they haven't gathered enough heads. Simple.
Sikhism arose from the teachings of an Indian guru in the 16th century. A few other gurus followed, then worship continued in temples rife with the smell of sweaty feet until the present day. Nice guys, Sikhs will give a daily veggie meal to all-comers whatever their faith, creed or footwear. No idea what happens after death, but l'm working on it. Keen on turbans.
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Two units...
...of personnel moving from Kota Kinabalu to Kuching...
Thanks to Air Asia and Waddingtons Games.
Thanks to Air Asia and Waddingtons Games.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Kota Kinabalu, Borneo
As we waded through the head-hunters on the way to the mall today, trying not to bump into protruding nose-bones, I wondered whether the bookshop would be well-stocked. The only books on sale in Kuala Lumpur seemed to be Islam-based tracts of one sort or another, and as I've nearly finished my Iain Banks novel, I'm in the market for some lit. Loads of fiction in the smart bookstore here in Sabah, but not a sniff of Popular Science. I even asked whether they stock Richard Dawkins, but it was blank looks all round.
And the internet connections are terrible. Wi-fi, so ubiquitous now in Thailand that interntet cafes are almost redundant, is virtually absent here in Malaysia.
Malaysia seems pretty happy and functional on the surface, but the taxi drivers tell you some imteresting stuff. Notoriously, the Leader of the Opposition continues to be incarcerated following rigged sentencing based on trumped-up charges of buggery, despite several inquiries that found to the contrary. That's in the papers too.
Head-hunting is now outlawed, of course, but other forms of consumerism have taken over - the national sport is now shopping.
As we waded through the head-hunters on the way to the mall today, trying not to bump into protruding nose-bones, I wondered whether the bookshop would be well-stocked. The only books on sale in Kuala Lumpur seemed to be Islam-based tracts of one sort or another, and as I've nearly finished my Iain Banks novel, I'm in the market for some lit. Loads of fiction in the smart bookstore here in Sabah, but not a sniff of Popular Science. I even asked whether they stock Richard Dawkins, but it was blank looks all round.
And the internet connections are terrible. Wi-fi, so ubiquitous now in Thailand that interntet cafes are almost redundant, is virtually absent here in Malaysia.
Malaysia seems pretty happy and functional on the surface, but the taxi drivers tell you some imteresting stuff. Notoriously, the Leader of the Opposition continues to be incarcerated following rigged sentencing based on trumped-up charges of buggery, despite several inquiries that found to the contrary. That's in the papers too.
Head-hunting is now outlawed, of course, but other forms of consumerism have taken over - the national sport is now shopping.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Phi Phi done
The budget international cuisine may be the best it in Asia. But, we're leaving PP Don tomorrow, headed for Kuala Lumpur via Krabi airport. Excellent snorkelling trip yesterday, saw coral snakes and an octopus! Done some climbing too...
www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/showlog.html?id=84&sort=e
www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/showlog.html?id=84&sort=e
Friday, February 13, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Monday, February 09, 2015
Bronchitis begone!
Back in the game, we took the local bus (or songthau, I could add various umlaut-cedilla ~`'* - type symbols, were they available, to reveal full pronunciation nuances) to Spirit Mountain again, and did some proper routes with SA Ben and Silent Rene (add accents), and it was great.
Back in the game, we took the local bus (or songthau, I could add various umlaut-cedilla ~`'* - type symbols, were they available, to reveal full pronunciation nuances) to Spirit Mountain again, and did some proper routes with SA Ben and Silent Rene (add accents), and it was great.
Saturday, February 07, 2015
Thursday, February 05, 2015
Sunday, February 01, 2015
Vientiane airport, Laos
Waiting for a plane, sitting in the Bangkok Airways lounge where they have the best sarnies and cake known to humanity. Well, better than old baguettes in dusty Thakhek, anyway.
Bus travel behind us, we're rejoining civilisation and flying to Krabi.
Laos is great, pics coming up if I can sort out uploading them from my tablet. Should be easy...
Waiting for a plane, sitting in the Bangkok Airways lounge where they have the best sarnies and cake known to humanity. Well, better than old baguettes in dusty Thakhek, anyway.
Bus travel behind us, we're rejoining civilisation and flying to Krabi.
Laos is great, pics coming up if I can sort out uploading them from my tablet. Should be easy...
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