I was on the back seat of a bike, my camera was in the backpack and I thought that I would ask my friend to stop if I see someting beautiful. First time I asked was here… and then I left the camera with lense open right on my shoulder.
It’s almost impossible to tell here what is medium beautiful and what is very beautiful, especially if you still remember how it was for real. Read more »
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Did you notice a big white stupa at the distance on some of the photos from the last story? It can be spotted from virtually anywhere, one does not need to climb higher for that. Though why not climbing? This is the view of it from guest house’s roof.
Of course, one can climb to the stupa itself as well. During the very first days I was waiting for the weather to become better so that I would get warm and go out for a walk. But during the last days I was waiting for it to become foggy and little bit cold again. I wanted to portray mountains roped by fog and the clothes to wear did not really matter. Read more »
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The West’s largest Buddhist stupa in Benalmádena is a karmic surprise amid the Moorish minarets and ancient Christian steeples.
By Lee Lawrence, The Christian Science Monitor, March 18, 2009
Dressed in dark jeans and jacket, Dizi Btissam fingers a motorcycle helmet as she listens to a young man with thick eyelashes and wavy hair. Behind them, a gilded statue of Buddha looks benignly down at a row of poinsettias.
“He is not a god,” Ivan Baez explains, as a low tremolo of chants filters through the sound system. “For us he represents the natural qualities that we all possess but that are obscured by our emotions, personalities…”
He is interrupted by the jingle of a cellphone from Ms. Btissam’s pocket. She dashes outside to answer. Mr. Baez smiles. He wears a collarless cotton shirt dyed the deep red of uncooked saffron, and he gives the impression that life is equally good whether or not Btissam returns. She does come back, though, minutes later, to listen without further interruption as Baez speaks about enlightenment, about “resting fully in what is” and experiencing “our highest potential.”
Buddhism is not what I expected to learn about in Spain. As I drove along the coast south of Malaga, my mind filled with the sound of lapping waves and the imagined clack of castanets. I pictured the rhythmic arches of Cordoba’s mosque and the intricate floral carvings of the Alhambra. The last thing I expected to see, rising above the guardrail, was the gold spire of a stupa, a moundlike monument that commemorates Buddha. And it was huge, soaring 108 feet high and stretching 82 feet across at the base – the largest stupa in the West.
Granted, this is Andalucia, a region known for its history of religious diversity. In many towns, the church bell tower encases an older minaret. In Cordoba and Toledo, 14th-century synagogues feature intricate Moorish carvings. And ensconced among Cordoba’s grand 10th-century mosque is a Roman Catholic cathedral. These are the legacies of La Convivencia, the time between 711 and 1492 when Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived peaceably together in lively intellectual and artistic exchange.
But a Buddhist stupa? What is it doing here? Read more »
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Tags: Buddhist Symbols, Kagyu, Stupa, Travel
Buddhism, Travel | Leo Golan | 
March 20, 2009 5:05 pm | 
Comments (2)
There is a big monastery and surrounding village of Lamayuru in about hundred kilometers from Leh.
Local guest houses look rather like a sand hole in the ground but if one manages to overcome the fear and enter inside then one can see absolutely decent rooms with beds covered by red carpets. Seeing you for the first time the guest house mistress is sticking out her tongue every second according to an old tibetan custom. She shows that the tongue is pink which means that its owner is not a demon. Read more »
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Everything starts when the guesthouse owner opens before you the door of the room where you are going to live, and you see apples and buddhist flags.
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