Category Archives: shrines
Wat Arun (”Temple of Dawn”), Bangkok, Thailand
Wat Arun is one of my favorite temples I have visited in my travels around Asia (Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand.) In my limited knowledge I would say it is heavily Hindu-art influenced. It is very different from the many other beautiful temples of Bangkok. It is extremely tall with very steep and scary stairs that you can climb and walk around high levels of it for a stunning view. The outside is mostly stone and some form of concrete with extremely ornate etchings, carvings, statues, and such. It sits along the river and makes a lovely scene from a boat. You pay a nominal feel of 50 baht (hmm, about $1.50) to enter and can walk around freely. There is quite a nice gift shop too where I bought some traditional Thai color/pattern fabric table cloths for a steal compared to the inflated prices I would pay in Japan for similar items.
I visited this temple twice, once in a rush as a 15 minute stop of a boat tour and once for several hours on an afternoon.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Photo of Bangkok taken from the top of Wat Arun with a telephoto lens.
aSPIRE to great heights
Wat Pho, Bangkok, Thailand
Wat Arun “Temple of Dawn”
Wat Arun (aka "Temple of Dawn") along the banks of the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok was one of my favorite temples. It is very tall, with very steep steps that you can walk up. It is extremely detailed and ornate with countless carvings and decorations embedded in the outter walls. In my limited knowledge of Asian religeous art it struck me as very Hindu/Indian influenced. This temple is a MUST SEE if you visit Bangkok.
The City of Angels – Bangkok, Thailand
The City of Angels is a traditional Thai nickname for Bangkok because that was the name of the capital established on the West bank of the river in 1782.
I just spent a week in Bangkok, Thailand. It was one of the most amazing and moving experiences I’ve had. I’ve never seen such wonderful beauty, and crushing poverty in the same place. It is the most exotic place I’ve visited yet.
Over the next week or two I will upload my "City of Angels" photos as I edit them.
I took this photo at Wat Phra Kaeo – a Buddhist temple of such grand decor that Disney would have trouble imagining or matching such place. It was truly amazing.
Old buddhist statue
There is a little corner of my town with little alleyways peppered with Shinto and Buddhst statues and shrines.
This statue slowly being pushed over by a very old tree always catches my eye.
Shrine woodwork
Lately I’ve been doing a lot of B&W work with my vintage Mamiyaflex TLR that my uncle gave me in October.
The woodwork and texture of the side of this shinto shrine caught my eye and I was happy with the way this photo came out.
1,000 years is a long time…
This tree was born when Christianity was only half it’s current age. It survivied World War I and II including the Nagasaki nuclear bomb which went off only a few miles away. It survivied the plague, the middle ages, the discovery of America, Kepler, Einstein, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Edison, Washington, man visiting the moon, the first movie, the first radio, the first successful transplant. It was here for 1,000 years before AIDS, 600 years before witch hunts, and has seen Haley’s Comet 11 times.
This tree is older than almost everything everyone on Earth thinks or learns about these days.
Turtle Shrine in Nagasaki
My girlfriend and I visited Nagasaki a few weekends ago. I stumbled upon this very unusual place. It has a Buddhist like statue standing n the back of a huge turtle which is a museum of sorts with some old Chinese furniture in it and some bones of atomic bomb victims. There was a crazy old Japanese woman there who whisked my girlfriend and I around and spoke broken English to explain the exhibits. Even though my gf is Japanese, she spoke English because she prefers it to her native language.
(photos taken on my vintage TLR and developed myself.)
A huge pendulum hangs from the head of the statue standing on top of the turtle temple in the previous photo. In the basement of the building the Earth’s rotation makes it swing and knock over metal rods as the day moves on.
Shrine entrance in infrared (film)
In November I experimented a bit with some infrared film. I have some in my refrigerator from the US (you can’t really find it here in Japan.)
It’s difficult to shoot since it has no real rated ISO and what people say on-line varies wildly. I put it in my Mamiyaflex and just hit the cable release and let go when I thought it felt good.
This is the entrance to a little local Shinto shrine down the street from where I live. Trees here don’t really loose all of their leaves until November, and even then about 30% of trees keep their leaves year round. It gets cold but doesn’t dip below freezing very often (if at all since I’ve been here.)
The Great Buddha of Lantau Island – Hong Kong
In my last post I posted some photos of an incredible cable car I took on Lantau Island Hong Kong.
Here was the destination:
