Category Archives: Religious Practice What is “culture”? That was the question for our first assigned essay in “Culture Myth and Symbolism”, an upper-level anthropology course I took at university, many, many years ago. Deceptively simple, the “answer” – if there is one – became increasingly layered and complex the more I delved into tomes written by the notable ‘modern’ […]  They say every journey begins with a single step. Even so, when I heard that the penultimate leg of our walk for the day was the ominously named “1000 steps”, I worried. In Nepal, “steps” always means up, not just forward! I can outstrip a lot of people on the flat, but present me the slightest […]  Prayers and dal bhat for breakfast. It doesn’t get much simpler than that. An overnight stay at the guesthouse at the Thrangu Tashi Yangtse Monastery, some 40 kilometres from Kathmandu, Nepal, is like stepping into another world: a timeless space where the drone of Tibetan Buddhist chanting – punctuated by gongs and cymbals – resonates through the crisp, crystal […]  The Marble Mountains: I kept calling them “Magic Mountains” by mistake. But they are a bit magical! Near Non Nuoc Beach, nine kilometres south of Danang in Central Vietnam, five marble and limestone outcrops rise up dramatically from the flat plains around them. According to legend, a dragon climbed out of the East Vietnam Sea onto the beach and laid […]  Religion permeates Balinese life. According to Balinese Hinduism – Agama Hindu Dharma – the Gods, natural spirits and ancestral spirits all live on the volcanic mountains while the demons and bad spirits live in the sea. The land between is the humans’ domain, where good and bad spirits battle until eternity. All aspects of daily life try to […] |
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