Tag Archives: religion I love the concept of a “new year”. I always have. As I said this time last year, I like to regard the period between New Year’s Day and my birthday, which follows closely after, as a time of quiet contemplation – to look back over the accomplishments (or otherwise) of the year before, and make some decisions […]  I’m in a state of flux at the moment: we have just packed up all our belongings in one home and are in the process of transiting to a new home in another country. The Holmes and Rahe stress scale rates this as a reasonably stressful time on a number of counts: “change of residence” (+20); “change in living conditions” […]  In Thailand, architecture – especially temple architecture – is the highest form of art. The architect’s ability to combine beauty of form with functional utility; to plant a building in the ground and send it soaring to the heavens – is respected and revered. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that two recognised Thai visual […]  Far up in the hills of the Golden Triangle, in the Mae Chan region of Chiang Rai Province in Thailand, there is a temple where the monks do their morning alms rounds not on foot, but on horse-back, and where kickboxing (Muay Thai) practice is as important a part of their daily routine as meditation and chanting […]  After bumping along narrow Cambodian roads into oncoming trucks and buffalo carts for what seemed like a very long time, our bus pulled to a stop on the shoulder in the middle of nowhere. Our Khmer guide assured us we were at the back entrance to Beng Mealea, one of the less-visited temples of Angkor. […] |
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