Saturday, June 25, 2011

Monument which symbolizes Beauty and Eternal Love -the Taj Majal

     No photos or words can adequately describe the Taj Mahal. I was sceptic at first but I almost cried when i saw the beauty and grandeur of this famous  landmark. I felt the love and longing of the Mughal king for his beloved wife Mumtaz when she died. Oblivious to what Akmad, our Muslim-Indian guide, was saying. I took time taking photos to capture her beauty. 
     The  postcard pictures of Taj Mahal does not adequately convey the legend, the poetry and the romance that shroud what Rabindranath Tagore calls "a teardrop on the cheek of time." 
     Nor the English poet, Edwin Arnold  when he quoted,  "Not a piece of architecture, as other buildings are, but the proud passions of an emperor’s love wrought in living stones" Its true, this building is a celebration of womanhood (according to an Indian 1994 Miss Universe,)

  










Friday, June 3, 2011

Ten Things I Love About Bhutan-Number Nine: Dzongs/Stupas/Chortens

 Chimi Lhakhang (the Divine Madman or Lama Drukpa Kinley Temple)

 Paro Taktsang (Tiger's Nest) Temple

 The National Memorial Chorten, Thimphu

Khamsum Yulley Namgyal Chorten, Punakha

Paro Dzong

Punakha Dzong between the twin rivers built around 1637

Dzongs or fortresses serve as the religious, military, administrative, and social centers of a specific district. They are often the site of an annual tsechu or religious festival in Bhutan.

Stupas or chortens is a mound-like structure containing Bhudhist relics particularly remains of Budha and used by Budhists as a place for worship.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Ten Things I Love About Bhutan: Number Eight- National Philiosophy



Gross National Happiness is better than gross national product is the nation's guiding philosophy. GNH was established in an attempt to develop an indicator of quality of life and social development in a more holistic and psychological terms than the gross national product.

It was initiated by the then forth king in 1972, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk who opened Bhutan to the world in the age of globalization. This concept was organised to build an economy to serve Bhutan's unique culture based on Buddhist spiritual values. There were four pillars of GNH. Promotion of sustainanle development, Preservation and promotion of cultural values, Conservation of natural environment, and establishment of good governance.

Ten Things I Love About Bhutan: Number Seven: Postage Stamps




I was introduced in the wonderful world of philately as a child when i discovered my sister's collections in her old cabinet. She was into the hobby as a teen ager and i remembered her excitement when she would write and receive  letters to or from her pen pals all over the world just to acquire worlwide stamps. I would sneak in her room and secretly get hold of her stamp albums. In my childhood innocence grew a love for those tiny work of art depicting the culture, traditions, landscapes, flora and fauna and famous peoples of a specific nation. It seems odd but when i study each stamp details, i would feel i have been in that specific place where the stamp came from. It was from those stamps where i learned the different odd-sounding names, and currencies of the different countries-from Magyar of Hungary, Sverige of Sweden, Hellas of Greece, to Russian name in Russian alphabets or the Spanish peseta, Macau patacas, and Bhutanese ngultrum. But those were years ago. After acquiring a great number of stamps, i stopped for a while when i started becoming serious with my studies. I am sure the love was still there. Until when i saw the Bhutanese postage stamps. My love for philately was rekindled. I have discovered there were stamps in shapes other than rectangular, square or trangular. There were already round shaped stamps, stamps in 3-D, and stamps in khadi cloth (Indian).

In 2008, Bhutan just released the first CD rom stamps which features their monarchy and their traditions.Quite unusual but it was a brilliant idea to introduce something which brings global appeal in the age of yahoo and facebook. It was not very expensive when i bought it at Thimphu Central Post Office. It costs 250 ngultrum/CD.

Now, i am again seduced into rekindling my old original hobby, that is, stamp collecting.