Coming to a new country, we definitely go to the market, to the historical museum and to the cemetery. There was no need to go to the cemetery in Samosir, graves and monuments here are one of the main elements of the landscape.
Category: Travels
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Bataki from the Samosir island. II. Soaring houses and a strange road
It seemed to me that the houses – directed upwards with saddle roofs, despite their massiveness, seemingly light due to the intricate openwork design, most expressed the fantasy and flight of the spirit of these people. The Bataki are very fond of music and their homes I imagined the embodiment of their songs in wood.
Bataki from the Samosir island. IV. About big trees and the reasons for the victories over the Dutch
Pagan magic still lives on in today’s Christian Samosir. Is this a tourist attraction or a living tradition?
Bataki from the Samosir island. VI. Christians
We were suddenly carried away by the question: how did it happen that the most “barbaric” (according to European concepts) peoples (Bataks in the west and Papuans in the east) turned out to be Christians? And despite the fact that around, in the once Hindu Indonesia, Islam was already flourishing with might and main.
Bataki from the Samosir island. VII. Conclusion. The ark
The inhabitants of the island actually do not need communication with the outside world: everything you need is here. Dense forests on the slopes of the mountains have always provided the Batak with building materials for their houses. We picked delicious mango and avocado for breakfast from the ground around our house, and we were too lazy to climb trees for bananas.
“They are all handsome, they are all poets” or a detective about two photographs
Я походя переснял два снимка из попавшего случайно в руки альбома исторических фотографий Индии. И только потом задался вопросом: что на них изображено и есть ли между ними связь? Пытаясь это выяснить, я столкнулся сразу с несколькими историями.
Angkor Wat I. Construction concern “Angkor”
Dozens of temples on a vast territory were built over 600 years of the Khmer empire. How and from what the Khmer builders built, what they did not know how and what we do not understand.
Angkor Wat II: the great invention of King Jayavarman
Sometimes the trip doesn’t work out and everything around it seems disgusting. Then it’s worth starting to ask questions. For example, why does the king need so much water and why are all the temples inscribed in a square? And is it possible to understand how the creators of Angkor saw the world?
Gandhi Museum in Delhi
Это оказался один из самых странных музеев, виденных мной – в нем почти нет экспонатов. И при этом, как мне показалось, он удивительно точно отражает личность Ганди.
About the strange city of Amritsar
Столица религии сикхов с Золотым храмом и главной святыней. С архитектурой от традиционно восточной до западного модерна и баухауза. Город, претерпевший в ХХ веке минимум три трагедии, рубцы от которых видны по сей день.