https://www.benjaroenwong.com/hotw daily 0.75 2018-11-07 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534835571668-F7KUVCFY1VLSH1UA3GUI/HOTW_INTRO1.jpg Half the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534835571668-F7KUVCFY1VLSH1UA3GUI/HOTW_INTRO1.jpg Half the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534218472804-8DWXUMP42V1FSVT8977O/HOTW1.jpg Half the World - Isfahan / Melbourne ‘Esfahan nesf-e jahan’ (‘Isfahan is half the world’) - Old Persian saying Top: Jameh Mosque. Isfahan, Iran. Bottom: Rutledge Lane. Melbourne, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534766767463-DXI5DJ0O6N3KQ213PH58/HOTW_INTRO1.jpg Half the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534219066123-L06QBHJDQGNIZM3E5EMD/HOTW3.jpg Half the World - Yazd / St Kilda ‘Ever do ye tell her nay; Still ye wander - ‘where, O say, Lies our vision’d loveliness?’’ - ‘On a Hill’, Sonnets from Hafez and Other Verses, translated by Elizabeth Bridges Top: Amir Chaqmaq Complex. Yazd, Iran. Bottom: St Kilda Beach, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534218831152-1QJS5Y2B2LQYOQFQCY4Z/HOTW2.jpg Half the World - Isfahan / Melbourne ‘The tavern step shall be thy hostelry, For Love’s diviner breath comes but to those That suppliant on the dusty threshold lie.’ - Poems from the Divan of Hafiz, translated by Gertrude Lowthian Bell, 1897 Top: Under a bridge at night, where people sing the works of the great Iranian poets. Isfahan, Iran. Bottom: Laneway next to the Magic Mountain Saloon. Melbourne, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534321371530-HM4GB3O6J27XSXLIMQ8V/HOTW_Intro.jpg Half the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534219344155-ZO1KHWPI60ZXB5167R3C/HOTW4.jpg Half the World - Windsor / Bukhara ‘In general it can be said that a nation's art is greatest when it most reflects the character of its people.’ - Edward Hopper Top: Windsor, Australia. Bottom: Bukhara, Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534219994404-SFHY89SXVC262317X611/HOTW7.jpg Half the World - Samarkand / Srinakarin ‘Fair maid of Shiraz, would’st thou take My heart, and love it for my sake, For that dark mole my thoughts now trace On that sweet cheek of that sweet face, I would Bokhara, as I live, And Samarcand too, freely give.’ - Gazel IV, from Persian Lyrics or, scattered poems from the Diwan of Hafiz, translated by John Haddon Hindley. Top: The Registan. Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Bottom: Night market. Srinakarin, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534251974558-TEPOB2A5OO3GMIY9V0WQ/HOTW8.jpg Half the World - Karakum Desert / Alborz Mountains ‘It was bitterly cold, and in one blizzard five inches of snow fell, obliterating what few landmarks there were. Their guides proved to be hopeless, moreover, constantly losing the way, until, on the eleventh day, in the very middle of the desert, they admitted to Bailey that they were completely lost…but then later that day, by a miracle, they came upon a small shepherds’ encampment where they bought three sheep…without this chance encounter, he wrote afterwards, they would all undoubtedly have perished.’ - Peter Hopkirk (2006), Setting the East Ablaze, recounting the flight of Col. F.M. Bailey from Khiva to Mashhad, across the Karakum desert. Top: Gas drilling crater. Karakum Desert, Turkmenistan. Bottom: Qashqais clean their sheep. Southwest of Shiraz, Iran. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534311304067-9QRYOQMPEIKRD76K58U1/HOTW_Intro.jpg Half the World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534252081022-7KUB2A0DRYWUMWSILOV3/HOTW9.jpg Half the World - Melbourne / Isfahan ‘Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couple's obligations to each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encourage the flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates them.’ - Catechism of the Catholic Church #1637, dealing with interfaith marriages. Top: St Paul’s Cathedral. Melbourne, Australia. Bottom: Dress shop. Isfahan, Iran. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534764318092-YV6VLCVS5VNP1WS7BY3N/HOTW10.jpg Half the World - Tehran / St Kilda ‘Usually, bridges are designed in a straight line. And that straight line will produce a one point perspective that will tell you to just go. But we want to keep people on the bridge … the bridge is not just a structure to connect from one point to another, but also a place to stay and enjoy.’ - Leila Araghian, designer of the Tabiat Bridge in Tehran, completed in 2014. Top: Tabiat Bridge, Tehran. Bottom: Beachside boulevard, St Kilda. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534219739531-GWDCTUH76A85HVV30ZM8/HOTW6.jpg Half the World ‘Through ecumenical dialogue Christian communities in many regions have been able to put into effect a common pastoral practice for mixed marriages. Its task is to help such couples live out their particular situation in the light of faith, overcome the tensions between the couple's obligations to each other and towards their ecclesial communities, and encourage the flowering of what is common to them in faith and respect for what separates them.’ - Catechism of the Catholic Church #1637, dealing with marriages where one spouse is not Catholic. Top: St Paul’s Cathedral. Melbourne, Australia. Bottom: Dressmaker. Isfahan, Iran. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/karakalpakstan daily 0.75 2024-12-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598171083112-BWPR49EL98OJVOGO725Y/Kpal_Intro_2020.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598171083112-BWPR49EL98OJVOGO725Y/Kpal_Intro_2020.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256257850-0ZO4YRSBC89N34GT5G5M/DSCF6780.jpg Karakalpakstan - Nukus By a canal, looking towards the mosque, in Nukus. ‘Irrigation made arable land a valuable and scarce commodity…[in] centuries of work on the land, surveyor-practitioners in the various oases had worked out methods of measuring regular and irregular fields…it was a natural step for Central Asians to compile the known techniques of geometry, work out the first system of practical algebra, and create the field of trigonometry. The major step in this direction occurred in the ninth century, on the basis of accumulated experience of Khwarazm, the most intensely irrigated region’. - S. Frederick Starr (2013), Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, Princeton University Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564186287210-DOVSG51YR7IKF34YN4XN/Kpal_Intro1.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256201225-DC4IFKYD05VASW2UPDXN/DSCF6769.jpg Karakalpakstan - Pickle Bazaar in Nukus. ‘They reached a fertile and well-watered place, Possessed of every strength and natural grace: The setting’s natural limit was the sea, A highway marked the inland boundary, To one side mountains reared above the plain, A place of hunting grounds, and wild terrain; The streams, the groves of trees, made weary men Feel that their ancient hearts were young again.’ - Abdolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, translated by Dick Davis. This verse describes the Iranian hero Seyavash founding a city somewhere in Turkestan, at the invitation of Afraysiab the Turk. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256233082-RRHJK95RNRBM2TIUZ1B8/DSCF6770.jpg Karakalpakstan - Potato Bazaar in Nukus. ‘The tenth-century geographer Mukadasi has left a detailed list of the commodities traded by the merchants of Khorezm…locally produced commodities included: ‘grapes, many raisins, almond pastry, sesame, fabrics of striped cloth, carpets, blanket cloth, satin for royal gifts, coverings of mulham fabric, locks, Aranj fabrics, bows which only the strongest could bend, rakhbin [cheese], yeast, fish, boats' …[also] watermelons so succulent that they were packed into lead containers lined with snow and conveyed to the caliphs of Baghdad…a single melon was worth 700 dirhams - equivalent to more than 2 kg of silver.’ - Jonathan Tucker (2015), The Silk Road: A Travel Companion, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534835832178-1ST8CZ8A72VYCRHGKXPP/Kpal_Intro.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256341242-05DMZPYU4JPKTMWDHE86/DSCF6801.jpg Karakalpakstan - Chicken, Afternoon Bazaar in Nukus, fifty kilometres from old Gurganj. ‘Despite its utter destruction, within 100 years Gurganj had risen from the ashes…by the early fourteenth century, Gurganj had been rebuilt to serve the caravans travelling to the Golden Horde territory in the Volga region. Ibn Battuta described newly revived Gurganj as a vigorous commercial centre, ‘the largest, greatest, most beautiful and most important city of the Turks, shaking under the weight of its populations, with bazaars so crowded that it was difficult to pass.’’ - Jonathan Tucker (2015), The Silk Road: A Travel Companion, I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256559141-PC9GMPBQ6U36XAYHYVJV/DSCF6832.jpg Karakalpakstan - Traintracks Traintracks near the station in Khujayli, with the ever-present salted ground in the foreground. ‘“We are destroying ourselves,” said the 61-year-old farmer in Khujayli. “Why are we planting cotton, and what are we getting from it? We never ask those questions.”’ - Farmer quoted by Sabrina Tavernise, ‘Old Farming Habits Leave Uzbekistan a Legacy of Salt’, New York Times article on 15 June 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256375703-7CBPE4B9SYUMGMKFYTLF/DSCF6805.jpg Karakalpakstan - Gaz Petrol station surrounded by salted land in Nukus. ‘Before committing to large and expensive drainage projects, it is essential to remove the distortions in relative prices of crops and water that generate a large part of the problem.’ - Kyle, Steven C. & Chabot, Phillippe (1997), Agriculture in the Republic of Karakalpakstan and Khorezm Oblast of Uzbekistan. The distortions included unrealistic cotton yield targets set by the state, input (water, fuel, fertiliser, and labour) subsidies, and farmers having to sell their cotton to the state at a discount. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534321913354-TK9YD5Y2ITERBBP5HMWZ/Kpal_Intro.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256296786-HLPT53FYE01PRLGISBOX/DSCF6791.jpg Karakalpakstan - Autodromi Go-kart track in Nukus. ‘The farmer in Khujayli recalled a car trip with his father in the winter of 1954 near the city of Muynoq that began with a crossing of miles of Aral Sea ice. Now the shore is more than 50 miles away from the city. In the 1970s, his grandfather’s apricot trees died. Salt eats away at shoes here and turns bricks white.’ - Sabrina Tavernise, ‘Old Farming Habits Leave Uzbekistan a Legacy of Salt’, New York Times article on 15 June 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256394651-ECME1BM5IXEGFFFINF7V/DSCF6814.jpg Karakalpakstan - Ancient riverbed The dry riverbed of the Amu Darya near Nukus. ‘Shallow groundwater contributes to salt accumulation through capillary rise, and results in the accumulation of salts at the soil surface ... In agricultural fields, the “critical depth”, which results in the accumulation of salts due to capillary rise, is in the range 1.5-2.0 m below the surface ... the groundwater depth in Khorezm was above the critical level throughout the growing season.’ - Ibrakhimov, Mirzakhayot & Park, Soojin & Vlek, Paul. (2004). Development of groundwater salinity in a region of the lower Amu-Darya River, Khorezm, Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256408284-5UNMJN1NPNMZP1XIBE43/DSCF6815.jpg Karakalpakstan - Riverbed Old riverbed of the Amu Darya, near Nukus. ‘Considering the fact that the desiccation of the Aral Sea is irrigation-driven and the water deficiency has been the direct cause of the economic and ecological disaster in the further downstream areas (e.g., Karakalpakstan), an increase in water-use efficiency in Khorezm is essential for the economic sustainability of the Aral Sea Basin.’ - Ibrakhimov, Mirzakhayot & Park, Soojin & Vlek, Paul. (2004). Development of groundwater salinity in a region of the lower Amu-Darya River, Khorezm, Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256303809-1YS6SY1E5ZDG5KJNQG02/DSCF6743.jpg Karakalpakstan - Apartment Block Soviet-style housing in Nukus. ‘Central Asia’s advance into the modern world in the 1920s and 1930s proved considerable … yet Soviet rule also entailed terrible costs and constraints … the volume of publication expanded rapidly in a “linguistic-cultural revolution” that replaced Persian with Tajik and Chaghatay Turkic with Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen and Karakalpak.’ - Carter Vaughn Findley (2005), The Turks in World History, Oxford University Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534321623991-60FWP43AEN3SC8UKCG5R/Kpal_Intro.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256350772-25LCA9AO0297W30PJQC6/DSCF6803.jpg Karakalpakstan - Housing Soviet-style housing in Nukus. ‘In the post-Stalin period, even as the Soviet Union postured as defender of the former colonial peoples of the Third World, its colonial-style economic exploitation of Central Asia assumed devastatingly unsustainable forms. In Uzbekistan … monoculture in cotton - “white gold” - was pushed to unsustainable limits, with overuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, expansion of irrigation beyond the capacity of the natural water sources, and substitution of cheap local labor, including that of schoolchildren, for mechanization.’ - Carter Vaughn Findley (2005), The Turks in World History, Oxford University Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256319747-2GXH12HGSFJP6GWV9QGJ/DSCF6796.jpg Karakalpakstan - Apartment Complex Housing blocks in Nukus. ‘As long as the Soviet system lasted, it limited Central Asia’s engagement with modernity in other ways … the long-term goal of this experience, moreover, was supposed to be a reduction of difference into the Russified identity of the idealized “soviet man” … heirs to literary traditions centuries older than the Russians’, the peoples of Central Asia were to accept without criticism the Russian people and culture as models for emulation.’ - Carter Vaughn Findley (2005), The Turks in World History, Oxford University Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256419455-65BTZ8ID6B6VMOCN4EMZ/DSCF6819.jpg Karakalpakstan - The Amu Darya The Amu Darya (in Ancient Greek, the Oxus) in spring, which only flows along this area through an artificial canal. You find the old riverbanks perhaps half a kilometre away in each direction. ‘The Oxus is in spate now since it’s spring And yet these three with heavy armor ride Into the waves and reach the other side; A wise man would have said no man alive Could brave this mighty current and survive!’ - Abolqasem Ferdowsi, Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, translated by Dick Davis, describing the legendary feat of the warriors Kay Khosrow, Farigis, and Giv, in fording the Oxus. Ferdowsi completed his epic in 1010. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256444300-Z3UIK0KJ4ZI3H2X6L9LJ/DSCF6836.jpg Karakalpakstan - Khujayli ‘“When you see this salt, sad, dark thoughts take you,” he said, explaining that the salt is what is left when water evaporates after intense irrigation. “Nothing grows on salty land. It’s like standing on a graveyard.”’ - Farmer quoted by Sabrina Tavernise, ‘Old Farming Habits Leave Uzbekistan a Legacy of Salt’, New York Times article on 15 June 2008 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534313448839-TA3N2L4G74NH7QOT2DHS/Kpal_Intro.jpg Karakalpakstan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534293205263-RKOVH19BYAF4V2AB71MC/DSCF6723.jpg Karakalpakstan - Gurganj ‘Gurganj stood at the crossroads of four of Central Asia’s main transport routes. The road east passed through the earlier capital, Kath [Khiva], & eventually reached…Otrar & beyond that, Chach [Tashkent], Taraz & Balasagun, before passing into East Turkestan to reach Kashgar & eventually, China itself. The southern road went to Merv, Bukhara, Balkh, Kabul & eventually India, while the caravan route north led up the Volga Valley to the land of the Rus and then to Scandinavia … nowhere on earth were irrigation technologies more highly developed than here.’ - S. Frederick Starr (2013), Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, Princeton University Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256468856-IBQG5NUFIUCXRQWIKFPO/DSCF6837.jpg Karakalpakstan - Khujayli It’s about a three hour walk from Nukus to the ancient necropolis at Mizdakhan. You can pass through Khujayli, but the salt and mud in the street will cake your boots. It’s Sunday afternoon - all the kids are out in the streets playing soccer, the banks are closed, and the unofficial moneychangers have left the market. I have only US $2 in Uzbek currency and it just covers a ride back to Nukus in the dark. The driver detours to his house to drop off his mother, who gifts me a loaf of very stale Uzbek naan - fluffy (when it’s fresh) circular bread, stamped thin in the middle so the centre becomes crusty, like a cracker. It’s the thought that counts. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534256500804-BT154KLZN0Z336AIF0PS/DSCF6867.jpg Karakalpakstan - Mizdakhan Mizdakhan was an urban settlement since the 4th C. BC & a necropolis since the 8th C. AD. ‘A large Mongol trade mission consisting of some 450 Muslim merchants arrived in Otrar. It was stopped by the Khwarizmshah’s governor, who accused the merchants of being Mongol spies, confiscated their property, and executed them…Chinggis sent an embassy to the Khwarizmshah to demand wergild for the murdered men and punishment of the governor responsible…the Khwarizmshah insulted the Mongols and killed the envoys.’ - C.I. Beckwith (2009), Empires of the Silk Road, describing the events that precipitated the Mongol invasion of Khorezm. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534293194164-IY316SKR4S3BC6PZNWKA/DSCF6692.jpg Karakalpakstan - Gurganj Women make their way to a mausoleum, known locally as a fertility shrine, in the old town of Gurganj. Next to the shrine is a small hillock, thought to be the site of an academy founded by Abu Ali Mamun in the 10th Century A.D. ‘The one difference [between Mamun’s academy and the others] is that none of the others could have claimed to include the two greatest minds of the Middle Ages, Biruni and Ibn Sina, not to mention a legion of other major poets, writers and scientists. During its brief existence Mamun’s academy was the intellectual center of the world.’ - S. Frederick Starr (2013), Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia’s Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, Princeton University Press https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534919376085-VYGJSNZKTZPO0QX6LXHZ/DSCF6690.jpg Karakalpakstan - Gurganj This minaret was likely commissioned by Mahmud of Ghazni in ~1011 AD & restored by the Mongols after razing the city. ‘With virtually unlimited resources in the form of plunder from India, Mahmud could indulge his passion for architecture…No wonder that he boasted (in lines inscribed on his victory tower in Gurganj) that he had created “the glitter of the earthly world”…He typically laid the expense of maintaining his grand edifices on the reluctant local public, so the process of decay began immediately. The cost to the citizens of Balkh for the upkeep of his formal gardens in that city was so burdensome that he first tried to foist it onto local Jews and then lost interest’. - S. Frederick Starr (2013), Lost Enlightenment https://www.benjaroenwong.com/nairm daily 0.75 2026-01-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598171345141-RGDVTXRF7ZBA7HCOIWDE/Nairm_intro_2020.jpg Nairm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598171345141-RGDVTXRF7ZBA7HCOIWDE/Nairm_intro_2020.jpg Nairm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318281408-40Y1R5E7YY04VV01TIBX/20180623_Portra400_6x6008-Edit-Edit.jpg Nairm - Sandringham ‘About 12 million years ago, late in Miocene times, there was a regression of the sea, accompanied by uplift of the hinterland. This steepened the channels of the rivers, so that they again carried coarser sediment down to the sea … sands deposited in such marine or estuarine environments often include grains of the greenish mineral glauconite. Weathering results in the oxidation of this iron-bearing mineral to iron oxides which are yellow, orange, red or brown in colour. These form a coating of the quartz sand grains which coalesces and binds them together as a firmer sandstone. In general, the darker the iron oxides, the harder the sandstone.’ - Eric Bird (1990), The Geology and Geomorphology of the Sandringham District https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534322062445-ZK5EFUTD4P3WS7F66F2Q/Nairm_intro.jpg Nairm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534325022539-IASCOE5RNJ6XWJLVSXDZ/DSCF2834-Edit.jpg Nairm - Beaumaris ‘Near shore, the rocks are covered with green and red algae which shelters a range of invertebrates including brittle stars, bristle worms and crustaceans. The surrounding sandy bottoms are covered by patches of seagrass which attract a range of fish species. In deeper waters, rock bommies are carpeted in either green Caulerpa or brown Sargassum, which hides many small animals. These rocks also attract fish species including Southern Hulafish, scalyfin and morwong. If you look carefully, you may be able to uncover one of the masters of disguise, a cuttlefish.’ - Parks Victoria description of Ricketts Point Marine Sanctuary, off Beaumaris. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318452043-DXDFYYWVFOMPMCWD5JRS/20180722_35_Ektar_052-Edit.jpg Nairm - Avalon ‘Harradine's uncle, Tom Clarke, was one of scores of Aboriginal men who once harvested the salt from Pink Lake using shovels and sacks. They worked side by side with the white townsfolk scraping and packing salt that was sold to butchers, bakers, farmers and tanners on and off from the 1860s to 1980. The land council made a successful land claim on Pink Lake and, 30 years later, Aboriginal workers are back on Pink Lake labouring under the late summer sun. They have a collaborative arrangement with the Seymour family from Mount Zero Olives with whom they collect salt, racing against the autumn rains that will dissolve it back to brine.’ - Richard Cornish, ‘Salts of the earth’, The Age, 25 May 2010. This is not Pink Lake, which is in Western Victoria. Salt harvesting operations near Avalon have long since ceased. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534319237686-EEBQQQOTUUML4Z64N61P/Nairm_intro.jpg Nairm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318354016-X4313HWJSEVS0DBKJKRU/20180722_35_Ektar_047-Edit.jpg Nairm - Avalon ‘Richard Cheetham, a manufacturing chemist, arrived in Australia in 1862, with some knowledge of the salt gathering industry in Southern Europe, and made initial attempts at evaporative salt production on French Island in the early 1870s. He realised the potential for producing salt on large flat areas of the Victorian coastline, using solar evaporation of seawater, and in 1888 leased 650 acres (263 hectares) of land on Port Phillip, east of Geelong and constructed a saltworks which was largely modelled on examples in the south of France … In January 1951 another 800 acres were developed at Avalon.’ - Victorian Heritage Database Report on the Cheetham Saltworks, 12 December 2013 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318407454-UAXK9RN9JVB3UW45P2I7/20180722_35_Superia200_062-Edit.jpg Nairm - Avalon ‘SCIENTISTS' belief that Port Phillip Bay has remained largely unchanged since forming 10,000 years ago has been blown out of the water, with Melbourne University researchers revealing that 1000 years ago vast areas of it were dry land. Researcher Guy Holdgate said fresh geological data showed the bay, first formed by rising sea levels at the end of the last Ice Age, started drying out and shrinking 2800 years ago, reaching its smallest extent 1000 years ago. Today's body of water was formed soon after by catastrophic ocean flooding, according to local Aboriginal legend.’ - Stephen Cauchi, ‘10,000-year bay theory doesn't hold water’, The Age, 8 May 2011 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318521074-SDLHD1VYR1SQIS8WYWTC/DSCF3732-Edit.jpg Nairm - Geelong Someone told me that until the government dredged a channel, Corio Bay was occasionally cut off from Port Phillip Bay by a narrow sandbar, from Point Lillias to Point Henry. Farmers would run stock across the narrow strip of land to save time. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318437790-CAKDSW25V54RJ29O0Q2E/DSCF2723.jpg Nairm - St Kilda ‘Kulin people lived in Euroe Yroke (the area now known as St Kilda) for an estimated 31,000 to 40,000 years ... Corroborees were held at the historic tree which still stands at St Kilda Junction, at the corner of Fitzroy Street and Queens Road. Much of the area north of present-day Fitzroy Street was swampland, part of the Yarra River Delta which comprised vast areas of wetlands and sparse vegetation.’ - Wikipedia entry on St Kilda https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564210200267-BQ7JG6AOCMYHQOF1X4VK/20190324-DSCF1014-Stacked1.jpg Nairm - Point Wilson Salt-heavy lake in midsummer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318643371-HVFOGM4B7NW50K7XI1XA/DSCF3938-Edit.jpg Nairm - Avalon Put a wrong step in this area and see your leg sink deep into the mire. ‘A separate area of similar soft mud covers an area of 100 km sq. in the Geelong Outer Harbour that is divided into two basins by a rocky and sandy ridge between Point Wilson and Curlewis. The eastern basin is a subsurface depression filled by up to 36 ms (26 m) of soft, acoustically similar muds to the central Port Phillip.’ - Holdgate et. al., Marine geology of Port Phillip, Victoria, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 48 (2001), 439-455 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564210179442-I32F53O0XMYJS8L5EWBZ/20190227-DSCF0903-Edit1.jpg Nairm - Port Melbourne ‘Why are the lakes pink? Algae growing in the salt crust at the bottom of the lake produces the red pigment (beta carotene) as part of its photosynthesis process and in response to extremely high salt levels.’ - Parks Victoria https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318528971-83CF30TMUXHFVE2GYZNS/DSCF2805.jpg Nairm - Beaumaris ‘In Late Pleistocene times, about 75,000 years ago, the sea began to fall again … the sea drained out of Port Phillip Bay altogether, the emerged sea floor becoming a coastal plain. This was the Last Glacial phase of the Pleistocene, when the sea fell at one stage as much as 140 metres below its present level. Port Phillip Bay, together with much of Bass Strait and the Australian continental shelf had become a land area, with soils and a vegetation cover. Aborigines were able to walk out across the floor of Port Phillip Bay and over plains that are now beneath Bass Strait to reach Tasmania.’ - Eric Bird (1990), The Geology and Geomorphology of the Sandringham District https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534318610887-HF4QMCU7TWMM6YVIXVXD/DSCF3790-Edit.jpg Nairm - Cape Schanck Looking south across Bass Strait, once a plain connecting the Australian mainland and Tasmania, flooded around 10 - 15,000 years ago. ‘Around 15,000 years ago, the climate warmed, the glaciers began to melt, and, in Europe, the ice retreated to expose ploughed and enriched fertile soils, which became the state for the human dramas of the agricultural and industrial revolutions. In Tasmania, the rainforest re-emerged from the gorges to invade the slopes above and people seem to have retreated to the region’s more hospitable margins. The Bassian Plain became a strait [Bass Strait] … when Tasmanian Aboriginal leader Michael Mansell visited Kutikina for the first time in 1982, he described the experience as ‘like coming home’.’ - Billy Griffiths (2018), Deep Time Dreaming: Uncovering Ancient Australia, Black Inc. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/the-neighbourhood daily 0.75 2018-08-15 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534327283576-WAMWVJBP87AWZYDPBK9B/nbh_intro.jpg The Neighbourhood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534327283576-WAMWVJBP87AWZYDPBK9B/nbh_intro.jpg The Neighbourhood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534221865906-HGHR5F0YPDPXHR09GLTK/NBH1.jpg The Neighbourhood - Smith Street https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534221850978-PM7N1OMTRMH8XLDX2O7Y/NBH2.jpg The Neighbourhood - Acland Street https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534221916026-XDR9W4EM6UR4B90RORVU/NBH3.jpg The Neighbourhood - Brighton Road https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534253044512-XG1CGEE8LLV7HKTJ82ES/NBH4.jpg The Neighbourhood - Yarra Place https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534253956611-K68HNLZWTOA1KSOIUSHT/NBH6.jpg The Neighbourhood - Hawthorn Road https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534253956268-NA6D8V0XTC1W0NTF6DZB/NBH7.jpg The Neighbourhood - Chaucer Street https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534253993673-7LKXLG83CC4UPH2VUCO3/NBH8.jpg The Neighbourhood - Carlisle Street https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534331482883-MX4LAFP5HK8KF7ZQY104/NBH9.jpg The Neighbourhood - Nelson Street https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534254004358-NTGBR1YOO9ZKJMP1AODN/NBH5.jpg The Neighbourhood - Francis Street https://www.benjaroenwong.com/shiraz daily 0.75 2018-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536918928956-T0AC6FBO3Q50147YOGWE/shiraz_intro.jpg Shiraz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536918928956-T0AC6FBO3Q50147YOGWE/shiraz_intro.jpg Shiraz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915077652-9CE1EGRSMG48OY5K4040/DSCF1130.jpg Shiraz - Shiraz Looking south, from the hills west of Shiraz’s Qu’ran Gate. “The South, the blessed south! It gives me the same exhilaration as a first morning by the Mediterranean. The sky shines without a cloud. The black spires of cypresses cut across the eggshell-coloured hills and the snow-capped purple of distant mountains. Turquoise leek-shaped domes on tall stems rise from a sea of flat mud roofs. Tangerines hang from trees in the hotel garden. I am writing in bed, the windows are open, and the soft spring air breaths paradise in to last night’s frosty cubicle.” - Robert Byron (1937), The Road to Oxiana. From his diary entry dated February 17, 1935. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915054017-9PBNZSWOAJEGUHLMGG4P/DSCF1110.jpg Shiraz - Near the Qu'ran Gate Along the main road north, to Isfahan and Yazd. “It conteigneth innumerable people, and is full of merchaunts; for all they that come from the vpper parties, that is to say, frome ERE [near Tehran], SAMARCAHANTH [Samarkand], and NISU [no idea], taking the waie throwgh Persia, do passe by Syras [Shiraz]. Hither arr brought many jewelles, sylkes, both great and small, spices, rewbarbe, and semenzina [a certain kind of drug]”. - Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini (1873), Travels to Tana and Persia, translated by William Thomas. This was Barbaro’s account from his visit in 1474-5. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915069565-JDRYABOA5F51C2A8NJOA/DSCF1154.jpg Shiraz - Gahvareh Did “We just got robbed when walking up there!! The view isn't that great anyway.” - Tripadvisor Review of Gahvareh Did https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915037086-2G524NDJTUKI2KIN0ACK/DSCF1091.jpg Shiraz - Bagh-e Eram A pair in Qajar-era dress, which is commonly for hire in and around Iran. “For it is not only the graceful and melodious lays of Hafiz, Sa’di, or Ka’ani, which, accompanied by the soft strains of the si-tar and the monotonous beat of the dumbak, delight the joyous revellers who drink the wine of Khullar under the roses bordering some murmuring streamlet; interspersed with these are rhymes which, if less lofty, seldom fail to awaken the applause of the listeners.” - Edward G. Browne (1893), A Year Amongst The Persians (from his stay in 1887-8) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915184231-876WEA10LQGLJTHJDFDP/DSCF1484.jpg Shiraz - Madrasa-e-Khan “After he had exhaustively questioned me concerning the amount of my income, the sources whence it was derived, my occupation, my object in visiting Persia, and the like, he expressed a great desire to travel in Europe.* ‘Do you think I could find any employment in England?’ he asked … ‘I am tired of the useless and aimless life we are compelled to lead here … every day it is the same thing:- in the morning we read or practise calligraphy till lunch; afterwards we sleep for an hour or two; then we have tea and smoke kalyans [hookahs]; then – unless we have visitors – we go for a ride or walk; then supper and bed. It is wearisome.’” - Edward G. Browne (1893), A Year Amongst The Persians (from his stay in 1887-8) * This exact conversation happened to me several times. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915136567-28TA9E9E5WP3Q84A7V6F/DSCF1472.jpg Shiraz - Persepolis The ancient Persian capital built in ~550 BC. “We were walking to Persepolis in the rain. The Quashgais [Turkic pastoralists] were soaked and happy, and the animals were soaked; and when the rain let up, they shook the water from their coats and moved on, as though they were dancing. We passed an orchard with a mud wall around it. There was a smell of orange blossom, after rain … Passing Persepolis I looked at the fluted columns, the porticoes, lions, bulls, griffins; the sleek metallic finish of the stone, and the line on line of megalomaniac inscription … I tried to get the Quashgai boy to look. Again he shrugged. Persepolis might have been made of matchsticks for all he knew or cared - and so we went up to the mountains.” - Bruce Chatwin (1987), The Songlines https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915179147-12HHXQFTZIVMP8JSHAJK/DSCF6141.jpg Shiraz - Nasir-ol-molk Mosque The stained glass windows shower the inside with colour. “In the whole East there is no city that approached Damascus in beauty of bazaars, orchards and rivers, and in the handsome figures of its inhabitants, but Shiraz … the people of Shiraz are pious … especially the women, who have a strange custom. Every Monday, Thursday, and Friday they meet in the principal mosque to listen to the preacher, one or two thousand of then, carrying fans with which they fan themselves on account of the great heat. I have never seen in any land so great an assembly of women.” - Ibn Battuta (1929), Travels in Asia and Africa 1325 – 54, translated by H. A. R. Gibb. Ibn Battuta visited in 1327. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915109637-2VJLV2KMVPDVIVE4I5WX/DSCF1167.jpg Shiraz - Garden of Hafiz “His out-and-out pantheism, as well as his manner of life, caused him at his death to be denied burial in consecrated ground. The ecclesiastical authorities were, however, induced to relent in their plan of excommunication at the dictates of a passage from the poet’s writings … “turn not thy feet from the bier of Hafiz, for though immersed in sin, he will be admitted in to Paradise.” And so he rests in the cemetery at Shiraz, where the nightingales are singing and the roses bloom the year through, and the doves gather with low murmurs amid the white stones of the sacred enclosure.” - The Divan, translated by Herman Bicknell, in Hafez - Delphi Poets Series (2017), Delphi Classics https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915201502-5G6M3YYW6I64L1CQF1BV/DSCF6153.jpg Shiraz - Vakil Mosque “They have a story, that Kureem Khan riding through it [the Vakil Bazaar, which surrounds the mosque] soon after the work was completed, saw a nail driven into the wall, and detecting the offender, caused his head to be struck off.” - Edward Scott Waring (1807), A Tour To Sheeraz https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536915144470-CJVQEF3E47NFE6KZLY3X/DSCF1244.jpg Shiraz - Hills around Shiraz “To-day Shiraz offers no imposing appearance, but we would fain believe that it was far otherwise when its elder poet indited: ‘Sadi, night and day, sorrowing over Shiraz, says: That all cities are hawks, but our city is a royal eagle.’” - Percy Sykes (1902), Ten Thousand Miles in Persia or Eight Years In Iran https://www.benjaroenwong.com/isfahan daily 0.75 2018-11-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534766923247-CP3BCMZFCANLWUZOR8QK/isf_intro1.jpg Isfahan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534766923247-CP3BCMZFCANLWUZOR8QK/isf_intro1.jpg Isfahan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459762335-K50VID1OAX8AOMVGCNM1/DSCF0497.jpg Isfahan - Jameh Mosque Empty columned hall, mid-morning, of Isfahan’s Jameh Mosque, built as a mosque in around 771 after the Arab conquest, and added to by successive ruling dynasties. ‘Nearly every significant architectural and decorative trend of medieval period in Persian history found its monumental representation in this mosque. In fact, so richly diverse, artistically accomplished and technologically inventive are the building and decorative strategies employed in this mosque that it has served as a blueprint for medieval Persian architecture in general.’ Sussan Babaie with Robert Haug, “Isfahan x. Monuments (3) Mosques”, Encyclopedia Iranica https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459789227-WB03XJNLL07RF44T2IWL/DSCF0478.jpg Isfahan - Jameh Mosque, North Chamber “This is the perfection of architecture, attained … by their chivalry of balance and proportion. And this small interior comes nearer to that perfection than I would have thought possible outside classical Europe.” - Robert Byron (1937), The Road to Oxiana. From his diary entry made on 16 March 1934. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459913179-3L56N2U6DUD3ORLO756R/isf_intro1.jpg Isfahan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534460017269-V3S5Y0LOJRVAHKOGYD7H/DSCF0349-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Bakery, 9pm Fresh late-night flatbreads (sangak), under the gaze of Ayatollahs Khamenei and Khomenei. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534460047889-UCUA1YP015L5KZYMNFJ6/DSCF0352-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Bakery, 9pm Chewy, stretchy, airy bread, that hardens all too quickly - buy it fresh or not at all. Like a thinner version of laffa bread. One of the bakers waved me in after he noticed me outside. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459792584-MKT1AQS54DR1OA9CW9Y0/DSCF0511-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Shops near the Charbagh Probably not what Tavernier saw in 1653 - but Iranian traffic has more than replaced the dangers of being run down by a horse: road accidents cause 20,000 deaths and 800,000 injuries annually. ‘For the men are all upon the false gallop in the streets, without any fear of hurting the children: by reason that the children are not suffered to play in the streets like ours, but as soon as ever they come from school, they sit down by their parents, to be instructed by them in their profession.’ - Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1678), The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier...through Turkey into Persia (translated by John Phillips). From his third stay in Isfahan, in 1653. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459822677-6Z60EPM8FOWGHESGUUCN/DSCF0528-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Nowruz Goldfish and flowers for sale, a few days before the beginning of the Iranian New Year, Nowruz. Both are elements of the haft-sin, a table of things assembled in the house for the two-week new year holiday. ‘… the mullahs of the College had quietly gone one better. From the parapet of the great portal they had let down three cut-glass chandeliers, whose pale candles, flickering against the black void of the arch, revealed three globes of goldfish suspended between them.’ - Robert Byron (1937), The Road to Oxiana. From his visit to the city in March 1934. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535259250695-OT2E35V7WUPDHPV5U7KK/meydan.jpg Isfahan - Meydan Pre-dawn in the middle of the great meydan (public square). In the foreground, a large pool, dry due to the perennial water shortage. ‘It has many great and notable antiquities amongst the which the chiefest is a square cisterne, with cleere and sweete water, very good to drink, round about the which is a goodly wharfe set with pillars and vaults: where are innumerable rooms and places for merchants to bestow their merchandise.’ - Josafa Barbaro and Ambrogio Contarini (1873), Travels to Tana and Persia, translated by William Thomas. This is from Barbaro’s visit to Isfahan in 1474. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459961622-2YH014LFZ63OE9JNI5XY/DSCF0198.jpg Isfahan - Zayanderud The Zayanderud (‘life giver’) river, dry, except when the government decides to release water from the dams upstream. These swan-boats lie beached near the city’s central footbridge. ‘Imagine Paris without the Seine, London without the Thames. Isfahan, with just over a million people, may be smaller, but its people are no less passionate about the Zaindeh River, or Zaindeh-Rud, as it is called in Persia.’ - Article by Amy Waldman published in the New York Times on 16 August 2001. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459739903-5KWL24ZQC5XZ1KQ20CQ6/DSCF0428.jpg Isfahan - Shoes I would have thought it was impossible for a country to have so many shoe stores. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534767430833-IVNKF3NQAO3DX32MALA0/DSCF0565-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Bazaar Entrance to the grand bazaar from the north end of the meydan. ‘From the end of the porticos that touch the north side of the Mosque, live the shop-keepers that sell sowing-silk, and small manufactures of silk, as ribbons, laces, garters, and other things of the same nature. From the mosque to the other end, are all turners, that make cradles for children, and spinning-wheels. There are also some cotton-beaters, that make quilted coverlets. Without the porticos are none but smiths, that make scythes, hammers, pincers, nails and such like things; with some few cutlers.’ - Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1678), The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier...through Turkey into Persia (translated by John Phillips). From his third stay in Isfahan, in 1653. I’ve tidied up the old English. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459882899-38L7GZDTUTFNNDQ1OIQR/DSCF5521-Edit.jpg Isfahan - South Ayvan, Meydan ‘This entrance complex corrects the alignment of the mosque by twisting the axis of approach, but it also provides a liminal space passage through which provides the worshipper the opportunity, visually and spatially mediated, to leave the mundane world behind before entering the sanctified space of the mosque.’ - Susan Babaie and Robert Haug, “Isfahan X. Monuments – Mosques”, Enyclopedia Iranica https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459915090-9FTN2ZH2GNIRELMW8M19/DSCF5744-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Infinity Tiles A wall of the Darb-i Imam Shrine, completed in 1453. An almost aperiodic pattern adorns the spandrel (the triangular bits at the top of the arch) second from photo left. Mathematicians first proved aperiodic patterns existed in the 1960s. A plain-English introduction to aperiodic patterns can be accessed here. ‘… the efficiency of this method is illustrated by the high quality of the pattern at the Darb-i Imam shrine—when it is mapped to Penrose tiles, there are only 11 defects among 3700 tiles—it is the most mathematically complex pattern yet discovered’. - Sebastian R. Prange, (2009) The Tiles of Infinity, Saudi Aramco World https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459956452-AT899G7BLS5AJWIX84G7/DSCF0232.jpg Isfahan - Siosepol Allahverdi Khan Bridge, popularly known as Siosepol (the bridge of thirty three spans). ‘At either end [of the bridge], from day to day and year to year, there are two Persians seated on the ground…they rose at our approach, and from one of the arches brought forward a lighted kalian [hookah], all ready for indulgence in the favourite form of smoking … the traveller, if he pleases, takes the pipe, and after smoking from one end of the bridge to the other, leaves it with the second pair of pipe bearers’. Arthur Arnold (1877), Travels through Persia by Caravan. From his visit to Isfahan in around 1876. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459986993-Z5ZWS86WYV0116ZDCAPJ/DSCF0248.jpg Isfahan - Siosepol Poets sit under the bridge at night, singing verse. ‘Wheresoever beauty files Follow her on eager wings Beauteous wild imaginings.’ - Sonnets from Hafez and Other Verses, translated by Elizabeth Bridges https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459980475-W5GDZXZN4KDMOU0NJHUL/DSCF0262.jpg Isfahan - Siosepol ‘The whole Char Bagh [main boulevard, that leads onto the Siosepol] was illuminated as I walked back to Wishaw’s house across the river. Tiers of lamps and candles were ranged at intervals under the trees, great wedding-cakes of light thirty feet high, draped in red and backed with gilt mirrors.’ - Robert Byron (1937), The Road to Oxiana. From his diary entry made on 16 March 1934. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534460010787-2WRNTLE95INGRISX2NSJ/DSCF0280.jpg Isfahan - Rotisserie Food. The chicken is usually fine; the mutton (you rarely get lamb) is, well, muttony, which is fine in stews, but not as much in the kebabs. You can try the Isfahani Biryani, which bears no resemblance to the Indian Biryani, and is perfect in the same way a Halal Snack Pack is perfect when you’re sloshed at two in the morning. Pity it’s a dry country. More unique is the Khoresht-i Mast, a vivid yellow, sweet dessert yoghurt made with sheep’s neck. Now that’s delicious. Or find a make-your-own falafel sandwich shop. Falafel isn’t Iranian, but it’s tough to pass up dinner for a dollar. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534460047904-LOPKESAWGBMST39RS7JI/DSCF0361-Edit.jpg Isfahan - Clothing store https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534460086459-6L9TFURP7LB3UMY7Y67T/DSCF0386.jpg Isfahan - Fast food https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459839626-G1O7R3QTNJ6WNCGUEK6R/DSCF0645.jpg Isfahan - Riverside Chaharshanbe Suri, the last Wednesday before the Iranian New Year, Nowruz. I sat with these two and set off firecrackers, watched fireworks go off, swapped cigarettes, and flicked around charcoal embers. ‘For the first two years after the Revolution of [1978-79] the government prohibited celebration of Caharsanba-sūrī, declaring it a relic of fire worship, but the people persisted in lighting the fires, and eventually the authorities relented; the practice is now tolerated.’ - Manouchehr Kasheff and ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, “CAHARSANBA-SŪRĪ,” Encyclopaedia Iranica https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534459867139-KI7FDQ0TUX1SSPSEUWRS/DSCF0668.jpg Isfahan - Chaharshanbe Suri On the dry river, Chaharshanbe Suri. ‘One or two days before the last Wednesday of the year people go out to gather bushes … in the cities they buy brushwood. In the afternoon before the start of Čahāršanba-sūrī the brushwood is laid out in the yard of the house, if it is spacious enough, or in a village square or city street; it is arranged in one, three, five, or seven bundles (always an odd number) spaced a few feet apart. At sunset or soon after the bundles are set alight, and while the flames flicker in the dusk men, women, and children jump over them, singing sorḵī-e to az man, zardī-e man az to “[let] your ruddiness [be] mine, my paleness yours,” or the equivalent in local dialects’. - Manouchehr Kasheff and ʿAlī-Akbar Saʿīdī Sīrjānī, “ČAHĀRŠANBA-SŪRĪ,” Encyclopaedia Iranica https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog daily 0.75 2018-11-03 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/2018/11/3/bhutan-land-of-the-thunder-dragon monthly 0.5 2018-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541239476155-KB7LVKUJI9H83HSNM5ED/Dzong2.jpg Blog & Updates - Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541239121545-7JJ8XZ66K5BWWC75KHT7/Wheels.jpg Blog & Updates - Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541239550837-TO7S3YSSKC6JNRBPYNUB/Butterlamp.jpg Blog & Updates - Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541239028686-6FFBMSZ4E4NKR59Z99GA/Dzong1.jpg Blog & Updates - Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541239710627-7MB577Z03H6EOJHC63IS/Cows.jpg Blog & Updates - Bhutan, Land of the Thunder Dragon https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/2018/9/14/shiraz-royal-eagle monthly 0.5 2018-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536920340619-C4EQ1ZWM7HBVOSA4AHR5/eramgardenpeople Blog & Updates - Shiraz, the place, not the wine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536920239279-KY473D6FQ2M05MFOG9CQ/nomosque Blog & Updates - Shiraz, the place, not the wine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536920407714-KIS0M9NL7M5O516USPEA/khanschool Blog & Updates - Shiraz, the place, not the wine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1536920302460-VGL62TBMXB15V7MD7CNU/hillshiraz Blog & Updates - Shiraz, the place, not the wine https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/2018/8/26/isfahan-half-of-the-world monthly 0.5 2018-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535295200174-6QP6XRBEATV2MEH15R3W/lutfullah1.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World Dome of the Sheikh Lutfullah Mosque. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535295776728-207F1YEAIV5FHUJB81YZ/southayvandoor.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World Door under the south ayvan (archway) of the meydan, Isfahan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535294731722-OY3V9KDDVX2EKISC296G/meydan_isf.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World Isfahan's main square, looking south, with the city's southern hills as a backdrop. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535295040019-5DSYTA1HUKFVNBZS01LU/DSCF0454.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World Praying at Isfahan's Friday (Jameh) Mosque. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535294433545-GEQQR7XDLLH454WD94OI/coffeeshop.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World Coffeeshop, Isfahan. Good stuff, and all your modern needs catered for, including aeropress, filter and syphon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535295296576-IY04KH3YJXSGBK5I0XBT/lutfullah2.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World One side of the Sheikh Lutfullah Mosque's dome-chamber. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1535294600564-XZF7LKOGD86P0L8XNQ97/cathedral.jpg Blog & Updates - Isfahan, Half of the World Interior of an Armenian Church (Vank Church, I think), in Julfa, south of the river in Isfahan. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/2018/8/22/travels-through-karakalpakstan monthly 0.5 2018-11-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534922415996-LHD9RTUFHMOTD9WFYSX3/Urgench_People.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan The new Konye-Urgench. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534926292116-77YPWMSKXG1U77E6W2VE/Cemetery_Khujayli.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan Not Mizdakhan, but the cemetery practically next to it. Mizdakhan is much like it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534921271985-RSO1IBZVUX3WKO8EF30R/DSCF6615-Pano-Edit.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan The Karakum Desert https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534922980862-CSHHPALD9I8PQ5OLD76P/3064825581_42a1bec75c_o.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan - V. Lysenko, "Facism is Advancing" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534923337646-23VJARSFYLWAUACLMB7F/Kolkhoz.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan - A.N. Volkov, "Cotton Picking" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534922871808-WE7ON6HBBHSAJ7NM83K2/20180408_133226.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan - A.N. Volkov, "Cart" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534922883347-13A2WQ7M6Z4EHQQ5V95S/20180408_133925.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan - S. Nikritin, "The Old and the New" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534922900930-Q54SHMVBINN5F6KRC0A5/20180408_134440.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan - A.V. Shevchenko, "Shock Worker" https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1534923016064-T4WE3MEWNBM8QECSQDMT/thebull.jpg Blog & Updates - Travels through Karakalpakstan https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/turkmenistan monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/isfahan monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/iran monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/history monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/travel monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/desert monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/blog/tag/uzbekistan monthly 0.5 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/uplands daily 0.75 2018-08-24 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/drukpt1 daily 0.75 2020-08-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541235184519-TNT31918E473FCGMPCI7/b1intro.jpg Druk - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541235184519-TNT31918E473FCGMPCI7/b1intro.jpg Druk - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691235027-NWUH3OCE56SNIDGOP67V/DSCF0409-HDR-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Shakyamuni Buddha, overlooking Thimpu ‘The Rajah, pointing to the images and pictures of the deities that adorned his room, asked if we used such things, and being answered in the negative, said it did not signify, since it was the same Being we all adored.’ - Extract from the diary of Samuel Davis, on his visit to Thimpu in 1783. Impressions of Europeans travelling to Bhutan before World War I range from positive (as Davis’s was) to extremely negative (such as Ashley Eden, whose account has him grossly mistreated by the locals). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691208095-I4N17QN03NT8VOPSB9DV/DSCF0239-HDR-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Thimpu ‘The situation of Tacissudon [the Royal Palace near Thimpu], elevated into so pure a region of air, must certainly be healthy in any season of the year; even in the rains, as there is no place where water can lodge and become stagnate, neither is the surface so closely covered with wood as to produce unwholesome vapour.’ - Extract from the diary of Samuel Davis, on his visit to Thimpu in 1783. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691227738-M8GSXXYK9ZEWZBQEJ7G2/DSCF0654-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Chendebji Chorten ‘Some distance further on we came to a romantic patch of sward in a gorge of the ravine where the stream was joined by another mountain torrent, and on the tongue of land thus formed, covered with beautiful cedar pines, was a fine choten, built in imitation of the Swayambunath in Nepal. For miles we continued to traverse undulating ground … through oak, magnolia, and rhododendrons, until we emerged on more open country.’ - J. Claude White (1909), Sikhim and Bhutan, from his visit in 1905 to bestow an honour on Ugyen Wangchuk, the penlop (baron) of Paro, and future first King of modern Bhutan. From his description, it is likely this is the chorten he mentioned. The shape, akin to the Swayambunath, and the location, at the tongue of two torrents, is a giveaway. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691237026-PAJDZ4P9MT9TD8CZ40Y3/DSCF0424-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Farmlands ‘Early one morning the sound of a very sweet-toned gong warned us that the spring ceremony of blessing the rice-fields was about to begin … the men sprang up, throwing off their outer garments; this was the signal for the women to rush into the inundated field and to commence throwing clods of earth and splashes of muddy water on the men below as they tried to climb up. Then followed a wild and mad, although always good-humoured, struggle between the men and the women in the water … gradually the women drove the men slowly down the whole length of the field … this was looked on as a very propitious ending, as the women’s victory portends during the coming season fertility of the soil’. - J. Claude White (1909), Sikhim and Bhutan, from his visit in 1905. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691207339-WK0TQTZKPGG424RJE7LX/DSCF0770.jpg Druk - Part One - Dzong Interior ‘Unable to move the cart despite all efforts, Wencheng spread out the geomantic and divination chart she carried with her from China … analysis revealed that the country of Tibet lay on a supine demoness … causing it to breed savagery and diabolic forces [which] had to be tamed through building a series of temples.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan. Two of Princess Wencheng’s temples were built in present-day Bhutan in the 7th century AD, serving as the first historical mention of Buddhism being spread to Bhutan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691194322-2A1YWKNDHDBTWKSDTHK2/DSCF0969-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Retreat ‘As the culmination of this religious meditative practice, Padmasambhava is said to have manifested in the appearance of Dorji Drolod [the Adamantine Exuberant Wrath] while Tashi Kheudren … transformed herself into a tigress. In these terrifying forms … the duo is believed to have scared the evil forces of the entire Himalayan region into submission. Also partaking in this ceremony of Vajrakilaya were other disciples including a young Bhutanese named Saley, Yeshe Tsogyal (Tibet’s greatest female Buddhist figure) and her spiritual partners Atsara Saley and Pelgyi Senge.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013) The History of Bhutan. This hut served as Yeshe Tsogyal’s retreat around the time rituals were performed at the nearby Taktsang. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691174301-PRMVX0J40TTTJPKEM50P/DSCF0909-Edit-2.jpg Druk - Part One - Wreathed ‘The whole face of the country would be found at this time to wear the most curious and interesting aspect, and to afford scenes for a painter in a style truly sublime, but of which words could convey but a very inadequate idea.’ - Extract from the diary of Samuel Davis, on his visit to Bhutan in 1783. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691157090-JIKVJX5N8DX6UTSMQP90/DSCF0955-HDR-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Taktsang ‘The venerated Goraknath is said to have visited the spot, ejected the tigers, and resided here: the marks of his hands and feet are pointed out on the rocks. Cheeboo Lama and nearly all of the Sikhimese were highly delighted … and some of our Sirdars [senior sherpas, probably] spent all their money in the purchase of butter to burn in votive lamps. Those with barren wives who desired heirs anticipated the most beneficial results from their pilgrimage to the shrine.’ - Kishen Kant Bose (1865) Political Missions to Bootan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1539691142311-9UMPH2AQ3B3M3M09B0C8/DSCF0611-Edit.jpg Druk - Part One - Roadside ‘The valleys are wide filled with flowers and fruits. The villages are enchanting filled with many lotuses In all directions, the land shines with splendour and excellent beauty, As if in a contest with the heavenly realm of gods.’ - Extract from the Tibetan saint Longchenpa, from his travels in Bhutan around 1350. Translated in Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1596623992773-D2Q6JNI9UOZMWKUN68LR/DSCF0513-Edit2.jpg Druk - Part One https://www.benjaroenwong.com/drukpt2 daily 0.75 2021-09-16 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541232929101-JBAR8Y9MLP9W351TKHLX/b2intro.jpg Druk - Part Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541232929101-JBAR8Y9MLP9W351TKHLX/b2intro.jpg Druk - Part Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137329949-DDFIIXEFKHQYFMD04Q3U/b2_001.jpg Druk - Part Two - Between the Wheels Certainly not unique to Bhutan, the devout circle the central area of a monastery, clutching prayer beads, spinning the prayer wheels and reciting mantras. ‘There is, besides, in use at these buildings a religious instrument with which all classes may amuse themselves, a sort of whirligig, or barrel set upright to turn on a spindle. The inside is filled with a roll of paper, printed all over with the above word [the mantra, om-mani-padme-hum]…every devout passenger, as he goes by, may give it a twirl…the meaning of the word is said to implore a blessing, and they mutter it over as the Catholics do their ‘Ave Marias,’ dropping a bead at each repetition!’ - Extract from the Diary of Samuel Davis, who visited Bhutan in 1783. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137400241-X3HWZ0CZ67C0TYKMA6N3/b2_005.jpg Druk - Part Two - Monastery, Central Bhutan A choir gathers outside the monastery gates to greet a visiting dignitary. ‘They were attired in togas of Chinese silk brocade caught up at the waist with a girdle, whence they fell loosely to the knee. The colours of these garments were as varied as they were vivid – blues of the brightest turquoise and the deepest sapphire, rose pinks, scarlets, plums, greens and yellows …over eighty dancers, the creations, one could only imagine, of a mind lost in the spectral abysses of acute delirium – inhabitants of a world half animal, half human, biped stags, monkeys, elephants, hawks, and parrots pirouetting and curtseying to kindred monsters for which human language provides no names.’ The Earl of Ronaldshay (1923), Lands of the Thunderbolt: Sikhim, Chumbi & Bhutan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137273297-CXTRPJPBTFVMYO4ZYP6U/b2_008.jpg Druk - Part Two - Market delivery Early morning at the market in Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital. ‘[The potato] is said to have been introduced to Bhutan in 1775 by the Scotsman George Bogle, who led the first official European mission to Bhutan… The tuber grew fairly easily and the Bhutanese took an immediate liking to it so that in 1776 the dzongpön of Punakha even requested Bogle to send some more as they had eaten them all without leaving any seed. He sent Bhutanese pears to Bogle as his gift.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137385603-ITI2ICO3P4TMUG6VHR35/b2_004.jpg Druk - Part Two - Women's work Porting potatoes to stalls inside the market. Thimpu, Bhutan. ‘The most interesting highland people in the eastern part of Bhutan are herders in the areas of Merak and Sakteng … they are supposed to have come from Tibet guided by the female deity Ama Jomo after they rebelled against a despotic ruler … commanding his subjects to cut off a hilltop, which was blocking the early sun from shining on his residence. In the course of the forced labour to demolish the hill, an intelligent woman sings a song implying that it is easier to chop off the ruler’s head than cut off the hill head … they assassinate the ruler but rebellion leads to exodus of the Brokpa people from their land.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137224884-SNMC47SN2S343I65VBW4/b2_007.jpg Druk - Part Two - Butcher's ‘The [Bhutanese] worship images and consider the Dhurma Raja as a god. They will not kill any animal even for food, but will eat carrion, or what has been killed by any other person. They eat the flesh of every sort of animal except that of the pigeon; but if any one should eat any that he will not lose caste, but will merely exposed to ridicule.’ - Extract from Kishen Kant Bose’s Account of Bootan who visited in 1815. ‘[Bose’s] accounts are largely distorted and at times preposterous … Perhaps, his informants enjoyed pulling the legs of a credulous visitor.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137374694-NT7FZ3KES8X6YZPIHFXS/b2_003.jpg Druk - Part Two - City centre Mornings in Bhutan’s capital, Thimphu. ‘Were there any traffic or change of commodities among the natives worth mentioning, it would appear at this annual report to Tacissudon [in today’s Thimpu], in the likeness of a market or fair; but there are seen only about a dozen loads of trifling things exposed to sale in a corner of the palace … the gylongs [monks] and zeen-caabs [zingups, i.e. palace staff] receive their food and raiment from the public stores; even their swords or daggers, which the latter wear as finery in their girdles, are in general only lent to them from the palace; and the wants of the common people, besides their daily sustenance, are small indeed.’ - Extract from the Diary of Samuel Davis, who visited Bhutan in 1783. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137221909-AI1RST388G70XRPIQ2EP/b2_006.jpg Druk - Part Two - Temple at Kurjey So the story goes, this happened at Kurjey. ‘As [Padmasambhava] enters into deep meditation to use his psychic power to subdue the evil spirits, Shalging Karpo, chief of the spirits, remains in hiding … however, on the seventh day, the guru miraculously creates a magnificent spectacle on the ground in front of the cliff. [Karpo] is persuaded by his followers to see the unprecedented show … Karpo shyly reveals himself in the form of a lion and instantly the guru swoops down on him in the form of a garuda bird and suppresses him. Such stories of miracles, contests, and subjugation of the evil forces form the main thread of Padmasambhava’s career in Bhutan and Tibet.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137296819-YZ8EXKB5AL458RNQUTUF/b2_010.jpg Druk - Part Two - Monastery residents As most are, I was allowed to keep my phone when I lived in a monastery. I’m not sure it was the wisest thing. ‘[The monkhood] receive from time to time boys taken from the most respectable families in the country, and from others who have interest to procure their children to be admitted … the far greater part of them pass their time with perfect insipidity. Between the intervals of devotion they are generally seen lolling over the balconies of their apartments, not being allowed to stir out of the castle except on every eighth day, when they walk out one by one in a line … to an island in the river to bathe.’ - Extract from the Diary of Samuel Davis, who visited Bhutan in 1783. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137350441-L577XHCCHWL13FC1N7CQ/b2_002.jpg Druk - Part Two - Reborn In the Phobjikha Valley, where immense flocks of cranes migrate every year. ‘The immortality of the [Bhutanese] Dhurma is not so well known as that of the Lama of Thibet, it is nevertheless equally true … the chief test of the authenticity of the infant in whom the Dhurma condescends to leave the regions of Ether for those of gross spirits consists in his recognizing his former articles of wearing apparel .. this child is bound to assert that they are actually his own. If it does so, surely it is satisfactory evidence. The infant Dhurma may as well be found in the hut of the poorest peasant as in the residence of an officer of high rank. But I dare say if the truth were known he is usually made for the occasion.’ - Dr. W. Griffiths, Journal of the Mission to Bootan, who visited in 1837-38 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137251074-L84ZK0PWGDGGY3JP00YW/b2_009.jpg Druk - Part Two - All on the wheel of karma ‘Informal recognition of a person as the rebirth of someone from the past existed long before the beginning of the trulku institutions in the thirteenth century. The trulku institution was novel in officially claiming the child to be the spiritual successor and thus the legal heir to properties, rights and entitlements of the deceased person…the procedures [for determining whether a person was a reincarnation of someone] were highly unclear and flexible and they often left the process of ecclesiastical succession prone to abuse and manipulation.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1541137322849-N3SVBCKUNCGLDAFXXGH7/b2_011.jpg Druk - Part Two - Paro Dzong The architectural symbols of Bhutan, dzongs represent the centre of religious and political governance. The tradition of theocratic rule, symbolised in one structure. ‘Within the dzong, [the Zhabdrung, who created the first historically-recorded ruling dynasty in Bhutan] established his dual system of ‘the religious law which gets tighter like a silken knot’ and ‘the secular law which gets heavier like a golden yoke’. By introducing these two systems, he brought, to put it in the idiomatic phrase of the time, ‘law to the lawless south and handle to the handleless pot’.’ - Karma Phuntsho (2013), The History of Bhutan https://www.benjaroenwong.com/hominesp1 daily 0.75 2024-12-08 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548421415426-HRA0TH7BNHY8392RB42X/DSCF0228.jpg Homines - Part One Wedding in Caulfield, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548421415426-HRA0TH7BNHY8392RB42X/DSCF0228.jpg Homines - Part One Wedding in Caulfield, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548453272758-D193NLSYRJZYJOF9J2C3/DSCF0263-Edit.jpg Homines - Part One Christmas Day in Cootamundra, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548420190946-GP5RY0SNNXNP3ZB6HRAD/DSCF0939.jpg Homines - Part One Child taking a photograph of her parents in Darbid, Iran. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548419904397-UVAL2I0LMY07G9LXHZ38/DSCF1025.jpg Homines - Part One Bar in Yaowarat, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548453185281-G867A6UOCU22Z33PYI19/20181113_135_400H_61.jpg Homines - Part One Outside Pellegrini’s in Melbourne, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548419954014-1X377LGRF6FKD4B5O88R/DSCF2146.jpg Homines - Part One In farmlands near Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424885151-1S6FYX6IG8U36O3WX43G/DSCF0098.jpg Homines - Part One Near Rangsit, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548419767207-UPAD97HQNWHAPAEY6JXP/20180726_35mm_CS800TP1_040.jpg Homines - Part One In the passages around the Arts Centre in Melbourne, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548419508926-YBFOMZW2I83IMZOBJ0OP/DSCF2160.jpg Homines - Part One In farmlands near Nakhon Sawan, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548422491953-LDADJV8Z4JHDY52Q9P16/DSCF0411.jpg Homines - Part One Chanukah in Melbourne, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548423626933-NZJURKL1877IGAV36NRS/DSCF1676.jpg Homines - Part One A museum usher in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548423661333-IZVZQRLHSS4A8CQ4LDQ7/DSCF0785.jpg Homines - Part One Bring your daughter to work day near Yazd, Iran. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548423135152-Z5MQWWELLH3P7PRQE0SN/DSCF2366.jpg Homines - Part One Students outside an art exhibition in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548453330786-8L887KWT343HFBA4CIZ1/DSCF0212.jpg Homines - Part One Holiday celebrations in Cootamundra, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424849624-IOI5KK2GFKQAEJA6AMO6/DSCF5152.jpg Homines - Part One Music festival in Footscray, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548453243151-4IGT1I4HBSR9X48HAKGB/DSCF0377+%283%29.jpg Homines - Part One After Christmas lunch in Cootamundra, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424800792-WBJ576K7EWHN34ZT1W6T/DSCF0209-Edit.jpg Homines - Part One Wedding reception in Caulfield, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424695715-4AC8HMQFWFRAVX74H7LT/DSCF0427.jpg Homines - Part One Gallery in Melbourne, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548470462903-11XVPZK7I51VFC4PHI2U/DSCF4167.jpg Homines - Part One Portraiture session in Fitzroy, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424688386-XZGEWGPBIO7I7YJT26AP/DSCF4119.jpg Homines - Part One Mikveh in Carlton, Australia. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424597692-X2BLRJ8GA72QAGZG46DS/DSCF1460.jpg Homines - Part One Thon Buri, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548424451264-H98LKLEB7Z6XD4SJVHKR/DSCF1378.jpg Homines - Part One Phra Nakhon, Thailand. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1548453137366-2QOS01T1AR0JMSJC6G2I/DSCF0045.jpg Homines - Part One Melbourne, Australia. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/new-gallery daily 0.75 2019-01-26 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/neighbourhood daily 0.75 2020-08-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564213876374-ZESFUDIIS2X4FJ45B0R6/nbh10.jpg Neighbourhood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564146573684-Q7GJABJDIUYIC3BQ58E3/nbh_intro.jpg Neighbourhood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564213694122-MZTRB9F9NDJO2087RA0A/xnbh_intro.jpg Neighbourhood https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564146627305-FQ96O627RBZS92Y2SDT4/nbh01.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Near Clyde St, spring. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564146738490-Y2HZ8LMRAHMEISUMAY36/nbh03.jpg Neighbourhood - South Melbourne Near Yarra Pl, summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564147199790-38XS3YUH3WOENQHZ8NHC/nbh05.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Brookes Jetty, summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564147374215-E9BR8SCCA2NWVZ45DCMO/nbh08.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda Smith St, autumn. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564146696668-3Z72RDZ4JGKSY75ROD9O/nbh02.jpg Neighbourhood - Heidelberg Francis St, winter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564147240629-J2MJBAG68W56F8CL9XSG/nbh06.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda St Kilda Road, winter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564146734425-OE7P0SK8BQDOOL26BMY0/nbh04.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Near Fawkner St, spring. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564147453478-HDV92I0UX0ODJM1MZJK5/nbh10.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Near Marine Parade, summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564150024795-S4TXFA2GGJC1LFE6NKDU/nbh14.jpg Neighbourhood - Balaclava Nelson St, autumn. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564150217612-GXG4XESNGCDS2NJ70BEP/nbh17.jpg Neighbourhood - Caulfield North Hawthorn Road, winter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564147307914-4PSY7DOTUKXXXY07WMOS/nbh07.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda St Kilda Road, winter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564213496659-MX9A6IW8AMAZ7CHDHSK1/nbh11.jpg Neighbourhood - Elwood Near Vautier St, spring. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564148868708-XDHXS30HW92O31QI4GC7/nbh12.jpg Neighbourhood - Carlton Faraday St, spring. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564147390785-ZYG2BN5JPYGKFEMEA0MK/nbh09.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Acland St, summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564149289497-P6EF8PRXR6S7USWDUWZU/nbh13.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Marine Parade, summer. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564149788979-0YYDW1E0ECUQ5A2YZYR6/nbh15.jpg Neighbourhood - Melbourne Little Lonsdale St, winter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564149845047-87JI2A5JWTV0AWZ7IIJB/nbh16.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda St Kilda Road, winter. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1564150113773-1PZL9DSXPE6ZYWUGX4LM/nbh18.jpg Neighbourhood - St Kilda West Near Chaucer St, winter. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/terra-australis-part-one daily 1.0 2026-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580082726788-YMT3ZR23Z1KFAYARYOT8/DSCF0513-1-3.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081543784-W903TDUT4O5KQ6CKZVY6/DSCF3470-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579928734527-WX1B793ZJUIGNJX89AKX/DSCF3470-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580031049186-WW3FU2JRUTMH26G0CY61/DSCF3452-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081636942-X0OZI6JOVPMQZMF0QV4E/DSCF3547-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081647568-Q3PR96QBRE99Y7RLLW93/DSCF3716-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580032860493-2ZT805A276P03BJ52CX7/DSCF1151-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580032839091-O3ORZ7NSS77B7DU62W8B/DSCF1255-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580032988479-3BNHBCGV9UVWOXXS1TB4/DSCF0492-Edit-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081452264-IIQ90ZBEVGLWPLQ6C4Z9/DSCF0513-1-3.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081476294-BZF6UWUMWS3FE8P9KT9Z/DSCF3873-1-2.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081293665-8XFPXIKUSZTNZAH0HQQL/DSCF3800-Edit-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1642416529288-Q5SD2IELHA8Y813YHF3Z/DSCF5607-web.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1642416506826-HEH9VVPHEDXIAJS2K8RR/DSCF5613-web.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081380023-HDHHSDE6W9BL55CW7D56/DSCF3959-1-2.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1638307555735-5JOEBXCRX2H8DFN34988/DSCF5116-2.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1638307533828-HZJRFOQD4WC0KJ0EZAT3/DSCF5164-2.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1638307569591-EHR3L243Y6MMDN8OFCPP/DSCF5198-2.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580032884926-H20LZWCD440F8YXO04B8/DSCF3424-Edit-1.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580081617869-P1DMBE1FI6BGX7S83RQS/DSCF3514-17.jpg Terra Australis - Part One https://www.benjaroenwong.com/terra-australis-part-two daily 0.75 2026-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946829188-H5U2WXR0OJWA4USAC4WG/DSCF3978-71.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Near Cradle Mountain, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946829188-H5U2WXR0OJWA4USAC4WG/DSCF3978-71.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Near Cradle Mountain, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946785430-0DVH873YY8530J93IRWB/DSCF3926-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946828404-PNKVEVP2S1C4FYZNAD55/DSCF3932-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579686896818-DNI2USCLATBQ0VJ7XMOP/DSCF3978-71.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768088725635-4WUGBDQBV907LEYJOOS3/DSCF5930.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Near Guthega, NSW. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945576236-BXV3EQ7FH4YXXE444ZKP/20180829_120_P160_005-Edit-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Near the Yarra Ranges, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945807431-O1RHICLLK19SUTT3W93F/DSCF1211-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Sunraysia region, New South Wales. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945979948-LCEG07JT9QBNK9PSWBOB/DSCF1223-5.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Mungo National Park, New South Wales. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946122497-GWKEZ9MC08UMQCOGHI7N/DSCF1368-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Mallee region, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946278841-QQZNL55QH0D6W2ZTODBH/DSCF1383-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Mallee region, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945933478-5NV8PP8GPRQ2HLBMOWZK/DSCF1168-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Near Eppalock, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946018584-IUDNSS0UEQHBTXWUW935/DSCF1218-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Darling River near the Menindee, New South Wales. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1580033820254-KJ5K8I7A6A2QLVGHO1YB/DSCF3667-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two West Coast, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945628697-R1KME9I1CARPRNFPG4CX/DSCF0135-Edit-2.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Mansfield region, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945748230-5IM5NZIC6EAGMM9YZMVV/DSCF1205-Edit-2.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Lake Tyrell, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945668170-LE48F0J63GV5S1SUOVX5/DSCF0421+%282%29-2.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Riverina, New South Wales. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1631756518717-2L7Y61RUW063QBBJKZ88/DSCF4883-Edit.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Taipan Wall, Grampians National Park, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946885954-B1UYXNPHCSBC3DT7JS7D/DSCF3984-74.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945708358-D8YH99AL6XQ44CG2CNZL/DSCF0432+%282%29-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Mount Buffalo National Park, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946425315-85YXPRQERSG8NDGVM6VX/DSCF3492-Edit-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Arthur-Pieman Conservation Area, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946069156-NM3Q5DOTWBO2TOBSKPNB/DSCF1285-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Mungo National Park, New South Wales. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946650043-H4HCIW85PC7WZVYIZ8KK/DSCF3837-55.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946702482-IB2K31EB53L5PK3O73I6/DSCF3843-57.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Cradle Mountain - Lake St Clair National Park, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946621038-QPL1S6FNV5TA75TZXDD9/DSCF3573-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two West Coast, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579945599458-BW4BTQWH4NYPJ4WFRHGQ/20180830_120_P160_002-2.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Yarra Ranges, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768088977238-8JP2OLR3SCO80RHDEWKT/DSCF6274.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Northeast Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946348803-ZSYZ9JZBLJAVX5PMSZ8V/DSCF3419-Edit-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Yarra Ranges, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946161877-NSMPN7689SD5CXVG2Y6V/DSCF2442-1.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Yarra Ranges, Victoria. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768088330660-D2CBYZANIRFFTRS1MFPI/DSCF6157.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Parsons Falls, Central Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946207518-S5YACA24DPT3KA5O4PXO/DSCF3359-8a.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Northwest coast, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1579946349306-DUPO32C4U6H4K34UVBUD/DSCF3387-9.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Northwest coast, Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768088219511-JEA0PVNBWP6EE4S33C8O/DSCF6203.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Bay of Fires, East Tasmania. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768088099183-OMDTF2UO4I6P1BI8VL9X/R0247799.jpg Terra Australis, Part Two Wilson’s Promontory, Victoria. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/vigil daily 0.75 2020-08-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598169856748-02EPHVHK3D5CXV5IIUJA/vigil_001a.jpg Vigil https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598169856748-02EPHVHK3D5CXV5IIUJA/vigil_001a.jpg Vigil https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598169847774-96VZ57WB3YTNDEQKOE2H/vigil_004a.jpg Vigil https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1598088413840-A7AM01XT1JAM83JTFK5C/vigil_003.jpg Vigil 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Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1733643157023-WXSY0NNMCIUZDHDZ66WE/Bukhara1.jpg Homines - Part Two - Bukhara, Uzbekistan. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1733643204271-VXK38DUZM924YQ6BYBUB/Istanbul2.jpg Homines - Part Two - Istanbul, Turkey. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1733643209636-MYG03CF78I73MPCXEELE/Kas1.jpg Homines - Part Two - Kas, Turkey. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1733643179517-QGBXDHPDQ93V8DKAOBS6/Bukhara2.jpg Homines - Part Two - Bukhara, Uzbekistan. https://www.benjaroenwong.com/trkiye daily 0.75 2026-01-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768028411953-MUZ1DDKD8THAMD6M8OMP/DSCF6501.jpg Türkiye - Artwork, Istanbul. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768028411953-MUZ1DDKD8THAMD6M8OMP/DSCF6501.jpg Türkiye - Artwork, Istanbul. 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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768029474862-44W9PI41JDBVK9AXDITM/DSCF6560.jpg Türkiye - Museum, Bergama. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5b724a12e2ccd132b1036c3f/1768029755276-QFHWK2UQK1C5PUZLUC88/R0247668.jpg Türkiye https://www.benjaroenwong.com/about daily 0.75 2021-04-19 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/contact daily 0.75 2018-08-14 https://www.benjaroenwong.com/read-me-wells daily 0.75 2025-05-12