Ramoche: How do monks cut their hair?

Ramoche, Lhasa 1995 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

This picture was taken at Ramoche, an imposing temple in central Lhasa. I've always wondered how monks and nuns cut their hair, and got the answer this day. Two friends (or should I say colleagues?) were giving each other haircuts. The hairclipper must have been a little blunt (or the expertise of the person wielding it lacking), because there were numerous verbal exchanges, winces and lot's of pushing and shoving. It seemed to be general cleaning day as all the young monks, these included, were washing their heads and faces etc. For me it was a wonderful insight into a private world. 

My most memorable image of Ramoche is walking around the temple in the company of the Ramoche Abbot, a man of wily, roving eyes and impressive girth. While turning the temple's massive prayer wheels he flicked his prayer beads back and forth in snappy fashion, all the while chanting "Ooooommmmmm mani padme HUM!" - beginning with a deep, Barry White, back of the throat voice and then ending up with a high, girlish HUM!

Ramoche is the most important temple in Lhasa after the Jokhang. Is is unusual in many ways: Constructed during the Tang Dynasty by Chinese architects (ca 641) it is a powerful link between the two cultures, being built to house the important Jowo statue that had been brought to Lhasa by Princess Wencheng as a wedding gift from the Tang Court. It was later switched with a statue in the Jokhang where it is housed today.  The temple has been called the "Chinese Tiger". 

If you would like to read more about architecture and temples in Lhasa I highly recommend: The Temples of Lhasa, Tibetan Buddhist Architecture from the 7th to the 21st Centuries, by André Alexander, Serindia Publications. 

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Österlen, Sweden ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Photography: Old China New China, Great Wall at Badaling

Above: Great Wall at Badaling, ca 60-70 km NW of Beijing, ca 1877. Photograph attributed to Thomas Childe. Source: "The Face of China As Seen by Photographers & Travelers 1860-1912, p.22"/flickr.com/©etherflyer's photostream

Below: Badaling Great Wall, March 3, 2005 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Photography: Old China New China, Temple of Heaven

Above: Temple of Heaven, Beijing, ca 1911-15. Photographer unknown. Source "Imperial China, p. 122"/flickr.com/©etherflyer's photostream.

Below: Temple of Heaven, 2007 ©Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Ghost images of quake zone: Photographer Thomas H. Hahn

©Thomas H. Hahn 

Thomas H. Hahn has recently posted a number of docu-images on his Zenfolio website about how Wenchuan, Yingxiu and Dujiangyan look today (images taken Jan 21, 2009). The images show eerily quiet ghost towns and massive destruction, the only people in the photographs being two men dressed in funeral garb. His introduction however states that Wenchuan is surprisingly full of life and feverish reconstruction, welcome news for all. 

Hahn's Zenfolio website is otherwise a helpful source of historical photography of old China as well as Thomas H. Hahn's own photography of a changing China. As Hahn states in the opening page: "The main subject area is China and that country's rather rapid transformation from a rural to an urban-centered society". Hahn has been travelling regularly in China since the early 1980s. 

(Side note: See my article about "thanatourism" posted 090202) 

Watch this and weep

Posted from Youku.com

I don't know what to say about this...just when the Western world has got smoking somewhat under control, look at this little Chinese kid, smoking like a pro.

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Sweden © Ingrid Booz Morejohn

Får det vara en munk?

©Emy Booz

Jag är den första att erkänna att jag är världens sämsta på att berätta skämt så ni får ursäkta - känner bara att dagen behöver en extra dos "who cares!". Min dotter Emy (9 år) ville att jag skulle lägga upp hennes senaste alster på bloggen så jag tänkte göra två flugor på smällen samtidigt:

En nunna satt länge och fikade en dag på stans konditori. Hon såg lite ledsen ut så servitrisen kom och frågade henne om någonting mer önskades till kaffet?

...och nunnan svarade: Ja, det skulle vara en munk i så fall. 

Så här kommer en munk munk!

China Daily: Drought in northern China

©China Daily

Is this a way to fight a massive drought that affects millions and millions of people's lives? Looks just like the emperors of old making their annual trip to the Temple of Heaven to play peasant for a day and plough a symbolic furrow in a field. The problems of China seem so insurmountable...

A bad beginning...

©Reuters/China Daily

...to the New Year, tragically captured in the fire last night in Beijing that burnt down one of the new CCTV headquarter buildings. The building affected was the Television Culture Centre containing the soon to open Mandarin Oriental Hotel, a theatre, recording studios, cinemas etc. It belongs to the CCTV complex designed by  Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, of which the incredible, futuristic "Pants legs" is the landmark main building (which seems to not have been affected). "Luckily" it was yet to be completed so no human injuries have been reported at this time. The government had recently allowed fireworks within the city centre, bowing to traditional culture and public appeal. In general 2009 has not begun auspiciously with both the world economy at sixes and sevens, huge drought in northern China and now this. Definitely not a good omen for things to come.

See video of fire here.

Update 2.23 pm 090210

Bad goes to worse...one fireman dead, seven injured and the whole thing seems to be CCTV's own fault, according to Xinhua News Agency and Reuters: more here. What a sad mess...