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I noticed what appears to be a henna painting on my co-worker’s right arm; he recently visited Karachi and Dubai. I believed Dubai is where he had the henna painting, rode the camel, sand boarding, and smoked a hookah, all in one day.
I knew what it was because I recently read a Thai article in Koosang Koosom Magazine (photos below) about henna or mehndi, which the article describes the art of henna as the cultural symbol of love. My co-worker described the painting as the symbol of love and lust, he has scorpion henna. I asked him if it was painted by a female, and he said yes, and she is also a belly dancer. Interesting I thought and I didn’t ask him further.
According to Wikipedia, Mehndi (or Henna) is the application of henna as a temporary form of skin decoration, in South Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and Somaliland as well as expatriate communities from these areas. It is typically employed for special occasions, particularly weddings. It is usually drawn on the hands and feet, where the color will be darkest because the skin contains higher levels of keratin, which binds permanently to lawsone, also known as hennotannic acid, which is a red-orange dye present in the leaves of the henna plant.
The patterns of mehndi are typically quite intricate and predominantly applied to brides before wedding ceremonies (photo below). However, traditions in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sudan sometimes expect bridegrooms to be painted as well. In Arabic and Persian speaking countries, such as Morocco, it is done for any special occasion. It is done during the seventh month of pregnancy, after having the baby, weddings, engagements, family get-togethers, as well as many other reasons to simply celebrate an event.
According to the Thai article, this is an old age tradition, it is evidenced that Egypt were the first nation to have used henna painting because they discovered henna painting on a finger, and toe of a 5,000 years old mummy. Henna is used for hair coloring, mainly to cover gray hair, and also used as herbal medicine to treat skin problems. Therefore, it is highly likely that the tradition of henna painting later on migrated to India by means of merchants, and migration due to war.
In India, henna is first used as hair coloring, then later on used to henna body for various occasions, and mainly for beauty. It is even used for occasion such as Sati, an inhumane tradition where the wife is being burned alive on her husband’s funeral pyres, even before death, she still wants to henna painting for beauty.
I wrote a post on Is Tattoo Just A Body Art or A Cultural Sacred Design and this has been my most popular post as many people are interested in tattoo. There are 2 main reasons as to why people decide to get tattoo, as for some, they only see tattoo as a body art, the canvas is on the human body, a very fascinating concept to me. I don’t have a tattoo, but I do see the beauty in tattoos and this type of tattoo is more popular amongst women and very popular in Japan from what I have came across.
Tattoo Bride Photo by Nahpan
Uploaded by Jose M. Ruiz Garrido, actress Angelina Jolie attends the premiere of “Ocean’s Thirteen”; at the Grauman’s Chinese theatre in Hollywood, California June 5, 2007. The tattoos on Jolie’s arm represent the coordinates of the birth places of her children.
This video of Thai spiritual tattoo, also known as Sak Yant by Ajahn Noo Kanpai is very interesting, I’ve seen the actual temple tattoo on a friend, which I think it’s fascinating because it’s not your ordinary tattoo; the design has a religious feel to it.
Ajarn Noo does 2 types of tattoos, and both are cultural sacred designs. The first is at the very beginning of the video where the designs of the tattoo is invisible, but the main purpose is to gain wisdom, possess power of kindness as he uses a special ointment of varnt (special roots from plants), the process of Sak Yant is exactly the same as using black ink, in this case a very sacred design.
Another is the sacred design that deemed to possess magic power of protection; he puts Monh (magic) of prayers inside the design, which I believed was written in Pali, Sanskrit. Thai Temple tattoo of Sak Yant (photo on right hand side,) which is geometrically designs that deemed to possess magic powers of protection is very popular amongst Asian warriors, such as the Thais, Laotians, and Khmers in the old days and still very popular today.
There are other designs such as the lion (Singhto), which is a symbol of bravery and cunning. Thai men would choose a tiger design, not just a picture of a tiger but tattoo their body to look like tiger, many have had designs that covered every square inches of their body. The reason for the tiger design is that Thai people, especially the Lanna, believed that their ancestors were once tiger, therefore to show respect and in remembrance of their ancestors, they’d choose the tiger design. Another popular one is the hanuman, which is the Hindu monkey god, which is to protect against illness, against being shot, against being cut, and to give courage.
In part of the video where the men have strange reaction, it is believed that the sacred designs that were tattooed (Sak) into their body, whether it be the tiger, dragon, or hanuman would come out and they’d act like the animal that they chose, and this is a sign that that person truly gained the power of protection. Sak Yant is very fascinating to me; to the Thais, Laotians, Khmers, and many others, tattoo is not just a body art but also a sacred design.
A photo below, a young monk has a tattoo of prayers added to his back at Wat Bang Pra, Thailand; photo by Stephen Shaver
In Chinese culture, certain numbers, 6, 8, and 9 are believed to have auspicious meanings because their names sound similar to words that have positive meanings. The word for eight in Chinese (Pinyin: bā) sounds similar to the word which means prosper or wealth. In regional dialects, the words for eight and fortune are also similar, eg Cantonese “baat” and “faat.”
There is also a resemblance between two digits, “88,” and the Shuang xi (double joy), a popular decorative design composed of two stylized characters (xi, ‘joy’, ‘happiness’).
The Summer Olympics in Beijing are scheduled to open on 8/8/08 at 8:08:08 p.m.
According to Buddhism, the Wheel of the Law is one of the many signs or symbols that are holy to Buddhists because they stand for our religion and make us think of its teachings when we see any of these symbols. The wheel has 8 spokes, which are the rules of pure conduct (the Eightfold Path, Right Understanding, Right Aims, Right Speech, Right Actions, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Meditation) the equal length of all the spokes represent justice; wisdom is the tire, the hub is thoughtfulness and the axle is the immovable truth.
With all this explanation about number 8, Bob’s comment of wanting to see the strange photos that I received from my oldest sister is comment 888, lucky you, here are the photos, very twisted indeed…just like number 8, auspicious 8 that is.
I received these photos of Amazing Hand Paintings from a friend via email; I thought the images are pretty amazing. These were done by the artist Guido Daniele.
This made me think of tattoo art, wouldn’t it be something if it were permanent.
A message from the email: Takes this fellow four hours to do a hand. Then he photographs it for posterity. I cannot imagine how he does the eyes so remarkable lifelike. It took him 10 hours to do the two-handed Eagle in picture #2.
After my oldest sister found out that I want to write about Buddhism, she gave me a book called Ten Lives of The Buddha, Siamese Temple Paintings and Jataka Tales by Elizabeth Wray, Clare Rosenfield, and Dorothy Bailey, with photographs by Joe D. Wray. The photos are beautiful and below is called The Temiya Jataka from Wat Yai Intharam, Chonburi Thailand.
Temiya tests his strength by lifting the chariot. Temiya’s raising the chariot causes the horses hitched to it to twist their necks around and shocks the gravedigger into looking up. According to the Pali text of this story, the gravedigger does not see Temiya at this point; he continues to dig. The painter here has chosen to ignore this fact in favor of artistic unity.
I am fascinated with Buddhism temple painting and the architecture of the Buddhist Temple (Wat). I often imagine an angel to look like Temiya.
- Lao Damnern Sai
I often view cemeteries as little towns for the deceased, many times wonder what it would feel like to live nearby. I lack the ability to communicate with the dead, wanted so bad to communicate and dream of my mom, but that has only happened once or twice since she passed. Some of my sisters are more fortunate, as my second sister often dreams of my mom, as if she were still alive and well, this I would give anything to be able to do.
Some of these cemeteries are the resting places of many famous people; I grew up in Queens NY which is known as the Cemetery Belt because there are more than 5 millions of the departed, including the famous and the infamous from Mae West to Lucky Luciano, almost triple the live population of Queens are buried in 29 Queens cemeteries, as one could imagine how crowded Queens is.
Then I came across a cemetery in Barre, Vermont, a town known as the Granite Capital of the World, as Hope cemetery presents a rich and distinguished history of memorial art in stone, one of the oldest expressions of American Culture. For these reasons, Hope exerts a profound influence on the memorial art of other cemeteries throughout the country.
Hope Cemetery, first opened in 1895, is 85-acres spread across a hillock of well-manicured grass. Despite the variety of memorial design, there is a uniformity not seen in other cemeteries. That’s because every one of the 10,000+ monuments is made of Barre Gray granite.
The cemetery is a popular tourist destination, oft bundled with Rock of Ages quarry tours. Visitors can stroll the grounds and pay their respects to older sculptures, or ponder more contemporary works, such as an enigmatic cube balanced on one corner. Below are beautiful sculptures…that art lovers will definitely enjoy.
A half-size replica of race car #61 celebrates local driver Joey Laquerre, Jr, who died in a 1991 snowmobile mishap.
There are two (almost) identical pictures that will appear on the screen. Almost 8,000 people were tested to see if they could find the 3 differences in the two pictures and only 19 found all 3. See how observant you are. If you find all 3, you’re one of very few. People who are able to do this are said to be very rare and they contain extraordinary brain functions beyond the “Norm”. I was only able to find one, Good Luck!
I want to thank TENPA, at Digital Tibetan Buddhist Altar for posting an intro to my blog; it’s such an honor for me. I’m learning about Buddhism as I’m writing, if there’s any misconception of my understanding of Buddhism, please do advice.
I’ve been following Darly’s postings on her elephant hunt, she is so lucky to have lived in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and able to see the elephant parade while some of us could only see it in photos. I love elephant and collect anything that’s related to elephant.
My first counter with real live elephants was when I attended elementary school in Thailand, we had school event called Vanh Dek, or children’s day and we had a soccer game with the baby elephant, and I’m not sure who won, us or the baby elephant, but one thing for sure, the baby elephant can really kick the soccer ball. I also sat on the mommy elephant’s trunk; she formed it into a U shape. I was about 8 years old at the time.
Elephant Parade Rotterdam takes place from September 1 until November 17 2007. It is an initiative of Marc and Mike Spits (father and son), it’s a worldwide event created to make people aware of the fact that in Asia elephants are an endangered species, which supports the elephant through the sale and auction of Elephant Parade products, and create awareness for elephants through the Elephant Parade. Its mission is to help save the elephants; a world without elephants is unimaginable but can become reality.
When I saw a post at Sim’s blog this morning about Graffiti Research Tags Buildings With L.A.S.E.R. TAG, I thought it was rather cool and interesting, then when I saw it being used to draw image of Jatukarm Ramathep on a building in Bangkok, Thailand, which is one of the biggest symbols there is, I thought people have gone mad. There will be a ceremony performed on the 84th floor.
Jatukarm Ramathep is one of the hottest lucky charms at the moment; I’ve noticed that even Id, lead singer of Pong Lang Sa On was wearing a huge one on Friday. People in Thailand are crazy for Jatukarm Ramathep, why?…because it’s guaranteed to make them rich. I’ve noticed that they were selling it at the Wat (temple) also, my GI Joe sister even has one, and she wouldn’t want to miss her opportunity of becoming rich.
I found an interesting story about Pee Bpop (ghost that has the tendency to take over a person’s body before eating it’s victim) and I’m hoping to translate it but I want to learn a bit more about the ghost. When I was little living in Laos, we were told to run for cover whenever Pee Bpop was closed by, but what I saw was either an old man or old lady passing by, I guess they were the Pee Bpop. I have a friend that I thought might know a thing or two about Pee Bpop, so I visited him over the weekend, just my luck that I went to the right person, not that he was a Pee Bpop or anything like that, if that was the case, it’d not have been safe for me to stay there at all since I’m still sick, Pee Bpop has the tendency to take over a sick (weak) person’s body. What was interesting was the story of how and why people became Pee Bpop back in Laos, and Issan region of Thailand. I’ve always wondered if Pee Bpop really exists or if it’s mostly a belief of Lao and Issan people, until this day I still don’t have an answer. I do find the story to be fascinating, so I’ll be translating a story of Pee Bpop of Savannakhet, Laos in the next couple of days, should be interesting.
My friend said that in Laos, those that became Pee Bpop were the one that studied Monh (black magic), many times, these Monh (magic) should be used to help people, and certainly not for greed; if misused or abused in any way, the black magic can backfire, and take control of their body and become Pee Bpop; Monh (black magic) is certainly not something that people should be messing around with.
What I’ve found fascinating is the temple tattoo because it’s not your ordinary tattoo; the design has a religious feel to it. I’ve noticed that many Lao and Thai men, especially the older men would have these tattoos on their body. He explained to me that these tattoos have Monh (magic) of prayers in the design, therefore there’re strict rules that must be followed or otherwise he said that the chance of becoming Pee Bpop or crazy is highly likely, very strange concept I thought to myself, I guess if voodoo exists, then this should also, I’d say, if you don’t believe, don’t mock.
My friend also has one on his back, which looks very much like a Thai Temple tattoo of Sak Yant, which are geometrically designs that deemed to possess magic powers of protection, which was given by a monk or Arjarn (holy man) and would put Monh (magic) of prayers inside the design, which was written in Pali Sanskrit. He said that when he had his done, the pain was excruciating, it started by the holy man chanting in ancient Sanskrit while sticking him with the sharp needles, and then with the final blow of breath on his back then it was done, and I guess the blow sealed the magic. He was a former soldier in Laos, therefore needed the tattoo for protection, and said that most of his fellow soldiers also had theirs’, some on their backs and others on their arms or legs. When he came to the US, he had Arjarn (holy man) to undo the Monh (magic), so his tattoo currently has no magical power.
(Above photo: A young monk has a tattoo of prayers added to his back at Wat Bang Phra, Thailand; photo by Stephen Shaver)
Even though this picture was painted at a different place and different time, but the feeling after looking at it brought back my childhood memory. When I was little, my sisters took us to the Mekong River to bath in the evening, by the time we finished it was dusk. This picture reminded me of looking from where I stood to the other side of the Mekong River. It’s very odd, different place, different time, but same feeling. The simplicity of the picture can make your imagination run wild, something that I can look at for a long, long time.
In the darkness of the night, you can see there were lights at several spots on the picture, the reflections of those lights on the water make me wonder what were on the other side, and what were the people doing. The huge body of water, the soft colors made me think that there might be a crescent or full moon above, but strangely, there’s no reflection on the water.
This art piece is called Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Cremorne Lights, it was painted by an American artist, James Abbott McNeil Whistler, 1872, oil on canvas.
These art works were hand painted by Thai Artists from Thailand. Art work at Wat Lao Buddhavong of Washington DC
Related Posts:
Wat Lao Buddhavong of Washington D.C.
Water Lily Pond at Wat Lao Buddhavong
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