Sunday 1 March 2015

Malaysia, with a picture or few.

It's taken a while, but I think my head is - at last - catching up with my body. I have the headspace to begin to reflect.

Just so you know - there will be no book this time. It was a wonderful, reflective journey and I feel refreshed by it. But I steered clear of adventures. I rarely stepped off the well-trodden path. (And I have other writing plans I'll tell you about another time.)

But - what I will do is post, with pictures, about each place I stayed. And, just to kick this off, I've gathered some images of Asian gods. I visited temples, mosques and churches - and continue to muse on the commonality of people's need to explain life outside ourselves and the stories that become beliefs in the process of searching for that explanation. I make no comment on the rights and wrongs of any belief system - I simply marvel at the complexity of such systems and the rituals that go with them. Do I really need to add that I find it abhorrent that anyone should use anything defined as 'religious conviction' as an excuse for violence?

I have not included pictures of churches - most people know what to expect in those and Far Eastern churches are similar to anything you'd find in Europe.

I was made welcome in several mosques - once suitably covered I was encouraged to wander, to ask questions, and to ponder on the tenets of their faith. They were peaceful places. I have no problem with respecting their request to be sensitive regarding photographs and putting those online. And so the first image is from the outside of a huge mosque in KL.

Followed, without comment, on a succession of religious images. Some - to western eyes - look strange, or fierce, or comic. But they are all sacred to someone. And a reminder of our glorious diversity.







We all makes sense of our lives in our own way. How bland the world would be if we all told the same stories.

16 comments:

  1. Amazing pics.....thanks. Adding to your final comment: and how much better if we listened and appreciated each other's stories! Welcome back!

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    1. How right you are - if only we did more listening and less foot-stamping!

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  2. Lovely colourful photos. If only everyone could be respectful of other religions there would be peace in the world. Live and let live. Looking forward to more posts.

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    1. The Malaysians manage that mutual respect. So why can't the rest of us?

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  3. I entirely agree with you. Religion was never meant to incite such hatred. I love the photos and I'm looking forward to seeing more.

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    1. I knew you'd see it my way!! And there will be more photos, promise!

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  4. I'd love to go there! No book? What's coming next, I wonder....

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  5. Shame no book, but I get that this was a different sort of trip :)

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    1. There will be plenty more photos on the website - like a present for anyone who was hoping for a book!

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  6. Lovely photos. I have several like those from my India trip. Perhaps I should post them.... I agree, of course, with everything you said regarding religions, respect and non-violence.

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    1. I tend to bang on about the tolerance-thing at the moment, but I feel as if someone has to. I refuse to let my voice be drowned by the war-mongers.

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  7. One of the most fascinating things about faraway places is the way in which different people worship and the buildings and art works they create in order to do so. Pity we won't have a book, though, Jo!

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    1. Thanks, Jenny. I know you'd like a book - but you are one of the very few people who knows what is waiting in the wings! And there will be more pics on the blog.

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  8. I love your photos. They remind me so much of the good time I had there. Thanks.

    Greetings from London.

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  9. What wonderful photos! Like everyone else, I'm sorry you won't be publishing a book about this trip. (But I'll very happily accept your "gift" of showing us the pictures.) The diversity of the world is a wondrous thing, and the way we worship is just one of those things. It's a horrid shame society as a whole doesn't better appreciate and respect those differences, rather than try to annihilate those whose beliefs and ways of life are different.

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