Tag: Spiritual Travel

Chongqing Municipality, China

Chongqing Municipality, China REUTERS/Stringer

A worker carries a statue of a saint who has achieved nirvana, also known as an Arhat, for painting at the Arhat Temple in Chongqing Municipality.

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Swayambhunath Temple, Kathmandu, Nepal

kathmandu temple REUTERS/Chaiwat Subprasom

Monkeys sit on a stupa at the Swayambhunath temple in Kathmandu.

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Tibetan Monks, In Nine-Part Harmony

Here’s a new way to express support for Tibet, if you’re so inclined: Pick up a copy of this CD, produced by the Grateful Dead’s Mickey Hart, of the Gyuto Monks Tantric Choir, chanting in multiple overtones at once (similar to the Tuvan throat singers).  National Public Radio has a fascinating story about how the CD was produced, based on a rare 1960s recording of Tibetan monks in northern India made by religion scholar Huston Smith. NPR has a sample of Smith’s original recording online. Apparently the trained ear can discern up to nine harmonies sung by a single monk at one time; to me, the only word for it is “otherworldly.”

Proceeds from the CD support the New York-based Tibet House and the Tibetan Gyuto monastery-in-exile.


What Fatwa? Bali’s Yoga Tourists Follow Their Bliss.

Hundreds of yoga tourists in Bali have now joined author Salman Rushdie in an exclusive club: those who have defied a fatwa. This week’s International Bali-India Yoga Festival—which drew participants from the U.S., Germany, Sweden and Japan—proceeded as planned despite a recent edict by Indonesia’s Ulema Council banning the practice of yoga for all Indonesian Muslims.

The New York Times reports that festival organizers initially conceived the event to boost spiritual tourism on the island and decided to go forward with it as a public show of force against the fatwa. Bali’s governor, no doubt aware of the island’s growing yoga tourism potential, has said he will not enforce the ruling.

Who knew sun salutations could be this fraught?


Xining, China

Xining, China REUTERS/David Gray

A Tibetan monk walks to pray in a temple as snow falls in the Kumbun Monastery located on the outskirts of Xining in Qinghai province.

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Sidon, Lebanon

sidon lebanon REUTERS/ Ali Hashisho

Lebanese Sufists play traditional instruments and chant prayers during a ritual marking the birthday anniversary of Prophet Mohammed.

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Uttar Pradesh, India

holi festival REUTERS/K. K. Arora

People celebrate the Hindu festival of Holi (festival of colors) at Nand Gaon in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

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Is the Dead Sea Ailing?

Is the Dead Sea Ailing? Photo by Mark Cartwright via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Photo by Mark Cartwright via Flickr (Creative Commons).

Water levels have been dropping dramatically at the giant salt lake in the last 30 years, risking the viability of the thousands-year-old tourist attraction and Biblical landmark, Science Daily reports.

Researchers at the University of Technology in Darmstadt, Germany, discovered that the lake has lost 14 cubic kilometers of water in the last 30 years, an alarming drop which could translate into problems such as receding shorelines that could make it difficult for tourists to access the waters and the formation of a dangerous landscape of sinkholes and mud that could also damage roads.

The high-mineral concentration in the Dead Sea—the lowest body of water on Earth, at 400 meters below sea level—has attracted health tourists for thousands of years, apparently intriguing the likes of Aristotle, Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba. Modern doctors also tell their patients that soaking in the Dead Sea can ease skin ailments. Today, the area is bustling with resorts, spas, restaurants and hotels.

The scientists say climate change hasn’t caused the drop; rather, it’s a result of spiking human water use in the area.


The Saint From Moloka’i

The Saint From Moloka’i Photo by Elika & Shannon via Flickr (Creative Commons).
Photo by Elika & Shannon via Flickr (Creative Commons).

He wasn’t named Father Damien at birth. He was Joseph De Veuster, a Belgian, a son of wealthy farmers. He became Father Damien at his ordination, and in 1873, after a few years on the Big Island and Maui, he went to work on Moloka’i, caring for the forgotten people of Kalaupapa, victims of Hansen’s disease—then called leprosy—abandoned to their fate on a remote peninsula.

Father Damien built churches and taught his religion, of course, but he was also instrumental in ensuring that the community had a working water supply. There’s a bronze statue of Father Damien, always covered in flower leis, “up top”—it stands outside a church he built in spite of the fact that the Board of Health expressly forbid him to visit with those “outside.” Father Damien contracted Hansen’s disease and died at age 49. Because of miracles attributed to the Moloka’i priest, Father Damien will officially become a saint on October 11.

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Kathmandu, Nepal

kathmandu REUTERS/Gopal Chitrakar

Hindu devotees cross Bagmati River at Pashupati Temple to pay homage to Lord Shiva during the Hindu festival Shivaratri in Kathmandu.

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Kangding, China

tibetan monk REUTERS/David Gray

A Tibetan monk prays in front of a mural at the entrance to the Namo Monastery, founded over 1,100 years ago, located on the outskirts of Kangding in Sichuan province.

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An Expat in Athens: Carnival’s Kites and Calamari

Yesterday was Clean Monday for Eastern Orthodox Christians, which means that Apokries (or Carnival celebrations) are winding down and Lent has officially begun. In Athens, where I shot this photo, Greeks spent the day eating fish—fried calamari and taramosalata, or fish roe dip, are special favorites—and flying kites on Philopappus Hill near the Acropolis. This year, Athens was far emptier than usual, since many Athenians had gone out to the provinces for the festivities.

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Elizabeth Gilbert: ‘Eat, Pray, Love’

In "Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia," Elizabeth Gilbert turns to travel in an effort to find, well, everything. Frank Bures writes that her journey will leave you smiling in your liver.

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Incident in a Spanish Church

Incident in a Spanish Church Photo from Spanish Tourism.

She never spoke to the boy in the red windbreaker. But Catherine Watson's encounter with her fellow pilgrim along the road to Santiago de Compostela transformed her in an unexpected way.

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Chador Etiquette

In a Kuwaiti shopping mall, Christine Michaud learns that dressing like the locals is not as easy as it looks

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The Magical Miracle Tour

The Magical Miracle Tour Photo by Frank Bures.

When a German evangelist arrived to save Africa from Satan and his evil witch doctors, Frank Bures went along for the ride

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The Old Woman Under the Tree

The Old Woman Under the Tree Photo by Maria Möller.

Chasing Monks


The Razor’s Edge

Maha Kumbha Mela Photo by Leigh Webber.

All along the Ganges, India's holiest river, pilgrims offer their hair to the gods. Leigh Webber joins them and contemplates her (former) blondness.

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