Since rain was playing the spoilsport today, we could not visit thein attractions in Ninh Binh, #Vietnam. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we ended up visiting the sprawling Bai Dinh pagoda complex. It is interesting on many counts.
Buddhists in Vietnam belong to Mahayana sect. Therefore, depiction of buddha's face is closer to that from Mathura school unlike that from Theravada sect, followed by Tibbetans, Laddakhis etc
The tall pagoda in the complex was built by Indians and has descriptions of Buddha, his life story in Sanskrit (I can already see political Neo Buddhists frothing over). The guide (a Buddhist herself) was in awe that we could read it and expressed her high regard for devbhasha
It had a replica of Mahabodhi temple at Gaya, Bihar in the main shrine. We could see references to India all over the place
What I found most amazing was the fact that a large part of this complex was constructed after 2003. Remember, this is in a communist country where people are "atheists". It is so large that the 1st shrine is 4 km from entrance and the rest of complex too takes up another 4 km.
And I have found so many pagan/ folk/ancestor worship shrines in Vietnam too. It kind of tells me that people don't become "secular" or "atheists" or "communal" depending on the type of current government. Countries retain their belief systems, sometimes hidden , sometimes not so
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Most Indian festivals follow Luni solar calendar. Hence Ramnavami date will keep on varying year to year. So how do you design a non PC based autonomous solution to orient mirrors itself on Ram Navami every year to direct sunrays? 2/n
Now do you understand the challenge?
12 lunar months are smaller than one solar year but 13 lunar months are too long.
A Metonic cycle is a 19 year interval that helps align solar and lunar years . So after 19 years Ramanavami date will repeat on same day
According to her , "pure vegetarian" is a casteist practice found only in India.
My last trip abroad was to Shanghai - famous for variety of non veg options. Right?
Except that I ate at only "pure vegetarian" Chinese restaurants. There were mostly run by Buddhists from Tibet.
Now let's move to another Asian country - Malaysia. Work has often taken me to Penang. Again, I have always eaten at "Pure Veg" restaurants in Penang run by ethnic Chinese community. Simple Google search will show huge number of Chinese vegetarian only restaurants
If you are wondering how can someone "miss" seeing pratima in a temple then know that Vishnu ji is so big that you can only see a part of him through one of the arches. Only from inside Garbh Griha you see the complete image.
Srirangam is a world unto itself. A city within the various walls and Gopurams . You can walk in the tiny alleyways between the walls of the temple and shop from the shops.
While the Sengol stole the limelight at the new Parliament, there is another less known but beautiful installation in that building - Facoult's Pendulum.
So what is the big deal about it?
This pendulum is 22m long and weighs 36 kgs. It is the largest Facoult's Pendulum in India.
Facoult's Pendulum is not an ordinary pendulum. It is a clever contraption that proves that the earth is round and rotates on its axis !!!
But how?
When a heavy bob is set in motion with a really long wire, you would expect it to oscillate in the same plane. But no that's not what happens. Since the Earth is rotating, Pendulum would "appear" to swing along a different line every time. That variation depends on the latitude
As a science and technology enthusiast, I must tell you about a lot of interesting developments that are about to happen in near future in India:
1) Chandrayaan 3: the launch is on 12th July 2023. Chandrayaan 1 had made breakthrough discovery of ice at Moon's south pole
And even though we all saw the Vikram lander tumble and break hearts of a billion people during its attempted landing, Chandrayaan 2 orbiter (not lander) was successful in gathering the data it was sent for.
Chandrayaan 3 will re-attempt to land an advanced rover on Moon
2) Aditya L1 solar mission. Unfortunately not many people know about this one. Aditya L1 will be a satellite to study the Sun and it will be parked at Legrange point L1 where sun, moon and earth's gravitation fields cancel each other out
No surprise that even a constitutional monarch Democracy in UK choses to place the sceptre in the House of Commons as a symbol of people's power. The seat of real power. It has been there since 1559
The parliaments of Canada, Australia and New Zealand - modern democracies and yet they have ceremonial mace/Sengol in their parliaments to acknowledge the legislative powers of the house