Adventures in India, Part 25 -- The Village

After leaving the Western temple complex at Khajuraho we headed over to the Eastern complex to view similar temples dedicated to the Jain religion.

What garnered the most attention from our group was this bees nest high in a tree.

Then it was off to visit a local village to view life as it is lived in the poverty-stricken countryside.

The local school.

A small stream where women and children did washing and gathered water for cooking.

A makeshift kiln. The fire is fed with buffalo dung.

The local potter at work.

Water buffaloes, the source of dung [among other things].

Trolls and Creeps

Mickey Kaus, the sanest Democrat on the internet, passes on a report of a "near perfect experiment":

I just watched John Avlon’s Daily Beast commentary about the ugly tweets celebrating Andrew’s passing. His underlying logic, like some other commentary I’ve read, seems to accept that the vicious attacks from the left (which he counsels them to suppress out of good taste and decency) are a direct response to Andrew’s combative and aggressive personal. ‘It’s true, Andrew was a lightning rod. So, it’s natural, if regrettable, that you are reacting as you are. But try to contain yourself, people. Do the right thing, for goodness sake.’

Regretfully, I must remind these deans of civility that when Tony Snow announced that his cancer had returned, gleeful cheers rose up from prominent quarters of left. Tony, as absolutely everyone knew, was courtly, contained, a devout Evangelical Christian, who’s unflappable public style could not have been more different than Andrew’s flamboyant, and, yes, often combative personality. It didn’t matter. It doesn’t matter. Low key, or fever pitch. The standard that counts is influence. If a conservative has it, they can expect to be savaged, even in death. And Andrew knew this.

Read more here.

Were the First Americans Europeans?

There has been a lot of discussion in the press this week regarding the first inhabitants of the New World. The standard view has long been that America was settled by newcomers from Siberia, traveling either by land or sea from Asia. There has been considerable controversy as to exactly when and how these journeys took place, but the direction of movement, from North Asia to the West coast of America has seldom been questioned. Now a new book  by Dennis Stanford and Bruce Bradley asserts that the first inhabitants came from Europe and settled the East Coast of North America about 20,000 years ago, during the last glacial maximum.

As a number of commentators have noted, there is nothing new here. Stanford has been making this argument for more than a decade and it has been rejected by nearly all specialists in the field. This is a technical controversy however, and press reports cannot do justice to the evidence. John Hawks, a reputable anthropologist with a specialization in genomic evidence, will be giving the book a close read and will report his reactions on his blog. For now, though, he recommends a number of recent books on the subject that, taken together, will provide readers with a good introduction to the paleoindian controversies that have roiled American anthropology in the past decade.

If you are interested, check out his post here.

Los Indignados

Placing the Occupy movement in  global context, Guy Sorman notes strong similarities among the youth risings in several countries. They are all beneficiaries of new communications technologies and as such are reminiscent of earlier movements that disrupted established orders.

New media are often the drivers of such change, opening new worlds and giving birth to new worldviews, for good or for ill. Who would have guessed, as the fifteenth century waned, that the Gutenberg printing press would revolutionize Western civilization by giving millions of Christian believers direct access to the Bible? Or, centuries later, that radio would allow fascism to flourish?

Unlike most earlier movements, though, the American occupiers and their analogues in other countries are remarkable in the extent to which they are animated by emotion rather than ideology. They assault the dominant institutions of their societies but conspicuously lack any clear alternative vision.

[F]or many of the protesters, the alternative to the hated system is the rebellion itself. Spontaneity, sharing, being together—these characteristics of the various occupations, the rebels believe, reflect how society should work. One might describe this communitarianism as new, but it does recall Romantic figures like John Ruskin, who reacted against industrialization, capitalism, and modern individualism and imagined an idealized premodern past. The nostalgia for some idealized communal past may even partly explain the political success of radical Muslim organizations in Egypt and Tunisia: in the time of Mohammed and his immediate successors, these groups claim, Muslims were a warm, unified community. Why can’t we bring that back today?

As with all political nostalgias, contradictions abound, just as they did when the antimodern Gandhi, who drew inspiration from Ruskin, happily used British-built railways to cross India. Today’s Chilean protesters want to ban electrical power plants but couldn’t imagine life without the Internet, any more than the occupiers of Zuccotti Park could survive without their cell phones and social-media apps—the latest innovations of the capitalist system that they despise.

It is far too soon to guess at the impact these various confused but widespread youth revolts will have. In authoritarian countries they might promote greater individual freedom; in free societies they might promote repression and deadly conflict. Or, they might be no more than the tools and fools they often seem to be and will leave no lasting traces. Given the potential for catastrophic destruction in today's highly unstable international system, let us hope it is the latter that is the case.

Read it here.

Adventures in India, Part 24 -- The Kama Sutra Temples

WARNING! NOT SAFE FOR WORK!

The temples of Khajuraho are famous for their representations of all aspects of life, including sexual activities. For this reason they are popularly referred to as the "Kama Sutra Temples" although they have no direct relationship to that philosophical work. They were constructed in the tenth through the twelfth centuries AD, at the height of the Chandela dynasty when Khajuraho was its capital.

Originally there were eighty temples in the complex. Only twenty-five remain today. For centuries they were neglected until in the nineteenth century British explorers rediscovered them. They have since been restored and surrounded by parkland. Today they have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site and are considered to be one of the Seven Wonders of India.

Each of the temples is covered with elaborate bas relief sculptures.

that consist of representations of all aspects of daily life. About ten percent of these carvings are erotic in nature, and it is these that account for the temples' global fame. Here are pictures of a few of them -- peruse them at your heart's content.

You can see why Victorian Brits were so scandalized by what they found here.

The carvings, erotic and otherwise are found only on the outside of the temples. They are absent from the inside where worship still takes place.

Then it was back to the hotel for lunch and thus fortified we set off for a village tour.

Adventures in India, Part 23 -- Dancers

Continuing our exploration of the Heart of India. We arrived at Khajuraho and checked into the hotel Taj Chandela, ate dinner, and then attended a performance by a local dance troup.

The dances were certainly energetic and the kids were attractive -- it was a pleasant way to spend an hour or so. Then it was back to the hotel to rest up for tour of the "Kama Sutra Temples" scheduled for the next morning.

Adventures in India, Part 16a -- The City Palace

This set of pictures is out of order. I inadvertently skipped them back when I was doing Jaipur. They document our visit to the City Palace which incorporates the Chandra Mahal and the Mubarak Mahal, both constructed during the Eighteenth Century. Today part of the Chandra Mahal still functions as a royal residence, but most of the complex is open to visitors.

Then it was off to see the Birla Temple, constructed in the 1980's. It is an example of modern, as opposed to traditional Hindu temple architecture and even includes stained glass windows. Once again we were asked to take off our shoes, so many of our party, including me, remained outside which is why we have only an exterior view of the structure.

And on the hill overlooking the temple is the Moti Dungri Fort. It is closed to the public and still is used as a royal residence so this distant view will have to do.

That evening we again went out to dinner at a local restaurant where we were entertained by musicians and dancing girls.

And then back through darkened streets to our hotel for a good night's rest.