Serpent Gods from Southeast Asia to the Amazon

Nāgas are a class of serpent beings or minor deities in Hindu and Buddhist cosmology. They take the form of massive, often multi-headed snakes with human features. Nāgas are said to reside in Pātāla, the seventh of the nether-dimensions, and are associated with the underworld, caverns, rivers and other water bodies. They are believed to […]

Temple stories

I’m fascinated by the murals found in Buddhist temples. These are from Wat Phon Xay in Luang Prabang, Laos. Epic stories that I would like to read or learn more about.. The murals in this temple appear to be about Phra Malaya, a monk who through meditation visited the numerous heavens and hells in Buddhist […]

Inner sanctum

My friend brought me to his wife’s village, Tinh Bien, in remote southwestern Vietnam, in An Giang province near the Cambodian border. There is a large Khmer population there. A man let us into a Khmer Bhuddist temple that featured dazzlingly colourful religious murals on every square inch of wall and ceiling.

Angkor

At the heart of the Khmer empire lies an astounding accretion of monolithic temples. The scale of Angkor is mind-binding… It is difficult to imagine how it was accomplished. As grand as the Egyptian pyramids yet more complex and ornate, the structures are coated in bas reliefs of man, gods and entities in between. You […]