That exhibition!

 I am sure happy that I took in the Sistine Chapel exhibition at La Galleria in Fort Lauderdale, as it made me appreciate all over again, the sheer genius of Michaelangelo.

I had actually visited the Sistine Chapel itself in the Vatican decades ago, when my children were just pre-teens but I don't think I appreciated what he had actually accomplished and gave the world. 

In fact the only thing I really remembered was the fact that he had painted the ceiling of the Chapel, lying on his back for the entire time.😊 

Random Old Testament prophets above.

It's only now since I have started to take art classes, that the depth of his ability, conquest of every detail and the general production really hit me. 

Remember, in the 1500's, artists had to make their own paints, (you couldnt walk into a store and pick the medium and your colors😁). His use of colors, tints and shades is therefore out of this world.

Further he had no pictures to guide him, so everything came from imagination. 

He got his inspiration from the Old Testament, but it's his interpretation of those texts that is so dynamic.

Noah drunk and naked.

The great flood.

Another angle of the great flood.

The Adam and Eve story.

Some aspects of the judgement.

The judgement en toto.

I am certainly not into religion, but his dynamic interpretation of some of those characters and events is phenomenal.

So happy I went down to Fort Lauderdale and enjoyed it with fellow student Helena.

Even happier that I have this blog so can turn to it from time to time to remind myself what real genius is!

Whoever can, should take it in.

A site to behold! 🙏

I took the train (all by myself😊) on what should have been a 5 hour trip to Anuradhapura. For some reason the trip took close to 7 hours, but I am not complaining.

It's around 127 miles north of Colombo and is an UNESCO World 🌍 Heritage Site, both for it's religious and archeological importance.

I have visited many religious sites all over the world, from Vatican, (christian), Istanbul (Muslim) Bangkok (Buddhist) etc, but I don't think I have ever seen anything as spectacular as this.

Had to buy a shawl to cover my white sleeveless top. No such requirement at the Golden Temple in Dambulla. Different towns, different cultures.

And when you consider that most buildings in Anuradhapura are over 2500 years old, it makes it more amazing.

My first image of one of the Temples. I arrived at night.

According to Wikipedia:

 "Anuradhapura is the cradle of the Hydraulic Sinhalese civilisation, Theravada Buddhism, and the longest-serving ancient capital of Sri Lanka that has survived for 1500 years. 

The networks of ancient temples and monasteries now cover over 100 square kilometers (40 square miles) of area of the city today.

The founding of the city is around 437 BCE, but the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it a major human settlement on the island for almost three millennia and one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in Asia, a cradle of Sinhalese civilization.

It's also longest-serving ancient capital of Sri Lanka  and has survived for 1500 years.

The city was mostly destroyed and largely deserted after 993 CE, with the Chola invasion from South India.[2] Although several attempts were made by later Sinhalese kings to return the capital to Anuradhapura, it was not reestablished as a major population centre of the island until the British colonial era in the 19th century CE. Despite its decline as a political centre, Anuradhapura remained a vital pilgrimage site for Buddhists throughout the medieval period and continues to be a significant spiritual destination today.[3][4] The modern revival of Anuradhapura began in the 1870s under British colonial rule, with infrastructure and urban planning initiatives aimed at supporting administration and accommodating pilgrims.[5] The contemporary city, much of which was moved during the mid-20th century to preserve the site of the ancient capital, is a major road junction of northern Sri Lanka and lies along a railway line. The city is the headquarters of Sri Lanka's archeological survey, and tourism is a significant factor in its economy."

(I was all decked out in my white sleeveless blouse to take the tour but had to cover my "mawga" arms. Also, I bought the bottom to enter a temple in Thailand but had to pin the split down to the knee, as too much leg was showing.🥴

Not complaining, just pointing out that different areas have different cultures in the same way even siblings can differ in their beliefs and practices.)

The young caretaker at Airbnb I stayed, gave me these petals. I thought they were for my room so left them at home.

I should have taken them to one of the shrines to use them to pay tribute to Lord Buddha.

 I live and learn.🫢.

Adherents putting gifts all around Lord Buddha's reclining image. They even bring cooked food!🤔.

Drummers leading some worshipers.

Loads of flower blossoms are given to worshipers to put on the altars at the Temples and Pagoda at the holy site.

The bottom of the main temples are wrapped with the Buddhist flag. It's quite a ritual performed by the monks.

While some of us are busy debating whether Buddhism is a religion or a way of life, to the thousands I saw there in May 2025, it is definitely a religion. 

They came to meditate, pray, pay homage to  Lord Buddha, give him gifts and get blessings.

And as part of this ritual, they bring (cooked) food, flowers and gifts for his monks and the smell of incense is all over, pleasant and calming. 

To me it was kind of surreal, especially since I have never witnessed such a crowd at a religious site a before.

Once a baby becomes 3 months old, he/ she is taken to a Temple to be blessed.

This is a man-made lake near the main Temples. Some adherents go there to cool off after a day of meditation and prayer.

One of the large rooms where incense are burned.

Despite the thousands moving through the large area, it is spotless as, workers ( volunteers?) are all around always cleaning up.

I tell you, the beauty of the artistry, carvings, sculptures is really overwhelming.

I have also been learning about the unlimited generosity of ardent Buddhists, but I was still surprised to see the truckloads of foods and fruits that local farmers brought there to give away free to those who were at the Temples🙏.

As I passed through one exit, I got a hand of ripe, bumpy bananas aka chiney banana, my absolute favorite.😊

 I was so tired after walking miles just to see what was taking place at the religious sites that I didn't even bother to visit the ruins.

They said this lady was a Hindu priestess who was performing some kind of a healing ritual there! 

Links. 

https://youtu.be/3mOwnITV3A0?si=joM-RF96EtluXgg3

https://youtu.be/80AuEBrPUsA?si=LxbG3X63mb_rLqHq

Exactly who is a Jew?

As we are constantly bombarded daily with heart-rending images in Gaza where the Netanyahu government seems determined to commit the most vicious acts of genocide in the history of the world, it becomes more and more confusing for some to determine exactly who (or what) is a Jew?

At least to me, it does, for no one set of people can be so cruel! (I feel the same way about those in Somalia who are carrying out even greater atrocities which the world seems happy to ignore. But in Africa, we know that enmity usually goes along the tribal lines that were sown by decades of oppression and apartheid, and watered and fertilized by European conquerors.)

Anyway, as far as Judaism is concerned, I am a bit less certain, so have been searching sources to try and get a concrete answer. The more I searched, the more complicated it seemed to become, so I latched on to the definition in Webster.

 It states in part:

"In the modern world, a definition of Jew that would be satisfactory to all is virtually impossible to construct, for it involves ethnic and religious issues that are both complex and controversial. In daily life, for example, those who consider themselves Jews are generally accepted as such by Jews and non-Jews alike, even though such persons may not observe religious practices."

Interesting, for although I am black, I could describe myself as a Jew if I wished, although I am not Falasha from Ethiopia.

The Jewish line apparently comes down through the female and my maternal grandmother was a Jewess who converted to Christianity when she married my grandfather. If I wished to apply for Israeli citizenship, it would be easily acquired. (A fellow Jamaican friend of mine who had the exact same ancestry as I did, became an Israeli citizen, moved there, and lived in a Kibbutz for more than five years, before escaping to England. That is another whole story!)

 This whole genocidal campaign in Gaza has certainly moved the issue of Jewishness to the front burner!

In my book though, it all comes back to religion.

I concluded decades ago, that RELIGION IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL, and not only does history bear this out, but everyday occurrences today do.

But let’s get one matter straight, it’s not moderate, straight-thinking people in the religions who are the evil ones, but the ultra-conservatives, be they Christian, Muslim, MAGA, Jewish, Buddhist, whatever.

The joke is on me, for there was a time when I swore that the adherents to Buddhism were the only peaceful religious people in the world. Then violence broke out in Myanmar against the Rohingya people and videos surfaced of Buddhist monks burning their villages and attacking the people. These were shown worldwide.

That certainly burst my bubble.

If you are wondering why I am now waxing philosophical, it’s because I was listening to a radio interview on PBS today with an Israeli woman who lived in a Kibbutz next door to Gaza. Their compound was raided by Hamas on October 7^th, 2023, members of her family and friends were kidnapped and many were killed.

That’s when I learned that those who resided in the Kibbutz, accepted that Israel and Palestine could share borders and live in peace, for they were not the ultra-orthodox, rabid, religious Jews like their fellow Israelis living in places like the West Bank.

 Those are the ones who perpetuate the crap that they are the chosen people and that the Middle East was given to them by god and anyone who says nay is anti-Semnite!

 They are also the ones who have been included in the Netanyahu government for decades, operating an apartheid system that made Gaza into the largest prison in the world, thus leaving no alternative for the oppressed but terrorism.

The problem with terrorists however is that they tend to be cowards, be they IRA, Hamas whatever. For, instead of fighting those who oppress them, they inevitably attack innocent people and at times, even those who are sympathetic to their cause, as happened on October 7th! For they killed some fellow Arabs and kidnapped a Bedoin then!

Until the world gets rid of religious intolerance as practiced by right-wing adherents like Netanyahu and his cronies, cruel genocidal actions will continue all over the world.

And innocents will continue to be massacred.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Religion and crime

I hate upsetting my christian friends, but many years ago, I developed a theory that wherever you see an over-abundance of churches, it's a sign that there is also an overabundance of wicked people there!

And most are described as the 'good' church-going folk.😊

After living for over half century in the land of my birth, Jamaica, where people have told me many times, that the Guinness Book of World Records, singles us out as having more churches per square mile than any other country on the planet, it wasn’t difficult to find evidence that this is so.

Since that theory is always at the back of my mind,  I remember with great amusement, how on visiting Sicily, the home of the bloody mafia, on seeing the numerous church steeples around, I immediately started to count.

Covering around three blocks as we walked there, and counting as we went along, after recording around twenty five huge structures, I decided that I had better things to do with my time. This was so in contrast with Switzerland (from where we were traveling) with  it's low crime rate  and almost non- existent churches!

My theory  came flooding back as I recently visited Charleston S. Carolina, where just around everywhere you turn, you see  huge church steeples hovering over the city.

I  subsequently learned, that because there are over 400 places of worship of different denominations throughout that city, it was once dubbed "The Holy City.” 

Even the powerful  Southern Baptist Convention, (then considered "an institution of heaven" ) which is the basis of so much of Donald Trump’s religious support today,  had its genesis in Charleston during the 19th century.

 Of interest too, is the fact that the most most ostentatious church buildings date back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when slavery and brutality towards Africans was at its peak!

In 1816, free blacks and slaves, realizing that there was no regard for them in white churches, established the African Methodist Episcopal Church under the leadership of a pastor named Morris Brown.

Naturally, this was objected to by the good white folk and Brown and other ministers of the church were jailed for violating laws that prohibited slaves and free blacks from gathering without white supervision.

 In 1822, the church was burned to the ground, and the authorities, claiming a slave revolt was being planned there, arrested 313 members of the congregation and executed 35.

In 1834, all black churches were banned by the authorities.

Undeterred, members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church continued to meet in secret until the end of the Civil War in 1865, when they formally reorganized. 

 They adopted the name ‘Emanuel,’ meaning “God with us.”

At that time, the church was a wooden structure. 

This is it today.

Interestingly, it is situated on Calhoun Street, a street named after the notorious John Calhoun (1782-1850), who violently opposed the abolition of slavery and who  black Carolinians refer to as Killhoun, up to today.

It was at this church  that in June 2015, a white supremacist killed nine people including the senior pastor and a South Carolina State Senator, during a prayer service.

At the funeral on June 26, 2015, President Barack Obama gave the eulogy for the pastor who was killed in the attack and after a moving tribute, sang "Amazing Grace."

Today, that area is renamed " Mother Emanuel Memorial District " and a plaque 

has been erected on the church with the names of all who were killed and declaring their forgiveness of the murderer.

Yup, with a few exceptions, Charleston definitely confirms the theory about religion and crime.

At least in my mind.😊

 

The Byzantine story

I had been hearing a lot about the Byzantine culture, era and religion, ever since arriving in Greece. 

Monasteries on top of the highest mountains in the holy city of Meteora.

In fact, after we left Athens and arrived in Thessaloniki, we were informed by the audio guide on a hop on hop off bus, that  this is the place in Greece where the Byzantine culture is still strong.

Although I tried to research it on line to try to find out the significance of that culture, I just could not get real clarity until going to the Byzantine Museum there. 

Only then did   the fog clear.😊

No wonder Museums are some of my favorite places!

As I now understand it, the Byzantine Era and culture developed under the influence of the Greek Eastern Orthodox Church from the 4 th-12th centuries.

 The Empire was partially destroyed and the culture watered down between the 13-14 centuries, when the Ottoman empire spread its Muslim influence throughout Greece.

As the Muslims invaders advanced into the country, Orthodox monks and nuns retreated higher into the mountains of Meteora to build monasteries where they could find peace and solitude to practice their religion. 

That is why that area is now dubbed a holy city and recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site.

For more on Meteora, see;

https://joan-myviews.blogspot.com/2024/04/the-holy-meteora.html?m=1

The museum now showcases the development of both the religion and culture up to the 14th century, when the Empire disintegrated.

Fixtures at an early Orthodox church.

Look at the marble mosaic on the floor.

Early altars, called Ambo

It gets progressively more modern.

I have always seen pots of all sizes and shapes displayed in many museums and had labored under the impression that they were all used for some kind of storage, but I learned at this museum, that babies and small children were often buried in clay pots.

Further, according to the Byzantine, they were the ones that started the practice of having graveyards built within church property, as before these were located outside city walls.

It is also now clear that the Byzantine era  influenced a great deal of what you read in the New Testament.

Artifacts found in church ruins.

Actual tombs excavated from early Church ruins.

My greatest fascination was however with pre and post Byzantine art, for every piece in the museum showed holy apostles, saints and religious people as having dark skin and thick hair during their rule.

A garment worn by an early Church official.

Such early religious people only started to be depicted with the light skin and European features, when the Roman Christian Church became dominant.

That's an early part of history that has been hidden, so even in black countries, Jesus and his followers were suddenly depicted as being white with blue eyes.

That is totally out of character for the region in which they were born and lived and the Byzantine tradition.

That partly explained for me why the Greeks are considered the least racist Europeans!

Yup, remember, it's always the victors who write history!

Easter in the Greek Orthodox tradition starts May 5th and lasts a week. 

From we were there in late April, lights started to be installed in Thessaloniki to prepare for the holiday.

For me personally, this trek to Greece has been such an eye opener in so many ways!