art

Resting Places

We hardly think of where we go when we die. And even if we build elaborate structures to allow our mortal remains to decay, we will never get to experience it. And yet, all around the world, humans have built grand mausoleums, cemeteries and burial grounds to allow the dead to pass on to afterlife. Whether it be the mighty Pyramids of Gizeh, elaborately decorated structures of Recoleta and Pere Lachaise, or the grand mausoleums like Taj Mahal, they all strive to glorify their silent inhabitants to an exalted status.

Dating back to the 12th century, the Shah-i-Zinda necropolis in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, belongs to this exclusive club of grand final resting places. Walking through metropolis replete with mausoleums and ritual buildings was a walk back in time. I made my way through sunlit passageways lined by pain-stakingly-restored blue shrines with exquisite architecture, admiring the intricate decorations and opulent tombstones.

I hope I get to see similar treasures around the world.

Shah-i-Zinda
Samarkand Uzbekistan

A Vessel of Art

The concrete jungle of Manhattan seems a world away from the lush rainforests of the Pacific Northwest to the concrete jungle of Manhattan was a sea of change. Towering mountainscapes with volcanic peaks and snow-capped summits were replaced by steel and glass skylines, mist-shrouded trees by towering concrete edifices lining narrow avenues and boulevards, and the peace and solace one can find along the tiny creeks and placid lakes by the chaos of an urban life teeming with the vibrancy of human energy.

And yet, there is beauty to appreciate here too, in the graceful spires of the Oculus or in the staircases to nowhere in the Vessel. I arrived here just in time for sunset, but couldn't stay long enough to capture twilight setting over the city that never sleeps.

New York City
NY

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Fragility

It is a tragedy that has befallen this mighty building.

The Notre Dame captured my heart the very moment I saw pictures of it while looking at the Paris guidebooks. And when I visited this impressive piece of history 10 years ago, I couldn't contain my excitement.

Even from afar, the Notre Dame Cathedral is an imposing structure: two tall towers rising 70m above the mass of low-rise buildings that dominate the center of Paris, behind which the lie the cross of the 73m long nave and 46m wide transept, each rising 4 stories, and supported by the massive bulwarks of the flying buttresses. Even the spindly spire that collapsed was large from up-close.

It took 100 years to build, and it stood through 800 years of tumultuous history, through both the World Wars. And yet, even such a mighty structure can be fragile. I do hope they rebuild it to its former glory.

Paris

France