Via Imgur/Reddit
The Lotus Temple, located in New Delhi, India, is a Bahá’í House of Worship completed in 1986. Notable for its flowerlike shape, it serves as the Mother Temple of the Indian subcontinent and has become aprominent attraction in the city. The Lotus Temple has won numerous architectural awards and been featured in hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles. (Wiki)
Novi Sad is the second largest city in Serbia, the administrative seat of Vojvodina, and the administrative center of the South Bačka District.
According to the 2011 census, the city has a population of 231,798, while the urban area of Novi Sad (with adjacent urban settlements of Petrovaradin, Sremska Kamenica, and Futog included) has 277,522 inhabitants, and the population of the metropolitan area (the administrative area of the city) stands at 341,625 people. (Wiki)
Via Imgur
Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, and was first completed in 1265. In the past, it has been called Royal Palace and Royal Castle.
Buda Castle was built on the southern tip of Castle Hill, bounded on the north by what is known as the Castle District (Várnegyed), which is famous for its Medieval, Baroque, and 19th-century houses, churches, and public buildings. It is linked to Clark Ádám Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular.
The castle is a part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, which was declared a Heritage Site in 1987.
Via Stephane Sandon
Wade Davis is an award winning anthropologist, scientist, author, photographer, and film maker. But more than anything, Wade is an explorer. He has provided us with profound insights on culture through his living with little known indigenous societies all over the world.
Wade Davis Books:
Click to preview the books Wade Davis has penned. I intend on crushing The Wayfinders in early 2014.
Wade Davis on Culture:
Wade says, “The world in which you were born is just one model of reality. Other cultures are not failed attempts at being you; they are unique manifestations of the human spirit.”
This is one of the aspects I love about traveling — meeting people and experiencing cultures that look at life through a vastly different lens.
Wade continues, “In the end, I think it’s pretty obvious at least to all of all us who’ve traveled in these remote reaches of the planet, to realize that they’re not remote at all. They’re homelands of somebody. They represent branches of the human imagination that go back to the dawn of time.”
Amen. From an outsider’s perspective (usually a Western perspective), these cultures are remote and bizarre. But to the inhabitants, this is their life. And they don’t necessarily want the changes that are sometimes imposed upon them.
On Modern Geopolitics:
Wade says, “Genocide, the physical extinction of a people is universally condemned, but ethnocide, the destruction of a people’s way of life, is not only not condemned, it’s universally, in many quarters, celebrated as a part of a development strategy.” This is a stinging indictment on developed and developing nations and their leaders as well as the consequences of global competition.
Wade goes on, “Margaret Mead, the great anthropologist, said, before she died, that her greatest fear was that as we drifted towards this blandly amorphous generic world view not only would we see the entire range of the human imagination reduced to a more narrow modality of thought, but that we would wake from a dream one day having forgotten there were even other possibilities.” How monotonous would life be if all indigenous cultures were to assimilate to culture of modern Western culture?
Conclusion:
Wade’s thesis is that, “This world deserves to exist in a diverse way. We can find a way to live in a truly multicultural, pluralistic world where all of the wisdom of all peoples can contribute to our collective well-being.” I agree wholeheartedly.
What are your thoughts on this discussion?
Banff National Park /ˈbæmf/ is Canada‘s oldest national park, established in 1885 in the Rocky Mountains. The park, located 110–180 km (68–110 mi) west of Calgary in the province of Alberta, encompasses 6,641 km2(2,564 sq mi)[3] of mountainous terrain, with numerous glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. The Icefields Parkway extends from Lake Louise, connecting to Jasper National Park in the north. (Wiki)
Ipiales, Colombia | Flickr: gameoflight / Creative Commons
Via Buzzfeed:
22 Stunning Under-The-Radar Destinations To Add To Your Bucket List In 2014
We hope to visit Ipiales, Colombia in February! Let us know if you have been.
Via (Eye and Pen)1. Go To Ubud- Yes, Ubud is touristy, but that is also where I found most of the healers to be. It’s also where I found other like-minded spiritual seekers to be. It was nice to find a community of people to be around who I could talk about the deeper things of life with. While the Balinese people themselves are very spiritual no matter where in Bali you are, it’s a lot harder to feel it in Kuta or Seminyak which seem more oriented to partiers and shoppers than to those who are looking for a spiritual experience.
2. Visit The Healers- The healers of Bali are very powerful. The healers, called balians, dedicate their lives to healing after discovering that they have the gift of healing. Visiting these healers should not be thought of as a tourist activity, but only as something you should do if you are serious about letting go of your ego and progressing to the next step of love. Visiting them wasn’t always easy, as I was forced to look at my own self and let go of many layers of pain and facades that I had put up in my own life. These were some very powerful healers. I realized how “attached” that I had been to the story of who I was and that it was preventing me from offering my gifts to the world. Soon after, my return from Bali, I knew that I needed to get rid of most of my possessions, quit my job, move out of the US, and follow a more authentic path. I warn you that visiting the healers of Bali will change your life!
3. Practice Yoga, Meditation, Ecstatic Dance- These activities are available just about everywhere in Bali, and performing these activities aided in the healing work that I was doing and helped me to further find myself.
4. Spend Time With The Local People- Most of the people in Bali speak English, so it makes it very easy to get to know them. The Balinese look at everything with a spiritual point of view. They have a strong connection to nature and to each other. They spend a lot of their time just visiting and being with one another. They are the happiest people that I know, and there is nothing like a Balinese smile. I got invited to a baby’s three-month ceremony, and it touched my heart to the sacredness with which the Balinese treat their children.
5. Get Out Of Ubud- Spend some time by yourself. Get out and explore the untouched parts of Bali. See the volcanoes, the rice fields, the black sand beaches. There are so many glorious things to see in Bali that will awaken your heart. After my spiritual experience in Ubud, I booked a hilltop room that overlooked the beach in Amed. It was nice to go inward after spending time with so many others in Ubud. I had time to ponder my own deepest fears. In Bali, I realized that my deepest fear had always been going through this life and not having had one person who really knew me. It was there, I realized I should have been more afraid of going through this life without having known myself.
