Heritage – Page 3 – VAGABOND IMAGES

Traditional folklore and cool technology are woven together at Taiwan Lantern Festival

Upendra SwamiMarch 5, 20181128 Views0

The 29th Taiwan Lantern Festival was officially opened, with the lighting of the lanterns in the Main Lantern area. The exhibition scale for this year’s festival reaches 50 hectares, making it the biggest lantern festival ever held in Taiwan. The exhibitions will feature the main lantern which depicts an indigenous child with a Taiwanese dog, portraying the theme of Loyal Auspiciousness. Besides this main attraction, the innovative designs area will showcase various exquisite traditional lanterns that embody traditional customs and auspicious themes; these are sure to dazzle people. For the first time, full-field spotlights will be used to shine the latitude and longitude beams in the sky and present the Tropic of Cancer going through the mountains, sea and plains of Chiayi County. The

IndiaPhotogallery

Morning lights at Menar – the birds village!

Upendra SwamiFebruary 22, 20184217 Views7

City of Lakes Udaipur is famous for many things but rarely for its birds. Ironically village Menar, 15 kms from Udaipur's Dabok airport is known for many things including its birds. Menar is also called as the bird village. More than couple of lakes in close surroundings of the village are known to host a huge number of migratory birds every year. Menar also has a long history which connects it closely to the Kings of Mewar. Rich in culture, this village also has an honour to produce some of India's finest chefs who have worked in kitchens of many celebrities- home and abroad. Residents of this village have been known as Menarias. But my recent trip to this village, roughly around 45 kms from my hometown Udaipur, was purely to catch some morning light. Capturing birds at sunrise (f...

IndiaPhotogallery

Hampi in Monsoon : Virupaksha Temple

Upendra SwamiJuly 22, 20174740 Views8

Hampi is indeed one of the most prominent heritage sites in peninsular India. In our childhood, we all had been deeply associated with stories of Raja Krishna Dev Raya (Krishnadevaraya) and Tenali Raman (Ramkrishna). It is always fascinating to be there where all those immortal stories of Vijayanagara empire would have taken place. Hampi is also a place which can be included in our monsoon travel itineraries. Having there been in monsoon, I can safely say that it is one of he best time to visit Hampi. Summers are indeed a torture here and winter would be fun but it is the monsoon which brings the best out of this historical place in Hemakuta hills of Karnataka. So here are few images from monsoon travel in Hampi, starting with the Virupaksha temple. Few striking ones to begin with- view...

IndiaPhotogallery

Kashmir, we know less about : Kheer Bhawani at Tulmul

Upendra SwamiJune 8, 20172748 Views7

There have been many facets of this paradise on earth. The political disturbances since last many decades have made many places either out of bounds or less frequently visited. One of such places is Kheer Bhawani temple at Tulmul (Tullamula) in Ganderbal district of Jammu & Kashmir. Just a few days back on eighth day (Ashtami, अष्टमी) of brighter fortnight (Shukla Paksha, शुक्ल पक्ष) of the hindu month of Jyeshtha (ज्येष्ठ या जेठ) pilgrims gathered at three shrines in Kashmir valley including the Kheer Bhawani temple. Devotees, mostly Kashmiri Pandits, thronged the shrine situated in south Kashmir, which is currently hot bed of unrest in the Valley. Other two shrines are Tripur Sundari temple in Devsar (Kulgam district) and Ragnya Bhagwati in Manzgam (Kulgam district). This particular...

InternationalNews

Lost temple discovered after 1,000 years in China

Upendra SwamiJune 4, 20171229 Views0

Chinese archaeologists have found a famous temple that remained hidden for nearly a millennium in China's southwestern Sichuan province. The Fugan Temple, located in downtown Chengdu, was a famous temple that lasted from the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317- 420) to the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). Daoxuan, a famous Tang Dynasty (618-907) monk, once wrote that an official rite to pray for rain to end a persistent drought was held in front of the temple, and it rained as if the prayers had been heard in heaven. The story was the record of how the temple got its name, Fugan, which means "perceive the blessing." The popular Tang Dynasty poet Liu Yuxi left a poem to commemorate the temple's renovation, describing its heavenly appearance. The poem further noted the temple's important role at

IndiaPhotogallery

Forgetten heritage and shades of Khajuraho near Udaipur

Upendra SwamiMarch 23, 20172071 Views9

Well, since Udaipur is my hometown so I had always been knowing about this temple and have visited this quite a few number of times, since my school days. Similarly, almost all people from Udaipur know about it. But ironically, though Udaipur is one of the most popular tourist destinations in India for domestic as well as foreign tourists, still you will rarely find any tourist visiting this temple. Baring the school days, when we would come here for picnics or drop here while visiting the famous Eklingji temple; in recent times whenever I visited this temple, I or our group were the only persons around. So strange. Well, this part of north-west India is full of shrines and temples but this image shows that it is no ordinary temple. It is actually a temple complex with a few temples...

InternationalNews

The Disappearing Hotels of Wales

Upendra SwamiMarch 21, 20171340 Views3

Want to Two hundred fortunate visitors will get a chance to book themselves in hotels which will vanish gradually. These boutique hotels will emerge at three spectacular secret locations across Wales. This unique concept is a part of Welsh Tourism Planner as a part of Welsh 2017 “Year of Legends”. The concept is a perfect blend of luxury and adventure, where eight bespoke cabins pop-up in unheard of places; in a mystical and epic land of entailing tales which is called Wales. Only a select few will be able to access these privilege sites. The guests will be treated to exclusive Welsh experiences during their stay inspired by their location, ranging from fishing, to beer tasting, to Welsh cuisine prepared by top chefs of the region. The cabins are specially designed for the project by

IndiaNews

‘Fairy Queen’ Ready to Haul Heritage Train Once Again

Upendra SwamiFebruary 10, 20172611 Views7

Its a journey worth albums- a short trip for a long-lasting memory. The ‘Fairy Queen’, the oldest surviving functional steam engine in the world is once again ready in this season to haul a heritage train from National Capital Delhi to Rewari, Haryana after a gap of 5 years. This train, which is a great attraction among steam engine lovers across the globe, will run between Delhi Cantt. Station and Rewari from tomorrow i.e. 11th February 2017 for a single day trip. Train will leave Delhi Cantt. railway station at 10.30 in the morning and reach Rewari at 1.00 pm. And on the return journey it will leave Rewari at 4.15 pm and reach Delhi Cantt. at 6.15 in the evening. The locomotive was constructed by Kitson, Thompson and Hewitson at Leeds, in England, in 1855, and reached Kolkata, then kn

IndiaPhotogallery

Khajuraho of Aravalis : Neelkanth

Upendra SwamiJanuary 19, 20173060 Views16

Immediately after Bhangarh, I landed to this place. And, I am sure that less than 10 percent of people present at Bhangarh would have heard about this temple and among those who would have heard, less than 10 percent would have ever visited it. As a day later at Kankwari fort, here too, we were the only travellers. There were some locals to pray, although. Besides, we also came to know that there were many tourists a day earlier (on first day of the new year). Well, this is all about Neelkanth Temple, how it is commonly known. The board here says its name as Neelkantheshwar Temple (not any difference in the meaning of both words). Actually, if you go on searching online, all the pages will lead you to Neelkanth temple near Rishikesh in Uttarakhand. You would have been lucky enough t

AdventureIndiaPhotogallery

Kankwari : A fort and a history in deep jungle!

Upendra SwamiJanuary 16, 20178201 Views20

Between visits to Bhangarh and Kankwari forts, I had other three notable experiences. All are worth independent posts, that would certainly be in coming days. But, to me it seemed rather more appropriate to write about Kankwari fort immediately after Bhangarh. It helps more in drawing comparisons and parallels. Although the visit to Bhangarh fort had its worth because of all the stories attached to it and I was impressed by the fortress city as a whole, but I was largely disappointed by upkeep and ruins of the Bhangarh fort. In that context, visit to Kankwari fort right next day was a huge surprise... a pleasant one. I had read about Kankwari Fort sometime back but never had chance to visit it in my earlier trips to Sariska Tiger Reserve. Even the information available about