Трехголовые слоны
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parzia
Кстати, кто-нибудь знает, что это за символ?
The Hindu god Indra rides a golden three - headed elephant, known as Airavata or Erawan, beneath the towering Three - Headed Elephant Monument, or Erawan Museum, at Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Thailand
A three - headed elephant at the bottom of the 'stairway to Heaven, inside the Three - Headed Elephant Monument, or Erawan Museum, at Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Thailand
A Thai family making offerings of fruit and garlands at a golden elephant shrine beneath the towering Three - Headed Elephant Monument or Erawan Museum, at Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Thailand
INSIDE THE WORLD'S LARGEST ELEPHANT
On the outskirts of Bangkok a massive new three-headed elephant sculpture, as tall as a fifteen-storey building, has become an important shrine for local Buddhists. Believers take a lift up the animal’s rear left leg to pray in a psychedelically-decorated shrine inside the pachyderm’s head.
Offerings for the three-headed elephant were flowing in thick and fast. In the space of ten minutes the massive copper pachyderm had been offered three new bowls of fruit including sugarcane and bananas, a dozen garlands of bright yellow flowers, a roughly-carved miniature wooden elephant, and innumerable silent prayers. School children passed by on their way back from school, later to be joined by office workers after a hard day’s work.
The giant three-headed elephant monument is the world’s largest sculptured pachyderm and one of the latest and most curious of Bangkok’s numerous neighbourhood shrines. Begun in 1994 by an eccentric multi-millionaire, the late Khun Lek Viriyapant, it was originally intended to house the businessman’s antiquities collection.
Indeed, much of the lower floor space, part of an ornate, round pedestal, forms the Erawan Museum, a modest collection of Thai antiquities. But since the building-cum-sculpture opened to the public a few years ago, the elephant has become better known as a religious shrine for the Samut Prakan neighbourhood, south-west of Bangkok.
The popularity of the shrine was boosted by a series of urban legends, reported in the Thai press, which quickly spread among the country’s superstitious population. About three years ago, when the elephant was under construction, a local woman asked the elephant to make her rich and fertile. A short time later, as these stories go, the woman won the Thai lottery and became pregnant.
Since then the shrine and its extensive gardens are regularly packed with worshippers and lottery sellers, particularly on the days when winning numbers are announced.
Three-headed elephants have long been an important symbol in Thai culture. They appear on royal and religious buildings throughout south-east Asia. Three-headed elephant sculptures are found in the ruins of Angkor Wat and in Mandalay, Burma/Myanmar; and in Hinduism the God Indra rides a three-headed elephant known as Erawan or Airavata.
Until now, however, no one had attempted such a massive memorial to the venerated Asian elephant. At 43.6 metres high, about the height of a 15-storey building, the monument towers over passing traffic on the adjacent highway. The elephant itself is 29 metres tall and raised on a 14.6 metre high wedding-cake pedestal. From tusk tip to tail the strange beast is 39 metres long, the equivalent of about ten or twelve adult bull elephants.
“After building the structure in reinforced concrete,” explained the smiling guide, “Lek decided to give the elephant a copper skin. Copper is durable, heat resistant and easy to work. Thanks to Lek and his son, Samut Prakan now has the biggest sculpture in Thailand.”
From outside, the massive elephant is astonishing enough. But inside, monumentality gives way to a kitsch, almost psychedelic interior. A curving ‘staircase to heaven’, with a balustrade ending in another three-headed elephant, leads to the top of the pedestal building. From there visitors have a choice of taking a narrow circular staircase up the elephant’s rear right leg, or a lift up the back left leg.
Both lead to a large psychedelically decorated room, whose curving walls and ceiling follow the lines of one of the elephant’s heads. Buddhist statues stand serenely beneath a bright blue sky, painted with red celestial forms and patterns of unknown meaning.
With the mysterious lighting effects it feels like being in a sixties film set rather than a venerated Asian elephant. But to Buddhist pilgrims the strange interior is a symbol of heaven, or as the monument’s eccentric creator had hoped, “a symbol of the centre of the universe”.
parziaКстати, кто-нибудь знает, что это за символ?
The Hindu god Indra rides a golden three - headed elephant, known as Airavata or Erawan, beneath the towering Three - Headed Elephant Monument, or Erawan Museum, at Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Thailand
A three - headed elephant at the bottom of the 'stairway to Heaven, inside the Three - Headed Elephant Monument, or Erawan Museum, at Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Thailand
A Thai family making offerings of fruit and garlands at a golden elephant shrine beneath the towering Three - Headed Elephant Monument or Erawan Museum, at Samut Prakan, Bangkok, Thailand
INSIDE THE WORLD'S LARGEST ELEPHANT
On the outskirts of Bangkok a massive new three-headed elephant sculpture, as tall as a fifteen-storey building, has become an important shrine for local Buddhists. Believers take a lift up the animal’s rear left leg to pray in a psychedelically-decorated shrine inside the pachyderm’s head.
Offerings for the three-headed elephant were flowing in thick and fast. In the space of ten minutes the massive copper pachyderm had been offered three new bowls of fruit including sugarcane and bananas, a dozen garlands of bright yellow flowers, a roughly-carved miniature wooden elephant, and innumerable silent prayers. School children passed by on their way back from school, later to be joined by office workers after a hard day’s work.
The giant three-headed elephant monument is the world’s largest sculptured pachyderm and one of the latest and most curious of Bangkok’s numerous neighbourhood shrines. Begun in 1994 by an eccentric multi-millionaire, the late Khun Lek Viriyapant, it was originally intended to house the businessman’s antiquities collection.
Indeed, much of the lower floor space, part of an ornate, round pedestal, forms the Erawan Museum, a modest collection of Thai antiquities. But since the building-cum-sculpture opened to the public a few years ago, the elephant has become better known as a religious shrine for the Samut Prakan neighbourhood, south-west of Bangkok.
The popularity of the shrine was boosted by a series of urban legends, reported in the Thai press, which quickly spread among the country’s superstitious population. About three years ago, when the elephant was under construction, a local woman asked the elephant to make her rich and fertile. A short time later, as these stories go, the woman won the Thai lottery and became pregnant.
Since then the shrine and its extensive gardens are regularly packed with worshippers and lottery sellers, particularly on the days when winning numbers are announced.
Three-headed elephants have long been an important symbol in Thai culture. They appear on royal and religious buildings throughout south-east Asia. Three-headed elephant sculptures are found in the ruins of Angkor Wat and in Mandalay, Burma/Myanmar; and in Hinduism the God Indra rides a three-headed elephant known as Erawan or Airavata.
Until now, however, no one had attempted such a massive memorial to the venerated Asian elephant. At 43.6 metres high, about the height of a 15-storey building, the monument towers over passing traffic on the adjacent highway. The elephant itself is 29 metres tall and raised on a 14.6 metre high wedding-cake pedestal. From tusk tip to tail the strange beast is 39 metres long, the equivalent of about ten or twelve adult bull elephants.
“After building the structure in reinforced concrete,” explained the smiling guide, “Lek decided to give the elephant a copper skin. Copper is durable, heat resistant and easy to work. Thanks to Lek and his son, Samut Prakan now has the biggest sculpture in Thailand.”
From outside, the massive elephant is astonishing enough. But inside, monumentality gives way to a kitsch, almost psychedelic interior. A curving ‘staircase to heaven’, with a balustrade ending in another three-headed elephant, leads to the top of the pedestal building. From there visitors have a choice of taking a narrow circular staircase up the elephant’s rear right leg, or a lift up the back left leg.
Both lead to a large psychedelically decorated room, whose curving walls and ceiling follow the lines of one of the elephant’s heads. Buddhist statues stand serenely beneath a bright blue sky, painted with red celestial forms and patterns of unknown meaning.
With the mysterious lighting effects it feels like being in a sixties film set rather than a venerated Asian elephant. But to Buddhist pilgrims the strange interior is a symbol of heaven, or as the monument’s eccentric creator had hoped, “a symbol of the centre of the universe”.
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Этот слон называется АЙРАВАТА
Date: 2006-03-31 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-03-31 02:43 pm (UTC)В Индии каждый бог имеет свою уникальную атрибутику, с которой и изображается в большинстве случаев.
У Индры это слон Айравата и эта самая ваджра.
Ваджра - палица грома, атрибут и оружие, которым бог поразил демонического змея Вритру и отворил мировые воды, которые запирал телом демон.
no subject
Date: 2006-04-03 07:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-04 06:01 pm (UTC)