1. I decided to visit the Hindu temple BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Atlanta in Lilburn, GA on April 12th, 2016. I have lived five minutes away from the temple ever since it was built. I was very excited to finally go inside and observe it. 2. When I first arrived at the temple, I had to go through gates. At the gate was a small building where a man sits. He asked me for my name and opened the gate for me (he also thought I was Hindu and was speaking to me in Hindu). I went at 10:00 in the morning so there was not many people there. However, there was a few. The exterior was beautiful. I was so amazed at all the detail that the temple has outside and inside. I have never seen so much detail in my life. I also felt bad for the person who had …show more content…
I was allowed too take pictures until a certain point. I did not read the sign, but as soon as I took my phone out, two securities came and told me to put it away. There were small statues of deities all around the temple. To me, it felt like they kept repeating the same statues every so often. When I walked through the door, I had to take off my shoes. It did not bother me because I also take off my shoes when I walk into a masque. There was a rack to place the shoes; however, I did not see that there were separate shoe rooms for males and females. It was very quiet on the inside. Most of the exhibits were closed. I walked into the one that was open. It was a small square room with a small statue of “teenage Yogi” (at least that is what I remember his name was). On the walls were posters explaining the journey that he took. There was a Hindu priest on the floor reading from a book. When he saw me, he got up and filled up metal jugs with water and placed it on a small table in front of the statue. I stood there and waited for something to happen. Two hindu women and a hindu man walked into the room. They closed their eyes and said some words. Then the two women started to pour water on the statutes feet …show more content…
He did not speak to me. I walked in. The lights were dim and there were blue glowing lights on the ground. Columns of carved rock covered the Mandir; they were carvings of deities. Around the room were small, opened rooms for each of the deities. There was about ten in the room. Each one was either a male or female. I noticed that a majority of them had four arms, and the trunk of an elephant as noses. Once again, there was detail everywhere. Some of the statues wore animal parts as clothes; while others (especially the males) wore a bright orange wrap. I looked up and noticed the beautiful carved ceiling. It reminded me of a church, but there they often have paintings. I did not attend a service. I may have understood this part wrong. However, I understood that they close the temple almost every hour for a reason that I am not sure of. I did see people praying. I noticed that the women pray sitting down. One man was standing in front of a statue and next thing I know his whole body is on the floors worshiping the deities. The women also had in their hands a round string with beads on it; in Islam we also use something similar to it and it is called
I arrived at the Hsi Lai Temple in the city of Hacienda Heights around 3:00 p.m. on March 7, 2014. Although I am Chinese, I have never been to this temple before because my family does not practice Buddhism. This is my first time collecting data about the His Lai Temple. This method is referred to as participant-observation which is, “the anthropological method of collecting data by living with another people, learning their language, and understanding their culture” (Arenson and Miller-Thayer 521). The temple is built on a hill top. After driving up the long hill into the parking lot, I found that before entering the temple, I walked up many stairs. In the brochure For Guang Shan Hsi Lai Temple, it said that the name Hsi Lai stands for “coming to the West”. The temple, which was founded by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, signifies the dedication of Taiwan’s largest Buddhist organizations called the Fo Guang Shan. It took ten years to build the temple and was completed in 1988. This $30 million Temple on 15 acres of land was financed by donations from Buddhist devotees from around the worlds.
Overall, I enjoyed the experience of learning more about a new culture and participating in their cultural events. My original fear of being an intruder went away when people would be friendly and introduce themselves to me. I was surprised to enter the prayer room and see that people were sitting on the floor because I am used to people having a chair to sit on. I was also nervous about sitting on the floor for a long period of time because my body is not used to it and I am not as youthful as I once was. After about thirty minutes, I started to get really uncomfortable, but I continued to sit because I did not want to be offensive by standing. I was surprised to see volunteers cooking meals for the guest because that is not something that I am used to seeing at a
Religious discrimination is the biggest social issue in the USA. Since the 9/11 attacks Sikh’s have been tortured and treated really badly only because of their appearance. Arabs and Muslims are also tortured because of the religion they belong to. People should not insult other people without even knowing about their background. People should try to get to know about other person’s background before coming into any conclusion, he might be the best person they have ever met. The U.S. should abolish the practice of practice of profiling based on appearance at government office, schools, private offices etc.
The actual building itself appears similar to a castle. The architecture had royal features due to the triangular points on the top of the building. There were three open doors; one big main entrance in front, two small side doors, and all the guests entered through the main entrance. Once I walked in, a big gold Buddha was centered in the back surrounding multiple iconic religious statues. There seemed to be about a hundred religious statues highly dazzled in silver or good.
At last I arrived, unmolested except for the rain, at the hefty decaying doors of the church. I pushed the door and it obediently opened, then I slid inside closing it surreptitiously behind me. No point in alerting others to my presence. As I turned my shoulder, my gaze was held by the magnificence of the architecture. It never fails to move me. My eyes begin by looking at the ceiling, and then they roam from side to side and finally along the walls drinking in the beauty of the stained glass windows which glowed in the candle light, finally coming to rest on the altar. I slipped into the nearest pew with the intention of saying a few prayers when I noticed him. His eyes were fixated upon me. I stared at the floor, but it was too late, because I was already aware that he wasn’t one of the priests, his clothes were all wrong and his face! It seemed lifeless. I felt so heavy. My eyes didn’t want to obey me. Neither did my legs. Too late I realised the danger! Mesmerised, I fell asleep.
I was very nervous to visit the Hindu Mandir. However, once I got there, I saw how beautiful and amazing it really was. It was so beautiful that I thought that I was in a museum instead of a place of worship. It was absolutely nothing as I expected it to be at all. While I was in the Mandir, I felt a sense of honor and serenity and at peace while looking around at all the beautiful art. In addition, I learned many different things because of this visit about Hinduism. The visit made me learn things that I would have never learned if I did not go on the trip. I learned about what a Mandir is, a Mandir functions, the history of Hinduism, their beliefs, and their festival celebrations.
At 9:55 a man referred to as an usher greeted me and handed me a program. The room I entered into next was large and had an aisle down the center separating the seating. There were eight chairs seated side by side in each row and fifteen rows in total on each side of the aisle to provide comfortable seating for 240 people. I took a seat amongst the rest of the youth in the second row from the front of the platform. On the platform at the front of the room sat various instruments, a large podium and multiple speakers. There was a large, rectangular opening in the center wall at the back of the platform where a large tub with steps, referred to as the baptism tank, was located. Beyond the tank was a large wooden cross hanging on the wall.
My visit to this Museum got my skin with goose bumps from the excitement of entering an awesome place that has lots of history, information, and exhibits from my culture and roots. I was enjoying every moment by walking around all those displays, and seeing how everything started here on this side of the border.
For my site visit reflection paper, I decided to visit the Thai Buddhist Temple in Homestead. The reason this particular site was my choice was because information acquired from the videos in lecture about tradition and Confucianism in Asia made me curious to learn more about the Buddhist way of life. Because so many South Eastern countries instantaneously adopted Buddhism from India and then China with open arms, I decided to make the visit in the morning to learn the reasons for the international success of this way of life. This would give me a more interactive comprehension of Buddhism.
The church external appearance was quite different than other churches that I have seen. It was basically a big white stucco block with a gold dome on top and four decorated spikes on each corner of the building that surrounded the dome. The people of course were all Greek and were very well dressed. Most of the men and boys all wore suits, and If not they had some kind of vest on. I don’t know if this was some kind of rule or tradition, but it mostly seemed as a respect to God. The women all wore the basic dresses, and all the skirts fell down below the knee. Everybody was proper and ordered. As I walked in the church I entered a lobby of some kind. What I saw hear was something like social hour. Everybody was in there. They were all speaking Greek, and I felt as if I was in a family reunion party. The children were all together; the adults talked together and the young adults all were together. The way they all socialize is when someone comes up to say hello, they give each other a kiss on the cheek and a hug. These people are all very close to each other. It seems as if the church is the center of their lives. I admire that trait as well. To enter the auditorium you must enter this little room, which has a piece of garment from St. Constantine and St. Helen. Also there were candles lit. As they walked through this little room they lit a candle and knelt down for a moment to pray, and then touched each garment and made a cross over their chest.
...essions of the temple, I thought the place was very organized, beautiful and welcoming. The people who worked there were very genuine and helpful. When I was watching the Abhishek ritual they asked my friend and I if we wanted to try it, but we kindly refused because we were afraid we might do it wrong. We told them that we were students doing research and they helped us with everything by providing us with all kinds of informative brochures and a mini video. I really enjoyed visiting the temple because when you read books and listen to lectures, you just get the gist of it, but when you actually go there and see it for yourself it’s a whole different experience. After seeing how devoted and faithful they were to their God’s it made me see things in a different perspective. I really respect and understand their religious views even if it’s very different from mines.
...re somehow representing Hindus culture and tradition. Even the architecture was telling something about the historical stories on Hinduism. Specific location of the deities in the Durga temple has provided the god and goddesses a higher level of respect and honor. I tried my best to take as many pictures as I can but unfortunately I was not able to. After seeing everything in the temple I can definitely say that all the Hindus take care of all the things that are close to them. They show and have same amount of respect for all the god and goddesses. In the end, I would just say that my visit to Durga temple was outstanding, and really enjoyed it. I have learned many new things about the Hindus that I was familiar with before. I will definitely go again if I ever get a chance. I am now more curious about finding out some more interesting facts about the Hinduism.
There was incense burning outside which was what had lured me in. Once we got inside, my eyes were popping out of my head with how many items were engulfed inside. There was a lot of hand crafted art, such as jewelry and candles. I marveled for a good long time in there.
The word sacred has a variety of different meaning to different people depending on what context “sacred” is used. So for definition purposes according to the Oxford English Dictionary (2013) sacred is “Regarded with a great respect and reverence by a particular religion, group or individual” this is just one of the example of the definition as it hold many more but this one incorporates the meaning of a sacred place or space. Sacred Places are found in different countries and cultures, past and present. Such places are marked or embellished by architectural structures and art, therefor having the ability to appeal to a multitude of different people, but still being sacred to each individual person or group in its own specific way. The question is how much of a places sacredness or character is directly linked to the human activity that the place attracts
I also thought that I would instantly start doubting my practices and beliefs after attending this church. To my surprise, after this experience was over I still felt the exact same way about beliefs. The most enjoyable part of my experience would have to be the scenery of the church, from the marvelous baptismal font to the paintings in the windows. My least favorite part of my experience would have to be the sermon, and maybe it is because I am not use to listening to a short rushed through summary. It actually felt weird being outside of my comfort zone and being a “foreigner” at a different church. I cannot really say that this visit to this Catholic Church really affected me in any way, but I will say that this was a pleasurable experience to have in my