Composite blog consisting of notes, reflections, weird jokes, trip reports and amusing stories from the death row; some personal, some told and some fabricated, I have to reckon!

BEWARE!! This is neither a porno nor a politically correct site... more probably is a highly misanthropic and overtly cynical terminal account

Ridendo castigat mores, that I freely translate as ”humor improves behavior” , not that I believe, but it sounds nice!

From The Death Row

11
Dec
2017
0
Sticky Post

The Exit

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Biased attitudes, genuine lies, fair sarcasm, and dogmatic insanity will be vigorously at work here any time that some unpleasant truths, most of them are, will have to be ruthlessly and cautiously dished.

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10
Dec
2017
0
Sticky Post

The Happy-End

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I hope to move officially on the DEATH ROW in a few months. Will I be asked from above if I have some preference I will say that I would like to join thebandwagon on the 26th of March, 2018, and nail thus, the 80-year time milepost and turning point of sorts! Being a gambler numbers mean a lot to me especially those concomitantly positive and negative. Do not the life’s years signify Read More

11
Mar
2017
0
Sticky Post

Danarel, the Conjurer and the King Stork

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Some who may receive a copy of this letter don’t know who is Danarel. Discreetly, I inform everybody that he is my guardian angel. When it was more or less clear that I should come into being, my mother, the CONJURER, who was also a first rung ESPER (extra sensory perception), a TRUE BELIEVER, and THE LEADER OF THE PEOPLE, did something that had zero chances to succeed. She was desperate. She knew that age and situation, the Second World War was on the way, would not allow her to have more than one child. She also sensates that the package coming, me, will be a quite violent guy, not very easy to raise. Also, she felt that things may go from bad to worse. They did, the Nazis left so to say but the Communist regime that came after was no less ferocious. Read More

9
Jul
2024
0

Domnița Bălașa Church, part one

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From home to the shrine, a pseudo-historical trot

 

 

Seven days in a row toiling on an inept document aiming at defending a lost penal case took a heavy toll on my aching back and wobbled my already shaky physical-cum-mental resilience. Honestly, I was progressively bored into nothingness. Because nobody had asked me to forward the worthless document which was the by-product of an outbreak of sympathy for a charming lady friend, my superego took advantage, to flog me with strings of vicious and, alas, well-deserved deprecatory remarks. I always wondered if there isn’t coiled in any more or less decent male fellow a well-programmed composite of Perseus cum Holy George, a potential savior of endangered virgin damsels?  When I finally completed this self-punishing chore, I crawled out into the open on my knees, determined to breathe pure, fresh air and to encounter a thing of beauty or perish. I chose to stay alive still. Of course, the outdoors was only moderately fresh and windy, 3° C and 17k/h, at the moment that a sound Antarctic cocktail, of some 25° C under zero and a gale to capsize the ice floe was what I needed.  However, wisely happy with what I got I bravely walked on  January 2nd, 2024   from my Bucharest abode near Cişmigiu Garden towards the Palace of Justice in whose neighborhood  I was hoping to find open some religious shrines I had never visited.

 

Delighted to find that I can still walk I emerged through a short but stiff slope into Calea Victoriei Avenue. This north-to-south oriented, not very long boulevard was for the last two hundred years the landmark of an irregular, sometimes chaotic,

 

often successful effort to replace the mushy Balkanic-Ottoman outlook of Bucharest with a slightly pompous European capital setting. Under another name, Calea Victoriei was opened in 1692 by the then-Wallachian prince Constantin Brâncoveanu.  As we will see later he continued to maintain a strong religious and political presence, quasi-immanent, especially after he became first a martyr and then a saint[1], in the city’s center until nowadays.  Its purpose was to permit the easiest connection from his  Mogosoaia Palace on the city’s outskirts, to the Curtea Domneasca (Old Court), the ruler’s abode in Bucharest. Calea Victoriei is an architectonic potpourri that doesn’t lack charm, firstly because of the width of the avenue, secondly because it has some interesting buildings and views, and thirdly, mostly because the time’s patina conveys aesthetic value to well-preserved old buildings. Not only black but also old can be beautiful especially when about edifices and artifacts.

 

Further on the Calea Victoriei, at the southern corner of the huge Romanian National History Museum, (once the Romanian Palace of the Posts), while I was taking a sharp left turn to delve into the core of the Old Center (Centru Vechi) I remembered with pleasure my visits to this ungainly and fascinating institution. For those who have an irresistible desire to understand and feel the essence of the narrative art of yore, the origin of today’s comics and manga books, and even the source of the awful socialist realism style of yesterday the National History Museum is the ultimate address. It houses, the casts of the 123 high-relief panels of the Trajan Column in Rome and permits through the unique, side-by-side, and successive, presentation of scenes a keen understanding of ancient warfare and nation-building. Because of the monument’s height, the original panels weren’t, and are not visible in situ. Also, and off the record, it is stupid to get torticollis trying to look at the two thousand years old, and worn by time and smog,  illustrations of wars between Romans and the Dacians, the ancient habitants of Romania, when we have nice ongoing conflicts with modern tools and plethoric, non-stop visual and verbal feeding.   In conclusion, buy a cheap ticket and consider some first-quality genuine casts so close to genuine art that nobody, except some pedants or experts of sorts can see the difference. Feel free to appreciate the quality of the naturalist storytelling style, (neither broken lines nor blotches of color), the magnitude of the personality cult (here Emperor Trajan), and realize how militarist Rome led to the creation of a nation after having ruthlessly and cunningly (and shamefully I will murmur) erased any tracks of the native local culture.

 

 Old Center likely a remnant of the first Neolithic settlement on the shore of the Dâmbovița River, gradually became the core of Bucharest and the stronghold of the ruling class. There is always a ruling class in Cuba, Korea,  Monaco, or elsewhere. It was there that in 1490, the famous and much appreciated by both tourists and locals Vlad III Dracula nicknamed, for obvious reasons, Vlad the Impaler raised his palace –known today as the Old Court (Curtea Domneasca).  Since the fire in 1718, when the rulers departed for a better place, the borough became a TRADING POST, a market to which chariots loaded with merchandise were arriving from abroad. The market fostered the building of several huge guest houses called hans, and the settling of a large professional population on the streets that astonishingly enough (by lack of imagination or else) were bearing the name of the trade the inhabitants practiced. During the Marxist communist regime considering the property a theft and the trade a crime the entire area, once a mercantile and crafts hub,  sunk into a rotten, dilapidated state. It changed again after the revolution. Curtea Domneasca, Vlad’s palace had become a museum according to the rule that hospitals, museums, cemeteries, and the universe are in the continuous expanse. Around it,  bustling with life the borough metamorphosed again into a giant eatery for people who like to gorge shoulder to shoulder, energetically socialize, and fancy heavy metal music.

 

CLASSIFIED INFORMATION OF GENERAL INTEREST

I feel sorry to cut into the natural flow of my post, but a weird occurrence compels me to share it immediately with the reader, a rare event that could jeopardize my mental equilibrium and, God forbid,  the termination of my blogger ambitions. While I was desperately plodding forward with my report upon the visit to Domnița Balaşa Church, which I hoped with God’s help to achieve once, I felt that  I needed a break from my useless creative activity.  For this purpose, I visited my neighbor Thomas, a self-thought genius physicist and outstanding madman, without anticipating the weird experience I would have. Unexpectedly, after listening to my pseudo-historical ambling among the shadows and the relics of Bucharest’s past he alleged with some irritating Chinese-like nasal resonance: You cannot simply talk of bricks, stone, and plaster for so long. A story needs some skin, sweat, and blood,  a whiff of a human dream  – he pontified. You have to speak about people. I am doing, I replicated fairly offended, in the last two episodes. It is not enough they should appear all over he argued and continued to bluntly interrogate me about the quality of my visual information regarding the living characters that I intend to evoke. Alas, I told him, not only the quality but also the quantity is close to null and except for an epoch engraving of Constantin Brancoveanu, and a fine portrait of Safta,  I haven’t gotten anything else allowing me to place a mug on a name. But that is too little he grunts with non-concealed despise. And your arena, isn’t the city? What about the founder of the town? What about Bucur Ciobanul (Bucur the Sheepherder)? Bucur? I murmured, without sparing him a superior sneer. He is a legendary character, he never existed. We can check he said, suddenly deadly calm and cool, fiendishly raising the right eyebrow. How? It’s better not to argue with people like him. You know he asked the phenomenon of entanglement of subatomic particles? I do, I said. Very well, I discovered that not only can two particles be connected across time and space, but huge sequences of particles can combine for a while in a configuration that could be or represent a person, an object, or a natural phenomenon. I looked to see if I was close to the door to dart at need, but my propensity to argue about this and that took the better of me and I heard myself hoarsely croaking. These configurations do not fall apart after a while?! Yes, he said with a cold smile, but they left some ghost images behind like the erased documents on a hard disk. I made a new genial invention, a Nobel prize brand, with tons of cash for sure in view. I know how to call back these shadows.  God, they are spending billions on trifles, and the hotels for the insane are closed all over the world, I wailed in the privacy of my head. I was too scared to use the outer space. What do you say? Let’s see Bucur Ciobanul some 300 years ahead of Vlad, around 1200 C.E, and Curtea Domneasca 44.4301° N, 26.1013°E place on the map should provide enough data for a quick checking he mumbled. How for God’s sake did he know the figures by heart?  Without paying the slightest attention to the curious extent of his knowledge and skills, Thomas bounced on his laptop hitting the keys with the disgusting energy of a Jerry Lee Lewis, rock pianist, and monster womanizer nicknamed the Killer. After a short while, with an absent look, he handed me a photo and muttered: What a funny guy Bucur, You know? A predestinated name, not!  Bucuria (joy in Romanian), and Bucharest, the little Paris, and then he laughed heartedly and creepily. I took the slightly, wet and burning photo with shaking fingers. While I was staring for a couple of seconds into nothingness at my turn, I heard someone roaring, it was me, “late to the dentist” and dashed through the door. After calming down with some difficulty at home, I dared to look again at the photo. It portrayed a shepherd, of course, a kind of rough character devoid of the slightest marks of joy or intelligence. A city founder? Maybe Thomas pulled on me a fast one? The scoundrel! And then I remembered Adam Riess who with two fellows got a Nobel prize in 2011 for discovering Dark Energy that since was never identified and very much questioned. Then, Thomas, right or wrong, can also fetch the Swedish glory and make a laughing stock of me for many. Even the sheepman could be real after all. The city’s founders do not automatically resemble Dalai Lama! If physics nowadays is based on unprovable assumptions everything is possible. Please keep this incident secret, avoid mentioning it, and do not refer to me.

Now, it is time to return to the main even if it can be sometimes tricky and stormy  With a trot that nervously became a canter, I dashed through the Şelari street, where a hundred years ago lived, and rode high the saddles’ makers, it was horse time, towards the Dambovita river famous in the past for carrying sweet waters. For some mysterious reasons, its waters are so poisonous today that I will not advise for consumption to my worst enemies. The Palace of Justice’s monumental presence on the opposite bank (achieved in 1895) made me reflect on the insane chance of the offenders, great crooks, or petty criminals, it doesn’t matter, to be summoned,  judged,  and even sentenced on such prestigious premises. I paid particular attention to the free-standing pinion housing a large clock flanked by two female characters personifying the Force and the Prudence.  They were too remote for my feeble sight to distinguish the features. The camera did a little bit better.  Eventual readers may eventually recognize who is what and get an idea of how Carol Storck the son of leading sculptor of then times, Karl Storck, managed to embody psychological features. Forget the Force who is not more at all popular today when even a toothbrush should be Soft, but please consider the noli me tangere glance that Prudence lets filter through her modestly lowered eyelids. 

When I realized I was late and making royalty, the Balasa princess, waiting, I rushed full gas away from the Justice Palace towards a kind of esplanade allowing the passage from the left to the right shore of the Dâmbovița river. The concrete-imprisoned stream was lazy rippling under the intense watch of a small company of desperate fishermen.  While squinting upon the river’s murky waters spotted by a few villain ducks and some small floating islands of domestic refuse I realized that some three hundred years ago the passage from shore to shore was made possible by the since longly vanished wooden

  Bridge of Misers, (Podul Calicilor). The misers were waiting for silver change thrown at their intention from the windows of luxurious boyar carriages crossing the bridge. Deeply touched by this example of direct charity contrasting with the suspect ONG distribution of money and goods that they didn’t produce and that they vigorously skim into their extravagant wages I took a sharp turn left and marched slightly haggard into the Street of the Holly Apostles (Strada Sfintii Apostoli).  The Principal pitied my wandering and let me discover after barely ten meters a glorious fossil inserted like a shining carbuncle into a ring of ponderous, would-be-modular, off-white, towering, and somehow asinine, ex-communist residential blocks. It was the neo-Byzantine Domnița Balaşa church. 

 

 

 

 

 


[1] I am fascinated by the transformation of a regular Homo sapiens sapiens (the modern man) from an ambiguous character (a mixture of Eros and Thanatos) into a saint. For the moment, I have identified two recurrent features of this extreme mutation.  Firstly, royal families, when compared to the rest of the population, have furnished an astonishing number of saints. The intriguing fact that they also counted a striking number of vicious villains, I suggest, is beyond the point. Secondly, there is the fantastic role played by a traitor who does anything to harm the just without doubting that he is carrying him to eternal glory. I don’t want to sound irreverent, but one might say that without his cousin Stefan’ schemes, Constantin would never have received the nod, the nimbus! Do you agree?

 


12
Jul
2024
0

Domnița Bălașa Church, part two

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The cute phoenix

 

 

If the functional identity of the Domnița Bălaşa church, as a real shrine, even as a royal shrine is unquestionable, my haste to label it a neo-Byzantine fossil was much less justified than it seemed. The towering dull, ponderous, communist structures, surrounding the church’s lovely plot, when compared to the church itself shining like a brand-new car fresh off the assembly line,  basically ageless and in high-performing mode, already show wear far beyond their age. Give them another 25 years and they will undoubtedly called fossils. Off the record, the church just got a massive expensive facelift thanks to the lavish contribution from the  C.E. which the locals claim is the major cash-cow provider for cultural endeavors, the sports betting industry, and significant political corruption.

My obsession with taxonomy, always seeking the right name for everything, failed by a hair to land me into trouble. Even before arriving on-site, I called the church architecture’s neo-Byzantine relying on some uncensored information I took from a cheap guide much more readable (but reliable?) than the boring hefty ones. I also believe that 99% of all Romanian churches. exhibit some generic hallmarks of the Byzantine style. This assumption was silly as I must admit that I haven’t seen more than 0.1% of  Romanian churches in my restless wandering life. Only in my drowsy, dirty, small, and ugly hometown, lying in the middle of nowhere, there were about  100 churches and at least as many pubs. Alas, many of the morning customers of the first set of facilities, were getting into a BUI (behaving under the influence) syndrome after a prolonged and intense visit to the second set in the late afternoon.  However, I didn’t step into more than two or three honorable precints out of a pool of a hundred because of my altricial unrecommendable conduct of agitated brat, bloody jew, and precocial atheist…Let’s say that I didn’t probably feel the call!

Imagine my embarrassment when I was informed, I forget by whom, that Domnita Bălaşa was actually “cast”  into a Neo-Romanesque and Gothic Revival style. Both! After the shock, I resolved that at my age I wouldn’t come to grips with new architectural styles, that could be as insignificant as some worthless variations on Goldberg Variations. So, I will visit the

church on my right foot, trusting my insight, and emphasizing its Byzantine character and aura. The invasive architectural features, which I can say from the beginning are not structural or the unfortunate straying from the classic Byzantine canon will be briefly reported to avoid extra confusion to eventual readers.

I see the church built of traditional bricklayers, [1]using semicircular arches only, having fine columns with elaborate capitals, and proudly exhibiting a crisp quincunx of five domes, a distinctive mark of the Byzantine style.  [2]Four domes, one at each corner top four cylindrical towers, called lanterns, while a major dome (no joke) hovers upon the crossing, the area defined by the encounter of the church’s nave and transept spaces.

The finely articulated church space setting preceded by a moderate steps flight comprises an open western columnar porch, a unique nave composed first of functional space -the narthex, second of the nave proper, and third of its expansion after the crossing into a choir.  A complex, shining, flashy, and light reflecting rood screen (iconostasis)  separates the crossing from the altar housing choir that ends within the main eastern apse space. Finally, two smaller apses are flanking the northern and southern sides of the crossing. The iconostasis together with the clerestory type piercing of the walls (mehr licht), the sparing use of marble enhancing doors and window frames, and the opulent running corniche girdling the ensemble should encourage one, me for example, to claim neo-Byzantine loudly. Alas, the obvious in a matter of style can be very treacherous.

The Domnita  Bălaşa church interior is gorgeous and dreamlike. It emanates faith and elevation and it is lavishly decorated with quality cult images of the artifact type more than fine arts that encourage piety and trust in God, at least during the holy

days. The staff is polite, soft speaking, even slightly unctuous, gently relating to parishioners and visitors equally. Even on a mundane day, the confession booths were rarely vacant indicating that mischief is still occurring around and the institution’s propensity to offer free-of-charge (think of the cost on a psychiatrist’s couch) psychological support for various types of sin.

 I must admit that the church does not have a sine-qua-non Byzantine Greek cross-ground plan and lacks the mandatory wall mosaics typical of Byzantine architecture. Sincerely dismayed to see my keen analysis falling flat and short overmatched by partisan local historians I decided that the main issue of the post is not style but the church’s ontogenesis, the various phases of its coming into being, its wanning and waxing episodes. Therefore, I conclude that the church’s uniqueness relies on its complex story, akin to a Phoenix holy bird rising from ashes, on the dramatic tale of its founder, and the striking quality of the statuary.

 Princess Bălaşa, the church’s founder,  was the daughter of the prince Constantin  Brȃncoveanu who ruled Walachia for twenty-six years from 1688 to 1714.  It was a rare long reign as the Turks who controlled the principality believed that good money should change hands often. They were generally selling the throne two or three times during a decade for 2000 gold purses for each run. Consequently, the mountainous Romanian gold veins became a remote souvenir. Being Papa Brȃncoveanu a particularly shrewd and skilled politician, he stayed a long time in charge, enjoyed a prolonged peace period, fathered eleven children, fostered a refined (neo-byzantine of course) architectural style, got full gas into construction mode, especially religious edifices, and built a dense network of friendly relationships with the European policymakers.

Of course, in-between he accumulated a fabulous fortune. In 1714 the Turks rightly suspecting Brȃncoveanu of collusion with the Russians before, during, and after the battle of Stanilesti (1710), arrested him and his four sons, and seized the visible part of his fortune. [3]All this seems fair enough from the Turkish side and ethics, being them what they were, but the motive for the delay is still mysterious.  Why did they wait three years before crushing the poor prince for the high treason crime? Never mind, the Turks chronically suffering of  Auri Sacra Fames brought the prince and his sons to Constantinople, brutally tortured them until fed up by the stubborn refusal of the Wallachs to divulge the whereabouts of the prince’s famous hidden treasure hacked them to pieces, and threw the dismembered bodies in the Bosphorus waters. Shortly after, Brȃncoveanu’s wife and daughter were also arrested.  The young girl, Princess Balasa was detained first at Ceauş Emini,  the women’s prison, and then at the Sultan’s Harem at Topkapi. At her turn, she was submitted vainly to the question, what suggests that the Turkish were not practicing genre discrimination on torture matter and convinced me, that there was not any hidden treasure whatsoever, because too many people died without to pip a word.

Ransomed by relatives and friends, the princess returned to Bucharest where she and her husband  Manolache Lambrino (Rangabe) built the first church on their estate. A facility for family use only, the church may have had three naves, was likely built by    Italian workers, got ruined by repetitive earthquakes and Dâmbovița’s river floodings, and was demolished in 1871. In 1750 the childless widowed princess Bălaşa proceeded to construct a new church, by the side of the old one, open to the community now. Built on the same shaky and soaked ground in the so-called Wallachian style, a neo-Byzantine variant, this church had to be demolished in 1838. By then, Princess Bălaşa who passed away in 1751, was a long time gone, but her contribution to the community, which included beyond the staunch religious projects a home for old people and a grammar school for the very young, continues to speak on her behalf and keep alive her memory until today. 

She was followed by Safta Brȃncoveanu, another outstanding woman, the generous and unique sponsor of the third version of Domnita Bălaşa church achieved in 1842. The church built in Gothic Revival style was a larger edifice than the previous ones and it had, it sounds familiar,  to be torn down in 1881. Safta, a widow at the rise of the church, was married to Grigore Brancoveanu, the last male descendent of the Constantinople martyr and saint, Constantin Brancoveanu, the father of Princess Bălaşa. Equally dividing her attention between spiritual needs and material necessities, Safta founded the large Brȃncovenesc Hospital (1838).  The hospital was demolished after being renovated in 1984, by Ceausescu’s “mistake” or “whim”.  Mistake it was and a massive one because Safta inserted in her testament a terrible curse aimed at whoever will imperil her outstanding philanthropies for the sake of which she liquidated her entire huge fortune and lived as a nun in a monastery cell for the last 17 years of her life. Do not mess with Safta boy! The sour end of Ceausescu is the ultimate proof of the irreducible and irremediable quality of the malediction.

The raising of the new church (and for the moment last), began immediately after the 1881 demolition and the new Phoenix was “on the spot” by 1885 already. By this time Romania was valiantly stepping into modernity. A great team of architects and artists participated, Romanian and foreigners, in both construction and decoration. Let’s now, in an ecumenical frame of mind, check the architectural features suggesting or even justifying a stylistic profile going beyond my initial neo-Byzantine appellation.

As Gothic Revival is the matter Domnita Bălaşa church displays a gable roof, a small nice rosette within the western wall, and a rich sequence of stained glass windows made in Germany. However ogival arches and flying buttresses the sine-qua-non Gothic style features are missing. Does the Gothic Revival appellation rely on this tiny rosette recalling, no offense intended, a bull-eye? I prefer not to elaborate, as I will not elaborate on the magnificent high-perched side pulpit that had a quite torturous historical development in Catholic and Orthodox traditions. Alas, for reasons of compulsive sharing and political correctness, the modern liturgical officiants avoid climbing up and separating from the dear flock!

If somebody insists, and for equilibrium reasons only, I may suggest that the semicircular arches I pretended previously to be of Byzantine origin, could be (why not?) some cute embodiments of the neo-Romanesque architectural language, that started in Germany as Rundbogenstil (round arch style) on the eve of the XIX century. Its major representative, God only knows why, was a certain Mr. Hübsch (meaning cute in English). And isn’t “cute” the best qualifier of  Domnita Balasa church?  To stay on the safe side   I propose again to consider the architectural outcome as a stylistic potpourri, which is between us, no offense intended, the hallmark of the Romanian Culture as a whole. 

 Even if I am not sure about how the funds were channeled and if they were state money or personal money it is certain that the royal family, especially the king, was deeply involved in a much more ambitious scenario than the previous ones. In 1881 Carol I, the most successful of all the Hohenzollerns, until then prince of Romania, became king. Armed with a silver trowel and flanked by the beautiful queen Elisabeth, aka Carmen Sylva, poetess, and national idol, he lays the cornerstone. The king and the queen, seemingly “de facto” and “de jure” founders, got forever a couple of stalls at the left of the altar Of course, they proudly planted upon the Hohenzollern’s coat-of-arms conferring the church a Royal Chapel aura.

As you can learn from the Duchess of Sussex who sells house goods through her company American Riviera Orchard the coat-of-arms is nowadays replaced by the logo brand. And her logo brand is second to none! I am glad to know that royalty and trading became, so to say, good bed partners. I am still puzzled about whose behinds would be honored to land on King Carol I and Queen Elizabeth’s seats right now! Prince Radu ex Duda and wife?[4] So far so good the church functions, full gas, as a prestigious cult platform for the community at large, and as a specific ritual facility for the elite only, provided the beneficiaries are alive. For funerary services, one should seek another venue.

 

 

 

 

 


[1] If pressured I will avow that I have seen the bricklayers, a hallmark of the Byzantine style, much more with the mind’s eyes than with my external scrutinizing peepers. It could very well be the case but I cannot swear that the fairly horizontal laying of the bricks is structural (i.e. supporting weight) like in the old churches or decorative, i.e. laid upon a much more reliable modern concrete wall. O tempora o mores!

[2]Parrots, women, and architecture are the three great loves of my life. Two major achievements of architecture – the daringly curved ceilings and flying buttresses – struck a chord in my heart. I avow unbound admiration for the dome if the choice isn’t multiple. The passage from a flat ceiling to a curved ceiling, vault, or dome, isn’t a simple technological improvement. It instantiates a conceptual evolution, a qualitative leap in the architectural language. Byzantine architects didn’t invent the dome but its quasi-ubiquitous use and its persistence, after the end of the Empire, made the dome a hallmark of Byzantine culture. The dome at the factual level is a curved ceiling and at the symbolic level, is a stylized embodiment of the celestial vault. Its great aesthetic appeal is the result of the dialectic confrontation between its enormous quasi “floating” mass and the invisible upward soaring force that brought and kept it there. Most of the time the dome tops a square surface such as the frame of a church choir. The passage from the square shape to the dome’s circular base through a combination of round arches with curved triangles called pendentives is a fact of beauty It would provide the alert visitor with a spiritual apprehension of inert materials in tense relation, the eventual recognition of some sacred and lay scenery, often with a feeling of dizziness, and rare sensuous enchantment with, of course, a mandatory condition. Look up for God’s sake and to God’s glory.

[3] It seems that Brȃncoveany managed to play it safe for a long while until the repeated denunciations of his princely cousin Stefan Cantacuzino, who was targeting his throne,  convinced the Ottomans. Four years later the same Stefan, then Wallachia’s ruler,  together with his father and his uncle are hanged at Constantinople for similar treason accusations. According to the energetically nationalistic Romanian cultural lore, very fond of heroic figures bigger than life, the ascent of Brȃncoveanu to saintliness is justified not only by his martyrdom but also by his and his sons’ staunch refusal to apostasy. Either historical truth or legend I cannot judge. but I am forced to mention that his self-appointed illegitimate heir, Stefan Cantacuzino, was strangled by probably the same Turkish executioners,  without even getting the option to become a true halal believer! What I can say? This kind of incoherent discrimination makes me pull my hair out! 
[4] If King Mihai didn’t leave behind any male descendants after fathering five daughters, who beyond any reasonable doubt are not going to procreate further, his older half-brother Prince Mircea Grigore Carol Hohenzollern got a vigorous male and female fertile offspring out of which more than one can claim the right to indulge his seat into a royal stall! Considering that the relations between the half-siblings were reduced to continuous juridical warfare, the issue of the occupancy of ardently coveted places remains in suspension. 

 


15
Jul
2024
0

Domnița Bălașa Church, part three

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Feeling in stone

 

 So, “here you are”, or “here you go,” as they say in samurai/ninja movies when the characters begin to sip obsessively infamous sake from ridiculous cups. We are coming to the moment of truth. To state it plainly, up until now, I have overemphasized the Western movie-style Read More

27
Aug
2024
0

ORGASMES EN HARMONIE

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En guise d’avant-propos : Recomençar El Infinito par Irina-Kalina Goudeva

irin

 

Lettre circulaire à la ronde

 

S’il faut appeler les choses par leurs noms, et il le faut, permets-moi de te dire, directement et sans ambages, que rien ne vaut un orgasme. C’est le suprême plaisir où le matériel fusionne avec le spirituel, c’est un acte d’élévation, de mémoire et de découverte, et même Read More

23
Sep
2024
0

I had yesterday a terrible row with God

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My dear Frienda,*(kind of abstract)

The post I am tentatively, even hesitantly, sending you today is a hybrid, fathered and mothered** by a combination of old and new occurrences. Some time ago, I published a partial version of it under the same name. Recently, I felt an imperious urge to add new verbal configurations to the original discourse, only to find myself, in the end, riding a mule—the classic hybrid par excellence. Let me assure you, there is nothing wrong with a mule. About ten years ago, I rode one to climb from the bottom of the Colca Canyon (one of the deepest in the world) up a narrow, abrupt, and viciously winding path to Cabanaconde in the Peruvian Andes—an ascent of more than two thousand meters.https://on-death-row.com/peru-monogatari-the-colca-canyon-octava-maleta-part-one/ Rarely have I felt more secure than I did then, far more so than in today’s nervous green-light crossings at pedestrian lanes anywhere except Pyongyang.

As some of you who have had the endurance to swim through my stream of stories may have noticed, God—whom I often call the Principal—frequently appears. Despite my repeated declarations of atheism, one might conclude that I hold God*** accountable for much of the world’s evil. And indeed, you would be right. Alas, I am aware of the inconsistency, even incoherence, of assigning blame to an entity I do not believe exists. Feel free to point an accusatory finger elsewhere…

So long,

The Wanderer


*In pursuit of precision, I proposed Frienda as a term for a female friend. I believe I’ve made a valid case in this post, but please check and share your valuable opinion.

**Interestingly, “fathered” and “mothered” are not entirely equivalent (setting aside sexual connotations). While “fathered” typically implies the act of giving life, “mothered” is more commonly associated with care and protection. We might attribute this disparity to the unjustified dominance of violent males in most societies in human history. Fact. The contribution of mothers to life-giving is undoubtedly second to none! We are living in a surrogate time everything. But even if the test tube, God forbid, will replace the womb, somebody should provide the EGG. Don’t let Columbus’ story fool you!

***Lest I be accused of blasphemy, I only suggest that perhaps it’s time for a glamorous goddess—armed with superb feminine attributes, among which tenderness and seduction are not the least— to take charge. From 60,000 to 4,000 B.C.E. and beyond, this was the rule. Unfortunately, for some curious reason, the goddess in question was often depicted with extra-fat hips, buttocks, and breasts—traits that are now considered obsolete, even offensive, in our gym-obsessed culture. Nothing is known about the body’s hair treatment. Either shaved thoroughly or let to grow free, mane-like! 

 

 

 

 

 


 Virtual letter to a frienda (aka woman friend) 

 

It was around midnight after a grueling day, including a five-hour flight from St. Petersburg and a major letdown of discovering no trains Read More

23
Jun
2025
0

Years Ago, On The Foothills Of The Himalaya, Kashmir I

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Prolegomena, and the 1st day stay

A tribute to Lothar

Dear Danarel,

Thank you from the bottom of my heart (kind of weird location I reckon) for pulling, hauling and bringing the very undisciplined me to the 87th anniversary of sorts. Evidently, I didn’t reach this high mark without being plagued by some physical misgivings, by some engine misfiring (while, curiously, my intellect is sharper than ever) and by the appalling, classic loneliness of aging, especially burdensome for those who made a few wrong decisions, at particularly wrong moments. Nobody is perfect.

The situation is far from dramatic, as long as I keep making fun and having fun — which I do. Strangely enough, I recently found a companion after being solo for so long. Recently, it means a couple of years. He doesn’t trot by side me, God forbid, but he is plodding one step behind, since I lost my martial (Aries born!) step and gait. He is blowing in my neck. I hate that. Even without ever turning the head to see his mug, I recognized him at once. An ectoplasmic executioner, a ghostly roman retiarius, using a fiber net loaded with small lead balls and a trident to beat the entangled victim to death. Sadistic animal. Of course, I plan to make him fall and fail, reveal the ludicrous ass hidden behind the ghoulish snout, but a threat is a threat, and believe me, never a treat. Unable to travel freely with this stupid grave-digger at my heels, I decided to dig into the gold mine of careless happy amblings souvenirs I had from my eternal yesterday.

Therefore, my revered guardian angel, I’m going to recount the occurrences of a humorous trip I had in the company of a particularly very funny  dude on the foothills of the Himalayas some 16 years ago. Do I dare to affirm that Humor and Fun are the two blessed teats (or “tits”—English is such a tricky thing!) of Dame Fate, from which the Chosen suck the ultimate elixir of Joy and Gaiety to overcome the absurdity of short, even ridiculous, human existence? I do!

Taking into account my venerable age and the beastly stalker that shadows me, I feel it necessary to pay right now tribute to Lothar (https://on-death-row.com/le-pelerinage-du-mecreant-magh-kumbh-mela-2013/), the most hilarious traveling companion (or was I his?) I ever had.The main problem is that Lothar is a  bigger-than-life character, a damned megalomaniac, rich of so many different and mostly enthralling facets that introducing him will double the standard size of my report. But let’s try. Lothar is a gentleman of leisure, the only true one I ever met, who, without never practicing any life-supporting or mercantile activity, is madly busy all day long.
Succinctly, I’d say he’s an accomplished sportsman, an iron man, a 5km per day sea crocodile, a distinguished martial arts buff (Dan-something in more than one of the ‘breaking the adversary to pieces’ skills), a devoted family man, a well-trained pilot who rode a large set of planes including a MIG 29 for 30 seconds, an obsessive traveler specializing in tracking ethnic societies that have ceased to be since long ago, a kind and calm buddy, a vorace reader with a Napoleonic memory, a sound music lover, an all-consumer of water and other tasteless, high-energy materials along with plenty of vitamines that provided him with a certain massive ventral protuberance, a boring repetitive vocational speaker, a very generous friend (he sponsored all our traveling escapades) and a FULL-TIME ARTIST.

The last two issues are important and delicate enough to merit some attention. Lothar’s generosity didn’t require me to behave obsequiously. We made continuous, irreverent, sarcastic observations to one another that, if sharp and corrosive enough, brought us to uncontrolled fits of mad laughter. I am not grateful to Lothar for bringing me to such wonderful spots, it was his choice after all, but I feel deeply obliged to him for sharing the most humorous and funny moments all day long, a  priceless incontinent gaiety. And gaiety, a divine blessing frequent among children, tends to fade away the more people step into adulthood. For various reasons, this wasn’t and still isn’t our case.

The second and last issue is even more subtle. Lothar is an embodiment of Huizinga’s Homo Ludens (playing man). He who has not read Huizinga would do well to hasten his education — or hold his tongue when ART is at stake*.If you want to know what kind of art Lothar is doing I will say that he does LOTHAR ART.
I pretend that I am the only person in the world who understands properly what that means, what he is doing and why. At a certain moment, I even did an extensive, in-depth study analyzing Lothar’s plethoric artistic output. Of course, the fat bastard felt thrilled and honored, but he didn’t make any attempt to publish it. In his world of beliefs and doings, the only one entitled to speak about his art is LOTHAR. Maybe he’s right. If you’ve read this far, don’t conclude that Lothar is an angel or a more or less perfect anthropoid. Beyond the fact that he snors like a charcoal locomotive, Lothar has extra bad habits that I’ll avoid mentioning here, especially since the chap is still alive. Some of his best friends argue that his faults are, at least, as numerous as his qualities, which is a fiendish fairly exaggerated opinion. Even if I endowed Lothar with more flattering qualities than a porcupine has quills, I’d still stand by my adjectives. Enough with that, if my text will fall into his chubby hands, Lothar will turn into a more self-conceited Bibendum than ever, (a true Megalodon)**, with the risk to burst of pleasure, and heavily endanger the public order.

 

The 18 of April 2009, the Laurel and Hardy duo  after a mighty flight from Frankfurt on a flying carpet (business class) landed in the lobby of the posh and nec plus ultra Delhi’s Taj Mahal palace (as famous image of India as the Agra’s Taj Mahal mausoleum is) to request room and board. The modestly dressed, modestly behaving Lothar believes that comfort is mandatory during travel and follows rigorously his father’s dictum say: the best is good enough for us. Since wandering in the fiery cauldron of Delhi was widely not recommended, we decided to stick to well-being. After a rest day spent mostly in hard thinking highlighted by a metaphysical massage performed by a 100% authentic Mughal princess, and an extraordinary set of vegetarian dishes at the famous VARQ gastronomic pearl of the Taj, we fly early morning to Srinagar. The scenic beauty of Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir and Jammu led to the inhabitants’ claim it being a ‘paradise on earth‘ (except the fleeting moments when it became a ‘piece of hell’).

 

The Indian army was waiting for us in droves: first at the airport, then all along the way to the city, and in the city, every ten meters, a pouchy private with a gun, a carefully trimmed mustache, and a blue uniform I didn’t like. I cannot avoid to remark the striking contrast between the then (2009) hastily recruited “rural” levies and the today (2025), smartly dressed, athletic commandos, Bollywood style, India poured into area after an attack perpetrated Muslim militants (BBC) or Muslim terrorists (Google News). Same people. Bottom line: turbulence is endemic in the area; keep that in mind. The stated reason for it is the fervent desire of the Muslim population, 60% of Kashmir’s total, to unify with Pakistan a kind of magnificent error that people and nations are always eager to commit.

The taxi stopped, we stepped out, and landed in the center of a stupendous postcard. It was a scene of mellow beauty, seemingly arranged either by design or happy accident, creating a half-intentional, half-serendipitous aesthetic. Either you like it or don’t, or both. For me, it’s a question of mood. A giant lake, Lake Dal lay like an undulating pancake ( or a huge lobed protozoa) on a spongy, larger, and greener vast expanse of wetlands. The locals, them again, called it the ‘Jewel in the Lotus‘ an appreciative sensuous name with deep Buddhist roots wisely preserved by the actual Muslim majority. Straight-cut channels were dividing the wetlands into geometrical shapes reminiscent of clusters of buildings separated by streets. There were many picturesque islands, some of recent formation, tiny and larger, here and there, covered by profuse vegetation. Some of them, I learned later, were occasionally floating like a loose buoy; I had seen the same a couple of times before in the Danube Delta. Vividly painted little boats, perceived from a distance as a crazy school of gliding and flying fishes, were crossing in irregular patterns the lake’s blue-gray, shivering mantle. The soaked valley, despite seeming to endlessly roll, became contained somewhere to the north by a first arch of tree-covered high Himalayan foothills. It was then brought to a full stop by a second, higher and more severe ring of naked, stony peaks capped in white. Behind me, on solid ground, I distinguished some ungainly big hotels and the typical chaotic fringe of an Indian urban agglomeration, consisting of quite picturesque old homes with a first floor made of bricks and a second of nicely brown-stained wood boards. A sloped roof was and remains mandatory. In front of me, there was a wooden quay from where we boarded a stridently painted courier boat called a shikara that was to carry the ‘suckers’ to their destination: the fancy, circus-style, ethnic baroque BOATHOUSE, mosquito-free!

 

I recognized it at once notwithstanding seeing it for the first time in my life. Umberto Ecco made a brilliant analysis in his Travels in Hyperreality (1995) of this kind of object, a gaudy reproduction of something that never was, a simulacrum. I love it, plain people adore it, my democratic heart beats for kitsch and thuds with mass, the white caped peaks of background are inspiring, the liquid mirror is convincing and tranquilizing. The houseboat is built like a sleeping car. From a whole-length lateral corridor, one reaches the rooms and from the room the bathroom, that is in a rare (India?) pristine condition. Concurrently the accommodation contraption is a floating (wisely moored) overwhelmingly ornate temple at the glory of folk arts, applied arts, tourist arts. Call them how you like, Lothar adores, I am not against. The rooms are a chiseled wood festival. The walls are compulsively embellished with carved wood panels, of impressive size. I had  the feeling that a whole forest was dispatched for the construction of one single houseboat. Not that I am oversensitive, apocalypse now, it is my line, but i am damn curious which one of glorious local trees –the perfumed Deodar Cedar, the royal national Chinar, the Pinus roxburghii called by the natives Kashmirian pine, or the severly military protected Black Walnut, fine grained tree, the dominant supplier for ornamental, carved objects– was sacrificed on the serendipity altar to produce the gaudy Star of Kashmir, our temporal abode. A sneaky inquiry followed by some insidious letters to the authorities would suit our elevated status as nature lovers—if we weren’t so lenient and infamously lazy.

 

 


*Huizinga’s ‘playing man’ concept suggests that an artist’s compelling desire for artistic expression stems from a childhood inclination to play that extends into adulthood

**The Megalodon, a giant fossil mackerel shark, reached an estimated size of 14 to 24 meters.


 

 

 

 

 

27
Jun
2025
0

Years Ago, On The Foothills Of The Himalaya, Kashmir II

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 2nd day, time of plenty

 

Early the next morning, we went ballistic—like an overzealous city officer paid by the number of tickets he handed out. I was dashing out alone, Lothar went into mountains to bother the tribal people. After a hefty breakfast I ‘sailed’ on a shikara skiff to visit (hope breeds fools ) some workshops. I like to see craftsmen in action and inhale the pungent scent of freshly worked up materials and of the craft shop itself.The tourist job is not a joke, especially when one wants to make discoveries. I have a gut feeling we’re going to overdo it—fall into a kind of goat syndrome—and run all over the city. But who has time to think, to weigh, to choose? We’re in a full-on banzai mood! Let’s check around. The lake looks gorgeous and important. Of course, is a world-famous symbol, a means of connection between people, a great source of income, a cheap shipping network, a provider of dwelling accommodation for the very poor and the filthy rich, the greatest tourist attraction of the country, a veteran hydroponic farm and a powerful ecological lung for the whole valley continuously threatened to become a cesspool if people will not etc…. The water depth is lower than human size, but it is recommended to avoid contact with the lake’s muddy bottom, its wild and weird vegetation, the considerable amount of domestic garbage, and the fair level of pollution. The locals do not seem to be too much affected probably because the lack of choice and also because being trained since centuries to take everything with a certain amount of salt.

During the crossing, I am going where? I am strenuously trying to make a contact with my self-appointed guide, who is a beautiful young man (a local striking masculine feature while women are hardly visible or conspicuously hidden), particularly tight-lipped with a cold and unpleasant look. Who summoned him? The rower was not enough? I think it was the houseboat owner who brought him. The taxi driver that took us from the airport, the shikara‘s rower that shipped us yesterday on the barely rippled  mirror of lake Dal, the owner of the Star of Kashmir houseboat that swallowed us into its parts, and proprietors the emporium of ethnic arts in which I sunk without seeing any workshop, are links of a Casa Nostra kind web of tourists’ purse hackers.If they aren’t killing anybody, they vigorously pressure everyone. I smell a rat, but is too late. Under my barrage of questions, the “guide” recognizes to be a member of the family owning the emporium, the shikara, the taxi and the houseboat, the invisibles workshops and more. I will visit noles volens the monstruous mercantile unit if I do not want to regain the houseboat Jesus Christ style on Tiberias lake. An emporium of folk arts in India, Kashmir is still a part of it, is a giant concentration of money worth objects that can belong to a cluster of closely related people up to 100 individuals. The problem is where one is located on the totem pole. Finally the young man began to melt and progressively revealed the deep reason of his glumness. He is the third in line from an x number of brothers. The older brothers are married. A wife with complete service, wedding, gifts, singers, dancers, food ( thank God expensive alcoholic drinks are officially banned), imams, fortune tellers, rowers, tailors, flower designers and so on cost 80.000 euros.  https://www.youtube.com/shorts/o9lR32CrASA .That in 2009. The family cannot handle another hemorrhage.  Why don’t you take a Bangladesh girl I hear me proposing. You should get it at discount price. My twisted scornful advise was adding insult to injury. It is not the wench that is expensive is the complete service. The young man looks at me with hate. He is hundred percent white Caucasian while she will be more tanned than an overdone pancake. I don’t give a shit about his anger (Sorry, revered guardian angel, I am sure that you don’t suffer from ‘correctness’!).
I will marry with glee concomitantly (I feel a little bit of Muslim myself) a complete rainbow with nor more expense than 1000 euros each time. Pane, fromaggio, vino accompanied by some sitar languorous raga tunes, will amply suffice. May cautious spending with modest behavior go for ever hand in hand especially in matrimony.

We arrived. I dislike emporiums. They are stuffed with thousands of objects. You can barely look to one. Manic vendors are continuously prodding you with small but sharp invisible tridents. They don’t like singles, they prefer groups. And they are great for giving you a guilty feeling. A psychological war take place under the open sky. Being a battle tested veteran I try to bring them on the brink of a nervous breakdown by putting stupid questions and suggesting ridiculous prices. At the very end I get the object of desire. Then smiles, good whishes and congratulations are exchanged. This time was a smashing embroidered coat that I dress anytime I want to offer to people around a discussion topic for a month or two. The craftmanship is superb no matter the material or technique: papier maché, walnut wood, carpet weaving, wool, silk, bronze, ceramic, tissue, glass you name it. The Pachima shawl has conquered the world. I cannot imagine a hottie that doesn’t have it or won’t acquire it tomorrow. The dominant aesthetic mode is horror vacui, i.e ‘fear of empty space’ leading to a decoration that expands over surface patterns, motifs, and images as tightly as pieces of baklava inserted in a baking tray.

Speaking of baklava makes one hungry or even ravenous, the appropriate state of mind to tackle a monumental Kashmiri set of dishes, from 15 to 25, called Wazwan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp3Auuz4ePA&t=326s The set is longly and wisely cocked from various pieces of lamb, beef and mutton first quality meat, plenty of yogurt, some vegetables and an infinity of spices – do not forget that Kashmir is the land of saffron, mostly fake, sold at gold price worldwide.. Since the Wazwan can directly carry one to a gastronomic paradise of flavors or into the hell of intestinal obstruction a potbelly of a capacity close to that of a dentate whale (odontocetes) is mandatory. A regular chap will faint only seeing it. At his best Lothar, who returned safe from the mountains, can stand fort a little whale, but he is not a meat buff. Wisely we settled for the last dish of the set called gushtaba consisting of meat balls, the best I ever tasted in my long life, and a divine gravy. We left Darbar, the temple of local gastronomy with the conscience that we participated to a propitiatory or even initiatory or both meal of the value, I am not exaggerating, the Last Supper.

There is little wonder that after the gastronomic extravaganza we tried to urgently find a source of spirituality to counterbalance our recent excesses. And what can be more spiritual than a tree, especially if it is a national tree like the baobab of Madagascar, the birch of Russia, the marple of Canada, the poplar of Romania, the cedar of Lebanon (for what was once Lebanon so to say) etc. Kashmir national tree is a magnificent plane giant called Chinar in vernacular and Platanus orientalis Kashmiriana in the scientific idiom. It is a protected prince. You cannot fell one even if you have to build a road. Go around dude…When we arrived there Lothar made two genuflections and three reverences, I did four genuflections and seven reverences. There is nothing to be done, he can be much stronger than me, I am the flexible one…We did that, I inform you discreetly, to worship the rustic deity living in the national tree or even embodied into it. Of course we have been asking for a little boon..these deities are long life specialists, you understand…

In the after noon, we boarded a low-on-water, very well-balanced shikara and harrowed the blue-green liquid ground in search of exciting finds. There weren’t many, but the smell of authenticity—sometimes pungent—was unforgettable! We passed boats selling vegetables, boats selling house hardware, people-carrying boats, boats selling tourist regalia, flowers and seeds, traditional medicines, outstanding textile outfit of wool and silk (are they all manufactured in Kashmir?), eventually goats—and many others I’ve now forgotten. We visited the cute floating market (more than instrumental for the locals) and went stright for a superb aquatic slum I put an eye on already the yesterday. I must avow: I’m in love with houses on stilts.Their constructivist simplicity—Tatlin-style—perfectly articulates empty, prismatic spaces. I had visited similar homes in Iquitos, Peru, and was enchanted. Even their miserable
inhabitants, freely delivering their excretions into the primordial waters, seem miles above the homeless derelicts who continuously stain the soil—like mountain gorillas fouling their nests at night. It reminds me of the impish Principal (sorry) who once said: “There are no limits to misery: while you cannot be happier than happy—and only for a brief moment—you can always become more miserable than before, and for your entire life, if it is your lot”.You can trust the Principal for nasty jokes upon poor humans!

But we had bigger fish to fry and coldly left the lake’s anarchic, entropic ensemble for the realm of order, reason, and poise—namely, the matchless Nishat Bagh Mughal garden. Thank God the Principal endowed me with more patience than brains. Who needs brains, anyway? Mankind is overflooded with that grey, soft, mucilaginous matter—and look where it’s gotten us.
I was about to report on the visit and attempt to capture the aura of a Mughal Garden when I realized the photos didn’t match my notes. Doggedly, I began to sniff around, only to discover that, out of the famous three gardens, we had seen two: Nishat Bagh and Chashme Shahi. Thank God we missed the inspiring Shalimar (what a name—it conquered the world!). Whatever the case may be, I shall restrain myself to a succinct phenomenological or even better, taxonomic depiction of Nishat Bagh, wondering if this task alone is not far beyond my wit and skills.
Within the distinctive orographic setting of Srinagar, the defining element of a Mughal garden is the engineered water flow—from a high eastern mountainside to a lower western lakeside. Once this principle is grasped, the rest is refinement. A reliable water source at the upper level is essential. From there, water is guided through a carefully orchestrated sequence of broad and narrow channels, square basins, and cascades of varying scales. It flows past symmetrically placed artesian fountains—either along the central axis of the channels or within the perimeter of the basins— toward the waiting lake. These elements are unified by a polished stone rim, slightly elevated above the waterline, forming a coherent visual and spatial composition.

This interplay of stone and water culminates in a strong axial layout, distributed across a series of terraces—twelve in the case of Nishat Bagh—that echo the site’s natural elevation and the staged drops of the water flow. The terraces, connected by stone staircases flanking the watercourse, are adorned with expansive lawns, sculpted shrubs, rows of chinar and cypress trees, and floral beds. The entire design is governed by symmetry and geometric precision—rectangles within rectangles—where the right angle becomes the ruling principle of order and aesthetic clarity.These gardens are closely associated with Shah Jahan, visionary patron of the Agra’s  Taj Mahal and arguably the most remarkable ruler of the Mughal Empire. While the empire (1526-1857) was established by a Persianized Central Asian Turkish-Mongol dynasty that chose Srinagar as its summer capital, a broader historical context, though compelling, may be left aside.What remains is the immediate experience: gardens as serene oasis, ideal for contemplative encounters with curated nature. Today, they attract waves of Indian tourists—eager to share views of snow-capped mountains and flowing water with their children—as well as honeymooners, veteran old couples and visitors dressed in rented Mughal-era costumes to relive a sense of bygone splendor. With a bit of luck, one might also glimpse local women and girls enjoying a rare moment of leisure and freedom (!).

 

 

 

 


 

 


30
Jun
2025
0

Years Ago, On The Foothills Of The Himalaya, Kashmir III

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3rd day, the Pahalgam hillbillies 

On the next and final day, Lothar hired a taxi for a four-hour drive to New Delhi. Along the way, he began to develop some Himalayan ambitions—he’s a die-hard romantic—while the more composed, scientific me simply (and somewhat vehemently) expressed a staunch desire to meet some langurs. I quickly added “golden” to the list to smother in its crib a nasty remark from my companion. As a result of these distasteful requests, expressed by two fairly old, spoiled brats, we veered off the main road and ended up in Pahalgam—an astonishingly beautiful area that had been recently (2025) the site of a heroic or horrendous, (depending on who is relating) Muslim (terrorists or militants) attack.

But as the Savior practically decreed, “Let the dead bury the dead,” let us turn our attention instead to the Pahalgam countryside, whose beauty rivals that of the Srinagar Valley. Both places belong to the classic tourist postcard category—though, alas, nobody seems to send these touching tokens of affection to friends or relatives anymore. Perhaps the post has been hijacked by email, or perhaps affection itself is becoming rarer in our increasingly busy lives. Pahalgam, situated at an altitude of 2,025 meters, is only 400 meters higher than Srinagar, yet the two places feel worlds apart. Srinagar is an urban agglomeration built around a stupendous lake, which contributes to its subtropical climate. It lies on a flat, wide, and wet valley, has served as a summer capital for centuries, and is adorned with magnificent Mughal gardens and grand public works (mosques, palaces, forts). Pahalgam, by contrast, remains a rural hill station. It’s nestled in a landscape of steep slopes—not just hills, but true mountains—many often snow-capped and seemingly within arm’s reach. Nervous, foaming torrents leap from ledge to ledge as they tumble downhill. The air is fresh, fed by both the peaks and the surrounding forests, which together foster a temperate climate.Together, these two destinations feel like the two sides of a golden medal—the dream of any regular tourist Joe exploring Kashmir on a well-planned budget and itinerary. But further up begins another world: the realm of nomadic shepherds, wild bears, elusive musk deer, tense martial borders, and compulsive mountain climbers. Here, a sense of restraint is advised.

Early on, we stumbled upon a cricket bat factory. This  which gave us free rein to trade some  twisted, sharp and ultimately jocular reflections on the depth and reach of English colonization—and the cultural imprint it left on native populations across different regions and groups. These days, colonization and cultural ‘impregnation’ seem to be in full reverse. Now, it’s the Brits who are feeling  the heat. Taking the hit? What will come of it? The bookmakers aren’t taking bets just yet, but some wise guys say the writing’s already on the wall—not that I care.

Our little detour took a sour turn. I bought some low-quality saffron, more out of exhaustion from the vendor’s endless lies than any real interest. Lothar tested a sample of the much-hyped local hashish and returned it with a sour face and grunts. Finally, we indulged in half an hour of horseback riding—an experience that managed to outdo, in grotesqueness and absurdity, almost anything we’d encountered in years of travel. It deserves elaboration. We were given two scrawny, bony, sickly-looking nags that barely managed to carry us—or themselves. The path we were meant to follow climbed steeply up a hill. Two weird, oddly dressed grooms dragged the pitiful creatures forward, pulling on their harnesses with visible despair. The rough path soon turned my backside into a regrettable piece of raw meat. I looked over at Lothar, who, despite his much thicker natural cushion, appeared bored out of his mind. The photo above gives only a pale image of the degree of alienation of both animals and riders, while my groom particularly couldn’t care

 less, thinking only of his future fashion model career. We promptly cut the misadventure short without asking for more and resumed our journey to New Delhi.

Wait a little bit, wait a little bit, my dear fellow, I do notlike the cavalier way you wrapped up the report. It may fit some derelict baba, some over-aged antediluvians on the border of senility, who have rejoined a deeply discounted group tour and are endlessly complaining, in a nasal tone, of missing their Big Mac or their bifteck avec frites. The litany never stops, in spite of the efforts of the phony traveling agency to provide them with some surrogates, you know what I mean. Pahalgam county, I said to myself, should have some rare scenic values and metaphysical appeals that dwarf the importance of the inept operators you met. As I sincerely scolded myself, it suddenly occurred to me that we were in the county of thousand rivulets, totally unpolluted, originating from the largest mountainous mass of ice and snow in the world, running joyfully and springily down the slope. An old Hindu belief claims that the drops of eternal life (Amrita) fallen eons
ago, during the battle between the Devas (gods ) and the Asuras (demons) into the immensely dirty Ganges River can provide a lucky worshiper with immortality if he runs into one in his ritual immersion. I can tell discretely to everybody, that one of the crystalline brooks from the Pahalgam county contains a fair amount of Amrita drops that can convert a regular tourist Joe into a demigod. Unfortunately, the evil Asuras are daily transfering the Amrita reserve from one rill to another, which reduces the devotee’s odds of  encountering  a holy drop to the same quota of the one who plunges in bacterial soup of the Holy Ganges at the mammoth  Kumbh Mela taking place at Allahabad (now Prayagraj) every 12 years. I was, together with Lothar  of course, one of the 70.000.000 participating devotees, and i have to avow, one of the few who forgot to plunge. and consequently didn’t got neither imortality nor infection. Should i come once again into Pahalgam county, during the terrorist-free season i will not miss the occasion to give a try. The bit of Gayatri Manta that will follow may contribute to keep the hope alive, at least for a while.

And now there is time to drive peacefully to Dehli, and maybe see some langurs on he way.

With a deep bow and a multitude of thanks, *
The Wanderer

**May I dare, revered patron angel to cast, on your free time, a kind gaze upon my friend, who despite being significantly younger, noticeably ages day after day as he is trying to catch me up?

 



16 years later, The Khanqah-e-Molla quandary

ADDENDUM

I will try to be as snappy as possible. Just as I was on the way to wrap up everything up with a deep sigh of relief and not little pride I realized with horror that  we had physically and mentally missed a Kashmiri cultural-historical milestone of matchless importance: The Khanqah-e-Molla mosque. Within the rather rough transition, with  far reaching consequances, from Hindu  to Islam rule (the “invasive culture,” as it were) in the area, this shrine holds the priceless spot of primogeniture.It was  the first to be raised in 1395 by Sultan Sikander and it functioned as the cradle of Islamic expansion within the Indian subcontinent. You can compare it to the Abbey of Vézelay, from where crusader cohorts marched  to cleanse the Holy Land of infidels. It’s the same story but with infinitely less success for the Saivor’s fans while the Prophet’s believers are keeping going strong worldwide. Kismeth. I was already poised to accuse my childish companion of the mess and the missing of the architectural gem when I heard a well-known sarcastic growl: Do you want to look again at your photos caput vacuum (empty head)? Once again the Principal is saving me from stain and shame. Of course we were there. I offered a certain number of genuflections and bows and turned back to my task. The rest will come in whole sale mode. The shrine was raised in honor of a Sufi saint. An epitome of tolerance and ecumenism, the Sufi saint model, is lamentably much less prized today than the ‘militant’, if at all. After doing some reading and looking to some photos I understood why I was so pissed off thinking that we overlooked it. Of course we didn’t grasped its importance and unicity on the spot ! Aesthetic understanding is much more an issue of careful examination, comparison with similar statements and patient reflection than love at first sight. It sounds academic but it is true.

The Khanqah-e-Molla beyond being different of any another mosque is a rare example of Indian cum Persian cultural intermingling. The ’embroidered’ woodwork ensemble composed of walls, columns, semicircular arched arcades, balconies, open-work panels, tiered spaces, flat ceilings, decorative corniches,  the ‘pagoda’ like sloped tiered roofs and the triangular spire  are of Indian origin. A comparison with an iconic Persian mosque (Yazd) build during the same time period reveals the noteworthy dissimilarity between two buildings sharing the same functionality.

On the other hand the imposing mihrab (the muslim equivalent of the altar), the inspiring functionality of the praying space, the absence of flat or  free standing figurative sculptures, (who needs those idols?), the essential location of the puny space under the spire, now a the muezzin’ cage (conceptually  akin a DJ booth), and finally the fascinating optic fractal decoration upon composite panels, either lattices of painted wood or vibrating papier mâché polychrome surfaces, are Persian. Forget style, there’s some spirituality about the whole,  isn’t there? Even if the mosque is…well, what I will say later!

The web continues to feed me with data about the  sultan Sikander, the dude who built Khanqah on a bank of the Jehlum river for the elite and the big and bulgy Jamid Masjid within the city for the commoners. In his spare time  he was also a big destroyer of Hindu temples and slayer of Hindu people! So what? Did you hear about Mahmud of Ghazni or Nadir Shah? They were real ‘liquidators’ Sir!

I refuse to record more suspect info about this waning and waxing mosque that isn’t…And then I heard a terrible thunder:
Maledetto are you going to finish spinning the thread of this headless-endless hodge-podge story during my life time?
-Lord please, I need only one more word to finish the whole
-So, say it and get lost.
-This isn’t THAT ONE!
-THAT ONE what? Do you begin talking pidgin?”
– Lord, that isn’t Sikander’s Khanqah-e-Molla mosque! That is only an uncertified copy built circa 330 years after the original went up in flames more than once. Nobody on earth knows what it looked like. It is an illusion and a disillusion standing for something that disappeared centuries ago, like the torn jeans signifying nonconformism, the tattooing symbolizing identity, the short stubbly beard hinting at virility, and the fucking tourism claiming to be the experience! It is all Maya Lord, the whole world is Maya, even You….
-Shut up you stupid or i will smite you! Thanks God that nobody else heard your racist, anti-democratic and immigration skeptic rant. Otherwise, you should long since have been burned on stake. And he left!

It’s no wonder that we are in a mess with a die-hard leftist PRINCIPAL, committed to the POOR since the Big Bang (they are still poor the miserable), defender of the DEMOCRACY-IS-US-ONLY, running the show!

Sorry revered angel for making public the conflicting relation I have with the boss

Thank you again
The Wanderer



7
Oct
2025
0

To Ladakh by Continuous Prayer, Part One

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The asshole
One of my best friends is a total asshole. There’s nothing wrong with that; everyone has an asshole friend, or is the asshole friend to someone else. How do you recognize one? It’s easy! Just look around you—or even at yourself. An asshole criticizes and scorns everything you bring him, from food to ideas and from fears to hopes. He speaks in a nasal, whiny tone, lectures you forever, and picks his nose while he’s talking.

So, when I showed him the latest thing I wrote—something I was really proud of—he immediately tore it to shreds with an insulting critique. “Your writing is too long and convoluted,” he said, “full of useless information, and stuffed with pretentious words from old dictionaries. You’re just going in circles and miss the point more than once.” That kind of slap is the absolute mark of an asshole.

The fucking bastard! What am I supposed to do? He’s a really good friend. And if most people are assholes—and they are—maybe I should change my approach. Not to get fame and fortune, but just to get a little bit of attention, which is as essential for a small-time creator like me as it is for a major, groundbreaking artist. You know, like the one who cut off his ear once. I should reform!

And Now at Leh
What a ride, man! Despite being two, we went like the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to meet the Hindus at the Maha Kumbh Mela, the Muslims in Kashmir https://on-death-row.com/years-ago-on-the-foothills-of-the-himalaya/, the Head Hunters(that is a religion, too) https://on-death-row.com/nagaland-balade-ardue-dans-le-pays-des-anciens-coupeurs-de-tetes/in Nagaland, and the Buddhists at Leh. For an initiatory, symbolic journey, you couldn’t find a better one, even if I only realized this 16 years later! Forced by the asshole’s vicious remarks, I decided to toss to the wolves my old-fashioned, manneristic way of reporting on briefly visited sites and cultures. Let’s forget that idiosyncratic cocktail of, I have to admit, slightly biased memories, endless free associations, and brazen, Munchausen-baron-kind inventions I used to pass off as travel notes.

Ladakh proper
This time, just a list of views, encounters, and fragments of experience from ineffable Ladakh—the distilled zest of what Lothar and I managed to grasp during our ridiculously short stay.

The scenery of this newly minted Indian Union Territory is flagrantly dramatic: snowcapped mountain ranges bordering turquoise alpine lakes, rugged high peaks standing by themselves, hidden narrow valleys wrapped in shadows and neck-breaking paths more worthy for goats than for human feet. Personally, I give the prize to the high-altitude rocky deserts where a contemplative can enjoy the plenitude of emptiness. Their vocational appeal is undeniable: be there and become a monk!

Better if you’re a Tibetan, of course. Ladakh was called “Little Tibet” or “Free Tibet” (by me) since the Han “liberated” the motherland. The population here is a mix: ancient of Tibetan tribes who migrated here centuries ago, a majority of invasive Muslims who moved in from the XIV to XVII centuries through proselytism and war, a handful of Hindus to bring some flavor,  and some minuscule ethnic groups like the Brokpa, allegedly the last Aryans. Their claim of being pure-blood stock and their romantic location—a valley that is both a fortress and a prison—encouraged many women, Frauen und Fräulein, eager to birth a new Siegfried, to hit the area and give it a try. I don’t give a fuck; I am a Semitic bloke.

The Ladakhi looks yellowish, a much more saturated hue than mine, which is that of a regular oldie. They fancy round heads, bottoms and bellies, and show stocky rounded thighs within a solid and coherent couperose adds another brushstroke to their chromatic palette, despite their best efforts. They are serious folk, even if they flash a smile from time to time—fervent devotees, and quite reluctant to sell anything at a discount. Wrapped in layers of wool fabrics (mandatory in this deep-freezing winter country) that cling to their bodies like second skins, wear funny shoes with up-curled tips and no less amusing cylindrical caps with utterly useless earflaps.

Zen master (on a doctoral tone): If the outfit for daily use is particularly modest and monochrome, even tedious—as you can see on Lothar here, (not that it’s his fault, particularly)—the Ladakhis, anytime they have an occasion at hand, transform, in peacock-like, baroque, gaudy fashion,  designers and wearers of a jazzy dress such as this floral chapeau, which seems to have been conceived by nobody else than the great Arcimboldo.

Zen novice (eager to participate): But, Master, where did they get those flowers in a country so cold and windy? Zen master (annoyed): From Holland, boy; from Holland, like everybody else. Zen novice (reluctant to give up): It’s very puzzling, Master, that the headdresses of the two beautiful ladies are quasi-identical. Zen master (harsh): Ignorance sees mysteries everywhere. Also, you’re getting into the mundane. The second couple are Dards, another Indo-Aryan group, close relatives of the Brokpa. Zen novice (wistfully): How wonderful! Another pure-blood stock! Zen Master (angry for good): I will trash you soundly if you continue to speak in equine terms. That can be very offensive for the animal too!

 

Cultural festivals
One of the main reasons for the world’s interest in Ladakh is the strong, visual and emotional pull of its religious/ritualistic festivals organized by the leading lamaseries. Their artistic and conceptual complexity—combining dance, costume, music, and stage effects—has a fascinating impact upon both visitors and locals. The attendees feel and enjoy being simultaneously in touch with the living faith and timeless tradition, which makes a trip to Ladakh more an act of experience than a simple visit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJfx8eBRSi4&t=1s

Food
Just before I forget. Do you want to run a marathon or two without wrecking your nerves and legs in masochistic training? Try some of Ladakh’s famous dishes like Thukpa or Chhutagi, which are spicy, heavy thick soups with local pasta, vegetables, and sometimes shredded meat that fills the stomach, warms the heart, and motivates the limbs. You’ll feel like someone who was purposely created to climb into the clouds, either by the power of his calves, the determination of his faith, or both.
And if you care for a drink—and you should—try the precious barley beer Chhang or get a fair amount of butter tea gur chai,  the icon of local cookery. At the end, should you have strong teeth, it will be wise to gnaw on a piece of dry Chhurpe yak cheese. Don’t hesitate to thank in petto this stout, strong, and hairy Himalayan bovine who provides the locals with quite everything they need for life, including a mighty kick from time to time to remind them of respect and gratitude.
May I trust you with an ugly secret? Because this Lothar bandit, who is madly in love with ethnicity but obsessively avoids trying any of its gastronomic summits on his dead body, I didn’t taste any of the stupendous culinary creations mentioned above. I wish—since we are in a Buddhist territory of endemic rebirth—that he returns to Earth in the frame of a skinny, undersized, mild-minded yak. Fair enough.

Stupas
Among the man-made things in Ladakh, two have roused my interest to zenith: the stupas   and the lamaseries.During our chaotic visit, I noticed a multitude of stupas (chorten), the Buddhist religious monument par excellence that serves as a reliquary and/or a cultic focal point. It offers the believer a fixed point for meditation, or for a ritual clockwise circumambulation. Their form varies greatly by location. The stupas raised in clusters near lamaseries or in sacred places are imposing, standard creations consisting of a polygonal base, topped by a full, dome-like element, surmounted by a painted spire, and ending in a parasol, lotus flower, or a pinnacle. While new stupas can be lavishly decorated, it’s often the old, worn ones that draw the eye, thanks to the subtle marks of time known as patina. It’s almost the opposite of what happens with people, isn’t it?”

The stupas irregularly scattered in the vast emptiness surrounding Leh, probably older and worn, dressed in a grayish-white robe, have a dome surmounted by a small pyramidal element ending in a short metal shank, as a kind of makeshift spire. Their matter and coating reminded me the guano heaps I’d seen near Ancón in Peru. I nearly convinced myself they were fossilized flying dinosaur droppings but mercifully avoided to make public that idiocy and pass for a perfect fool.

All the stupas are epitomes of material spirituality. Each segment from base to top symbolizes another Buddhist elementary entity such as earth, water, fire, air, and ether. The simple act of building one is an act of devotion, deserving praise and sometimes bringing a divine reward (boon) to the builder.

As we go, and as I consider the other issues I intend to tackle, I realize I will end up with a questionable, spiritualistic, even devout document that is completely out of character for someone who cares little for either the Devil or the Almighty. The world is in deep shit, and will soon (in a historical sense) be in shambles. It is true that from time to time I have spirited conversations with the Principal, but that is very personal and unrelated to my worldview (Weltanschauung). It occurs to me that this very wrong path, which I am pursuing with the arrogance of a Mongol centaur, was taken under the nefarious influence of the asshole—who, as everybody knows, is a pious character par excellence. Whatever the result, it is too late to change course. Come what may.

One last word, for I feel compelled to slip free from the didactic tone that has clung to me like white on rice throughout this report.I’ve always loved camelids, wherever chance allowed me to meet them—from
the windswept Peruvian altiplano to a bustling animal market in the Middle East. But here in Ladakh, this Bactrian camel, radiating barely hidden distrust in every direction, has utterly won my heart. I heard him ruminating: Naked apes with two tongues and two hearts, always eager to put one on the right way with mighty kicks. Today they are monitoring the language; tomorrow they will control the minds—even the mind of simple me, I, an animal!” What a pity that so few people are hearing voices!

 

 

 

 

 



Spaces, Masses and Peoples