Angkor Kingdom, the inspiration and aspiration

 

Each and every temple has its own distinctive design and carried its own mystical storyboard.  

 




 

 

Bayon Temple " Lift up the corners of your mouth into a smile "

 The astonished temple was constructed of sandstone carried from quarry 25 miles away. The stone sculpture and wall carving projected the 3-dimensional visually artistic objects whereby mankind has lost the skill through the flow of time.

The Apsara - each one is unique. 
Try to spot all the uniqueness when you were here. 

 

 

Along the way, I got interested to get know of the story behind the wall sculptures. The inspiration and aspiration from the intelligence beings of Angkor Kingdom. The Angkor kingdom had once influenced by the religious of Hinduism and Buddhism. In summary, during Suryavarman II reign, he built the great Angkor Wat and some monuments on Phnom Kulen. The carving on the wall and monument were portrayed the priest anointing the symbol and worship of Hindu god.

Under Jayavarman VII reign, he built the great Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm and Bayon. The outer walls of the temples have startling bas-reliefs not only of warfare, but the everyday life of the Khmer army and its followers. These reliefs show the female traders selling things, the move with the animals and ox carts, hunters, man farming, women cooking, women giving birth, and celebrations of common foot soldiers. 

  

Practice to be a Minimalist Journaler

Hello there, hope all of you are well and happy.
I was away last week. We visited a very magnificent neighbor country and learnt to appreciate the vibrant beauty of the artwork left by our ancestors (~600-1000 years ago). I will share it in my next post.

Before the trip, I prepared a journal cover that I thought it would serve me best in my travel. However, I changed my mind the day before the departure. I rushed out time to finish the sewing and patching works and made the following handy travelogue book.

I would also to train myself (practice) to be a minimalist in my living, so does for the travelling. As you may see here, I didn't pack a lot of stuff for journaling, all keep to light and just enough. 

Yum Cha Cafe, Jalan Petaling

I wandered along Petaling street, taking my lunch time slot (2 hours on every Friday) to have / to do something that breaks my usual routine and thus discovered the beauty of the city. 

An hour nested in the cozy cafe called Yum Cha Cafe, Jalan Petaling. (Yum Cha means 'Catching up with friends' in Cantonese).

Love the red and brown painted deco. wall. Yes, Sun, shine on me today. 


I got myself the lunch set , Kampung Fried Rice (a bit spicy), Hot Lemon Honey and Rojak (mixed fruits salad in Malaysian style), cost me RM 18.

Yum Cha Cafe House

143 Jalan Petaling | City Center, Kuala Lumpur 50000, Malaysia

Others zakka cafe that situated in town, walking distance from Pasar Seni LRT station are ~ Aku Cafe, Old China Cafe, Moontree Cafe, Coffee Amo.  

2015 Travelogue in preparation

Hi dearies, hope you all are well there.
I caught in flu and still need more time to recover. Besides, I am preparing revision for upcoming examination. This semester I have 3 subjects to go and in fact I am not far from completing the final year of the post-graduate studies.

Apart from studies, I have also arranged a free and easy short trip for my family in early of June. I bought air tickets (from local low cost air carrier ~ Air Asia) to Siem Reap, Cambodia. Visit Angkor Watt is one in To-Do-Once-In-A-Lifetime list.

I'm not too sure if I am wrong that I always thought that there is kinda connectivity (architectural, spiritual or believes) in between the Angkor Watt (Cambodia), Ayutthaya (Thailand) and Jogyakarta (Indonesia). But I couldn't really spell out unless I have been there and learn more about the Asean historical  :)

I start preparing a travel journal which to safe keeping the memories and experience for the journey. I was looking around the shelves and so happy to dust out a piece of work I did few years back (as shown). I decided to make use of it as the cover of the 2015 Travelogue .The infill pages , to be determined after the exam.

(Painting #10) A girl who dreamed of Santorini Blue

(Finished painting)

I have yet to pick up painting skill, consider that one day I shall attend a formal painting class.

(A bit of my painting process): I have no idea what am I want to paint, start with putting some (more) acrylic onto the paper, and see how the shape and color tone lead me to next stage. I believe in the flow from inner me, without disturbing the flow with pencil line or any marks. I enjoyed this type of meditation, no other thoughts in mind but just want to have fun. 

(a shot on Work in progress)

Cartoon : Lagi-Lagi Gila-Gila

Hi, I went to Petronas Gallery few days ago. The theme of the month are 'Lagi-Lagi Gila Gila'.
The Gila-gila (Crazy-crazy in English translation) comics was accompanied most of the Malaysian since its first published in 1978. The humor magazine embodies the brilliant minds of Malaysia's top cartoonists.

The exhibition display almost 90% of the original artwork. I still can see the pencil lines/ water color stain, black ink line on the watercolor paper.  

According to Jaafar Taib (cartoonist), cartoons shall be amusing through drawings and ideas on top of providing benefits to the audience. Gila-Gila cartoon revolves around personal stories and the people surrounding his life.

In case you are not aware some lifestyle of Malaysian, we (majority) are not only like to eat Nasi Lemak (fragrant rice dish cooked in coconut milk and pandan leaf) but we also love instant noodles like Mamee, Maggi and Cinta  :)

One of the artwork (bottom) seem familiar for me as it was drawn on background of famous Taiping Lake Garden, the place I grown up.    

For your information
The exhibition is held in Petronas Gallery, KLCC from Apr 14 - July 15,2015.

A good life in April ~ little travel to Penang and Broga

Hi, an update on my April moleskine journal. 

In April, life a bit different as compared to previous months as I make a trip to Penang, on my own without family. 

 I spent one day hanging around the island and 2 days attending the workshop at this elegant mansion. 

On the first day arrival (about 1 hr flight), most of the time I spent touring around Penang Peranakan Mansion, baba nyonya museum. 

 

There was a lot of antique / vintage stuff to see, but my favorite was the room which filled with shelves of colorful Vaseline Glass Epergnes collection from England (1890-1930).

I attempted to draw it in a journal. 

I settled my lunch at 4pm in a zakka cafe ~ Chai Diam Ma (I had a late breakfast inside the plane)

Most of the pages were prepared in advance for ease of journaling.



We have a long holiday from May 1 to May 4. We enjoyed our sunshine, outdoor by making our trip to Broga. Oops..no hiking, but we drove to 2 km further up from the famous Broga Hill (Selangor), the Broga Town (Negeri Sembilan) . We visited the Taoist Temple, which is located at the Broga.



A dedicated page to record our recent outing to Broga Hill, Semenyih.

The lush green hill at the other side of the temple gave me a feeling of tranquility, a pause moment that I willing to slow down my steps.



I was inspired by the green hill.
On the top part of the journal page, I put on some watercolor and doodled, and the result turned out unexpectedly nice.