SWF - 13 feb 09

This was a week of looking up at the skies, especially over the tops of Buddhist temples. Lao Buddhist temple have beautiful roof ornaments, and often they have layered roofs, in contrast to Thai temples which are usually single-roofed and lack the roof ornaments.

I took the above picture when I was leaving my house to go running in the morning, just as the just-past-full moon was setting.

Another roof line. I hadn't realize that the bird was in the photo until I had downloaded them later in the day.

I thought the above temple was interesting. The main part of the roof is just being started - yet, the ornamentation at each end is nearly complete.

People have been donating to build a lot of new buildings for temples. While I do like the old wood buildings, they are plagued by termites and rot. When people rebuild the temples, they usually build using concrete and polychrome colors. This is the start of the mural at the top of the temple in my neighborhood:

It will probably be depicting this scene, of the Buddha surrounded by his disciples:

The pointy shapes along the roofs are flames, which represent both purity, as well as burning away the outer layers of illusion, which is the goal of meditation. "To see things as they really are."

In spite of the blur, I liked this photo, taken on the full moon night this week:

The full moon is special to Buddhists. Each of the major holidays in the Buddhist calendar are defined by the full moon - the birth, enlightenment and passing into Nirvana of the Buddha all are celebrated on the full moon days.

This is my contribution to Skywatch Friday, whose members post pictures of the skies around the world.