Printing prayers | 10.31 I'd written about this, earlier -- http://tim.girvin.com/Entries/?p=346 -- the power of that which is transcribed to translated prayer. That prayer is a series of sacrosanct sounds, it's a vibration; it's a resonation -- and that writing that is, in itself, something magical; it's an interpretation of that power. But that concept is really forgotten, in most parts of the word. Except Bhutan. So going to the library, the national library -- in Paro, Bhutan, you have the...

Bhutan Journal Taksang Monastery | The Tiger's Nest For a decades, coming to this remote outpost, was a dream. You could call the entire trip to Bhutan as the exemplar for this sense of remote connection -- something powerful and distant; something marvelously contained, like a mysterious jewel. And for me, for many others I'm sure this place captures -- and captivates, all. For the heart of the practice, the mystic character of the entire spiritual community of the Himalayas, Taksang is the...

Greetings and good morning. It's been a while -- and it's been a wild while...literally. Things are primitive here, but actually more primitive than I'd thought. Hard to find ways to link in, even in places that I'd thought I'd connect -- there have been actual electrical challenges as well. Because of drought, there have been "load shedding" and energy distributions that have been challenging to hook up. And right now I'm on a land line surrounded by friendly Bhutanese and we're talking while...

Bhutan Journal I'm a lover of scent; I've explored that for some time; I've even got a collection of rare old books on fragrance -- and fragrance making. I just like to smell things. Books, pigments, antiquities, art objects, stone, leather, grass, lightning, sand, sun, flesh. So I've been always curious about scent -- but more to the potentials of exploring incense; making the compressed stick that, since ancient times, have been creating a fragrant space, borne of smoke. Fire heats and...

Light, dark,  shadow | 10.29 | Trongsa Dzong I've learned a lot about light. And about seeking it, finding it. Going there. Where light is. And where it isn't. In fact, I'm still learning about light. And I'll be always learning about light, I'm imagining. But I had this one experience, coming back from the monastery of the Divine Madman, Chimi Lakhang, (Lama Drukpa Kuenlay) and like anything else, we were late. We were, we are, late because we stop incessantly. And these stops always have to...

Bhutan Journal There, Bhutan, it's all ways that there is something out there, in the distance, nestled in the hills, contained on some distant ridge, crag balanced, escarpment carved, some powerful -- magnet -- that draws me (up) there. And the answer is always yes ("you can climb up there, but not many do...here's how you must go...") -- and, here's what it is, here's the history and story behind it -- now, how to get up there? But there was plenty of exploring that was unguided -- and...

Bhutan Journal Ravencall (10.29) Bunthang Why do I love ravens, crows, jays and magpies so much? I don't know. But I do. Just days before my departure, I'd learned that the national bird of Bhutan is, in fact, the Raven. How could I have missed that? How could I have not known it? And how could I not believe what it would be like to be connected to so many? And the idea of experiencing, for the first time, the concept of the flock? And what techniques might there be get even closer? What I...

Still wondering... and wandering... Heading out again...

Dzong | The Fearful Symmetry of Bhutanese Architecture | 10.27 In a way, for me, there's something long-reaching, far-running, back into my mind and memory for the spirit and personal connectedness that I've got with the nature and spirit of Bhutanese, and Himalayan, architecture; there's something that's right about it. And I'm not sure why. It's like ravens -- why, do they attract me? Why do these buildings fascinate me? It's like the lightning bolt discovery, the first time seen -- Potala,...

Transparencies (10.27) Mist, layered -- messages diaphanous. I think about things in layers. And I keep referring to that. I think about something on one layer, and then another on another, and another -- beneath that. I think that I like to design in that manner, as well. I design in layers -- one layer on another. Something seen on one level, another seen, on a different layer. Level on level ---- And I'm thinking about layers in the context of the word, and the word beneath. If we see, if...