Hindu, Buddhism & Islam

The ornate dome of a part of the Hindu temple.

Buddhist offerings of oranges and incense sticks burning in a gold brass pot. Two brass dragons are on both sides of the pot.

One of the Mosque's archways. You can see that the architecture is based upon symmetry...

Religions

The three areas we visited were all sacred places of worship for major religions. The three areas include a Hindu Temple, a Chinese Temple and an Islamic Mosque. Both Hinduism and Buddhism are polytheistic religions, filled with many deities and important characters to pray to. Whereas Islam is a monotheistic religion; as Muslim people believe in one God only and their name for him is: 'Allah'.

Where the mosque seemed so authentic and silent (as when we went in, nobody was there); the Chinese and Hindu temples where colorful and filled with life, as well as occasionally loud.

All of the places of worship were filled to the brim with symbolic objects or signs. The Chinese Temple was filled with symbols: for example, the big red step that symbolized that the bad spirits would be tripped up; keeping them out of the temple. Red and gold are lucky colors in Chinese culture. The dragon statues at the front; guard the temple and it's believed to be good luck to rub the dragon's head and the stone ball in the dragon's mouth. In the Hindu temple, there was a bindi dot that we wore. The bindi dot is said to absorb energy and strengthen concentration. It also is said to protect the wearer against demons and/or bad luck. The Islam Mosque has symbols as well. We saw a star and a crescent at the gateway. The star with 14 points symbolizes the 14 states of Malaysia and the crescent moon is the symbol of Islam.

The places of worship hold many values in common. One of these values is rituals. All three religions and many more religions practice rituals. In Islam, one of the rituals is that they cleanse themselves at specific times or on certain days, one of these times is before prayer. There was an eight point star fountain and many faucets which is where the Islamic people would cleanse themselves before entering the Masjid or Mosque. In Hinduism they performed a ritual in which they cleansed the statues of the deities in the temple. Sahi explained that they were cleansed with mixtures of milk and holy water. They also made offerings of fruit and flowers. At the Buddhist temple they performed offerings with smoky incense and oranges. They burned the incense sticks then put them in specific pots after offering up a prayer.

All 3 of the religions value afterlife. Both Hindu's and Buddhists believe in reincarnation. But the Buddhist rebirth system is slightly different. Though, they both reconnect with the concept of karma: where if you do good, the good will find it's way back to you, either in your present life, or in rebirth.

The architecture of the areas were very different. The Hindu temple's was ornate and flowery, there was a jumble of colors all over the place. There were many carved out pillars with designs painted all over them. There were about 4 different rooms in the temple where they put deity statues in. At the side was a large bell that a man was ringing. The Islamic Mosque we visited was built geometrically and was a very simple design that was very spacious. The Buddhist temple was a bit squishy but was filled with tables and plates of offerings, candles etc. There were brass pots to put our incense sticks in. There were red lanterns hanging from the ceiling, and characters engraved into the pillars. The interior was mostly red, but you could see some black and gold here and there.

I found the Hindu temple the most interesting. The Buddhist temple was interesting as well, as we could participate in it by buying incense, but I found that it had become a bit more commercial then necessary and was evolving to accommodate tourists. Proof of this is the 'fortune-telling' they offered, but at a certain price. Sonja told us later that fortune telling wasn't a Buddhist Temple tradition, it was a way to earn money. The mosque was an interesting area, what with all the symmetry you could see. Though I find the tastes were refined and there wasn't as much color. I think that the Hindu temple was the most interesting because of it's interesting rituals. We got to witness the ritual firsthand. They were adorned with flowers a wrap for the waist down and they kept their hair tied. They went from room to room to cleanse each one of the deity statues. Only the priests are allowed to handle the cleansing ritual. Sahi and Rhea told us that the ritual happens daily. I also think I found the loud music blaring through the temple interesting, because it wasn't something I was entirely used to. An instrument like a clarinet was playing rather loudly, drums were banged and the bell was ringing (all at the same time)! It was really different and that uniqueness made it all the more interesting for me.

Auschwitz

***What if the world still held thousands of camps like Auschwitz? What would that be like?
***A world without freedom is unthinkable, it's a world without opportunities and choices. A world we'd all like to avoid.
***When and Why did Hitler persecute the Jews?--They had no part in the Treaty of Versailles.
***Were followers intimidated by Hitler? Did they ever think of overthrowing him?
***Did Hitler plan to take over the world, or was his goal: Central Europe?
***In Hitler's haze of dictatorship, I think he lost sight of what his plan was. And that plan was to redeem Germany. The moment he took control, he killed and persecuted tons of people and even created a stereotypical German face, a race of people who in his eyes had superior genetics.
***How was the Nazi sign chosen?
***Where did Adolf Hitler meet Eva?

Opposites

Credits to the awesome Stream Field Trip!

My Identity