Nature | Mazas Weblog

Fiji

18 March 2012 Written by MazAlien 0 Comments

Fiji is home to some of the most stunning beaches on the planet, Fiji is known for its crystal clear azure waters, incredible marine life, rugged highlands and stunning rainforests. What adds to the allure of vacationing here is the wonderful blend of nature and culture to create an atmosphere that is truly one-of-a-kind and found no where else in the world. The perfect vacation destination for many, Fiji has a multitude of activities for all to enjoy. Offering some of the best snorkeling, diving and surfing opportunities you can find on the planet; the sailing, windsurfing and hiking is also truly world class. Easy to get to and blessed with a year-round warm topical climate, Fiji is the ultimate getaway for those who wish to escape to a more utopian existence…..

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Video hosted on Youtube

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iji (sometimes called the Fiji Islands), is a Melanesian country in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about two-thirds of the way from Hawaii to New Zealand and consists of an archipelago that includes 332 islands, a handful of which make up most of the land area, and approximately 110 of which are inhabited.
Fiji straddles the 180 degree longitude line (which crosses land on a remote tip of Vanua Levu and again near the centre of Taveuni), so the international date line jogs east, placing Fiji all in one time zone and “ahead” of most of the rest of the world.

Fiji is the product of volcanic mountains and warm tropical waters. Its majestic and ever-varied coral reefs today draw tourists from around the world, but were the nightmare of European mariners until well into the 19th century. As a result, Fijians have retained their land and often much of the noncommercial, sharing attitude of people who live in vast extended families with direct access to natural resources. When it came, European involvement and cession to Britain was marked by the conversion to Christianity, the cessation of brutal tribal warfare and cannibalism, and the immigration of a large number of indentured Indian laborers, who now represent nearly half of the population, as well as smaller numbers of Europeans and Asians. Today, Fiji is a land of tropical rainforests, coconut plantations, fine beaches, fire-cleared hills. For the casual tourist it is blessedly free of evils such as malaria, landmines, or terrorism that attend many similarly lovely places in the world.
Internal political events in the recent past resulted in a reduction in tourism. The Fiji tourism industry has responded by lowering prices and increasing promotion of the main resort areas that are far removed from the politics in and around the capital, Suva.

Kilimanjaro – To the Roof of Africa

26 January 2012 Written by MazAlien 0 Comments

Kilimanjaro – To the Roof of Africa is an adventure of the human spirit that follows five trekkers and a local Chagga guide to the top of Kilimanjaro, the largest freestanding mountain in the world. Along their journey of courage and endurance, this diverse group of trekkers encounter strange landscapes and endure harsh conditions as they travel through five climate zones ranging from the lower rainforest reaches of Kilimanjaro to the summit’s arctic glaciers, all the while learning about the formation of the African continent and the Great Rift Valley.

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Video hosted on Youtube.

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ount Kilimanjaro is, at 19,340 feet above sea level, the highest peak on the continent of Africa. It consists of three peaks, Mawenzi and Shira (extinct volcanoes) and Kibo (dormant). Additionally, Mt Kilimanjaro Tanzania is the highest freestanding mountain (not part of a range) in the world. It lies wholly in Tanzania just on the southern border with Kenya. Only a couple hundred miles farther north as the crow flies is beautiful Mount Kenya. At just over 17,000 feet, this is the highest peak in Kenya and the second highest peak in Africa.

There are stars in the Southern Sky…..

04 December 2011 Written by MazAlien 0 Comments

The Southern Cross, Crux is commonly known as the Southern Cross, is the smallest of the 88 modern constellations, but nevertheless one of the most distinctive. It is surrounded on three sides by the constellation Centaurus, and to the south lies Musca. Ancient Greeks originally considered Crux to be part of Centaurus; however, the precession of the equinoxes gradually lowered these stars below the European horizon, and they were eventually forgotten. (At the latitude of Athens in 1000 BC, Crux was clearly visible, though low in the sky; by AD 400, most of the constellation never rose above the horizon for Athenians.

Eagles – Hotel California

“Seven Bridges Road”

There are stars
In the Southern sky
Southward as you go
There is moonlight
And moss in the trees
Down the Seven Bridges Road

Now I have loved you like a baby
Like some lonesome child
And I have loved you in a tame way
And I have loved you wild

Sometimes there’s a part of me
Has to turn from here and go
Running like a child from these warm stars
Down the Seven Bridges Road

There are stars in the Southern sky
And if ever you decide
You should go
There is a taste of thyme sweetened honey
Down the Seven Bridges Road

Homeopathy: The Test – Horizon – BBC

02 November 2011 Written by MazAlien 0 Comments

Homeopathy was pioneered over 200 years ago. Practitioners and patients are convinced it has the power to heal. Today, some of the most famous and influential people in the world, including pop stars, politicians, footballers and even Prince Charles, all use homeopathic remedies. Yet according to traditional science, they are wasting their money.

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Homeopathy: The Test – Horizon – BBC.
Video hosted on Youtube.

ceptic James Randi is so convinced that homeopathy will not work, that he has offered $1m to anyone who can provide convincing evidence of its effects. For the first time in the programme’s history, Horizon conducts its own scientific experiment, to try and win his money. If they succeed, they will not only be $1m richer – they will also force scientists to rethink some of their fundamental beliefs. The basic principle of homeopathy is that like cures like: that an ailment can be cured by small quantities of substances which produce the same symptoms. For example, it is believed that onions, which produce streaming, itchy eyes, can be used to relieve the symptoms of hay fever. However, many of the ingredients of homeopathic cures are poisonous if taken in large enough quantities. So homeopaths dilute the substances they are using in water or alcohol. This is where scientists become sceptical – because homeopathic solutions are diluted so many times they are unlikely to contain any of the original ingredients at all. Yet many of the people who take homeopathic medicines are convinced that they work. Has science missed something, or could there be a more conventional explanation?

From: BBC.

Mount Kailash

24 October 2011 Written by MazAlien 0 Comments

Making a praikrama (walking round Mt. Kailash) wash your sins away. Specially when this is done on an auspicious year or time. On such an occasion a circuit equals to 13 circuits completed during the year.

Buddhist, Hindus and Bonpo faithful consider Mt. Kailash as their sacred land. The mountain is known as the throne of “Shiva”, a powerful God in Hindu mythology. Buddhist considers it as Kang Rinpoche, the precious Snow Mountain. Devotee of Jain religion considers the peak as Mount Ashtpada. Rishabanatha, founder of Jain faith, believed that he gained spiritual liberation on the summit of Mt.Kailash. Bon-po, pre Buddhist religion in Tibet, believes that this is the ‘Nine storey Swastika Mountain’ that lead to the heaven.Mount Kailash ( Tibetan: Kang Rinpoche) is a sacred mountain in the far west of Tibet. Hindus regard the peak as Shiva’s symbolic ‘Lingam’and worship Mt Kailash, which is the Sanskrit name for the mountain. Bonpos believe the sacred mountain to be the place where the founder of the Bon religion landed when he descended from the sky. Tibetan Buddhists believe Kang Rinpoche, which means Precious Snow Mountain, is a natural mandala representing the Buddhist cosmology on the earth and the Jains believe this is the place where their religion’s founder was spiritually awakened.

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Going to extremes – Mount Kailash
(Video hosted on Youtube.)

great mass of black rock soaring to over 22,000 feet, Mt. Kailash has the unique distinction of being the world’s most venerated holy place at the same time that it is the least visited. The supremely sacred site of four religions and billions of people, Kailash is seen by no more than a few thousand pilgrims each year. This curious fact is explained by the mountain’s remote location in far western Tibet. No planes, trains or buses journey anywhere near the region and even with rugged over-land vehicles the journey still requires weeks of difficult, often dangerous travel. The weather, always cold, can be unexpectedly treacherous and pilgrims must carry all the supplies they will need for the entire journey. How long have people been coming to this sacred mountain? The answers are lost in antiquity, before the dawn of Hinduism, Jainism or Buddhism. The cosmologies and origin myths of each of these religions speak of Kailash as the mythical Mt. Meru, the Axis Mundi, the center and birth place of the entire world. The mountain was already legendary before the great Hindu epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, were written. Indeed, Kailash is so deeply embedded in the myths of ancient Asia that it was perhaps a sacred place of another era, another civilization, now long gone and forgotten. It is said that the actual Mt. Kailas is located near the land of Shambala. It is not possible to go there without spiritual, psychic powers. The present so-called Mt. Kailas in Tibet is linked with the history of the Ramayana. In order to revive the dead and injured soldiers of Prince Rama (who were fighting the Raksasa army of Ravana in Lanka), Hanuman (the mighty monkey ally of Rama) was sent to fetch from Mt. Kailas the sanjiwini medicinal herb which restores life. Unable to recognise the plant, Hanuman picked up the mountain and brought in to Lanka. When the herbs were collected, Hanuman is said to have tossed the mountain back in the direction of the Himalayan range, intending to restore it to its original place. But, since it was tossed from a great distance, it landed lopsidedly and some of the snow dropped into Tibet. This is now called Tise (Mt. Kailas). From the Hindu devotional point of view, Mt. Kailas is the worshipful abode of the god Shiva. For Buddhists it is the place of Chakrasamvara(Tibetan: Demchog). There is also the story related about the contest between Milarepa and the Bonpo priest over the legitimate ownership of pilgrimage rights to Mt. Kailas. The contestants agreed that the one who first reached the summit of the mountain in the morning would be recognised as the legitimate lord of Kailas. At dawn on the morning of the contest, the Bonpo priest (Naro Bon-chung) started his journey to the summit riding on his ritual drum and beating it all the while. Milarepa waited until sunrise and rode in a flash on the rays of the sun to the summit, beating the Bonpo there. When Milarepa looked down and the surprised Bonpo looked up and saw him, so disconcerted and shocked was he that he dropped his drum and it broke in two and fell. It is said that the marks made from the falling pieces of the drum can still be seen on the mountain. There is also the story of Lake Manasarovar. It is related that Cakravarti raja Nug Bam was preparing cooked rice to feed the entire world. The strained hot water from this rice cooled and became Lake Manasarovar.

For Tibetans, pilgrimage refers to the journey from ignorance to enlightenment, from self-centeredness and materialistic preoccupations to a deep sense of the relativity and interconnectedness of all life. The Tibetan word for pilgrimage, neykhor, means “to circle around a sacred place,” for the goal of pilgrimage is less to reach a particular destination than to transcend through inspired travel the attachments and habits of inattention that restrict awareness of a larger reality……..By traveling to sacred sites, Tibetans are brought into living contact with the icons and energies of Tantric Buddhism. The neys, or sacred sites themselves, through their geological features and the narratives of transformation attached to them, continually remind pilgrims of the liberating power of the Tantric Buddhist tradition…….Over time pilgrimage guidebooks were written, giving instructions to pilgrims visiting the holy sites and accounts of their history and significance. These guidebooks, neyigs, empowered Tibet and its people with a sacred geography, a narrated vision of the world ordered and transformed through Buddhist magic and metaphysics.