Examination Hall

The Mahapasana Cave is part of the campus complex of the State Pariyatti Sarana University of Yangon, one of several Buddhist colleges in Myanmar.  Once a year the cave is set up as an examination hall for student monks to be tested by their teachers. As shown in the image above, the cave is set up with rows of chairs and wooden platforms.  The teachers sit in the chairs, and one by one the young monks come forward, assume a meditation posture on the platform, and engage in lively dharma combat about the meaning of different sutras. The exams last all day, I am told. [NOTE: You have to scroll down a bit on the Ministry of Religious Affairs link to get to the part about the State Pariyatti Sarana Universities. Apparently, 436 monks have graduated from the Yangon campus over the past ten years].

Buddhist Summit Bell

The World Buddhist Summit of 2004 was held inside the holy Mahapasana Cave in Yangon, Myanmar.  A commemorative bell was placed at the entrance to broadcast the merit of all that enter the cave.  The inscription on the bell reads:

In the world which lost the Dhamma,
(the) drum of deathlessness will be beaten. 

[NOTE: Posted from a painfully slow internet cafe in Yangon. Good lessons in patience].

Gate A6

A lot of my fieldwork this year has started out at Gate A6 in Terminal 4 at JFK airport in New York. This is how you get to S.E. Asia using Singapore Airlines's New York-Frankfurt-Singpapore portal.  Eighteen hours of pure flying bliss. The stewards and stewardesses waiting to board seem as thrilled about the trip as I was last Friday night. [NOTE: As far as I am concerned, Singapore Airlines is the best airline in the world. Period. Yeah, the flight was a killer, but I was very well taken care of.  These guys are professionals (thx)]. 

Happy Thanksgiving

For all beneficent karma, ever manifested through me,
I am grateful.

May this gratitude be expressed though my body, speech and mind,
with infinite kindness to the past,
infinite service to the present,
infinite responsibility to the future.

Happy Thanksgiving.

[NOTE: Image was taken this morning in the Trinity St. Paul's Episcopal Church (Anglican) in New Rochelle, NY.  The church was founded in 1688; the present building was constructed by the famed American architect, Richard Upjohn, in 1863. The temple bell shown in the foreground - rung three times to start the inter-religious Thanksgiving service - is from the Empty Hand Zen Center].

Another Way to Cross the Taron

Getting across the Taron river in Kachin State, Myanmar can be tricky during the rainy season (see Crossing the Taron) - unless you have an elephant. Am off to Shinlonga (see Shinlonga) the day after Thanksgiving to continue the community forestry work there. Stay tuned.

Mangosteen

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) is described by some to be the most delicious tropical fruit in the world. Although I'm not sure that I agree with this description (see Fresh Fruit), mangosteen is certainly one of the most interesting fruits from an ethnobotanical or reproductive biology perspective. Botanically, the species is dioecious with separate male and female trees. A male mangosteen tree, however, has never been found and female trees produce fruits asexually through the process of apomixis. There are many possible scenarios to explain how this may have happened, but female trees that produce an indescribably delicious fruit coupled with marginally useful male trees, the appearance of a mutant apomictic gene, and thousands of years of careful selection by local villagers seems like a plausible explanation to me. [NOTE: The image shows mangosteens for sale in the main market of Kuching, Sarawak].

Aurelio y Luz

Elysa and I were given a pair of cobalt-winged parakeets (Brotogeris cyanoptera) as a wedding present and they stayed in/flew around our house the whole time we were in the Peruvian Amazon (see Jenaro Herrera). The male was named "Aurelio", the female "Luz". I could never tell them apart. [NOTE: Zooming in on Elysa's watch, I see that we were up playing with the parakeets at 11:00 PM on a Sunday evening]. 

Herbarium Specimens (from the Archive)

Some of my work involves collecting herbarium specimens. The specimen, ideally, will have leaves, flowers, and fruits, and all of these plant parts need to be carefully pressed and dried so that they can be mounted on an herbarium sheet. Big fruits sometimes need to be sliced up to press and dry.   The top image shows the fruits of Rhigospira quadrangularis, or "yahuar huayo", being sawed into slices at the IIAP field station outside of Jenaro Herrera in Peru (see Jenaro Herrera). The fruit slices and leaves will be folded into newspapers and dried in the plant drier shown glowing in the background.

The bottom image shows one of the herbarium sheets made from the Rhigospira collection.  This specimen is in the herbarium of the Chicago Field Museum; duplicates of the same collection are deposited in the IIAP herbarium and NYBG. [NOTES: That's my wife sawing through the Rhigospira fruits (thx, Elysa).  Close inspection of the herbarium label suggests that I had mis-identified the species and that it was later corrected by A. Leeuwenberg.  And yes, the glowing plant drier did eventually catch on fire.  Originally posted on December 4, 2008].

Fresh Fruit

These guys have just returned from their tembawang (see Tembawang) with a load of durian fruits (see Where'd all those durian trees come from?).  I'm a big fan of durian, and these are about as fresh and good as they get.

Field Assistant

This nice fellow, a Dayak from the Sanggau district of West Kalimantan, helped me with some forest inventories in the early 1990's.  He was great in the field. He knew his trees, picked up the inventory methodology very fast, and always had a big smile on his face.  He worked with us for about 10 days.  Never said a word. [NOTE: The tree in the background with the hacked-up trunk is Dipterocarpus (see Damar)].