America Seems So Young

Status: I'm missing autumn, especially when I see pictures of my Stateside friends going apple picking or Halloween costume shopping. It's a strange and kind of funny sensation, but I've discovered that my seasonal body clock continues to tick whether I'm part of a seasonal change or not. The weather here in Singapore hasn't changed at all since the summer months, and yet I feel an urge to put on jeans and eat more carbs. Weird.

So I seem to have fallen behind on my posts again... hiccups in the fabric of time seem to be constant anomalies when it comes to motherhood. When I could swear I've been sitting at toddler playgroup with Dagny for the better part of an hour, I look at my watch and realize it's only been ten minutes. And when I think it's only been a couple of days since my last post, I log on to my computer and discover it's actually been a couple of weeks. Oh well. I do the best I can.

Brad, Dagny and I had a great time in Kuala Lumpur the past four days, but I'm actually going to save detailing that trip for a later post. I will TRY to write about it this weekend... yup, sorry... TRY is the best I can do right now!

Instead, I'll play a little catch up by highlighting Dagny's and my Adventure Wednesday trip from last week to the Asian Civilisations Museum (if you make it through the entire tour like we did, you'll see why it topped our "List of Must-Sees"). It was a hot morning, and crazy-humid, so I was a bit cranky when, after two train transfers, we wound up lost. I'm not a fan of iPhone 4, or at least the GPS feature, which is pretty much imperative to my existence here in Singapore. The little locator pin bounces me around all over the city, at one point on our trip even trying to convince me I was standing IN THE MIDDLE of Marina Bay... as in, walking on water. Hmmmm...

But, as I've said before, sometimes the journey ends up being half the adventure. I wander streets I normally wouldn't have found, traverse weird tunnels I never knew existed in hopes of getting someplace familiar, and on occasion, find some truly remarkable stuff. For instance: on this particular trip, I got us crazy lost and ended up cutting through a park where I found this unbelievable tree! I have never seen anything like it before, and Dags thought it was pretty cool, too.

This is called a Cannonball Tree (quite appropriately). The top looks like any typical deciduous tree, but where the branches start, there is an unusual clumping of palm-like leaves, and then even farther down the trunk, you run into above-ground roots. Such a crazy looking tree!

These giant fruits really are about the size of cannonballs, and are very hard.

The flowers of the Cannonball Tree are very fragrant, and are used in Hindu worship.

Finally!!!! The Asian Civilisations Museum.

I've really developed an affinity for Buddhist art since moving here. The Buddhist faith originated in India, and spread to China around the 3rd century BC via the Silk Road. From there, it continued to flourish throughout Southeast Asia, thanks mostly to trade routes. Every region has its own traditions in their depiction of Buddha, which I love. This statue of Buddha is from Thailand and is made of bronze. The "spire" on Thai Buddha's head represents flame of enlightenment.

This is a Cambodian Buddha, and dates all the way back to the 11th century. Naga, king of mythical serpents, is protecting this Buddha from the floods. On this Buddha, the long earlobes and tight hair curls with the protuberance are symbolic of his enlightenment.

On the left is another Cambodian Buddha, which dates all the way back to the 7th century! Dagny and I started a game at this point on the tour... to see if we could find the oldest artifact in the museum. 

These are called Mukhalingam, and they represent the Hindu god Shiva. That is a third eye at the center of their foreheads, and they also have the elongated earlobes and tall top-knot (or jatabhanda) as signs of enlightenment. These have been carbon dated to the 8th century. Sorry, fellas... you were close.

I'm diggin' these gold earrings on the right. Yowsa!

We have now moved on to North Vietnam... it was very cool the way the museum was laid out, with different rooms dedicated to different regions of Asia. Each exhibit opened with a description of what life was like there before, during, and after Chinese influence... everything from writing and cultivation of rice to language and religion.

Vietnamese Buddha.

The multi-armed Quan Am, which is a female version of Buddha that was very popular in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). She had the power to alleviate all forms of suffering.

Hilltribe jewelry from Thailand. Earrings and neckrings with a "soul lock" hanging from them. Silver jewelry was a way of investing a family's wealth to be passed down as heirlooms.

Okay, this guy was seriously cool, and pretty big. It is a Makara processional vehicle (or the head of one). It is a very rare surviving piece from Hindu culture in Malaysia.

These wooden masks depict Aso, a powerful Dayak dragon goddess of the underworld. Dayak Malaysian mothers used to wear these to scare their children into obedience. Hmmm... I wonder if that would fit into my mom's "Parenting With Love & Logic" program. Maybe we could call it "Love & Logic & A Little Bit of Pants Wetting."

Hilltribe headdress. 

Belt buckles! For real! The one on the far right was as big as my midsection. I totally want to go to Texas now wearing one of these, and saunter up to some guy in a saloon-type bar with a giant "Everything's Bigger In Texas" belt buckle on his pants and be like, "You call that a belt buckle? I guess some things are even bigger in South Niam."

Okay, these two pictures are for my loyal guy readers... weapons! Unfortunately it was so dark in this part of the museum that the pics didn't come out too well. These swords used to belong to Sumatran princes, and the keris (the wavy-bladed knife) originated in Java. 

I mean, seriously, how bad a$$ are these things??? I imagine Stephen King's infamous evil magician, Flagg, carrying a keris.

If only you could all see these in person... they stand about 12-feet tall! Dags was totally enthralled (thank goodness... it could have easily gone either way: enthralled or horrified). These are used in the Taiwanese and Chinese Mazu Festivals, in honor of Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea.

And now for the biggest treat of all... the main reason Dagny and I ventured out the Asian Civilisations Museum in the first place. We wanted to view the temporary exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors! Yes, this was beyond amazing, to see up close and personal a little of the astonishingly beautiful and sophisticated art from the very militaristic and highly controversial First Emperor of China.

Everything used to be painted in vibrant colors.

These are all life-sized, and have features of rank and function.

In the four pits at the dig site (not here, obviously), over 7,000 soldiers and more than 500 horses and multiple chariots were unearthed. Again: LIFE SIZED!

So as it turns out, the Terracotta Warriors were the oldest artifacts we found in the museum, dating back to 200 BC. Leading up to them, Dagny found a small Buddha statue from the 5th century, but the room was too dark to get a very good picture. It's funny to think that one day, Dags will go on a class field trip to Williamsburg, Virginia, and will probably say something to the tour guide like, "I'm sorry, you actually think the cotton gin is considered old?"

Heading out of the museum with my adventure buddy. 

Dags wasn't too sure about this guy at first, until I petted him and showed her he was very friendly!

It was another fabulous day, and we learned a lot! Hopefully you learned a little bit, too!