Hidden Unseen

The Largest Monastery in the World

Deep in the mountains of northwestern Sichuan in China, on the Tibetan plateau, there exists a town in an isolated, beautiful and clean valley that is actually an entire monastery itself – Monastery. Living conditions here are quite tough. Because of its high altitude (4000 meter above sea level) it’s cold and cut off from the outside. Food, water and clothes are in extremely short supply, and electric power is only available from 7pm to 10pm every day. Few people have actually heard of this place and its location is rarely marked on maps.

For regular travelers, perhaps Yarchen Monastery is not a good place for sightseeing, unless you want to experience absolute isolation and Buddhism atmosphere without being afraid of the adverse conditions, but from a height the entire monastery is quite a sight.

The monastery is home to about 10,000 monks and nuns making it the largest monastery in the world. According to National Geographic 50,000 monks live in the monastery, but I believe the number is grossly exaggerated or a misprint.

Source

Arrive Half Naked, Leave Fully Dressed

For the second year in a row, Spanish clothing outlet, Desigual organized a very gimmicky promotional sale where they gave away free clothes to the first 100 shoppers who arrived at their store in underwear. The event organized under the banner “Arrive Half Naked, Leave Fully Dressed” attracted hundreds of shoppers in Spain who braved the chilly weather to queue outside shops in their underwear on Friday to take advantage of an offer they couldn't refuse.

The crazed shoppers withstood a chilly 34 degrees Fahrenheit and were given red ID tags to wear around the neck once counted.

Aside from Madrid, the sale was held in three locations in the country - Barcelona in the northeast, San Sebastian in the north and Marbella in the south. The semi-nude is also coming to Desigual's San Francisco store.

Source

Hanging Temple in Mount Hengshan

Located in a canyon at the foot of the Mountain Heng in the province of Shanxi, China, the Hanging Temple or Hanging Monastery is a rare piece of architecture. The temple is built into the cliff side about 75 meter above the ground, and stands propped up by hidden rocks corridor and wooden beams inserted into the mountain. Over 40 halls, cabinets and pavilions within an area of 152.5 square meters are connected each other by corridors, bridges and boardwalks. They are evenly distributed and well balanced in height. Inside the temple are more than 80 bronze cast statues, iron cast statues, and clay sculptured statues and stone carvings banded down from different dynasties.

According to 7wonders.org, the temple was build to avoid the terrible flood, and use the mountain as protection from rain, snow and sunshine.

The Hanging Temple is one of the main tourist attractions and historical sites in the Datong area. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it includes Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements.

Source

Spotted Lake in Canada

Located near the city of Osoyoos in British Columbia, Canada’s Spotted Lake draws visitors from around the world. The Spotted Lake has a very highly concentration of numerous different minerals such as magnesium sulfate, calcium and sodium sulphates. It also contains extremely high concentrations of eight other minerals as well as some small doses of four others such as silver and titanium.

Most of the water in the lake evaporates over the summer, leaving behind large “spots” of minerals. Depending on the mineral composition left behind, the spots will be of white, pale yellow, green or blue in color. The spots are made mainly of magnesium sulfate, which crystallizes in the summer to form harden natural “walkways” around and between the spots.

During the First World War, minerals from the lake were harvested for manufacture of ammunition. Chinese laborers were said to have skimmed up to a ton a day of salts from the surface of the lake and shipped them to munitions factories in eastern Canada.

Known as Kliluk to the natives of the Okanagan Valley, the lake is a sacred and culturally significant site whose potential for commercial exploitation recently generated much controversy. The therapeutic quality of the waters has been known for millennia - the Native Indians used the mud and waters of the lake to heal aches and ailments. According to a story, once two warring tribes signed a truce where both parties were allowed to tend to their wounded in the Spotted Lake,

The lake was originally owned by the Ernest Smith Family for about 40 years. In 1979, when Smith attempted to have a spa at the lake, the natives attempted to buy the lake so they could keep it as a sacred site. After over 20 years of trying but failing to convince Smith to sell the land, they finally did make a deal in late October 2001, when they bought 22 hectares of land for a total of $720,000. The First Nations paid $150,000 while the Indian Affairs Department paid the remainder.

Today, the lake is surrounded by a fence to keep people off, but you can get a good view of it from the highway.

Source

Hegra or Madain Saleh in Saudi Arabia

Madain Saleh is a pre-Islamic archaeological site located in the Al-Ula sector, within the Al Madinah Region of Saudi Arabia, approximately 400km north-west of Madinah. Formerly known as Hegra it is the largest conserved site of the civilization of the Nabataeans south of Petra in Jordan. The site features 131 massive rock cut tombs with decorated facades, many with inscribed Nabatean epigraphs, spread out over 13.4 km and dating from the 1st century BC to the 1st century AD. Madain Saleh is an outstanding example of the Nabataeans’ architectural accomplishment and hydraulic expertise.

At its peak, the Nabataean kingdom stretched from its capital Petra in what is now Jordan deep into the Arabian Peninsula. It controlled vast arid and semi-arid expanses, and drew its wealth by trading incense, spices and aromatic plants. Madain Saleh reached its peak as the major staging post on the main north–south trade route.

After the Romans took over Nabatean Kingdom in 106 AD, they shifted the trading route from the overland north–south axis on the Arabian Peninsula to the maritime route through the Red Sea. Thus, Hegra as a center of trade began to decline, leading to its abandonment and disuse.

The history of Hegra from the decline of the Roman Empire until the emergence of Islam remains mostly unknown, as it was only sporadically mentioned by travelers and pilgrims making their way to Mecca. However, Hegra did served as a station along the religious route, providing supplies and water for pilgrims. A 14-century description made by celebrated traveler Ibn Battuta tells about the magnificent red stone-cut tombs of Hegra but makes no mention of human activities.

The Nabatean kingdom was not just situated at the crossroad of trade but also of culture. This is reflected in the varying motifs of the facade decorations, borrowing stylistic elements from Assyria, Phoenicia, Egypt and Hellenistic Alexandria, combined with the native artistic style. Roman decorations and Latin scripts also figured on the troglodytic tombs when the territory was annexed by the Roman Empire. In contrast to the elaborate exteriors, the interiors of the rock-cut structures are severe and plain.

Madain Saleh is officially protected as an archaeological site since 1972, for its tourism potential. In 2008, for its well-preserved remains from late antiquity, especially the 131 rock-cut monumental tombs, with their elaborately ornamented facades, of the Nabatean kingdom, UNESCO proclaimed Mada'in Saleh as a site of patrimony, becoming Saudi Arabia's first World Heritage Site.

Source