1/1/17 To start off the new year, I am going on a trip to discover all I can about the 5 largest religions in the world; Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. I'm going to visit a religious architecture and sacred site for each religion, and hopefully learn a lot from each place. First stop: Christianity.
1/3/17 Yesterday I arrived in Vatican City, which is known to be the headquarter of the Roman Catholic Church. A bit about Vatican City: Vatican City is located in Rome, Italy and is home to the Pope, and a lot of iconic architecture and art. The first place my guide took me was to the Vatican museum. All along the walls and ceilings, there were many beautiful murals. My guide told me that they were all there to tell a story, be it about the birth of God or about his followers. After going to the museum, he took me to the plaza of St. Peter's Square. It was a really big circular plaza, and had a tall tower in the middle. This plaza allows people to see the Pope give his blessing, which I was able to witness in person. St. Peter's Square is right in front of St. Peter's Basilica which is one of the largest churches in the world. According to my guide, the architectural style of the church is Late Renaissance and Baroque. He also said that the construction of the basilica took 120 years to complete. Pretty amazing, huh? Anyways, there are so many interesting places to see in Vatican City, but unfortunately I can't visit all of them because I have to move on to the next religion. So next stop: Judaism!
1/4/17 I am now in Jerusalem, Israel, and am visiting the Western Wall. The Western Wall is basically a really tall wall made out of stacked yellow stones. According to my guide, the Western Wall is the most important site for Jewish people, for it is the last Remnant of their temple, and is also where Adam, the first human, was created. Jewish people from around the world come here to pray. They also write notes to G-d here and place the notes between the stones of the wall, which I saw a lot of today. Well, time to go to the next stop: Islam.
1/5/17 This morning, I arrived at the Taj Mahal, in Agra, India. It's a very large building with lots of domes on the top. It's made out of white marble, and was commissioned in 1632. My guide said that the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, ordered for it to be build to house the remains of his wife. The design of it incorporates elements of many different architecture, including Islamic, Turkish, Persian and Indian architecture. There were a lot of other tourists that went to look at the Taj Mahal too. After all though, it is one of the wonders of the world. Well, it's pretty late now, so I'm going to prepare for tomorrow morning, because I'm going to go learn about Hinduism!
1/7/17 I arrived here in Cambodia yesterday afternoon, but I decided to sleep because I woke up really early. So here I am, the next day, in Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia. I went to the temple called Angkor Wat. My guide said that it was built as a Hindu temple, for the Hindu god Vishnu. It's a temple made out of stone, and it has a 650-foot-wide moat around it, the moat being 13 feet deep. It had so many trees around it, and some of the roots were so big, and ran down the sides of the temple. It really was amazing to walk around, but it was also a bit tiring since it's so hot here. Well, tomorrow is my last stop: Buddhism. Let's go!!
1/8/17 Right now, I'm in Bodhgaya, India, at the Mahabodhi temple. It's a very tall temple, reaching a height of 50 meters. The entire temple is made out of brick, and it has the same pattern repeating all the way up. There are multiple paintings and statues of Buddha on and inside the temple. According to my guide, it's one of the four holy sites of Buddha, marking the place where he achieved enlightenment. A lot of tourists came here to Bodhgaya in order to see the Mahabodhi temple. It's a really place to see. Well, that was the last stop of my journey through religion. It was really cool to see all of the different kinds of architecture that are created because of religion. Well, see you next time on my journey through music!!
Credits:
Created with images by saritravels - "Angkor Wat" • mgil888 - "rome capital italy" • pcdazero - "vatican maria the framework" • Bob Linsdell - "St. Peter's Basilica, Rome (150370)" • u07ch - "Wailing Wall / Western Wall" • 777jew - "wailing wall western wall judaism" • alankotok - "jerusalem western wall israel" • skeeze - "taj mahal mausoleum marble" • Friar's Balsam - "20110423_Taj_Mahal_049" • Paul and Jill - "Taj Mahal" • Christoph Rooms - "Angkor Wat - Siem Reap" • saritravels - "Angkor Wat" • chuck.miser - "Cambodia Angkor Wat Top" • Matt Stabile - "Mahabodhi Temple Complex, Bodhgaya" • Matt Stabile - "Mahabodhi Temple Complex, Bodhgaya" • Matt Stabile - "Mahabodhi Temple Complex, Bodhgaya"