Monks Arriving on Horseback

Green Tara Temple Mural at Pusarong

This slideshow presentation brings to life the realities of present day Tibet—its incredible beauty, exotic people, and the dilemma of a society that has been under Chinese Occupation for more than 60 years. Yak herding, visits to sacred lakes, nuns debating, monks imprisoned for seven years for writing Free Tibet on a sign, searching for the Tibetan blue poppy at 16,000 feet altitude, delivering gifts from refugees living in exile to their families still living in the  homeland—it’s all part of this show.

Aigaki lives between India, Tibet, and Mexico. She is a member of the Society of Women Geographers and WINGS WorldQuest (an international organization of women explorers) and has exhibited at the Royal Horticultural Society in London, the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and the International Conference of Botanical Illustrators in Thailand. She speaks internationally on The Current Situation in Tibet, Women Explorers and Botanical Illustration as a Vehicle for Cultural Diplomacy.

Tibetans Releasing Prayer Cards

Dianne will be co-leading the Sacred Sites & Sacred Traditions Study Tour to Eastern Tibet next summer: July 31-August 16, 2011. This is an unparalleled experience for lovers of sacred sites, spiritual seekers and adventurous travelers wishing to experience the authentic culture of Tibet in a small group setting. The tour benefits the restoration of the 16th C sacred mural paintings at Thrupa Lhakhang in Pusarong Village, Tibet.

Botanical Illustration by Dianne Aigaki

Woman in Dispair outside Notre-Dame by Kesler Pierre

Some of our colleagues were among the first preservationists to arrive after the quake: the International Council on Monuments and Sites, and Conservation Tech’s Randolph Langenbach, Builders Without Borders‘, Martin Hammer, and stained glass conservator, Kesler Pierre. Randolph Langenbach has established a good website on historic preservation in Haiti since the quake.

Several of Haiti’s beloved places of worship were destroyed by the quake. The Cathedral of Our Lady of the Assumption in Port-au-Prince, sometimes called the Port-au-Prince Cathedral or Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, was badly damaged by the quake. A grand cathedral that took 30 years to build was destroyed in minutes by the temblor.

Notre-Dame Post Quake Interior by Martin Hammer

Randolph Langenbach, one of the world’s foremost experts on earthquake resistant architecture discovered a small chapel across the street from the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, that escaped damage. Unlike the Cathedral, which was made of low-grade late 19th and early 20th Century reinforced concrete with rebar that had rusted, the Chapel was constructed of light steel frames with masonry confined to the steel frames.

Chapel Escaped Quake Damage by Randolph Langenbach

Another well-loved church in Port-au-Prince is the Episcopal Trinity Church, famous for its murals done by Haitian artists in the 1950s. Haitian artists depicted Biblical scenes with figures of Haitians in Haitian settings including details from street-life. Most of the murals have been smashed into small pieces or reduced to dust and rubble.

Mural Fragments after the Quake

Portions of one of Trinity Churches’ main murals, The Last Supper, remain post-quake. Restoration experts have stabilized the painting and hope to restore it.

Trinity Church Murals by Martin Hammer

Deir Mar Mousa Monastery, Syria

The monastery of Deir Mar Mousa in Syria is located high in the dusty remote hills 50 miles from Damascus. Pilgrims flock to the site despite the arduous climb up hundreds of stone stairs worn smooth by centuries of seekers who have ascended the same path since the 6th century.

The path to Mar Mousa

Today’s pilgrims are drawn to the Deir Mar Mousa community called in the name of interfaith peace and understanding. They are inspired by Father Dell’Oglio, an energetic Italian priest, who not only restored the monastery, but established a center for interfaith dialogue between people of all beliefs. His special interest is in Christian-Islamic discussion and he has recently published a book, Believing in Jesus, Loving Islam.

Father Dall'Oglio in Discussion with Pilgrims

Pilgrims who make the journey to Deir Mar Mousa join with other travelers in daily chores such as meal preparation and stay in simple stone huts while participating in discussions with others in residence.

A book to consider reading before your sojourn is one of our favorites on the subject of pilgrimage, The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seekers Guide to Making Travel Sacred, by Phil Cousineau.

Pilgrims Eating a Simple Meal

Pilgrim in 11th C Chapel

Knowth Passage Graves, Ireland

Knowth passage graves, located near the Boyne River in Ireland, are part of the great megalithic complex surrounding Newgrange. The sites are part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Bru na Boinne, because of their pristine condition, their solar alignments, ritualistic function and concentrations of megalithic art.

Newgrange, Ireland

Newgrange Entrance Slab

The nearby village of Slane applied for permission to build a freeway overpass over the Boyne River. The road would carry large trucks so that they would no longer have to travel through the village.

Sacred Sites International has protested the plan asking for undergrounding of the road because it would be most visible and audible from the Knowth site and within 500 meters of 44 archaeological and cultural sites. We have just heard from the Irish An Bord Pleanala, the government office that would grant permission for the road. They have asked for 12 detailed additions to the Environmental Impact Statement, including alternative road routes, alternative designs for what is being called the Slane Bypass, “a report of all geophysical and archaeological investigations carried out.”

Himalayan Fair Entrance

We had a great weekend at the Himalayan Fair, May 30 and 31, and we met some great people. The weather was perfect – nice and sunny and warm. The Fair was packed with over 60 merchants and non-profits offering goods and services from the Himalayan region.

Himalayan Handicrafts

There were booths with jewelry, clothing, weavings and rugs. Non-profit organizations included groups supporting schools and health clinics in the region.

One booth not to miss is the Henna Painting table. You can get your hands and arms painted at a reasonable price.

The food at the fair is always a treat. The longest line can always be found at the Nepalese Association of Northern California’s booth. They offer a big plate of vegetarian and beef momos, a type of pot-sticker, and salad for $5.

Momos Cooking

About 50 people signed our petition that we will be sending to the French Minister of Culture asking for him to allow an International Board of Scientists to oversee the preservation of Lascaux Cave, located in Montignac, France. The cave is being ruined by an invasion of black mold that was caused when a French worker installing a new climate control system brought bacteria into the cave.

The Sacred Sites International table was located across from another organization: The Dream of the Turquoise Bee and they are offering some wonderful small group tours to Tibet next summer. It is not too early to start planning ahead to travel with the Sacred Sites trip scheduled for July 31-August 16, 2011. The trip will be led by a former monk who will share his personal insights and connections with tour participants. We’re very excited about this trip which will include visits to several recently discovered sacred sites.

We had several conversations with people about how many sacred sites are located in remote locations and are only know to local people. A book that was referenced several times was Places in Between by Rory Stewart, a tale of his trek across Afghanistan where he encounters wonderful people and places including neglected sacred sites.

Another book that was mentioned to us, Benares Seen from Within by Richard Lannoy looks fabulous. It is expensive so check local libraries to see if they have a copy.

We met a historian, Robert Freund, who has dedicated his life to preserving the indigenous textiles of Mexico and we were reminded of how often arts and crafts relate to sacred traditions, oral histories, sacred symbols and ultimately to sacred places. Visit his website for resources, including films of traditional Mexican sacred festivals.

After nine years of controversy, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar today approved construction of the 130-turbine Cape Wind farm off Massachusetts.

“Cape Wind will be the United States’ first offshore wind farm,” Salazar said. “This will be the first of many projects up and down the Atlantic Coast.”

Traveling to Boston to announce his decision, Salazar said his department will require several modifications to the project to help protect the environment and cultural resources in the area. Acknowledging the intense battle that has been waged over the wind farm, Salazar said his decision was not an easy one and that he considered “many difficult questions.”

But he greenlighted the project because of the expected 1,000 construction jobs and up to 468 megawatts of power it will supply, roughly the equivalent of a medium-sized coal-fired power plant, Salazar said.

Noting that the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a federal advisory panel, earlier this month recommended not to approve the project, Salazar said that after “extended review and reflection” on the issue, he decided the wind farm as modified can move forward while preserving historic qualities in the area.

The project will be reduced from 170 to 130 turbines, and the developer now will be required to conduct marine archaeological surveys aimed at limiting the effects on submerged resources and to take specific steps to make the turbines less visible from the shore, including the coloring and lighting used for the turbines.

“These and other common-sense measures will allow us to strike the right balance,” Salazar said.

Saying that “there are people who will be unhappy with this decision,” Salazar disputed the argument that the project would harm the traditional uses and history of the area. He said the sound has long been a working landscape and is home to fishing, boating, bridges, cell towers and other development and that done right, the project fits with the tradition of sustainable development.

Noting the sunken oil platform leaking thousands of gallons into the Gulf of Mexico right now, Salazar said the country must move away from dependency on fossil fuels. Cape Wind will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 700,000 tons annually, he added.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) said construction on the project is expected to begin within a year. “This decision affirms that on balance, Cape Wind is good for our environment and good for our energy needs,” he said.

Cape Wind, the Boston company planning to build the project, said a month ago that it has signed an agreement to buy 130 wind turbines for the project from Siemens Energy Inc. The project site is about 5.2 miles from the mainland shoreline, 13.8 miles from Nantucket Island and 9 miles from Martha’s Vineyard.

Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune called the decision a “huge victory for clean energy” and expressed hope it will set the stage for streamlined but thorough reviews of future offshore wind projects.

“This project has undergone comprehensive and detailed environmental review, and we are confident that it can be developed responsibly, with minimal impacts to the marine environment,” Brune said. “The developer and the state government have worked tirelessly to ensure that this project is built in the most responsible location possible, and we applaud them for that.”

The controversial project has long caused a split among lawmakers. The late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) strongly opposed the Cape Wind project, and last week, Massachusetts GOP Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt wrote to Salazar asking him to forge a “consensus decision” rather than issue a final verdict on his own.

But Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) yesterday expressed support for the project. “I favor a wind project somewhere in Massachusetts, and I’ve said again and again, if the process decides that this is the one that it’s to be, I support moving forward,” Kerry said.

And a bipartisan group of six Northeastern governors wrote in favor of the project, saying a denial would make it “difficult, if not impossible” to site wind farms on the East Coast because most would be within view of historic properties.

Lawsuits coming

The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe earlier this week said it has hired an attorney “to fully prepare for administrative and judicial relief should the project move forward.” The tribe said it had identified more than 14 legal shortcomings under the National Historic Preservation Act alone and cited eight other laws it may argue also were violated. Pursuing legal action would protect the tribe’s own rights but also would help “avoid future devastation to tribal historic sites throughout Indian Country,” the tribe said.

The tribe noted that the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation earlier this month recommended that Salazar not approve the project because its effects on historic properties would be “pervasive, destructive, and, in the instance of seabed construction, permanent,” and unable to be adequately mitigated.

But Salazar said he expects the project will be able to withstand scrutiny. “There is no question that the review of the project, in my mind, has been thorough. It has been examined at all levels on all sides,” he said.

Vermont Law School professor Pat Parenteau also predicted legal challenges will be difficult for a project that has gone through nine years of reviews. “I think trying to find a fatal flaw in the record is going to be exceedingly difficult,” he said.

A law firm has already filed notice of its intent to challenge the project under the Endangered Species Act, likely on behalf of smaller wildlife or animal-rights groups, Parenteau said. But after examining the law as it relates to the Cape Wind project, Parenteau said he felt the evidence of impacts on endangered sea birds was “sketchy” and said he thinks the suit will be “an uphill fight.”

Parenteau also said challenges could come in the wake of the National Park Service’s finding that the sound is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. NPS had been weighing the claims from two American Indian tribes that Nantucket Sound is vital to their cultural and religious practices (E&ENews PM, Jan. 4).

But the National Historic Preservation Act only requires mitigation and does not stop projects, Parenteau said. “I think as long as the record reflects care and attention to the historic properties and at least has protocols on how to proceed with the project to protect artifacts and other things that are discovered, I think the project will probably survive a legal challenge on that ground,” he said.

The Minerals Management Service issued a positive final environmental impact statement for the project in January 2009, publishing it on the final business day of the previous administration. The Interior inspector general in February found that the department under President George W. Bush “unnecessarily rushed” its review of the proposed Cape Wind offshore wind farm in order to finish before the end of his administration (Greenwire, Feb. 4).

Reporter Darren Samuelsohn contributed.

What makes a place sacred? Is it the site itself or rituals and symbols? Perhaps all of these things are needed or perhaps an ordinary place can become sacred through the actions and intentions of the people who visit the place. This was the case recently, when Poles turned ordinary streets and public squares into instant sacred sites.

Polish people have been in a state of mourning since April 10th when a plane crash killed the Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria along with 94 other members of the Polish government and clergy. Ironically, they were traveling to a memorial being held on the 70th anniversary of the Katyn Massacre.

The Poles have a long tradition of lighting covered votive candles in churches and at Christmas and other holidays. Their first instinct was to bring lighted votive candles to public places as a way of expressing their grief over the tragic lose of prominent leaders. Ordinary places were transformed into sacred places as citizens made pilgrimages to public places where they performed a time-honored ritual of lighting votive candles and created sacred gathering places for public mourning.

It was the intentions of people, in this case, converging with ritual, symbol tradition and place to make the ordinary sacred.

His books include: The View Over Atlantis, New Light on the Ancient Mystery of Glastonbury and others.

John Michell day flyer 23.03.10

Nantucket Sound is sacred to the Wampanoag Tribe. Wampanoag means “People of the First Light” because they have sacred ceremonies which require an unobstructed view of the rising sun over Nantucket Sound. The sunrise rituals are also performed on the death of elders. Wampanoag off-shore burials would also be destroyed by the project. They have claimed the Sound as a Traditional Cultural Property and it has been determined eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

There are many other grounds to object to the Cape Wind Project, including environmental, safety and aesthetic. See Fact Sheet Below

Nantucket Sunrise

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Please ask the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to relocate the project to a place that will have fewer impacts on cultural resources.*

Before April 15th Write To:
John Fowler, Executive Director
Advisory Council on Historic Preservation
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 803
Old Post Office Building
Washington, DC 20004
(202) 606-8503 achp@achp.gov www.achp.gov

Nantucket Wind Facts