The wonderful folklore of Bhutan
Crazy monks, strange creatures roaming the mountains, thunder dragons, flying gurus, and penis art. Bhutan is a little bit special and so is its folklore.
The church of bones and lost souls
In the old streets of Naples, there’s a small church of bones, mystery and cult worship – an offshoot of the Neapolitan Cult of the Dead.
In search of happiness – Bhutan to Glasgow
Do you want to be happy? Are you on a journey? The search for happiness and wellbeing has turned into lifestyle aspiration. But do we really want to be happy in the way we think we do?
Sunrise to sunset: walking Kolkata
Kolkata has been called a city of furious energy, the city of joy, a dying city. It is teeming, intense, broken and modern, old British empire and a stronghold of Bengali pride and culture. It’s crumbling and developing, wealthy and poor. It’s digested a tragic history but has a unique soul where it’s almost obligatory…
The mystery of a Scottish minister and a secret world of fairies
Robert Kirk’s research into fairy folklore is still important today. Was this 17th century Scottish minister punished for prying a little too closely into the world of fairies and elves?
Protected! The goddesses of explorers and psychogeographers
Good news for the endless road walkers, night prowlers, urban explorers, psychogeographers, explorers, threshold stalkers. We have our gods and goddesses and we are protected!
5 curious, religious and macabre things to do with a human skull
Skulls are fascinating and repelling, dead yet alive with those large eye sockets filled with shadow and that endless rictus grin. The skull has different talismanic meanings across all cultures, and the power to make a serious statement. Here are five curious and often macabre uses of a human skull.
Hinterland: St Peter’s Seminary ruins revisited
The brutalist religious ruins transformed into a mesmerising sound and light show.
Why non-believers go to church
Music, community, sherry, a snooze. Even atheists or agnostics can find themselves drifting in and out of churches for all kinds of reasons.
Bagan temple ruins: eBiking a medieval Buddhist kingdom
As far as the eye can see they rise-up in their thousands from the burnt arid plains, hollow temples and stupas of a medieval Buddhist kingdom, edged by the distant mountains to the east and the Irrawaddy River to the west.
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