This image of patterns and reflections at Wat Rajabophit, Bangkok, Thailand, comes from Taiger808′s photostream. The temple was constructed in 1869 under the command of King Rama V.

Post from 7 Junipers, Tom Christensen's guide to Asian art and culture.
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Photo Wednesday: Wat Rajabophit

This photo is from Reuters:

Here’s a full view of the temple, via Travel Happy:

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Post from 7 Junipers, Tom Christensen's guide to Asian art and culture.
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Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew

This image of the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the seventeenth century, is from Stuck in Customs‘s photostream.

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Post from 7 Junipers, Tom Christensen's guide to Asian art and culture.
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Photo Wednesday: the Taj Mahal

The Huntington Gardens in San Marino near Pasadena, California, recently opened their new Chinese-themed garden, the Garden of Flowing Fragrance (Liu Fang Yuan). (Last time I was there the garden was under construction, but I will make a point to see it when I am in LA this May for BEA, the book publishing trade fair.)

The garden is inspired by the Chinese literati tradition of gardens as places of contemplation. Such gardens were seen as analogous to scroll paintings — as one walks through the garden carefully arranged scenes are encountered as if a scroll was being unfolded. Architecture and allusion are important aspects of these gardens.

The Huntington explains the garden’s name on their website:

The garden’s name, Liu Fang Yuan, has both literal and symbolic meanings. The words liu fang, or “flowing fragrance,” refer to the scent of flowers and trees, including the pine, lotus, plum, and other native Chinese plants found here. The Chinese poet Cao Zhi (192–232) first used the words in his “Rhapsody on the Luo River Goddess” to describe how the fragrance of flowers trailed in the goddess’s wake as she walked among the scented flora. And liu fang echoes the name of famed Ming dynasty painter Li Liufang (1575–1629), known for his refined landscapes.

Shown is an image from the Huntington’s site, of the Terrace of the Jade Mirror.

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Post from 7 Junipers, Tom Christensen's guide to Asian art and culture.
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Huntington’s Garden of Flowing Fragrance

Here is a trailer for a film about Ai Weiwei’s Bird’s Nest Olympic Stadium in Beijing, being constructed by Herzog and de Meuron.

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Post from 7 Junipers, Tom Christensen's guide to Asian art and culture.
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Bird’s Nest