A Hindu temple with St. Thomas Basilica (Catholic Church) behind.
St. Thomas Basilica--one of the most beautiful buildings I've seen in Chennai. According to tradition, Thomas, one of the 12 apostles of Jesus Christ came to Chennai in 52 C.E. He was assassinated with a spear in 72 C.E. This is one of three Catholic Churches in the world that is said to be built on the tomb of an apostle. The other two are the Basilica of St. Peter, built over the tomb of St. Peter in Rome and the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela built over the tomb of St. James in Spain.
Although this is the tomb of Thomas, I believe that most of his remains were moved to the Middle East centuries ago.
Santome Beach on the Bay of Bengal. I've been told that there are nice beaches in India, just apparently not here in Chennai. Going to the beach to sunbath and swim is not really in the culture here.
Fishing.
Fishing nets.
More pictures can be found here.
Also, by special request from Sue, I've uploaded a short, very non-professional video of my apartment which can be found here. Although small, if local people were living here, this place could probably house a family of five (or more). Rich, spoiled American...I know.
4 comments:
You must have heard of ancient Christianity in India in your BYU course about historic Christianity of which excerpts you had emailed me.
I also loved this pretty nice white Basilica which must have reminded you a small Mormon Temple. The intense white and the shape of the bell tower made me think of your temples.
It would be interesting to understand the reasons of "the garbage and debris of the city". Is it due to polytheism ?
Your blog is a great job, very interesting to read and watch. I enjoy all your pondered comments which underline in few words the core of the situation as well as the pictures which speak a lot.
I would like to share it with my niece, but her English is not yet sufficient.
(She spent one month this summer in Boston, in a school of English and was enthusiastic. I spoke her about my visits to your church, your offices at Hancock and then at HBS. I hope she will experience the same rich relations with other people when she comes back.)
I love how you just take pics of random people.....
I heard Goa was nice - a lot like Hawaii. I heard that from an Indian from Goa though, not a Hawaiian.
Hi Pierre,
I think the state of the environment has more to do with lack of resources than with any specific set of beliefs. I've been to places in Africa that are very Christian and also very polluted and I've been told that there are many dirty places in Latin America, which is also very Christian. Even in Boston, it is only recently that the Charles River has been clean enough to swim in (although I still wouldn't recommend it). Unfortunately, it seems that people the world over aren't very good at taking care of their environments and this is exacerbated in places that have less infrastructure or fewer resources.
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