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Description
OK..you simply have to look at this one full scale, or you miss the point. It was taken at the ruins of the ancient city of Ayuthaya in Thailand. The Burmese sacked the entire city well over 200 hundred years ago. They chopped off the heads of many of the stone Buddha figures in the city, searching for the golden Buddhas that were sometimes to be found inside..an attempt by the Thais to hide these great treasures. The vast amount of gold that the Burmese found was carted back to Rangoon, where it still covers the huge pagoda that towers over that city. The Thais of the once great Ayuthaya kingdom were either killed, or taken away as slaves. The Buddhas without heads, and sometimes without arms..stand, and sometimes are strewn, all but forgotten amidst the fabulous ruins of what was once one of the world's great cities. It really stirs the emotions to see it first hand, and I'm trying to convey a bit of that here. This particular Buddha head somehow ended up against an ancient wall of the city, with a tree growing all around it and around the brick wall..the tree seeming to almost cradle the head in it's hands. I couldn't stop looking at it. But there is something I had not previously noticed until I began preparing this photo for posting...take a really close look at the eyes. I absolutely did not do anything at all to them with the software. Yes..this is a very, very spiritual place.

Description
OK..you simply have to look at this one full scale, or you miss the point. It was taken at the ruins of the ancient city of Ayuthaya in Thailand. The Burmese sacked the entire city well over 200 hundred years ago. They chopped off the heads of many of the stone Buddha figures in the city, searching for the golden Buddhas that were sometimes to be found inside..an attempt by the Thais to hide these great treasures. The vast amount of gold that the Burmese found was carted back to Rangoon, where it still covers the huge pagoda that towers over that city. The Thais of the once great Ayuthaya kingdom were either killed, or taken away as slaves. The Buddhas without heads, and sometimes without arms..stand, and sometimes are strewn, all but forgotten amidst the fabulous ruins of what was once one of the world's great cities. It really stirs the emotions to see it first hand, and I'm trying to convey a bit of that here. This particular Buddha head somehow ended up against an ancient wall of the city, with a tree growing all around it and around the brick wall..the tree seeming to almost cradle the head in it's hands. I couldn't stop looking at it. But there is something I had not previously noticed until I began preparing this photo for posting...take a really close look at the eyes. I absolutely did not do anything at all to them with the software. Yes..this is a very, very spiritual place.