Eid al-Fitr

I know, I haven't posted in six months. Sorry about that. Anyway, today is Eid al-Fitr, when Muslims around the world celebrate the end of the month of Ramadan. Kamal Muftie Yafi posted this Mosque a couple of days ago that I thought would be appropriate for today.

Buddhist temple

I've been waiting to post this as it was built, and I think it's now finished. Timofey_tkachev has built this really amazing Buddhist temple. I do not know if this is patterned on a specific existing temple or simply built in the style of a Buddhist temple.


He also included some interior details.

Scriptorium du monastère de Dornenwal

Before Gutenberg invented his printing press, the only way to mass produce books was to painstakingly copy them by hand. In medieval monasteries, the scriptorium was the room where the monks copied and illustrated texts - the Bible and other religious works, but other works as well. B.K illustrated this with the Scriptorium du monastère de Dornenwal.

Anubis

Here are some more LEGO renditions of Anubis:

Pascal built this temple.


Sir Nadroj built these statues.


David Alexander Smith made Anubis and Ra.


This version was in the "LEGO: Secrets of the Pharoahs display at Science World Vancouver.

Taiwanese Temple

I'm not sure if BLACKWHITE's Taiwan street temple is based on a specific temple or not. It certainly reflects the structural style of a lot of buildings like the Longshan Temple or the Confucious Temple, but it doesn't exactly match any that I can find. It might just be a combination of details from many different sites. Of course, since the builder is (I'm pretty sure) from Taipei, this doesn't have to be a particularly famous structure, it could just be a small temple down the street that he goes past every day. Can someone translate the text in the first picture for me?

Tiny little ecumenical town

Jennifer Heaton and Nathan Stohlmann recently put on a micropolis display at a local library. The reason to note it here is that they included several religious structures. My favorite is Jennifer's Hindu temple, with the riot of color reflective of many real temples, but we also see a mosque, a Buddhist temple, a traditional cathedral, and a synagogue. Thanks, Peter, for the tip, and for the correction.

Jabba Sophia

In a little daily dose of the absurd, the Turkish Islamic community in Austria seems to have raised a fuss when they decided that LEGO set 9516, Jabba's Palace looks too much like either the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul or the Jami al-Kabir Mosque in Beirut. Since this is the abode of gangsters and terrorists (and pseudo-Buddhist monks?!?!?), they cried foul. An organization known as the Turkish Cultural Community has officially complained to LEGO about their racist and culturally insensitive depiction, and have threatened legal action. LEGO has responded, saying, essentially, "Um, did you ever hear of Star Wars? It came out only a few decades ago. Maybe you should look into it." Okay, that's my paraphrase, but if this organization is concerned about "racial prejudices and hidden suggestions against Orientals and Asians," they really need to meet a guy named Nute Gunray. BTW, meesa thinks some rastafarians are going to start complaining about set 7121 next.



Thank you to blog reader Michael for pointing this out to me. This has also been covered on such LEGO sites as Brickset, FBTB and HothBricks.

Mosque

The blogger at Shocks and Shoes built this mosque with her son.

Roman temple

AC Pin built this representation of a Roman temple. The interior holds an image of the god to whom the temple was dedicated, a small altar for incense or other small sacrifices, and a storage area. Most sacrifices took place in public in the area in front of the main temple.

Greek Temple

Matija Grguric made this beautiful Greek temple in the Doric style.

Temple of Anubis

In ancient Egypt, Anubis was seen as the guardian of the afterlife. He protected tombs and guided embalmers. He weighed the hearts of men and decided their ultimate fate. Anubis was generally depicted as a jackal-headed man or as a full jackal. Pasukaru designed this Temple of Anubis, featuring that great statue in the center.

Mosque

Jennifer Heaton built this beautiful micro mosque. As far as I know it is not based on a specific real mosque. Thanks to Peter Hoh for the heads-up.

Mithraeum

-[mikey]- built this Mithraeum, which is an underground temple for adherents of the mystery religion Mithraism. During the first through fourth centuries, many in the Roman Empire turned to this faith, drawing on the Persian deity Mithras. Little is known about the specific doctrines of Mithraism, as not writings survive, but the archaeological evidence gives some clues. Mithras was born out of a rock, or maybe a cave. He performed a miraculous act bringing water from a rock. He significantly killed a bull, as this scene is featured prominently in Mithraea. He met the sun god and feasted with him on the bull, and a common feast among the initiates of the faith seems to have been an important part of their ritualistic practice. Some have argued that Mithraism was an early rival to Christianity, but others say that Mithraism was not so widespread as to potentially become the dominant religion. Also, some claim that Christianity was simply a copy of Mithraism, and the story of Christ was patterned after the story of Mithras, but a little examination shows there is little to support this.

Hindu temple

Anu Pehrson presented this gorgeous Hindu temple at BrickCon this year, where she appropriately won 'Best Architectural Style'. She explains the details:

This is an Ancient Temple from India. This is the Nagara style of Architecture which was fully developed in the 10th century. Such Temples exist till date and are very much in use as a place of worship and pilgrimage. In Hinduism the devotee offers flowers and fruit to the 'deity' as a form of worship. Therefore we always see stalls selling garlands, flowers and fruit outside a temple. A visit to the Temple is not a sombre event, and could be and evening outing for the family or a 'picnic' Therefore one finds a 'fair' like atmosphere around the entrance.

Pray

Whatever your faith tradition, take time this morning to pray for those lost ten years ago today.

Tibetan temple

Matija Grguric made this beautiful Tibetan temple.

Mosque

\/\/\/\/\/\ made this mosque.

Small church

Kris Kelvin made this small church for Brother Robotius, the last space missionary.

Tower of Babel

They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
The LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built.
The LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.

So goes the story of the Tower of Babel, from Genesis 11. Arthur Gugick built a great microscale version.



One note, when you follow that link, Arthur has a backstory that this is based on some archaeological evidence. Despite his normal penchant for building extremely accurate versions of real structures, he's pulling our collective legs here. This is actually his own design. I have to admit that he got me on this one - I was searching around on line to find more details about the fictional archaeological findings he cites. Given that I've previously blogged a MOC of the Etemenanki Ziggurat, I figured it was all too reasonable that some other structure had been found that may have been the source for the biblical tale.

Olympians

I've recently been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians books, which are pretty fun, if a little light. This has me thinking about the Greek Pantheon. Auric mad a micro Olympus for the recent Mini Castle Contest over on Classic-Castle, and also representations of the gods.




These also reminded me of a much earlier version of the Olympians by Leah Cardacci.