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Thursday 9 May 2013

Strange Fruit

Istanbul, Turkey

What this guy does is close his eyes and whirl about in the same direction for ten minutes. I would be dizzy.


The dance (sema) represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to the "Perfect". Turning towards the truth, the follower grows through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the "Perfect". He then returns from this spiritual journey as a man who has reached maturity and a greater perfection, able to love and to be of service to the whole of creation.

For them it is the Sema
of this world and the other.
Even more for the circle of dancers
within the Sema
Who turn and have, in their midst,
their own Ka'aba.


Creative lamps and lampshades are found everywhere in the markets.


There are 20 million (more or less) living in Istanbul. It is thought to be the most populous city in Europe (although part of the city's people live across the Bosporus in Asia.



The Ottoman empire had a strange method of selecting leaders. The existing leaders would keep all potential rivals (sons and brothers) imprisoned in luxurious surroundings  until the current leader died or became incapacitated. This resulted in the new leader being totally inexperienced, naive and debauched. What a strange place the world would be had North and South America been colonized by the Ottomen.....Selem the Sot is the classic example of an Ottoman leader who made even Richard Nixon look good in comparison.


If being in crowds makes you uneasy, you should probably avoid Istanbul.


A street vendor squeezed the juice from this strange fruit for us....It was a classic case of the juice being worth the squeeze....


We haven't yet been in any of the mosques or museums. We have six more days to explore Istanbul.


Pastries in the window...


..and dresses...



1 comment:

  1. Don't forget the underwater Cisterns (sp) in the center ...we really like that...SIL

    ReplyDelete