SkyScrappers of Kula lampur (Pictorial Blog)

Thai Buddhist Chetwan Temple Jalan Gassing Kuala lampur

08-12-17

Wat Chetawan is a Thai temple in Petaling District, Selangor, Malaysia. The temple is situated at Jalan Pantai, off Jalan Gasing in Petaling Jaya. It was built in 1957 and officiated by the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the King of Thailand at the time.

In Kuala Lumpur, we rented a room in a small guest house located in the peaceful vicinity of Jalan Gassing. The nearest LRT station Taman Jaya was nearly a two-kilometer walking distance from our place. That two-kilometer walk was a very interesting one;  first used to come a small market, where we used to do daily dinner at Sri Paandi Gassing restaurant, which was a  south Indian hotel with a very humble and cooperative staff belonging to Tamil Nadu. They always gave us a favor by giving us extra food. Then there was a peaceful road that went straight to Taman Jaya Lake & Park. There was a Temple located at the beginning of this road.  This was a Thai Buddhist Chetwan Temple. I visited it on the last day of my stay in KL. 

Masjid Daerah Tapah

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The name "Tapah" is said to be originated from the name of a fresh water fish, "Ikan Tapah". The scientific name of the fish is Wallago attu. The locals said that the name has been taken from the Malay-Perak dialect word which means "no worry".

The Batang Padang River flows through this town. Major neighbouring towns are Kampar and Bidor. The Lata Kinjang waterfall is about 18 km from Tapah on the road to Chenderiang. It is an impressive series of cascades down a 100 m drop. The falls can be seen from the North–South Expressway.

Tapah is located on the trunk road between Kuala Lumpur and Ipoh. There is an entrance to the North–South Expressway at Tapah. This town is also widely considered as the main entry point into the old Cameron Highlands route, which is a winding and narrow road uphill. The nearest train station is Tapah Road.

Khawaja Mehmud's Shrine

 25 12 2014
 01 05 2013

The high dome of the shrine of Khawaja Mehmud alias Hazrat Eshan is located to the west of Begampura and north of the University of Engineering the Technology. Khawaja Mehmud was a native of Bukhara. At age 20, he ventured out of his town after receiving his education in the royal college and becoming a renowned scholar at such a young age. On the way, he made thousands of disciples in Herat, Kabul, and Kandahar. He came to Kashmir in Akbar's time from where Jahangir took him to Agra. In Shah Jahan's time, he made Lahore his residence. He laid out his mausoleum in his own life time and upon his death in 1642 was buried here. Wazir Khan, governor of Lahore under Shah Jahan, held him in high esteem and would spend from his own wealth for the upkeep of the saint's shrine. During the viceroyalty of Nawab Zakariya Khan, who lived at Begampura, the mausoleum was at the height of its popularity.

The octagonal building of the tomb is surmounted by a high dome. The entrance is from the west and stairs provide access to the top of the building. Inside the tomb, in the center, there is a large platform upon which is the grave of Khawaja Mehmud. Another grave in the northeast belongs to Baha-ud-Din, son of Khawaja Mehmud.

West of the mausoleum is a beautiful mosque topped by three domes. The central dome being larger. The mosque is of the same vintage as the tomb, however, it has been much renovated of late. During the reign of Ranjit Singh, General Gulab Singh established his cantonment near the mausoleum and knocked down the surrounding walls of the tomb enclosure. He filled the mausoleum with magazine and removed its marble. Brick-sellers stole the bricks from the courtyard of the mosque and even the graves themselves.

At the advent of British rule, the mausoleum was cleared and buildings of the tomb and the adjoining mosque repaired. Currently, the tomb is white washed from the outside and so is the mosque. However, on the inside of the tomb, one can still see the beautiful fresco paintings of floral and geometric designs.

Shrine of Syed Siraj-ud-Din Gilani also known Kala Burj

26-11-2017

The shrine of Syed Siraj-ud-Din Gilani is located close to the Tomb of Mir Niamat Khan, just south of Ghorey Shah Road and east of Bhogiwal Road. The 300-year-old mausoleum has ruthlessly resurfaced in modern cement in overzealous attempts to renovate. 

The dome is sloping like that of Mian Mir's shrine. The walls were originally covered with lime plaster which over the years had turned black, giving it the name "Kala Burj" or Black Tower. 

The building is of quadrangular form, and the north, east, and west sides have latticed brickwork, to the height of a man, applied to the walls. The entrance is provided by a flight of steps to the south. 

The grave of the saint is in an underground chamber. There is a small door along the southern face of the stairs, providing access to the underground chamber. The saint died in 1727 AD during the reign of Muhammed Shah.

Old Picture

Anarkali Tomb

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Among the earliest extant Mughal tombs, Anarkali's sepulcher is also one of the most significant Mughal buildings of the period.The tomb, to the south of Lahore's Old City, is part of the compound of Punjab Secretariat on Lower Mall, and is located at the rear of Chief Secretary's Office. Since the tomb is utilized as the Punjab Archives, access to the building is restricted. Make sure that you plan a visit to it during office hours, otherwise you will find the gates to the secretariat locked and the sentry at the gate unwilling to allow even a peep.

Not only is it a "most ingeniously planned octagonal building", it is a memorial to the love-legend centering around prince Salim (later emperor Jahangir), and Anarkali (pomegranate blossom) who belonged to the harem of emperor Akbar, Salim's father. Although Mughal sources are silent about Anarkali, European contemporary travelers such as William Finch related the popular gossip rife at the time, mentioning her as Akbar's "most beloved wife."
Latif, quoting popular legend, says that Sharf-un-Nisa or Nadira Begam, with the title of Anarkali, was found giving a return smile to the prince by the emperor in the mirrors of his palace. Suspecting an intrigue or worse, Akbar ordered Anarkali to be interred alive. Accordingly, she was placed in an upright position and buried alive in a masonry wall, brick by brick. The prince, who must have been devastated, on succeeding the throne in 1605, "had an immense superstructure raised over her sepulcher" 16 years after her death.

The tomb, once set off as the centerpiece of a beautifully laid out garden setting, is today hemmed in by the structures surrounding it. However, it is this tomb which gifted the name Anarkali to the whole area when the British first set up a cantonment here. The monument employs a popular format using an octagonal plan, its sides alternately measuring 44 feet and 30 feet. Architecturally, however, it is unique in its utilization of semi-octagonal towers dominating each corner, rising well above the walls and terminated with cupolas over pavilion-like kiosks. A low pitched dome—among the earliest Mughal examples of double-dome—spans the central chamber and is carried on a drum or neck. The lower shell of the dome is constructed of small bricks in five stages or rings. The central dome is supported inside by eight arches 12 feet 3 inches thick. It is a masterpiece of solid masonry work of the early Mughal period.

Over the last couple of hundred years, the tomb has been put to several uses. In the first half of 19th century it served as the residence of Ranjit Singh's French general Jean Baptiste Ventura's Armenian wife. From 1847 it was used as offices for the clerical staff of the first British Resident, Henry Lawrence. From 1851 it was the venue for divine service, while in early 1857 it was consecrated as St. James' Church, later being declared a Pro-Cathedral.

The sarcophagus made of pure marble of extraordinary beauty and exquisite workmanship is, in view of 19th century scholars, "one of the finest pieces of carving in the world." It was put away in one of the side bays when the building was first converted into a church. It was then placed in the spot from which the altar had been removed rather than being replaced in its original central position. In 1940 the grave was found intact in its original position, five feet below the present floor. From accounts of its discovery, the grave is apparently of plastered brick-work, inscribed on the top and sides with the ninety-nine attributes of God and below with a Persian couplet. The Persian couplet inscribed on the sarcophagus has been translated by Latif into English. "Ah! could I behold the face of my beloved once more, I would give thanks unto my God until the day of resurrection," and is signed "Majnoon Salim Akbar" or "The profoundly enamoured Salim, son of Akbar" and expresses Jahangir's intense passion for the beautiful Anarkali. No doubt the two inscribed dates 1008 [1599] and 1024 [1615] refer to the date of Anarkali's death and the completion of the sepulcher respectively. Historians now believe the tomb to be that of Sahab-e-Jamal, one of the wives of Jahangir, who died in Lahore in 1599.

Today the monument appears as a simple, whitewashed massive brick structure, robbed of its decorative veneer, and its apertures and aiwan profiles filled in to serve its varied usage. However, the internal spaces, inspite of the alteration, are exciting, the viewing of which coupled with the amazing treasure of archival material of Punjab Archives—set up as Punjab Record Office in 1891, when the cathedral was shifted to its new premises—is wonderfully rewarding. For those interested in history of the British Punjab, it is a treasure trove, for, along with rare images and other documents, files dating back to the earliest days of British administration are carefully and meticulously maintained here.

Foggy Night and Visit to Hazrat shams-e- tabrizi Shrine

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Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra) ad. 1248 was an Iranian Sufi mystic born in the city of Tabriz in Iranian Azerbaijan. He is responsible for initiating Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (rah), usually known as Rumi in the West, into Islamic mysticism, and is immortalized by Rumi's poetry collection Diwan-e Shams-e Tabriz-i ("The works Shams of Tabriz ") (Ra). Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra) lived together with Rumi in Koyna in present day Turkey, for several years, and is also known to have traveled to Damascus in modern Syria.After several years with Rumi, Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra) disappeared from the pages of history quite suddenly. It is unknown what happened to him after his departure from Rumi, and there are several sites that claim to his grave, one in a remote region of the Karakoram in Northern Pakistan at a place called Ziarat, near the village Shimshall, and another in the same city that was buried in Rumi: Konya, Turkey. Rumi's love for Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra), and his grief at his death, found expression in an outpouring of music, dance, and lyrics. Rumi himself left Konya and went searching for Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra), traveled far Damascus before realizing that Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra) and himself were, in fact, "the same" As the years passed, Rumi attributed more and more of his own poetry to Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Raz), as a sign of love for his deceased friend and master. In fact, it soon becomes clear in reading Rumi that Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Raz), was elevated to a symbol of God's love for humanity, and that Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra), was a Sun ("Shams" is Arabic for "sun") shining the Light of God on Rumi.The image of Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra), which is transmitted in the later Sufi tradition is that of an ecstatic wandering mystic who theophanic teacher for Rumi. While the relationship between Rumi and Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Raz), is certainly one of the finest in the history of Islamic mysticism, the person of Shams is different from the image being projected onto him. The Maqalat Shams (oral discourses), which are now provided, Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra), comes across as a scholar, who was especially interested in proving his devotion to the Prophet Muhammad (S). He repeatedly criticizes philosophers and other mystics who tried to elevate themselves above the prophet of Islam.In the contemporary period Tabrezi Shams, there is confusion over the name "Shams" as there were three persons existing at the same time. This was Tabrezi Shams, Ismaili PIR (Dai) and Ismaili Imam Shamsuddin Shams Sabzwari.The tomb in Multan, Pakistan is Pir Shams Sabzwari, but it is known as Shams Tabrez. Nobody knows exactly where the tomb of Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(GAC) is located.

Miracles Performed by Hazrat Shams Tabrez (Ra)

Maulana (religious teacher) Rumi could never have become Maula Rumi

Without submitting to Spiritual Guide Hazrat Shams-e Tabrizi-(Ra)