[Buddha-l] Buddhist stupa to be moved from NM Petroglyph Park

[Jo]

Heh!  
I visited the GC once at age 18, with Mom, Dad, and sister. My maternal aunt
was working for the Red Cross Disaster service at Window Rock,  helping the
Navajo feed sheep that had been snowed in over the previous winter. I guess
the RC was working on other stuff there too because we visited the GC in
summer, and she joined us. We were on the north rim amid the Kaibab Forest.
It was so beautiful--this was 1948. Stayed in the grand old hotel built
there (I think) by the RR--heard they tore it down and built another one
some years ago. Standing on some of those rims must be sort of like being in
space--everything is so vast and overwhelming, an experience where the buzz
word awesome really fits.
I feel really sorry about the Christian plaques stuck around the place. They
weren't there in the forties. After all, there aren't any plaques (are
there?) attached to the Vishnu Buddha and Brahma towers, or those dedicated
to Manu, Kongfutze, et al! 
The record seems to be that it was a guy named Dutton who applied the exotic
names, not Powell...but maybe that's an occluded record.
Cheers
Joanna

------------------------------------

On Behalf Of bob Woolery
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 9:27 PM


Nothing new.  My father worked at GC in the mid '30s.  The "drunken" ranch
hand cavorting on a promontory over a mile drop for the enjoyment of
tourists was a daily event. 

bob Woolery, DC
stateoftheartchiro.com
326 deAnza dr
Vallejo, CA 94589
(707) 557-5471

-----Original Message-----
From: buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com
[mailto:buddha-l-bounces at mailman.swcp.com] On Behalf Of Richard Hayes
Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2012 6:40 AM
To: Buddhist discussion forum
Subject: Re: [Buddha-l] Buddhist stupa to be moved from NM Petroglyph Park

On Sep 26, 2012, at 11:01 , jo <05jkirk at gmail.com> wrote:

> A point to note about both authors on these two links is that neither 
> one
of them deign to mention that there is a 'Buddha Cloister' also in the Grand
Canyon.

That's interesting. I had never realized that before. That's a location that
somehow escaped my attention.

The first time I walked across the Grand Canyon, I was ten years old, and I
did it twice more as a young adult. All three times I was with my dad, who
pointed out all main the geological features. I just remember him saying
that the formations of the Grand Canyon so impressed John Wesley Powell that
he named them after Hindu deities. He also said that Powell lost a boat and
lots of supplies and I think a few men in a canyon that he then named Dirty
Devil Canyon. Some of his men were spooked by the name and Powell made up
for his reference to the devil by naming the next place he saw Bright Angel.
I have no idea where my dad picked up these stories, but I do know he read
all the journals of John Wesley Powell and was fascinated by the early
explorations of the Grand Canyon, so he may have gotten the stories from
those writings.

Last time I went to the Grand Canyon, I saw all those plaques placed there
by evangelical Christians, and I was so horrified that I almost forgot to
look at the beautiful scene before me. I was also depressed by how the Grand
Canyon is being loved to death. Trails on which one used to encounter no
more than half a dozen people in a day now have thousands of people running
around on them, and stepping off them to get spectacular photos. Not long
after I saw the depressing commentary about Noah's ark, I saw a model or
movie star out doing poses on a promontory while a gaggle of photographers
too photos of her. I don't think John Wesley Powell ever could have
envisioned that the Grand Canyon would become a backdrop for an
advertisement for designer jeans.

Richard Hayes
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