Vietnam’s ancient whale temples | Hacker News Reader

Vietnam’s ancient whale temples

atlasobscura.com

94 pointsPetiver13 comments

I read Moby Dick two years ago and that book literally shook me to the core. Since then, I cannot help but see any whale reference as imbued with great philosophical and metaphysical meaning. However one of the most interesting aspects of the novel was that even as the White Whale took on mythological proportions, the descriptions of whaling and of whales were discussed in precise, scientific terms. Melville kept everything grounded, even as he reached for the heights.

I like that this team of scientists is, in a way, doing the same blending (rigorous science + religious belief).

but the whaling ship of Captain Ahab is an anti-temple.. the book as I recall it, is a journey through pain, danger and injustice.. building to the journey of dealing with the mental decline of pure authority. It is a psychological tale, but not with anything Divine in it all .. (I read it a long while ago)

Good points! I agree with your interpretation, but given that it is a novel I see several layers that are simultaneously true.

One layer is the psychological drama as you indicate.

Another layer is what I would call Captain Ahab's attempt to exact revenge on God. He is a man who lost his leg. He has a "crucifixion in his face". There are various passages in which the injustice of life is discussed. He seems to become a Icarus-type character: one who flies too close to the sun, to pierce the "pasteboard masks". As to how the whale can be interpreted in divine/mythological terms, there are various passages that make biblical illusions. Off the top of my head, one such passage is the chapter on the face of the whale and that it is impossible to look a whale in the eyes: the face is so larger that one cannot in fact behold the whale "face to face", which has echoes in the Old Testament and the inability to behold God face to face.

I believe both interpretations are valid and are not exclusionary. There are so many layers!

aha - I forgot about the Old Testament character names.. I agree about layers, or multiple interpretations definitely.. Odd trivia:

The name of the coffee chain "Starbucks" comes from the first mate Starbuck. There is no relation between this name and coffee. (jp-wikipedia)

Several South East Asian cultures also create temples on the spot a meteorite impacts. I visited one in Thailand that even had the iron meteorites on display that impacted. The visitors to the temple would put money and incense on the meteorites, and then touch it and ask for good favor.

I spent two years driving a motorbike all over Vietnam. Totally missed this goodness! Will definitely have to check it out when I go back again.

I wonder what an algorithm like DALL.E would come up with if given a caption about a whale temple. I doubt it would be more beautiful than some of the pictures in this article. The reason is the lack of general reference to other cases, because there is none or they are very infrequent.

Why wonder? https://www.craiyon.com/

At least on my pass, that is definitely two concepts that Craiyon does not think go together at all. YMMV.

Well that’s craiyon, what does DALLE do with it though

I kind of agree with both angles. My take is that AI generated images need to be more in the average of available information to match expectations of people, who normally have limited knowledge. AI generated images come from a sample of the real, too. (Sorry this feels off topic).

I usually dislike the gonzo writing style at the start, but I think it fits well with Ancient temples, it's a good way to describe visiting them.

Most accounts of religion are kind of sterile. Like want to dissect it.

I agree. I think most religions systems are chiefly concerned with our 'internal world', which is fundamentally subjective so doesn't fit well into a modern scientist framework. Thus objective descriptions tend to be sterile.

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