Gokstad Ship

Viking Ships! This ship was uncovered in Sandefjord, Norway. The 75-foot ship was found within a burial mound. It's suspected that the Elderly skeleton uncovered within the ship was that of Olaf Geirstad-Alf, Norwegian King, who ruled and conquered many lands. The Viking tradition of utilizing ships in their burial ceremonies seems so proper to me. These people spent a large part of their lives at sea, warring, trading, or simply travelling. To incorporate your life's work into you life's parting only seems natural, or fitting. It made me think about my own life, or the end of it rather. How could I make my own personal? I don't have a passion for sea life, so burial in a boat would be quite right. Perhaps I could be buried in my own means of transportation. I'm no King and my van isn't quite 75-feet long, but it's how I get from Point A to Point B. Transportation is how someone experiences new people and scenery. Without transportation, life is stationary and bland. People recognize my van, it's big, 70's style. It's accumulated various nicknames. Anyone who hangs out with me has ridden in it. I've driven it through the country, through the city, across bridges and borders. Transportation vehicles are vey meaningful, they're with you wherever you go. I definitely want to get buried in my huge G-20 Chevrolet Van.

Yakshi

Yakshi is a name for the Mauryan Spirit representing the productive forces of nature. The first Yakshi image here is the one I originally saw in the textbook. This statue was created in the 3rd century,

A Yakshi statue from the 11th or 12th century. Again, very light clothing.

A larger statue of the Yakshi can be found in the Malampuzha Garden. This statue is the Yakshi sitting on it's bottom, legs spread, with no clothes on.










All the images I find of the Yakshi are extremely exaggerated portrayals of the female figure. The majority of the figures seem organically unattainable, from my understanding of the female anatomy. I don't know what they were feeding women in the 3rd century, but without plastic surgery, I don't think they actually looked like this. This is an idealization. These figures look as if you cut and pasted different female figures together to, using the best parts of each, to get the "perfect body". A part of me is disgusted by these images because they are portraying something that's not real. People sexually interested in women may look at this at it makes their body image expectations of women to be ridiculous. While some women may look at this series of statues and wonder why they don't look this way, and may start to believe they're undesirable themselves. I have news for you, there is no such thing as a perfect body. You will never attain Yakshi status. No matter how much you work out, or diet. This figure is not attainable organically. The female figure is beautiful in plenty of different shapes, you can't generalize what an entire culture finds attractive. I think most women would be happier about their body image, if this Yakshi-Style body image didn't brainwash our minds since the 3rd century.