Historical Sights

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 There is a certain way that Hindu temples are supposed to look, a certain way the "idols" are supposed to look. There may be some flexibility, but, in the end, they should look like at least one other temple or "idol" that has come before. 

There is power in this system. Knowing that you are seeing something that has a long history, and knowing that history as well as a practitioner of Hindu is likely to know their religion, provides a deep sense of connection with those who have come before you. Let me provide a non-religious example.



Schönbrunn Palace was once the imperial residence of the Habsburgs, the ruling family of – what else? – the Habsburg Empire. Its life began as a simple hunting lodge, but was quickly elevated to the primary summer residence of the imperial family. Dozens of babies were born in its rooms, dozens of the sick and elderly died. A young Mozart played for the imperial family, an equally young Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna – perhaps better known as Marie Antoinette – among them. When I toured the palace in my junior year of high school, it was this last fact that struck me most. 


Thinking about what would eventually happen to the girl who once walked those halls was chilling. The realization that someone who has come to be seen as the embodiment of frivolous leaders was once a child is an odd one, and the simultaneous realization that she existed in the same space you now do is even odder. She was wrested away from all of that and brought to a foreign land. Her name was changed. She hardly ever saw any of her family members from the time she left Austria to the time she was executed. Her family was unable to do anything to help her, though she allegedly received many disapproving letters from her mother throughout her time as the French queen.


Though Maria Antonia spent little of her life at Schönbrunn, she still seems to walk the halls. Some part of her lingers. Perhaps because Schönbrunn has essentially gone unchanged in all that time. When we look at the palace, we see exactly what she would have seen – even the gardens, apparently the young Maria Antonia’s favorite spot.



Comments

  1. Jonathan Brumberg-KrausApril 19, 2022 at 7:43 AM

    Are you in a sense suggesting that there's a "feel" to the history of a place that is really palpable, but mediated through the sense of vision. It's as if what you saw at Schönbrunn Palace evoked memories of what those walls must have "seen" when Marie Antoinette was a little girl living there, and in turn, what she herself must have seen.

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