I snapped this photo yesterday at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian @ DC. The bronze statue “Sacred Rain Arrow” was created by sculptor Allan Houser, who was inspired by a story told to him as a child by a Chiricahua Apache elder. During an unforgiving drought, a young Apache warrior was chosen by his people to make the journey to a medicine man. The man performed his rituals and blessed the young warrior’s bow and arrows. The young Apache knelt down, raised his bow toward the sky, and shot the sacred arrow containing his people’s prayer for rain high into the Spirit World.
I ‘greyed’ out the background to emphasize the bronze statue. Feel free to use the photo for whatever purpose but kindly give credit 🙂
Mountains. They grace the canvases of many artists. Their thundering sizes are whispered on photographs. The boots of explorers attempt to conquer them. Geologists peek into them to unlock the secrets of the past. They are considered sacred to many religions – even as a God themselves. No matter the theme, mountains cast their shadows into the cultural imaginations. Mountains visually rise up in our minds as much as they do on our exalted landscapes.
“Mountains are the cathedrals where I practice my religion.” —Mountaineer Anatoli Boukreev
The Weight of Mountains is a fantastic short film that poetically tells the story of the birth & death of mountains. They are essentially birthed by uplift and “die” through the processes of weathering — physical weathering and chemical weathering. The film was created by filmmaker, illustrator, and composer Temujin Doran, who was inspired by the works of British geographer Sir Laurence Dudley Stamp. It was filmed in Iceland over the course of a year. Please enable HD and view in fullscreen 🙂
