Golden elephant

I went to Samye Ling Tibetan Monastery today with my photography group, Wifie. Samye Ling is in the middle of nowhere in south-west Scotland, about two hours drive from Edinburgh. I've visited Samye Ling a couple of times before, and the thing that always stikes me the most is how incongruous it is. You drive through remote green moorland and are then confronted by golden buddhas, stupas, prayer flags and a temple with a golden roof, all in the middle of the Scottish countryside with its green hills and trees. There is quite a lot of building work going on at present and the temple was in the middle of one of the contruction projects, so a bit spoilt for photos, but I think it will look great once that phase has been completed. The main car park used to be exactly in front of the temple, but new buildings now surround the temple on three sides with a central courtyard which gives a very different feel.

It was a showery day and quite grey most of the time, so I liked this shiny golden elephant which was on the base of one of the statues of Buddha. I'm afraid I can't tell you about the significance of the date and time - I should have asked someone.