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I started my trans-African trip in South Africa, more specifically Cape Town. When I got there, the Parliament of World Religions was taking place.

South Africa

Raphaelk
2004-02-02 20:11:54

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I started my trans-African trip in South Africa, more specifically Cape Town. When I got there, the Parliament of World Religions was taking place. This meant that many prominent religious leaders were in town, as well as a bevy of bizarre fanatics, spiritualists and representatives of almost any religion one could think of and many one can't or wouldn't want to. I saw a number of these delegates inside and around the main exhibition centre where the event was taking place A spin off from this was that the Festival of World Sacred Music took place at the Kirstenbosch Botanical gardens, a lovely setting in a natural setting with Table Mountain as a backdrop. The keynote speaker before the concert started was the fourteenth Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism (photo). He spoke eloquently and interestingly, particularly about the third millennium (it was in December 1999) and was at times very funny, especially when he implied that the Queen Mother was a slut.

When I visited Table Mountain, the impressive flat topped mountain in Cape Town there were a number of PWR (Parliament of World Religions) delegates having a look around occasionally stopping for a bit of a pray. At one time a bunch got together for some group worshipping (photo 1). I was talking to one of the PWR organisers at this time, and we both agreed we had never witnessed such a competitive display of humility before, as they all tried to out pray each other without making a direct reference to any deity.

After witnessing the strange human spectacle, it was time for a natural one and the sunset from the top of the mountain with the wispy cloud of the 'Table Cloth' was certainly spectacular (photo 2).

In my explorations of the Cape area I visited vineyards, where excellent wines are produced at low prices. There was also wildlife to observe, including the penguins at Boulder Beach (photo) which seemed quite desensitised to humans, ignoring us most of the time.

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