a few of my favorite things

shalom

'peace' in Hebrew, 

spoken in Israel and many other countries

Jesus and the lion and the lamb

www.holzbau-brunner.de

kershisnik nativity

www.commonconsent.com

A few of my favorite things....

like God's chosen people, the Jews -

and the wonderful nativity painting above.

I can just try to imagine all the angels and how excited and full of wonder they were when God's Son Jesus was born as a human!!

I also love the expression on Joseph's face!!!

...and did you notice that the dog sees the angels?

the angel appears to the shepherds

by Walter Rane

I love angels of all kinds.

I especially like 'male' angels, 

as all the angels that are mentioned by name in the Bible have male names!

artist unknown

found at www.rapgenius.com

I love to learn about different languages,

and different countries, their people and customs.

www.fanpop.com

I love children. All shapes and sizes!!

Hindustan Sikh children in traditional costume

www.hindustantimes.com

Ambunti village girls at the Sepik Crocodile Festival

Papua New Guinea

www.panda.org

school children cheering the Royal Irish Regiment, 2008

www.shropshire.gov.uk

I love silly dogs!

www.lolcoaster.org

our Great Dane Zeus, who always had to have something in his mouth...

I love humor and funny sayings!

nerd-o-vision pin

www.YellowButBoutique.etsy.com

and quotes:

www.Quotez.com

I love movies of all kinds!

animated funny....

'Despicable Me'

www.despicablemegames.info

live action funny....

'Jingle All the Way'

www.itplus.us

...musicals!!

'Mary Poppins'

and adventure!!

'Tarzan's Secret Treasure'

www.wikipedia.org

I could keep going with more movies, but I have so many favorite things...

like mermaids!

mermaid humor!

www.paint125466.exteen.com

"Sea Weed Snack Mermaid"

Collage Art Doll, from all recycled junk mail

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

I love the sailors' mermaids too...

the gentle manatee

www.mermaidmelissa.com

I love seashells, and beading...

an original design necklace I made with glass beads, wood and shell beads and natural sea shells

and coloring in coloring books!!!

Dover coloring book, colored with permanent bic markers

made into blank note cards for sale

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

I love paper collage,

and creating collages with recycled junk mail!

"and they shall call His name Emmanuel..."

original Collage Paper Painting by inkspired

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

and nursery rhymes, especially with vintage illustrations...

"The Queen of Hearts"

original Collage Paper Painting using all recycled junk mail

based on an 1889 vintage illustration

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

I love living in Colorado, USA...

Colorado Rocky Mountains

www.commons.wikimedia.org

because I can never get enough of nature...

what an incredibly creative God we have!

www.flickr.com

which brings up my lifelong fascination and love with animals of all kinds!

like elephants...

beautiful pottery made by my friend Orna, from Israel

www.OrnaArtHeart.etsy.com

and lions...

and tigers....

Tatiana, at the San Francisco Zoo, USA

and bears!!!

grizzly bear

photo credit: Carol Bock

photography.nationalgeographic.com

I love fairies...

poinsettia flower fairy

vintage illustration

and paper dolls

(you already knew that one, didn't you?!)

not sure where I found these vintage paper dolls,

but I do find so many wonderful paper dolls at

www.origamibears.com

sigh...

...that time has come where I must close for today.

It has been good to remind myself of all the wonderful things in this world!

I'm off to address a few Christmas cards.

What are you up to?

'til next time,

inkspired

www.inkspired.etsy.com

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

www.inkspiredmusings.blogspot.com

and on pinterest:   kkloberdans

'Party Decorating'

original Collage Art Doll with all recycled junk mail

www.collagepaperpainting.etsy.com

Brunei small country with a long history

Damai

or

Kalinaw

or

Te-njo



or

HePing

Wow!

Those are some of the ways to say 'Peace' in the country of Brunei!

www.trylobyte.wordpress.com

The first is Malaysian for Peace:

Damai

The second is in the Bisaya language for peace:

Kalinaw

The third and fourth are in different dialects of Chinese for peace:

Te-njo

or

HePing

Brunei

Why this interest in the country of Brunei?

Well, I started to get readers from there.

I said to myself -

BRUNEI?

I never heard of that country!!!

Is that really a country?

Yep, it is.

Check out the map above. You can see it is a tiny country,

actually smaller than our state of Delaware!

and that's a small state...

Brunei Flag

So, what are the people of Brunei like?

Here are some quick and fun facts:

Last estimate was in July, 2012

and that was estimated at about 409,000 people.

I'm pretty sure Denver is bigger than that!

Brunei

The Bruneian people are from a wide diversity of national backgrounds.

There is about 15% Chinese,

about 18% indigenous and other

(don't you always want to know what 'other' means?!!!)

and just a reminder, indigenous means 'native peoples',

not emigrated from somewhere else.

There is a sizable Indian population, mostly minorities from Southern India.

Just in that section some of the different languages are

Tamil

Malayalam

Telugu

Hindi

http://www.en.loadtr.com/

Think we're done yet?

Nope.

Just in the Chinese sector there is

Hokkien

Cantonese

Hoisan

Fuchow

 and Hainanese

spoken!

button with official coat of arms heraldry of Brunei

http://www.zazzle.com/

AND

there are expatriate communities that include Filipino and Indonesian...

How do they ever communicate with each other?

(I'm thinking Tower of Babel from the Bible.....)

Well, English is widely used in business and the work force.

If you are in High School, or on to College,

all the instructions are in English!

BUT

the official language of Brunei is Melayu Brunei,

a form of Malaysian, but different.

Of course.

Melayu Brunei was made official in 1959

with the signing of the Brunei 1959 Constitution.

Brunei is a

constitutional sultanate

yep, I never heard of that either!

This is a photo taken at the wedding of Princess Hajah Majeedah Nurul Bulqiah,

daughter of the first wife Kebawah Duli Anak Hajah Saleha

binti His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu'zzaddin Waddaulah

and

Yang Amat Mulia Pengiran Anak Khairul Khalil

bin Pengiran Syed Haji Jaafari

September, 2008

(I bet they hated learning how to spell their own names in grade school!)

As near as I can tell binti means daughter of?

so bin would be son of?

Royal Wedding

www.zimbio.com

I wanted to find more information on all that wonderful beading,

but never did find any.

boo hoo

:0(

Another fun fact:

The average age of Bruneians is

27 years old!

and the life expectancy is averaged at

male: 71 and female: 76 

photo cred: Anthony Asael

www.deviantart.com

Brunei History

now don't skip this just because you hate history!

It really can be quite fascinating!

Brunei is one of the oldest kingdoms in the world

as well as one of the youngest independent nations in Southeast Asia!

In 1888 Brunei became a British protectorate

and independence was achieved in 1982.

However

the same family has ruled Brunei for over 6 centuries.

stone boat in lagoon

Brunei Bandar Sei Begawan Omar Ali Saifudden Mosque

www.tropicalisland.de.com

The official name is

State of Brunei Darussalam

the capital is

Bandar Seri Begawan

 The last election was held in 1962, and the next election is NA.

The Sultanate is handed down through the family.

Sultan Hassanal Boliah was coronated in 1968.

Oil was discovered in 1929.

Some of the cars found in the Sultan of Brunei's Garage.

It holds over 7,000 vehicles worth over 5 billion $$.

What kind of religion do they practice?

woman of Brunei

http://www.worldwatchlist.us/.

The official religion is Muslim with 67% of the population practicing.

This is reflected in their legal system which is based on

English common law;

for Muslims, Islamic Shari'a law supersedes civil law in a number of areas.

About 13% are Buddhist,

10% have indigenous beliefs, and that mysterious 'other',

and about 10% are Christian.

According to www.worldwatchlist.us

there are approx. 39,500 Christians.

In 2011 monitoring of Christian meetings increased.

Only non-Malays can choose any religion other than Islam.

If a Malay converts they are scheduled for

're-education into Islam'

and charged with

'Disturbs peace and harmony'.

There are restrictions on importing Christian materials, Bibles and literature

making them difficult to obtain.

Brunei forests of Temburong

Brunei culture draws from the Old Malay World,

including the Malay Archipelago

and stemmed from the Malay Civilization.

Influences include animism, Hinduism, Islam and the West.

traditional clothing of Brunei



Misc. Fun Facts:

 A large portion of the labor force are from

Philippines

Indonesia

Thailand

India

 and Bangladesh.

Water taxis are a common form of transportation.

www.thetravelword.com

The country has made a serious effort in encouraging native crafts,

including the traditional arts of

boat making

silver smithing

bronze tooling

cloth weaving

mat and basket weaving

wood carving and wood working.

traditional silver work

www.bruneiresources.com

basket weaving at a raft Show in the Brunei Darussalam Pavilion

http://www.hellomandarin.com/

Silver work, Brass ware and wood working were already a flourishing business

by the 15th century!!

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this very brief armchair overview of

Brunei!

map of Brunei, Malaysia and the South China Sea

A last little fun fact:

Korea established diplomatic relations right after the 1982 independence of Brunei from the United Kingdom.

Many Bruneians have become increasingly attracted to Korean

popular soap operas

movies

and songs!

The capital of Brunei, northern bank, Bandar Sei Begawan

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/

It looks like it has many beautiful places.

Shall we go?

I gleaned information from many different sites.

Here are most of them:

http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_htm/brunei.htm

 http://geography.about.com/library/cia/blcbrunei.htm

www.encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com

www.worldwatchlist.us

www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bx.html

www.yynr.org - an article by Safarozi

www.koreatimes.co.kr - an article written by Na Jeong-ju

http://www.bruneiresources.com/bruneihandicrafts.html

until next time

:0)

inkspired

http://www.inkspired.etsy.com/

www.