"What building whose construction started in 1792 was once described by one of its residents as ""... big enough for two emperors, one pope and the grand lama ...""?"
"Martha Washington's home, White House Plantation in Virginia, where the nation's first President had courted the First Lady in the mid-18th century. On Saturday, November 1, 1800, John Adams became the first president to take residence in the building. During Adams' second day in the house, he wrote a letter to his wife Abigail, containing a prayer for the house. Adams wrote: Adams lived in the house only briefly before Thomas Jefferson moved into the ""pleasant country residence"" in 1801. Despite his complaints that the house was too big (""big enough for two emperors, one pope, and the grand lama"
"was built in 1702 A.D. under the rule of King Bhupatindra Malla. This beautifully sculptured building is considered one of the tallest pagodas in the country and is a lovely example of the immense workmanship that went into buildings of this type. This five-storey temple with a five-tier roof that stands just over thirty meters high can be reached by walking up a flight of steps that leads to the top of the platform. As you walk up these terraces you will notice that there are statues on either side of you, on every step. The Nyatapola temple was built"
"museum, but it remains a working palace, with several royal offices still situated inside. The construction of the Grand Palace began on 6 May 1782, at the order of King Phutthayotfa Chulalok (Rama I). Having seized the crown from King Taksin of Thonburi, King Rama I was intent on building a capital city for his new Chakri Dynasty. He moved the seat of power from the city of Thonburi, on the west side of the Chao Phraya River, to the east side at Bangkok. The new capital city was turned into an artificial island when canals were dug along the"
"the early 17th century was replaced with what is known today as the Ancient Basilica. In the following two centuries several other buildings were added to the complex, including the royal apartments of the House of Savoy, a big library and the Royal Gate, a masterpiece designed by the architect Filippo Juvarra in the 18th century. The last building added to the sanctuary was the Upper Basilica, a monumental church built between 1885 and 1960 due the large number of pilgrims visiting Oropa. Its dome is 80 metres high and the church can hold 3000 people. In 1617, the construction"
"of familyhood, education, heritage and culture, and the historical bond with Pagarruyung, Minangkabau. Istana Lama was used as a religious school between 1959 and 1964, and was unoccupied until 1992. The Istana Lama has been designated as a national heritage site and was converted into a Royal Museum on July 14 1992, with the consent of and officiated by HRH Tuanku Ja'afar the Yang Di-Pertuan Besar at the time. It is currently closed to the public to facilitate repairs and upgrading works which is expected to be completed in 2020. The palace has been assigned as building number 115 by"
"Dalai Lama. The first White Palace was built during the lifetime of the Fifth Dalai Lama and he and his government moved into it in 1649. It then was extended to its size today by the thirteenth Dalai Lama in the early twentieth century. The palace was for secular uses and contained the living quarters, offices, the seminary and the printing house. A central, yellow-painted courtyard known as a ""Deyangshar"" separates the living quarters of the Lama and his monks with the Red Palace, the other side of the sacred Potala, which is completely devoted to religious study and prayer."
"in the middle and residential halls at the back, all of them inter-connected to each other. All Royal coronations since that of King Rama II have taken place within the walls of this building group. Construction began in 1785 at the order of King Rama I, the original buildings only included the Chakraphat Phimarn Throne Hall and the Phaisan Thaksin Throne Hall. Later King Rama II carried out major constructions including the Amarin Winitchai Throne Hall and other extensions. Later in his reign he added the Sanam Chan Pavilion and the Narai Chinese Pavilion. King Nangklao (Rama III) renamed the"
"largest in America. Surrounded by a tall stone retaining wall around the remnants of the hill-top estate in the northwest of the town which dominated the new small settlement first laid out in 1729-1730, as there were no houses originally between it and Long Street, (later Market Street - now West Baltimore Street). It is a three-story Late Georgian / Federal style brick building constructed between 1789 and 1791. The front facade features a bull's-eye window in the peak of a dentiled pediment. A two-story extension was added to the west end of the Rectory in the mid-1830s. Later known"
"hall was given the name ""Phra Thinang Amarinthara Pisek Maha Prasat"" (พระที่นั่งอมรินทราภิเษกมหาปราสาท; ). Construction began in 1782 and was finished in 1784. This was the hall where King Rama I celebrated his full coronation ceremony. However, in 1789 the entire hall was struck by lightning and burnt to the ground. In its place King Rama I ordered the construction of a new hall, however under a different design and name. As a result of this disaster King Rama I predicted that the Chakri dynasty would last only 150 years from its foundation. This prophecy was recorded in a diary of"
"building is not generally open to the public as the scriptures, which are inscribed on palm leaves, need to be kept in a controlled environment for preservation. The library was built by King Rama III. Guarding its entrance are figures called Yak Wat Pho (Wat Pho’s Giants) placed in niches beside the gates. Around Phra Mondop are three pavilions with mural paintings of the beginning of Ramayana. The chapel and the reclining Buddha (Phra Buddhasaiyas, ) were built by Rama III in 1832. The image of the reclining Buddha represents the entry of Buddha into Nirvana and the end of"
"the pools, the open courtyard, and the temple north of them. The ""twin palaces"" were two surprisingly similar buildings. The hypothesis is that they were built by Queen Shlomtzion (ruled 67–76 BCE) for her two sons, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus, in order to soften the rivalry between them that lasted nearly thirty years. The size of the palaces was 25 by 25 metres. Each of the two palaces contained a luxurious bathhouse. Many ritual baths were found around the palace, required by their priestly owners, who had to be ritually purified before eating terumah. A ritual bath for vessels was also"
"mostly in the municipal seat, and other large towns. The annual growth rate is at about 18.9%, placing it among the fastest growing populations in the state of Jalisco. Is Created With A One neoclassic style, with baroque reminiscence, this grand temple was built from 1742–1775, from ""piedra braza"". It is topped with two slender neoclassical towers, 63m in height each, and three airy domes, all designed by the ""tepatitlense"" mason, Don Martín Pozos. The façade is dominated by a curious architectural element: a semi-hexagonal ""pórtico"", which was added as a support for the heavy and slender towers which, as"
"more than 300 years old. The large Stupa of the temple which was erected in 1935, has been constructed as enclosing a small sized Stupa, constructed by Ven. Udugama Chandrasara Thero in 1783. In 2002, a foundation stone for a gigantic Samadhi Buddha statue depicting the Bhoomisparsha Mudra was laid in the temple premises and the completed statue was open to the public in 2007, making the temple more popular among the local devotees. The statue is in height and considered as one of tallest sitting Buddha statues in the world. The temple comprises the Stupa, Bodhi Tree, Relic Chamber,"
"Lhasa. It may overlay the remains of an earlier fortress called the White or Red Palace on the site, built by Songtsen Gampo in 637. The building measures east-west and north-south, with sloping stone walls averaging thick, and thick at the base, and with copper poured into the foundations to help proof it against earthquakes. Thirteen storeys of buildings, containing over 1,000 rooms, 10,000 shrines and about 200,000 statues, soar on top of Marpo Ri, the ""Red Hill"", rising more than in total above the valley floor. Tradition has it that the three main hills of Lhasa represent the ""Three"
"is considered the most important example of Tibetan architecture. Formerly the residence of the Dalai Lama, it contains over a thousand rooms within thirteen stories. Portraits of the past Dalai Lamas and statues of the Buddha are on display. The palace is divided between the outer White Palace (which serves as the administrative quarters), and the inner Red Quarters (which houses the assembly hall of the Lamas, chapels, 10,000 shrines, and a vast library of Buddhist scriptures). Temples and monasteries were all built by Tibetan Buddhist followers. All decorations—plated statues, elaborate frescoes, and expensive silk hangings—were all bought and paid"
"its aura of majesty with intricate designs during the rule of Maharaja Krushna Chandra Bhanj Deo (1868-1882), Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanj Deo (1882-1912) and finally during the rule of Maharaja Pratap Chandra Bhanj Deo (1928-1948). It is a brick-built double-storey structure in the classical Western style having of Doric-Corinthian column and a mixture of Greek and Victorian architecture. Lime-mortar has been used in construction of this palace. Sriram Chandra Bhanj Deo did major additions to palace in 1892, which has 126 rooms. The front of the palace, which resembles the Buckingham Palace, was also built during his reign in 1908."
"due to the then location of the hermitage being inadequate to build one large monastery. Lama Tsultim Nima selected a site to build a large monastery, away from the villages, at a place known as ""Ri-rdzong"", since the place had adequate water supply and fuel availability. He launched on a donation campaign to build the monastery for which the villagers also provided voluntary labour during construction. The Monastery was built in 1831 along with many shrines within it. Basically, the monastery has three large chambers. In two of these chambers idols of Buddha have been consecrated. The third chamber houses"
"Palace itself. Most of the initial construction of the Grand Palace during the reign of King Rama I was carried out by conscripted or corvée labour. After the final completion of the ceremonial halls of the palace, the king held a full traditional coronation ceremony in 1785. The layout of the Grand Palace followed that of the Royal Palace at Ayutthaya in location, organization, and in the divisions of separate courts, walls, gates and forts. Both palaces featured a proximity to the river. The location of a pavilion serving as a landing stage for barge processions also corresponded with that"
"the world. On entering this historical temple one gets the view of the beautifully and artistically designed 82 feet high Manastambha. R. B. Seth Tikamchand Soni laid the foundation and R. B. Seth Sir Bhagchand Soni built this Manastambha. He, along with his sons Prabhachand, Nirmalchand & Sushilchand consecrated and installed the images of the Jain Tirthankars in it. A big function was held for ten days in June 1953, where along with the members of the Soni family, thousands of others participated. In the year 1974, in the auspicious presence of 108 Acharya Vidyasagar Maharaj, a big library was"
"""bowli"", a step well with running water. Two imposing gateways lead to the main hall. It is said that there are 1024 ways to reach the terrace but only one to come back. It is an accidental architecture. Relief measure Construction of Bara Imambara was started in 1785, a year of a devastating famine, and one of [Asaf-ud-Daula]'s objectives in embarking on this grandiose project was to provide employment for people in the region for almost a decade while the famine lasted. It is said that ordinary people used to work in the day building up the edifice, while noblemen"
"to hold 1000 monks. Tsozong Gongba Monastery is a small shrine built around the fourteenth century Palcho Monastery was founded in 1418 and known for its kumbum which has 108 chapels on its four floors. Chokorgyel Monastery, founded in 1509 the 2nd Dalai Lama once housed 500 monks but was completely destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Ramoche Temple is an important temple in Lhasa. The original building complex was strongly influenced by Tang dynasty architectural style as it was first built by Han Chinese architects in the middle of the 7th century. Princess Wencheng took charge of this project and"
"windows featured paper-covered wooden latticework, but nowadays almost universally use glass. Standing at 117 meters in height and 360 meters in width, the Potala Palace, designated as a World Heritage Site in 1994 and extended to include the Norbulingka area in 2001, is considered a most important example of Tibetan architecture. Formerly the residence of the Dalai Lama, it is said to over a thousand rooms within its thirteen stories, used for both religious purposes and as the (former) seat of the Tibetan government and home of the Dalai Lama, who was Tibet's head of state until 1959. It is"
"mostly funded by the Vietnamese community, but is expected to have doubled by the end of the construction. Work began in 1996 and is yet to be completed. The statue of Buddha, 4 metres tall and weighing 5 tons, arrived from Thailand on 20 October 2002. The pagoda will be the headquarters of the European Buddhist Congregation and will be a training school for future monks and nuns. The Dalai Lama consecrated the edifice on 12 August 2008. He made a speech in English which was translated by interpreters into French and Vietnamese. 1,500 adepts were admitted into the grounds"
"as a winter palace by the Dalai Lama from that time onwards. The ""Potrang Marpo"" (Red Palace) was added between 1690 and 1694. The name Potala is derived from Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the Dalai Lama's divine prototype, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The Jokhang Temple was also greatly expanded around this time. Although some wooden carvings and lintels of the Jokhang Temple date to the 7th century, the oldest of Lhasa's extant buildings, such as within the Potala Palace, the Jokhang and some of the monasteries and properties in the Old Quarter date to this second flowering in Lhasa's"
"Monastery. It is said that Emperor Songtsän Gampo built the first building here and it is where the great Tibetan scholar, Thonmi Sambhota, completed his work developing the Tibetan alphabet in the first half of the 7th century. The present building, first constructed during the reign of King Ralpacan (c. 806–838 CE), is built like an Indian vihara around a courtyard, with the ""lhakang"" ('temple', literally 'residence of the deity') to the north and monks quarters on the three other sides. The ""lhakang"" contains a number of fine murals – the central image being that of Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava), with"
"of China. Bayinnaung was one of Burma’s greatest rulers, a mighty King who possessed many white elephants, a sign of wealth and power at that time. The King even obtained a sacred Buddha tooth relic from Sri Lanka, which he had installed in the Mahazedi Pagoda. Bayinnaung built the new capital of the second Burmese empire, a large city called Hanthawadi (present day Bago) surrounded by walls with 20 gates. The palace was built on a 70 acres plot located at the center of the city. Construction started in 1553. Records written by European visitors to the city tell about"
"structure, which was completed in 1975. It consists of a block of 800 new offices, a 6-storey building to house the huge library and other buildings for general facilities. This extension work added a further 130,000 m. Along with the Addis Ababa City Hall, Africa Hall was one of the two projects designed to demonstrate, in the words of Emperor Haile Selassie, “that it is possible to construct grand buildings here too [in Ethiopia], by erecting a couple of high-profile structures. It is not their complexity or size that matter, but the maximum possible use of home-produced materials, in order"
"built by the Moldavian ruler Stephen the Great in the 15th century, by the works of the later renaissance Metropolitans Varlaam and Dosoftei, and those of scholars such as Grigore Ureche, Miron Costin, Nicolae Milescu, Dimitrie Cantemir and Ion Neculce. In the 19th century, Moldavians from the territories of the medieval Principality of Moldavia, divided into Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Western Moldavia (after 1859, Romania), made a significant contribution to the formation of the modern Romanian culture. Among these were many Bessarabians, such as Alexandru Donici, Alexandru Hâjdeu, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, Constantin Stamati, Constantin Stamati-Ciurea, Costache Negruzzi, Alecu Russo, Constantin Stere."
"was initially owned by Dhaka's infamous Armenian landlord Aratun and later bought [1] and erected jointly by two Hindu affluent merchant brothers named Ruplal Das and Raghunath, sons of Swarup Chandra, on the northern bank of Buriganga overlooking a riverfront promenade in the Farashganj district of old Dhaka. Ruplal House was built on the site at a huge cost, according to the design of an architect of the Martin Company in Calcutta. Divided into two unequal blocks in slightly different styles, it is a two-storeyed edifice. It presents a Grand River front, about 9144 m long.It replicated Greek Doric column"
"and army barracks are built over the rest. The Guāndì miào (關帝廟) or Gesar Lhakhang temple was erected by the Amban in 1792 atop Mount Bamare south of the Potala to celebrate the defeat of an invading Gurkha army. The main gate to the city of Lhasa used to run through the large Pargo Kaling chorten and contained holy relics of the Buddha Mindukpa. Between 1987–1989 Lhasa experienced major demonstrations, led by monks and nuns, against the Chinese Government. After Deng Xiaoping's southern tour in 1992, Lhasa was mandated by the government to undergo economic liberalization. All government employees, their"
"empire. The timber is native kauri, which could not be replicated because New Zealand's remaining public kauri forests are permanently protected. If the building had been constructed out of stone as planned, it may not have survived subsequent earthquakes, as it is situated near a major fault line. The architect was William Clayton and the contractors were Scoular and Archibald. When it opened in 1876, after 22 months of construction, and at a cost of £39 000, it was easily the largest building in the country and is now considered to be one of New Zealand's most important historic buildings."
"palace, is reported to have been built between 1823 and 1895. It was built by one of the maharani (queens) of the Puthia Royal family. The temple is large square edifice with five decorated ratnas or spires. The feature in the lower portion of the spires consists of ridges while the upper part is tapered upward. It is built in brick masonry over a raised platform. The temple's interior has a square sanctum sanctorum (garbagriha), with four square chambers in the corners, narrow passages on all four sides and has cusped arched openings. The roof of the sanctum and the"
"'glorious' (; Bovorn) palace. Throughout the period of absolute monarchy, from 1782 to 1932, the Grand Palace was both the country's administrative and religious centre. As the main residence of the monarch, the palace was also the seat of government, with thousands of inhabitants including guardsmen, servants, concubines, princesses, ministers, and courtiers. The palace's high whitewashed castellated walls and extensive forts and guard posts mirrored those of the walls of Bangkok itself, and thus the Grand Palace was envisioned as a city within a city. For this reason a special set of palace laws were created to govern the inhabitants"