Tag Archives for moai

Moai Coffee, Thailand: We Have SO Many Questions!

Moai Coffee, Ratchaburi, Thailand: a meeting of moai, cyclopean walls, coffee, and of course Stonehenge. Seriously, humanity, how did this happen?  This is one of those instances when the Stonehenge replica gods seem almost malevolently whimsical.

We understand we may have a few new visitors to this site soon, after an advertisement in which Clonehenge is mentioned is shown widely, and this replica may demonstrate the Clonehenge aesthetic to the curious as well as any: contextless prehistory offered as entertainment, with a healthy side of cringe. Here at Clonehenge, this is part of what we love!

Apparently this Stonehenge has been around since at least 2013 (at which time there were sheep grazing through it, but sadly it seems they have disappeared), but somehow we did not get wind of it until last year. Up front, we want to offer real respect to whoever decided to go so hard for the ‘”so bad it’s good” vibe they have going there. Moai Coffee is an instant classic.

The business itself is a coffee and snack-to-light-meal stop on a popular route in western Thailand. In order to amuse and attract people it seems someone decided to give it an Easter Island head, also known as moai, theme. It isn’t clear just how many moai they have, but there are many and each is unique. Some are just big heads of various sizes, some show the entire torso. You can even buy moai mugs as souvenirs. Humourously the rest rooms are differentiated by a moai with a prominent mustache for the mens’ and a moai with brilliant red lipstick for the ladies’! This place clearly was created with the Instagram selfie celeb in mind.

How Stonehenge crept in there is as yet unknown but there is some confusion among many people about whether Stonehenge and Easter Island heads are related. Stonehenge replicas as far flung as Texas, Japan, and Illinois feature moai as accompaniment for reasons that have never been clear to us. Search ‘Stonehenge’ on Etsy and usually you will see one or two moai listed under that tag. There is also a horrible cartoon that shows a moai on one side of the world and Stonehenge somehow exactly opposite on the other side, with a body between them so that Stonehenge looks like its toes. People send us this cartoon often. (Please stop!)

Listen, we know there is a Youtube video of someone walking around Moai Coffee pointing at the moai and describing them as “stone men from Stonehenge, England” but we will not post that link here. He has been corrected many times in the comments, and besides we refuse to let it continue to ruin our lives. (Is it true that we gripped our heads in both hands and yelled at the screen the first time we saw it? I’m afraid that is merely unconfirmed rumour.)

There are cyclopean walls at Moai Coffee much like those at Sacsayhuamán in Peru, and a few photos show an ancient Egyptian motif in one area or another. We’re all about the Stonehenge stuff here, but the conglomeration of random cool-looking ancient stuff is also a phenomenon worth examining. Not by us, of course. Please, someone go examine it and get back to us.

As for the quality of the replica itself, we judge it very good. The shapes of the stones are rough and close to accurate, which is rare. There is no attempt to make them uniform, a common error, but instead they capture the ancient rugged feel of the real thing. We don’t know whether it is aligned to the winter solstice, or if the lintels are curved but it does appear someone made sure that the inner trilithon horseshoe points toward the three-lintel stretch, one of our favourite tests for whether a builder actually looked at the current Stonehenge when they made it.

This clonehenge gets the official Clonehenge stamp of approval. 8/10, would visit! We will add this to our growing list of large permanent replicas. We have enough left that we have yet to post to take us over the coveted 100 number, so stay tuned. Don’t forget, you can get much more wholesome Clonehenge content on our Facebook group, which is the most active, our Twitter account, and our Facebook page.

We’ll be doing a post about the advert we appear in before long. Until then, friends, new and old, happy henging!

The Fabulous Stonehenge Marbles: Perfect Gift for that Friend Who Blogs about Stonehenge Replicas!

Stonehenge marbles by Chris Inchaos Schiano

Stonehenge marbles by Chris Inchaos Schiano

We’ve all heard of the remarkable, historic, and controversial Elgin marbles, and lately they’ve been back in the news. But here on the Clonehenge blog we have something far more desirable to show you: the fabulous Stonehenge marbles by Chris Inchaos Schiano! Here is the Stonehenge marbles website. Basically we are going to spam you with photos, quote the artist, and end with a suggestion. Mr. Schiano says of his work:

“Stonehenge Marbles are unique pieces of contemporary art. I hand draw each stone out of glass and encase them to create a permanent miniature replica of the sacred sites. Each marble is a labor of love, which I harness to capture the spirit of the megaliths and the people who envisioned them thousands of years ago.”

A Stonehenge marble, yes, at Stonehenge!

A Stonehenge marble, yes, at Stonehenge!

“Every day I learn something new about the stone circle that I try to relay into the glass.”

more marbles

more marbles

And although these beautiful creations are more than enough, he doesn’t stop at Stonehenge.

Stonehenge and more, trapped in marbles

Stonehenge and more, trapped in marbles

Above we see: “Stonehenge Past and Present, Avebury, Stones of Stenness, Carnac, The Great Wall of China, Egyptian and Aztec Pyramids, the Parthenon, and [not sure whether to say “sadly” or “of course”!—CH] a Moai.” He has even done a Stonehenge marble with an Easter Island moai hidden in the glass at the bottom, in a fine (?) tradition long established among Stonehenge replica creators! Stonehenge marbles may show the monument either as it currently exists or as it is thought to have been originally.

Stonehenge marble with sunset

Stonehenge marble with sunset

Be sure to have a look at this video of a marble that was auctioned off just recently!

*wipes drool from corners of mouth* Heh. Excuse us. That video, tho. There seriously are not enough druids in the world to award for these things.

In closing, we hardly need point out that winter solstice and the Christmas holiday are almost upon us, and we know you’re all wondering what to buy for that hard-to-please but much adored Stonehenge replica blogger on your holiday gift lists. Let us make it easy. Why not order a custom Stonehenge marble (no moai necessary!)? We guarantee it’s bound to please, and think of the satisfaction you will gain from supporting an original artist instead of spending the hundreds you were planning to spend on bric-a-brac. 😉 Everyone wins!

We heartily wish a very happy solstice to all of our readers, and a happy holiday season to everyone. Until the next time, very close and very generous friends, happy henging!

Fostering Childhood Henge Addiction and Practicing the Craft(s)…

photos from firstpalette.com

As we know, not everyone is content to have Stonehenge an ocean or even a few miles away. The many ways of supplying your Stonehenge fix include virtual Stonehenges, large private Stonehenges, large public Stonehenges, pre-made fabricated mini-Stonehenges and then there are the homemade mini-Stonehenges. Where there is so great a need, teachers are bound to spring up. This one caters especially to the younger set of henge addicts, setting them up for a lifetime of henging!

These instructions do several things right, enough so that we forgive them for calling it, “The Stonehenge.” First, they go into the whole lith, monolith, trilithon complex of words, thus reducing embarrassing spelling errors for those children who may grow up to the noble profession of Stonehenge replica blogging. We went for many posts before a friend pulled us aside and reminded us that it isn’t spelled trilothon. (Bright red-faced smiley and lawks!)

They also explain the lintels and there’s this nice little moment when their colouring the salt clay where they simply say, “Color your clay or dough by adding a bit of black acrylic paint or poster paint. Add a tinge of blue if you like.” (Our emphasis) They don’t mention bluestones, but that they throw that in, even though it’s for the sarsens, is nice. They also discuss the trilithon horseshoe at the bottom of the page, for the advanced neophyte henger. Not bad!

So we’re going along, showering them with adoring approval when what do we see? Say it ain’t so!! Yes, they are moai! Groan. Now many of our multitude of readers may have joined us too recently to remember, but the association of Stonehenge and moai is kind of a pet peeve of ours. True, in this case they are at least on separate pages, but this has opened old psychological wounds and we are now curled up in the fetal position dictating this to the cat!

Score: 6 druids! We like that it’s instructions for kids. Everyone should know several ways to create a Stonehenge in a pinch!

That’s it for now, so until next time, happy henging! AND SEND TUNA!!!!

Takino Stonehenge With a Buddha—in Japan!

takino 2photos by kamome, used according to Creative Commons License A-NC 2.0

below–the center of the photo above, enhanced to show the shrine

takino buddha shrineYokoso! (Welcome!) On Japan’s northern island, Hokkaido, the Makomanai Takino Cemetery Park hosts, among other impressive stone sculptures, a full sized Stonehenge replica. A striking element of this replica is that the ditch and bank that make Stonehenge a henge have been included. See the bottom photo at this link. Nicely done!

Of course, the authentic feel ends in the middle, at the Buddhist shrine. There’s also a giant Buddha nearby, and a row or two of Easter Island moai.

takino moai 2See them there? They and Stonehenge often seem to end up hanging out together. We can think of five replicas we’ve posted or linked to that had moai, too. ( Texas Stonehenge II, Raven Hill Discovery Center in Michigan, Harry Rossett’s in Indiana, Kennewick in Washington State, and someone’s  Obama Gardens of Hope. There may be others.) Weird, considering the originals are on opposite sides of the world, but okay, we’ll go along with it for now.

Do you think it looks like a pretty gaudy cemetery? But not everyone wants to rest in piece, right? Some are hoping to rock on!

It’s a great replica: made of real stone, cut unevenly (leave it to the Japanese to get it that cutting the stones in perfect rectangular prisms detracts from the monument!), bluestones included, ditch and bank included. It is true that they may have added things here and there. There probably wasn’t a buddha in the center 5000 years ago, but there may have been a shrine. Who knows?

Score: 8 druids. We would give it more if it weren’t rubbing shoulders with the moai and the huge Buddha. Good ambience requires space.

What a replica! Maybe we should have saved it for Clonehenge’s one year birthday, which is coming up soon. We’ll end with a sentence we like from  a Google Translate page of a blog post about a trip to this cemetery. (Google Translate makes us lol!) “Why the road to heaven is like this?” A koan to ponder . . .

Raven Hill Discovery Center Stonehenge, Michigan

ancient-world

photo from Cheri at the Raven Hill Discovery Center, used with permission
(Stonehenge replica on the left and moai on the far right.)

“At present our Stonehenge replica contains just the ‘bluestones’ of Stonehenge,”  a note from Raven Hill tells us. Although it may look like a simple stone circle, great care has gone into stone placement, and the heel stone, altar stone and inner horseshoe are all represented.

It is part of the 30-acre Ancient World section of RHDC, which includes this Stonehenge, a Mayan ball court, an obelisk, a house foundation as from Skara Brae, and other things including–but of course!–a moai, or Easter Island head.

Now normally we lightly mock the moai/Stonehenge combination, using the penguin/polar bear analogy used here before, but we will cut Raven Hill some slack. We know it isn’t easy to attract the attention of the young. You might say Stonehenge and the moai are the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie of stone monuments. If you’re trying to reach kids, what could be better than putting both on the cover of your magazine, so to speak?* And including Skara Brae is a point in their favour!

Score: 5½ druids for the care and knowledge that went into this replica, despite no trilithons or ditch and bank. Raven Hill looks like an excellent place for a family day or several family days a year. See the comments for more info on this interesting and informative place!

*This does not let other Stonehenge/moai combiners off the hook. Sorry!

Sponge Sculpture Stonehenge

untitled

piece of  the HIT Entertainment web page on Sponge Sculptures

Found this bit and had to pass it on. Click on the link above or the picture to see full instructions on how to do sponge sculptures. We agree with them: if you’re learning sculpture, why wouldn’t it be Stonehenge or and Easter Island head you started out with? Or preferably both!

It’s a nice little model they have there. We would give it 6 druids  at first glance. After all, doesn’t everyone want a Spongehenge?! If you decide to make one, please keep us in mind! Hint: how about rainbow colours?

3D Paper Model Stonehenge (and a small mystery solved)

box_stonehenge

photo from Paper Landmarks promotional webpage

We may not get to post for a day or two, so a quick post this morning. You may remember some time ago we posted a page of links to replicas we didn’t have photo permissions for, Henges We Admire. One of them was a neatly done model of Stonehenge in its original state, which  we thought was of wood. It now appears that it may have been of paper, made from this kit. (For those who might enjoy horrifying the Clonehenge blog, this company also sells kits for Easter Island heads to add to your Stonehenge display!)

Of course, we aren’t looking at anything like the stone-by-stone detail of the Cardboard Stonehenge kit shown on the Cardboard Stonehenge blog, a great read featured here earlier. At the other end of the spectrum is this (to us) humourous item, in which you just cut out all but the base of the ‘stones’ and stand them up, made by a company with the evocative name L’Instant Durable. Ah, if only it were!

Still, this is an impressive model and if we’d had one we might have kept busy making it and avoided the embarrassment of starting Clonehenge. Alas for the world–one annoyance that might so easily have been averted!

Paper Landmarks‘ Stonehenge score: 7½ druids. Note that you can get it in several colours including gold, although why you wouldn’t choose the stone colour is beyond us. Unless you were just going to set it on fire anyway. In that case, do it safely! And send us pictures!

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