I’m currently trying to wrap up a presentation for the International Association of Buddhist Studies, to be held in Atlanta at Emory College. The presentation is titled:
Mourning and Memory in The Cambodian Buddhist Context: A Gentle Challenge to a Universal Narrative of Post-Genocidal Healing.
So, serendipitously, I stumbled on this fun post on “10 Stunning Monuments Dedicated to [War] Heroes. More Memorials from around the world.” Neatorama properly chose the wonkiest and funniest-looking one (the Welsh, an ancestry I share, probably would take offense – none is really intended):
It was the 38th (Welsh) Infantry Division that was charged with taking Mametz Wood during the bloody Battle of the Somme on July 7, 1916. After five long days they managed to clear the woods of Germans, which cost them 4,000 deaths and casualties. This is how the 38th (Welsh) Division Memorial erected, with a defiant dragon (the Red Dragon of Wales was the division’s insignia) standing on a 10 feet plinth, facing the woods with the regimental cap badge of the South Wales Borderers carved on one side of the base.
I also like this one, from the Ukraine.
The Kruty Heroes Memorial is a 33 feet red column on a 23 high hill which commemorates the young university students who died fighting for the Independence of Ukraine, at the Battle of Kruty trying to delay the Bolshevik Red Army from invading the city. The events of the resistance to the Bolshevik army were hushed up in Soviet history and Ukrainians were forced to ignore them for many years. However, in August 2006, the memorial was dedicated.
I would like to include one more: the beautiful, astonishing memorial in a Chicago-area cemetery, dedicated to the Haymarket Martyrs.
The men this monument memorializes were seven men, of varying anti-capitalist persuasions ranging from socialist to anarchist to ‘labourites,’ tried and executed by the state for their support for the eight-hour day. If memorials must be dedicated to warriors, these still must suffice, since they were class warriors of the profoundest sort.
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