Sacred Wonders
Documentary series discovering what people do for faith in some of the most spectacular sacred places on the planet - from the gardeners of Angkor Wat to the masons of Djenne.
- 2019-2019
- 1 season
- PBS
- Documentary
Documentary series discovering what people do for faith in some of the most spectacular sacred places on the planet - from the gardeners of Angkor Wat to the masons of Djenne.
Season 1 Episode Guide
3 Episodes 2019
Episode 1
Angkor, Cambodia
Cleaning plants from Angkor Wat, the world's largest religious complexes, is a never-ending form of devotion, fulfilling for whole Buddhist families, while millions flock there, mainly just to admire. Javier is one of 264 throne carrier for Malaga's Virgen de Esperanza, a massive load of gold and gilded wood carried through he city annually, as part of the Spanish Passion season during Lent. Modern Indian Patel volunteers building sweets displays in London's Classical Hindu temple, part of the mountain of food offering for the new year. In thrice-holy City Jeruzalem, Palestinian paramedic volunteers' devotion takes the form of evacuating people fainted or wounded in the pushing, sneaking and sometimes fighting around the Dome of the Rock mosque on Temple Mountain. In the original Shao-lin temple monastery, in mountainous Dengfeng (Henan), aspirant monks train for years to earn admission in a ruthless exam in both kungfu and reciting Buddhist mantras.
Episode 2
Djennes, Great Mosque in Mali
Nachi Falls, Japan's tallest unbroken waterfall, is a natural Shinto and Buddhist shrine, where Shinto followers revere 13 'kami' (nature spirits), annually fire-purifying the path for them by twelve torch-bearers. The Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, receives masses of worshipers, all treated to a free meal, a vast logistical challenge taken on by thousands of devotee volunteers. The Episcopal (Anglican) Cathedral of St. John the Divine usually gets few worshipers, but fills up on the feast of St. Francis when people can brings their animals to be blessed in mass. The synagogue in Biblical king Herod's fortress palace Masada, last stand of a suicidal Jewish fanatical rebellion against Rome, is particularly popular for bar mitshva Hebrew Thora chanted reciting exams. The Great Mosque in Djennes, Mali, is build in primitive adobe, annually requiring major repairs, and honor rivaled for by Muslim contenders in a crazy race to the slippery top.
Episode 3
Holy Sepulchre Church, Jerusalem
Worshippers spread fires in The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, paint the Boudhanath in Kathmandu, Nepal, build a Mescalero Apache Big Tepee in New Mexico, fight evil at Besakih Temple in Bali, and heal in Lalish, northern Iraq.
