Thoranih (ธรณี)

Sanskrit-Thai. Mother or goddess of the earth. She appears as a witness of the Buddha’s accumulated merits from earlier lives, just before the moment of his Enlightenment. In art usually depicted wringing water from her hair, thus aiding the Buddha in his resistance against Mara by flushing his army of spirits away, saving the Buddha from the temptation of desire. Also spelled Thoranee. In Thailand she is known as Mae Phra Thoranee and is the chosen symbol of the Democratic Party. See also bhumisparsa and maravijaya.

Thailex, Thailand Travel Dictionary

The kind of world I live in – exhaustive google-searching finally finds her on a Thai Travel site.

The kind of world I live in – a thousand images of earth-touching Buddha online and only one (marapajon) that shows Mae Phra Thoranee, who was also there.

larger image

LOTS to look at here: Artists’ Books Online

Stumbled across it looking up the word “paragonnage.” (Google: Did you mean: parsonage)

This comment sounded strange:

How is this site different from a website?

A website links static files in a static architecture while an online collection is a dynamic, emerging site created in a non-propriety, robust, platform independent XML architecture. It is extensible and flexible and provides for far greater depth of resources, multiple and repurposable content, and has search and processing capabilities that are not part of a website structure.

All the better.

More: Journal of Artists’ Books

These words might come in handy someday:

• topographia – Description of a place.
• astrothesia – A vivid description of stars.
• prosopographia – The vivid description of someone’s face or character; or, the description of feigned or imaginary characters.
• ethopoeia – The description and portrayal of a character (natural propensities, manners and affections, etc.)
• pragmatographia – Description of an action; a reported narrative.
• chronographia – Vivid representation of a certain historical or recurring time (such as a season).
• characterismus – Description of a person’s character.
• effictio – A verbal depiction of someone’s body, often from head to toe.
• icon – A figure which paints the likeness of a person by imagery.
• peristasis – A description of attendant circumstances.
• chorographia – The description of a particular nation.
• geographia – Vivid representation of the earth.
• anemographia – Description of the wind.
• dendrographia – Description of a tree.
• topothesia – Description of an imaginary place.
• hydrographia – Description of water.

From Figures of Description