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Long one of the most inaccessible of the Angkor-era temples, Koh Ker could easily be described Cambodia’s forgotten capital. Tucked away in the forests of Preah Vihear province in the north of the country, Koh Ker was briefly the Khmer capital during the reign of Jayavarman IV (928-942 CE), who moved here from Angkor after seizing the throne from a rival. The captial was moved back to Angkor in 944 by his son Harshavarman I, who was his successor. Also know as Chok Gargyar, meaning Island of Glory, the Koh Ker area is home to well over 100 temples, with 30 major structures. More ruins are constantly being discovered in the jungles of the area, however there are still a lot of land mines in the ground that have yet to be cleared.

Some of the devout followers of Mazu.

Fireworks madness from the Mazu Festival. Don’t forget to take a look at previous posts detailing the origins of the Mazu Pilgrimage and images from the first 2 days of this years festival. Also, check out the complete gallery of Mazu images from which these few highlights are taken.

The teams at Adobe have been busy over the past few days.

First up, we have the Lightroom update to 1.4.1 and Camera RAW update to 4.4.1. They are both available in the downloads section of Adobe’s site. For a complete list of what’s been changed, updated and fixed, visit Tom Hogarty’s blog. Tom is the Senior Product Manager at Adobe for Lightroom.

Also launched last week was Adobe Media Player. Adobe® Media Player software provides control and flexibility to view what you want, when you want — whether online or offline. You can queue up and download your favorite Internet TV content, track and download new episodes automatically, and manage your personal video library for viewing at your convenience. Participating networks include CBS, MTV, Comedy Central and Universal, amongst others.

And finally, we have the launch of Adobe TV. Adobe TV is your online source for expert insight and inspiration. Feed your passion for Adobe products with insider tips, innovative techniques, and behind-the-scenes tours delivered on video, on demand. Get to know Adobe personalities by tuning in to Russell Brown revealing Adobe® Photoshop® secrets, Greg Rewis taming the web, or Jason Levine editing video. See the favorite tricks of design luminaries, take tours of cutting-edge creative shops, and find out what Adobe employees do with technology in their spare time. The best of Adobe’s expertise and community is now in one place. Watch when you want and where you want, save episodes, subscribe to your favorite channel, and post shows on your blog. And it’s not only the talent that’s in action — Adobe TV itself is produced and delivered using Adobe products and technologies. From planning to playback, Adobe TV is brought to you by Adobe.

Saturday April 5th saw the start of the 2008 Mazu Pilgrimage. Among the many gods and goddesses worshipped in Taiwan, Mazu (媽祖), the Goddess of the Sea is perhaps the most revered. Every year, in the 3rd month of the lunar calendar, the Dajia Mazu (大甲媽祖), which is housed at the Zhenlan temple (鎮瀾宮), is taken out on a pilgrimage lasting 8 days and covering 300km. Over the course of the 8 days, more than 1 million people will come out to see Mazu as she makes her way from Dajia to Hsingang in Jiayi county and back again, visiting more than 80 temples. It is thought that the Mazu pilgrimage is one of the three largest religious festivals in the world. Last year I wrote a detailed post describing the history of Mazu. Rather than rewrite it today, I’ll point you here for a look at the orgins of Mazu. This post will just be some images from the first 2 days of this years festival, with photos from Dajia’s Zhenlan Temple and Changhua’s Nan Yao Temple.

With the release of the public beta for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0, many photographers are eagerly diving in to check out the new features. So lets take a look and some of whats new. All screenshots below are from the Windows version because here in Taiwan, a Windows machine is half the price of a comparable Mac. As always, click on the image for a larger view.

One of the biggest new changes in this public beta is native 64 bit support. For Mac users, that means an Intel-based machine with Leopard (OS X10.5) and for Windows users, Vista-64. The key advantage of this is that it allows Lightroom to access more than 4GB of RAM. There is some discussion in the comments on John Nack’s site as to whetherit will work with Windows XP-64. I’m running XP64 and it seems to be working smoothly for me.

Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園) sits on the edge of Taipei city. With the 1120m Qixingshan (七星山) as the highest peak in northern Taiwan, Yangmingshan is a favored destination for hikers. This post is going to be just photos. Thanks to Todd at The Daily Bubble Tea for the inspiration behind them.

As another month comes to a close, it’s once again time for a look at events and goings on over the next few weeks. March was a busy month, and April is shaping up to be equally as busy, with a couple of major festivals taking place here in Taiwan.

Before we head into April, there’s a little bit left of March, so this Sunday the 30th get yourselves down to the main gate of NTU on Roosevelt and Xinsheng Rds, Taipei (臺大校門口集合)  at 3pm for Critical Mass.

There’s also an ongoing daily vigil for Tibet taking place at Freedom Square/Democracy Hall, formerly known as Chinag Kai-Shek Memorial Hall. A 49 hour hunger strike will  be undertaken from 3pm Friday the 28th until 4pm Sunday the 30th.

Moving into April, the annual Spring Scream Festival kicks off on Friday the 4th and runs until the 6th down in Kenting. More than 250 bands and DJs will be cranking out the tunes for your aural pleasure.

Also on the 4th, the Husan Tien Emperor Ritual will take place at Shuo Tien Temple in Songshan Village, Minchien township, Nantou.

Sticking with the religious theme, April (lunar March) is the time when Taiwan goes mad for Mazu (Matsu). Mazu’s birthday is on lunar March 23rd (April 28 this year) but the various festivals are held at different times through the month. The biggest of these is the Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage. This is actually on the the biggest religious events in the world, with over 1 million participants. For some background, you can check out my report from last years festival. The 2008 Dajia pilgrimage begins on Saturday the 5th and makes its way on a 300km journey through Central Taiwan, finally returning to Dajia on Sunday the 13th. Definitely not one to miss. There are also other Mazu festivals taking place at Kungtien Temple, Tongshiao, Miaoli and a Floating Mazu Procession is held on Penghu.

April 7th (lunar March 2nd) sees the Wangchuan Ritual taking place at Suchu in Antin, Tainan. Wangchuan means “king boat” and this festival is a ritual burning on the boat. A 2km procession line forms along the banks of the Tsangwen River, culminating in the burning of the offering boat to allow the God to tour heaven.

In Jiayi on April 11th (lunar March 6th) the Swing Temple Fair will be held. Giant 12m high swings are erected at  Hsuan Tien Emperor Temple in Jiayi city and participants are able to swing themselves to get closer to heaven.

April 13th (lunar March 8th) is the date of the Chuwei Passing Over Fire Ritual.  Passing over the fire allows believers to cleanse themselves of demons and purge disasters. This festival is held at Chuwei, Taiyuan township, Taoyuan county.

Also on the 13th, Taoyuan Stadium plays host to this years Songkran Festival. Songkran is the Thai New Year, and with over 100 000 Thai workers living in Taiwan, it is a big event. The Taiwan blogospheres very own New Hampshire Bushman will be on stage playing guitar with one of the bands performing.  Many of the activities at Songkran are quite similar to those at Chinese New Year, with visiting temples, offering gifts and wearing new clothes all important aspects. Songkran is also referred to as the Water Festival, as it’s traditional to sprinkle fragrant water on people. This often turns into a full-blown water fight - great fun in the April heat.

April 16th (lunar March 11th) the Visit Baijiao festival is held in Tainan county. Worshippers pray and offer incense to King Bao Shan (Medicine God) to give thanks for safety and prosperity.

There’s another Bao shan festival as well, this time in Bao-an temple, Taipei.  This takes place on April 19 and 20 (lunar March 14/15) to celebrate Baoshan’s birthday. Taiwanese opera performances are a big part of the ritual.

Stepping away from temple festivals for a minute, April 20th is the date for a Reclaim the Streets event in Taipei. Details to follow.

Beginning on April 24 and running until May 2nd is the Urban Nomad film festival featuring experimental film/ video, animation, comedic shorts, political documentary, music documentary, skateboard/ surfing, gender, and internet shorts.

April 25th (lunar March 20) sees the Yi Hsiang festival in Tai Tien temple, Matou, Tainan. Worshippers gather into groups and go to the temple to invite the five highnesses (Li, Ci, Wu, Chu, and Fan) to make an inspection tour.

The weekend of April 26 and 27 sees a cosplay event taking place at NTU, Taipei. David Reid has a report and some photos from the last cosplay that was held there.

On April 30th, the Bunan tribe’s Ear Hitting Ritual takes place at Yenping in Taidong. This is the biggest and most important festival for this Aboriginal tribe, with feasts and rituals taking place.

Running throughout the whole month of April are a few flower festivals. Yangmingshan hosts the Yangmingshan Flower Festival, Alishan the Cherry Blossom Festival and in various parts of Miaoli have Tung Blossom festivals. Finally, theres the joint harvest festival in Kaohsiung county celebrated by the Rukuo tribe in Maolin, the Bunan tribe in Taoyuan (township in Kaohsiung, not Taoyuan city) and the Tsou at Sanmin.

As always, if you know of anything else going on during the month, drop me a line and I’ll add it in.

The 2008 election season in Taiwan came to an unsurprising conclusion on March 22nd with a resounding win to the KMT (中國國民黨) candidates Ma Ying jeou (馬英九) and running mate Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), ending eight years of DPP rule. Ma and Siew, whose winning margin was 17%, will take office on May 20th, 2008. There’s more than enough commentary and analysis of the election on various media sites and blogs, so I’ll just show you a few pictures from the post-election party in Taipei.

All photos ©Craig Ferguson Images. Photos taken by Craig Ferguson and Selina Tseng.