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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol

@lotustea.substack.com
327 followers 552 following 864 posts

Research translator consultant, poet, artist, traveller, heritage photographer, elephant conservationist lotustea.substack.com

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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 08/09/2026
A wish floats away, bouncing through veils of heavily washed fennel feathers, landing on a lotus flower. She is rose gold, carrying pieces of a passing #moonglade. Turning her head, she watches the first people pass by. In public — and yet, in secret — there is no need to wear a social mask. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 04/09/2026
Awaiting, she is too fragile for this world; and yet, too majestic, crowned by a mist-covered umbrella-sized lotus leaf. As the rain-soaked morning perfume rises, her #silhouette takes shape upon the memory of a turquoise bed that has disappeared under the depths, along with the waning moon. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 31/08/2026
She blossoms in unbearable softness, a wedding gown of flowing cloud and dusty pink crêpe silk fading in and out of each other. With no-one to wear, she is carried only by a nest-like reflection of the waxing moon — a sweet emptiness partially folded by pancake-leaves rotting into the swamp. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 18/08/2026
From freshly poured tea, a wish #combs through the veil of steam, blossoming after-perfume of garden strawberry swimming in balletic turns within the cup’s borders. Threads of lives once lived are sewn into vapourous embroidery of the life emerging in sleep — born when this current one ends. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 13/08/2026
To drink tea is to bend physical laws, to travel between timelines and undiscovered pathways. As if no time has passed, a full teacup holds a moon-like purity, an invisible reflection as river ink moments before sunrise age into the day. A rain-flooded garden basin becomes an empty universe. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 07/08/2026
Tea — a liquid that heals wounds; that pours into a humble cup whose #divine mission is to contain a moment, one of escape, perhaps, into the soft steam of in-betweenness. In the tea, the shapeless is heated and cooled, like afternoon shadows climbing along the temperatures on a garden wall. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 18/06/2026
Wax castle under the applied art category by Wat Suwan Nin Chindaraam (Wat Kok Som Hong) temple community. The wax castle won first prize at the Wax Castle Festival of Sakon Nakhon 2025. Exhibited at the Sakon Nakhon Provincial Centre from 2 to 6 October 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 06/05/2026
Few things in this world display a #purity equal to that running through a bamboo hollow. Due to the stem’s hollowness, bamboo is identified as a grass while looking like a tree. And it is the hollow that allows bamboo to exhibit supreme flexibility, a container of unbreakable emptiness. #BraveWrite
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 01/05/2026
Winds of longing blow through a bamboo emptiness — timeless, never demanding a #name. The passage flows upward like a fountain that defies gravity while rooted to the earth. Quietly, a satin gold wraps the dragon strength, amber coating spread into a translucent veil of disappearing vanilla. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 21/04/2026
A little lost on purpose, the winds soothe the walls, releasing through snow-silk tails the human insecurities collected in the air’s memory. Before departure through bamboo limbs, they turn into bodiless hands, feeling the stem texture of a #jade artefact shooting heavenward from the earth. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 15/04/2026
The Khmer Hindu Temple Complex of Prasat Muang Tum is located in Prakhon Chai District of Buri Rum Province in northeastern Thailand. The name Muang Tum refers to the lowlands in which the temple is situated. Architectural aspects exhibit the Khleang and Baphuon styles. #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 06/04/2026
The Khmer Hindu Temple Complex of Prasat Muang Tum is located in Prakhon Chai District of Buri Rum Province in northeastern Thailand. The name Muang Tum refers to the lowlands in which the temple is situated. Architectural aspects exhibit the Khleang and Baphuon styles. #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 04/04/2026
The Khmer Hindu Temple Complex of Prasat Muang Tum is located in Prakhon Chai District of Buri Rum Province in northeastern Thailand. The name Muang Tum refers to the lowlands in which the temple is situated. Architectural aspects exhibit the Khleang and Baphuon styles. #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 15/03/2026
Wax castle under the applied art category by Wat Si Sumung temple community. The wax castle won fourth prize (third runner-up) at the Wax Castle Festival of Sakon Nakhon 2025. Exhibited at the Sakon Nakhon Provincial Centre from 2 to 6 October 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 22/02/2026
Sallika belonged to a tribe of bird-people who grew gardenias on their wings. Hers were a blending of porcelain clay and coconut cream that exaggerated its own milkiness, depending on her mood. When she was happy, the colour would embody a butter consistency churned amidst musical winds. #BraveWrite
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 17/02/2026
The Gian Anh Geng Shrine located in the Kudee Jeen Community (Bangkok, Thailand). Wooden relief masterpieces are exhibited just below the ceiling outside the shrine's entrance. It is believed that the images depict scenes from the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". #streetphotography #architecture
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 14/02/2026
Lilies — turned black-and-white by a kiss of shadows — open into silk carriages upon a spring. The leaves form a sheet sewn with threads dyed in such heartbroken beauty that the blood turns to ink. Spirits of aquatic dancers model the last gowns soaked through a thousand ages of oyster gray. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 12/02/2026
Centuries have faded the waters, along with any crustacean and molluscan inhabitants. Breaking through unmerciful hands of time rubbing into the wooden flesh, mermaid’s hair rises from the #dark truffle swamp, lotus stems entangled like a mythical past rough-weaving through the surface mind. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 07/02/2026
Local rulers glorified foreign skills and expertise; they smiled as they plotted to crush these foreigners. But there was still tea. The honour of samurai blood — however torn by human weakness — was killed by the fire of control that spread from the Ayutthaya court. But there was still tea. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 06/02/2026
Tea — a liquid that heals #wounds; that pours into a humble cup, yet silenced by worldly action. In the tea, the shapeless becomes defined by a nurturing heat, like afternoon shadows on a garden wall. Differentiation between history and imagination melts through the rising of perfumed steam. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 28/01/2026
Winds of longing blow through a bamboo hollow, feeling the thickness of the plant, the quivering blades. Perhaps, it is a search for dragon strength hiding within stem wall and satin gold sheath, something to lean on when the mind grows exhausted, and ancient waters have changed their state. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 26/01/2026
From freshly poured tea, a wish emerges with the steam. There is no longer a cusp between lives once lived and the life appearing in sleep — one due to be born when this current life ends. Timelines interweave the threads of after-perfume, swimming in balletic turns within an eternal teacup. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 26/01/2026
Water lilies at Uncle Jam's Lotus Field (Nakhon Pathom Province, Thailand). #landscapephotography #garden
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 21/01/2026
To drink tea is to bend physical laws, to escape into mist of grassland in-betweenness. The solitary becomes a traveller of layered timelines and undiscovered pathways, just as a full teacup holds a moon-like purity, an all-inclusive emptiness. A rain-flooded garden basin becomes a universe. #vss365
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 20/01/2026
'Khon' youth dance-drama theatre; performed at the Phranakhonkhiri Starry Night (Night Museum Festival); Pra Nakhon Khiri Historical Park (Phetchaburi, Thailand); photographed on 27 December 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 18/01/2026
Mural with stucco relief foundation exhibited in the chapel of Wat Bang Ka Pawm (Samut Songkhram, Thailand). Mural images feature scenes from daily lives of locals, reflecting cultural perspectives and folk knowledge of the villagers during the time that the chapel was built. #archaeology #mythology
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 13/01/2026
Paintings covering the wooden ceiling and upper panels of the main sermon hall, depicting ‘yaksa’ ogres, simians (monkey humanoids), ‘rishi’ hermits, and a range of deities; located within the temple compound of Wat Pradu (Samut Songkhram, Thailand). #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 13/01/2026
Paintings covering the wooden ceiling and upper panels of the main sermon hall, depicting ‘yaksa’ ogres, simians (monkey humanoids), ‘rishi’ hermits, and a range of deities; located within the temple compound of Wat Pradu (Samut Songkhram, Thailand). #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 12/01/2026
Paintings covering the wooden ceiling and upper panels of the main sermon hall, depicting ‘yaksa’ ogres, simians (monkey humanoids), ‘rishi’ hermits, and a range of deities; located within the temple compound of Wat Pradu (Samut Songkhram, Thailand). #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 03/01/2026
'Khon' youth dance-drama theatre; performed at the Phranakhonkhiri Starry Night (Night Museum Festival); Pra Nakhon Khiri Historical Park (Phetchaburi, Thailand); photographed on 27 December 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 29/12/2025
'Khon' youth dance-drama theatre; performed at the Phranakhonkhiri Starry Night (Night Museum Festival); Pra Nakhon Khiri Historical Park (Phetchaburi, Thailand); photographed on 27 December 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 28/12/2025
'Khon' youth dance-drama theatre; performed at the Phranakhonkhiri Starry Night (Night Museum Festival); Pra Nakhon Khiri Historical Park (Phetchaburi, Thailand); photographed on 27 December 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 15/12/2025
Wax castle under the applied art category by Wat Sapan Sri temple community. The wax castle won second prize (first runner-up) at the Wax Castle Festival of Sakon Nakhon 2025. Exhibited at the Sakon Nakhon Provincial Centre from 2 to 6 October 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 13/12/2025
Wax castle under the applied art category by Wat Sapan Sri temple community. The wax castle won second prize (first runner-up) at the Wax Castle Festival of Sakon Nakhon 2025. Exhibited at the Sakon Nakhon Provincial Centre from 2 to 6 October 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 13/12/2025
Wax castle under the applied art category by Wat Sapan Sri temple community. The wax castle won second prize (first runner-up) at the Wax Castle Festival of Sakon Nakhon 2025. Exhibited at the Sakon Nakhon Provincial Centre from 2 to 6 October 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 08/12/2025
Chinese opera performance by the Sai Yong Hong Company; Ta Din Daeng Market, Soi 11 (Bangkok, Thailand); 6 December 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 08/12/2025
Chinese opera performance by the Sai Yong Hong Company; Ta Din Daeng Market, Soi 11 (Bangkok, Thailand); 6 December 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 07/12/2025
Chinese opera performance at the Xia Xing Ceremony held by the Xing Ung Sia Community of Hualumpong (Bangkok, Thailand); 2 December 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 06/12/2025
Chinese opera performance at the Xia Xing Ceremony held by the Xing Ung Sia Community of Hualumpong (Bangkok, Thailand); 2 December 2025. #streetphotography #blackandwhitephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 03/12/2025
Chinese opera performance at the Xia Xing Ceremony held by the Xing Ung Sia Community of Hualumpong (Bangkok, Thailand); 2 December 2025. #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 04/11/2025
Candle float by the Wat Derm temple community of Pimai District. The Wat Derm float won the prize for first runner-up under Category A (Category Kor). Parked in front of The Mall Korat as part of the Korat Candle Festival Exhibition 2025 (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand). #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 03/11/2025
Candle float by the Wat Derm temple community of Pimai District. The Wat Derm float won the prize for first runner-up under Category A (Category Kor). Parked in front of The Mall Korat as part of the Korat Candle Festival Exhibition 2025 (Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand). #streetphotography #Asia
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 02/07/2025
The higher mind has an aerial perspective overlooking the pathways one takes in life — a giant bird that sees all the oases along the desert routes —while the physical mind only has ground-level experience. And what is considered a failure at the time may, in fact, turn out to be a blessing. #vsspic
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 30/04/2025
As the song grew louder, a ball of wind surrounded the bird, spiraling into a bell shape of dancing dust and leaves. The upper layered walls then began shedding the leaves, revealing her hair bun and closed eyes as scarves of winds continued to encircle her. The bird had turned into a human. #vsspic
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 09/03/2025
I now use social media to watch wuxia and K-drama, and continue to refine my skills in searching and accessing these cinematic treasures,old and new. The experience has been like climbing one staircase after another in a dark building lit only by immortalised masterpieces of moving pictures. #vsspic
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 25/02/2025
The wall in front of a chapel is covered by a bodhi tree root system, part of which has wrapped itself around a Buddha's head. This is the highlight of Wat Mahataad (Ayutthaya, Thailand). The sandstone Buddha's head had broken off from the full figure. #blackandwhitephotography #landscapephotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 19/02/2025
Burmese-style ‘mondop’ pavilion within the temple compound of Wat Pra Kaew Don Tao (Lampang, Thailand). Inside the ‘mondop’, decorations of Chinese and Ava glass pieces are exhibited on the posts, walls and ceiling. #archaeology #architecture
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 17/02/2025
There is an unconditional enchantment about a world of surrounding darkness, as if returning to the truest origin. Whether the moon is present in one’s immediate sky,her home has risen across those hours of sleep,and just before sleep when the hermit collects the nothingness of settled dust. #vsspic
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 12/02/2025
Portrait photography of some of Thailand's leading Chinese opera artists. Performances were held throughout the month of November 2023 (Bangkok, Thailand). #blackandwhitephotography #streetphotography
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Lalipa Hongladarom Nilubol @lotustea.substack.com · 05/02/2025
After the rain, the vegetable hummingbird is left soaking. Jewel-flowers the colour of coconut flesh, brushed by a gentle milky green, pour out from leafy curtains, released to bathe upon crescent-shaped roof tiles. And the soft wood weaves into embroidery that hangs into a lazy shadow-veil. #vsspic
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