The second article by A. den Doolaard and Cas Oorthuys was published in the magazine Katholieke Illustratie of december 19th 1959: Athos, Island of silence.

In this article they describe, after passing Koutloumousiou, the walk from Karyes to Dafni. On the following boat trip to the south they meet a real Hesychast repeating the same words – the Jesus-prayer – again and again. A. den Doolaard describes the similarities between the Athos-hesychast and Buddhism and how the ideas of Buddhist religion came to Athos. He says that Sanskrit texts were translated into Arab and how these texts later – about the year 1000 – were translated in Greek by monks from Iviron.
The pier of Vatopedi

They stop at Dionysiou and especially the sound of the semantron, a sound dating from very beginning of Christianity, born in the desert, when Jesus found his place to contemplate.(the trapeza here below is not in Dionysiou but in Lavra)
Their next goal was the monastery of Panteleimon. He describes the portraits of the Romanovs in the waiting room and how just 36 very old Russians remained to run this large complex of buildings: one by one they die and no novices are to been seen …….

The writer ends his article with some philosophical words about the (dark) future of Athos and with these words: “a place without time in a world with ticking clocks, an island of smooth quietness”.

Wim, 16/12 (update 9-2-2019)