This Week in Photos, Week of Dec 16-22, 2011

Volunteers carry lanterns as they work on the decorations at Fo Guang Shan monastery before the completion ceremony of the newly built Buddha Memorial Center in Kaohsiung. The completion ceremony of the Buddha Memorial Center will be held on December 27.

Bashii, a Sumatran tiger, meets Santa while playing at Australia Zoo in Beerwah.

Trevor Hill arranges the turkeys for the Christmas Poultry Auction at Murton Livestock Center in York, England.

General view of illuminated Christmas decorations at Monserrate church in Bogota.

A mahout washes an elephant in a pool at Gangaramaya Buddhist temple in Colombo.

A Hindu man writes "Happy Christmas" in Hindi on his forehead, while sitting on the banks of the Ganges river in the northern Indian city of Allahabad.

Star Wars Storm Trooper characters cross the street outside the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York's Times Square after taking part in ringing the opening bell for the trading day.

Volunteers make a Christmas tree with milk tin cans donated to the "Medecins Du Monde" non-governmental organization, which will distribute them to the poor in Athens.

Visitors tour the "Dead Sea Scrolls: Life and Faith in Biblical Times" exhibition at Discovery Times Square in New York City.

A worker checks a 26-ft tall Christmas tree built with 3,500 Tetra Pak carton packages installed in a park in Lima. The tree is promoting the recycling of Tetra Pak packages into poly aluminum plates that are used to make furniture.

US Army soldiers from the 2-82 Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade and 1st Cavalry Division walk off the plane as they arrive at their home base of Fort Hood, TX, after being part of one of the last American combat units to exit from Iraq.

Dancers from the Scottish Ballet wait to go on stage for the dress rehearsal for their current production of "Sleeping Beauty" at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, Scotland.

Children play on a snow sculpture during the 2nd Snow Sculpture Festival in Hulun Buir, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

An Andean man blows into an Inca instrument made from a shell called "Pututo"during a pre-Hispanic religious ritual held at the island of San Lorenzo in front of Callao port.

Museum assistants pose for photographers while preparing an exhibit featuring a Mahmal tent from 1867 at the British Museum in London. The silk tent, which was carried on the back of a camel from Cairo to the Hajj in Mecca, will be featured in an exhibition entitled "Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam" opening January 26, 2012.