Star forts from above (Google Maps links):
Alba Iulia,
Arad Fortress,
Almeida,
Bourtrange,
Coevorden,
Estremoz,
Goryōkaku,
Naarden,
Neuf Brisach,
Nicosia,
Palmanova,
Retranchement,
Terezín,
Willemstad.
More.
posted by nthdegx
on Jun 8, 2010 -
47 comments
Dr. Frances W. Pritchett, Professor of Modern Indic Languages at Columbia University, New York, has created
a superb online collection of resources, all about
India and South Asia, its art, history, literature, architecture and culture. Her
Indian Routes section (the
Index page) is a particularly rich resource. Her vast, colorful and informative site also has many great images. Check out her "scrapbook pages" on the
Princes l the
Ghaznavids l
British Rule l
Women's Spaces l
Perspectives on Hinduism.
[more inside]
posted by nickyskye
on Jun 9, 2009 -
14 comments
Here is the story of Hsuan Tsang / A Buddhist monk, he went from Xian to southern India / And back--on horseback, on camel-back, on elephant-back, and on foot. / Ten thousand miles... / Mountains and deserts, / In search of the Truth...
Traversing rivers and deserts, scaling mountains and
passing through desolate lands with no traces of human habitation,
7th century Chinese monk
Hsuan Tsang made his journey in 627 AD from Changan to India for religious purposes.
His detailed travel journal is believed to be among the
earliest reliable sources of information about distant countries whose terrain and customs had been known, at that time, in only the sketchiest way.
He travelled over land mostly on foot and horseback
along the Silk Road, west towards India. The Buddhist scholar’s pilgrimage (627-645 AD) contributed enormously to the cultural flow between East and West Asia. His "Hsi Yu Ki" or "
Records of the Western World" is considered the most valuable book source for the study of ancient Indian history and culture. Italian explorer
Marco Polo, whose
travel writings fired the imagination of Europeans for centuries, was believed
to have used Hsuan Tsang’s travelogue as a guide during his travels in the 13th century. More than 1,300 years after Hsuan Tsang’s
historical journey, Taiwanese magazine
Rhythms Monthly embarked on
a project to retrace Hsuan Tsang’s 19-year pilgrimage through a road that,
today, belongs to 11 different countries.
more inside
posted by matteo
on Nov 30, 2004 -
20 comments
Japan's Global Claim to Asia and the World of Islam: Transnational Nationalism and World Power, 1900-1945 During the years 1900-1945, the question that motivated Muslims and some Japanese was whether Japan could be the "Savior of Islam" against Western imperialism and colonialism if this meant collaboration with Japanese imperialism. Even during the 1930s, when there was little hope left for prospects of democracy and liberalism in Japan (for that matter in Europe as well), the vision of a "Muslim Japan" was so compelling to many Muslims in Asia and beyond, even among black Muslims of Harlem, as a means for emancipation from Western hegemony/colonial reality that it justified cooperation with Japanese intelligence overseas. Okawa Shumei, the major intellectual figure of Pan-Asianism, the "mastermind of Japanese fascism" in the Tokyo trials, who justified Japan's mission to liberate Asia from Western colonialism by war if necessary, saw Islam as the means. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the relationship transformed into a major Japanese military strategy as the Japanese government began to implement its Islamic policy by mobilizing Muslim forces against the United Kingdom, Holland, China and Russia in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East. Alternately,
The Fukuwaza Doctrine
posted by y2karl
on Nov 12, 2004 -
11 comments
The Abduction of Modernity. "Western thinkers, many of whom cannot speak or read any non-Western language, are held back in their analysis of modern civilization by the assumption that modernity is an exclusive characteristic of the West. At a time when the sole superpower is resurrecting the practice of imposing national will by military might, Henry C K Liu examines this assumption in a series of articles."
Part 1: The race toward barbarism, Part 2: That old time religion, Part 3: Rule of law vs Confucianism, Part 4: Taoism and modernity, Part 5: The Enlightenment and modernity, Part 6a: Imperialism as modernity, Part 6b: Imperialism and fragmentation, Part 6c: Imperialism resisted.
posted by homunculus
on Oct 15, 2003 -
13 comments
