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
Women Explorers and Travellers of Asia and the Middle East - In an age where women struggled for basic human rights, these individuals were literal trailblazers. Leaving their homelands for varying motivations (but often due to dissatisfaction with their social lot in life), they devoted their lives to "explore these
antique lands before they are irretrievably caught up in the cacaphonic whirl of the modern world."
[more inside]
posted by ikahime
on Aug 1, 2008 -
10 comments
Fueled by Rice - Five recent grads from the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's Unviersity recently set off from Beijing to
bike across Asia and Europe. The
goal of their bike trip is to spread international good will on the local level and advocate reducing carbon emissions and living slower-paced, more enjoyable lives. Along the way they will bike through rural areas and play
music in villages. As they travel, the group is posting
photos, a
blog, and will attempt to get a podcast up and running. They've even got the site up in
Chinese, though the site
seems to be blocked for most folks in China.
posted by pithy comment
on Sep 17, 2007 -
11 comments
"Pray for the Hartzler family. Their youngest has left the church and no longer believes that Christ died for her sins. She buys clothes at the mall. Tongue pierced, nose as well. Her shirt shows her belly where a ring of gold sprouts. We pray she will remember that her Lord's side was pierced, that His crown held no gold, only the dried blood of His brow."
Shamash thinks the prayer request in this
poem might be written for her. Despite her start in a Mennonite family, she is now an "international traveller living and teaching in Asia."
posted by The Light Fantastic
on Mar 14, 2007 -
21 comments
A Tale of Two Chinas, by photographer
James Whitlow Delano.
Whole
swaths of cities have vanished, to be transformed with developments that have quickly made them look more like Houston, Qatar, or Singapore than
the ancient China of our mind's eye. The old hutong, or alleyways, of Beijing that once formed a mosaic of passageways and the siheyuan, or walled courtyard houses,
have been largely razed. The old brick rowhouses of Shanghai, are now being leveled and replaced by modern high-rises.
Traditional marketplaces, residential neighborhoods, streets where medicine shops or bookstores bunched together,
are now either gone or have been rouged up as tourist destinations, part of a new synthetic, virtual version of China's incredible past.
The energy fueling this transformation bespeaks a powerful but often
blind, unquestioning faith in an inchoate idea of progress that
takes one's breath away, often literally. (Unrestrained growth has left China with the dubious honor of having 9 of the 10 most polluted cities in the world).
Delano's new book
is "
Empire: Impressions from China". More inside.
posted by matteo
on Feb 17, 2005 -
23 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
Discovering Japan. As a
perennial outsider at loose in Japan,
writer Donald Richie captures the
joyous freedom of being foreign. The foreign observer is likely to be happy only if he sees his foreignness as an adventure, and recognizes that he has given up a sense of belonging
for a sense of freedom, traded the luxury of being understood for that of being permanently interested.
Richie, the philosopher-king of expats in Asia for the past half-century, arrived in Tokyo in 1947 as a typist with the U.S. government and never really left,
writing dozens of books ,
on Japanese movies,
temples, history and
fashion, while enjoying himself as an actor, musician, filmmaker and painter.
The Japan Journals: 1947-2004 is a monument to the
pleasures of displacement. Richie watchers can observe, more intimately than ever, a man who is generally happiest observing. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Nov 9, 2004 -
12 comments
Photos by Martin - a gem of a site for vicarious travelers, it features
wonderful,
charming photos and fascinating
stories from a guy who quit his job three years ago to travel the world. He credits global photojournalist
Steve McCurry as an influence. I am such a fan of these photo travel narratives, professional and amateur alike - has anyone else discivered some special favorites?
posted by madamjujujive
on Jul 8, 2003 -
22 comments
Sneaky! Grr . . . A few months ago, while surfing for wreck diving info, I stumbled upon
this page as a main link entitled
Nightlife in the Philippines. Because it promotes outright trafficking of women, I made a ruckus and sent an email complaining about it to the site admin and our government's
Department of Tourism. (Prostitution, BTW, is illegal in the Philippines.) Shortly afterwards, the site admin removed the main link. So how come it's still on the site via
this page? I know Southeast Asia (the Philippines second only to Thailand, I think) has a rep for cheap beer
and women, but I HATE the fact that many foreigners (like the owners of
this shop,) feel that they can buy anything they want while on vacation in third world countries, and that it's alright to perpetuate the trafficking of Filipino women under the guise of
tourism. Bah.
posted by lillitot
on Apr 13, 2002 -
31 comments
