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Burma / Myanmar: A traditional Burmese puppet (Yoke thé) on sale, Bogyoke Aung San Market, Yangon (Rangoon). Yoke thé (lit. miniatures) is the Burmese name for marionette puppetry. Although the term can be used for marionettery in general, its usage usually refers to the local form of string puppetry. Like most of Burmese refined art, Yoke thé performances originated from Royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace. Yoke thé are almost always performed in operas.
Burma / Myanmar: A traditional Burmese puppet (Yoke thé) on sale, Bogyoke Aung San Market, Yangon (Rangoon). Yoke thé (lit. miniatures) is the Burmese name for marionette puppetry. Although the term can be used for marionettery in general, its usage usually refers to the local form of string puppetry. Like most of Burmese refined art, Yoke thé performances originated from Royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace. Yoke thé are almost always performed in operas.
Burma / Myanmar: A traditional Burmese puppet (Yoke thé) on sale, Bogyoke Aung San Market, Yangon (Rangoon). Yoke thé (lit. miniatures) is the Burmese name for marionette puppetry. Although the term can be used for marionettery in general, its usage usually refers to the local form of string puppetry. Like most of Burmese refined art, Yoke thé performances originated from Royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace. Yoke thé are almost always performed in operas.
Nan Ji Xian Weng was a character in the classic Ming Dynasty novel 'Fengshen Yanyi'. An immortal, also known as the Immortal of the South Pole or the Old Man of the South Pole, he aided and encouraged the legendary sage Jiang Ziya to accomplish his destiny and help form the Zhou Dynasty. In Taoism, he is the deification of Canopus, the brightest star in the Carina constellation, and symbolises happiness and longevity in Far Eastern culture.
David was, according to the Books of Samuel, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel, and according to the New Testament, an ancestor of Jesus. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040–970 BCE, his reign over Judah c. 1010–970 BCE.
In Japan, Jurojin is one of the Seven Gods of Fortune - or Shichifukujin - and is based on the Taoist deity of the Old Man of the South Pole. Jurojin was considered the god of longevity, and is the personification of the Southern Polar Star, and may have been based on a historical figure from the Northern Song Dynasty.<br/><br/> Jurojin is often depicted as an old man with a very tall, bald head and a long white beard, wielding a staff and a fan. Tied to his staff is a scroll, sometimes identified as a Buddhist sutra, with the lifespan of all living things written on it. He is sometimes accompanied by a deer, which is a symbol of longevity alongside other long-lived animals such as the crane and tortoise.<br/><br/> While there are many paintings and statues of him, which are considered auspicious, he never developed a strong independent following like some of the other Seven Gods of Fortune.
The Indian general election of 1951–52 elected the first Lok Sabha since India became independent in August 1947. Until this point, the Indian Constituent Assembly had served as an interim legislature.<br/><br/> The Indian National Congress (INC) won a landslide victory, winning 364 of the 489 seats and 45% of the total votes polled. This was over four times as many votes as the second-largest party. Jawaharlal Nehru became the first democratically elected Prime Minister of the country.
Wuwei has a population of around 500,000, mainly Han Chinese, but with visible numbers of Hui as well as Mongols and Tibetans. In earlier times it was called Liangzhou. Dominating the eastern end of the Hexi Corridor, it has long played a significant role on this major trade route.<br/><br/> Wuwei’s most famous historic artefact, the celebrated Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE) bronze horse known as the Flying Horse of Gansu, was discovered here in a tomb beneath Leitai Temple (Leitai Si) in the north part of town. Although the original is now on display in the Gansu Provincial Museum at Lanzhou, the horse’s likeness – depicted at an elegant, flying gallop, with one hoof briefly resting on the head of a flying swallow – is everywhere to be seen, most notably at the centre of Wuwei’s downtown Wenhua Square.
Shadow play (Chinese: 皮影戏, pí yĭng xì) or shadow puppetry is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment using opaque, often articulated figures in front of an illuminated backdrop to create the illusion of moving images. It is popular in various cultures. At present, more than 20 countries are known to have shadow show troupes.<br/><br/>Shadow puppetry originated during the Han Dynasty when one of the concubines of Emperor Wu of Han died from an illness. The emperor was devastated, and he summoned his court officers to bring his beloved back to life. The officers made a shape of the concubine using donkey leather. Her joints were animated using 11 separate pieces of the leather, and adorned with painted clothes. Using an oil lamp they made her shadow move, bringing her back to life. Shadow theatre became quite popular as early as the Song Dynasty when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming Dynasty there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. In the 13th century, the shadow show became a regular recreation in the barracks of the Mongolian troops. It was spread by the conquering Mongols to distant countries like Persia, Arabia, and Turkey. Later, it was introduced to other Southeastern Asian countries.<br/><br/>The earliest shadow theatre screens were made of mulberry paper. The storytellers generally used the art to tell events between various war kingdoms or stories of Buddhist sources. Today, puppets made of leather and moved on sticks are used to tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths. In Gansu province, it is accompanied by Daoqing music, while in Jilin, accompanying Huanglong music forms some of the basis of modern opera.
Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (月岡 芳年, 30 April 1839 – 9 June 1892, also named Taiso Yoshitoshi 大蘇 芳年) was a Japanese artist.<br/><br/> He is widely recognized as the last great master of Ukiyo-e, a type of Japanese woodblock printing. He is additionally regarded as one of the form's greatest innovators. His career spanned two eras – the last years of Edo period Japan, and the first years of modern Japan following the Meiji Restoration. Like many Japanese, Yoshitoshi was interested in new things from the rest of the world, but over time he became increasingly concerned with the loss of many aspects of traditional Japanese culture, among them traditional woodblock printing.<br/><br/> Eimei nijūhasshūku (英名 二十八 衆句 or ‘28 Famous Murders with Verse’), also known as the 'Bloody Prints', is a collection of Japanese ukiyo-e from the 1860s, which depicted gruesome acts of murder or torture based on historical events or scenes in Kabuki plays. Although most of the works are solely violent by nature, it is perhaps the first known example of ero guro or the erotic grotesque in Japanese culture, an art sub-genre which depicts either erotic or extreme images of violence and mutilation.
Yoke thé (lit. miniatures) is the Burmese name for marionette puppetry. Although the term can be used for marionettery in general, its usage usually refers to the local form of string puppetry. Like most of Burmese refined art, Yoke thé performances originated from Royal patronage and were gradually adapted for the wider populace. Yoke thé are almost always performed in operas.<br/><br/> Burmese marionettes are very intricate and dexterous as they employ 18 (for male characters) or 19 (for female) wires, each puppet controlled only by one puppeteer.
The Temple of Literature or Van Mieu is one of Vietnam’s foremost cultural treasures. Founded in 1070 by King Ly Thanh Tong of the Early Ly Dynasty, the temple was originally dedicated both to Confucius and to Chu Cong, a member of the Chinese royal family credited with originating many of the teachings that Confucius developed five hundred years later. The site was selected by Ly Dynasty geomancers to stand in harmony with the Taoist Bich Cau temple and the Buddhist One Pillar Pagoda, representing the three major fonts of Vietnamese tradition.<br/><br/> Six years later, in 1076, the Quoc Tu Giam, or ‘School for the Sons of the Nation’, was established at the same location when King Ly Nhan Tong (1072-1127) established Vietnam’s first university. The tradition of Confucian education flourished at the Temple of Literature, with the custom of offering a cloak to successful candidates beginning in 1374, whilst in 1484 the first stele bearing the names of doctoral graduates was erected.
The Bakemono Zukushi handscroll, painted in the Edo period (18th-19th century) by an unknown artist, depicts 24 traditional monsters that traditionally haunt people and localities in Japan.
This shunga is no. 10 in Harunobu's series of 24 woodblock prints: 'Furyu enshoku Mane'emon' (風流艶色真似ゑもん or 'Elegant Amorous Mane'emon'), Edo (Tokyo), 1770.<br/><br/>Harunobu's Mane'emon series illustrate the voyeuristic adventures of a man named Ukiyonosuke who wanted to learn the secrets of love making. To attain this end he drank a magic elixir and became very small, taking the pseudonym ' Mane'emon'.
Seoul is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of more than 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the developed world. The Seoul Capital Area, which includes the surrounding Incheon metropolis and Gyeonggi province, is the world's second largest metropolitan area with over 25.6 million people, home to over half of South Koreans along with 632,000 international residents.<br/><br/>During the Korean War, Seoul changed hands between the Chinese-backed North Korean forces and the UN-backed South Korean forces several times, leaving the city heavily damaged after the war. One estimate of the extensive damage states that after the war, at least 191,000 buildings, 55,000 houses, and 1,000 factories lay in ruins. In addition, a flood of refugees had entered Seoul during the war, swelling the population of Seoul and its metropolitan area to an estimated 2.5 million, more than half of them homeless.