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The Jain's sacred site of Shatrunjaya contains hundreds of Palitana temples built mostly between the 11th Century and 16th Century CE. The Shatrunjaya Hills were sanctified when Rishabha, the first <i>tirthankara</i> (omniscient Teaching God) of Jainism, gave his first sermon in the temple on the hill top. The ancient history of the hills is also traced to Pundarika Swami, a chief Ganadhara and grandson of Rishabha, who attained salvation here. His shrine located opposite to the main Adinath temple, built by his son Bharata, is also worshiped by pilgrims.
The Jain's sacred site of Shatrunjaya contains hundreds of Palitana temples built mostly between the 11th Century and 16th Century CE. The Shatrunjaya Hills were sanctified when Rishabha, the first <i>tirthankara</i> (omniscient Teaching God) of Jainism, gave his first sermon in the temple on the hill top. The ancient history of the hills is also traced to Pundarika Swami, a chief Ganadhara and grandson of Rishabha, who attained salvation here. His shrine located opposite to the main Adinath temple, built by his son Bharata, is also worshiped by pilgrims.
Kathmandu is an unexpected and extravagant mixture of peoples and religions, child-goddesses, bare-foot porters padding in back alleys, and sacred cows. The Kathmandu most people come to see is the Old City, a tangled network of narrow alleys, stores and temples located around central Durbar Square.
5 <i>dinar</i> Islamic State coin dated 1437 Hijri (Islamic calendar) or 2016 CE, with a map of the world on the obverse.<br/><br/> The Arabic text on the right image shows 'Islamic State' for the first line, Gold 21 for the second line, 5 <i>dinar</i> for the third line, 21.25 grams for the fourth line and 'A Caliphate Based on the Doctrine of the Prophet' for the fifth line.
20 <i>fuluus</i> Islamic State coin dated 1437 Hijri (Islamic calendar) or 2016 CE, with palm trees on the obverse.<br/><br/> The Arabic text on the reverse shows 'Islamic State' for the first line, 20 <i>fuluus</i> (smaller denomination of the dinar) for the second line, 20 grams for the third line and 'A Caliphate Based on the Doctrine of the Prophet' for the fourth line.
<i>Hikifuda</i> are advertising handbills that became popular in late 19th to early 20th century Japan. Showing the increasing sophistication of Japanese commerce, the handbills were produced to advertise a company or promote a product, and sometimes they were even used as wrapping paper.<br/><br/> While <i>hikifuda</i> began to be produced as woodblock prints in the late 17th century, they witnessed a boom in the later 19th century when they were cheaply printed using colour lithography.
1 <i>dirham</i> Islamic State coin dated 1437 Hijri (Islamic calendar) or 2016 CE, with spear and shield on the obverse.<br/><br/> The Arabic text on the obverse shows 'Islamic State' for the first line, 1 <i>dirham</i> (smaller denomination of the dinar) for the second line, 2 grams for the third line and 'A Caliphate Based on the Doctrine of the Prophet' for the fourth line.
The Jain's sacred site of Shatrunjaya contains hundreds of Palitana temples built mostly between the 11th Century and 16th Century CE. The Shatrunjaya Hills were sanctified when Rishabha, the first <i>tirthankara</i> (omniscient Teaching God) of Jainism, gave his first sermon in the temple on the hill top. The ancient history of the hills is also traced to Pundarika Swami, a chief Ganadhara and grandson of Rishabha, who attained salvation here. His shrine located opposite to the main Adinath temple, built by his son Bharata, is also worshiped by pilgrims.
10 <i>dirham</i> Islamic State coin dated 1437 Hijri (Islamic calendar) or 2016 CE, with Al-Aqsa Mosque on the obverse.<br/><br/> The Arabic text on the right image shows 'Islamic State' for the first line, 1 <i>dirham</i> (smaller denomination of the dinar) for the second line, 2 grams for the third line and 'A Caliphate Based on the Doctrine of the Prophet' for the fourth line.
Suzhou, the city of canals and gardens, was called the ‘Venice of the East’ by Marco Polo. An ancient Chinese proverb states: ‘In Heaven there is Paradise; on Earth there is Suzhou’.<br/><br/>The city’s love affair with gardens dates back 2,500 years and continues still. At the time of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) there were 250 gardens, of which about a hundred survive, although only a few are open to the public.
Quanzhou was established in 718 during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). In those days, Guangzhou was China's greatest seaport, but this status would be surpassed later by Quanzhou. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), Quanzhou was one of the world's largest seaports, hosting a large community of foreign-born inhabitants from across the Eurasian world.<br/><br/> Due to its reputation, Quanzhou has been called the starting point of the Silk Road via the sea. From the Arabic name form of the city, Zayton, the word satin would be minted. In The Travels of Marco Polo, Quanzhou (called Zayton, T'swan-Chau or Chin-Cheu) was listed as the departure point for Marco Polo's expedition to escort the 17-year-old Mongol princess bride Kököchin to her new husband in the Persian Ilkhanate.
Quanzhou was established in 718 during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). In those days, Guangzhou was China's greatest seaport, but this status would be surpassed later by Quanzhou. During the Song Dynasty (960–1279) and Yuan Dynasty (1279–1368), Quanzhou was one of the world's largest seaports, hosting a large community of foreign-born inhabitants from across the Eurasian world.<br/><br/> Due to its reputation, Quanzhou has been called the starting point of the Silk Road via the sea. From the Arabic name form of the city, Zayton, the word satin would be minted. In The Travels of Marco Polo, Quanzhou (called Zayton, T'swan-Chau or Chin-Cheu) was listed as the departure point for Marco Polo's expedition to escort the 17-year-old Mongol princess bride Kököchin to her new husband in the Persian Ilkhanate.
The Nabataeans, also Nabateans (Arabic: الأنباط‎ al-ʾAnbāṭ), were ancient peoples of Jordan, whose oasis settlements in the time of Josephus (AD 37 – c. 100), gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Syria and Arabia, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Their loosely-controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases that they controlled, where agriculture was intensively practiced in limited areas, and on the routes that linked them, had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert.<br/><br/> Trajan conquered the Nabataean kingdom, annexing it to the Roman Empire, where their individual culture, easily identified by their characteristic finely-potted painted ceramics, became dispersed in the general Greco-Roman culture and was eventually lost.
Zu Miao (Ancestral Temple) was built during the reign of Emperor Zhezong (1076 - 1100 CE), the 7th emperor of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1276 CE). The temple is dedicated to Beidi, the Northern God, who is said to have power over the waters of Guangdong.<br/><br/> Foshan dates back to the 7th century CE and has been famous for its ceramics, porcelain and pottery industry since the Song Dynasty. It is also famous for its martial arts. It contains numerous Wing Chun schools where many come to train and spar.
The 'ox woman' pictured here was a sideshow attraction at Dazaifu Tenmangu shrine, Fukuoka prefecture, in the mid-18th century. The armless lady entertained audiences by using her peculiar feet to run string through the center holes of coins. The Kaikidan Ekotoba is a mid-19th century handscroll that profiles 33 legendary monsters and human oddities, mostly from the Kyushu region of Japan, but with several from other countries, including China, Russia and Korea. The document, whose author is unknown, is in the possession of the Fukuoka City Museum.
The Kharoṣṭhī script was an ancient abugida used by Gandhara culture to write the Gāndhārī and Sanskrit languages. It was in use from the middle of the 3rd century BCE until it died out in its homeland around the 3rd century CE. It was also in use in Kushan, Sogdiana and along the Silk Road where there is some evidence it may have survived until the 7th century in the remote way stations of Khotan and Niya. Indo-Scythians is a term used to refer to Sakas (or Scythians), who migrated into Bactria, Sogdiana, Arachosia, Gandhara, Kashmir, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE.
Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam including Saigon, or Ho Chi Minh City. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1948. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam.<br/><br/> The Cham people are remnants of the Kingdom of Champa (7th to 15th centuries), They are nowadays concentrated between Kampong Cham Province in Cambodia and central Vietnam's Phan Rang and southeastern Vietnam’s Phan Thiet, Ho Chi Minh City and An Giang areas. Approximately 4,000 Chams also live in Thailand, mostly in the southern provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and Songkhla. The Chams form the core of the Muslim communities in both Cambodia and Vietnam.
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.
The Astana Graves are a series of underground tombs located 6km from the ancient city of Gaochang, and 42km from Turpan, in Xinjiang, China. The tombs were used by the inhabitants of Gaochang, both commoners and locals, for about 600 years from 200 CE – 800 CE.<br/><br/> The complex covers 10 square kilometers and contains over 1,000 tombs. Different plots for separate castes and families are marked by gravel dividers. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.<br/><br/> A typical tomb is entered by a 10 meter sloping staircase. The tombs are not very large, usually only 2 meters high. Some tombs also have murals inside. The deceased were laid on a small raised platform in the back of the tomb, surrounded by possessions and even food. Their faces were covered by cloths, some of which have distinct Persian motifs. A small funeral brick was placed to next to each body, on which was written the person’s name and other biographical information. These bricks have been incredibly useful for historians to date the tombs’ finds.<br/><br/> There are also various Tang Dynasty figurines and silk paintings in the Astana Graves. A new pavilion has been built outside the old graveyard; the centerpiece is a large statue of Fuxi and Nüwa based on the silk banners found on the inner ceilings of the tombs.
Luk nimit are stone spheres used for burying at the four corners and the four cardinal points of a new ubosot, a ninth is buried below the main Buddha statue.<br/><br/> Wat Phrathat Doi Kham or ‘Temple of the Golden Mount’, is located in Tambon Mae Hia, about 10km south of Chiang Mai Old City, in the lee of Doi Suthep. Temple records claim that the temple dates back over 1,300 years ‘to 687 AD’, during the pre-Lan Na period when the region was inhabited by the indigenous animist Lawa.<br/><br/> Chiang Mai (meaning "new city"), sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai in 1296, and it succeeded Chiang Rai as capital of the Lanna kingdom.
Luk nimit are stone spheres used for burying at the four corners and the four cardinal points of a new ubosot, a ninth is buried below the main Buddha statue.<br/><br/> Wat Phrathat Doi Kham or ‘Temple of the Golden Mount’, is located in Tambon Mae Hia, about 10km south of Chiang Mai Old City, in the lee of Doi Suthep. Temple records claim that the temple dates back over 1,300 years ‘to 687 AD’, during the pre-Lan Na period when the region was inhabited by the indigenous animist Lawa.<br/><br/> Chiang Mai (meaning "new city"), sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai in 1296, and it succeeded Chiang Rai as capital of the Lanna kingdom.
Luk nimit are stone spheres used for burying at the four corners and the four cardinal points of a new ubosot, a ninth is buried below the main Buddha statue.<br/><br/> Wat Phrathat Doi Kham or ‘Temple of the Golden Mount’, is located in Tambon Mae Hia, about 10km south of Chiang Mai Old City, in the lee of Doi Suthep. Temple records claim that the temple dates back over 1,300 years ‘to 687 AD’, during the pre-Lan Na period when the region was inhabited by the indigenous animist Lawa.<br/><br/> Chiang Mai (meaning "new city"), sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai in 1296, and it succeeded Chiang Rai as capital of the Lanna kingdom.
Cuneiform script is one of the earliest known forms of written expression. Emerging in Sumer around the 30th century BC, with predecessors reaching into the late 4th millennium (the Uruk IV period), cuneiform writing began as a system of pictographs. In the three millennia the script spanned, the pictorial representations became simplified and more abstract as the number of characters in use also grew gradually smaller, from about 1,000 unique characters in the Early Bronze Age to about 400 unique characters in Late Bronze Age (Hittite cuneiform).<br/><br/> The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. Cuneiform writing was gradually replaced by the Phoenician alphabet during the Neo-Assyrian Empire, and by the 2nd century AD, the script had become extinct.<br/><br/> Cuneiform documents were written on clay tablets, by means of a blunt reed for a stylus. The impressions left by the stylus were wedge shaped, thus giving rise to the name cuneiform ('wedge shaped', from the Latin cuneus, meaning 'wedge').
Azes II (reigned circa 35-12 BCE), may have been the last Indo-Scythian king in northern India. After the death of Azes II, the rule of the Indo-Scythians in northwestern India finally crumbled with the conquest of the Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had lived in Bactria for more than a century, and who were then expanding into India to create a Kushan Empire.