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Hazara are a Persian-speaking people who mainly live in central Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are overwhelmingly Twelver Shia Muslims and make up the third largest ethnic group in Afghanistan, forming about 20% of the total population.
Khotan traces its history back at least as far as the 3rd century BCE, when the eldest son of the Indian emperor Asoka is said to have settled here. It was of great importance on the Silk Road, and is claimed to have been the first place outside China to have cultivated silk.<br/><br/>It sits astride the Karakash or ‘Black Jade’ and Yurungkash or ‘White Jade’ Rivers, which here conjoin to form the Khotan Darya, and has been famous for its jade for well over two millennia.<br/><br/>In times past trade routes crossed the desert to the north all the way to Kuqa, and as recently as 2007 this link has been re-established for the first time in centuries with the opening of a second Desert Highway leading to Aksu, distant some 424km to the north.<br/><br/>In 1006 Khotan was conquered by Uighur Muslims from Kashgar, and since that time the city remains a very Uighur place.
Khotan traces its history back at least as far as the 3rd century BCE, when the eldest son of the Indian emperor Asoka is said to have settled here. It was of great importance on the Silk Road, and is claimed to have been the first place outside China to have cultivated silk.<br/><br/>It sits astride the Karakash or ‘Black Jade’ and Yurungkash or ‘White Jade’ Rivers, which here conjoin to form the Khotan Darya, and has been famous for its jade for well over two millennia.<br/><br/>In times past trade routes crossed the desert to the north all the way to Kuqa, and as recently as 2007 this link has been re-established for the first time in centuries with the opening of a second Desert Highway leading to Aksu, distant some 424km to the north.<br/><br/>In 1006 Khotan was conquered by Uighur Muslims from Kashgar, and since that time the city remains a very Uighur place.
The important oasis of Yarkand (Shache) was once the seat of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom and an important caravanserai on the Southern Silk Road. Today it is a predominantly Uighur city with a population of 375,000 producing cotton, wheat, corn and fruit (notably pomegranates, pears and grapes) as well as oil and natural gas.<br/><br/>In times past Yarkand was of particular importance as the northern terminus for the strategically significant trade route to Leh, capital of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir, across the Karakoram Pass (5,575m., 18,286 ft).
The important oasis of Yarkand (Shache) was once the seat of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom and an important caravanserai on the Southern Silk Road. Today it is a predominantly Uighur city with a population of 375,000 producing cotton, wheat, corn and fruit (notably pomegranates, pears and grapes) as well as oil and natural gas.<br/><br/>In times past Yarkand was of particular importance as the northern terminus for the strategically significant trade route to Leh, capital of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir, across the Karakoram Pass (5,575m., 18,286 ft).
The important oasis of Yarkand (Shache) was once the seat of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom and an important caravanserai on the Southern Silk Road. Today it is a predominantly Uighur city with a population of 375,000 producing cotton, wheat, corn and fruit (notably pomegranates, pears and grapes) as well as oil and natural gas.<br/><br/>In times past Yarkand was of particular importance as the northern terminus for the strategically significant trade route to Leh, capital of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir, across the Karakoram Pass (5,575m., 18,286 ft).
The important oasis of Yarkand (Shache) was once the seat of an ancient Buddhist Kingdom and an important caravanserai on the Southern Silk Road. Today it is a predominantly Uighur city with a population of 375,000 producing cotton, wheat, corn and fruit (notably pomegranates, pears and grapes) as well as oil and natural gas.<br/><br/>In times past Yarkand was of particular importance as the northern terminus for the strategically significant trade route to Leh, capital of Ladakh in Indian-administered Kashmir, across the Karakoram Pass (5,575m., 18,286 ft).
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Trang has been a trading center since at least the 1st century AD. It grew to prosperity between the 7th and 13th centuries during the Srivijaya period and remains an important commercial town today.<br/><br/> Rubber, palm oil and fishing are the mainstays of the town's economy. Tourism is making an increasing impact as Trang’s Anadaman Coast and islands are increasingly developed and popularized.<br/><br/> The town has a strong Overseas Chinese character (and hence good Chinese restaurants) as a result of an influx of Chinese labor in the latter half of the 19th century.
Palestine (Arabic: فلسطين‎ Filasṭīn, Falasṭīn, Filisṭīn; Greek: Παλαιστίνη, Palaistinē; Latin: Palaestina; Hebrew: פלשתינה Palestina) is a n ame given to the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. The region is also known as the Land of Israel (Hebrew: ארץ־ישראל Eretz-Yisra'el), the Holy Land and the Southern Levant.<br/><br/> In 1832 Palestine was conquered by Muhammad Ali's Egypt, but in 1840 Britain intervened and returned control of the Levant to the Ottomans in return for further capitulations. The end of the 19th century saw the beginning of Zionist immigration and the Revival of the Hebrew language. The movement was publicly supported by Great Britain during World War I with the Balfour Declaration of 1917. The British captured Jerusalem a month later, and were formally awarded a mandate in 1922.<br/><br/> In 1947, following World War II and the Holocaust, the British Government announced their desire to terminate the Mandate, and the United Nations General Assembly voted to partition the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish leadership accepted the proposal but the Arab Higher Committee rejected it; a civil war began immediately, and the State of Israel was declared in 1948.<br/><br/> The 1948 Palestinian exodus, known in Arabic as the Nakba (Arabic: النكبة‎, an-Nakbah, 'The Catastrophe') occurred when approximately 711,000 to 725,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes, during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War during which Israel captured and incorporated a further 26% of Palestinian territory.<br/><br/> In the course of the Six Day War in June 1967, Israel captured the remainder of historic Palestine and began a continuing policy of Israeli settlement and annexation.
Image from the diary of Carl Johan Gethe, a cartographer on board the Gotha Leyon, which left Sweden on a three year trading expedition in 1746. Gethe's diary or Dagbok is titled: Dagbok hallen pa resan till Ost Indien begynt den 18 octobr: 1746 och slutad den 20 juni 1749 or ‘Diary of a journey to East India begun on 18 October 1746 and ending June 20, 1749’.<br><br/> The Swedish East India Company (Swedish: Svenska Ostindiska Companiet or SOIC) was founded in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1731 for the purpose of conducting trade with the Far East, and grew to become the largest trading company in Sweden during the 18th century. It closed in 1813.
Built on the banks of Lake Dian and surrounded by limestone mountains, Kunming was an important ancient trade route between Tibet, China and Southeast Asia. The city, then called Yunnanfu, suffered at the hands of rebel leader Du Wenxiu, the Sultan of Dali, who attacked and besieged the city several times between 1858 and 1868, razing most of the city's Buddhist temples.<br/><br/> In the 1890s, an uprising against working conditions on the Kunming-Haiphong railway line saw 300,000 laborers executed after France shipped in weapons to suppress the revolt. The railway line, only completed in 1911, was built by the French so that they could tap Yunnan's mineral resources for their colonies in Indochina.<br/><br/> Today, Kunming is a city of over 6 million people, and is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of Yunnan.