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Asia's smallest and least-known nation, the Republic of Maldives, lies scattered from north to south across a 750-kilometre sweep of the Indian Ocean 500 kilometres south-west of Sri Lanka. More than 1000 islands, together with innumerable banks and reefs, are grouped in a chain of nineteen atolls which extends from a point due west of Colombo to just south of the equator.<br/><br/> The atolls, formed of great rings of coral based on the submarine Laccadive-Chagos ridge, vary greatly in size. Some are only a few kilometres square, but in the far south the great atoll of Suvadiva is sixty-five kilometres across, and has a central lagoon of more than 2000 square kilometres. The northern and central atolls are separated from each other by comparatively narrow channels of deep water, but in the south Suvadiva is cut off by the eighty-kilometre-wide One-and-a-half-Degree Channel. Addu Atoll is still more isolated, being separated from the atoll of Suvadiva by the seventy-kilometre-wide Equatorial Channel.
Toyohara Chikanobu (1838-1912), often known by his contemporaries as Yoshu Chikanobu, was a prolific woodblock artist active during the Meiji Era of Japan. He served as a soldier for the Tokugawa loyalists at first, but following the Shogitai's surrender, he was remanded to the Takada domain, and in 1875 CE, he decided to become an artist.<br/><br/> He soon become renowned as a highly skilled ukiyo-e artist, with his works ranging from Japanese mythology to depictions of the battlefields from the wars of his time to women's fashions and <i>shunga</i> (erotic art). He produced a great many war prints in triptych format, documenting the Satsuma Rebellion, the First Sino-Japanese War and the First Russo-Japanese War, among other conflicts and events.
Thaana, Taana or Tāna is the present writing system of the Maldivian language spoken in the Maldives. Thaana has characteristics of both an abugida (diacritic, vowel-killer strokes) and a true alphabet (all vowels are written), with consonants derived from indigenous and Arabic numerals, and vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic abjad. Its orthography is largely phonemic.<br/><br/> Asia's smallest and least-known nation, the Republic of Maldives, lies scattered from north to south across a 750-kilometre sweep of the Indian Ocean 500 kilometres south-west of Sri Lanka. More than 1000 islands, together with innumerable banks and reefs, are grouped in a chain of nineteen atolls which extends from a point due west of Colombo to just south of the equator.
A strange 'Orientalist' poster displaying, perhaps without malice, East Asian Chinese / Japanese ethnic stereotyping.<br/><br/> Racism consists of both prejudice and discrimination based in social perceptions of biological differences between peoples.<br/><br/> It often takes the form of social actions, practices or beliefs, or political systems that consider different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently.
Abu Yahya Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (أبو يحيئ زكريا بن محمد القزويني) (born 1203 - died 1283), was a Persian physician, astronomer, geographer and proto-science fiction writer.<br/><br/> Born in the Persian town of Qazvin, he was descended from Anas ibn Malik, Zakariya' ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini served as legal expert and judge (qadhi) in several localities in Persia and at Baghdad. He travelled around in Mesopotamia and Syria, and finally entered the circle patronized by the governor of Baghdad, ‘Ata-Malik Juwayni (d. 1283 CE).<br/><br/> It was to the latter that al-Qazwini dedicated his famous Arabic-language cosmography titled 'Aja'ib al-makhluqat wa-ghara'ib al-mawjudat عجائب المخلوقات و غرائب الموجودات ('Marvels of Creatures and Strange Things Existing'). This treatise, frequently illustrated, was immensely popular and is preserved today in many copies. It was translated into Persian and Turkish.<br/><br/> Qazwini was also well-known for his geographical dictionary, Athar al-bilad wa-akhbar al-‘ibad اثار البلاد واخبار العباد ('Monument of Places and History of God's Bondsmen'). Both of these treatises reflect extensive reading and learning in a wide range of disciplines.<br/><br/> Al-Qazwini also wrote a futuristic proto-science fiction Arabic tale entitled Awaj bin Anfaq, about a man who travelled to Earth from a distant planet.
Zhong Kui (Wade-Giles: Chung Kwei, Japanese: Shōki) is a figure of Chinese mythology. Traditionally regarded as a vanquisher of ghosts and evil beings, and reputedly able to command 80,000 demons, his image is often painted on household gates as a guardian spirit, as well as in places of business where high-value goods are involved.<br/><br/> Zhong Kui's popularity in folklore can be traced to the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (712 to 756). According to Song Dynasty sources, once the Emperor Xuanzong was gravely ill. He had a dream in which he saw two ghosts. The smaller of the ghosts stole a purse from imperial consort Yang Guifei and a flute belonging to the emperor. The bigger ghost, wearing the hat of an official, captured the smaller ghost, tore out his eye and ate it. The bigger ghost then introduced himself as Zhong Kui. He said that he had sworn to rid the empire of evil. When the emperor awoke, he had recovered from his illness. So he commissioned the court painter Wu Daozi to produce an image of Zhong Kui to show to the officials. This was highly influential to later representations of Zhong Kui.
Dr Seth Arnold Medical Company produced 'Cough Killer' for curing coughs, whooping cough, colds, pneumonia, asthma, croup, malaria, inflammation of the stomach, and malignant fevers as well as 'Arnold's Anti-Bilious Pills' which were supposed to cure liver complaints, biliousness and headache.<br/><br/> Like many 19th-century over-the-counter medicines, a lot of its effect was due to the fact that it contained a narcotic drug or hallucinogen, in this case morphine, a derivative of opium. People were unwittingly being exposed to habit-forming drugs, something the American Medical Association started investigating about this time. It compiled a list of dangerous 'nostrums' in May 1909, including alcohol, opium and its derivatives, morphine and codeine, cocaine, chloral, and cannabis. Legislation followed eventually.<br/><br/> Dr Seth Arnold was a doctor and a patent medicine manufacturer from Smithfield, Rhode Island. His other popular cures included Dr Seth Arnold's Balsam, for cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea, etc., Soothing and Quiet cordial, for stomach and bowel problems and Indian Vegetable Sugar Coated Bilious Pills which were supposed to purify the blood and cure headaches. In 1892, Dr Seth Arnold died leaving his sons in charge of the firm, which they sold about 15 years later to Gilman Brothers of Boston, Massachusetts.
This illuminated book made of tree bark is a pustaha, written in the script of the Batak people of Northern Sumatra. Pustahas were books describing magical practices, and were intended for use only by Batak spiritual leaders and their disciples. This pustaha describes forms of protection against evil.
This shunga is no. 1 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'.
The Shan ethnic group popularized the craft of tattooing in Burma, importing the practice from southern China. Their tattoos had magical or spiritual connotations, similar to the belief in amulets. In Shan culture, a young man was often tattooed from the waist to the knees as a rite of passage and was a sign of virility and maturity. The ritual was performed by the village medicine man, using a long skewer to apply traditional indigo ink or natural vermillion. The procedure could take weeks and the subject would be drugged with opium to ease the pain. Common designs were animals, zodiac signs and geometric patterns.
Starting with the California Gold Rush in the late 19th century, the United States—particularly the West Coast states—imported large numbers of Chinese migrant laborers. Early Chinese immigrants worked as gold miners, and later on large labor projects, such as the building of the First Transcontinental Railroad.<br/><br/> Chinese migrant workers encountered considerable prejudice in the United States, especially by the people who occupied the lower layers in white society, because Chinese 'coolies' were used as a scapegoat for depressed wage levels by politicians and labor leaders.<br/><br/> In the 1870s and 1880s various legal discriminatory measures were taken against the Chinese. These laws, in particular the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, were aimed at restricting further immigration from China. The laws were later repealed by the Chinese Exclusion Repeal Act of 1943.