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The <i>Anwar-i Suhayli</i> or 'The Lights of Canopus', commonly known as the <i>Fables of Bidpai</i> in the West, is a Persian version of the ancient Indian collection of animal fables, the <i>Panchatantra</i>. It tells a tale of a Persian physician, Burzuyah, and his mission to India, where he stumbles upon a book of stories collected from the animals who reside there.<br/><br/> In a similar vein to the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, the fables in the manuscript are inter-woven as the characters of one story recount the next, leading up to three or four degrees of narrative embedding. Many usually have morals or offer philosophical glimpses into human behaviour, emphasising loyalty and teamwork.
The <i>Anwar-i Suhayli</i> or 'The Lights of Canopus', commonly known as the <i>Fables of Bidpai</i> in the West, is a Persian version of the ancient Indian collection of animal fables, the <i>Panchatantra</i>. It tells a tale of a Persian physician, Burzuyah, and his mission to India, where he stumbles upon a book of stories collected from the animals who reside there.<br/><br/> In a similar vein to the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, the fables in the manuscript are inter-woven as the characters of one story recount the next, leading up to three or four degrees of narrative embedding. Many usually have morals or offer philosophical glimpses into human behaviour, emphasising loyalty and teamwork.
Kong Xuan is a character from the classic Ming Dynasty novel 'Fengshen Yanyi'. Based on Mahamayuri from Buddhist myth, Kong Xuan was a peacock spirit who took human form to serve as King Zhou of Shang's general. Kong Xuan was said to have possessed five different rays of light which could sweep his enemy into a void, making him an incredibly deadly foe.<br/><br/> When King Wu of Zhou, founder of the Zhou Dynasty, rebelled against the tyrannical King Zhou of Shang, Kong Xuan fought the rebel army in the Golden Cock Range, where his rays of light caused great difficulty for King Wu's armies. Not even King Wu's mightiest generals and heroes, deities such as Nezha and Erlang Shen, could stand up to him.<br/><br/> In the end, Kong Xuan was defeated by Candi, a Buddha from the West. After his defeat, Kong Wuan reverted to his original form as a giant peacock, and became Candi's mount.
UNESCO has proclaimed seven sites in the Kathmandu Valley World Heritage Sites— Kathmandu Durbar Square, Pashupatinath Temple, Bodhnath, Svayambhunath, Patan Durbar Square, Bhaktapur Durbar Square and the Changu Narayan Temple.<br/><br/> Historically, the valley and adjoining areas made up a confederation known as Nepal Mandala. Until the 15th century, Bhaktapur was its capital when two other capitals, Kathmandu and Lalitpur, were established. After the annexation of the valley by the Gorkha Kingdom, and subsequent establishment of the valley as the capital of their empire, the designation of 'Nepal' was extended to every land they conquered.
Kartikeya, also known as Skanda, Kumaran, Kumara Swami and Subramaniyan, is the Hindu god of war. He is the commander-in-chief of the army of the devas (gods) and the son of Shiva and Parvati.<br/><br/> Murugan is often referred to as 'Tamil Kadavul' (meaning 'God of Tamils') and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Reunion Island. His six most important shrines in India are the Arupadaiveedu temples, located in Tamil Nadu. In Sri Lanka, the sacred historical Nallur Kandaswamy temple in Jaffna and Kataragama Temple situated deep south. Hindus in Malaysia also pray to Lord Murugan at the Batu Caves and various temples where Thaipusam is celebrated with grandeur.<br/><br/> In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, Kartikeya is known as Subramanya with a temple at Kukke Subramanya known for Sarpa shanti rites dedicated to Him and another famous temple at Ghati Subramanya also in Karnataka. In Bengal and Odisha, he is popularly known as Kartikeya.
The Shwe Indein Pagoda is a collection of Buddhist stupas dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries CE.<br/><br/> Inle Lake is a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Taunggyi District of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km2), and one of the highest at an altitude of 2,900 feet (880 m).<br/><br/> The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering the lake, in numerous small villages along the lake's shores, and on the lake itself. The entire lake area is in Nyaung Shwe township. The population consists predominantly of Intha, with a mix of other Shan, Taungyo, Pa-O (Taungthu), Danu, Kayah, Danaw and Bamar ethnicities. Most are devout Buddhists, and live in simple houses of wood and woven bamboo on stilts; they are largely self-sufficient farmers.<br/><br/> Most transportation on the lake is traditionally by small boats, or by somewhat larger boats fitted with single cylinder inboard diesel engines. Local fishermen are known for practicing a distinctive rowing style which involves standing at the stern on one leg and wrapping the other leg around the oar. This unique style evolved for the reason that the lake is covered by reeds and floating plants making it difficult to see above them while sitting. Standing provides the rower with a view beyond the reeds. However, the leg rowing style is only practiced by the men. Women row in the customary style, using the oar with their hands, sitting cross legged at the stern.
The Shwe Indein Pagoda is a collection of Buddhist stupas dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries CE.<br/><br/> Inle Lake is a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Taunggyi District of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km2), and one of the highest at an altitude of 2,900 feet (880 m).<br/><br/> The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering the lake, in numerous small villages along the lake's shores, and on the lake itself. The entire lake area is in Nyaung Shwe township. The population consists predominantly of Intha, with a mix of other Shan, Taungyo, Pa-O (Taungthu), Danu, Kayah, Danaw and Bamar ethnicities. Most are devout Buddhists, and live in simple houses of wood and woven bamboo on stilts; they are largely self-sufficient farmers.<br/><br/> Most transportation on the lake is traditionally by small boats, or by somewhat larger boats fitted with single cylinder inboard diesel engines. Local fishermen are known for practicing a distinctive rowing style which involves standing at the stern on one leg and wrapping the other leg around the oar. This unique style evolved for the reason that the lake is covered by reeds and floating plants making it difficult to see above them while sitting. Standing provides the rower with a view beyond the reeds. However, the leg rowing style is only practiced by the men. Women row in the customary style, using the oar with their hands, sitting cross legged at the stern.
A painting on paper in color and gold leaf from al-Jazari's <i>Kitab fi marifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya</i> (The Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices).<br/><br/> Abū al-'Iz Ibn Ismā'īl ibn al-Razāz al-Jazarī (1136–1206) was a polymath: a scholar, inventor, mechanical engineer, craftsman, artist, mathematician and astronomer from Al-Jazira, Mesopotamia, who worked in service of the Artuqid dynasty in Diyarbakır, Asia Minor. He is best known for writing the <i>Kitáb fí ma'rifat al-hiyal al-handasiyya</i> (Book of Knowledge of Ingenious Mechanical Devices) in 1206, where he described fifty mechanical devices along with instructions on how to construct them.
Walter Crane (15 August 1845 – 14 March 1915) was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century.<br/><br/> Crane's work featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.
Shaykh Adi ibn Musafir al-Umawi (Kurd, died 1162), a descendant of Umayyad Caliph Marwan ibn al-Hakam, was born in the 1070s in the Beqaa Valley of present-day Lebanon. Adi is said to have been born in the village of Bait Far, near Baalbek, where the house of his birth was in and is still the place of pious pilgrimage.<br/><br/> The Yazidi consider him an Avatar of Tawuse Melek, the 'Peacock Angel'. His tomb at Lalish, Iraq is a focal point of Yazidi pilgrimage.<br/><br/> The Yazidis are a Kurdish religious community whose syncretic but ancient religion Yazidism is linked to Zoroastrianism and ancient Mesopotamian religions.They live primarily in the Nineveh Province of Iraq. Additional communities in Armenia, Georgia, and Syria have been in decline since the 1990s as a result of significant migration to Europe, especially to Germany. In Armenia, the Yazidis are recognized as a national group.
Al-Andalus, also known as Muslim Spain or Islamic Iberia, was a medieval Muslim territory and cultural domain occupying at its peak most of what are today Spain and Portugal. At its greatest geographical extent in the eighth century, southern France—Septimania—was briefly under its control.<br/><br/> The name more generally describes parts of the Iberian Peninsula governed by Muslims (given the generic name of Moors) at various times between 711 and 1492, though the boundaries changed constantly as the Christian Reconquista progressed.
Nyaung Ohak and the Shwe Indein Pagoda are collections of Buddhist stupas dating back to the 17th and 18th centuries CE.<br/><br/> Inle Lake is a freshwater lake located in the Nyaungshwe Township of Taunggyi District of Shan State, part of Shan Hills in Myanmar (Burma). It is the second largest lake in Myanmar with an estimated surface area of 44.9 square miles (116 km2), and one of the highest at an altitude of 2,900 feet (880 m).<br/><br/> The people of Inle Lake (called Intha), some 70,000 of them, live in four cities bordering the lake, in numerous small villages along the lake's shores, and on the lake itself. The entire lake area is in Nyaung Shwe township. The population consists predominantly of Intha, with a mix of other Shan, Taungyo, Pa-O (Taungthu), Danu, Kayah, Danaw and Bamar ethnicities. Most are devout Buddhists, and live in simple houses of wood and woven bamboo on stilts; they are largely self-sufficient farmers.<br/><br/> Most transportation on the lake is traditionally by small boats, or by somewhat larger boats fitted with single cylinder inboard diesel engines. Local fishermen are known for practicing a distinctive rowing style which involves standing at the stern on one leg and wrapping the other leg around the oar. This unique style evolved for the reason that the lake is covered by reeds and floating plants making it difficult to see above them while sitting. Standing provides the rower with a view beyond the reeds. However, the leg rowing style is only practiced by the men. Women row in the customary style, using the oar with their hands, sitting cross legged at the stern.
The Meenakshi Amman Temple (also called: Meenakshi Sundareswarar Temple, Tiru-aalavaai and Meenakshi Amman Kovil) is a Hindu temple dedicated to Parvati, known as Meenakshi, and her consort, Shiva, here named Sundareswarar. The present temple dates from between 1623 and 1655 CE.
Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram Shah Jahan I (1592 –1666), or Shah Jahan, from the Persian meaning ‘king of the world’, was the fifth Mughal ruler in India and a favourite of his legendary grandfather Akbar the Great.<br/><br/> He is best known for commissioning the ‘Phadshahnamah’ as a chronicle of his reign, and for the building of the Taj Mahal in Agra as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Under Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire attained its highest union of strength and magnificence. The opulence of Shah Jahan’s court and his famous Peacock Throne was the wonder of all the European travelers and ambassadors. His political efforts encouraged the emergence of large centers of commerce and crafts—such as Lahore, Delhi, Agra and Ahmedabad—linked by roads and waterways to distant places and ports. He moved the capital from Agra to Delhi. Under Shah Jahan's rule, the Red Fort and Jama Masjid in Delhi were built, the Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, sections of the Lahore Fort and his father's mausoleum.
Kanō Naizen (狩野 内膳, 1570 - 1616) was a Japanese painter of the Kanō school, particularly known for his screen paintings (byōbu) of Namban (Southern Barbarians, i.e. Europeans).<br/><br/> The Nanban trade (南蛮貿易 Nanban bōeki, 'Southern barbarian trade') or the Nanban trade period (南蛮貿易時代 Nanban bōeki jidai, 'Southern barbarian trade period') in Japanese history extends from the arrival of the first Europeans - Portuguese explorers, missionaries and merchants - to Japan in 1543, to their near-total exclusion from the archipelago in 1614, under the promulgation of the 'Sakoku' Seclusion Edicts.
Shahab-ud-din Muhammad Khurram Shah Jahan I (1592 –1666), or Shah Jahan, from the Persian meaning ‘king of the world’, was the fifth Mughal ruler in India and a favourite of his legendary grandfather Akbar the Great.<br/><br/> He is best known for commissioning the ‘Phadshahnamah’ as a chronicle of his reign, and for the building of the Taj Mahal in Agra as a tomb for his wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Under Shah Jahan, the Mughal Empire attained its highest union of strength and magnificence. The opulence of Shah Jahan’s court and his famous Peacock Throne was the wonder of all the European travelers and ambassadors. His political efforts encouraged the emergence of large centers of commerce and crafts—such as Lahore, Delhi, Agra and Ahmedabad—linked by roads and waterways to distant places and ports. He moved the capital from Agra to Delhi. Under Shah Jahan's rule, the Red Fort and Jama Masjid in Delhi were built, the Shalimar Gardens of Lahore, sections of the Lahore Fort and his father's mausoleum.
Chiang Mai is often called Thailand’s ‘Rose of the North’, and is the country’s second city and a popular tourist destination due primarily to its mountainous scenery, colourful ethnic hilltribes and their handicrafts.<br/><br/> Founded in 1296 by King Mengrai as the capital of his Lanna kingdom, Chiang Mai was later overrun by Burmese invaders in 1767. The city was then left abandoned between 1776 and 1791. Chiang Mai formally became part of Siam in 1774 by an agreement with local prince Chao Kavila, after the Siamese King Taksin helped drive out the Burmese. Chiang Mai then slowly grew in cultural, trading and economic importance.
The Shan live primarily in the Shan State of Burma, but also inhabit parts of Mandalay Division, Kachin State, and Kayin State, and in adjacent regions of China and Thailand.<br/><br/> The Tai-Shan people are believed to have migrated from Yunnan in China. The Shan are descendants of the oldest branch of the Tai-Shan, known as Tai Long (Great Tai) or Thai Yai (Big Thai). The Tai-Shan who migrated to the south and now inhabit modern-day Laos and Thailand are known as Tai Noi (Little Tai).<br/><br/> The Shan have inhabited the Shan Plateau and other parts of modern-day Myanmar as far back as the 10th century CE. The Shan kingdom of Mong Mao (Muang Mao) became a Burmese vassal state during the reign of King Anawrahta of Pagan (1044-77).
The Vienna Dioscurides or Vienna Dioscorides is an early 6th century illuminated manuscript of De Materia Medica by Dioscorides in Greek. It is an important and rare example of a late antique scientific text. The 491 vellum folios measure 37 by 30 cm and contain more than 400 pictures of animals and plants, most done in a naturalistic style.<br/><br/> In addition to the text by Dioscorides, the manuscript has appended to it the Carmen de herbis attributed to Rufus, a paraphrase of an ornithological treatise by a certain Dionysius, usually identified with Dionysius of Philadelphia, and a paraphrase of Nicander's treatise on the treatment of snake bites.<br/><br/> The manuscript was created in about 515 and was made for the Byzantine princess Juliana Anicia, the daughter of Emperor Anicius Olybrius. Although it was originally created as a luxury copy, there is some indication that in later centuries it was used daily as a hospital textbook. It includes some annotations in Arabic.<br/><br/> The manuscript was discovered in Istanbul in the 1560s by the Flemish diplomat Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq who was in the employ of Emperor Ferdinand I. The Emperor bought the manuscript and it is now held in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek in Vienna. The manuscript was inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 1997 in recognition of its historical significance.
Bāburnāma (Chagatai/Persian: بابر نامہ;´, literally: 'Book of Babur' or 'Letters of Babur'; alternatively known as Tuzk-e Babri) is the name given to the memoirs of Ẓahīr ud-Dīn Muḥammad Bābur (1483-1530), founder of the Mughal Empire and a great-great-great-grandson of Timur. It is an autobiographical work, originally written in the Chagatai language, known to Babur as 'Turki' (meaning Turkic), the spoken language of the Andijan-Timurids.<br/><br/> Because of Babur's cultural origin, his prose is highly Persianized in its sentence structure, morphology, and vocabulary, and also contains many phrases and smaller poems in Persian. During Emperor Akbar's reign, the work was completely translated to Persian by a Mughal courtier, Abdul Rahīm, in AH 998 (1589-90 CE).
Knossos (alternative spellings Knossus, Cnossus, Greek Κνωσός), also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square.<br/><br/> Detailed images of Cretan life in the late Bronze Age are provided by images on the walls of this palace. It is also a tourist destination today, as it is near the main city of Heraklion and has been substantially restored by archaeologist Arthur Evans.<br/><br/> The city of Knossos remained important through the Classical and Roman periods, but its population shifted to the new town of Chandax (modern Heraklion) during the 9th century AD. By the 13th century, it was called Makryteikhos or 'Long Wall'; the bishops of Gortyn continued to call themselves Bishops of Knossos until the 19th century. Today, the name is used only for the archaeological site situated in the suburbs of Heraklion.
The British conquest of Burma began in 1824 in response to a Burmese attempt to invade India. By 1886, and after two further wars, Britain had incorporated the entire country into the British Raj. To stimulate trade and facilitate changes, the British brought in Indians and Chinese, who quickly displaced the Burmese in urban areas. To this day Rangoon and Mandalay have large ethnic Indian populations. Railways and schools were built, as well as a large number of prisons, including the infamous Insein Prison, then as now used for political prisoners.<br/><br/> Burmese resentment was strong and was vented in violent riots that paralysed Rangoon on occasion all the way until the 1930s. Burma was administered as a province of British India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony. Burma finally gained independence from Britain on January 4, 1948.
A flying horse - more pegasus than peacock advertises the merits of Peacock cigarettes.
Wat Hang Dong วัด หางดง is a typical example of traditional Lan Na temple architecture. The old viharn at this temple is a little more elaborate than its counterpart at nearby Wat Ton Kwen, but is essentially similar in shape, style and appearance. Also dark and intimate, with a low, sweeping, three-tiered roof, the viharn shelters a collection of Buddha images, at least two of which – to the right and left of the main Buddha image – are distinctively Lao in style and yet somehow strangely primitive.<br/><br/> The old viharn at Wat Hang Dong has now been beautifully restored, and a new ubosot has also been added just a few metres to the northwest. This newer structure follows quite faithfully the traditional Lan Na design (the sum of some windows are perhaps over-elaborate and seem to show significant traces of Burmese influence), but overall the new ubosot at Wat Hang Dong both mirrors and complements the old viharn.
Wat Phan Tao, established in 1391, forms a kind of adjunct to the much larger Wat Chedi Luang lying next door and immediately to the south. Wat Phan Tao means ‘Temple of a Thousand Furnaces’ or ‘Temple of a Thousand Kilns’ and it is believed that the grounds were once the site of a foundry, casting bronze images of the Buddha for nearby Wat Chedi Luang.<br/><br/> The wooden viharn is one of the few surviving all-wood temple buildings in Chiang Mai. In times past it was a secular structure of no religious significance, the ho kham or ‘gilded hall’ of Chao Mahawong, the 5th of the Chao Chet Ton monarchs, who ruled Chiang Mai and the north from 1846 to 1854.<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.
Wat Phan Tao, established in 1391, forms a kind of adjunct to the much larger Wat Chedi Luang lying next door and immediately to the south. Wat Phan Tao means ‘Temple of a Thousand Furnaces’ or ‘Temple of a Thousand Kilns’ and it is believed that the grounds were once the site of a foundry, casting bronze images of the Buddha for nearby Wat Chedi Luang.<br/><br/> The wooden viharn is one of the few surviving all-wood temple buildings in Chiang Mai. In times past it was a secular structure of no religious significance, the ho kham or ‘gilded hall’ of Chao Mahawong, the 5th of the Chao Chet Ton monarchs, who ruled Chiang Mai and the north from 1846 to 1854.<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.