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The Namazu, also called the Onamazu, is a creature in Japanese mythology and folktales. The Namazu is a gigantic catfish said to cause earthquakes and tremors. Living in the mud under the Japanese isles, the Namazu is guarded by the protector god Kashima, who restrains the catfish using the <i>kaname-ishi</i> rock. Whenever Kashima lets his guard down, Namazu thrashes about and causes violent earthquakes.<br/><br/> The Namazu rose to new fame and popularity after the Ansei great earthquakes that happened near Edo in 1855. This lead to the Namazu being worshipped as a god of world rectification (<i>yonaoshi daimyojin</i>), sent by the gods to correct some of the imbalances in the world.<br/><br/> Catfish woodblock prints known as <i>namazu-e</i> became their own popular genre within days of the earthquake. They were usually unsigned and often depicted scenes of a namazu or many namazu atoning for their deeds. They were quickly squashed by the Tokugawa Shogunate, the prints censored and destroyed, with only a handful surviving to this day.
Shigeru Aoki (1882-1911) was a Japanese painter famed for his combining of Japanese mythology and legends with the Western-style art movement that could be found in some late 19th and early 20th century Japanese paintings.<br/><br/> Aoki was born into an ex-samurai household in northern Kyushu. He left his home in 1899 to pursue artistic studies in Tokyo, and soon began to accumulate critical acclaim for his artwork and its use of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood techniques mixed with Kojiki themes. He died in March 1911 from tuberculosis, aged only 28.
Norodom Sihanouk (born 31 October 1922) was the King of Cambodia from 1941 to 1955 and again from 1993 until his retirement and voluntary abdication on 7 October 2004 in favour of his son, the current King Norodom Sihamoni.<br/><br/> Following his abdication he was known as The King-Father of Cambodia, a position in which he retained many of his former responsibilities as constitutional monarch. He died of a heart attack in Beijing, China, on October 15, 2012.
Wat Pa Pao is a Shan (Tai Yai) Buddhist temple that serves as a centre for Chiang Mai's Shan community. It was built in the late 19th century.<br/><br/> Once a year, Wat Pa Pao plays host to the luk kaeo, or "crystal sons" – young Shan boys about to be ordained into the Buddhist monkhood. Many of these novices travel to Chiang Mai from surrounding Shan communities at Mae Cham, Mae Rim, Chiang Dao and Fang. This annual Shan ceremony is called Poy Sang Long.
The Black Death was one of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348 and 1350. Of several competing theories, the dominant explanation for the Black Death is the plague theory, which attributes the outbreak to the bacterium Yersinia pestis.<br/><br/> Thought to have started in China, it travelled along the Silk Road and reached the Crimea by 1346. From there, probably carried by Oriental rat fleas living on the black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships, it spread throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.<br/><br/> The Black Death is estimated to have killed 30–60 percent of Europe's population, reducing the world's population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.<br/><br/> The aftermath of the plague created a series of religious, social and economic upheavals, which had profound effects on the course of European history. It took 150 years for Europe's population to recover. The plague returned at various times, killing more people, until it died out in Europe in the 19th century.
Nakkaş Osman (sometimes called Osman the Miniaturist) was the chief miniaturist for the Ottoman Empire during the latter half of the sixteenth century. The dates of his birth and death are uncertain, but most of his works are dated to the last quarter of the sixteenth century.<br/><br/> The oldest known illustrations of Nakkaş Osman's were made between 1560 and 1570 for a Turkish translation of the Persian manuscript Firdausi's Shahnama.Among the works he illustrated, he is known to have been the chief illustrator of the various official histories written by Sayyid Lokman for Murad III that were produced in this era, including the Zafername (Book of Victories), the Şahname-ı Selim Han (Book of Kings) and the Şehinşahname (Book of King of Kings). He was also one of the illustrators of the Siyer-i Nebi, an epic on the life of Muhammad written around 1388, then illustrated around 1595.<br/><br/> Representations of the Prophet Muhammad are controversial, and generally forbidden in Sunni Islam (especially Hanafiyya, Wahabi, Salafiyya). Shia Islam and some other branches of Sunni Islam (Hanbali, Maliki, Shafi'i) are generally more tolerant of such representational images, but even so the Prophet's features are generally veiled or concealed by flames as a mark of deep respect.
Legend attributes the first Buddhist doctrine in Burma to 228 BC when Sohn Uttar Sthavira, one of the royal monks to Emperor Ashoka the Great of India, came to the country with other monks and sacred texts. However, the era of Buddhism truly began in the 11th century after King Anawrahta of Pagan (Bagan) was converted to Theravada Buddhism. Today, 89% of the population of Burma is Theravada Buddhist.
Middle East: Arabs praying in the desert, c1900., Vlas Mikhailovich Doroshevich, 1905.
Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is a Sacred Fig tree and is said to be a sapling from the historical Bodhi tree under which Buddha became enlightened. It was planted in 288 BC, and is the oldest living human-planted tree in the world with a known planting date.<br/><br/> Anuradhapura is one of Sri Lanka's ancient capitals and famous for its well-preserved ruins. From the 4th century BC until the beginning of the 11th century AD it was the capital. During this period it remained one of the most stable and durable centers of political power and urban life in South Asia. The ancient city, considered sacred to the Buddhist world, is today surrounded by monasteries covering an area of over sixteen square miles (40 km²).