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Remarkable for their military prowess, their receptivity to Christianity, and their intricate all-embracing kinship network, the Kachins are a hardy mountain people living in the remote hills of northern Burma and on the peripheries of India and China.<br/><br/> 'Kachin' is actually a Burmese word that does not exist in any of the local dialects. Each Kachin tribe has a different name for themselves and their neighbours, but no word to describe the whole group. There are the Jinghpaw (known as Jingpo in China and Singpho in India), the Maru, the Lashi, the Atsi (or Szi), the Lisu and the Rawang—but those represent linguistic groups rather than actual nationalities. Far more important bonds are formed by an intricate system of clans, which cuts across tribal barriers.<br/><br/> Every 'Kachin' belongs to one of five original families: Marip, Maran, Lahpai, N'Hkum and Lattaw. These clans are related in an all-embracing kinship network of extreme complexity. In practice, however, this system binds together the Kachins into a remarkably tight-knit society.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas of South Asia, bordered by Tibet and India. Bhutan is the second least populous nation in South Asia after the Maldives, and has never been colonised in its history, having endured independently for centuries.<br/><br/> Situated on the ancient Silk Road, the Bhutanese state developed a unique and distinct national identity based around Buddhism, headed by a spiritual leader known as the Zhabdrug Rinpoche and initially governed as a Buddhist theocracy comprised of many fiefdoms. A civil war in the 19th century led to the rise of the House of Wangchuck and the establishment of ties with the British Empire and India.<br/><br/> Bhutan's capital is Thimphu, the largest city in the country, and it transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 2008. Bhutan is notable for its pioneering of the concept of 'gross national happiness', though it is also one of the most isolated and least developed countries in the world.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas of South Asia, bordered by Tibet and India. Bhutan is the second least populous nation in South Asia after the Maldives, and has never been colonised in its history, having endured independently for centuries.<br/><br/> Situated on the ancient Silk Road, the Bhutanese state developed a unique and distinct national identity based around Buddhism, headed by a spiritual leader known as the Zhabdrug Rinpoche and initially governed as a Buddhist theocracy comprised of many fiefdoms. A civil war in the 19th century led to the rise of the House of Wangchuck and the establishment of ties with the British Empire and India.<br/><br/> Bhutan's capital is Thimphu, the largest city in the country, and it transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 2008. Bhutan is notable for its pioneering of the concept of 'gross national happiness', though it is also one of the most isolated and least developed countries in the world.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas of South Asia, bordered by Tibet and India. Bhutan is the second least populous nation in South Asia after the Maldives, and has never been colonised in its history, having endured independently for centuries.<br/><br/> Situated on the ancient Silk Road, the Bhutanese state developed a unique and distinct national identity based around Buddhism, headed by a spiritual leader known as the Zhabdrug Rinpoche and initially governed as a Buddhist theocracy comprised of many fiefdoms. A civil war in the 19th century led to the rise of the House of Wangchuck and the establishment of ties with the British Empire and India.<br/><br/> Bhutan's capital is Thimphu, the largest city in the country, and it transitioned from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 2008. Bhutan is notable for its pioneering of the concept of 'gross national happiness', though it is also one of the most isolated and least developed countries in the world.
The <i>krama</i>, more than any other item of clothing of everyday use, is quintessentially Cambodian. No other country in Southeast Asia uses this scarf-like head-wrapping, and it’s arguably a sign of Cambodia’s ancient links with Indian, the land of turbans par excellence.<br/><br/><i>Krama</i>, which are made from cotton or silk, are most commonly found in red-and-white or blue-and-white check, and they have a considerable variety of uses.<br/><br/> Phnom Penh lies on the western side of the Mekong River at the point where it is joined by the Sap River and divides into the Bassac River, making a meet place of four great waterways known in Cambodian as Chatomuk or 'Four Faces'. It has been central to Cambodian life since soon after the abandonment of Angkor in the mid-14th century and has been the capital since 1866.
During the first half of the 1st century CE, silk worm technology is thought to have reached the Han-Chinese dominated oasis of Khotan in the Tarim Basin – an oasis that is still a centre of silk production today. A Chinese princess given in marriage to a Khotan prince is said to have carried the eggs of silkworms to her new husband concealed in her hair.<br/><br/>It is thought that silkworms and knowledge of sericulture travelled from Khotan south to India and west to Sassanid Persia during the 4th century, while records also recount a Japanese expedition to China in the same century carrying four silk-weaving girls, together with silkworm eggs, back to Japan.<br/><br/>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.