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Yufuin is a hot-spring spa town located beneath the spectacular Mount Yufu or Yufu-dake (1,583 m), on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
Yufuin is a hot-spring spa town located beneath the spectacular Mount Yufu or Yufu-dake (1,583 m), on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
Afghanistan: 'The main street in the bazaar at Caubul in the fruit season', a lithograph by Louis Haghe (1806 - 1885) from an original sketch by James Atkinson (1780 - 1852). From <i>Sketches in Afghaunistan</i>, originally published in 1842. The First Anglo-Afghan War was fought between British India and Afghanistan from 1839 to 1842. It was one of the first major conflicts during the Great Game, the 19th century competition for power and influence in Central Asia between the United Kingdom and Russia, and also marked one of the worst setbacks inflicted on British power in the region after the consolidation of British Raj by the East India Company.
Cambodia: A woman with a container full of dried goods walks near cattle in a dry field during the hot season, central Cambodia. Cambodia is a relatively flat, low-lying land. It is situated at the heart of Indochina and has a total area of just over 180,000sq km (69,500sq miles). It shares land borders with Thailand to the north and west, Laos to the northeast and Vietnam to the east and southeast.
Hiroshige's One Hundred Famous Views of Edo (名所江戸百景), actually composed of 118 woodblock landscape and genre scenes of mid-19th century Tokyo, is one of the greatest achievements of Japanese art. The series includes many of Hiroshige's most famous prints. It represents a celebration of the style and world of Japan's finest cultural flowering at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate.<br/><br/> The series opens with spring (春の部). Scenes 1 though 42 represent the First to the Third Months, which are considered in Japan to be the spring season. Typically, early spring is marked by the festivities celebrated at the New Year, which begins the season. Blossoming plum trees are associated with the middle of spring, signifying the end of the cold weather and the beginning of the warm season.<br/><br/> Utagawa Hiroshige (歌川 広重, 1797 – October 12, 1858) was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige (安藤 広重) (an irregular combination of family name and art name) and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige (一幽斎廣重).
The Tacuinum (sometimes Taccuinum) Sanitatis is a medieval handbook on health and wellbeing, based on the Taqwim al‑sihha تقويم الصحة ('Maintenance of Health'), an eleventh-century Arab medical treatise by Ibn Butlan of Baghdad.<br/><br/> Ibn Butlân was a Christian physician born in Baghdad and who died in 1068. He sets forth the six elements necessary to maintain daily health: food and drink, air and the environment, activity and rest, sleep and wakefulness, secretions and excretions of humours, changes or states of mind (happiness, anger, shame, etc). According to Ibn Butlân, illnesses are the result of changes in the balance of some of these elements, therefore he recommended a life in harmony with nature in order to maintain or recover one’s health.<br/><br/> Ibn Butlân also teaches us to enjoy each season of the year, the consequences of each type of climate, wind and snow. He points out the importance of spiritual wellbeing and mentions, for example, the benefits of listening to music, dancing or having a pleasant conversation.<br/><br/> Aimed at a cultured lay audience, the text exists in several variant Latin versions, the manuscripts of which are characteristically profusely illustrated. The short paragraphs of the treatise were freely translated into Latin in mid-thirteenth-century Palermo or Naples, continuing an Italo-Norman tradition as one of the prime sites for peaceable inter-cultural contact between the Islamic and European worlds.<br/><br/> Four handsomely illustrated complete late fourteenth-century manuscripts of the Taccuinum, all produced in Lombardy, survive, in Vienna, Paris, Liège and Rome, as well as scattered illustrations from others, as well as fifteenth-century codices.
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.
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.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Almost exactly twice the size of Portugal and with a similar population, Cambodia is a relatively flat, low-lying land. It is situated at the heart of Indochina and has a total area of just over 180,000sq km (69,500sq miles). It shares land borders with Thailand to the north and west, Laos to the northeast and Vietnam to the east and southeast.<br/><br/> Cambodia has a 443km (277 miles) coastline on the Gulf of Thailand in the southwest. The country is divided for administrative purposes into 23 provinces including Phnom Penh. The capital, Phnom Penh, is located in the southeast.
Almost exactly twice the size of Portugal and with a similar population, Cambodia is a relatively flat, low-lying land. It is situated at the heart of Indochina and has a total area of just over 180,000sq km (69,500sq miles). It shares land borders with Thailand to the north and west, Laos to the northeast and Vietnam to the east and southeast.<br/><br/> Cambodia has a 443km (277 miles) coastline on the Gulf of Thailand in the southwest. The country is divided for administrative purposes into 23 provinces including Phnom Penh. The capital, Phnom Penh, is located in the southeast.
'Hanami' is the centuries-old Japanese practice of picnicking under a blooming sakura or ume tree. The custom is said to have started during the Nara Period (710–794) when it was ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning. But by the Heian Period (794–1185), sakura came to attract more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura. The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts.
'Hanami' is the centuries-old Japanese practice of picnicking under a blooming sakura or ume tree. The custom is said to have started during the Nara Period (710–794) when it was ume blossoms that people admired in the beginning. But by the Heian Period (794–1185), sakura came to attract more attention and hanami was synonymous with sakura. The custom was originally limited to the elite of the Imperial Court, but soon spread to samurai society and, by the Edo period, to the common people as well. Tokugawa Yoshimune planted areas of cherry blossom trees to encourage this. Under the sakura trees, people had lunch and drank sake in cheerful feasts.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Made of rattan and bamboo, the single-room dwelling stands on wooden stilts to avoid the rainfall. The finials on the gables are carved in wood and are in traditional Siamese style.<br/><br/> The Siamese, or Thais, moved from their ancestral home in southern China into mainland Southeast Asia around the 10th century CE. Prior to this, Indianized kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer and Malay kingdoms ruled the region. The Thais established their own states starting with Sukhothai, Chiang Saen, Chiang Mai and Lanna Kingdom, before the founding of the Ayutthaya kingdom. These states fought each other and were under constant threat from the Khmers, Burma and Vietnam. Much later, the European colonial powers threatened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, but Thailand survived as the only Southeast Asian state to avoid colonial rule. After the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, Thailand endured 60 years of almost permanent military rule before the establishment of a democratic elected-government system.
The River Mekong is the world's 12th-longest river. From its Himalayan source on the Tibetan plateau, it flows some 4,350 km (2,703 miles) through China's Yunnan province, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam, finally draining in the South China Sea. The recent construction of hydroelectric dams on the river and its tributaries has reduced the water flow dramatically during the dry season in Southeast Asia.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Neak Pean ('The entwined serpents') is an artificial island with a Buddhist temple on a circular island in Preah Khan Baray built during the reign of King Jayavarman VII. A baray is an artificial body of water.<br/><br/> The central pool represents the Himalayan Lake Anavatapta, located at the summit of the universe, which was believed to give birth to the four great rivers of the world. These four rivers are represented at Neak Pean by four gargoyle-like heads which, when opened, would permit water to flow from the main pool to the four smaller pools.
Nearly 95 percent of the Thai population are Theravada Buddhists, though many would argue that Siamese Buddhism has integrated with animist folk beliefs as well as Chinese religions. Thai Buddhism was based on the religious movement founded in the 6th century BC by Siddhartha, later known as the Buddha, who urged the world to relinquish the extremes of sensuality and self-mortification and follow the enlightened Middle Way. Theravada Buddhism was made the state religion in Siam only after the establishment of the Sukhothai kingdom in the 13th century CE. By the 19th century, and especially with the coming to power in 1851 of King Mongkut who had been a monk himself for 27 years, the 'sangha' (monkhood), like the kingdom, became steadily more centralized and hierarchical in nature and its links to the state more institutionalized.