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PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The 229th Military Intelligence Battalion and Defense Language Institute Foundation celebrated the U.S. Army's 241st birthday by hosting the 2016 Monterey Army Birthday Ball inside the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel, June 4.
The evening was a blend of tradition and celebration that included toasts, cake-cutting, musical performances, fine dining and dancing. The theme for this year's ball was the "Roaring 20's" and guests were encouraged to dress accordingly.
Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas J. Latter, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, was the evening's guest speaker. The USAICoE is the Army's school for professional training of military intelligence personnel located at Fort Huachuca, AZ.
The U.S. Army was founded on June 14, 1775, when the Continental Congress authorized enlistment of riflemen to serve the United Colonies for one year.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The 517th Training Group hosted a celebratory evening in honor of the United States Air Force's 68th birthday at the Naval Postgraduate School's historic Herman Hal building Sept. 19. The 2015 Monterey Air Force Ball mixed elegance, tradition and entertainment in keeping with this year's theme 'Through the Eyes of Airmen.' 517th commander Col. Keith M. Logeman presided over the event which featured guest speaker Defense Language Institute alum Chief Master Sgt. Roger A. Towberman, Command Master Sgt. 25th Air Force, Joint Base San Antonio. Special guests included Mayor Ralph Rubio of Seaside. The United States Air Force was established by President Harry S. Truman on Sept. 18, 1947.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
Photo by Hiro Chang, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center opened its doors to the public on May 15 for its annual Language Day event.
The event showcased the cultures of the different departmental languages being taught here through dance, skits and fashion shows.
Exhibits were also presented throughout the school grounds with local Monterey ethnic vendors selling their local cuisines to the customers.
Nearly 2,000 high school students and teachers attended Language Day.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Joint Service Color Guard and marching units representing the four military services helped Monterey residents and visitors celebrate Independence Day by participating in the City of Monterey's 4th of July parade in downtown Monterey on July 4.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The 229th Military Intelligence Battalion and Defense Language Institute Foundation celebrated the U.S. Army's 241st birthday by hosting the 2016 Monterey Army Birthday Ball inside the Grand Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel, June 4.
The evening was a blend of tradition and celebration that included toasts, cake-cutting, musical performances, fine dining and dancing. The theme for this year's ball was the "Roaring 20's" and guests were encouraged to dress accordingly.
Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas J. Latter, U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, was the evening's guest speaker. The USAICoE is the Army's school for professional training of military intelligence personnel located at Fort Huachuca, AZ.
The U.S. Army was founded on June 14, 1775, when the Continental Congress authorized enlistment of riflemen to serve the United Colonies for one year.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. – More than 3,000 students from across California visited the Presidio of Monterey on May 13 for DLIFLC’s Language Day. Students, educators and other participants were treated to stage performances, classroom displays and ethnic cuisine, highlighting the cultures of the many foreign languages taught here.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
47th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington DC on Saturday afternoon, 6 July 2013 by Elvert Barnes Photography
One World, Many Voices
Language Communities
Columbia / Wayuunaiki
Benito Pushaina Apshana, traditional game expert and ojuunajirawa wrestler
Visit 47th Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2013 / One World, Many Voices website at www.festival.si.edu/2013/One_World_Many_Voices/language_c...
Visit Smithsonian Folklife Festival website at www.festival.si.edu/
Visit Elvert Barnes 47th SMITHSONIAN FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL 2013 docu-project at elvertbarnes.com/47thSmithsonianFolklifeFestival2013
Zürich (/ˈzjʊərɪk/ ZURE-ik, German: [ˈtsyːrɪç;) is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2023 the municipality had 443,037 inhabitants, the urban area 1.315 million (2009), and the Zürich metropolitan area 1.83 million (2011). Zürich is a hub for railways, roads, and air traffic. Both Zurich Airport and Zürich's main railway station are the largest and busiest in the country.
Permanently settled for over 2,000 years, Zürich was founded by the Romans, who called it Turicum. However, early settlements have been found dating back more than 6,400 years (although this only indicates human presence in the area and not the presence of a town that early). During the Middle Ages, Zürich gained the independent and privileged status of imperial immediacy and, in 1519, became a primary centre of the Protestant Reformation in Europe under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli.
The official language of Zürich is German,[a] but the main spoken language is Zürich German, the local variant of the Alemannic Swiss German dialect.
Many museums and art galleries can be found in the city, including the Swiss National Museum and Kunsthaus. Schauspielhaus Zürich is generally considered to be one of the most important theatres in the German-speaking world.
As one of Switzerland's primary financial centres, Zürich is home to many financial institutions and banking companies.
History
Early history
Settlements of the Neolithic and Bronze Age were found around Lake Zürich. Traces of pre-Roman Celtic, La Tène settlements were discovered near the Lindenhof, a morainic hill dominating the SE - NW waterway constituted by Lake Zurich and the river Limmat. In Roman times, during the conquest of the alpine region in 15 BC, the Romans built a castellum on the Lindenhof. Later here was erected Turicum (a toponym of clear Celtic origin), a tax-collecting point for goods trafficked on the Limmat, which constituted part of the border between Gallia Belgica (from AD 90 Germania Superior) and Raetia: this customs point developed later into a vicus. After Emperor Constantine's reforms in AD 318, the border between Gaul and Italy (two of the four praetorian prefectures of the Roman Empire) was located east of Turicum, crossing the river Linth between Lake Walen and Lake Zürich, where a castle and garrison looked over Turicum's safety. The earliest written record of the town dates from the 2nd century, with a tombstone referring to it as the Statio Turicensis Quadragesima Galliarum ("Zürich post for collecting the 2.5% value tax of the Galliae"), discovered at the Lindenhof.
In the 5th century, the Germanic Alemanni tribe settled in the Swiss Plateau. The Roman castle remained standing until the 7th century. A Carolingian castle, built on the site of the Roman castle by the grandson of Charlemagne, Louis the German, is mentioned in 835 (in Castro Turicino iuxta fluvium Lindemaci). Louis also founded the Fraumünster abbey in 853 for his daughter Hildegard. He endowed the Benedictine convent with the lands of Zürich, Uri, and the Albis forest, and granted the convent immunity, placing it under his direct authority. In 1045, King Henry III granted the convent the right to hold markets, collect tolls, and mint coins, and thus effectively made the abbess the ruler of the city.
Zürich gained Imperial immediacy (Reichsunmittelbar, becoming an Imperial free city) in 1218 with the extinction of the main line of the Zähringer family and attained a status comparable to statehood. During the 1230s, a city wall was built, enclosing 38 hectares, when the earliest stone houses on the Rennweg were built as well. The Carolingian castle was used as a quarry, as it had started to fall into ruin.
Emperor Frederick II promoted the abbess of the Fraumünster to the rank of a duchess in 1234. The abbess nominated the mayor, and she frequently delegated the minting of coins to citizens of the city. The political power of the convent slowly waned in the 14th century, beginning with the establishment of the Zunftordnung (guild laws) in 1336 by Rudolf Brun, who also became the first independent mayor, i.e. not nominated by the abbess.
An important event in the early 14th century was the completion of the Manesse Codex, a key source of medieval German poetry. The famous illuminated manuscript – described as "the most beautifully illumined German manuscript in centuries;" – was commissioned by the Manesse family of Zürich, copied and illustrated in the city at some time between 1304 and 1340. Producing such a work was a highly expensive prestige project, requiring several years of work by highly skilled scribes and miniature painters, and it testifies to the increasing wealth and pride of Zürich citizens in this period. The work contains 6 songs by Süsskind von Trimberg, who may have been a Jew, since the work itself contains reflections on medieval Jewish life, though little is known about him.
The first mention of Jews in Zürich was in 1273. Sources show that there was a synagogue in Zürich in the 13th century, implying the existence of a Jewish community. With the rise of the Black Death in 1349, Zürich, like most other Swiss cities, responded by persecuting and burning the local Jews, marking the end of the first Jewish community there. The second Jewish community of Zürich formed towards the end of the 14th century, was short-lived, and Jews were expulsed and banned from the city from 1423 until the 19th century.
Archaeological findings
A woman who died in about 200 BC was found buried in a carved tree trunk during a construction project at the Kern school complex in March 2017 in Aussersihl. Archaeologists revealed that she was approximately 40 years old when she died and likely carried out little physical labor when she was alive. A sheepskin coat, a belt chain, a fancy wool dress, a scarf, and a pendant made of glass and amber beads were also discovered with the woman.
Old Swiss Confederacy
On 1 May 1351, the citizens of Zürich had to swear allegiance before representatives of the cantons of Lucerne, Schwyz, Uri and Unterwalden, the other members of the Swiss Confederacy. Thus, Zürich became the fifth member of the Confederacy, which was at that time a loose confederation of de facto independent states. Zürich was the presiding canton of the Diet from 1468 to 1519. This authority was the executive council and lawmaking body of the confederacy, from the Middle Ages until the establishment of the Swiss federal state in 1848. Zürich was temporarily expelled from the confederacy in 1440 due to a war with the other member states over the territory of Toggenburg (the Old Zürich War). Neither side had attained significant victory when peace was agreed upon in 1446, and Zürich was readmitted to the confederation in 1450.
Zwingli started the Swiss Reformation at the time when he was the main preacher at the Grossmünster in 1519. The Zürich Bible was printed by Christoph Froschauer in 1531. The Reformation resulted in major changes in state matters and civil life in Zürich, spreading also to several other cantons. Several cantons remained Catholic and became the basis of serious conflicts that eventually led to the outbreak of the Wars of Kappel.
During the 16th and 17th centuries, the Council of Zürich adopted an isolationist attitude, resulting in a second ring of imposing fortifications built in 1624. The Thirty Years' War which raged across Europe motivated the city to build these walls. The fortifications required a lot of resources, which were taken from subject territories without reaching any agreement. The following revolts were crushed brutally. In 1648, Zürich proclaimed itself a republic, shedding its former status of a free imperial city. In this time the political system of Zürich was an oligarchy (Patriziat): the dominant families of the city were the following ones: Bonstetten, Brun, Bürkli, Escher vom Glas, Escher vom Luchs, Hirzel, Jori (or von Jori), Kilchsperger, Landenberg, Manesse, Meiss, Meyer von Knonau, Mülner, von Orelli.
The Helvetic Revolution of 1798 saw the fall of the Ancien Régime. Zürich lost control of the land and its economic privileges, and the city and the canton separated their possessions between 1803 and 1805. In 1839, the city had to yield to the demands of its urban subjects, following the Züriputsch of 6 September. Most of the ramparts built in the 17th century were torn down, without ever having been besieged, to allay rural concerns over the city's hegemony. The Treaty of Zürich between Austria, France, and Sardinia was signed in 1859.
Modern history
Zürich was the Federal capital for 1839–40, and consequently, the victory of the Conservative party there in 1839 caused a great stir throughout Switzerland. But when in 1845 the Radicals regained power at Zürich, which was again the Federal capital for 1845–46, Zürich took the lead in opposing the Sonderbund cantons. Following the Sonderbund War and the formation of the Swiss Federal State, Zürich voted in favor of the Federal constitutions of 1848 and 1874. The enormous immigration from the country districts into the town from the 1830s onwards created an industrial class which, though "settled" in the town, did not possess the privileges of burghership, and consequently had no share in the municipal government. First of all in 1860 the town schools, hitherto open to "settlers" only on paying high fees, were made accessible to all, next in 1875 ten years' residence ipso facto conferred the right of burghership, and in 1893 the eleven outlying districts were incorporated within the town proper.
When Jews began to settle in Zürich following their equality in 1862, the Israelitische Cultusgemeinde Zürich was founded.
Extensive developments took place during the 19th century. From 1847, the Spanisch-Brötli-Bahn, the first railway on Swiss territory, connected Zürich with Baden, putting the Zürich Hauptbahnhof at the origin of the Swiss rail network. The present building of the Hauptbahnhof (the main railway station) dates to 1871. Zürich's Bahnhofstrasse (Station Street) was laid out in 1867, and the Zürich Stock Exchange was founded in 1877. Industrialisation led to migration into the cities and to rapid population growth, particularly in the suburbs of Zürich.
The Quaianlagen are an important milestone in the development of the modern city of Zürich, as the construction of the new lakefront transformed Zürich from a small medieval town on the rivers Limmat and Sihl to a modern city on the Zürichsee shore, under the guidance of the city engineer Arnold Bürkli.
In 1893, the twelve outlying districts were incorporated into Zürich, including Aussersihl, the workman's quarter on the left bank of the Sihl, and additional land was reclaimed from Lake Zürich.
In 1934, eight additional districts in the north and west of Zürich were incorporated.
Zürich was accidentally bombed during World War II. As persecuted Jews sought refuge in Switzerland, the SIG (Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund, Israelite Community of Switzerland) raised financial resources. The Central Committee for Refugee Aid, created in 1933, was located in Zürich.
The canton of Zürich did not recognize the Jewish religious communities as legal entities (and therefore as equal to national churches) until 2005.
Geography
Zürich is situated at 408 m (1,339 ft) above sea level on the lower (northern) end of Lake Zürich (Zürichsee) about 30 km (19 mi) north of the Alps, nestling between the wooded hills on the west and east side. The Old Town stretches on both sides of the Limmat, which flows from the lake, running northwards at first and then gradually turning into a curve to the west. The geographic (and historic) centre of the city is the Lindenhof, a small natural hill on the west bank of the Limmat, about 700 m (2,300 ft) north of where the river issues from Lake Zürich. Today the incorporated city stretches somewhat beyond the natural confines of the hills and includes some districts to the northeast in the Glatt Valley (Glattal) and to the north in the Limmat Valley (Limmattal). The boundaries of the older city are easy to recognize by the Schanzengraben canal. This artificial watercourse has been used for the construction of the third fortress in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Quality of living
Zürich often performs very well in international rankings, some of which are mentioned below:
Monocle's 2012 "Quality of Life Survey" ranked Zürich first on a list of the top 25 cities in the world "to make a base within". In 2019 Zürich was ranked among the ten most liveable cities in the world by Mercer together with Geneva and Basel.
In fDi Magazine's "Global Cities of the Future 2021/22" report, Zürich placed 16th in the overall rankings (all categories). In the category "Mid-sized and small cities", Zürich was 2nd overall, behind Wroclaw, having also placed 2nd in the subcategory "Human capital and lifestyle" and 3rd under "Business friendliness". In the category "FDI strategy, overall" (relating to foreign direct investment), Zürich ranked 9th, behind such cities as New York, Montreal (1st and 2nd) and Dubai (at number 8).
Main sites
Most of Zürich's sites are located within the area on either side of the Limmat, between the Main railway station and Lake Zürich. The churches and houses of the old town are clustered here, as are the most expensive shops along the famous Bahnhofstrasse. The Lindenhof in the old town is the historical site of the Roman castle, and the later Carolingian Imperial Palace.
(Wikpedia)
Grimmenturm (lit. 'Tower of the grim', referring to Johann Bilgeri the younger, nicknamed 'the grim') is a medieval tower and restaurant situated at Neumarkt in Zurich's District 1, Switzerland.
Location
The Grimmenturm building is situated at Neumarkt (Spiegelgasse 31, 8001 Zürich) in the Altstadt of Zürich on the right shore of the Limmat river. It houses the restaurant Neumarkt in one of the attached buildings towards Neumarkt.
History
The tower was probably built by the Zürich family Bilgeri (residential since 1256) between 1250 and 1280 AD as a residential tower. First mentioned in the year 1324 as tower of the Pilgrin family, it was one of about 30 residential towers that existed in the European Middle Ages in Zürich. Even before 1300 a housing was attached to the north-western side. Although the building was for decades used by the Bilgeri family as their home, it has not their name, as a building; also used as residential tower, the so-called Bilgeriturm is located just 20 meters in the north. Grimmenturm's name was given by another member of the same family, Johann Bilgeri the younger and its nickname "Grimm" or "Grimme". Even the nickname Grimm (same meaning in English and in German) was apparently so common that it even was mentioned in official documents, such as in a parchment from the year 1330[1] . On 12 July 1336 Rudolf Brun, mayor of the city of Zürich, defeated his political opponents, the former members of the Rat (council) of Zürich, of which around 12 members found refuge by count Johann I in Rapperswil. The document, sealed by the Princess Abbess of Fraumünster, the abbot of the Einsiedeln Abbey and the Propst von Zürich (Grossmünster), listed among others the names of Heinr. Bilgeri im Markt, Niclaus Bilgeri, Rudolf Bilgeri and Joh. Bilgeri der jüngere zum Steinbock to be banned at least two years from the city of Zürich.
In 1350 Sister Elsbeth Reinger handed over her house and paddock, located at the Neumarkt between the houses of Waser and Heinrich von Rapperswil to establish a hospital. Johann Pilgrim, der Grimme left over the tower together with residential buildings to the hospital for accommodation and nursing sisters, and so a monastic community was established. In occasion of the Reformation in Zürich, the nunnery was abolished in 1524, and the building was used as wine cellar and granary. The next 300 years the building served as a vicarage and accommodation building, and in 1962 it passed over to the city government of Zürich.
Architecture
Being part of the former second, even first fortification of the medieval city of Zürich, the building has an extremely irregular, octagonal floor plan, consisting of three former separate buildings. On its northeast facade a lounge corner with Gothic pointed arch windows is installed. The so-called Zum Langen Keller (Rindermarkt 26, 8001 Zürich) residential building was attached to the northwestern side of the tower even before 1300. From 1837 to 1839 the building was renewed. In the late 19th century, the property was in private hands and was once more widely rebuilt: The clock and bell were removed, on the south and north side new windows and a new roof were installed. The original clock tower was installed in 1541, in 1865 renewed and between 1964 and 1966 it was rebuilt as a distinctive clock tower.
Cultural heritage
The building is listed in the Swiss inventory of cultural property of national and regional significance as a Class B object of regional importance.
(Wikipedia)
Zürich (zürichdeutsch Züri [ˈt͡sʏ̞rɪ, ˈt͡sʏrɪ, ˈt͡sy̞rɪ],[6] französisch Zurich [zyʁik], italienisch Zurigo [tsuˈriːɡo, dzu-], Rumantsch Grischun Turitg) ist eine schweizerische Stadt, politische Gemeinde sowie Hauptort des gleichnamigen Kantons.
Die Stadt Zürich ist mit 427'721 Einwohnern (Stand 31. Dezember 2022) die grösste Stadt der Schweiz und weist eine Bevölkerungsdichte von 4655 Einwohnern pro Quadratkilometer auf. Das Umland ist dicht besiedelt, so dass in der Agglomeration Zürich etwa 1,3 Millionen und in der Metropolitanregion Zürich etwa 1,83 Millionen Menschen leben. Der Bezirk Zürich ist mit dem Stadtgebiet identisch.
Die Stadt liegt im östlichen Schweizer Mittelland, an der Limmat am Ausfluss des Zürichsees. Ihre Einwohner werden Zürcher genannt (bzw. Stadtzürcher zur Differenzierung von den übrigen Einwohnern des Kantons).
Das aus der römischen Siedlung Turicum entstandene Zürich wurde 1262 freie Reichsstadt und 1351 Mitglied der Eidgenossenschaft. Die Stadt des Reformators Huldrych Zwingli wurde 1519 zum zweitwichtigsten (nach Wittenberg) Zentrum der Reformation. Bis heute gilt sie als Ausgangspunkt der weltweiten reformierten Kirche und der Täufer. Die Stadt erlebte im Industriezeitalter ihren Aufstieg zur heutigen Wirtschaftsmetropole der Schweiz.
Mit ihrem Hauptbahnhof, dem grössten Bahnhof der Schweiz, und dem Flughafen (auf dem Gebiet der Gemeinde Kloten) ist die Stadt Zürich ein kontinentaler Verkehrsknotenpunkt. Aufgrund der ansässigen Grossbanken (u. a. UBS, der Zürcher Kantonalbank und Credit Suisse) und Versicherungen (Zurich Insurance Group und Swiss Re) ist sie ein internationaler Finanzplatz und der grösste Finanzplatz der Schweiz, gefolgt von Genf und Lugano. Daneben beherbergt die Stadt mit der Eidgenössischen Technischen Hochschule Zürich und der Universität Zürich die zwei grössten universitären Hochschulen der Schweiz. Trotz der vergleichsweise geringen Einwohnerzahl wird Zürich zu den Weltstädten gezählt. Zürich ist das wichtigste Zentrum der Schweizer Medien- und Kreativbranche. Mit seiner Lage am Zürichsee, seiner gut erhaltenen mittelalterlichen Altstadt und einem vielseitigen Kulturangebot und Nachtleben ist es zudem ein Zentrum des Tourismus.
Seit Jahren wird Zürich neben Basel und Genf als eine der Städte mit der weltweit höchsten Lebensqualität und zugleich neben Genf mit den höchsten Lebenshaltungskosten weltweit gelistet. Zürich ist nach Monaco und Genf die Stadt mit der dritthöchsten Millionärsdichte weltweit.
Geografie
Zürich liegt auf 408 m ü. M. am unteren (nördlichen) Ende des Zürichsees im Tal der Limmat und im unteren Tal der Sihl, eingebettet zwischen den Höhen von Uetliberg im Westen und Zürichberg im Osten. Die Limmat entspringt dem See, während die westlich des Sees fliessende Sihl nördlich der Zürcher Altstadt beim Platzspitz in die Limmat mündet. Die Altstadt erstreckt sich beidseits der Limmat, die zunächst nordwärts fliesst und dann in einem Bogen allmählich nach Westen abbiegt.
Die einstige Stadt reichte nicht bis zur Sihl, sondern hatte als westliche Abgrenzung den im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert angelegten Schanzengraben. Damals wurde Wasser aus dem See abgeleitet und in einem Graben ausserhalb der Bastionen und Bollwerke zur Limmat geführt. Noch früher erstreckte sich die Stadt im Westen nur bis zum Fröschengraben, der ungefähr parallel zur Limmat verlief. Dieser Graben wurde 1864 zugeschüttet, um Raum für den Bau der Bahnhofstrasse zu schaffen, die vom heutigen Paradeplatz bis zum Rennweg dem Verlauf des einstigen Grabens folgt.
Geschichte
Frühgeschichte, Mittelalter und ältere Neuzeit
Im Unterschied zu den meisten anderen Schweizer Grossstädten stieg Zürich im Frühmittelalter in den Rang einer Stadt auf. In Turīcum gab es zwar bereits zur Römerzeit eine Zollstation, ein hadrianisches Heiligtum auf dem Grossen Hafner im untersten Seebecken beim Ausfluss der Limmat und ein Kastell, die zugehörige Siedlung kann aber noch nicht als Stadt bezeichnet werden. Das frühmittelalterliche, alemannische Zürich war eng verbunden mit dem Herzogtum Schwaben und zwei bedeutenden geistlichen Stiftungen der deutschen Könige, dem Grossmünster und dem Fraumünster, die dem Kult um die Stadtpatrone Felix und Regula geweiht waren. Nach dem Zerfall der zentralen Gewalt im Herzogtum Schwaben und dem Aussterben der Zähringer 1218 konnte sich Zürich den Status der Reichsunmittelbarkeit sichern; 1262 wurde auch die Reichsfreiheit der Bürgerschaft ausdrücklich bestätigt. Der Titel einer Reichsstadt bedeutete de facto die Unabhängigkeit der Stadt. De jure löste sich Zürich jedoch erst 1648 von der Oberhoheit des Kaisers des Heiligen Römischen Reiches.
Im Spätmittelalter erwarb und eroberte Zürich in seinem Umland bedeutende Territorien, die der Stadt bis 1798 politisch untergeordnet waren (siehe Territoriale Entwicklung Zürichs). Im Innern wurden die Geschicke Zürichs seit der Zunftrevolution durch Bürgermeister Rudolf Brun im Jahr 1336 durch den Stadtadel und die Handwerkervereinigungen (Zünfte) gemeinsam geleitet (Brunsche Zunftverfassung). Brun war auch verantwortlich für den Überfall von Rapperswil. 1351 schloss sich Zürich zur Sicherung seiner Unabhängigkeit gegen das aufstrebende süddeutsche Adelsgeschlecht der Habsburger der schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft an und wurde zusammen mit Bern zum Vorort dieses Staatenbundes.
Der wohl bis heute wichtigste Beitrag Zürichs zur Weltgeschichte war die Reformation von Huldrych Zwingli. Unter seiner geistigen Führung wurde seit 1519 Zürich zum reformierten Rom an der Limmat. Die Zürcher Bibel, eine der ersten deutschen Bibelübersetzungen, entstand in der Prophezei unter Zwingli, Leo Jud und weiteren Mitarbeitern 1524 bis 1525 und wurde vom Zürcher Buchdrucker Christoph Froschauer zuerst in Teilen und später als ganze Bibel herausgegeben.
Die Täuferbewegung nahm ihren Ausgangspunkt ab 1523 in Zürich unter Führung von Konrad Grebel, Felix Manz, Jörg Blaurock, Balthasar Hubmaier und weiteren Personen, die sich von Zwingli trennten und kurz darauf verfolgt und gefangen genommen wurden. Im Januar 1527 wurde Felix Manz in der Limmat ertränkt, viele Täufer flüchteten nach Schaffhausen oder ins Zürcher Oberland.
Heinrich Bullinger 1531–1575 und Rudolf Gwalther 1575–1586 konsolidierten als Antistes und Nachfolger von Zwingli die Reformation in Zürich und pflegten zahlreiche Kontakte europaweit. Während ihrer Zeit wurden viele evangelische Flüchtlinge aus dem Tessin, Italien, Frankreich und England aufgenommen. Diese trugen in der Folge durch Handwerk, Produktion noch unbekannter Textilien und Handel wesentlich zum wirtschaftlichen Gedeihen Zürichs bei.[38][39][40]
Zur Zeit der Hexenverfolgungen wurden in Zürich von 1487 bis 1701 Hexenprozesse gegen 79 Personen geführt. Im Hexenprozess 1701 wurden acht Menschen aus Wasterkingen wegen angeblicher Hexerei verurteilt. Regierungspräsident Markus Notter und Kirchenratspräsident Ruedi Reich verurteilten 2001 diese Justizmorde.
18. und 19. Jahrhundert
Das Zürich des 18. Jahrhunderts galt als «das grösste Rätsel deutscher Geistesgeschichte». Trotz relativ geringer Bevölkerungszahl entwickelte sich rund um Johann Jakob Bodmer neben dem wissenschaftlichen auch ein literarisches Zürich mit entscheidenden Beiträgen zur deutschen Literaturgeschichte.
Mit dem Untergang der freien Republik der Stadt Zürich nach dem Einmarsch der Franzosen in die Schweiz ging die Stadt zusammen mit dem ehemaligen Untertanenland im neuen Kanton Zürich auf, dessen Hauptort sie wurde. Im beginnenden 19. Jahrhundert kam es zwar zu einer Restauration der städtischen Vorherrschaft im Kanton, die jedoch von kurzer Dauer war.
Der Aufstieg Zürichs zum wirtschaftlichen Zentrum der Schweiz begann bereits mit der Textilindustrie im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Unter der politischen und wirtschaftlichen Führung der Liberalen, insbesondere von Alfred Escher, wurde die führende Rolle Zürichs ab 1846 durch die Gründung von zahlreichen Banken und Versicherungen auch auf den Finanz- und Dienstleistungssektor ausgedehnt. Seit dem Niedergang der Zürcher Industrie in der Nachkriegszeit hat die Bedeutung dieses Sektors noch zugenommen.
In den Jahren 1855 und 1867 starben in der Stadt Zürich in Folge prekärer hygienischer Verhältnisse in vielen Wohnungen ca. 500 Menschen an Cholera. 1867 wurde mit dem Bau einer Kanalisation begonnen. 1884 brach Typhus aus.
In der zweiten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts begann ein bis in die 1970er Jahre andauernder Bauboom, der Zürich von einer Kleinstadt zur Grossstadt mit all ihren Problemen wachsen liess. Das stürmische Wachstum beschränkte sich zuerst auf einen Um- und Neubau des Zentrums und erfasste zunehmend die umliegenden ländlichen Gemeinden. In zwei Eingemeindungswellen wurden 1893 und 1934 20 Landgemeinden mit der alten Stadtgemeinde zusammengefasst. Die Errichtung eines «Millionenzürich» scheiterte jedoch bis heute. Während nämlich ursprünglich die Finanzstärke der Stadt bzw. die leeren Kassen der Vororte Motor der freiwilligen Stadterweiterungen waren, sind heute die verbleibenden Vororte finanziell eher besser gestellt als die Stadt. Dies schlägt sich insbesondere in den Steuersätzen nieder.
Zwei ausgeprägte Wachstumswellen in den Jahren 1888–1910 sowie 1950–1970 entstanden durch Zuzüger aus dem Ausland. Im Jahr 1912 waren die Bewohner Zürichs zu einem Drittel Ausländer, und Zürich war wie ein grosser Teil der Deutschschweiz im Vorfeld des Ersten Weltkriegs deutschfreundlich, wobei Hochdeutsch zu sprechen in gehobenen Kreisen zum guten Ton gehörte.
20. Jahrhundert
In der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts stand Zürich politisch im Bann der Arbeiterbewegung. Schon vor dem Landesstreik 1918 war in Zürich die Konfrontation zwischen Bürgertum und Arbeiterschaft besonders heftig ausgefallen, da Zürich grosse Industriebetriebe mit tausenden von Arbeitern aufwies und zugleich eine Hochburg des Grossbürgertums war. Als 1928 die Sozialdemokratische Partei unter der Führung von David Farbstein erstmals eine absolute Mehrheit in Stadtrat (Exekutive) und Gemeinderat (Legislative) erlangte, wurde in der Zwischenkriegszeit das Rote Zürich zu einem Aushängeschild für die Regierungsfähigkeit der Sozialdemokratie. Trotzdem wurde gerade in Zürich 1939 die als Landi bekannt gewordene Landesausstellung zu einem Symbol für den Zusammenhalt und den Widerstandswillen der Schweiz im Zeichen der Geistigen Landesverteidigung gegen Hitlerdeutschland. Schliesslich wurde 1943 der Zürcher Stadtpräsident Ernst Nobs als erster Sozialdemokrat in den Bundesrat gewählt. In der Nachkriegszeit blieb Zürich Sammelbecken und Bühne für Protestbewegungen, wie 1968 anlässlich der Globus-Krawalle und 1980 für die Jugendunruhen. Noch heute ist der 1. Mai in Zürich jährlich von Auseinandersetzungen des autonomen «Schwarzen Blockes» mit der Polizei gekennzeichnet.
Ein Problem der Stadt war lange auch die offene Drogenszene. In der Mitte der 1980er Jahre wurde der Platzspitz weltweit als Needlepark bekannt. Er wurde am 5. Februar 1992 zwangsgeräumt und abgeriegelt, daraufhin verschob sich die Drogenszene an den stillgelegten Bahnhof Letten.
Das Areal des stillgelegten Bahnhofs Letten bot ab 1992 die Kulisse für die grösste offene Drogenszene Europas. Mehrere tausend Drogenabhängige aus dem In- und Ausland lebten hier oder besorgten sich ihren Stoff. Hundertschaften von Polizisten nahmen des Öfteren in der Anwesenheit von Kamerateams Razzien vor und versuchten so den Markt auszutrocknen. Diese Versuche blieben erfolglos und so wurde der Letten am 14. Februar 1995 polizeilich geräumt. Auswärtige Drogenabhängige wurden grösstenteils an ihre Herkunftsgemeinden respektive Wohnortgemeinden zurückgeführt, ausländische Abhängige zwangsausgeschafft. Die Reste der Drogenszene verlagerten sich zunehmend ins Gebiet entlang der Langstrasse. Zur Entschärfung der Situation trug dabei sehr stark der Versuch der staatlichen Heroinabgabe bei, so dass sich nicht umgehend eine neue Szene bildete. Heute ist die staatliche, ärztlich kontrollierte Drogenabgabe gesetzlich verankert und vom Volk per Referendum abgesegnet.
Die Langstrasse ist ein Zentrum des Zürcher Nachtlebens. Seit der Auflösung der offenen Drogenszenen wurde das Viertel zur Jahrtausendwende hin zum Zentrum des Drogenhandels. Die Kriminalitätsrate im Langstrassenquartier ist zwar weiterhin verhältnismässig hoch, jedoch verbesserte sich die Situation aufgrund verschiedener Projekte der öffentlichen Hand. Heute hat sich die Situation stabilisiert und der Stadtteil ist zu einer festen Grösse im Kultur- und Nachtleben Zürichs geworden. Nach wie vor ist die Stadt Anziehungspunkt für Drogenkonsumenten aus den benachbarten Kantonen.
Gegenwart
In den 1980er Jahren war Zürich in einem Teufelskreis zwischen der Nachfrage nach mehr Bürofläche in der Innenstadt, der Stadtflucht und der drohenden Verslumung ganzer Stadtkreise wegen der Drogenprobleme gefangen. Massnahmen zur Attraktivitätssteigerung der Innenstadt wie die Verkehrsbefreiung des Niederdorfs konnten nicht verhindern, dass die Innenstadt Zürichs immer unattraktiver wurde. Veränderungen schienen unmöglich – 1986 brachte die damalige Baudirektorin Ursula Koch mit ihrem berühmtgewordenen Satz «Zürich ist gebaut» die Perspektivlosigkeit der Politik in Bezug auf die weitere Zukunft Zürichs zum Ausdruck. Erst Mitte der 1990er Jahre konnte die Blockade überwunden werden, zuerst durch eine neue Bau- und Zonenordnung 1996 und die Liberalisierung des Gastgewerbegesetzes 1997. Besonders letzteres wirkte enorm belebend auf das Nachtleben Zürichs und liess innerhalb kürzester Zeit unzählige neue und innovative Restaurants, Bars und Diskotheken aus dem Boden schiessen. 1998 konnte unter dem neuen Baudirektor Elmar Ledergerber (von 2002 bis April 2009 Stadtpräsident) die jahrelang nur langsam vorankommende Neugestaltung der Industriebrachen in Zürich-West und in Oerlikon beschleunigt werden, so dass sich bis heute an beiden Standorten trendige und moderne neue Stadtquartiere entwickeln konnten. Bis 2020 entsteht westlich des Hauptbahnhofs das neue Quartier Europaallee.
Im Tourismusbereich trat Zürich in den 2000er Jahren (bis 2011) mit dem Zusatz «Downtown Switzerland» auf.
Wirtschaft
Zürich gilt als das Wirtschaftszentrum der Schweiz. Der gesamte Wirtschaftsraum in und um Zürich wird auch als Greater Zurich Area bezeichnet. International zeichnet er sich insbesondere durch tiefe Steuersätze und eine hohe Lebensqualität aus, weshalb einige internationale Konzerne einen Sitz in Zürich haben. 2018 waren 5,4 % der Bevölkerung Millionäre (gerechnet in US-Dollar). Zürich ist damit, hinter Monaco und Genf, die Stadt mit der dritthöchsten Millionärsdichte weltweit. Aufgrund ihrer internationalen wirtschaftlichen Bedeutung wird die Stadt Zürich oft zu den Global- bzw. Weltstädten gezählt.
Die Wirtschaft ist sehr stark auf den Dienstleistungssektor ausgerichtet, in dem knapp 90 % der Zürcher Beschäftigten tätig sind. Im Industriesektor sind rund 10 % tätig und in der Landwirtschaft sind es heute weniger als 1 %. Bei einer erwerbstätigen Wohnbevölkerung von 200'110 (Stand: Volkszählung 2000) weist die Stadt 318'543 Arbeitsplätze vor. Die Mehrheit der Beschäftigten (56 %) waren Pendler aus anderen Gemeinden. Neben den rund 178'000 Zupendelnden gibt es rund 39'000 aus der Stadt Wegpendelnde.
Der wichtigste Wirtschaftszweig in Zürich ist der Finanzdienstleistungssektor, der am Paradeplatz sein Zentrum hat. Die beiden bis 2023 selbständigen Grossbanken UBS, die weltweit grösste Vermögensverwalterin, und Credit Suisse, die Schweizerische Nationalbank, die Zürcher Kantonalbank, die traditionsreiche Privatbank Julius Bär sowie etliche kleinere Bankinstitute haben ihren Sitz in der Stadt. Auch über 100 Auslandbanken sind in Zürich vertreten. Auf dem Bankenplatz Zürich sind rund 45'000 Personen beschäftigt, knapp die Hälfte aller Bankangestellten der Schweiz. Eine grosse Bedeutung hat das Privatkundengeschäft, da über 25 % der weltweit grenzüberschreitend angelegten Vermögenswerte in Zürich verwaltet werden (schweizweit sind es rund ein Drittel). Die schweizerische Post betrieb von 1920 bis 1996 in Zürich ein Rohrpostsystem, zu deren diskreten Kunden auch die Banken zählten. Auch die Börse SIX Swiss Exchange spielt international eine wesentliche Rolle und verstärkt die Bedeutung des Finanzplatzes Zürich. Sie gehört zu den technologisch führenden Börsen der Welt. Im Weiteren repräsentiert Zürich weltweit den drittgrössten Versicherungsmarkt. Swiss Re, eine der weltweit grössten Rückversicherungen, und Swiss Life, der grösste Lebensversicherungskonzern der Schweiz, haben ihre Hauptsitze in Zürich. Eine weitere Versicherungsgesellschaft von internationaler Bedeutung ist die Zurich Insurance Group. Der gesamte Finanzdienstleistungssektor generiert nahezu 50 % der Steuereinnahmen der Stadt Zürich.
Als zweitwichtigster Wirtschaftszweig folgen die unternehmensbezogenen Dienstleistungen wie Rechts- und Unternehmensberatung, Informatik oder Immobilienverwaltung. Zu erwähnen ist etwa das Unternehmen IBM Schweiz, das in Rüschlikon ein bedeutendes Forschungslabor betreibt. Seit 2004 betreibt zudem Google in Zürich das europäische Forschungszentrum. Auf dem ehemaligen Areal der Hürlimann AG wurde der zweitgrösste Standort des Unternehmens nach Mountain View eingerichtet.
Infolge des Strukturwandels hat die Bedeutung der produzierenden Industrie und der Bauwirtschaft abgenommen. Allerdings haben immer noch bedeutende Industriefirmen Niederlassungen in der Stadt Zürich, so zum Beispiel Siemens. Der Elektrotechnikkonzern ABB hat zudem seinen Hauptsitz in Zürich.
Aus den übrigen Wirtschaftszweigen sind insbesondere zu erwähnen: der grösste Schweizer Detailhandelskonzern Migros, der weltgrösste Schokoladenproduzent Barry Callebaut, die beiden grössten Automobilhändler AMAG-Gruppe und Emil Frey Gruppe, sowie der grösste Schweizer Reisekonzern Kuoni.
Nicht zuletzt dank der kulturellen Vielfalt in Zürich ist auch der Tourismus in den letzten Jahren ein bedeutender Wirtschaftsfaktor geworden. Jedes Jahr empfängt die Stadt Zürich rund neun Millionen Tagestouristen sowie zwei Millionen Übernachtungsgäste, von denen sich eine Mehrheit auch geschäftlich in Zürich aufhält.
Lebensqualität
Zürich galt bis zum Jahr 2008 siebenmal in Folge als Stadt mit der höchsten Lebensqualität weltweit. In der Studie «Worldwide Quality of Living Survey» («Studie zur weltweiten Lebensqualität») untersuchte die renommierte Beratungsfirma Mercer 215 Grossstädte anhand von 39 Kriterien, darunter Freizeit, Erholung, Sicherheit, Sauberkeit, politische und ökonomische Stabilität, sowie medizinische Versorgung. Seit 2009 rangiert Zürich neu an zweiter Stelle hinter Wien. Zudem wird Zürich als eine der Städte mit den weltweit höchsten Lebenshaltungskosten gelistet.
In einer Studie der Globalization and World Cities Research Group an der britischen Universität Loughborough landete Zürich in der Kategorie der Beta-Weltstädte auf dem ersten Rang, zusammen mit San Francisco, Sydney und Toronto.
Zürich besitzt die Auszeichnung Energiestadt Gold für eine nachhaltige Energiepolitik. Die offiziellen Gebäude im Eigentum der Stadt Zürich werden in der Regel nach Minergie gebaut.
Um die Lebensqualität für Geringverdiener im Hinblick auf den Wohnungsmarkt zu verbessern, hat die Stadt Zürich die Stiftungen Wohnungen für kinderreiche Familien und Alterswohnungen der Stadt Zürich gegründet.
Kunst, Kultur und Tourismus
Allgemeine Sehenswürdigkeiten
Die meisten Sehenswürdigkeiten Zürichs sind in und um die Altstadt gruppiert und deswegen am einfachsten zu Fuss oder mit kurzen Fahrten in Tram oder Bus erreichbar. Neben Gebäuden und Denkmälern ist auch die Lage Zürichs am Zürichsee einen Blick wert. Am Bellevue oder am Bürkliplatz bietet sich bei gutem Wetter ein schöner Blick auf den See und die Alpen. Beide Seeufer mit ihren Promenaden und Parkanlagen sind dann jeweils Anziehungspunkte für viele Einheimische und Touristen.
Der Zürcher Hausberg Uetliberg ist mit der Sihltal-Zürich-Uetliberg-Bahn (SZU) zu erreichen, die ab dem Hauptbahnhof verkehrt.
(Wikipedia)
Der Grimmenturm ist ein mittelalterlicher Wohnturm im Quartier Rathaus (Kreis 1) der Schweizer Stadt Zürich.
Geschichte
Der Grimmenturm wurde ursprünglich von der Familie Bilgeri nach dem Jahr 1250, vermutlich um 1280 als Wohnturm erstellt. Urkundlich erwähnt wurde er erstmals im Jahre 1324.
16. Jahrhundert
Zuerst und bis nach 1551 war im Grimmenturm das 1533 geschaffene «Obmannamt» untergebracht. Nach der Reformation in der Stadtrepublik war es eines der wichtigsten Ämter. Es hatte den Überschuss zu verwalten, welcher aus den Erträgen der aufgehobenen Klöster hervorging.[2]
20./21. Jahrhundert
Zu zeitgenössischen Bewohnern zählt (Stand 2019) seit 1986 der Schweizer Filmemacher Fredi M. Murer.
(Wikipedia)
Tanah Lot is a rock formation off the Indonesian island of Bali. It is home to the pilgrimage temple Pura Tanah Lot (literally "Tanah Lot temple"), a popular tourist and cultural icon for photography and general exoticism.
TANAH LOT TEMPLE
Tanah Lot means "Land [sic: in the] Sea" in the Balinese language. Located in Tabanan, about 20 kilometres from Denpasar, the temple sits on a large offshore rock which has been shaped continuously over the years by the ocean tide.
Tanah Lot is claimed to be the work of the 16th-century Dang Hyang Nirartha. During his travels along the south coast he saw the rock-island's beautiful setting and rested there. Some fishermen saw him, and bought him gifts. Nirartha then spent the night on the little island. Later he spoke to the fishermen and told them to build a shrine on the rock, for he felt it to be a holy place to worship the Balinese sea gods. The main deity of the temple is Dewa Baruna or Bhatara Segara, who is the sea god or sea power and these days, Nirartha is also worshipped here.
The Tanah Lot temple was built and has been a part of Balinese mythology for centuries. The temple is one of seven sea temples around the Balinese coast. Each of the sea temples was established within eyesight of the next to form a chain along the south-western coast. In addition to Balinese mythology, the temple was significantly influenced by Hinduism.
At the base of the rocky island, venomous sea snakes are believed to guard the temple from evil spirits and intruders. The temple is purportedly protected by a giant snake, which was created from Nirartha's selendang (a type of sash) when he established the island.
RESTAURATION
In 1980, the temple's rock face was starting to crumble and the area around and inside the temple started to become dangerous. The Japanese government then provided a loan to the Indonesian government of Rp 800 billion (approximately US$130 million) to conserve the historic temple and other significant locations around Bali. As a result, over one third of Tanah Lot's "rock" is actually cleverly disguised artificial rock created during the Japanese-funded and supervised renovation and stabilization program.
TOURISM
The area leading to Tanah Lot is highly commercialized and people are required to pay to enter the area. To reach the temple, visitors must walk through a set of Balinese market-format souvenir shops which cover each side of the path down to the sea. On the mainland clifftops, restaurants have also been provided for tourists.
WIKIPEDIA
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center held their annual Language Day 2016 at the Presidio of Monterey, California, May 13 to promote and encourage cultural understanding and customs from around the world.
Approximately 5,000 people attended the event, which features cultural displays and activities as well as ethnic foods served by local international vendors on the Presidio’s Soldier Field every year.
(Photo by Amber K. Whittington)
Cortana is a scripting language to automate the Metasploit Framework.
Read more about Cortana: www.fastandeasyhacking.com/download/cortana/cortana_tutor...
Code used from Ryan Baxendale: github.com/rsmudge/cortana-scripts/blob/master/login_auto...
VIRTLANTIS is a free resource and open community of practice for language learners and teachers in the virtual world of Second Life®. We offer free informal language learning activities for a growing number of languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, etc. All of our activities are offered free of charge by volunteer language teachers and/or native speakers.
Everyone is welcome to offer a language activity at VIRTLANTIS. We provide free resources and ongoing support. We also collaborate with and promote other language communities in Second Life.
In addition to our main island and the various social meeting points at Knowingly, we have additional locations which can be used when needed.
If you are interested in participating in any of our current activities or would like to offer your own language activity, feel free to contact us in-world, on Facebook, on Skype or via e-mail: info@virtlantis.com.
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The Postcard
A postcard that is curiously called on the back a "Modern Humour Series" card. It was published by Alfred Stiebel & Co. of London E.C.
The flower interpretations need to be taken with a pinch of salt - e.g. if you were to declare your undying love with a bunch of daisies, you might not get the response you were hoping for.
The card was posted in Finsbury Park, London on Thursday the 26th. March 1914 to:
Miss Stanbrook,
'Northolme',
42, Montagu Road,
Hendon.
The message on the divided back of the card was as follows:
"Dear Eileen,
I am afraid I shall not be
able to come Friday as it
is the end of our school
year, and there is so much
to do - but I will come if I
can.
If not I will come Sat.
I have got the tickets - the
concert begins at 2.30 -
early, isn't it?
Please get cocoa.
Love from Auntie Lil".
Pancho Villa
So what else happened on the day that Auntie Lil posted the card to her niece Eileen?
Well, on the 26th. March 1914, Pancho Villa's forces reached Torreón and attacked 12,000 federal troops occupying the city.
Vicious fighting over the next six days yielded heavy losses on both sides, but Villa was able to recapture the city that he had previously conquered in September, 1913.
Trondheim Airport
Also on that day, a Farman MF.7 military plane was the first aircraft to use Værnes Air Station in Norway. The military air base was eventually expanded to civilian air traffic, and became Trondheim Airport.
William Westmoreland
The 26th. March 1914 also marked the birth in Saxon, South Carolina of the American army officer William Westmoreland.
William commanded American military operations in the Vietnam War from 1964 to 1968. He died in 2005.
Ian McGeoch
Also born on that day, in Helensburgh, Scotland, was the British naval officer Ian McGeoch.
Ian was commander of the submarine HMS Splendid. He died in 2007.
U.S. Embassy Visit to Language as a Cultural Bridge at Sandeleh and Atzmon elementary schools.
Discussion with Abraham Fund Initiatives staff. Discussion with Arab supervisor from the Ministry of Education.
Isabella Wang Qiao Keefe poses for a photo with her daddy, John (Juan) Patrick Keefe II. She eyes her dad as if to say, "You're going to get me some extra milk for having awakened me from my nap, right Dad?"
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center held their annual Language Day 2016 at the Presidio of Monterey, California, May 13 to promote and encourage cultural understanding and customs from around the world.
Approximately 5,000 people attended the event, which features cultural displays and activities as well as ethnic foods served by local international vendors on the Presidio’s Soldier Field every year.
(Photo by Patrick Bray)
Sa Pa, or Sapa, is a frontier township and capital of Sa Pa District in Lào Cai Province in northwest Vietnam. It is one of the main market towns in the area, where several ethnic minority groups such as Hmong, Dao (Yao), Giáy, Pho Lu, and Tay live.
HISTORY
Sa Pa is a frontier township and capital of Sa Pa District in Lào Cai Province in northwest Vietnam. It was first inhabited by people we know nothing about. They left in the entire valley hundreds of petroglyphs, mostly composed of lines, which experts think date from the 15th century and represent local cadastres. Then came the highland minorities of the Hmong and Yao. The township is one of the main market ones in the area, where several ethnic minority groups such as Hmong, Dao (Yao), Giáy, Pho Lu, and Tay live. groups, as well as by smaller numbers of Tày and Giay. These are the four main minority groups still present in Sa Pa district today. The Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) never originally colonised this highest of Việt Nam’s valleys, which lies in the shadow of Phan-Xi-Pǎng (Fansipan, 3143 m), the highest peak in the country
It was only when the French debarked in highland Tonkin in the late 1880s that Sa Pa, name of the Hmong hamlet, with "S" is pronounced almost as hard as "Ch" in French, "Sh" in English, "S" in standard Vietnamese, so Chapa as the French called it, began to appear on the national map. Near to the now Sa Pa townlet is "Sa Pả commune", which shows the origin in Hmong language of the location name.[a]
In the following decade, the future site of Sa Pa township started to see military parties as well as missionaries from the Société des Missions Etrangères de Paris (MEP) visit. The French military marched from the Red River Delta into the northern mountainous regions as part of Tonkin's ‘pacification’. In 1894-96 the border between China and Tonkin was formally agreed upon and the Sa Pa area, just to the south of this frontier, was placed under French authority. From 1891 the entire Lào Cai region, including Sa Pa, came under direct colonial military administration so as to curtail banditry and political resistance on the sensitive northern frontier.
The first permanent French civilian resident arrived in Sa Pa in 1909. With its attractive continental climate, health authorities believed the site had potential. By 1912 a military sanatorium for ailing officers had been erected along with a fully fledged military garrison. Then, from the 1920s onwards, several wealthy professionals with enough financial capital also had a number of private villas built in the vicinity.
At the end of the Second World War a long period of hostilities began in Tonkin that was to last until 1954. In the process, nearly all of the 200 or so colonial buildings in or around Sa Pa were destroyed, either by Việt Minh sympathisers in the late 1940s, or, in the early 1950s by French air raids. The vast majority of the Viet population fled for their lives, and the former township entered a prolonged sleep.
In the early 1960s, thanks to the New Economic Zones migration scheme set up by the new Socialist regime, new inhabitants from the lowlands started to migrate to the region.
The short 1979 occupation of the northern border region by Chinese troops had little impact on Sa Pa town, but did force the Kinh (lowland Vietnamese) population out for a month.
In 1993 the last obstacle to Sa Pa's full rebirth as a prominent holiday destination was lifted as the decision was made to open the door fully to international tourism. Sa Pa was back on the tourist trail again, this time for a newly emerging local elite tourist crowd, as well as international tourists.
Sapa is now in full economic boom, mainly from the thousands of tourists who come every year to walk the hundreds of miles of trekking trails between and around the villages of Dao villages of Ta Van and Ta Phin.
In 2006, the Chairman of The People's Committee of Sapa Province was elected to The Communist Party Central Committee as the youngest ever member (born in 1973).
GEOGRAPHY
Sa Pa District is located in Lào Cai Province, north-west Vietnam, and 380 km north-west of Hanoi, close to the border with China. The Hoàng Liên Son range of mountains dominates the district, which is at the eastern extremity of the Himalayas. This range includes Vietnam's highest mountain, Fan Si Pan, at a height of 3143 m above sea level. The town of Sa Pa lies at an altitude of about 1500 meters above sea level. The climate is moderate and rainy in summer (May-August), and foggy and cold with occasional snowfalls in winter.
Sa Pa is a quiet mountain town and home to a great diversity of ethnic minority peoples. The total population of 36,000 consists mostly of minority groups. Besides the Kinh (Viet) people (15%) there are mainly 5 ethnic groups in Sapa: Hmong 52%, Dao 25%, Tay 5%, Giay 2% and a small number of Xa Pho. Approximately 7,000 live in Sapa, the other 36,000 being scattered in small communes throughout the district.
Most of the ethnic minority people work their land on sloping terraces since the vast majority of the land is mountainous. Their staple foods are rice and corn. Rice, by its very nature of being a labour-intensive crop, makes the daily fight for survival paramount. The unique climate in Sapa has a major influence on the ethnic minorities who live in the area. With sub-tropical summers, temperate winters and 160 days of mist annually, the influence on agricultural yields and health related issues is significant.
The geographical location of the area makes it a truly unique place for many interesting plants and animals, allowing it to support many inhabitants. Many very rare or even endemic species have been recorded in the region.
The scenery of the Sa Pa region in large part reflects the relationship between the minority people and nature. This is seen especially in the paddy fields carpeting the rolling lower slopes of the Hoàng Liên Mountains. The impressive physical landscape which underlies this has resulted from the work of the elements over thousands of years, wearing away the underlying rock. On a clear day, the imposing peak of Fan Si Pan comes into view. The last major peak in the Himalayan chain, Fan Si Pan offers a real challenge to even the keenest walker, the opportunity of staggering views, and a rare glimpse of some of the last remaining primary rain forest in Vietnam.
Geology, climate and human activity have combined to produce a range of very distinct habitats around Sa Pa. Especially important is Sa Pa's geographic position, at the convergence of the world's 14 “biomes” (distinct biographic areas), producing an assemblage of plant and animal species unique in the world.
In 2014, Sapa ranked #9 in the top 10 rice terrace destinations of the world by SpotCoolStuff
ECOLOGICAL LIFE
The Hoàng Liên Mountains are home to a rich variety of plants, birds, mammals, amphibians, reptiles and insects, many only found in northwestern Vietnam. For this reason, the Hoàng Liên Nature Reserve was made a National Park in 2006, and covers much of the mountain range to the immediate south of Sa Pa.
Forest type and quality change with increasing altitude. At 2000 meters the natural, undisturbed forest begins to be seen. Above 2500 meters dwarf conifers and rhododendrons predominate in the harsh “elfin forest”, so called because a lack of topsoil and nutrients means that fully mature trees grow to measure only a few meters in height. Higher still, only the hardiest of plant species are found. At over 3000 meters, Fan Si Pan's summit can only support dwarf bamboo.
TOPOGRAPHY
The Hoang Lien Mountains lie at the southeastern extent of the Himalayan chain. The national park is located on the northeast flank of these mountains and includes Vietnam's highest peak, Fansipan, at 3,143 m. The lowest point is 380 m but most of the national park lies above 1,000 m. The flanks of the mountains are very steep and many areas are almost inaccessible on foot. Between Fansipan Mountain and Sa Pa town, lies the Muong Hoa valley, which has been terraced for wet rice agriculture. This valley becomes wider towards the east of the national park.
CLIMATE
The climate of Hoàng Liên National Park is unique to Vietnam. It is highly seasonal, with a subtropical climate in the summer and a temperate climate during the winter. Under the Köppen climate classification, Sa Pa has a subtropical highland climate (Cwb). Mean annual temperature for Sa Pa town is 15.4 °C, with a maximum of 29.4 °C and a minimum of 1.0 °C. The warmest months are July and August, and the coldest months are December and January. Snow falls in some years on the highest peaks. It has snown in the town itself in 1983, 2000, 16 March 2011, 15 December 2013, and 19 February 2014.
In common with the rest of northern Vietnam, Hoàng Liên National Park experiences a marked wet season from May to September, with the heaviest rainfall occurring in July and August. Mean annual rainfall is 2,763 millimetres, with a high of 4,023 millimetres and a low of 2,064 millimetres. Humidity ranges from 75 to 91 percent with a yearly mean of 86 percent.
Climate varies considerably within the national park. The prevalent wind direction for most of the year is west to east, leading to cloud formation on the upper slopes of the Fansipan massif. These high-altitude areas are covered by cloud most days of the year and have very high humidity. Cloud also penetrates into the valleys but these areas are usually less humid than the mountain slopes. In the extreme east of the national park, around Ban Ho village, mean temperatures are considerably higher due to the lower altitude of these areas.
Extreme temperatures have ranged from −6.1 °C to 33 °C.
GEOLOGY
The geology of Hoàng Liên National Park includes metamorphosed sediments and a granitic intrusion. The metamorphosed sediments strike from northwest to southeast along the Muong Hoa valley. On the northeastern side of the valley is a craggy ridge of marble and metamorphosed carbonate rocks that exhibit a karst style of weathering. These formations are currently being quarried for road building. The valley floor is characterised by schist and, to a lesser extent, gneiss. The granitic intrusion extends from the Muong Hoa River to the summit ridge of Fansipan and beyond. Due to the high humidity and rainfall in the area, chemical weathering is prevalent. This is reflected in the clay nature of the soil.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Before the 1990s, the town's economy was mainly based on small size agriculture.
Tourist arrival between 1995 and 2003 grew from a total of 4,860 to 138,622. On average, 79% of the visitors are Vietnamese and 21% are foreigners.
The people of the Sa Pa area have been very poor even by Vietnam's rural standards. Efforts to improve the situation for the local people include both governmental and non-governmental initiatives. The government of Vietnam and foreign governments have contributed to local development programs. International non-governmental organizations such as Oxfam have also been involved in Sa Pa. Locally, the Hmong-run social enterprise, Sapa O'Chau, organizes volunteer placements, such as English teaching, and visiting through trekking and homestays at local villages for short or long-term periods. Vocational training by the Hoa Sua School also aims to increases skills and earnings potential for local residents.
HYDROLOGY
Hoàng Liên National Park is drained by the Muong Hoa and Ta Trung Ho rivers, which feed the Nam Po River and, finally, the Song Hong (Red) river. The forest has an essential role in water catchment protection, particularly the forest at high altitudes, which is frequently covered in cloud. Water condenses on the vegetation and falls as ‘occult’ precipitation. Occult precipitation makes a major contribution to stream-flow during the dry season when rainfall is low.
VEGETATION
The forest of Hoàng Liên National Park can be classified as belonging to 3 types: sub-montane dry evergreen forest, tropical montane deciduous forest and sub-alpine forest. The sub-montane dry evergreen forest, which occurs at lower altitudes, has been the most heavily disturbed by the activities of man.
In addition to the forest habitats, the national park contains large areas of agricultural land, scrub land and Savannah. Agriculture is concentrated at altitudes below 1,500m, in the bottom of valleys. Scrub land and Savannah areas are found where forest has been cleared: around the edge of cultivated areas and on ridge tops, which have been subjected to burning. A final vegetation type represented at Hoàng Liên National Park is dwarf bamboo. This habitat is confined to the highest ridges of the Fansipan massif, at altitudes above 2,800 m.
WIKIPEDIA
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. – More than 3,000 students from across California visited the Presidio of Monterey on May 13 for DLIFLC’s Language Day. Students, educators and other participants were treated to stage performances, classroom displays and ethnic cuisine, highlighting the cultures of the many foreign languages taught here.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. - The Marine Corps Detachment, Presidio of Monterey conducted a formation run and Field Meet competition on Jan. 13, a training-day for Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center students held prior to the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
During each physical challenge specific teams were unknowingly disadvantaged by methods such as adding extra weight to ammo cans or creating running lanes of different length. Concluding the event Marine Corps Det. Commander Lt. Col. Edward R. Sullivan spoke to the Marines about inequality and the struggles championed by Martin Luther King Jr.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Martin Luther King Jr.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
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PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center held their annual Language Day 2016 at the Presidio of Monterey, California, May 13 to promote and encourage cultural understanding and customs from around the world.
Approximately 5,000 people attended the event, which features cultural displays and activities as well as ethnic foods served by local international vendors on the Presidio’s Soldier Field every year.
(Photo by Amber K. Whittington)
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center held their annual Language Day 2016 at the Presidio of Monterey, California, May 13 to promote and encourage cultural understanding and customs from around the world.
Approximately 5,000 people attended the event, which features cultural displays and activities as well as ethnic foods served by local international vendors on the Presidio’s Soldier Field every year.
(Photo by Amber K. Whittington)
“A landscape image cuts across all political and national boundaries, it transcends the constraints of language and culture.”
(Charlie Waite - English landscape photographer, b.1949)
A view of Varanasi (Benaras) along the Ganges...
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© All photographs are copyrighted and all rights reserved.
Please do not use any photographs without permission (even for private use).
The use of any work without consent of the artist is PROHIBITED and will lead automatically to consequences.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. - On April 12 the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center's 229th Military Intelligence Battalion Company A held a change of command ceremony at the Presidio's Price Fitness Center Gym. Outgoing Company A Commander Cpt. Phillip J. Kerber transferred responsibility to Company A Commander Cpt. Andrzej V. Kujawski with the traditional passing of the colors. 229th MI Battalion Commander Lt. Col. Kent Webber presided over the ceremony.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, California -- The 2017 Language Day celebration was held by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, May 12. Language Day is open to the public and attended by schools throughout the region to promote an understanding of diverse customs and cultures from around the world. Approximately 5,000 people attended the annual event featuring cultural displays, activities and international ethnic cuisine served by local vendors on Presidio’s Soldier Field.
The event featured a Vietnam War veterans recognition ceremony. Vietnam War lapel pins authorized by Congress were individually presented by POM Garrison Commander Col. Lawrence Brown and Garrison Command Sgt. Maj. Roberto Marshall to approximately 75 Vietnam War veterans in attendance.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
The British Columbia government is eliminating tuition fees on Adult Basic Education (ABE) and English Language Learning (ELL) programs, opening the door for tens of thousands of people to upgrade their education and skills every year.
Learn more: news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2017PREM0071-001404
Photos courtesy of Camosun College.
H. W. Fowler - Fowler's Modern English Usage
Oxford University Press
Second Edition
Revised by Sir Ernest Gowers
Published (with corrections) 1968
“Language Lessons for Little People” by John Morrow. Published by American Book Co., 1912. Various illustrators including O.F. Schmidt, M.E. Grainger, Ruth M. Hallock. This unassuming little schoolbook is a treasure trove of black and white illustrations done by excellent artists.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, California -- The 2018 Language Day celebration was held by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio of Monterey, May 11. Language Day is open to the public and attended by schools across the nation to promote an understanding of diverse customs and cultures from around the world. Approximately 6,000 people attended this annual event featuring cultural displays, activities and international ethnic cuisine served by local vendors.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
Urmia (Turkish language: Urmu, Urmiyə, اورمیه; farsi: ارومیه) variously translitterated as Oroumiyeh, Orūmīyeh and Urūmiyeh, is a city in and the capital of West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 577,307, with 153,570 households.
The city lies at an altitude of 1,330 m above sea level on the Shahar Chay river (City River). Urmia is the 10th most populated city in Iran. The population is mainly mainly Azerbaijanian Turkish(85-90%), with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities.
Urmia is situated on a fertile plain called Urmia Plain, on western side of Lake Urmia; and eastern side of Turkish border and marginal range of mountains.
Urmia is the trade center for a fertile agricultural region where fruit (especially Apple and Grape) and Tobacco are grown. An important town by the 9th cent., Urmia was seized by the Seljuk Turks (1184), and later occupied a number of times by the Ottoman Turks.
Urmiye (Türkçesi:اورمو, Urmu, اورمیه, Urumiyə;Farsça: ارومیه, Orumieh), İran'ın Batı Azerbaycan Eyaleti'nin yönetim merkezi olan şehir. Şehir, bağlı olduğu eyaletin orta kısmında, Urmiye Gölü ile Türkiye sınırı arasında, kendi adıyla anılan ovada kuruludur. Nüfusu 2006 yılı verileriyle 577,307 kişidir ki Urmiye ülkenin en büyük 10. şehridir.
Urmiye şehrinde nüfusun çoğunluğunu (tahmini 90%) Türklerdir, azınlık kısmınıysa Kürtler, Süryaniler ve Ermeniler oluşturuyor.
Urmia (Turkish language: Urmu, Urmiyə, اورمیه; farsi: ارومیه) variously translitterated as Oroumiyeh, Orūmīyeh and Urūmiyeh, is a city in and the capital of West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. At the 2006 census, its population was 577,307, with 153,570 households.
The city lies at an altitude of 1,330 m above sea level on the Shahar Chay river (City River). Urmia is the 10th most populated city in Iran. The population is mainly mainly Azerbaijanian Turkish(85-90%), with Kurdish, Assyrian Christian, and Armenian minorities.
Urmia is situated on a fertile plain called Urmia Plain, on western side of Lake Urmia; and eastern side of Turkish border and marginal range of mountains.
Urmia is the trade center for a fertile agricultural region where fruit (especially Apple and Grape) and Tobacco are grown. An important town by the 9th cent., Urmia was seized by the Seljuk Turks (1184), and later occupied a number of times by the Ottoman Turks.
Urmiye (Türkçesi:اورمو, Urmu, اورمیه, Urumiyə;Farsça: ارومیه, Orumieh), İran'ın Batı Azerbaycan Eyaleti'nin yönetim merkezi olan şehir. Şehir, bağlı olduğu eyaletin orta kısmında, Urmiye Gölü ile Türkiye sınırı arasında, kendi adıyla anılan ovada kuruludur. Nüfusu 2006 yılı verileriyle 577,307 kişidir ki Urmiye ülkenin en büyük 10. şehridir.
Urmiye şehrinde nüfusun çoğunluğunu (tahmini 90%) Türklerdir, azınlık kısmınıysa Kürtler, Süryaniler ve Ermeniler oluşturuyor.
The Toraja are an ethnic group indigenous to a mountainous region of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Their population is approximately 1,100,000, of whom 450,000 live in the regency of Tana Toraja ("Land of Toraja"). Most of the population is Christian, and others are Muslim or have local animist beliefs known as aluk ("the way"). The Indonesian government has recognized this animist belief as Aluk To Dolo ("Way of the Ancestors").
The word toraja comes from the Bugis Buginese language term to riaja, meaning "people of the uplands". The Dutch colonial government named the people Toraja in 1909. Torajans are renowned for their elaborate funeral rites, burial sites carved into rocky cliffs, massive peaked-roof traditional houses known as tongkonan, and colorful wood carvings. Toraja funeral rites are important social events, usually attended by hundreds of people and lasting for several days.
Before the 20th century, Torajans lived in autonomous villages, where they practised animism and were relatively untouched by the outside world. In the early 1900s, Dutch missionaries first worked to convert Torajan highlanders to Christianity. When the Tana Toraja regency was further opened to the outside world in the 1970s, it became an icon of tourism in Indonesia: it was exploited by tourism developers and studied by anthropologists. By the 1990s, when tourism peaked, Toraja society had changed significantly, from an agrarian model - in which social life and customs were outgrowths of the Aluk To Dolo - to a largely Christian society. Today, tourism and remittances from migrant Torajans have made for major changes in the Toraja highland, giving the Toraja a celebrity status within Indonesia and enhancing Toraja ethnic group pride.
ETHNIC IDENTITY
The Torajan people had little notion of themselves as a distinct ethnic group before the 20th century. Before Dutch colonization and Christianization, Torajans, who lived in highland areas, identified with their villages and did not share a broad sense of identity. Although complexes of rituals created linkages between highland villages, there were variations in dialects, differences in social hierarchies, and an array of ritual practices in the Sulawesi highland region. "Toraja" (from the coastal languages' to, meaning people; and riaja, uplands) was first used as a lowlander expression for highlanders. As a result, "Toraja" initially had more currency with outsiders - such as the Bugis and Makassarese, who constitute a majority of the lowland of Sulawesi - than with insiders. The Dutch missionaries' presence in the highlands gave rise to the Toraja ethnic consciousness in the Sa'dan Toraja region, and this shared identity grew with the rise of tourism in the Tana Toraja Regency. Since then, South Sulawesi has four main ethnic groups - the Bugis (the majority, including shipbuilders and seafarers), the Makassarese (lowland traders and seafarers), the Mandarese (traders and fishermen), and the Toraja (highland rice cultivators).
HISTORY
From the 17th century, the Dutch established trade and political control on Sulawesi through the Dutch East Indies Company. Over two centuries, they ignored the mountainous area in the central Sulawesi, where Torajans lived, because access was difficult and it had little productive agricultural land. In the late 19th century, the Dutch became increasingly concerned about the spread of Islam in the south of Sulawesi, especially among the Makassarese and Bugis peoples. The Dutch saw the animist highlanders as potential Christians. In the 1920s, the Reformed Missionary Alliance of the Dutch Reformed Church began missionary work aided by the Dutch colonial government. In addition to introducing Christianity, the Dutch abolished slavery and imposed local taxes. A line was drawn around the Sa'dan area and called Tana Toraja ("the land of Toraja"). Tana Toraja was first a subdivision of the Luwu kingdom that had claimed the area. In 1946, the Dutch granted Tana Toraja a regentschap, and it was recognized in 1957 as one of the regencies of Indonesia.
Early Dutch missionaries faced strong opposition among Torajans, especially among the elite, because the abolition of their profitable slave trade had angered them. Some Torajans were forcibly relocated to the lowlands by the Dutch, where they could be more easily controlled. Taxes were kept high, undermining the wealth of the elites. Ultimately, the Dutch influence did not subdue Torajan culture, and only a few Torajans were converted. In 1950, only 10% of the population had converted to Christianity.
In the 1930s, Muslim lowlanders attacked the Torajans, resulting in widespread Christian conversion among those who sought to align themselves with the Dutch for political protection and to form a movement against the Bugis and Makassarese Muslims. Between 1951 and 1965 (following Indonesian independence), southern Sulawesi faced a turbulent period as the Darul Islam separatist movement fought for an Islamic state in Sulawesi. The 15 years of guerrilla warfare led to massive conversions to
CHRISTIANITY
Alignment with the Indonesian government, however, did not guarantee safety for the Torajans. In 1965, a presidential decree required every Indonesian citizen to belong to one of five officially recognized religions: Islam, Christianity (Protestantism and Catholicism), Hinduism, or Buddhism. The Torajan religious belief (aluk) was not legally recognized, and the Torajans raised their voices against the law. To make aluk accord with the law, it had to be accepted as part of one of the official religions. In 1969, Aluk To Dolo ("the way of ancestors") was legalized as a sect of Agama Hindu Dharma, the official name of Hinduism in Indonesia.
SOCIETY
There are three main types of affiliation in Toraja society: family, class and religion.
FAMILY AFFILIATION
Family is the primary social and political grouping in Torajan society. Each village is one extended family, the seat of which is the tongkonan, a traditional Torajan house. Each tongkonan has a name, which becomes the name of the village. The familial dons maintain village unity. Marriage between distant cousins (fourth cousins and beyond) is a common practice that strengthens kinship. Toraja society prohibits marriage between close cousins (up to and including the third cousin) - except for nobles, to prevent the dispersal of property. Kinship is actively reciprocal, meaning that the extended family helps each other farm, share buffalo rituals, and pay off debts.
Each person belongs to both the mother's and the father's families, the only bilateral family line in Indonesia. Children, therefore, inherit household affiliation from both mother and father, including land and even family debts. Children's names are given on the basis of kinship, and are usually chosen after dead relatives. Names of aunts, uncles and cousins are commonly referred to in the names of mothers, fathers and siblings.
Before the start of the formal administration of Toraja villages by the Tana Toraja Regency, each Toraja village was autonomous. In a more complex situation, in which one Toraja family could not handle their problems alone, several villages formed a group; sometimes, villages would unite against other villages. Relationship between families was expressed through blood, marriage, and shared ancestral houses (tongkonan), practically signed by the exchange of water buffalo and pigs on ritual occasions. Such exchanges not only built political and cultural ties between families but defined each person's place in a social hierarchy: who poured palm wine, who wrapped a corpse and prepared offerings, where each person could or could not sit, what dishes should be used or avoided, and even what piece of meat constituted one's share.
CLASS AFFILIATION
In early Toraja society, family relationships were tied closely to social class. There were three strata: nobles, commoners, and slaves (slavery was abolished in 1909 by the Dutch East Indies government). Class was inherited through the mother. It was taboo, therefore, to marry "down" with a woman of lower class. On the other hand, marrying a woman of higher class could improve the status of the next generation. The nobility's condescending attitude toward the commoners is still maintained today for reasons of family prestige.
Nobles, who were believed to be direct descendants of the descended person from heaven, lived in tongkonans, while commoners lived in less lavish houses (bamboo shacks called banua). Slaves lived in small huts, which had to be built around their owner's tongkonan. Commoners might marry anyone, but nobles preferred to marry in-family to maintain their status. Sometimes nobles married Bugis or Makassarese nobles. Commoners and slaves were prohibited from having death feasts. Despite close kinship and status inheritance, there was some social mobility, as marriage or change in wealth could affect an individuals status. Wealth was counted by the ownership of water buffaloes.
Slaves in Toraja society were family property. Sometimes Torajans decided to become slaves when they incurred a debt, pledging to work as payment. Slaves could be taken during wars, and slave trading was common. Slaves could buy their freedom, but their children still inherited slave status. Slaves were prohibited from wearing bronze or gold, carving their houses, eating from the same dishes as their owners, or having sex with free women - a crime punishable by death.
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION
Toraja's indigenous belief system is polytheistic animism, called aluk, or "the way" (sometimes translated as "the law"). In the Toraja myth, the ancestors of Torajan people came down from heaven using stairs, which were then used by the Torajans as a communication medium with Puang Matua, the Creator. The cosmos, according to aluk, is divided into the upper world (heaven), the world of man (earth), and the underworld. At first, heaven and earth were married, then there was a darkness, a separation, and finally the light. Animals live in the underworld, which is represented by rectangular space enclosed by pillars, the earth is for mankind, and the heaven world is located above, covered with a saddle-shaped roof. Other Toraja gods include Pong Banggai di Rante (god of Earth), Indo' Ongon-Ongon (a goddess who can cause earthquakes), Pong Lalondong (god of death), and Indo' Belo Tumbang (goddess of medicine); there are many more.
The earthly authority, whose words and actions should be cleaved to both in life (agriculture) and death (funerals), is called to minaa (an aluk priest). Aluk is not just a belief system; it is a combination of law, religion, and habit. Aluk governs social life, agricultural practices, and ancestral rituals. The details of aluk may vary from one village to another. One common law is the requirement that death and life rituals be separated. Torajans believe that performing death rituals might ruin their corpses if combined with life rituals. The two rituals are equally important. During the time of the Dutch missionaries, Christian Torajans were prohibited from attending or performing life rituals, but were allowed to perform death rituals. Consequently, Toraja's death rituals are still practised today, while life rituals have diminished.
CULTURE
TONGKONAN
Tongkonan are the traditional Torajan ancestral houses. They stand high on wooden piles, topped with a layered split-bamboo roof shaped in a sweeping curved arc, and they are incised with red, black, and yellow detailed wood carvings on the exterior walls. The word "tongkonan" comes from the Torajan tongkon ("to sit").
Tongkonan are the center of Torajan social life. The rituals associated with the tongkonan are important expressions of Torajan spiritual life, and therefore all family members are impelled to participate, because symbolically the tongkonan represents links to their ancestors and to living and future kin. According to Torajan myth, the first tongkonan was built in heaven on four poles, with a roof made of Indian cloth. When the first Torajan ancestor descended to earth, he imitated the house and held a large ceremony.
The construction of a tongkonan is laborious work and is usually done with the help of the extended family. There are three types of tongkonan. The tongkonan layuk is the house of the highest authority, used as the "center of government". The tongkonan pekamberan belongs to the family members who have some authority in local traditions. Ordinary family members reside in the tongkonan batu. The exclusivity to the nobility of the tongkonan is diminishing as many Torajan commoners find lucrative employment in other parts of Indonesia. As they send back money to their families, they enable the construction of larger tongkonan.
WOOD CARVINGS
To express social and religious concepts, Torajans carve wood, calling it Pa'ssura (or "the writing"). Wood carvings are therefore Toraja's cultural manifestation.
Each carving receives a special name, and common motifs are animals and plants that symbolize some virtue. For example, water plants and animals, such as crabs, tadpoles and water weeds, are commonly found to symbolize fertility. In some areas noble elders claim these symbols refer to strength of noble family, but not everyone agrees. The overall meaning of groups of carved motifs on houses remains debated and tourism has further complicated these debates because some feel a uniform explanation must be presented to tourists. The image to the left shows an example of Torajan wood carving, consisting of 15 square panels. The center bottom panel represents buffalo or wealth, a wish for many buffaloes for the family. The center panel represents a knot and a box, a hope that all of the family's offspring will be happy and live in harmony, like goods kept safe in a box. The top left and top right squares represent an aquatic animal, indicating the need for fast and hard work, just like moving on the surface of water. It also represents the need for a certain skill to produce good results.
Regularity and order are common features in Toraja wood carving (see table below), as well as abstracts and geometrical designs. Nature is frequently used as the basis of Toraja's ornaments, because nature is full of abstractions and geometries with regularities and ordering. Toraja's ornaments have been studied in ethnomathematics to reveal their mathematical structure, but Torajans base this art only on approximations. To create an ornament, bamboo sticks are used as a geometrical tool.
FUNERAL RITES
In Toraja society, the funeral ritual is the most elaborate and expensive event. The richer and more powerful the individual, the more expensive is the funeral. In the aluk religion, only nobles have the right to have an extensive death feast. The death feast of a nobleman is usually attended by thousands and lasts for several days. A ceremonial site, called rante, is usually prepared in a large, grassy field where shelters for audiences, rice barns, and other ceremonial funeral structures are specially made by the deceased family. Flute music, funeral chants, songs and poems, and crying and wailing are traditional Toraja expressions of grief with the exceptions of funerals for young children, and poor, low-status adults.
The ceremony is often held weeks, months, or years after the death so that the deceased's family can raise the significant funds needed to cover funeral expenses. Torajans traditionally believe that death is not a sudden, abrupt event, but a gradual process toward Puya (the land of souls, or afterlife). During the waiting period, the body of the deceased is wrapped in several layers of cloth and kept under the tongkonan. The soul of the deceased is thought to linger around the village until the funeral ceremony is completed, after which it begins its journey to Puya.
Another component of the ritual is the slaughter of water buffalo. The more powerful the person who died, the more buffalo are slaughtered at the death feast. Buffalo carcasses, including their heads, are usually lined up on a field waiting for their owner, who is in the "sleeping stage". Torajans believe that the deceased will need the buffalo to make the journey and that they will be quicker to arrive at Puya if they have many buffalo. Slaughtering tens of water buffalo and hundreds of pigs using a machete is the climax of the elaborate death feast, with dancing and music and young boys who catch spurting blood in long bamboo tubes. Some of the slaughtered animals are given by guests as "gifts", which are carefully noted because they will be considered debts of the deceased's family. However, a cockfight, known as bulangan londong, is an integral part of the ceremony. As with the sacrifice of the buffalo and the pigs, the cockfight is considered sacred because it involves the spilling of blood on the earth. In particular, the tradition requires the sacrifice of at least three chickens. However, it is common for at least 25 pairs of chickens to be set against each other in the context of the ceremony.
There are three methods of burial: the coffin may be laid in a cave or in a carved stone grave, or hung on a cliff. It contains any possessions that the deceased will need in the afterlife. The wealthy are often buried in a stone grave carved out of a rocky cliff. The grave is usually expensive and takes a few months to complete. In some areas, a stone cave may be found that is large enough to accommodate a whole family. A wood-carved effigy, called Tau tau, is usually placed in the cave looking out over the land. The coffin of a baby or child may be hung from ropes on a cliff face or from a tree. This hanging grave usually lasts for years, until the ropes rot and the coffin falls to the ground.
In the ritual called Ma'Nene, that takes place each year in August, the bodies of the deceased are exhumed to be washed, groomed and dressed in new clothes. The mummies are then walked around the village.
DANCE AND MUSIC
Torajans perform dances on several occasions, most often during their elaborate funeral ceremonies. They dance to express their grief, and to honour and even cheer the deceased person because he is going to have a long journey in the afterlife. First, a group of men form a circle and sing a monotonous chant throughout the night to honour the deceased (a ritual called Ma'badong). This is considered by many Torajans to be the most important component of the funeral ceremony. On the second funeral day, the Ma'randing warrior dance is performed to praise the courage of the deceased during life. Several men perform the dance with a sword, a large shield made from buffalo skin, a helmet with a buffalo horn, and other ornamentation. The Ma'randing dance precedes a procession in which the deceased is carried from a rice barn to the rante, the site of the funeral ceremony. During the funeral, elder women perform the Ma'katia dance while singing a poetic song and wearing a long feathered costume. The Ma'akatia dance is performed to remind the audience of the generosity and loyalty of the deceased person. After the bloody ceremony of buffalo and pig slaughter, a group of boys and girls clap their hands while performing a cheerful dance called Ma'dondan.
As in other agricultural societies, Torajans dance and sing during harvest time. The Ma'bugi dance celebrates the thanksgiving event, and the Ma'gandangi dance is performed while Torajans are pounding rice. There are several war dances, such as the Manimbong dance performed by men, followed by the Ma'dandan dance performed by women. The aluk religion governs when and how Torajans dance. A dance called Ma'bua can be performed only once every 12 years. Ma'bua is a major Toraja ceremony in which priests wear a buffalo head and dance around a sacred tree.
A traditional musical instrument of the Toraja is a bamboo flute called a Pa'suling (suling is an Indonesian word for flute). This six-holed flute (not unique to the Toraja) is played at many dances, such as the thanksgiving dance Ma'bondensan, where the flute accompanies a group of shirtless, dancing men with long fingernails. The Toraja have indigenous musical instruments, such as the Pa'pelle (made from palm leaves) and the Pa'karombi (the Torajan version of a jaw harp). The Pa'pelle is played during harvest time and at house inauguration ceremonies.
LANGUAGE
The ethnic Toraja language is dominant in Tana Toraja with the main language as the Sa'dan Toraja. Although the national Indonesian language is the official language and is spoken in the community, all elementary schools in Tana Toraja teach Toraja language.Language varieties of Toraja, including Kalumpang, Mamasa, Tae' , Talondo' , Toala' , and Toraja-Sa'dan, belong to the Malayo-Polynesian language from the Austronesian family. At the outset, the isolated geographical nature of Tana Toraja formed many dialects between the Toraja languages themselves. After the formal administration of Tana Toraja, some Toraja dialects have been influenced by other languages through the transmigration program, introduced since the colonialism period, and it has been a major factor in the linguistic variety of Toraja languages. A prominent attribute of Toraja language is the notion of grief. The importance of death ceremony in Toraja culture has characterized their languages to express intricate degrees of grief and mourning. The Toraja language contains many terms referring to sadness, longing, depression, and mental pain. Giving a clear expression of the psychological and physical effect of loss is a catharsis and sometimes lessens the pain of grief itself.
ECONOMY
Prior to Suharto's "New Order" administration, the Torajan economy was based on agriculture, with cultivated wet rice in terraced fields on mountain slopes, and supplemental cassava and maize crops. Much time and energy were devoted to raising water buffalo, pigs, and chickens, primarily for ceremonial sacrifices and consumption. Coffee was the first significant cash crop produced in Toraja, and was introduced in the mid 19th century, changing the local economy towards commodity production for external markets and gaining an excellent reputation for quality in the international market .
With the commencement of the New Order in 1965, Indonesia's economy developed and opened to foreign investment. In Toraja, a coffee plantation and factory was established by Key Coffee of Japan, and Torajan coffee regained a reputation for quality within the growing international specialty coffee sector Multinational oil and mining companies opened new operations in Indonesia during the 1970s and 1980s. Torajans, particularly younger ones, relocated to work for the foreign companies - to Kalimantan for timber and oil, to Papua for mining, to the cities of Sulawesi and Java, and many went to Malaysia. The out-migration of Torajans was steady until 1985. and has continued since, with remittances sent back by emigre Torajans performing an important role within the contemporary economy.
Tourism commenced in Toraja in the 1970s, and accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. Between 1984 and 1997, a significant number of Torajans obtained their incomes from tourism, working in and owning hotels, as tour guides, drivers, or selling souvenirs. With the rise of political and economic instability in Indonesia in the late 1990s - including religious conflicts elsewhere on Sulawesi - tourism in Tana Toraja has declined dramatically. Toraja continues to be a well known origin for Indonesian coffee, grown by both smallholders and plantation estates, although migration, remittances and off-farm income is considered far more important to most households, even those in rural areas.
TOURISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE
Before the 1970s, Toraja was almost unknown to Western tourism. In 1971, about 50 Europeans visited Tana Toraja. In 1972, at least 400 visitors attended the funeral ritual of Puang of Sangalla, the highest-ranking nobleman in Tana Toraja and the so-called "last pure-blooded Toraja noble." The event was documented by National Geographic and broadcast in several European countries. In 1976, about 12,000 tourists visited the regency and in 1981, Torajan sculpture was exhibited in major North American museums. "The land of the heavenly kings of Tana Toraja", as written in the exhibition brochure, embraced the outside world.
In 1984, the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism declared Tana Toraja Regency the prima donna of South Sulawesi. Tana Toraja was heralded as "the second stop after Bali". Tourism was increasing dramatically: by 1985, a total number of 150,000 foreigners had visited the Regency (in addition to 80,000 domestic tourists), and the annual number of foreign visitors was recorded at 40,000 in 1989. Souvenir stands appeared in Rantepao, the cultural center of Toraja, roads were sealed at the most-visited tourist sites, new hotels and tourist-oriented restaurants were opened, and an airstrip was opened in the Regency in 1981.
Tourism developers have marketed Tana Toraja as an exotic adventure - an area rich in culture and off the beaten track. Western tourists expected to see stone-age villages and pagan funerals. Toraja is for tourists who have gone as far as Bali and are willing to see more of the wild, "untouched" islands. However, they were more likely to see a Torajan wearing a hat and denim, living in a Christian society. Tourists felt that the tongkonan and other Torajan rituals had been preconceived to make profits, and complained that the destination was too commercialized. This has resulted in several clashes between Torajans and tourism developers, whom Torajans see as outsiders.
A clash between local Torajan leaders and the South Sulawesi provincial government (as a tourist developer) broke out in 1985. The government designated 18 Toraja villages and burial sites as traditional tourist attractions. Consequently, zoning restrictions were applied to these areas, such that Torajans themselves were barred from changing their tongkonans and burial sites. The plan was opposed by some Torajan leaders, as they felt that their rituals and traditions were being determined by outsiders. As a result, in 1987, the Torajan village of Kété Kesú and several other designated tourist attractions closed their doors to tourists. This closure lasted only a few days, as the villagers found it too difficult to survive without the income from selling souvenirs.
Tourism has also transformed Toraja society. Originally, there was a ritual which allowed commoners to marry nobles (puang) and thereby gain nobility for their children. However, the image of Torajan society created for the tourists, often by "lower-ranking" guides, has eroded its traditional strict hierarchy. High status is not as esteemed in Tana Toraja as it once was. Many low-ranking men can declare themselves and their children nobles by gaining enough wealth through work outside the region and then marrying a noble woman.
WIKIPEDIA
Photo by Hiro Chang
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center opened its doors to the public on May 15 for its annual Language Day event.
The event showcased the cultures of the different departmental languages being taught here through dance, skits and fashion shows.
Exhibits were also presented throughout the school grounds with local Monterey ethnic vendors selling their local cuisines to the customers.
Nearly 2,000 high school students and teachers attended Language Day.
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Joint Service Color Guard and service marching units helped Monterey residents and visitors celebrate Independence Day by participating in the City of Monterey's 4th of July parade in downtown Monterey, July 4.
Official Presidio of Monterey Web site
Official Presidio of Monterey Facebook
PHOTO by Steven L. Shepard, Presidio of Monterey Public Affairs.
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center held their annual Language Day 2016 at the Presidio of Monterey, California, May 13 to promote and encourage cultural understanding and customs from around the world.
Approximately 5,000 people attended the event, which features cultural displays and activities as well as ethnic foods served by local international vendors on the Presidio’s Soldier Field every year.
(Photo by Patrick Bray)
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