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Franziska Becker (2023): Gewalt und Gedächtnis - Erinnerungen an die nationalsozialistische Verfolgung einer jüdischen Landgemeinde /Violence and memory - memories of the National Socialist persecution of a rural Jewish community by Andreas Becker

Editors: EKW-Verlag; 1. Edition (9.

November 2023)

Language: German

Booklet, 248 pages

ISBN-10: 3947227159

ISBN-13: 978-3947227150

„Was empfanden Menschen vor Ort – in einer jüdischen württembergischen Landgemeinde –, als SA-Männer im November 1938 in den Häusern ihrer jüdischen Nachbarn randalierten, als deren Hab und Gut in den Gassen des Dorfes versteigert wurde und die letzten Juden 1942 auf Leiterwagen in die Konzentrationslager deportiert wurden?

Die Kulturwissenschaftlerin Franziska Becker hat Ende der 1980er-Jahre über das sogenannte Judendorf Baisingen im Landkreis Tübingen geforscht. Die Bewohner und Bewohnerinnen wurden nach ihren Erinnerungen

an die Auslöschung ihrer jüdischen Gemeinde befragt. Zugleich wurden die NS-Gewaltgeschehnisse anhand von Archivalien, u. a. in den lokalen Finanzämtern, minutiös rekonstruiert.

Das Buch geht diesen Versionen mündlich erzählter Heimatgeschichte nach und zeigt Techniken des lokalen Erinnerns auf, die weniger auf Tatsachen beruhen als vielmehr „Geschichte in Wunschform“ präsentieren.

Denn so verliert Geschichte ihre gefährliche Dimension. Wie modelliert das Gedächtnis fatale Ereignisse? Wie sehen solche Verdrängungen und Verdrehungen aus und wie können sie interpretiert und verstanden werden, ohne sie einfach als Unwahrheiten abzutun? Denn: Kommen uns die Bewohner und Bewohnerinnen dieses Dorfes nicht allzu bekannt vor?

Das erstmals 1994 erschienene Buch ist seit Jahrzehnten vergriffen und erscheint hier in einer überarbeiteten Neuauflage mit Vorworten von Hermann Bausinger und Karlheinz Geppert sowie einem Nachwort der Autorin.“

"What did local people - in a Jewish rural community in Württemberg - feel when SA men rioted in the houses of their Jewish neighbours in November 1938, when their belongings were auctioned off in the alleyways of the village and the last Jews were deported to concentration camps on wagons in 1942?

At the end of the 1980s, cultural scientist Franziska Becker researched the so-called Jewish village of Baisingen in the district of Tübingen. The residents were asked about their memories

about the extermination of their Jewish community. At the same time, the Nazi atrocities were meticulously reconstructed on the basis of archival documents, including those from the local tax offices.

The book explores these versions of oral local history and demonstrates techniques of local remembrance that are based less on facts and more on "history in wishful thinking".

In this way, history loses its dangerous dimension. How does memory model fatal events? What do such repressions and distortions look like and how can they be interpreted and understood without simply dismissing them as untruths? After all, don't the inhabitants of this village seem all too familiar?

First published in 1994, the book has been out of print for decades and is published here in a revised new edition with forewords by Hermann Bausinger and Karlheinz Geppert as well as an epilogue by the author." /

"Qu'ont ressenti les gens sur place - dans une commune rurale juive du Wurtemberg - lorsque des hommes SA ont saccagé les maisons de leurs voisins juifs en novembre 1938, lorsque leurs biens ont été vendus aux enchères dans les ruelles du village et que les derniers juifs ont été déportés en 1942 sur des chariots à échelle vers les camps de concentration ?

A la fin des années 1980, la spécialiste en sciences culturelles Franziska Becker a mené des recherches sur le soi-disant village juif de Baisingen dans le district de Tübingen. Les habitants et habitantes ont été interrogés sur leurs souvenirs

de l'extermination de leur communauté juive. Parallèlement, les violences nazies ont été minutieusement reconstituées à l'aide de documents d'archives, notamment dans les bureaux locaux des impôts.

Le livre se penche sur ces versions de l'histoire locale racontée oralement et montre les techniques de la mémoire locale qui reposent moins sur des faits que sur la présentation d'une "histoire sous forme de souhait".

Car c'est ainsi que l'histoire perd sa dimension dangereuse. Comment la mémoire modélise-t-elle les événements fatals ? A quoi ressemblent ces refoulements et ces déformations et comment peut-on les interpréter et les comprendre sans les rejeter simplement comme des contre-vérités ? Car : les habitants et habitantes de ce village ne nous sont-ils pas trop familiers ?

Le livre, paru pour la première fois en 1994, est épuisé depuis des décennies et paraît ici dans une nouvelle édition remaniée, avec des préfaces de Hermann Bausinger et Karlheinz Geppert ainsi qu'une postface de l'auteur". /

"¿Qué sintieron los habitantes de una comunidad rural judía de Württemberg cuando los hombres de las SA se amotinaron en las casas de sus vecinos judíos en noviembre de 1938, cuando sus pertenencias fueron subastadas en los callejones del pueblo y los últimos judíos fueron deportados a campos de concentración en vagones en 1942?

A finales de los años ochenta, la científica cultural Franziska Becker investigó el llamado pueblo judío de Baisingen, en el distrito de Tubinga. Preguntó a los habitantes por sus recuerdos

sobre el exterminio de su comunidad judía. Al mismo tiempo, se reconstruyeron meticulosamente las atrocidades nazis a partir de documentos de archivo, incluidos los de las oficinas tributarias locales.

El libro explora estas versiones de la historia oral local y demuestra técnicas de recuerdo local que se basan menos en hechos y más en la "historia en deseos".

De este modo, la historia pierde su peligrosa dimensión. ¿Cómo modela la memoria acontecimientos fatales? ¿Qué aspecto tienen esas represiones y distorsiones y cómo pueden interpretarse y comprenderse sin descartarlas sin más como falsedades? Después de todo, ¿no nos resultan demasiado familiares los habitantes de este pueblo?

Publicado por primera vez en 1994, el libro ha estado agotado durante décadas y se publica aquí en una nueva edición revisada con prólogos de Hermann Bausinger y Karlheinz Geppert, así como un epílogo del autor." /

"Che cosa provò la gente del posto - in una comunità rurale ebraica del Württemberg - quando gli uomini delle SA fecero irruzione nelle case dei loro vicini ebrei nel novembre 1938, quando i loro beni furono messi all'asta nei vicoli del villaggio e gli ultimi ebrei furono deportati nei campi di concentramento su vagoni nel 1942?".

Alla fine degli anni '80, la scienziata culturale Franziska Becker ha condotto una ricerca sul cosiddetto villaggio ebraico di Baisingen, nel distretto di Tubinga. Gli abitanti sono stati interrogati sui loro ricordi

sullo sterminio della loro comunità ebraica. Allo stesso tempo, le atrocità naziste sono state meticolosamente ricostruite sulla base di documenti d'archivio, compresi quelli provenienti dagli uffici fiscali locali.

Il libro esplora queste versioni della storia locale orale e mostra le tecniche di ricordo locale che si basano meno sui fatti e più sulla "storia del desiderio".

È così che la storia perde la sua dimensione pericolosa. Come la memoria modella gli eventi fatali? Che aspetto hanno queste repressioni e distorsioni e come possono essere interpretate e comprese senza liquidarle semplicemente come falsità? Dopo tutto, gli abitanti di questo villaggio non sembrano fin troppo familiari?

Pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1994, il libro è rimasto fuori catalogo per decenni e viene qui pubblicato in una nuova edizione riveduta con le prefazioni di Hermann Bausinger e Karlheinz Geppert e un epilogo dell'autore". /

cf.:

„https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baisingen“

„https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baisingen“

„https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baisingen“

„https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synagoge_Baisingen“

„https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jüdischer_Friedhof_(Baisingen)“

Llansteffan Castle, Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, Wales. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

Llansteffan Castle (Welsh: Castell Llansteffan) is a privately owned castle in Llansteffan, Carmarthenshire, Wales, overlooking the River Tywi estuary in Carmarthen Bay.

The castle sits on a much older Iron Age promontory fort, proving Llansteffan has been inhabited for several millennia.[1] The hill where the castle stands commands the River Tywi estuary. The hill would have been stripped of trees so that foot soldiers were vulnerable to attack by archers.

The original earthworks can still be seen and were used as part of the modern castle's defence system—the castle proper rests within the earthwork rings.

The castle was built by the Normans after 1100 as part of their invasion of Wales and granted to the Marmion family before passing to the Camvilles through marriage.

It was captured by Maredudd ap Gruffydd in 1146 against the forces of Maurice FitzGerald, Lord of Lanstephan and his brother William FitzGerald, Lord of Emlyn who were the leading Norman settlers of the region, members of the Fitzgerald dynasty.

The castle was retaken by the Normans in 1158. Llywelyn the Great recaptured the castle for the Welsh in 1215 and taken back by the Camville family sometime after 1223. The castle fell to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd in 1257 but returned to the Camvilles by the 1260s.

By 1367, it was described as in a poor state.

The castle was captured twice by the forces of Owain Glyndŵr in 1403 and c.1405. It was recaptured by Sir John Pennes in 1408. The castle was later granted to the Crown and the two-tower Gatehouse was converted into a residence.

The castle, which is privately owned, is under a deed of guardianship with Cadw.

In 2022 a six episode television series, Teulu'r Castell (meaning 'Castle Family') was broadcast on the Welsh language channel, S4C. The series follows businesswoman Marian Evans, her husband and two daughters,[6] after they purchased the 100-acre Plas Farm several years beforehand in a confidential deal, including ownership and responsibility for Llansteffan Castle. The Evans family renovate the farm buildings and develop the castle into a wedding venue.

Llansteffan, is a village and community situated on the south coast of Carmarthenshire, Wales, lying on the estuary of the River Tywi, 7 miles (11 km) south of Carmarthen.

The community includes Llanybri and is bordered by the communities of: Laugharne Township; Llangynog; Llangain; St Ishmael; and Pembrey and Burry Port Town. The population of the community was 941 in 2011 which includes the Llansteffan village population of 424.

Llansteffan means "Llan of Saint Stephen", but honours a 6th-century Welsh associate of Saint Teilo rather than the more widely known protomartyr.

The parish of Llansteffan consists of two distinct villages with separate churches: Llansteffan by the estuary and Llanybri inland on the hilltop. St Ystyffan's church is a grade II* listed building. Between the castle and village sits Plas Llanstephan, Lord Kylsant's former residence, which is also a grade II* listed building

The village was connected to Ferryside, on the opposite bank of the Towy estuary, by a ferry until the 1950s. It saved visitors a 16 mile road trip. In 2018, a ferry service resumed using an amphibious boat to negotiate Llansteffan beach, rather than the 1950s jetty.

Llansteffan Castle, built by the Normans in the 12th century and granted to the Marmion family, stands above the village on a promontory commanding the estuary passage. Located between the ferry crossing-points of the Tywi and Tâf rivers, Llansteffan was an important staging post on the coastal route from Glamorgan via Kidwelly to Pembroke.

At the local level, Llansteffan is governed by Llansteffan & Llanybri Community Council comprising up to 10 community councillors.

Until 2022 a county electoral ward of Llansteffan existed. This ward stretched north from Llansteffan to include Llangynog and Llangain, with a total population of 2,006. From the 2022 local elections Llansteffan was merged with the St Clears ward to become 'St Clears and Llansteffan', represented by two county councillors.

Notable people

The poet Dylan Thomas had strong family links to Llansteffan. The triangle formed by Llangynog, Llangain and Llansteffan constitutes as Thomas once put it, his "breeding-box valley". His mother's family, the Williamses, lived within this triangle in farms such as Waunfwlchan, Llwyngwyn, Maesgwyn and Penycoed. His mother's half-sister, Anne, lived in Rose Cottage in the village.

The artist Osi Rhys Osmond, lived in Llansteffan for 30 years until his death.

Lieutenant Tomos Stephens, an SAS soldier who was taken prisoner during Operation Bulbasket in World War II, then beaten to death by a German officer.

Carmarthenshire is a county in the south-west of Wales. The three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford. Carmarthen is the county town and administrative centre. The county is known as the "Garden of Wales" and is also home to the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

Carmarthenshire has been inhabited since prehistoric times. The county town was founded by the Romans, and the region was part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth in the High Middle Ages. After invasion by the Normans in the 12th and 13th centuries it was subjugated, along with other parts of Wales, by Edward I of England. There was further unrest in the early 15th century, when the Welsh rebelled under Owain Glyndŵr, and during the English Civil War.

Carmarthenshire is mainly an agricultural county, apart from the southeastern part which was once heavily industrialised with coal mining, steel-making and tin-plating. In the north of the county, the woollen industry was very important in the 18th century. The economy depends on agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. West Wales was identified in 2014 as the worst-performing region in the United Kingdom along with the South Wales Valleys with the decline in its industrial base, and the low profitability of the livestock sector.

Carmarthenshire, as a tourist destination, offers a wide range of outdoor activities. Much of the coast is fairly flat; it includes the Millennium Coastal Park, which extends for ten miles to the west of Llanelli; the National Wetlands Centre; a championship golf course; and the harbours of Burry Port and Pembrey. The sandy beaches at Llansteffan and Pendine are further west. Carmarthenshire has a number of medieval castles, hillforts and standing stones. The Dylan Thomas Boathouse is at Laugharne.

Stone tools found in Coygan Cave, near Laugharne indicate the presence of hominins, probably neanderthals, at least 40,000 years ago, though, as in the rest of the British Isles, continuous habitation by modern humans is not known before the end of the Younger Dryas, around 11,500 years BP. Before the Romans arrived in Britain, the land now forming the county of Carmarthenshire was part of the kingdom of the Demetae who gave their name to the county of Dyfed; it contained one of their chief settlements, Moridunum, now known as Carmarthen. The Romans established two forts in South Wales, one at Caerwent to control the southeast of the country, and one at Carmarthen to control the southwest. The fort at Carmarthen dates from around 75 AD, and there is a Roman amphitheatre nearby, so this probably makes Carmarthen the oldest continually occupied town in Wales.

Carmarthenshire has its early roots in the region formerly known as Ystrad Tywi ("Vale of [the river] Tywi") and part of the Kingdom of Deheubarth during the High Middle Ages, with the court at Dinefwr. After the Normans had subjugated England they tried to subdue Wales. Carmarthenshire was disputed between the Normans and the Welsh lords and many of the castles built around this time, first of wood and then stone, changed hands several times. Following the Conquest of Wales by Edward I, the region was reorganized by the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284 into Carmarthenshire. Edward I made Carmarthen the capital of this new county, establishing his courts of chancery and his exchequer there, and holding the Court of Great Sessions in Wales in the town.

The Normans transformed Carmarthen into an international trading port, the only staple port in Wales. Merchants imported food and French wines and exported wool, pelts, leather, lead and tin. In the late medieval period the county's fortunes varied, as good and bad harvests occurred, increased taxes were levied by England, there were episodes of plague, and recruitment for wars removed the young men. Carmarthen was particularly susceptible to plague as it was brought in by flea-infested rats on board ships from southern France.

In 1405, Owain Glyndŵr captured Carmarthen Castle and several other strongholds in the neighbourhood. However, when his support dwindled, the principal men of the county returned their allegiance to King Henry V. During the English Civil War, Parliamentary forces under Colonel Roland Laugharne besieged and captured Carmarthen Castle but later abandoned the cause, and joined the Royalists. In 1648, Carmarthen Castle was recaptured by the Parliamentarians, and Oliver Cromwell ordered it to be slighted.

The first industrial canal in Wales was built in 1768 to convey coal from the Gwendraeth Valley to the coast, and the following year, the earliest tramroad bridge was on the tramroad built alongside the canal. During the Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815) there was increased demand for coal, iron and agricultural goods, and the county prospered. The landscape changed as much woodland was cleared to make way for more food production, and mills, power stations, mines and factories sprang up between Llanelli and Pembrey. Carmarthenshire was at the centre of the Rebecca Riots around 1840, when local farmers and agricultural workers dressed as women and rebelled against higher taxes and tolls.

On 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, Carmarthenshire joined Cardiganshire and Pembrokeshire in the new county of Dyfed; Carmarthenshire was divided into three districts: Carmarthen, Llanelli and Dinefwr. Twenty-two years later this amalgamation was reversed when, under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, the original county boundaries were reinstated.

The county is bounded to the north by Ceredigion, to the east by Powys (historic county Brecknockshire), Neath Port Talbot (historic county Glamorgan) and Swansea (also Glamorgan), to the south by the Bristol Channel and to the west by Pembrokeshire. Much of the county is upland and hilly. The Black Mountain range dominates the east of the county, with the lower foothills of the Cambrian Mountains to the north across the valley of the River Towy. The south coast contains many fishing villages and sandy beaches. The highest point (county top) is the minor summit of Fan Foel, height 781 metres (2,562 ft), which is a subsidiary top of the higher mountain of Fan Brycheiniog, height 802.5 metres (2,633 ft) (the higher summit, as its name suggests, is actually across the border in Brecknockshire/Powys). Carmarthenshire is the largest historic county by area in Wales.

The county is drained by several important rivers which flow southwards into the Bristol Channel, especially the River Towy, and its several tributaries, such as the River Cothi. The Towy is the longest river flowing entirely within Wales. Other rivers include the Loughor (which forms the eastern boundary with Glamorgan), the River Gwendraeth and the River Taf. The River Teifi forms much of the border between Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion, and there are a number of towns in the Teifi Valley which have communities living on either side of the river and hence in different counties. Carmarthenshire has a long coastline which is deeply cut by the estuaries of the Loughor in the east and the Gwendraeth, Tywi and Taf, which enter the sea on the east side of Carmarthen Bay. The coastline includes notable beaches such as Pendine Sands and Cefn Sidan sands, and large areas of foreshore are uncovered at low tide along the Loughor and Towy estuaries.

The principal towns in the county are Ammanford, Burry Port, Carmarthen, Kidwelly, Llanelli, Llandeilo, Newcastle Emlyn, Llandovery, St Clears, and Whitland. The principal industries are agriculture, forestry, fishing and tourism. Although Llanelli is by far the largest town in the county, the county town remains Carmarthen, mainly due to its central location.

Carmarthenshire is predominantly an agricultural county, with only the southeastern area having any significant amount of industry. The best agricultural land is in the broad Tywi Valley, especially its lower reaches. With its fertile land and agricultural produce, Carmarthenshire is known as the "Garden of Wales". The lowest bridge over the river is at Carmarthen, and the Towi Estuary cuts the southwesterly part of the county, including Llansteffan and Laugharne, off from the more urban southeastern region. This area is also bypassed by the main communication routes into Pembrokeshire. A passenger ferry service used to connect Ferryside with Llansteffan until the early part of the twentieth century.

Agriculture and forestry are the main sources of income over most of the county of Carmarthenshire. On improved pastures, dairying is important and in the past, the presence of the railway enabled milk to be transported to the urban areas of England. The creamery at Whitland is now closed but milk processing still takes place at Newcastle Emlyn where mozzarella cheese is made. On upland pastures and marginal land, livestock rearing of cattle and sheep is the main agricultural activity. The estuaries of the Loughor and Towy provide pickings for the cockle industry.

Llanelli, Ammanford and the upper parts of the Gwendraeth Valley are situated on the South Wales Coalfield. The opencast mining activities in this region have now ceased but the old mining settlements with terraced housing remain, often centred on their nonconformist chapels. Kidwelly had a tin-plating industry in the eighteenth century, with Llanelli following not long after, so that by the end of the nineteenth century, Llanelli was the world-centre of the industry. There is little trace of these industrial activities today. Llanelli and Burry Port served at one time for the export of coal, but trade declined, as it did from the ports of Kidwelly and Carmarthen as their estuaries silted up. Country towns in the more agricultural part of the county still hold regular markets where livestock is traded.

In the north of the county, in and around the Teifi Valley, there was a thriving woollen industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Here water-power provided the energy to drive the looms and other machinery at the mills. The village of Dre-fach Felindre at one time contained twenty-four mills and was known as the "Huddersfield of Wales". The demand for woollen cloth declined in the twentieth century and so did the industry.

In 2014, West Wales was identified as the worst-performing region in the United Kingdom along with the South Wales Valleys. The gross value added economic indicator showed a figure of £14,763 per head in these regions, as compared with a GVA of £22,986 for Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan. The Welsh Assembly Government is aware of this, and helped by government initiatives and local actions, opportunities for farmers to diversify have emerged. These include farm tourism, rural crafts, specialist food shops, farmers' markets and added-value food products.

Carmarthenshire County Council produced a fifteen-year plan that highlighted six projects which it hoped would create five thousand new jobs. The sectors involved would be in the "creative industries, tourism, agri-food, advanced manufacturing, energy and environment, and financial and professional services".

Carmarthenshire became an administrative county with a county council taking over functions from the Quarter Sessions under the Local Government Act 1888. Under the Local Government Act 1972, the administrative county of Carmarthenshire was abolished on 1 April 1974 and the area of Carmarthenshire became three districts within the new county of Dyfed : Carmarthen, Dinefwr and Llanelli. Under the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994, Dyfed was abolished on 1 April 1996 and Carmarthenshire was re-established as a county. The three districts united to form a unitary authority which had the same boundaries as the traditional county of Carmarthenshire. In 2003, the Clynderwen community council area was transferred to the administrative county of Pembrokeshire.

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Carmarthen and Wrexham were the two most populous towns in Wales. In 1931, the county's population was 171,445 and in 1951, 164,800. At the census in 2011, Carmarthenshire had a population of 183,777. Population levels have thus dipped and then increased again over the course of eighty years. The population density in Carmarthenshire is 0.8 persons per hectare compared to 1.5 per hectare in Wales as a whole.

Carmarthenshire was the most populous of the five historic counties of Wales to remain majority Welsh-speaking throughout the 20th century. According to the 1911 Census, 84.9 per cent of the county's population were Welsh-speaking (compared with 43.5 per cent in all of Wales), with 20.5 per cent of Carmarthenshire's overall population being monolingual Welsh-speakers.

In 1931, 82.3 per cent could speak Welsh and in 1951, 75.2 per cent. By the 2001 census, 50.3 per cent of people living in Carmarthenshire could speak Welsh, with 39 per cent being able to read and write the language as well.

The 2011 census showed a further decline, with 43.9 per cent speaking Welsh, making it a minority language in the county for the first time. However, the 2011 census also showed that 3,000 more people could understand spoken Welsh than in 2001 and that 60% of 5-14-year-olds could speak Welsh (a 5% increase since 2001). A decade later, the 2021 census, showed further decrease, to 39.9% Welsh speakers -- the largest percentage drop in all of Wales.

With its strategic location and history, the county is rich in archaeological remains such as forts, earthworks and standing stones. Carn Goch is one of the most impressive Iron Age forts and stands on a hilltop near Llandeilo. The Bronze Age is represented by chambered cairns and standing stones on Mynydd Llangyndeyrn, near Llangyndeyrn. Castles that can be easily accessed include Carreg Cennen, Dinefwr, Kidwelly, Laugharne, Llansteffan and Newcastle Emlyn Castle. There are the ruinous remains of Talley Abbey, and the coastal village of Laugharne is for ever associated with Dylan Thomas. Stately homes in the county include Aberglasney House and Gardens, Golden Grove and Newton House.

There are plenty of opportunities in the county for hiking, observing wildlife and admiring the scenery. These include Brechfa Forest, the Pembrey Country Park, the Millennium Coastal Park at Llanelli, the WWT Llanelli Wetlands Centre and the Carmel National Nature Reserve. There are large stretches of golden sands and the Wales Coast Path now provides a continuous walking route around the whole of Wales.

The National Botanic Garden of Wales displays plants from Wales and from all around the world, and the Carmarthenshire County Museum, the National Wool Museum, the Parc Howard Museum, the Pendine Museum of Speed and the West Wales Museum of Childhood all provide opportunities to delve into the past. Dylan Thomas Boathouse where the author wrote many of his works can be visited, as can the Roman-worked Dolaucothi Gold Mines.

Activities available in the county include rambling, cycling, fishing, kayaking, canoeing, sailing, horse riding, caving, abseiling and coasteering.[7] Carmarthen Town A.F.C. plays in the Cymru Premier. They won the Welsh Football League Cup in the 1995–96 season, and since then have won the Welsh Cup once and the Welsh League Cup twice. Llanelli Town A.F.C. play in the Welsh Football League Division Two. The club won the Welsh premier league and Loosemores challenge cup in 2008 and won the Welsh Cup in 2011, but after experiencing financial difficulties, were wound up and reformed under the present title in 2013. Scarlets is the regional professional rugby union team that plays in the Pro14, they play their home matches at their ground, Parc y Scarlets. Honours include winning the 2003/04 and 2016/17 Pro12. Llanelli RFC is a semi-professional rugby union team that play in the Welsh Premier Division, also playing home matches at Parc y Scarlets. Among many honours, they have been WRU Challenge Cup winners on fourteen occasions and frequently taken part in the Heineken Cup. West Wales Raiders, based in Llanelli, represent the county in Rugby league.

Some sporting venues utilise disused industrial sites. Ffos Las racecourse was built on the site of an open cast coal mine after mining operations ceased. Opened in 2009, it was the first racecourse built in the United Kingdom for eighty years and has regular race-days. Machynys is a championship golf course opened in 2005 and built as part of the Llanelli Waterside regeneration plan. Pembrey Circuit is a motor racing circuit near Pembrey village, considered the home of Welsh motorsport, providing racing for cars, motorcycles, karts and trucks. It was opened in 1989 on a former airfield, is popular for testing and has hosted many events including the British Touring Car Championship twice. The 2018 Tour of Britain cycling race started at Pembrey on 2 September 2018.

Carmarthenshire is served by the main line railway service operated by Transport for Wales Rail which links London Paddington, Cardiff Central and Swansea to southwest Wales. The main hub is Carmarthen railway station where some services from the east terminate. The line continues westwards with several branches which serve Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven and Fishguard Harbour (for the ferry to Rosslare Europort and connecting trains to Dublin Connolly). The Heart of Wales Line takes a scenic route through mid-Wales and links Llanelli with Craven Arms, from where passengers can travel on the Welsh Marches Line to Shrewsbury.

Two heritage railways, the Gwili Railway and the Teifi Valley Railway, use the track of the Carmarthen and Cardigan Railway that at one time ran from Carmarthen to Newcastle Emlyn, but did not reach Cardigan.

The A40, A48, A484 and A485 converge on Carmarthen. The M4 route that links South Wales with London, terminates at junction 49, the Pont Abraham services, to continue northwest as the dual carriageway A48, and to finish with its junction with the A40 in Carmarthen.

Llanelli is linked to M4 junction 48 by the A4138. The A40 links Carmarthen to Llandeilo, Llandovery and Brecon to the east, and with St Clears, Whitland and Haverfordwest to the west. The A484 links Llanelli with Carmarthen by a coastal route and continues northwards to Cardigan, and via the A486 and A487 to Aberystwyth, and the A485 links Carmarthen to Lampeter.

Bus services run between the main towns within the county and are operated by First Cymru under their "Western Welsh" or "Cymru Clipper" livery. Bus services from Carmarthenshire are also run to Cardiff. A bus service known as "fflecsi Laugharne Town Hall (Welsh: Neuadd y Dref Talacharn) is a municipal building in Market Street in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, Wales. The structure, which is the meeting place of Laugharne Corporation, is a Grade II* listed building.

The first municipal building in the town was an ancient guildhall located on or near the same site which may have dated back to the formation of Laugharne Corporation by the Marcher Lord, Sir Guy de Brian (Gui de Brienne), in the late-13th century. By the mid-18th century the tower had become ruined and civic leaders decided to erect a new structure. The new building was designed in the Italianate style, built in rubble masonry with a whitewash finish and was completed in 1747.

The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with a hall section of two bays facing onto Market Street with rusticated quoins and an attached tower. The hall section featured two segmental headed openings with wrought iron grills and voussoirs on the ground floor and two windows on the first floor. The tower, which featured clock faces on the north and south sides, was surmounted by a pyramid-shaped roof. Internally, the principal rooms were the market hall on the ground floor and the courtroom on the first floor.

A lean-to containing a lock-up for petty criminals was added to the east side in 1774, a bellcote with a bell designed and cast by Rudhall of Gloucester together with a weather vane in the form of a peacock were added to the roof in 1786, and the first floor was re-fenestrated with Gothic-style sash windows in 1814.

Laugharne Corporation was formally abolished under the Municipal Corporations Act 1882 but fortnightly meetings of the court baron continued take place in the town hall under the auspices of a Grand Jury, which was presided over by the portreeve, acting as the chief magistrate, to ensure the corporation's extensive property portfolio continued to be properly managed.

The clock was replaced in the late 19th century and a gabled porch was added in 1910. In the early 1950s, the poet, Dylan Thomas, who lived in the town, wrote to his patron, Margaret Taylor, describing Laugharne as "timeless" and, with the town hall in mind, claiming that "it's clock tells the time backwards".

Bus services run between the main towns within the county and are operated by First Cymru under their "Western Welsh" or "Cymru Clipper" livery. Bus services from Carmarthenshire are also run to Cardiff. A bus service known as "fflecsi Bwcabus" (formerly just "Bwcabus") operates in the north of the county, offering customised transport to rural dwellers.

Carmarthenshire has rich, fertile farmland and a productive coast with estuaries providing a range of foods that motivate many home cooks and chefs.; (formerly just "Bwcabus") operates in the north of the county, offering customised transport to rural dwellers.

Carmarthenshire has rich, fertile farmland and a productive coast with estuaries providing a range of foods that motivate many home cooks and chefs.

The First Language by Garen M.

Queen Anne's Lace, Valley Forge, PA

shy feet by Anne Makaske

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Great how some parts of the human body speak their own language ;)

Aussie Lingo Test by Aussie~mobs

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We Aussies certainly have some slang which baffles others around the world so here's a test for those of you interested in trying to understand our lingo (Aussie word for language).

British people will probably understand the most as I'm sure much of our slang is based on theirs.

1 redroof by Mansoor Saleem

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Some notes ABOUT MY WORK (a brief sample of local or regional anthropology at micro level):

The word "Gravity" is a symbol of reality that exists. Similarly E=mc2 is a combination of symbols trying to express some reality. In similar fashion my depiction of flashes (kashf) should be conceived that they are equations in language that nature uses. If “E” stand for “energy” and “=” stand for “equal to” and “m” for “mass” and so on, than in my flashes some wood or earth texture juxtaposed with some toy or any object could be some explanation of some phenomena in language that nature is accustomed to. Perhaps fate had dropped flashes in my lap and I am depicting these flashes for world to know how to derive knowledge out of these flashes. May be from Archetypal plane I am receiving flashes and transforming these into phenomenal plane, but for more perfect transformation, sponsorship is required, like flashes roughly depicted demands super realistic treatment or animations at some points, or arrangements in 3- Dimension or performing activities or etc. at some other points, because each of my work either illustrated or arranged for photo is a part of animation and is just a one shot from one angle of bigger reality, therefore I am not a sur-realist.

For deriving knowledge from my flashes their access to wider researchers in form of website, book, Museum, CD, video, etc. are required. And due to unavailability of resources, most of the paintings were sold before I could photographed these works which basically are like the fossils of the time and region and are done with hope that in future in order to get some data out of these works, the dimensions of anthropology, psychology, historiography, neurology, neuro-physics and other aspects will also be taken into account and the result may benefit in understanding some aspect of the complex Nature.

Nature is full of concepts like forms, colors, textures, sound, smell, time, taste, hunger, desire, romance, death, thoughts, light, dimensions and etc. and why nature chooses these different concepts in different composition, for instance: FORM in man, why Allah has choosed to place two eyes or say two hands with certain FORM, for Allah its also easy to give sight to the whole body, Allah can give any function to any form, therefore Allah knows the reason of His composition in His creations in which certain FORM is also very important, what scientists are exploring is function of every form has secondary importance bcause, Allah can give any function to any form, but its more difficult to explore reason of form, texture, color and etc. where an artist can collaborate to understand, and in romance, pain, hunger, poverty and etc. where a philospher, psychologist can collaborate to understand, in my case, I wonder, when Allah created the first man, the FORM came first or the function or word or names ? With particular texture, color and form flower came first or its name or its symbolism or archetypal dimension came first ? here lies the importance of Flashes to explore, because they are like comunication from nature, the language of which we do not know yet. why certain composition comes in my Flashes ? I do not know, I just record or illustrate these Flashes as a psychic fossils, thus I invite the viewer to explore "the tangibility of the intangible" as recorded in cover story of Dawn Gallery, May 17, 2008.

The importance of flashes can also be realized from the ripple effect observable in art and multi-media community that somehow came in contact with my work and hijacked ideology out of these flashes for their purpose, such benefits, scientific community has not taken yet out of these flashes. From art point of view the art community produced high quality variations out of my Flashes but their work lack archetypal dimension, which is one of the aspect, useful for scientific community to explore. For cataloguing purpose somewhere title or art terminology like: "oil on canvas", "collage", "performance", "installations", "construction", etc. are used has nothing to do with meaning of the work, flashes are independent of these terminologies borrowed from art history for cataloguing purpose only, flashes are beyond art. Flashes can include any ism, any element, bizarre thing, anything or things we don't know, that's why thousands of my flashes goes waste due to lack of energy and resources to record. Besides colorful images, performance and animation, Flashes also comes in form of sound as well, for instance I heard the sound: "Quranic archaeology is a mighty subject," this flash took me into the archaeology. For detail see at: quranicarchaeology.blogspot.com/ Please see my few recorded Flashes on address: www.flickr.com/photos/art-science-works/

Here I just want to share my personal recent refinement on my own analysis (with which you are free to agree or not), that perhaps I should confine myself to Flashes (or call it visions, images) which stay in my eyes just for less than a half second, perhaps for 0.01 second and I simply illustrate these Flashes and what it holds for future Fine Art, Science or Spirituality, I do not know yet. So I isolate myself from dada and sur-realism because I avoid title and avoid mixing my imagination or experimentation in recording of Flashes which is very rare or unrecorded. IN DADA AND SUR-REALISM WE DO READ ABOUT DREAMS AND DRUG INFUSED RANDOM THOUGHTS, BUT NOT FLASHES, SO FAR NO WORD ABOUT FLASHES I FIND EVEN IN FREUD OR JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY, THEY TALK ABOUT DREAM IMPORTANCE. And in Christian art history SO FAR I've only observed mixing of dream and inspiration from Bible. No body so far I have read in dada and sur-realism that somebody is claiming that he is depicting Flashes or depicting flashes without mixing his imagination or experimentation. But after seeing the difference between Flashes and work based on MIXING of imagination or experimentation, now I can pin point the Flash, mixed or unmixed*, so please never mix me with William Blake, Sohail Tassaduq, De Chirico, Carra, Magrette, because I am not competing in sur-realism, art aesthetic, or in painterly compositions, I have no experience of spirituality, so I request please do not also confuse me with any oriental mystic artists. MY WORK FROM (1974-81) OF INSTALLATIONS, PERFORMANCES BASED ON FLASHES IS STILL UNPUBLISHED, so new writers do not know about it. IN PAKISTANI ART ALSO SO FAR, NO ARTIST HAS EVER CLAIMED FLASHES mixed or un-mixed. For future science world, un-mixed FLASHES will be more important. If you come up with something related to SCIENCE OF FLASHES, please refer it. * NOTE: After seeing the difference between two, that is: (1)Pure Flashes and (2) some of my work based on MIXING of imagination or experimentation with Flashes, now I can pin point the Flash, mixed or unmixed. My unmixed are pure Flashes and to my mixed work(that is no:2) you can call it sur-realistic which I did for commercial reason on client's demand who was mad of sur-realism, I wish I could destroy these sur-realistic works.

Researchers are invited to reply on enigma of colorful flashes. From where they come? they come to all or to few,? Few interesting pieces of writing below could be the starting point for debate: One is by David V. Tansley in his book: 'Subtle body' , author writes,..."the pineal gland has been found to contain vestigial traces of optic tissue. Experiments have shown that nerve impulses arise in the pineal in response to stimulation by light. Galen claimed that the pineal was a regulator of thought, and the Greeks said that the soul was anchored there. According to esoteric tradition this gland is the focal point for the masculine positive energy of spirit which is represented by the first hexagram of l-Ching, its six yang lines symbolizing the primal power of heaven and the creative action of the holy man".

And another relevant thing here is about physicist Mitchell Feigenbaum (reported in the New York Times, 1984), that when inspiration came to Feigenbaum, it was in the form of a picture, a mental image of two small wavy forms and one big one. This gave him an idea about scaling, the way the small features of a thing relate to the large features, it gave him the path he needed. For period doubling, scaling showed not only when one value-a total population or a fluid speed-would break into two, but also just where the new values would be found, Scaling was an intimate feature of the peculiar world Feigenbaum was beginning to explore. Arthur I. Miller in a discussion of "redefining visualizability" makes it clear...the experimental evidence prevents us from forming a mental image bridging the wave-particle duality, such an image is available by 'Anschaulichheit' (German term for intuition, plus more) of another kind. It is the kind of image the physicist Werner Heisenberg had in mind when he asserted that, although the causality of classical mechanics has no access to quantum theory, quantum mechanics should not be considered unanschaulich, that is, excluded from imagery (Miller, Imagery in Scientific Thought). One example of such image is Albert Einstein's famous thought experiment in which he demonstrated the equivalence of inertia and gravitation by imagining an observer pulled through empty space in a closed container. Such images, however, lead by degrees of abstraction to others limited to spatial diagrams of a theoretical situation. Sigmund Freud, for example, writes, "We assume that the psychic life has the function of an apparatus, to which we attribute spatial extension and which we imagine as being composed of several pieces, similar to a telescope or microscope" Although such an image provides complementarity with a concrete percept of its models, it would not seem to provide it with a representable reality. But some physicists disagree that Niels Bohr never apply his notion of complementarity to subject other than physics. But for some physicists the contrary is true. From Rudolf Arnheim's essay: Complementarity from the outside. May be or may not be these above references are relevant here for flashes I do not know, but for scientific analysis it is important to state briefly here the background of how I realized the importance of these flashes, but for scientific cause I have to write what I should not. I hope my friends will forgive me for this cause, because for good Gestalt one should have all the possible details in mind, it is beyond humans to perceive Perfect Gestalt, only Allah knows everything.

In between, some works in form of small photo with ink or other media are what I called these: Today’s Miniature Works, it’s personal feeling that any other like me can also claim we never know what time can prove but thing should be recorded, this is what I am doing here. One of the experiments was a debate on miniature art, I told many, it should be saturated with current and regional issues or concepts, which I painted with brush and camera, etc. and called it Today’s Miniature Art, long before it became a trend. Indeed now it is much refined by our younger generation of artists, I hope they remember my small contribution untold to them. such miniatures along with other experiments of early 70’s I had shown to Bashir Mirza, Ali Imam, Ahmed Pervez, Jamil Naqsh, Imran Mir, Iqbal Jaffery, Naseem Ahmed Khan, Muhammad Ali Bhatti, Dr. Sajid Khan, Iqbal Durrani, Mohsin Zaidi and other artists and art collectors. But BM and Imam refused to exhibit these experiments (flashes) on ground that these experiments will become important in future, first I should make my name famous with super realistic sort of works, which they were selling easily, so I had to exhibit these experiments (flashes) at PACC, Karachi, Jan 8, 1979, about which Daily News reported: "Artist Bashir.Mirza inaugurated an exhibition of paintings by Saleem Mansoor, a 19-year old student at the PACC yesterday. Saleem has .a distinct talent in Art. He has painted old colonial houses in a remarkably sound representational style, he has to stick to this style in order to develop his aesthetic sense instead of delving into different styles".Daily News, Jan 9, 1979 This above small press coverage is evidence of my habit of delving into different styles and evidence of how brutally my Pakistani- avant gaurd works (that I did between 1974-1978 which were displayed in this 1979 exhibition) were brutally ignored by media. I invited Dr. Akbar Naqvi the only art critic I knew at that time, but he did not came, perhaps due to reason of event of Dec. 1974, when Ali Imam told me that Dr. Akbar is offering four hundred for your painting of nine hundred rupee, but I refused, after that I was never introduced to any art critic, nor Dr, Akbar wrote a word on me and not even in his book and other art historian also not included me in their books, and no comment I see in the catalogue of 2007- National exhibition, but can history ignore the influence of my Flashes recorded in an unmistakable solid resources other than these local sources ? If conceptualy analysed what Fine Art is all about ? than even two or three flashes from my 70's or early 80's (which Dr. Naqvi has seen) will have more wheight than works represented in local art books. This is not proudness on myself this is an admiration of gift from nature that I got in form of Flashes, although my depiction of Flashes is bad, because I have no proffessional art training nor I am better artist than many artists represented in local art books, on this ground Dr. Akbar Naqvi, S. Amjad Ali, Ejazul Hassan, Salwat Ali are right in not including me in their books. But I depict or record Flashes with realization that they are more important than Mona Lisa, E=mc2 or Taj Mahal. When I put all these before Marjorie she replied my email with these highly rewarding words: " What you have to say is extremely important, but you have always been way ahead of your time and environment. Mansoor, it is very hard to be a pioneer, but you are in the best of company in art history. Do not despair"---Marjorie Hussain, 5. 19. 2008, 9.03.am. Marjorie perhaps discovered me in 1983 through BM and Imam as her this recording shows:

"Saleem Mansur is an extremely interesting artist: "an artist's artist' as Ali Imam used to say. Bashir Mirza who juried Mansur's thesis work at the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts in 1983, was also numbered among the artist's admirers and on that occasion was greatly excited by the audacious innovations of the young "avant-garde' artist. Mansur was even then into installations, happenings and conceptual art, ....... In spite of the success in terms of the work, Mansur returned totally to the conceptual language that few understood. Those who did, considered him the most innovative and promising artist of his generation." ---Marjorie Hussain, Art Views, page.146. Published by fomma. And according to founder of fomma: Imran Mir (who knew me scince 1975) use to say... "because of his "Garage Series" Mansur was an artist before admission at CIAC" . To some extent he is right, since then I am like a scientist trying to record or understand the phenomenae of Flashes which immenssly influenced even the senior artists and since than I am enjoying the ripple effects of my Flashes that I exhibited between 1974-80, because of these years' work, Imam and BM passed highly praised words to Marjorie in my 1983 show at Pakistan Arts Council, Karachi, which Dr. Akbar Naqvi also saw (in 1984 display at the same place), but avoided to write and said I will see your next show. despite all these I still like him and all other art critics because of their love with fine art.

In late 70's some art students from KSA and CIAC came to my house and told me they have taken address from the back of my canvas at BM and Indus Galleries and developed a friendship and insisted me to take admission in their art school, I told them I am refusing my father who has managed my addmission in NCA on ground that I can not work on others' assignment, but among them Mohsin Zaidi gave me inside story and assurrance that at CIAC I will have full freedom to do my own experiments, I decided to register at CIAC in 1981 where for new audience I repeated most of my earlier works for photo and film recording the facility of which I found among new friends and all these recording I took NCA (1981) to show it there as well to check the ripple effect of my Flashes and later I exhibited at NAG, Islamabad, Al-Hamra, Lahore (1984) about which Yasin Muhammad, Salima Hashmi, Ghulam Nabi and others wrote good comments. For press coverage Click Here

It was not important for me to call my small size works as "todays miniature art", because these recording of flashes are blue print for performmance, installations, 3D animation, etc., and these are blue print for science as well as specialist of quantum physics Thomas Young says, if we isolate light particle from other particle than its duplicate takes its place and that duplicate comes from other universe or from else we do not know yet but it certainly shows we all have our duplicates including universe within universe. Beyond particle there is particle-Less field in atom to which Euorpean physicst call God-particle, this field if it is realy particle-Less perhaps is a curtain between the world and the other worlds of spirits, jins, angels, etc. visible after death only and not through telescope, space ship, microscope, etc. so flashes could be the LINK with the other worlds we have yet to understand. It looks to me all the flashes came to me in one night of 1973 or 1974 and scince then I am trying to somehow to capture them in notes or in illustration and in this effort flashes do come back one by one but still my energy and skill is not sufficient to record all those moving and still flashes, I hired one video recorder in 1981 through Sadiq of CIAC to record such Flashes but budget did not allowed to refine it or to produce more. What ever Flashes I recorded between 1974-1982 is my work that has immense ripple effects without any economical reward.

See 1981 film recording which include Flash works. If executed with high resources,most of my Flashes (done between 1973-81) illustrated in this set of CD or in other collections are works in concept on higher plane and ahead of Malaveich, Oldenberg, Raushenberg, Robert Moris, Jasper John, Christo, Jackson Pollock, Donald Judd and etc. But still their execution with my little resources inspired many resourcefull groups of qualified artists, writers, historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, journalists architects and my flashes also inspired highly intellectual people behind Lari & associates, Shisha, Shanakht, Carce, vm, green cardamom, ivsaa, Fomma, vasl, vsdku and etc. that in their works I have observed direct influence of ideologies, imageries derived out of my flashes. For assessment of the influence, historiographical approach is required.

A year before Metric and much before Diploma in fine art, my art works (flashes) since 1974 were on display at Atelier BM and at Indus gallery, and since then I am observing the ripple effect of those works. After solo show of my works at Pakistan American Cultural Center, January 1979, I went to CIAC, Karachi Arts Council, to check effects of my art and science works among artists. Before flashes since 1973 I was only doing super realistic sort of paintings of surrounding and of interior Sindh culture and capturing the local environment to come up with something: Pakistani avant-garde which I displayed at PACC solo show in Jan. 1979. But was ignored by media, only small press coverage came with a suggestion: "Mansoor has to stick to his remarkably sound realistic style instead of delving into many styles". (Art show, Daily News, Jan. 9, 1979). But anyhow I was realizing the importance of my flashes which were inspiring the most intelligent and talented of artist community for example: Ghalib Baqar changed his Dali sort of Sur realism into experimental water color, other water colorists like Abdul Hayee, Ather Jamal, Zahin Ahmad, Hanif Shezad, etc. added Karachi and interior Sindh imagery into their work.

One of world's best super realist artist Shakil Siddiquei changed his Rembrandt sort of style into super realistic abstraction, for instance his paintings of Book shelf, Notice board, door, windows, composition with Dawn news paper, Sindhi dari, fruit packing wooden peyti, Chilmun and etc., in subject matter, were directly inspired by my flashes in form of photos or artworks I shared with him. Art critic Dr. S. Amjad Ali in his article: "Growing trend towards realism", wrote;..."Saleem Mansoor was the first to begin this kind of realism in Karachi but he was well advised to give up after creating a few interesting pieces. It is a good way of gaining command over technique and then putting it to other use in which more thought and feeling comes into play." (Dawn, April 20, 1984). Ejazul Hassan wrote in Page 17, 123 in the catalogue of 5th National Exhibition, 1985, Published by Idara Saqafat Pakistan, written by Ejazul Husan. "Young Mansoor Saleem has his own unusual way with objects and space. He sometimes likes to call his work as "installation" in the environment around him. He always wants to place things where he thinks these should be placed. The coiled wire, with a crescent on top, placed on a gray composition is evidence of his restless imagination. The title "Pakistani Avnet Garde" also shows his wit." (—page 123, Ejazul Husan) "The young painter Saleem Mansoor....investigates new methods and techniques not only meant to widen the scope and definition of realism but also to discover fresh methods to stimulate the viewers' response. His 'painting' titled The Pakistani Avant-garde' is wittily fabricated with tan-gue-in-cheek humor making an apt comment on elitist attitudes and trends in modern art."—(page: 17, from the introduction of 5th National Exhibition by Ejazul Hasan).

Most helping and highly creative artist and multi media man Imran Mir in 1975 appreciated my work in high remarks when he was discussing with Bashir Mirza at Atelier BM. BM was telling him that before going to Canada what Imran observed in art scene was still the same when he returned after many years, that Ahmed Pervaiz is repeating Allen Davy, and Shakir Ali, Mansur Rahi and their students were repeating Picasso and Braque's cubism in Indian or Bengali styles and Jamil Naqsh, Lubna Agha, Mansur Aye, Mashkoor, and others are repeating the same compositions, Rabia Zuberi and Shahid Sajjad repeating Henry Moor and so on. Imran pointing towards my work replied: "he is the change"! and BM acknowledged it. Imran like Zahoor ul Akhlaque also absorbed important elements from my flashes but both only absorbed postmodern art-elements from my flashes (but they absorbed postmodern element from other sources also like we see in work of Herbert Bayer, Jennifer Bartlett, Ross Blacker, Sean Scully and etc), which not much is my concerned. During my slide show at NCA in 1981, Zahoor and his wife asked me about my future plan, they were surprised to hear that I will soon be joining Archaeology Department in some university because from inside I am an anthropologist also. All my work is not only a statement in anthropology, but is also a statement in neurology, physics, and other sciences. Imran sincerely wanted to bring post modern trends in the region, perhaps for variety he introduced me to many artists, for instance, one day Imran came to me and carried my work's photos in his car and took me to David Alesworth's house and showed my work to him and his wife Durriya and Imran told them to do something like that and after one month of that, Imran's wife Nighat, told me; "Mansoor! You know Durriya is taking your sort of Truck art from Karachi to Peshawar". Nighat was saying that because she much before this event has written an article in press on my 1977 Truck art collection and Sara Irshad has written on my 1981 work: "Taking art show on donkey cart to the folk". Durriya and David not only took the advantage of my flashes but others also followed similar ideology, for instance Ruby Chisti, Masooma Syed, Naiza Khan, Adeela Khan, Rashid Rana, Noorjehn Bilgramy, Huma Mulji, Farida Batool, Ali Raza, Sophie Ernst, Faiza But, M. Ali Talpur, Imran Qureshi, Ameen Gulgee, Jamal Shah, Nazish Ataullah, Aaisha Khalid, Risham Syed and many others who spread the ideology to Melbourne, Dubai, London, New York, etc.

Before their first thesis, IVSAA'S principal invited me for slide show of my work, but to my surprise only the faculty staff was invited and not the students. After a month or so one of the faculty member Kamran Hamid told me, "Mansoor go and see student's thesis at IVSAA where teachers has influenced students to do work which is similar to your ideology"." Now it is a tradition there. Even their very architecture is based on the ideology of some of my old flashes and on article published in press. Despite their ignorance I still like IVSAA for their spirit to move forward.

Against me, I even find wrong propaganda by hijackers of my work. And rather through lobby in media they even sensor or edit my interviews according to their need of representing me with those works which they have not preferred to hijack from my flashes. In Shisha, Shanakht, Carce, IVSAA, Fomma, VASL and VSDKU works I have observed direct influence of ideologies, imageries derived out of my flashes. For assessment of the influence, historiographical approach is required. For commercial reason, they can ignore me too but future history will not. Local art magazine and art book writers were chased to ignore me If media is free or they have no lobby system, than why merit is ignored in my case, why Dawn's Gallery, The News, Jung, avoid covering my art shows. I also held slide show of the work at NCA in 1981, where Zahoor-ul-Akhlaque, his wife and his students saw the show. Salima Hashmi wrote an article on my exhibition at Alhambra gallery Lahore, in March, 1984. The effort bore its fruit, through historiography one can trace after 1981, the change in NCA and change in Zahoor, Ejazul Hasan, Salima Hashmi, Shahid Sajjad, Mehar Afroze, etc., and change in their younger generation of students. They and other agents and technology (since 1974 perhaps) spread the influence of my flashes abroad as well, for instance on Beverly Pepper, Nicole Eisenman, Anish Kapoor, Mohsin Zaidi, Susanne Kessler and etc. Etc. All the names mentioned above have the right to disagree with me, these are just friendly assumptions for researchers to look at such debate too to guess what the flashes are? I too was inspired by many but after receiving Flashes from nature, I painted these with realization that they are more important than Mona Lisa, E=mc2 or Taj Mahal. I have no solo shows in prestigious gallery abroad I have no big post, scholarship or any sponsorship or awards, etc. But what Nature has given me in form of Flashes is more important that they are prototype for all time to come, back to the future or forward into the past. All artists are free to make anything they wish or according to market Forces but I have to make (for science) what I receive in form of flashes. Historiographicaly speaking Flashes' influence is more than what the work of Shakir Ali, Sadequein, Gulgee, M.F. Hussain and etc. had. But no comment I see in the catalogue of 2007- National exhibition, even the Karachiets have ignored me too, but not artchowk.com, I admire the support I am getting from people behind artchowk. I need Du'a to continue the mission, if possible Inshallah. ......MS

IMG_1658.jpg by TPImages

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Body Language by SkyWartooth

View large preeaze

Sign Language by Renee Rendler-Kaplan

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India - Karnataka - Hampi - Banana Plantagen - Banana Cluster - 7d by Manfred Sommer

Banana Cluster almost ready to harvest

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A banana is an edible fruit, botanically a berry, produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus Musa. (In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called plantains.) The fruit is variable in size, color and firmness, but is usually elongated and curved, with soft flesh rich in starch covered with a rind which may be green, yellow, red, purple, or brown when ripe. The fruits grow in clusters hanging from the top of the plant. Almost all modern edible parthenocarpic (seedless) bananas come from two wild species – Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. The scientific names of most cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, and Musa × paradisiaca for the hybrid Musa acuminata × M. balbisiana, depending on their genomic constitution. The old scientific name Musa sapientum is no longer used.

Musa species are native to tropical Indomalaya and Australia, and are likely to have been first domesticated in Papua New Guinea. They are grown in at least 107 countries, primarily for their fruit, and to a lesser extent to make fiber, banana wine and banana beer and as ornamental plants.

Worldwide, there is no sharp distinction between "bananas" and "plantains". Especially in the Americas and Europe, "banana" usually refers to soft, sweet, dessert bananas, particularly those of the Cavendish group, which are the main exports from banana-growing countries. By contrast, Musa cultivars with firmer, starchier fruit are called "plantains". In other regions, such as Southeast Asia, many more kinds of banana are grown and eaten, so the simple two-fold distinction is not useful and is not made in local languages.

The term "banana" is also used as the common name for the plants which produce the fruit. This can extend to other members of the genus Musa like the scarlet banana (Musa coccinea), pink banana (Musa velutina) and the Fe'i bananas. It can also refer to members of the genus Ensete, like the snow banana (Ensete glaucum) and the economically important false banana (Ensete ventricosum). Both genera are classified under the banana family, Musaceae.

DESCRIPTION

The banana plant is the largest herbaceous flowering plant. All the above-ground parts of a banana plant grow from a structure usually called a "corm". Plants are normally tall and fairly sturdy, and are often mistaken for trees, but what appears to be a trunk is actually a "false stem" or pseudostem. Bananas grow in a wide variety of soils, as long as the soil is at least 60 cm deep, has good drainage and is not compacted. The leaves of banana plants are composed of a "stalk" (petiole) and a blade (lamina). The base of the petiole widens to form a sheath; the tightly packed sheaths make up the pseudostem, which is all that supports the plant. The edges of the sheath meet when it is first produced, making it tubular. As new growth occurs in the centre of the pseudostem the edges are forced apart. Cultivated banana plants vary in height depending on the variety and growing conditions. Most are around 5 m tall, with a range from 'Dwarf Cavendish' plants at around 3 m to 'Gros Michel' at 7 m or more. Leaves are spirally arranged and may grow 2.7 metres long and 60 cm wide. They are easily torn by the wind, resulting in the familiar frond look.

When a banana plant is mature, the corm stops producing new leaves and begins to form a flower spike or inflorescence. A stem develops which grows up inside the pseudostem, carrying the immature inflorescence until eventually it emerges at the top. Each pseudostem normally produces a single inflorescence, also known as the "banana heart". (More are sometimes produced; an exceptional plant in the Philippines produced five.) After fruiting, the pseudostem dies, but offshoots will normally have developed from the base, so that the plant as a whole is perennial. In the plantation system of cultivation, only one of the offshoots will be allowed to develop in order to maintain spacing. The inflorescence contains many bracts (sometimes incorrectly referred to as petals) between rows of flowers. The female flowers (which can develop into fruit) appear in rows further up the stem (closer to the leaves) from the rows of male flowers. The ovary is inferior, meaning that the tiny petals and other flower parts appear at the tip of the ovary.

The banana fruits develop from the banana heart, in a large hanging cluster, made up of tiers (called "hands"), with up to 20 fruit to a tier. The hanging cluster is known as a bunch, comprising 3–20 tiers, or commercially as a "banana stem", and can weigh 30–50 kilograms. Individual banana fruits (commonly known as a banana or "finger") average 125 grams, of which approximately 75% is water and 25% dry matter.

The fruit has been described as a "leathery berry". There is a protective outer layer (a peel or skin) with numerous long, thin strings (the phloem bundles), which run lengthwise between the skin and the edible inner portion. The inner part of the common yellow dessert variety can be split lengthwise into three sections that correspond to the inner portions of the three carpels by manually deforming the unopened fruit. In cultivated varieties, the seeds are diminished nearly to non-existence; their remnants are tiny black specks in the interior of the fruit.

Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive, more so than most other fruits, because of their potassium content and the small amounts of the isotope potassium-40 found in naturally occurring potassium. The banana equivalent dose of radiation is sometimes used in nuclear communication to compare radiation levels and exposures.

ETYMOLOGY

The word banana is thought to be of West African origin, possibly from the Wolof word banaana, and passed into English via Spanish or Portuguese.

TAXONOMY

The genus Musa was created by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. The name may be derived from Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus, or Linnaeus may have adapted the Arabic word for banana, mauz. Musa is in the family Musaceae. The APG III system assigns Musaceae to the order Zingiberales, part of the commelinid clade of the monocotyledonous flowering plants. Some 70 species of Musa were recognized by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families as of January 2013; several produce edible fruit, while others are cultivated as ornamentals.

The classification of cultivated bananas has long been a problematic issue for taxonomists. Linnaeus originally placed bananas into two species based only on their uses as food: Musa sapientum for dessert bananas and Musa paradisiaca for plantains. Subsequently further species names were added. However, this approach proved inadequate to address the sheer number of cultivars existing in the primary center of diversity of the genus, Southeast Asia. Many of these cultivars were given names which proved to be synonyms.

In a series of papers published in 1947 onwards, Ernest Cheesman showed that Linnaeus's Musa sapientum and Musa paradisiaca were actually cultivars and descendants of two wild seed-producing species, Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana, both first described by Luigi Aloysius Colla. He recommended the abolition of Linnaeus's species in favor of reclassifying bananas according to three morphologically distinct groups of cultivars – those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa balbisiana, those primarily exhibiting the botanical characteristics of Musa acuminata, and those with characteristics that are the combination of the two. Researchers Norman Simmonds and Ken Shepherd proposed a genome-based nomenclature system in 1955. This system eliminated almost all the difficulties and inconsistencies of the earlier classification of bananas based on assigning scientific names to cultivated varieties. Despite this, the original names are still recognized by some authorities today, leading to confusion.

The currently accepted scientific names for most groups of cultivated bananas are Musa acuminata Colla and Musa balbisiana Colla for the ancestral species, and Musa × paradisiaca L. for the hybrid M. acuminata × M. balbisiana.

Synonyms of M. × paradisica include:

A large number of subspecific and varietial names of M. × paradisiaca, including M. p. subsp. sapientum (L.) Kuntze

Musa × dacca Horan.

Musa × sapidisiaca K.C.Jacob, nom. superfl.

Musa × sapientum L., and a large number of its varietal names, including M. × sapientum var. paradisiaca (L.) Baker, nom. illeg.

Generally, modern classifications of banana cultivars follow Simmonds and Shepherd's system. Cultivars are placed in groups based on the number of chromosomes they have and which species they are derived from. Thus the Latundan banana is placed in the AAB Group, showing that it is a triploid derived from both M. acuminata (A) and M. balbisiana (B). For a list of the cultivars classified under this system see List of banana cultivars.

In 2012, a team of scientists announced they had achieved a draft sequence of the genome of Musa acuminata.

BANANAS & PLANTAINS

In regions such as North America and Europe, Musa fruits offered for sale can be divided into "bananas" and "plantains", based on their intended use as food. Thus the banana producer and distributor Chiquita produces publicity material for the American market which says that "a plantain is not a banana". The stated differences are that plantains are more starchy and less sweet; they are eaten cooked rather than raw; they have thicker skin, which may be green, yellow or black; and they can be used at any stage of ripeness. Linnaeus made the same distinction between plantains and bananas when first naming two "species" of Musa. Members of the "plantain subgroup" of banana cultivars, most important as food in West Africa and Latin America, correspond to the Chiquita description, having long pointed fruit. They are described by Ploetz et al. as "true" plantains, distinct from other cooking bananas. The cooking bananas of East Africa belong to a different group, the East African Highland bananas, so would not qualify as "true" plantains on this definition.

An alternative approach divides bananas into dessert bananas and cooking bananas, with plantains being one of the subgroups of cooking bananas. Triploid cultivars derived solely from M. acuminata are examples of "dessert bananas", whereas triploid cultivars derived from the hybrid between M. acuminata and M. balbinosa (in particular the plantain subgroup of the AAB Group) are "plantains". Small farmers in Colombia grow a much wider range of cultivars than large commercial plantations. A study of these cultivars showed that they could be placed into at least three groups based on their characteristics: dessert bananas, non-plantain cooking bananas, and plantains, although there were overlaps between dessert and cooking bananas.

In Southeast Asia – the center of diversity for bananas, both wild and cultivated – the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" does not work, according to Valmayor et al. Many bananas are used both raw and cooked. There are starchy cooking bananas which are smaller than those eaten raw. The range of colors, sizes and shapes is far wider than in those grown or sold in Africa, Europe or the Americas.[35] Southeast Asian languages do not make the distinction between "bananas" and "plantains" that is made in English (and Spanish). Thus both Cavendish cultivars, the classic yellow dessert bananas, and Saba cultivars, used mainly for cooking, are called pisang in Malaysia and Indonesia, kluai in Thailand and chuoi in Vietnam. Fe'i bananas, grown and eaten in the islands of the Pacific, are derived from entirely different wild species than traditional bananas and plantains. Most Fe'i bananas are cooked, but Karat bananas, which are short and squat with bright red skins, very different from the usual yellow dessert bananas, are eaten raw.

In summary, in commerce in Europe and the Americas (although not in small-scale cultivation), it is possible to distinguish between "bananas", which are eaten raw, and "plantains", which are cooked. In other regions of the world, particularly India, Southeast Asia and the islands of the Pacific, there are many more kinds of banana and the two-fold distinction is not useful and not made in local languages. Plantains are one of many kinds of cooking bananas, which are not always distinct from dessert bananas.

HISTORICAL CULTIVATION

Farmers in Southeast Asia and Papua New Guinea first domesticated bananas. Recent archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence at Kuk Swamp in the Western Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea suggests that banana cultivation there goes back to at least 5000 BCE, and possibly to 8000 BCE. It is likely that other species were later and independently domesticated elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia is the region of primary diversity of the banana. Areas of secondary diversity are found in Africa, indicating a long history of banana cultivation in the region.

Phytolith discoveries in Cameroon dating to the first millennium BCE triggered an as yet unresolved debate about the date of first cultivation in Africa. There is linguistic evidence that bananas were known in Madagascar around that time. The earliest prior evidence indicates that cultivation dates to no earlier than late 6th century CE. It is likely, however, that bananas were brought at least to Madagascar if not to the East African coast during the phase of Malagasy colonization of the island from South East Asia c. 400 CE.

The banana may also have been present in isolated locations elsewhere in the Middle East on the eve of Islam. The spread of Islam was followed by far-reaching diffusion. There are numerous references to it in Islamic texts (such as poems and hadiths) beginning in the 9th century. By the 10th century the banana appears in texts from Palestine and Egypt. From there it diffused into North Africa and Muslim Iberia. During the medieval ages, bananas from Granada were considered among the best in the Arab world. In 650, Islamic conquerors brought the banana to Palestine. Today, banana consumption increases significantly in Islamic countries during Ramadan, the month of daylight fasting.

Bananas were certainly grown in the Christian Kingdom of Cyprus by the late medieval period. Writing in 1458, the Italian traveller and writer Gabriele Capodilista wrote favourably of the extensive farm produce of the estates at Episkopi, near modern day Limassol, including the region's banana plantations.

Bananas were introduced to the Americas by Portuguese sailors who brought the fruits from West Africa in the 16th century.

Many wild banana species as well as cultivars exist in extraordinary diversity in New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and the Philippines.

There are fuzzy bananas whose skins are bubblegum pink; green-and-white striped bananas with pulp the color of orange sherbet; bananas that, when cooked, taste like strawberries. The Double Mahoi plant can produce two bunches at once. The Chinese name of the aromatic Go San Heong banana means 'You can smell it from the next mountain.' The fingers on one banana plant grow fused; another produces bunches of a thousand fingers, each only an inch long.

—Mike Peed, The New Yorker

In 1999 archaeologists in London discovered what they believed to be the oldest banana in the UK, in a Tudor rubbish tip.

PLANTATION CULTIVATION IN THE CARIBBEAN,

CENTRAL & SOUTH AMERICA

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Portuguese colonists started banana plantations in the Atlantic Islands, Brazil, and western Africa. North Americans began consuming bananas on a small scale at very high prices shortly after the Civil War, though it was only in the 1880s that it became more widespread. As late as the Victorian Era, bananas were not widely known in Europe, although they were available. Jules Verne introduces bananas to his readers with detailed descriptions in Around the World in Eighty Days (1872).

The earliest modern plantations originated in Jamaica and the related Western Caribbean Zone, including most of Central America. It involved the combination of modern transportation networks of steamships and railroads with the development of refrigeration that allowed bananas to have more time between harvesting and ripening. North America shippers like Lorenzo Dow Baker and Andrew Preston, the founders of the Boston Fruit Company started this process in the 1870s, but railroad builders like Minor C Keith also participated, eventually culminating in the multi-national giant corporations like today's Chiquita Brands International and Dole. These companies were monopolistic, vertically integrated (meaning they controlled growing, processing, shipping and marketing) and usually used political manipulation to build enclave economies (economies that were internally self-sufficient, virtually tax exempt, and export oriented that contribute very little to the host economy). Their political maneuvers, which gave rise to the term Banana republic for states like Honduras and Guatemala, included working with local elites and their rivalries to influence politics or playing the international interests of the United States, especially during the Cold War, to keep the political climate favorable to their interests.

PEASANT CULTIVATION FOR EXPORT IN THE CARIBBEAN

The vast majority of the world's bananas today are cultivated for family consumption or for sale on local markets. India is the world leader in this sort of production, but many other Asian and African countries where climate and soil conditions allow cultivation also host large populations of banana growers who sell at least some of their crop.

There are peasant sector banana growers who produce for the world market in the Caribbean, however. The Windward Islands are notable for the growing, largely of Cavendish bananas, for an international market, generally in Europe but also in North America. In the Caribbean, and especially in Dominica where this sort of cultivation is widespread, holdings are in the 1–2 acre range. In many cases the farmer earns additional money from other crops, from engaging in labor outside the farm, and from a share of the earnings of relatives living overseas. This style of cultivation often was popular in the islands as bananas required little labor input and brought welcome extra income. Banana crops are vulnerable to destruction by high winds, such as tropical storms or cyclones.

After the signing of the NAFTA agreements in the 1990s, however, the tide turned against peasant producers. Their costs of production were relatively high and the ending of favorable tariff and other supports, especially in the European Economic Community, made it difficult for peasant producers to compete with the bananas grown on large plantations by the well capitalized firms like Chiquita and Dole. Not only did the large companies have access to cheap labor in the areas they worked, but they were better able to afford modern agronomic advances such as fertilization. The "dollar banana" produced by these concerns made the profit margins for peasant bananas unsustainable.

Caribbean countries have sought to redress this problem by providing government supported agronomic services and helping to organize producers' cooperatives. They have also been supporters of the Fair Trade movement which seeks to balance the inequities in the world trade in commodities.

EAST AFRICA

Most farms supply local consumption. Cooking bananas represent a major food source and a major income source for smallhold farmers. In east Africa, highland bananas are of greatest importance as a staple food crop. In countries such as Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda per capita consumption has been estimated at 45 kilograms per year, the highest in the world.

MODERN CULTIVATION

All widely cultivated bananas today descend from the two wild bananas Musa acuminata and Musa balbisiana. While the original wild bananas contained large seeds, diploid or polyploid cultivars (some being hybrids) with tiny seeds are preferred for human raw fruit consumption. These are propagated asexually from offshoots. The plant is allowed to produce two shoots at a time; a larger one for immediate fruiting and a smaller "sucker" or "follower" to produce fruit in 6–8 months. The life of a banana plantation is 25 years or longer, during which time the individual stools or planting sites may move slightly from their original positions as lateral rhizome formation dictates.

Cultivated bananas are parthenocarpic, i.e. the flesh of the fruit swells and ripens without its seeds being fertilized and developing. Lacking viable seeds, propagation typically involves farmers removing and transplanting part of the underground stem (called a corm). Usually this is done by carefully removing a sucker (a vertical shoot that develops from the base of the banana pseudostem) with some roots intact. However, small sympodial corms, representing not yet elongated suckers, are easier to transplant and can be left out of the ground for up to two weeks; they require minimal care and can be shipped in bulk.It is not necessary to include the corm or root structure to propagate bananas; severed suckers without root material can be propagated in damp sand, although this takes somewhat longer.In some countries, commercial propagation occurs by means of tissue culture. This method is preferred since it ensures disease-free planting material. When using vegetative parts such as suckers for propagation, there is a risk of transmitting diseases (especially the devastating Panama disease).As a non-seasonal crop, bananas are available fresh year-round.

CAVENDISH

In global commerce in 2009, by far the most important cultivars belonged to the triploid AAA group of Musa acuminata, commonly referred to as Cavendish group bananas. They accounted for the majority of banana exports, despite only coming into existence in 1836. The cultivars Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Nain (Chiquita Banana) gained popularity in the 1950s after the previous mass-produced cultivar, Gros Michel (also an AAA group cultivar), became commercially unviable due to Panama disease, caused by the fungus Fusarium oxysporum which attacks the roots of the banana plant. Cavendish cultivars are resistant to the Panama Disease but in 2013 there were fears that the Black Sigatoka fungus would in turn make Cavendish bananas unviable.

Ease of transport and shelf life rather than superior taste make the Dwarf Cavendish the main export banana.

Even though it is no longer viable for large scale cultivation, Gros Michel is not extinct and is still grown in areas where Panama disease is not found. Likewise, Dwarf Cavendish and Grand Nain are in no danger of extinction, but they may leave supermarket shelves if disease makes it impossible to supply the global market. It is unclear if any existing cultivar can replace Cavendish bananas, so various hybridisation and genetic engineering programs are attempting to create a disease-resistant, mass-market banana.

RIPENING

Export bananas are picked green, and ripen in special rooms upon arrival in the destination country. These rooms are air-tight and filled with ethylene gas to induce ripening. The vivid yellow color consumers normally associate with supermarket bananas is, in fact, caused by the artificial ripening process. Flavor and texture are also affected by ripening temperature. Bananas are refrigerated to between 13.5 and 15 °C during transport. At lower temperatures, ripening permanently stalls, and the bananas turn gray as cell walls break down. The skin of ripe bananas quickly blackens in the 4 °C environment of a domestic refrigerator, although the fruit inside remains unaffected.

"Tree-ripened" Cavendish bananas have a greenish-yellow appearance which changes to a brownish-yellow as they ripen further. Although both flavor and texture of tree-ripened bananas is generally regarded as superior to any type of green-picked fruit, this reduces shelf life to only 7–10 days.Bananas can be ordered by the retailer "ungassed" (i.e. not treated with ethylene), and may show up at the supermarket fully green. Guineos verdes (green bananas) that have not been gassed will never fully ripen before becoming rotten. Instead of fresh eating, these bananas are best suited to cooking, as seen in Mexican culinary dishes.A 2008 study reported that ripe bananas fluoresce when exposed to ultraviolet light. This property is attributed to the degradation of chlorophyll leading to the accumulation of a fluorescent product in the skin of the fruit. The chlorophyll breakdown product is stabilized by a propionate ester group. Banana-plant leaves also fluoresce in the same way. Green bananas do not fluoresce. The study suggested that this allows animals which can see light in the ultraviolet spectrum (tetrachromats and pentachromats) to more easily detect ripened bananas.

STORAGE & TRANSPORT

Bananas must be transported over long distances from the tropics to world markets. To obtain maximum shelf life, harvest comes before the fruit is mature. The fruit requires careful handling, rapid transport to ports, cooling, and refrigerated shipping. The goal is to prevent the bananas from producing their natural ripening agent, ethylene. This technology allows storage and transport for 3–4 weeks at 13 °C. On arrival, bananas are held at about 17 °C and treated with a low concentration of ethylene. After a few days, the fruit begins to ripen and is distributed for final sale. Unripe bananas can not be held in home refrigerators because they suffer from the cold. Ripe bananas can be held for a few days at home. If bananas are too green, they can be put in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato overnight to speed up the ripening process.

Carbon dioxide (which bananas produce) and ethylene absorbents extend fruit life even at high temperatures. This effect can be exploited by packing banana in a polyethylene bag and including an ethylene absorbent, e.g., potassium permanganate, on an inert carrier. The bag is then sealed with a band or string. This treatment has been shown to more than double lifespans up to 3–4 weeks without the need for refrigeration.

FRUIT

Bananas are a staple starch for many tropical populations. Depending upon cultivar and ripeness, the flesh can vary in taste from starchy to sweet, and texture from firm to mushy. Both the skin and inner part can be eaten raw or cooked. The primary component of the aroma of fresh bananas is isoamyl acetate (also known as banana oil), which, along with several other compounds such as butyl acetate and isobutyl acetate, is a significant contributor to banana flavor.

During the ripening process, bananas produce the gas ethylene, which acts as a plant hormone and indirectly affects the flavor. Among other things, ethylene stimulates the formation of amylase, an enzyme that breaks down starch into sugar, influencing the taste of bananas. The greener, less ripe bananas contain higher levels of starch and, consequently, have a "starchier" taste. On the other hand, yellow bananas taste sweeter due to higher sugar concentrations. Furthermore, ethylene signals the production of pectinase, an enzyme which breaks down the pectin between the cells of the banana, causing the banana to soften as it ripens.

Bananas are eaten deep fried, baked in their skin in a split bamboo, or steamed in glutinous rice wrapped in a banana leaf. Bananas can be made into jam. Banana pancakes are popular amongst backpackers and other travelers in South Asia and Southeast Asia. This has elicited the expression Banana Pancake Trail for those places in Asia that cater to this group of travelers. Banana chips are a snack produced from sliced dehydrated or fried banana or plantain, which have a dark brown color and an intense banana taste. Dried bananas are also ground to make banana flour. Extracting juice is difficult, because when a banana is compressed, it simply turns to pulp. Bananas feature prominently in Philippine cuisine, being part of traditional dishes and desserts like maruya, turrón, and halo-halo or saba con yelo. Most of these dishes use the Saba or Cardaba banana cultivar. Bananas are also commonly used in cuisine in the South-Indian state of Kerala, where they are steamed (puzhungiyathu), made into curries, fried into chips (upperi) or fried in batter (pazhampori). Pisang goreng, bananas fried with batter similar to the Filipino maruya or Kerala pazhampori, is a popular dessert in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia. A similar dish is known in the United Kingdom and United States as banana fritters.

Plantains are used in various stews and curries or cooked, baked or mashed in much the same way as potatoes, such as the Pazham Pachadi prepared in Kerala.

Seeded bananas (Musa balbisiana), one of the forerunners of the common domesticated banana, are sold in markets in Indonesia.

FLOWER

Banana hearts are used as a vegetable in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, either raw or steamed with dips or cooked in soups, curries and fried foods. The flavor resembles that of artichoke. As with artichokes, both the fleshy part of the bracts and the heart are edible.

LEAVES

Banana leaves are large, flexible, and waterproof. They are often used as ecologically friendly disposable food containers or as "plates" in South Asia and several Southeast Asian countries. In Indonesian cuisine, banana leaf is employed in cooking method called pepes and botok; the banana leaf packages containing food ingredients and spices are cooked on steam, in boiled water or grilled on charcoal. In the South Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala in every occasion the food must be served in a banana leaf and as a part of the food a banana is served. Steamed with dishes they impart a subtle sweet flavor. They often serve as a wrapping for grilling food. The leaves contain the juices, protect food from burning and add a subtle flavor. In Tamil Nadu (India) leaves are fully dried and used as packing material for food stuffs and also making cups to hold liquid foods. In Central American countries, banana leaves are often used as wrappers for tamales.

TRUNK

The tender core of the banana plant's trunk is also used in South Asian and Southeast Asian cuisine, and notably in the Burmese dish mohinga.

FIBER

TEXTILES

The banana plant has long been a source of fiber for high quality textiles. In Japan, banana cultivation for clothing and household use dates back to at least the 13th century. In the Japanese system, leaves and shoots are cut from the plant periodically to ensure softness. Harvested shoots are first boiled in lye to prepare fibers for yarn-making. These banana shoots produce fibers of varying degrees of softness, yielding yarns and textiles with differing qualities for specific uses. For example, the outermost fibers of the shoots are the coarsest, and are suitable for tablecloths, while the softest innermost fibers are desirable for kimono and kamishimo. This traditional Japanese cloth-making process requires many steps, all performed by hand.

In a Nepalese system the trunk is harvested instead, and small pieces are subjected to a softening process, mechanical fiber extraction, bleaching and drying. After that, the fibers are sent to the Kathmandu Valley for use in rugs with a silk-like texture. These banana fiber rugs are woven by traditional Nepalese hand-knotting methods, and are sold RugMark certified.

In South Indian state of Tamil Nadu after harvesting for fruit the trunk (outer layer of the shoot) is made into fine thread used in making of flower garlands instead of thread.

PAPER

Banana fiber is used in the production of banana paper. Banana paper is made from two different parts: the bark of the banana plant, mainly used for artistic purposes, or from the fibers of the stem and non-usable fruits. The paper is either hand-made or by industrial process.

WIKIPEDIA

The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960). Lobby Card (11" X 14"). by Morbius19

The Lost World (20th Century Fox, 1960).

youtu.be/h1CLA-gJbmA?t=5s Trailer

Irwin Allen, the producer who would go on to make the disaster film a huge success in the seventies, brought us this Saturday afternoon fodder with giant lizards posing as dinosaurs. Starring Michael Rennie, David Hedison, Claude Rains and Jill St. John.

Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.

Synopsis

When his plane lands in London, crusty old professor George Edward Challenger is besieged by reporters questioning him about his latest expedition to the headwaters of the Amazon River. After the irascible Challenger strikes reporter Ed Malone on the head with his umbrella, Jennifer Holmes, the daughter of Ed's employer, Stuart Holmes, offers the injured reporter a ride into town. That evening, Jenny is escorted by Lord John Roxton, an adventurer and big game hunter, to Challenger's lecture at the Zoological Institute, and Ed invites them to sit with him. When Challenger claims to have seen live dinosaurs, his colleague Professor Summerlee scoffs and asks for evidence. Explaining that his photographs of the creatures were lost when his boat overturned, Challenger invites Summerlee to accompany him on a new expedition to the "lost world," and asks for volunteers. When Roxton raises his hand, Jenny insists on going with him, but she is rejected by Challenger because she is a woman. Ed is given a spot after Holmes offers to fund the expedition if the reporter is included. The four then fly to the Amazon, where they are met by Costa, their guide and Manuel Gomez, their helicopter pilot. Arriving unexpectedly, Jenny and her younger brother David insist on joining them. Unable to arrange transportation back to the United States, Challenger reluctantly agrees to take them along. The next day, they take off for the lost world and land on an isolated plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. That evening, a dinosaur stomps out of the jungle, sending them scurrying for cover. After the beast destroys the helicopter and radio, the group ventures inland. When one of the creatures bellows threateningly, they flee, and in their haste, Challenger and Ed slip and tumble down a hillside, where they encounter a native girl. The girl runs into the jungle, but Ed follows and captures her. They then all take refuge in a cave, where Roxton, who has been making disparaging remarks about Jenny's desire to marry him solely for his title, angers Ed. Ed lunges at Roxton, pushing him to the ground, where he finds a diary written by Burton White, an adventurer who hired Roxton three years earlier to lead him to the lost diamonds of Eldorado. Roxton then admits that he never met White and his party because he was delayed by a dalliance with a woman, thus abandoning them to certain death. Gomez angrily snaps that his good friend Santiago perished in the expedition. That night, Costa tries to molest the native girl, and David comes to her rescue and begins to communicate with her through sign language. After Gomez goes to investigate some movement he spotted in the vegetation, he calls for help, and when Roxton runs out of the cave, a gunshot from an unseen assailant is fired, nearly wounding Roxton and sending the girl scurrying into the jungle. Soon after, Ed and Jenny stray from camp and are pursued by a dinosaur, and after taking refuge on some cliffs, watch in horror as their stalker becomes locked in combat with another prehistoric creature and tumbles over the cliffs into the waters below. Upon returning to camp, they discover it deserted, their belongings in disarray. As David stumbles out from some rocks to report they were attacked by a tribe of natives, the cannibals return and imprison them in a cave with the others. As the drums beat relentlessly, signaling their deaths, the native girl reappears and motions for them to follow her through a secret passageway that leads to the cave in which Burton White lives, completely sightless. After confirming that all in his expedition perished, White tells them of a volcanic passageway that will lead them off the plateau, but warns that they must first pass through the cave of fire. Cautioning them that the natives plan to sacrifice them, White declares that their only chance of survival is to slip through the cave and then seal it with a boulder. After giving them directions to the cave, White asks them to take the girl along. As the earth, on the verge of a volcanic eruption, quakes, they set off through the Graveyard of the Damned, a vast cavern littered with dinosaur skeletons, the victims of the deadly sulfurous gases below. Pursued by the ferocious natives, Roxton takes the lead as they inch their way across a narrow ledge above the molten lava. After escaping the natives, they jam the cave shut with a boulder and, passing a dam of molten lava, finally reach the escape passage. At its mouth is a pile of giant diamonds and a dinosaur egg. As Costa heaps the diamonds into his hat, Challenger fondles the egg and Gomez pulls a gun and announces that Roxton must die in exchange for the death of Santiago, Gomez' brother. Acting quickly, Ed hurls the diamonds at Gomez, throwing him off balance and discharging his gun. The gunshot awakens a creature slumbering in the roiling waters below. After the beast snatches Costa and eats him alive, Ed tries to dislodge the dam, sending a few scorching rocks tumbling down onto the monster. Feeling responsible for the peril of the group, Gomez sacrifices his life by using his body as a lever to dislodge the dam, covering the creature with oozing lava. As the cave begins to crumble from the impending eruption, the group hurries to safety. Just then, the volcano explodes, destroying the lost world. After Roxton hands Ed a handful of diamonds he has saved as a wedding gift for him and Jenny, Challenger proudly displays his egg, which then hatches, revealing a baby dinosaur. The End.

The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.

The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.

Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.

Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.

Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.

The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.

Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's

classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.

The Movie Club Annals … Review

The Lost World 1960

Introduction

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Irwin Allen's 1960 production of The Lost World. Nothing. It was perfect in every way. I therefore find myself in the unique and unfamiliar position of having to write a rave review about a Movie Club movie that was entirely devoid of flaws.

Faced with such a confounding task, I half-heartedly considered faking a bad review, then praying my obvious deceptions would go unnoticed. But the patent transparency of my scheme convinced me to abandon it posthaste. After all, leveling concocted criticisms at such an unassailable masterpiece would be a futile and tiresome exercise, the pretense of which would escape nary a semi-cognizant soul.

Thus, having retreated from my would-be descent into literary intrigue, I start this review in earnest by borrowing a quote from the legendary Shelly Winters, spoken during the 1972 filming of Irwin Allen's The Poseidon Adventure:

"I'm ready for my close up now, Mr. Allen.” Shelly Winters, 1972

Review

A bit of research into the casting choices of Irwin Allen, who wrote, produced, and directed The Lost World, begins to reveal the genius behind the virtuosity.

The first accolades go to Irwin for his casting of Vitina Marcus, the immaculately groomed Saks 5th Avenue cave girl with exquisite taste in makeup, jewelry, and cave-wear. No finer cave girl ever graced a feature film.

Vitina Marcus, as The Cave Girl

She was the picture of prehistoric glamour, gliding across the silver screen in her designer bearskin mini-pelt, her flawless coiffure showing no signs of muss from the traditional courting rituals of the day, her perfect teeth the envy of even the most prototypical Osmond. Even her nouveau-opposable thumbs retained their manicure, in spite of the oft-disagreeable duties that frequently befell her as an effete member of the tribal gentry.

By no means just another Neanderthal harlot, Vitina had a wealth of talent to augment her exterior virtues. Her virtuoso interpretation of a comely cave girl in The Lost World certainly didn't escape the attention Irwin Allen. In fact, he was so taken with her performance that he later engaged her services again, casting her as the Native Girl in episode 2.26 of his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series.

Leery of potential typecasting, Vitina went on to obtain roles with greater depth and more sophisticated dialogue. This is evidenced by the great departure she took from her previous roles when she next portrayed the part of Sarit, a female barbarian, in episode 1.24 of Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel TV series.

Vitina, as Sarit

Vitina's efforts to avoid typecasting paid off in spades, as she was soon rewarded with the distinctive role of Girl, a female Tarzanesque she-beast character, in episode 3.14 of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. TV series.

Lured back from the U.N.C.L.E. set by Irwin Allen, Vitina was next cast in the role of Athena (a.k.a. Lorelei), the green space girl with the inverted lucite salad bowl hat, in episodes 2.2 and 2.16 of the revered Lost in Space TV series.

And with this, Vitina reached the pinnacle of her career. For her many unparalleled displays of thespian pageantry, she leaves us forever in her debt as she exits the stage.

For those who would still question the genius of Irwin Allen, I defy you to find a better casting choice for the character of Lord John Roxton than that of Michael Rennie. Mr. Rennie, who earlier starred as Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still, went on to even greater heights, starring as The Keeper in episodes 1.16 and 1.17 of the revered Lost in Space TV series. Throughout his distinguished career, Mr. Rennie often played highly cerebral characters with

unique names, such as Garth A7, Tribolet, Hasani, Rama Kahn, Hertz, and Dirk. How befitting that his most prolific roles came to him through a man named Irwin, a highly cerebral character with a unique name.

The selection of David Hedison to play Ed Malone was yet another example of Irwin's uncanny foresight. Soon after casting him in The Lost World, Irwin paved Mr. Hedison's path to immortality by casting him as a lead character in his Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea TV series. Although Voyage ended in 1968, Mr. Hedison departed the show with a solid resume and a bright future.

In the decades following Voyage, Mr. Hedison has been a veritable fixture on the small screen, appearing in such socially influential programs as The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Knight Rider, The Fall Guy and The A Team. Mr. Hedison's early collaborations with Irwin Allen have left him never wanting for a day's work in Hollywood, a boon to the legions of discerning fans who continue to savor his inspiring prime time depictions.

Irwin selected Fernando Lamas to play Manuel Gomez, the honorable and tortured soul of The Lost World who needlessly sacrificed himself at the end of the movie to save all the others. To get a feel for how important a casting decision he was to Irwin, just look at the pertinent experience Mr. Lamas brought to the table:

Irwin knew that such credentials could cause him to lose the services of Mr. Lamas to another project, and he took great pains to woo him onto the set of The Lost World. And even though Mr. Lamas never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his talent is not lost on us.

Jay Novello was selected by Irwin Allen to play Costa, the consummate Cuban coward who perpetually betrays everyone around him in the name of greed. In pursuing his craven calling, Mr. Novello went on to play Xandros, the Greek Slave in Atlantis, The Lost Continent, as well as countless other roles as a coward.

Although Mr. Novella never appeared in the revered Lost in Space TV series, his already long and distinguished career as a coward made him the obvious choice for Irwin when the need for an experienced malingerer arose.

Jill St. John was Irwin's pick to play Jennifer Holmes, the "other" glamour girl in The Lost World. Not to be upstaged by glamour-cave-girl Vitina Marcus, Jill played the trump card and broke out the pink go-go boots and skin-tight Capri pants, the perfect Amazonian summertime jungle wear.

Complete with a perfect hairdo, a killer wardrobe, a little yip-yip dog named Frosty, and all the other trappings of a wealthy and pampered prehistoric society, Jill's sensational allure rivaled even that of a certain cave girl appearing in the same film.

With the atmosphere rife for an on-set rivalry between Jill and Vitina, Irwin still managed to keep the peace, proving that he was as skilled a diplomat as he was a director.

Claude Rains, as Professor George Edward Challenger

And our cup runneth over, as Irwin cast Claude Rains to portray Professor George Edward Challenger. His eminence, Mr. Rains is an entity of such immeasurable virtue that he is not in need of monotonous praise from the likes of me.

I respectfully acknowledge the appearance of Mr. Rains because failure to do so would be an unforgivable travesty. But I say nothing more on the subject, lest I state something so obvious and uninspiring as to insult the intelligence of enlightened reader.

Irwin's casting of the cavemen mustn't be overlooked, for their infallibly realistic portrayals are unmatched within the Pleistocene Epoch genre of film. Such meticulous attention to detail is what separates Irwin Allen from lesser filmmakers, whose pale imitations of his work only further to underscore the point.

To be sure, it is possible to come away with the unfounded suspicion that the cavemen are really just a bunch of old white guys from the bar at the local Elks lodge. But Irwin was an absolute stickler for authenticity, and would never have allowed the use of such tawdry measures to taint his prehistoric magnum opus.

In truth, Irwin's on-screen cavemen were borne of many grueling years of anthropological research, so the explanation for their somewhat modern, pseudo-caucasian appearance lies obviously elsewhere. And in keeping with true Irwin Allen tradition, that explanation will not be offered here.

1964 - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Season One, Episode 7 - "Turn Back the Clock", featuring Vitina Marcus as The Native Girl. Produced by Irwin Allen.

And then there was Irwin Allen's masterful handling of the reptilian facets of The Lost World, most notably his inimitable casting of the dinosaurs. His dinosaurs were so realistic, so eerily lifelike, that they almost looked like living, breathing garden variety lizards with dinosaur fins and horns glued to their backs and heads.

The less enlightened viewer might even suppose this to be true, that Irwin's dinosaurs were indeed merely live specimens of lizards, donned in Jurassic-era finery, vastly magnified, and retro-fitted into The Lost World via some penny-wise means of cinematic trickery.

But those of us in the know certainly know better than that, as we are privy to some otherwise unpublished information about The Lost World. The lifelike appearance of the Irwin's dinosaurs can be attributed to a wholly overlooked and fiendishly cunning approach to the art of delusion, which is that the dinosaurs didn't just look real, they were real.

While the world abounds with middling minds who cannot fathom such a reality, we must follow Irwin's benevolent leanings and temper our natural feelings of contempt for this unfortunate assemblage of pedestrian lowbrows. In spite of Irwin's superior intellect, he never felt disdain toward the masses that constituted his audiences. He simply capitalized on their unaffectedness, and in the process recounted the benefits of exploiting the intellectually bereft for personal gain.

The purpose of all this analysis, of course, is to place an exclamation point on the genius of Irwin Allen, the formation of his dinosaur exposé being a premier example. Note how he mindfully manipulates the expectations of his unsuspecting audience, compelling them to probe the dinosaurs for any signs of man-made chicanery. Then, at the palatial moment when the dinosaurs make their entry, he guilefully supplants the anticipated display of faux reptilia with that of the bona fide article.

Upon first witnessing the de facto dinosaurs, some in the audience think they've been had, and indeed they have. Irwin, in engineering his masterful ruse, had used reality as his medium to convey the illusion of artifice. His audience, in essence, was blinded by the truth. It was the immaculate deception, and none but Irwin Allen could have conceived it.

Indeed, the matter of where the live dinosaurs came from has been conspicuously absent from this discussion, as the Irwinian technique of fine film making strongly discourages the practice of squandering time on extraneous justifications and other such trite means of redundant apologia. For the benefit of the incessantly curious, however, just keep in mind that Irwin Allen wrote and produced The Time Tunnel TV Series, a fact that should provide some fair insight into his modis operandi.

Carl R.

HIS HOLINESS Hazarat RIAZ AHMAD GOHAR SHAHI(M.A) addressing in Mochi Darwaza Lahore 1996 part 32 by waseem ahmad

The word Allah

The Semitic language which is spoken in the celestial spheres, is the language in which the angels and God address each other. Adam Safi-Allah spoke the same language in paradise. Adam and eve then came into the world and settled in Arabia. Their children also spoke the same language. Then as a result of the descendants of Adam spreading in the world, this language passed from Arabic, Persian, Latin and into English and God was then known by different names in the different languages. As Adam lived in Arabia, there are many words of the Semitic language which are still found in the Arabic language. God addressed the Prophets, Adam as Adam Safi-Allah, Noah as Nuh Nabi-Allah, Abraham as Ibraheem Khalil-Allah, Moses as Musa Kalim-Allah, Jesus as I’sa Ruh-Allah and Mohammed Rasul-Allah. All these titles, in the Semitic language were written on the Tablet before the arrival of the Prophets. This is why the Prophet Mohammed said: “I was a Prophet even before I came in to this world.”

Many people believe that the word Allah is a name given by Muslims, this is not so.

The Prophet Mohammed’s fathers name was Abd-Allah, at a time when Islam did not exist. Prior to the advent of Islam the Name Allah was announced with the title of every Prophet. When the souls were created, the first Name on their tongue was Allah and when the soul entered the body of Adam, it said, Ya-Allah, and only then it entered the body. Many religions understand this enigma and chant the Name Allah and many others because of doubt are deprived of the Name.

Any name which is used to point towards God is worthy of respect.

In other words, which points towards God. The mystical effect of the Name of God has been diversified due to the different names. Every letter of the alphabet has a separate numeric value. This is also a celestial knowledge. All the numeric values are connected with all of the human race. Occasionally the numeric values do not agree with the astronomical calculations as a result of which people become afflicted. Many people go to astrologers and experts of this knowledge and have charts prepared based on the stars. They name their children on this basis.

Just as the letters (a, b, j, d,) (1, 2, 3, 4) when added have the numerical value of ten. Similarly every name has a separate numeric value. As God has been given so many different names, this has caused a conflict between the numeric value of the different names. If all the people called upon God by the same name, then despite the fact that they would all have separate religions, they would all be united inwardly. They too, like Nanak Sahib and Baba Farid would then say:

“All the souls have been created by the light of God, even though their environment and communities are separate.”

The angels that are assigned tasks in the world are also taught the languages of the people of the world.

It is important for the people of every Prophet that they recite, chant and affirm the Title of their Prophet which was granted by God to the Prophet at his time, for the recognition, spiritual grace and purification of his people. The recital and affirmation should be in the same method and in the language of their Prophet.

The entry of any individual into any religion is subject to the condition that the individual accepts and affirms the Title of the Prophet of that religion. Just as the affirmation and the verbal vows are a condition of any marriage.

Entry into the heavens has been made subject to the acceptance and affirmation of the Titles of the Prophets. In the western world many Muslims and Christians have no knowledge of their Prophet’s Title furthermore many do not even know their Prophets original name (in the original language of the Prophet.)

People who only verbalize the affirmation of their Prophet’s Title rely upon their good deeds. Those that reject and do not affirm their Prophet’s Title are refused entry to paradise. Those individuals in whose hearts the affirmation of their Prophet’s Title has descended (entered) they will enter paradise without any accountability.

The revealed celestial Scriptures, whichever language they are in so long as they are in the original form, are a means to finding God. Where the texts and the translations that have been adulterated, just as adulterated flour is harmful for the stomach, the adulterated books have become harmful and people of the same religion and the same of Prophet have divided into so many sects.

To be sure of the straight and guided path it is better that you are guided by the Light (of God) also.

The method of producing light.

In prehistoric times stones would be rubbed together to make fire. Whereas a spark can also be produced by rubbing two metals together. In a similar way electricity is made from water. Similarly by the friction of the blood inside the human body, in other words electric energy is produced by the vibrating heartbeat. In every human being there is present, approximately one and a half volts of electricity due to which the body is energetic. As the heartbeat slows in old age, this reduces the electricity in the body and this in turn also causes a reduction of the energy level in the body.

Firstly, the heartbeat has to be made vibrant and pronounced. Some do this by dancing, some by sports and exercise and some people try to do this by meditating and chanting the Name of God Allah.

When the heartbeat becomes vibrant and pronounced then by chanting the Name Allah try to synchronize it with every heartbeat. Alternatively try to synchronize Allah with one heartbeat and Hu with the other. Some time by placing your hand on the heart and when you feel your heartbeat, again try to synchronize the Name Allah by chanting it with the rythm of the heartbeat and imagine that the Name Allah is entering the heart.

The chanting of Allah Hu is better and more effective but if anyone has an objection, or a fear of chanting Hu, then instead of being deprived one should solely use the Name Allah, repetitively in the chanting. It is beneficial for people who chant and practice this discipline and who read mantras to physically remain as clean as possible as the:

“disrespectful are unfulfilled and the respectful are fulfilled.”

The first method for producing light.

Write Allah on a paper in black ink, and do this exercise for as long as you wish on a daily basis. Soon thereafter, the Word Allah will be transported from the paper and hover over the eyes. Then with one-pointed concentration, attempt to transport the word from the eyes to the heart.

The second method for producing light.

Write Allah on a zero watt bulb, in yellow. Whilst you are awake or just before sleep, concentrate and try to absorb it into the eyes. When it appears on the eyes then try to transport it to the heart.

The third method for producing light.

This method is for those people who have perfect spiritual guides and teachers and who due to their spiritual connection are spiritually assisted by them.

Sit alone and imagine that your index finger is a pen. Using your finger and with your concentration, attempt to write Allah on your heart. Call upon your spiritual teacher (spiritually), so that he too may, hold your finger, and write Allah on your heart. Continue to do this exercise everyday, until you see Allah written on your heart.

By the first and second method, the Name Allah becomes inscribed on the heart, just as it was written and seen by you but when it becomes synchronized with the heartbeat, then it slowly starts to shine. In the synchronized method, the assistance of the spiritual teacher is provided and for this reason it is seen shining and well written on the heart right from the beginning.

Many Prophets and Saints have come into the world, and just for the sake of testing this, if you feel it appropriate, concentrate or call upon all of them when you are practicing your meditation.

Whilst concentrating on any Prophet or Saint, during your meditating practice, if the rhythm of your heartbeat increases, in its vibration or you feel an improvement then this means that your destiny (spiritual fruits) lies with that Prophet or Saint.

Thereafter it is beneficial to concentrate on that same person whenever you practice your meditation as spiritual grace is transferred in this way, because every Saint is spiritually connected to a Prophet, even if that Prophet is not physically living.

The spiritual fruit (grace) of every illuminated person is in the hands of one Saint or another. It is essential that the Saint is living. Sometimes a very fortunate person is gifted with celestial spiritual grace by a perfect Saint who is not living, but this is very rare. However Saints not living in our human realm can provide worldly spiritual grace and assistance to people from their tombs. This is known as Owaisi spiritual grace.

The recipients of such spiritual grace often get entangled in their spiritual insights, visions and dreams because the spiritual guide providing the assistance is in the spiritual realm and so too is Satan and the recognition of the two becomes difficult.

Along with the spiritual grace it is important to have knowledge, for which a living Saint is more appropriate. If a person (Saint) possesses spiritual grace but is without knowledge, that person is known as a Majzoob (Godly but abstracted due to the complete absorption into the Essence of God and who is not in full control of his faculties).

A person (Saint) having spiritual grace and knowledge is known as a Mehboob (literally, loved one). Such people (Saints) as a result of their knowledge provide worldly spiritual assistance as well as spiritual grace and benefit. Whereas the Majzoobs are known to provide worldly spiritual assistance to people by their unusual but accepted practices of shouting obscenities and poking people with their wooden sticks.

If any (Prophet or Saint) appears but does not help or assist you then put Gohar Shahi to the test.

You may belong to any religion, there is no condition in this respect as long as the individual is not eternally ill-fated.

Many people have received the spiritual grace of Qalb meditation from the Moon. This is obtained when there is a full Moon from the East. Look at it with concentration and when you see the image of Gohar Shahi on it say Allah, Allah, Allah three times and you will be blessed with this spiritual grace. Thereafter without any fear or reservation practice the meditation as described.

Believe (the fact) that the image on the Moon has spoken to many people in many different languages. You can try looking and speaking to it also.

About Muraqba

(transcendental meditation)

(Literally. journey. Meditation in which the soul leaves the human body)

Many people without having acquired the illumination of the spiritual entities (‘Lata’if/Shaktian’) and without attaining spiritual strength and prowess try to engage in this meditation. They either fail to reach the meditative state or become the subject of Satanic interference. This type of meditation is for illuminated people, whose spiritual entity of the self has been purified and the Qalb has been cleansed. The practice or attempt at this type of meditation is foolish no matter what type of physical worship is used to achieve this. To collect and gather the strength of the soul and the spiritual entities and then to travel to a place is what is known as meditation.

Sainthood is the one fourtieth part of Prophecy.

Every dream, meditative journey, inspiration or revelation of a Prophet is accurate and authentic and does not need verification. Only fourty out of a hundred dreams, meditative journeys, inspirations and revelations of Saints are accurate the remaining sixty percent are inaccurate.

God cannot be understood without knowledge

The lowest type of meditative journey is started only after the illumination and awakening of the spiritual entity of the Qalb. This is impossible without first achieving the meditation of the Qalb (meditation with the vibrating heartbeat synchronized with the Name Allah). It takes one jerk or shake to bring the person out of this meditative state and back to consciousness. The faculty of the augury (foretelling the future by reading verses or looking into designated books) is also connected to the Qalb.

The next stage is the meditative journey of the soul. It takes three jerks or shakes to return a person back to normality from this meditative state.

The third stage of the meditative journey is done by the spiritual entity, Anna and the soul together. The soul travels along with the spiritual entity Anna, to the realm of souls just as the Archangel Gabriel accompanied the Prophet Mohammed to the realm of souls.

People who are in this meditative state are sometimes even taken to be buried in their graves and they are unaware of this happening to them. Such a meditative state and journey was taken by the “Companions of the Cave” as a result of which they remained asleep in the cave for more than three hundred years.

When this meditative state and journey was undertaken by the Sheikh, Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani, in the jungle, the occupants of the jungle would regard the Sheikh as dead and would take him to a grave for burial but the meditative journey would break just before the burial (the Sheikh would return to consciousness).

How to recognize a special inspiration and revelation from God.

When a person has awakened and illuminated the spiritual entities in the chest and is worthy of receiving the rays of the Grace of God, then at that point God communicates with that person. God is All-Powerful and can do as he pleases and thus communicate with the human being in any way fit, but he has made a special method for his recognition so that his friends can be saved from the deception of Satan.

Firstly, text in the Semitic language appears on the seekers heart and its translation is seen in the language of the seekers mother-tongue. The text is white and shiny and the eyes close automatically and look at the text (internally). The text then passes the Qalb and moves towards the spiritual entity Sirri as a result of which it shines even more. Then the text moves towards the spiritual entity, Akhfa and from here it shines more and then moves onto the tongue. The voice then spontaneously starts to repeat that text.

If this inspiration is from Satan then an illuminated heart will dull the text and if the text is strong and prominent then the spiritual entities Sirri or Akhfa destroy that text. Further if due to the weakness of the spiritual entities the text does arrive at the tongue, then the voice will prevent it from being spoken into words.

This type of inspiration is for special types of Saints, whereas in respect of ordinary Saints, God sends messages to them through the angels or other spiritual entities. When the Archangel Gabriel accompanies the special and inspired text, this is known as revelation which is confined to the Prophets.

For more detail visit www.goharshahi.org or visit asipk.com and for videos visit HH rags

Ferrari California - 2008 by Peter Blackert

Text taken from the official English language version of the Ferrari website:

www.ferrari.com/english/gt_sport%20cars/classiche/all_mod...

Design and styling:

When designing the Ferrari California, Pininfarina opted for a classic, sculpted chassis, with a long bonnet and the passenger area slightly weighted towards the rear. The side of the car features a strong, dynamic, raked line. The line lifts at the height of the door handle to trace the outline of the typical Ferrari rear bumper. The air intake in the front bumper is enhanced by a traditional grille. The slender air intake vent on the bonnet and the side air vents both echo distinctive features of the 1957 Ferrari California 250.

Exterior style:

The Ferrari California is ideal for those looking for a highly exclusive sports car, that consider driving enjoyment a value to pursue on every occasion: a weekend out of town, a long journey, shopping in the city, or simply getting to the office. The rear baggage space has a capacity which is unique for a convertible of this type. The boot, for the first time, connects directly to the rear bench or seats via the folding seat-back. When folded down, the hard-top takes up only 100 of the 340 litres in the luggage compartment, thus saving plenty of storage capacity. A wide opening of the luggage compartment level with the bottom simplifies the various operations. The large amount of space available allows two large and two small suitcases to be accommodated or, with the seat back folded down, two golf bags, skis, or snowboards.

Ferrari once again turned to its historical partner Pininfarina for the design of the California. The result was muscular, flowing, sculpted lines where considerable attention was paid to ensuring perfect proportions and harmoniously balanced volumes with the roof up or down.

Work on defining the styling was undertaken in close collaboration with Ferrari's own in-house Styling Centre, and great emphasis was placed on characterizing the design and function of every individual detail to confer an immediate and lasting sense of quality and bespoke craftsmanship.

The sides are characterised by a strong dynamic line rising to the level of the door handle, to create a powerful and muscular outline of the rear wheel arch, in line with the car's character. The waist is high, while convex and concave surfaces follow each other with pleasing fluidity. The nose, which takes up the characteristics of the side and rear lines, has the teardrop lighting cluster and the slatted radiator grill typical of Ferrari. The slender air intake vent on the bonnet and the side air vents both echo distinctive features of the 1957 Ferrari California 250.

The Model:

This Lego miniland-scale model has been created for Flickr LUGNuts 76th build Challenge, - "Viva Italia", - celebrating all things automotive and Italian.

Luxor Temple, Luxor, Egypt. by PHOTOGRAPHY by DM & DBM.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luxor_Temple

The Luxor Temple (Arabic: معبد الأقصر) is a large Ancient Egyptian temple complex located on the east bank of the Nile River in the city today known as Luxor (ancient Thebes) and was constructed approximately 1400 BCE. In the Egyptian language it was known as ipet resyt, "the southern sanctuary". It was one of the two primary temples on the east bank, the other being Karnak. Unlike the other temples in Thebes, Luxor temple is not dedicated to a cult god or a deified version of the pharaoh in death. Instead, Luxor temple is dedicated to the rejuvenation of kingship; it may have been where many of the pharaohs of Egypt were crowned in reality or conceptually (as in the case of Alexander the Great, who claimed he was crowned at Luxor but may never have traveled south of Memphis, near modern Cairo).

To the rear of the temple are chapels built by Amenhotep III of the 18th Dynasty, and Alexander. Other parts of the temple were built by Tutankhamun and Ramesses II. During the Roman era, the temple and its surroundings were a legionary fortress and the home of the Roman government in the area. During the Roman period a chapel inside the Luxor Temple originally dedicated to the goddess Mut was transformed into a Tetrarchy cult chapel and later into a church.

Along with the other archeological sites in Thebes, the Luxor Temple was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

The Luxor Temple was built with sandstone from the Gebel el-Silsila area, which is located in South-Western Egypt. This sandstone is referred to as Nubian sandstone. It was used for the construction for monuments in Upper Egypt as well as in the course of past and current restoration works.

Like other Egyptian structures, a common technique used was symbolism, or illusionism. For example, to the Egyptian, a sanctuary shaped like an Anubis jackal was really Anubis. At the Luxor Temple, the two obelisks (the smaller one closer to the west is now at the Place de la Concorde in Paris) flanking the entrance were not the same height, but they created the illusion that they were. With the layout of the temple they appear to be of equal height, but using illusionism, it enhances the relative distances hence making them look the same size to the wall behind it. Symbolically, it is a visual and spatial effect to emphasize the heights and distance from the wall, enhancing the already existing pathway.

From the Middle Ages, the Muslim population of Luxor had settled in and around the temple, at the southward end of the mount. Due to the Luxor's past city population building on top of and around the Luxor temple, centuries of rubble had accumulated, to the point where there was an artificial hill some 14.5 to 15 metres (48 to 49 ft) in height. The Luxor Temple had begun to be excavated by Professor Gaston Maspero after 1884, after he had been given permission to commence operations. The excavations were carried out sporadically until 1960. Over time, accumulated rubbish of the ages had buried three quarters of the temple which contained the courts and colonnades which formed the nucleus of the Arab half of the modern village. Maspero had taken an interest earlier, and he had taken over the post of Mariette Pasha to complete the job in 1881. Not only was there rubbish, but there were also barracks, stores, houses, huts, pigeon towers, which needed to be removed in order to excavate the site. (There still exists a working mosque within the temple which was never removed.) Maspero received from the Egyptian minister of public works the authorization needed to obtain funds in order to negotiate compensation for the pieces of land covered by the houses and dependencies.

The Luxor Temple was built during the New Kingdom and dedicated to the Theban Triad consisted of Amun, his consort Mut, and their son Khonsu. The focus of the annual Opet Festival, in which a cult statue of Amun was paraded down the Nile from nearby Karnak Temple (ipet-sut) to stay there for a while with his consort Mut, was to promote the fertility of Amun-Re and the Pharaoh. However, other studies at the temple by the Epigraphic Survey team present a completely new interpretation of Luxor and its great annual festival (the Feast of Opet). They have concluded that Luxor is the temple dedicated to the divine Egyptian ruler or, more precisely, to the cult of the Royal Ka. Examples of the cult of the Royal Ka can be seen with the colossal seated figures of the deified Ramesses II before the Pylon and at the entrance to the Grand colonnade are clearly Ka-statues, cult statues of the king as embodiment of the royal Ka.

The avenue (known as wi.t ntr "path of god"; طريق الكباش) which went in a straight line for about 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) between the Luxor Temple and the Karnak area was lined with human-headed sphinxes; in ancient times it is probable that these replaced earlier sphinxes which may have had different heads. Six barque shrines, serving as way stations for the barques of the gods during festival processions, were set up on the avenue between the Karnak and Luxor Temple. Along the avenue the stations were set up for ceremonies such as the Feast of Opet which held significance to temple. Each station had a purpose, for example the fourth station was the station of Kamare, which cooled the oar of Amun. The Fifth station of Kamare was the station which received the beauty of Amun. Lastly the Sixth Station of Kamare was a shrine for Amun, Holy of Steps.

A small mudbrick shrine was built in the courtyard of Nectanebo I in early second century (126 CE) and was dedicated to Serapis and Isis; it was presented to Roman Emperor Hadrian on his birthday.

The active Abu Haggag Mosque (مسجد أبو الحجاج بالأقصر) is located within the temple, standing on the ancient columns themselves. That part of the Luxor Temple was converted to a church by the Romans in 395 AD, and then to a mosque in 640, which is more than 3,400 years of continuous religious worship. Hence, the Luxor Temple is the oldest building in the world at least partially active for other than archeological or tourist purposes.

In 2013, a Chinese student posted a picture of engraved graffiti that read "Ding Jinhao was here" (Chinese: 丁锦昊到此一游) in Chinese on a sculpture. This discovery spurred debate about increased tourism after the media confirmed a Chinese student caused this and other defacements. The graffiti has since been partially cleared.

Setup_Language by Jason Yates

Choose Language

200506_ProgLangShare by Tim O'Reilly

12 6

Programming language share of sell through, per Neilsen Bookscan, from January 2003 through mid-June 2005.

Maserati Quattroporte (1998) by Charles

7 6

The Italian language is fascinating. Even mundane things sound better in Italian, such as this car's name, simply called 'four door'. You couldn't do that in English. Or German (Vier Türen). Maybe in Spanish (Cuatro Puertas).

Regardless, pictured here is the fourth generation of the Fourdoor, introduced in 1994 but actually based on the Biturbo that first saw light in the early 1980s. About 2.400 copies were built until 2001, with six- or eight-cylinder engines producing between 284 and 326 PS depending on the version.

This generation was attractively styled if a bit restrained for Italian standards. This particular car appears to be in good condition, finished in an attractive blue (or is that grey?).

Hall of Languages by nywheels

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Located on the campus of the prestigious Syracuse University in Syracuse, New York.

The Hall of Languages was designed by Horatio Nelson White and built in 1871-73. It is made of Onondaga limestone and features three large towers or cupolas. It was the first building constructed on the Syracuse University campus and the building originally housed the entire university.

Where The Vale of Onondaga Meets The Eastern Sky, Proudly Stands Our Alma Mater, On Her Hilltop High, Flag We Love! Orange! Float for Aye, Old Syracuse. O'er Thee, Loyal Be Thy Sons & Daughters, To Thy Memory

Myanmar - Yangon - Shwedagon Pagoda - Reclining Buddha - 50d by Manfred Sommer

Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni, or simply the Buddha, was a sage on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in northeastern India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE.

The word Buddha means "awakened one" or "the enlightened one". "Buddha" is also used as a title for the first awakened being in a Yuga era. In most Buddhist traditions, Siddhartha Gautama is regarded as the Supreme Buddha (Pali sammāsambuddha, Sanskrit samyaksaṃbuddha) of the present age. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region. He later taught throughout regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala.

Gautama is the primary figure in Buddhism and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death and memorized by his followers. Various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later.

CONTENTS

HISTORICAL SIDDHARTA GAUTAMA

Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the historical facts of the Buddha's life. Most accept that he lived, taught and founded a monastic order during the Mahajanapada era during the reign of Bimbisara, the ruler of the Magadha empire, and died during the early years of the reign of Ajasattu, who was the successor of Bimbisara, thus making him a younger contemporary of Mahavira, the Jain tirthankara. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddha's lifetime coincided with the flourishing of other influential śramaṇa schools of thoughts like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism, and Ajñana. It was also the age of influential thinkers like Mahavira, Pūraṇa Kassapa , Makkhali Gosāla, Ajita Kesakambalī, Pakudha Kaccāyana, and Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, whose viewpoints the Buddha most certainly must have been acquainted with and influenced by. Indeed, Sariputta and Moggallāna, two of the foremost disciples of the Buddha, were formerly the foremost disciples of Sañjaya Belaṭṭhaputta, the skeptic. There is also evidence to suggest that the two masters, Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, were indeed historical figures and they most probably taught Buddha two different forms of meditative techniques. While the general sequence of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" is widely accepted, there is less consensus on the veracity of many details contained in traditional biographies.

The times of Gautama's birth and death are uncertain. Most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. More recently his death is dated later, between 411 and 400 BCE, while at a symposium on this question held in 1988, the majority of those who presented definite opinions gave dates within 20 years either side of 400 BCE for the Buddha's death. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet been accepted by all historians.

The evidence of the early texts suggests that Siddhārtha Gautama was born into the Shakya clan, a community that was on the periphery, both geographically and culturally, of the northeastern Indian subcontinent in the 5th century BCE. It was either a small republic, in which case his father was an elected chieftain, or an oligarchy, in which case his father was an oligarch. According to the Buddhist tradition, Gautama was born in Lumbini, nowadays in modern-day Nepal, and raised in the Shakya capital of Kapilavastu, which may have been in either present day Tilaurakot, Nepal or Piprahwa, India. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, and died in Kushinagar.

No written records about Gautama have been found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, commemorates the Emperor's pilgrimage to the Buddha's birthplace in Lumbini. Another one of his edicts mentions several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era and which may be the precursors of the Pāli Canon. The oldest surviving Buddhist manuscripts are the Gandhāran Buddhist texts, reported to have been found in or around Haḍḍa near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan and now preserved in the British Library. They are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE.

TRADITIONAL BIOGRAPHIES

BIOGRAPHICAL SOURCES

The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different, and sometimes conflicting, traditional biographies. These include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, an epic poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa, and dating around the beginning of the 2nd century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE. The Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE. The Dharmaguptaka biography of the Buddha is the most exhaustive, and is entitled the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, and various Chinese translations of this date between the 3rd and 6th century CE. The Nidānakathā is from the Theravada tradition in Sri Lanka and was composed in the 5th century by Buddhaghoṣa.

From canonical sources, the Jataka tales, the Mahapadana Sutta (DN 14), and the Achariyabhuta Sutta (MN 123) which include selective accounts that may be older, but are not full biographies. The Jātakas retell previous lives of Gautama as a bodhisattva, and the first collection of these can be dated among the earliest Buddhist texts. The Mahāpadāna Sutta and Achariyabhuta Sutta both recount miraculous events surrounding Gautama's birth, such as the bodhisattva's descent from the Tuṣita Heaven into his mother's womb.

NATURE OF TRADITIONAL DEPICTIONS

In the earliest Buddhists texts, the nikāyas and āgamas, the Buddha is not depicted as possessing omniscience (sabbaññu) nor is he depicted as being an eternal transcendent (lokottara) being. According to Bhikkhu Analayo, ideas of the Buddha's omniscience (along with an increasing tendency to deify him and his biography) are found only later, in the Mahayana sutras and later Pali commentaries or texts such as the Mahāvastu. In the Sandaka Sutta, the Buddha's disciple Ananda outlines an argument against the claims of teachers who say they are all knowing while in the Tevijjavacchagotta Sutta the Buddha himself states that he has never made a claim to being omniscient, instead he claimed to have the "higher knowledges" (abhijñā). The earliest biographical material from the Pali Nikayas focuses on the Buddha's life as a śramaṇa, his search for enlightenment under various teachers such as Alara Kalama and his forty five year career as a teacher.

Traditional biographies of Gautama generally include numerous miracles, omens, and supernatural events. The character of the Buddha in these traditional biographies is often that of a fully transcendent (Skt. lokottara) and perfected being who is unencumbered by the mundane world. In the Mahāvastu, over the course of many lives, Gautama is said to have developed supra-mundane abilities including: a painless birth conceived without intercourse; no need for sleep, food, medicine, or bathing, although engaging in such "in conformity with the world"; omniscience, and the ability to "suppress karma". Nevertheless, some of the more ordinary details of his life have been gathered from these traditional sources. In modern times there has been an attempt to form a secular understanding of Siddhārtha Gautama's life by omitting the traditional supernatural elements of his early biographies.

Andrew Skilton writes that the Buddha was never historically regarded by Buddhist traditions as being merely human:

It is important to stress that, despite modern Theravada teachings to the contrary (often a sop to skeptical Western pupils), he was never seen as being merely human. For instance, he is often described as having the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks or signs of a mahāpuruṣa, "superman"; the Buddha himself denied that he was either a man or a god; and in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta he states that he could live for an aeon were he asked to do so.The ancient Indians were generally unconcerned with chronologies, being more focused on philosophy. Buddhist texts reflect this tendency, providing a clearer picture of what Gautama may have taught than of the dates of the events in his life. These texts contain descriptions of the culture and daily life of ancient India which can be corroborated from the Jain scriptures, and make the Buddha's time the earliest period in Indian history for which significant accounts exist. British author Karen Armstrong writes that although there is very little information that can be considered historically sound, we can be reasonably confident that Siddhārtha Gautama did exist as a historical figure. Michael Carrithers goes a bit further by stating that the most general outline of "birth, maturity, renunciation, search, awakening and liberation, teaching, death" must be true.

BIOGRAPHY

CONCEPTION AND BIRTH

The Buddhist tradition regards Lumbini, in present-day Nepal to be the birthplace of the Buddha. He grew up in Kapilavastu. The exact site of ancient Kapilavastu is unknown. It may have been either Piprahwa, Uttar Pradesh, present-day India, or Tilaurakot, present-day Nepal. Both places belonged to the Sakya territory, and are located only 15 miles apart from each other.

Gautama was born as a Kshatriya, the son of Śuddhodana, "an elected chief of the Shakya clan", whose capital was Kapilavastu, and who were later annexed by the growing Kingdom of Kosala during the Buddha's lifetime. Gautama was the family name. His mother, Maya (Māyādevī), Suddhodana's wife, was a Koliyan princess. Legend has it that, on the night Siddhartha was conceived, Queen Maya dreamt that a white elephant with six white tusks entered her right side, and ten months later Siddhartha was born. As was the Shakya tradition, when his mother Queen Maya became pregnant, she left Kapilvastu for her father's kingdom to give birth. However, her son is said to have been born on the way, at Lumbini, in a garden beneath a sal tree.

The day of the Buddha's birth is widely celebrated in Theravada countries as Vesak. Buddha's Birthday is called Buddha Purnima in Nepal and India as he is believed to have been born on a full moon day. Various sources hold that the Buddha's mother died at his birth, a few days or seven days later. The infant was given the name Siddhartha (Pāli: Siddhattha), meaning "he who achieves his aim". During the birth celebrations, the hermit seer Asita journeyed from his mountain abode and announced that the child would either become a great king (chakravartin) or a great sadhu. By traditional account, this occurred after Siddhartha placed his feet in Asita's hair and Asita examined the birthmarks. Suddhodana held a naming ceremony on the fifth day, and invited eight Brahmin scholars to read the future. All gave a dual prediction that the baby would either become a great king or a great holy man. Kondañña, the youngest, and later to be the first arhat other than the Buddha, was reputed to be the only one who unequivocally predicted that Siddhartha would become a Buddha.

While later tradition and legend characterized Śuddhodana as a hereditary monarch, the descendant of the Suryavansha (Solar dynasty) of Ikṣvāku (Pāli: Okkāka), many scholars think that Śuddhodana was the elected chief of a tribal confederacy.

Early texts suggest that Gautama was not familiar with the dominant religious teachings of his time until he left on his religious quest, which is said to have been motivated by existential concern for the human condition. The state of the Shakya clan was not a monarchy, and seems to have been structured either as an oligarchy, or as a form of republic. The more egalitarian gana-sangha form of government, as a political alternative to the strongly hierarchical kingdoms, may have influenced the development of the śramanic Jain and Buddhist sanghas, where monarchies tended toward Vedic Brahmanism.

EARLY LIFE AND MARRIAGE

Siddhartha was brought up by his mother's younger sister, Maha Pajapati. By tradition, he is said to have been destined by birth to the life of a prince, and had three palaces (for seasonal occupation) built for him. Although more recent scholarship doubts this status, his father, said to be King Śuddhodana, wishing for his son to be a great king, is said to have shielded him from religious teachings and from knowledge of human suffering.

When he reached the age of 16, his father reputedly arranged his marriage to a cousin of the same age named Yaśodharā (Pāli: Yasodharā). According to the traditional account, she gave birth to a son, named Rāhula. Siddhartha is said to have spent 29 years as a prince in Kapilavastu. Although his father ensured that Siddhartha was provided with everything he could want or need, Buddhist scriptures say that the future Buddha felt that material wealth was not life's ultimate goal.

RENUNCIATION AND ASCETIC LIFE

At the age of 29, the popular biography continues, Siddhartha left his palace to meet his subjects. Despite his father's efforts to hide from him the sick, aged and suffering, Siddhartha was said to have seen an old man. When his charioteer Channa explained to him that all people grew old, the prince went on further trips beyond the palace. On these he encountered a diseased man, a decaying corpse, and an ascetic. These depressed him, and he initially strove to overcome aging, sickness, and death by living the life of an ascetic.

Accompanied by Channa and riding his horse Kanthaka, Gautama quit his palace for the life of a mendicant. It's said that, "the horse's hooves were muffled by the gods" to prevent guards from knowing of his departure.

Gautama initially went to Rajagaha and began his ascetic life by begging for alms in the street. After King Bimbisara's men recognised Siddhartha and the king learned of his quest, Bimbisara offered Siddhartha the throne. Siddhartha rejected the offer, but promised to visit his kingdom of Magadha first, upon attaining enlightenment.

He left Rajagaha and practised under two hermit teachers of yogic meditation. After mastering the teachings of Alara Kalama (Skr. Ārāḍa Kālāma), he was asked by Kalama to succeed him. However, Gautama felt unsatisfied by the practice, and moved on to become a student of yoga with Udaka Ramaputta (Skr. Udraka Rāmaputra). With him he achieved high levels of meditative consciousness, and was again asked to succeed his teacher. But, once more, he was not satisfied, and again moved on.

Siddhartha and a group of five companions led by Kaundinya are then said to have set out to take their austerities even further. They tried to find enlightenment through deprivation of worldly goods, including food, practising self-mortification. After nearly starving himself to death by restricting his food intake to around a leaf or nut per day, he collapsed in a river while bathing and almost drowned. Siddhartha was rescued by a village girl named Sujata and she gave him some payasam (a pudding made from milk and jaggery) after which Siddhartha got back some energy. Siddhartha began to reconsider his path. Then, he remembered a moment in childhood in which he had been watching his father start the season's ploughing. He attained a concentrated and focused state that was blissful and refreshing, the jhāna.

AWAKENING

According to the early Buddhist texts, after realizing that meditative dhyana was the right path to awakening, but that extreme asceticism didn't work, Gautama discovered what Buddhists call the Middle Way - a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, or the Noble Eightfold Path, as was identified and described by the Buddha in his first discourse, the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. In a famous incident, after becoming starved and weakened, he is said to have accepted milk and rice pudding from a village girl named Sujata. Such was his emaciated appearance that she wrongly believed him to be a spirit that had granted her a wish.

Following this incident, Gautama was famously seated under a pipal tree - now known as the Bodhi tree - in Bodh Gaya, India, when he vowed never to arise until he had found the truth. Kaundinya and four other companions, believing that he had abandoned his search and become undisciplined, left. After a reputed 49 days of meditation, at the age of 35, he is said to have attained Enlightenment. According to some traditions, this occurred in approximately the fifth lunar month, while, according to others, it was in the twelfth month. From that time, Gautama was known to his followers as the Buddha or "Awakened One" ("Buddha" is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One").

According to Buddhism, at the time of his awakening he realized complete insight into the cause of suffering, and the steps necessary to eliminate it. These discoveries became known as the "Four Noble Truths", which are at the heart of Buddhist teaching. Through mastery of these truths, a state of supreme liberation, or Nirvana, is believed to be possible for any being. The Buddha described Nirvāna as the perfect peace of a mind that's free from ignorance, greed, hatred and other afflictive states, or "defilements" (kilesas). Nirvana is also regarded as the "end of the world", in that no personal identity or boundaries of the mind remain. In such a state, a being is said to possess the Ten Characteristics, belonging to every Buddha.

According to a story in the Āyācana Sutta (Samyutta Nikaya VI.1) - a scripture found in the Pāli and other canons - immediately after his awakening, the Buddha debated whether or not he should teach the Dharma to others. He was concerned that humans were so overpowered by ignorance, greed and hatred that they could never recognise the path, which is subtle, deep and hard to grasp. However, in the story, Brahmā Sahampati convinced him, arguing that at least some will understand it. The Buddha relented, and agreed to teach.

FORMATION OF THE SANGHA

After his awakening, the Buddha met Taphussa and Bhallika — two merchant brothers from the city of Balkh in what is currently Afghanistan - who became his first lay disciples. It is said that each was given hairs from his head, which are now claimed to be enshrined as relics in the Shwe Dagon Temple in Rangoon, Burma. The Buddha intended to visit Asita, and his former teachers, Alara Kalama and Udaka Ramaputta, to explain his findings, but they had already died.

He then travelled to the Deer Park near Varanasi (Benares) in northern India, where he set in motion what Buddhists call the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the five companions with whom he had sought enlightenment. Together with him, they formed the first saṅgha: the company of Buddhist monks.

All five become arahants, and within the first two months, with the conversion of Yasa and fifty four of his friends, the number of such arahants is said to have grown to 60. The conversion of three brothers named Kassapa followed, with their reputed 200, 300 and 500 disciples, respectively. This swelled the sangha to more than 1,000.

TRAVELS AND TEACHING

For the remaining 45 years of his life, the Buddha is said to have traveled in the Gangetic Plain, in what is now Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and southern Nepal, teaching a diverse range of people: from nobles to servants, murderers such as Angulimala, and cannibals such as Alavaka. Although the Buddha's language remains unknown, it's likely that he taught in one or more of a variety of closely related Middle Indo-Aryan dialects, of which Pali may be a standardization.

The sangha traveled through the subcontinent, expounding the dharma. This continued throughout the year, except during the four months of the Vāsanā rainy season when ascetics of all religions rarely traveled. One reason was that it was more difficult to do so without causing harm to animal life. At this time of year, the sangha would retreat to monasteries, public parks or forests, where people would come to them.

The first vassana was spent at Varanasi when the sangha was formed. After this, the Buddha kept a promise to travel to Rajagaha, capital of Magadha, to visit King Bimbisara. During this visit, Sariputta and Maudgalyayana were converted by Assaji, one of the first five disciples, after which they were to become the Buddha's two foremost followers. The Buddha spent the next three seasons at Veluvana Bamboo Grove monastery in Rajagaha, capital of Magadha.

Upon hearing of his son's awakening, Suddhodana sent, over a period, ten delegations to ask him to return to Kapilavastu. On the first nine occasions, the delegates failed to deliver the message, and instead joined the sangha to become arahants. The tenth delegation, led by Kaludayi, a childhood friend of Gautama's (who also became an arahant), however, delivered the message.

Now two years after his awakening, the Buddha agreed to return, and made a two-month journey by foot to Kapilavastu, teaching the dharma as he went. At his return, the royal palace prepared a midday meal, but the sangha was making an alms round in Kapilavastu. Hearing this, Suddhodana approached his son, the Buddha, saying:

"Ours is the warrior lineage of Mahamassata, and not a single warrior has gone seeking alms."

The Buddha is said to have replied:

"That is not the custom of your royal lineage. But it is the custom of my Buddha lineage. Several thousands of Buddhas have gone by seeking alms."

Buddhist texts say that Suddhodana invited the sangha into the palace for the meal, followed by a dharma talk. After this he is said to have become a sotapanna. During the visit, many members of the royal family joined the sangha. The Buddha's cousins Ananda and Anuruddha became two of his five chief disciples. At the age of seven, his son Rahula also joined, and became one of his ten chief disciples. His half-brother Nanda also joined and became an arahant.

Of the Buddha's disciples, Sariputta, Maudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Ananda and Anuruddha are believed to have been the five closest to him. His ten foremost disciples were reputedly completed by the quintet of Upali, Subhoti, Rahula, Mahakaccana and Punna.

In the fifth vassana, the Buddha was staying at Mahavana near Vesali when he heard news of the impending death of his father. He is said to have gone to Suddhodana and taught the dharma, after which his father became an arahant.The king's death and cremation was to inspire the creation of an order of nuns. Buddhist texts record that the Buddha was reluctant to ordain women. His foster mother Maha Pajapati, for example, approached him, asking to join the sangha, but he refused. Maha Pajapati, however, was so intent on the path of awakening that she led a group of royal Sakyan and Koliyan ladies, which followed the sangha on a long journey to Rajagaha. In time, after Ananda championed their cause, the Buddha is said to have reconsidered and, five years after the formation of the sangha, agreed to the ordination of women as nuns. He reasoned that males and females had an equal capacity for awakening. But he gave women additional rules (Vinaya) to follow.

MAHAPARINIRVANA

According to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta of the Pali canon, at the age of 80, the Buddha announced that he would soon reach Parinirvana, or the final deathless state, and abandon his earthly body. After this, the Buddha ate his last meal, which he had received as an offering from a blacksmith named Cunda. Falling violently ill, Buddha instructed his attendant Ānanda to convince Cunda that the meal eaten at his place had nothing to do with his passing and that his meal would be a source of the greatest merit as it provided the last meal for a Buddha. Mettanando and Von Hinüber argue that the Buddha died of mesenteric infarction, a symptom of old age, rather than food poisoning. The precise contents of the Buddha's final meal are not clear, due to variant scriptural traditions and ambiguity over the translation of certain significant terms; the Theravada tradition generally believes that the Buddha was offered some kind of pork, while the Mahayana tradition believes that the Buddha consumed some sort of truffle or other mushroom. These may reflect the different traditional views on Buddhist vegetarianism and the precepts for monks and nuns.

Waley suggests that Theravadin's would take suukaramaddava (the contents of the Buddha's last meal), which can translate as pig-soft, to mean soft flesh of a pig. However, he also states that pig-soft could mean "pig's soft-food", that is, after Neumann, a soft food favoured by pigs, assumed to be a truffle. He argues (also after Neumann) that as Pali Buddhism was developed in an area remote to the Buddha's death, the existence of other plants with suukara- (pig) as part of their names and that "(p)lant names tend to be local and dialectical" could easily indicate that suukaramaddava was a type of plant whose local name was unknown to those in the Pali regions. Specifically, local writers knew more about their flora than Theravadin commentator Buddhaghosa who lived hundreds of years and kilometres remote in time and space from the events described. Unaware of an alternate meaning and with no Theravadin prohibition against eating animal flesh, Theravadins would not have questioned the Buddha eating meat and interpreted the term accordingly.

Ananda protested the Buddha's decision to enter Parinirvana in the abandoned jungles of Kuśināra (present-day Kushinagar, India) of the Malla kingdom. The Buddha, however, is said to have reminded Ananda how Kushinara was a land once ruled by a righteous wheel-turning king that resounded with joy:

44. Kusavati, Ananda, resounded unceasingly day and night with ten sounds - the trumpeting of elephants, the neighing of horses, the rattling of chariots, the beating of drums and tabours, music and song, cheers, the clapping of hands, and cries of "Eat, drink, and be merry!"

The Buddha then asked all the attendant Bhikkhus to clarify any doubts or questions they had. They had none. According to Buddhist scriptures, he then finally entered Parinirvana. The Buddha's final words are reported to have been: "All composite things (Saṅkhāra) are perishable. Strive for your own liberation with diligence" (Pali: 'vayadhammā saṅkhārā appamādena sampādethā'). His body was cremated and the relics were placed in monuments or stupas, some of which are believed to have survived until the present. For example, The Temple of the Tooth or "Dalada Maligawa" in Sri Lanka is the place where what some believe to be the relic of the right tooth of Buddha is kept at present.

According to the Pāli historical chronicles of Sri Lanka, the Dīpavaṃsa and Mahāvaṃsa, the coronation of Emperor Aśoka (Pāli: Asoka) is 218 years after the death of the Buddha. According to two textual records in Chinese (十八部論 and 部執異論), the coronation of Emperor Aśoka is 116 years after the death of the Buddha. Therefore, the time of Buddha's passing is either 486 BCE according to Theravāda record or 383 BCE according to Mahayana record. However, the actual date traditionally accepted as the date of the Buddha's death in Theravāda countries is 544 or 545 BCE, because the reign of Emperor Aśoka was traditionally reckoned to be about 60 years earlier than current estimates. In Burmese Buddhist tradition, the date of the Buddha's death is 13 May 544 BCE. whereas in Thai tradition it is 11 March 545 BCE.

At his death, the Buddha is famously believed to have told his disciples to follow no leader. Mahakasyapa was chosen by the sangha to be the chairman of the First Buddhist Council, with the two chief disciples Maudgalyayana and Sariputta having died before the Buddha.

While in the Buddha's days he was addressed by the very respected titles Buddha, Shākyamuni, Shākyasimha, Bhante and Bho, he was known after his parinirvana as Arihant, Bhagavā/Bhagavat/Bhagwān, Mahāvira, Jina/Jinendra, Sāstr, Sugata, and most popularly in scriptures as Tathāgata.

BUDDHA AND VEDAS

Buddha's teachings deny the authority of the Vedas and consequently [at least atheistic] Buddhism is generally viewed as a nāstika school (heterodox, literally "It is not so") from the perspective of orthodox Hinduism.

RELICS

After his death, Buddha's cremation relics were divided amongst 8 royal families and his disciples; centuries later they would be enshrined by King Ashoka into 84,000 stupas. Many supernatural legends surround the history of alleged relics as they accompanied the spread of Buddhism and gave legitimacy to rulers.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

An extensive and colorful physical description of the Buddha has been laid down in scriptures. A kshatriya by birth, he had military training in his upbringing, and by Shakyan tradition was required to pass tests to demonstrate his worthiness as a warrior in order to marry. He had a strong enough body to be noticed by one of the kings and was asked to join his army as a general. He is also believed by Buddhists to have "the 32 Signs of the Great Man".

The Brahmin Sonadanda described him as "handsome, good-looking, and pleasing to the eye, with a most beautiful complexion. He has a godlike form and countenance, he is by no means unattractive." (D, I:115)

"It is wonderful, truly marvellous, how serene is the good Gotama's appearance, how clear and radiant his complexion, just as the golden jujube in autumn is clear and radiant, just as a palm-tree fruit just loosened from the stalk is clear and radiant, just as an adornment of red gold wrought in a crucible by a skilled goldsmith, deftly beaten and laid on a yellow-cloth shines, blazes and glitters, even so, the good Gotama's senses are calmed, his complexion is clear and radiant." (A, I:181)

A disciple named Vakkali, who later became an arahant, was so obsessed by the Buddha's physical presence that the Buddha is said to have felt impelled to tell him to desist, and to have reminded him that he should know the Buddha through the Dhamma and not through physical appearances.

Although there are no extant representations of the Buddha in human form until around the 1st century CE (see Buddhist art), descriptions of the physical characteristics of fully enlightened buddhas are attributed to the Buddha in the Digha Nikaya's Lakkhaṇa Sutta (D, I:142). In addition, the Buddha's physical appearance is described by Yasodhara to their son Rahula upon the Buddha's first post-Enlightenment return to his former princely palace in the non-canonical Pali devotional hymn, Narasīha Gāthā ("The Lion of Men").

Among the 32 main characteristics it is mentioned that Buddha has blue eyes.

NINE VIRTUES

Recollection of nine virtues attributed to the Buddha is a common Buddhist meditation and devotional practice called Buddhānusmṛti. The nine virtues are also among the 40 Buddhist meditation subjects. The nine virtues of the Buddha appear throughout the Tipitaka, and include:

- Buddho – Awakened

- Sammasambuddho – Perfectly self-awakened

- Vijja-carana-sampano – Endowed with higher knowledge and ideal conduct.

- Sugato – Well-gone or Well-spoken.

- Lokavidu – Wise in the knowledge of the many worlds.

- Anuttaro Purisa-damma-sarathi – Unexcelled trainer of untrained people.

- Satthadeva-Manussanam – Teacher of gods and humans.

- Bhagavathi – The Blessed one

- Araham – Worthy of homage. An Arahant is "one with taints destroyed, who has lived the holy life, done what had to be done, laid down the burden, reached the true goal, destroyed the fetters of being, and is completely liberated through final knowledge."

TEACHINGS

TRACING THE OLDEST TEACHINGS

Information of the oldest teachings may be obtained by analysis of the oldest texts. One method to obtain information on the oldest core of Buddhism is to compare the oldest extant versions of the Theravadin Pali Canon and other texts. The reliability of these sources, and the possibility to draw out a core of oldest teachings, is a matter of dispute. According to Vetter, inconsistencies remain, and other methods must be applied to resolve those inconsistencies.

According to Schmithausen, three positions held by scholars of Buddhism can be distinguished:

"Stress on the fundamental homogeneity and substantial authenticity of at least a considerable part of the Nikayic materials;"

"Scepticism with regard to the possibility of retrieving the doctrine of earliest Buddhism;"

"Cautious optimism in this respect."

DHYANA AND INSIGHT

A core problem in the study of early Buddhism is the relation between dhyana and insight. Schmithausen, in his often-cited article On some Aspects of Descriptions or Theories of 'Liberating Insight' and 'Enlightenment' in Early Buddhism notes that the mention of the four noble truths as constituting "liberating insight", which is attained after mastering the Rupa Jhanas, is a later addition to texts such as Majjhima Nikaya 36

CORE TEACHINGS

According to Tilmann Vetter, the core of earliest Buddhism is the practice of dhyāna. Bronkhorst agrees that dhyana was a Buddhist invention, whereas Norman notes that "the Buddha's way to release [...] was by means of meditative practices." Discriminating insight into transiency as a separate path to liberation was a later development.

According to the Mahāsaccakasutta, from the fourth jhana the Buddha gained bodhi. Yet, it is not clear what he was awakened to. "Liberating insight" is a later addition to this text, and reflects a later development and understanding in early Buddhism. The mentioning of the four truths as constituting "liberating insight" introduces a logical problem, since the four truths depict a linear path of practice, the knowledge of which is in itself not depicted as being liberating:

[T]hey do not teach that one is released by knowing the four noble truths, but by practicing the fourth noble truth, the eightfold path, which culminates in right samadhi.

Although "Nibbāna" (Sanskrit: Nirvāna) is the common term for the desired goal of this practice, many other terms can be found throughout the Nikayas, which are not specified.

According to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term "the middle way". In time, this short description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path.

According to both Bronkhorst and Anderson, the four truths became a substitution for prajna, or "liberating insight", in the suttas in those texts where "liberating insight" was preceded by the four jhanas. According to Bronkhorst, the four truths may not have been formulated in earliest Buddhism, and did not serve in earliest Buddhism as a description of "liberating insight". Gotama's teachings may have been personal, "adjusted to the need of each person."

The three marks of existence may reflect Upanishadic or other influences. K.R. Norman supposes that these terms were already in use at the Buddha's time, and were familiar to his listeners.

The Brahma-vihara was in origin probably a brahmanic term; but its usage may have been common to the Sramana traditions.

LATER DEVELOPMENTS

In time, "liberating insight" became an essential feature of the Buddhist tradition. The following teachings, which are commonly seen as essential to Buddhism, are later formulations which form part of the explanatory framework of this "liberating insight":

- The Four Noble Truths: that suffering is an ingrained part of existence; that the origin of suffering is craving for sensuality, acquisition of identity, and fear of annihilation; that suffering can be ended; and that following the Noble Eightfold Path is the means to accomplish this;

- The Noble Eightfold Path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration;

- Dependent origination: the mind creates suffering as a natural product of a complex process.

OTHER RELIGIONS

Some Hindus regard Gautama as the 9th avatar of Vishnu. The Buddha is also regarded as a prophet by the Ahmadiyya Muslims and a Manifestation of God in the Bahá'í Faith. Some early Chinese Taoist-Buddhists thought the Buddha to be a reincarnation of Lao Tzu.

The Christian Saint Josaphat is based on the Buddha. The name comes from the Sanskrit Bodhisattva via Arabic Būdhasaf and Georgian Iodasaph. The only story in which St. Josaphat appears, Barlaam and Josaphat, is based on the life of the Buddha. Josaphat was included in earlier editions of the Roman Martyrology (feast day 27 November) — though not in the Roman Missal — and in the Eastern Orthodox Church liturgical calendar (26 August).

Disciples of the Cao Đài religion worship the Buddha as a major religious teacher. His image can be found in both their Holy See and on the home altar. He is revealed during communication with Divine Beings as son of their Supreme Being (God the Father) together with other major religious teachers and founders like Jesus, Laozi, and Confucius.

In the ancient Gnostic sect of Manichaeism the Buddha is listed among the prophets who preached the word of God before Mani.

WIKIPEDIA

Body Language by Teresa's Place

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The modern dialects of Basque language by EyeQido

The map of modern dialects of Basque language

Western (Biscayan)

Central (Gipuzkoan)

Upper Navarrese

Lower Navarrese–Lapurdian

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Learning Languages by The Greatist

There’s more to language learning than picking up dates in a foreign country. We investigated some of the craziest methods of adult language education out there.

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Photo by Jess Ivy

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Collective 52 Photo Project "2016"

Week 25 - Sign Language

A photo from the archives,

'Ferme de Sainte-Colombe'

old sign on the wall of an abandoned farmhouse ...

This image is taken from United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 3, Nos. 1-4, 1909 by Medical Heritage Library, Inc.

Go to the Book with image in the Internet Archive

Title: United States Naval Medical Bulletin Vol. 3, Nos. 1-4, 1909

Creator: U.S. Navy. Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

Publisher:

Sponsor:

Contributor:

Date: 1909

Language: eng

Table of Contents

Number 1

Preface vii

Special articles 1

The artificial illumination of naval vessels (a study in naval

hygiene), by J. D. Gatewood 1

A simple operation for hemorrhoids, by H. F. Hull 22

Suggested devices 25

A metal suspensory, by W. B. Grove 25

A short and accurate method of calculating the age in years and months,

by E. M. Brown 25

Card for index system to be used in preparing smooth quarterly form

"X" at recruiting stations, etc., by C. R. Keen 27

Clinical notes 29

A case of angina Ludovici, by W. S. Pugh 29

A case of Vincent's angina, by G. F. Clark 31

Rupture of the iris; two cases, by R. K. Riggs 32

Wood alcohol poisoning; 13 cases, 3 deaths, by R. A. Baehmann 33

A case of virulent chancroids, by D. C. Gather 36

A case of septicemia successfully treated with Steam's streptolytic

serum by M. F. Gates . 39

An unusual case of undescended testicle, by E. M. Brown 39

Current comment 41

United States Pharmacopeial Convention 41

Concerning extracts or abstracts for publication 4l

Measuring the height of recruits 43

Suggestions for the study of heat exhaustion 44

Perfected routine of dosage, etc., in the treatment of tuberculosis by

the administration of mercury, by B. L. Wright 46

Has the chemical examination of water practical value to the military medical

officer? by P. '.T'. Waldner 47

An aid in throat and laryngeal examinations, by E. M. Brown 50

Progress in medical sciences 51

Laboratory —An anatomical peculiarity noted in specimens of hook worm

from Culebra 51

Preliminary note on the lesions of anchylostomiasis in the intestines of

dogs, by O. J. Mink 51

Preliminary note on nematode found in the liver of a wild rat, by O.

J.Mink 52

Chemistry and pharmacy — Note on the disintegration of tablets;

influence of benzoic acid and benzoates on digestion and health: address on the

clinical examination of urine, with especial reference to estimation of urea;

determination of pepsin by the edestin test, E. W. Brown and P. J. Waldner 52

Surgery —Review of advances; the operative treatment of recent

fractures of the femoral shaft; the treatment of fractures by mobilization and massage;

has surgical treatment lessened mortality from appendicitis; when to operate

for appendicitis; diffuse septic peritonitis, due to appendicitis; local

anesthesia of a limb by venous transfusion after expulsion of blood; on

narcosis under an artificially restricted circulation; the correlation of

glands with internal secretion; improved technique for the detection of

tubercle bacilli in the urine; relief of the wounded during battle, H. C. Curl

and H. W. Smith 54

Pathology and bacteriology —On the so-called fatty degeneration of the adrenals;

three cases of squamous celled carcinoma of the gall bladder; the practical

value of the demonstration of spirochaeta pallida in the early diagnosis of

syphilis; C. 8. Butler and O. J. Mink 65

Medical zoology — Plague in ground squirrels (a review); the prevalence

and distribution of the animal parasites of man in the Philippine Islands, with

a consideration of their possible influence on the public'

health; preliminary note on a protozoan in yaws; the intestinal protozoa

of man, R. C. Holcomb • 67

Tropical medicine — Ankylostomiasis in the Tropics; bilharziasis among women

and girls in Egypt; a report of several cases with unusual symptoms caused by

contact with some unknown variety of jellyfish; the diagnosis of latent

malaria; haemolysins and antihaemolytic substances in the blood of malarial

patients, E. R. Stitt 73

General medicine —The direct inspection of the gastric mucous membrane;

toxemia from the standpoint of perverted metabolism; a rapid method of

test-meal removal, lavage, and inflation; the therapeutics of diseases which

involve the internal secretions (mercury in the treatment of tuberculosis — its

mode of action —a warning); Flexner's serum in the treatment of epidemic

cerebrospinal meningitis; vascular crises; the curative influence of extracts

of leucocytes upon infections in animals, R. M. Kennedy 77

Hygiene and sanitation —Koch's standpoint with reference to the

question of the relation between human and bovine tuberculosis; the prevention of

tuberculosis; tropical lands and white races; sanitary report of the operations

of the naval expeditionary corps (German) in southwest Africa and in east

Africa; growth and naval military service; a study in measurements of cadets at

the naval school; on growth in height of youths serving their time in the army;

the value of fencing as a sport from hygienic and ethical point* of view; on-

the significance of the ophthalmo-reaction for the army; hematuria caused by a

parasite akin to bilharzia; the complex nature of typhoid etiology and the role

played by animals and man in the spread of the typhoid group of diseases; amoebae

carriers, H. G. Beyer 90

Reports and letters 195

Annual meeting of the American Pharmaceutical Association, Alrik Hammar,

delegate 105

Report of an epidemic of typhoid on the U.S.S. Maine, by M. S.

Elliott. 106

Report of an epidemic of grippe on the U. S. S. Charleston, by M. F.

Gates. 109

Number 2

Preface vii

Special articles 111

The treatment of tuberculosis and the results observed during the year 1908

(at the United States Naval Hospital, Las Animas, Colo.), by B. L. Wright 111

Laboratory studies and observations during the year 1908 (at the United

States Naval Hospital, Las Animas, Colo.), by A. B. Clifford 114

Tonsillar hypertrophy; a menace to the service, by B. F. Jenness 120

The ice bag in the treatment of typhoid fever, by G. Tucker Smith 122

Treatment of typhoid fever by colon irrigations, by the late C. G.

Alderman 124

Suggested devices 129

Description of a pit incinerator furnace, by R. C. Holcomb 129

Clinical notes 131

Report of a case of malignant endocarditis, following chancroid, by I.

Franklin Cohn 131

A case of multiple infected wounds from bear bite, by C. C. Grieve 132

A case presenting successive liver abscesses, by H. C. Curl and H. W. Smith

134

Cerebro-spinal fever, by J. G. Field 135

Current comment 141

Gangosa in Haiti 141

Hookworm disease in recruits from the Southern States 141

Care of ears and eyes in the Japanese navy 142

The question of ear protection in the British navy 142

Report relative to a series of experiments conducted on board the U. S.

S. Ohio during target practice, with "Plasticine" for the protection

of the ear drums during heavy gun fire, by W. M. Garton 142

Hygienic rules, with particular reference to venereal prophylaxis, in

the Austro-Hungarian navy 144

Experiments with gonococcic vaccine, by W. M. Garton 145

Thyroidal enlargement among applicants for enlistment in the Northwest,

by W. A. Angwin 147

Progress in medical sciences 148

Laboratory — Sterilization of catgut, by H. W. Smith 148

Chemistry and pharmacy — Fluidglycerates, pharmaceutical and physiological

aspect; the importance and significance of the chemical examination of the

gastric contents after a test meal, with a new method for estimating the

ferment activity of the gastric contents; demonstrations of enzymes and

antienzymes; studies on the chemistry of anaphylaxis; the clinical value of

viscosity determination; the viscosity of the blood; the detection and

quantitative determination of B-oxybutyric acid in the urine; a new method for

the quantitative estimation of albumin in the urine; concerning the diagnostic

value of Cammidge crystals in pancreatic diseases, E. W. Brown and P. J.

Waldner 150

Surgery — Review of advances; cerebral decompression; operative treatment

of acute gonorrheal epididymitis; appendectomy in diffuse septic peritonitis;

concerning technique of skin grafting; treatment of hypertrophy of the prostate

by injections of alien blood; the value of the Cammidge reaction in the diagnosis

of pancreatic disease; the Cammidge reaction in experimental pancreatitis; the

syphilis case sheet; the thymus in Basedow's disease; the effect of mammalian

pituitary on tetany after parathyreoidectomy, and upon the pupil; hemorrhage in

jaundice controlled by blood transfusion; on the haematogenic origin of

purulent nephritis through the staphylococcus; the snapping hip; three cases of

liver abscess treated by aspiration and injection of quinine, H. C. Curl and H.

\V. Smith: 156

Pathology and bacteriology — Widal’s

reaction with sterilized cultures; a new medium for typhoid work; report on a

further series of blood cultures from seventy-four cases of typhoid and

paratyphoid fever; the histology of liver tissue regeneration; typhoid bacilli

and gall bladder; the occurrence and distribution of the spirochaeta pallida in

congenital syphilis; experiments on the differentiation of cholera and

cholera-like vitrios by complement fixation;

C. S. Butler and O. J. Mink 166

Medical zoology —What is "schistosoma mansoni;" pulmonary

bilharziasis; filariasis and elephantiasis in southern Luzon; the diagnosis of African

tick fever from the examination of the blood; the parasite of

Kula Azar and allied organisms; a new human nematode-strongylus gibsoni;

report of the Permanent Commission for the Suppression of Uncinariasis; on the

supposed occurrence of the filaria immitis in man, R. C. Holcomb 174

Tropical medicine —An inquiry concerning the etiology of beriberi; have

trypanosomes an ultramicroscopical stage in their life history?; atoxyl as a

curative agent in malaria, E. R. Stitt 179

General medicine —The treatment of acute inflammatory conditions by

Bier's hypertemia; treatment of tetanus with subarachnoid injections of

magnesium sulphate; the serum diagnosis of syphilis; tubercle bacilli in the

sputum; a summary of the most recently published work on the doctrine of

opsonins; experimental investigation on "simple continued fever," H.

M. Kennedy 182

Hygiene and sanitation —On the application of heat for the purification

of water with troops in the field; catarrhal icterus of eberthian origin; the epidemic

of typhoid fever on H. M. S. Regina Elena; the treatment of sweat-foot in the

army; a contribution to our knowledge of the spread of cerebro-spinal

meningitis; on book disinfection on the large scale; the etiology of impetigo

contagiosa; tuberculosis in the British army and its prevention; symptoms that

may be attributed to soldering with the oxyhydrogen

flame; tactics and the health of the army, H. G. Beyer 189

Reports and letters 203

Seventeenth annual meeting of the Association of Military Surgeons,

Manley H. Simons, delegate 203

Report and recommendations of a board of officers, convened at the navy-yard,

Mare Island, Cal., on the precautionary methods to be taken to prevent the invasion of bubonic

plague at that station 205

Number 3

Preface VII

Special articles 211

Notes on the treatment of elephantiasis by the internal administration

of tinctuia ferri cbloridi, by P. S. Rossiter 211

A few notes on syphilis, by W. J. Zalesky 215

A note on the pathology of epidemic asthma, by O. J. Mink 222

Report on sixteen cases of heat prostration, with remarks on etiology,

by A. G. Grunwell 223

Reviews 231

Liver abscess from the point of view of etiology and prophylaxis; pathology

and differential diagnosis; and treatment (3 papers), by G. B. Crow,, J. A. B.

Sinclair, and J. F. Cottle 231

Suggested devices 245

Appliances improvised on sick bay bunks, by C. M. De Valin 245

Clinical notes 247

A case of fracture of patella, with operation at sea, by N. J.

Blackwood.. 247

A case of n current nasal hemorrhage, by Raymond Spear 250

A case of traumatic pneumonia, by C. F. Sterne 252

A case of liver abscess, by M. A. Stuart 254

Current comment 255

Hospital corps efficiency report 255

Physical defects found on reexamination of recruits 255

Some observations on the berthing of enlisted men of the navy, with suggestions

for improvement, by L. W. Curtis 256

The value of a chemical examination of water, by E. R. Noyes 257

Progress in medical sciences 267

Laboratory —A method for the preparation of flat worms for study, by O.

J. Mink and A. H. Ebeling .. 267

The formalin method for the clinical estimation of ammonia in the

urine, by E. W. Brown 269

Bang's method for estimation of sugar in the urine; the Edestin method for

the estimation of pepsin in stomach contents 273

Chemistry and pharmacy — Concerning the fractional precipitation of

albumin in the spinal fluid of normal cases luetics, functional and organic nervous

diseases and their bearing upon the differential diagnosis of dementia

paralytica, tabes dorsalis, tertiary and late syphilis; quantitative determination

of several sugars in the presence of each other in diabetic urines; the butyric

reaction for syphilis in man and in the monkey; excretion of amino acids in

pregnancy and after parturition; the relation between the protein content of

the blood serum and that of serous fluids; the further separation of antitoxin

from its associated proteins in horse serum, E. W. Brown and P. J. Waldner...276-279

Surgery —The Hodgen splint; surgical anemia and resuscitation; mechanism

underlying artificial respiration; a new theory of surgical shock; carbon

dioxide snow in the treatment of augioma; bursitis subacromialis, or

periarthritis of the shoulder joint; report on the local anesthetics recommended

as substitutes for cocaine; further researches on the etiology of endemic

goiter; auto- and iso-transplantation, in dogs, of the parathyroid glandules;

partial, progressive, and complete occlusion of the aorta and other large

arteries in the dog by means of the metal band; C. F. Stokes, R. Spear, and H.

W. Smith 279-289

Pathology and bacteriology —A simple method for the diagnosis of

syphilis; differential methods for detecting the typhoid bacilli in infected

water and milk; a peculiar intralobular cirrhosis of the liver produced by the protozoal

parasite of kala azar; the pathological anatomy of atoxyl poisoning; an

observation on the fate of B. Bulgaricus in the digestive tract of a monkey; a

contribution to the pathology of the spleen; a note, on the histology of a caue

of myelomatosis with Bence-Jones protein in

the urine; a new method for the recognition of indol in media; the rapid

diagnosis of rabies (a new stain for negri bodies); C. S. Butler and O. J. Mink

289-297

Medical zoology —Anew intestinal trematodeof man; some applications of the

precipitin reaction in the diagnosis of hydatid disease; bilharzia, hematobia,

and circumcision; trichocephaliasis; R. C. Holcomb ...... 297-306

Tropical medicine — Rice and beriberi; on the etiology of ulcerative

granuloma of the pudenda; amaebic dysentery with abscess of the liver in a patient

who had never been out of England; E. R. Stitt 306-308

General medicine —The dietetic treatment of diabetes; artificial

hyperemia in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis; remarks on the treatment of

gastric ulcer by immediate feeding; present status of the tuberculin tests; T.

W. Richards S0S-315

Hygiene and sanitation — On 'a new and practical method of securing bodily

cleanliness for our men on board ship; on the heat-conducting power of linoleum

as compared to that of floors made of wood or of

betone; on the discrimination of unrecognized diseases and on a disease

of overcrowding in ships, especially at

Malta; H. G. Beyer 315-320

Reports and letters 321

Guam; reports on health and sanitation for the years 1907 and 1908, by F.

E. McCullough and G. L. Angeny. 321

Number 4

Preface vii

Special articles 335

The hospital camp at Norfolk, Va., by P. A. Lovering 335

The teaching of tropical medicine outside of the Tropics, by E. R.

Stitt 308

Ethyl chloride as a general anaesthetic, by L. W. Johnson 344

Chronic nephritis in recruits, by B. F. Jenness 347

Supplementary report on the investigation of Samoan conjunctivitis, by P.

S. Rossiter 349

Points on embalming practicable on board ship, by C. Schaffer 351

Reviews 355

Surgical shock; a review of recent literature, by H. W. Smith 355

Suggested devices 365

Installation of an X-ray apparatus on the U. S. S. Maryland, by A.

Farenholt 365

Method of fumigation of vessels at Hamburg 368

An oxygen apparatus 370

An easily constructed bunk tray, by C. M. Oman 371

Clinical notes 373

Operations upon the kidney. United States naval hospital, New York, by G.

T. Smith 373

A report on two cases of dentigerous cysts, by D. N. Carpenter 374

A case of mammary development in the male, by E. M. Brown 376

Operative treatment of epididymitis, by W. S. Pugh, Jr 376

Two cases from report of U. S. S. Hancock—1908: (1) Retinal hemorrhage,

(2) myocarditis with rupture, by P. Leach 377

A case of fracture of the skull; operation and recovery, by F. W. F.

Wieber. 378

Carron oil in the treatment of otitis media suppurativa (acuta), by R.

E. Riggs 379

Fracture of skull and gunshot wound of lung, with recovery, by W. S.

Pugh, Jr ..... 381

Two unusual appendix cases, by R. R. Richardson 382

Proctoclysis in typhoid fever, by C. F. Stokes 384

Current comment 385

Subscription price of the Bulletin 385

Note on New York Post-Graduate Medical School 385

Note on contributions to the Bulletin 385

Note on annual meeting of American Medical Association on revision of pharmacopeia

386

Note on inquiry concerning clothing in the Tropics 386

Note on publicity concerning venereal disease in California 387

Review of Gatewood's Naval Hygiene 387

Note on the work at Tay Tay 388

Medical examination of army recruits, by A. E. Peck 389

Notes on the treatment of syphilis, by W. S. Hoen 391

Views on the treatment of typhoid fever, by H. A. May 393

Progress in medical sciences 397

Laboratory —Benedict's method for the estimation of glucose in the

urine; estimation of uric acid in the urine, Folin-Schaffer; clinical method

for the estimation of uric acid, modification of the Folin-Schaffer process; test

for blood in the urine; two methods for the estimation of albumin in the urine,

by O. J. Mink and E. W. Brown 397

Chemistry and pharmacy —The excretion in urine of sugars other than

glucose; experiments and experiences, pharmacological and clinical, with

digitalis, squill, and strophanthus; a reagent for the detection of reducing

sugars; on the antagonism of alcohol to carbolic acid ; the antitoxic activity

of iodine in tuberculosis; new experiments on the physiological action of

sulphuric ether; contribution to the physiology of the glands —further

contributions on the function of the spleen as an organ of iron metabolism;

modifications in the chemical composition of the blood serum in victims of

carbon dioxide poisoning, by P. J. Waldnerand C. Schaffer 402

Pathology and bacteriology —Studies on typhoid fever; chloroform

poisoning — liver necrosis and repair; the importance of blood cultures in the

study of infections of otitic origin; the cultivation of the spirocheeta

pallidum; the cultivation of the bacillus leprae; the chemistry of the liver in

chloroform necrosis; the present status of the whooping-cough question; the

conveyance of whooping cough from man to animals by direct experiment; serology

of syphilis, by C. S. Butler and O. J. Mink 407

Medical zoology — Schistosomiasis at Bahia; contribution to the study

of schistosomiasis in Bahia, Brazil; notes on malaria and kala-azar; endemic

amoebic dysentery in New York, with a review of its istribution in North America; filaria

(microfilaria) philippinensis; the distribution of filaria in the Philippine

Islands; acariens and cancers—acariens and leprosy; necator americanus in

Ceylon; anaemia due to trichocephalus dispar; study of the protozoa of J. H.

Wright in sixteen cases of Aleppo boil, by R. C. Holcomb 411

Tropical medicine — Infantile kala-azar; on the identity of beri-beri

and epidemic dropsy; Malta fever in South Africa; leprosy in the Philippine

Islands and its treatment; the various types of plague and their clinical

manifestations, by C. S. Butler 417

Hygiene and sanitation —The means by which infectious diseases are

transmitted; a critical study of the value of the measurements of chest expansion

and lung capacity; notes on the sanitation of yellow fever and malaria; the

house fly as a disease carrier, by H. G. Beyer 419

General medicine —A study of the aural and laryngeal complications of

typhoid fever, especially as observed in hospital practice; the problem of

cancer considered from the standpoint of immunity; nine cases of typhoid fever

treated with an antiendotoxic serum, by T. W. Richards 425

Surgery —Some practical points in the application of the bismuth paste

in chronic suppurative diseases; the sequence of the pathological changes in appendiceal

peritonitis; direct blood transfusion by means of paraffin-coated glass tubes;

the use of animal membrane in producing mobility in ankylosed joints, by C. F.

Stokes and R. Spear 431

Reports and letters 489

American Medical Association, by M. F. Gates 439

Report on the Second International Conference for Revision of Nomenclature

of Diseases and Causes of Death, by F. L. Pleadwell 445

Report upon medical relief measures at Messina, Sicily, by M. Donelson.

. 449

Reports of medical relief measures at Adana, Turkey, by J. T. Miller

and L. W. McGuire 452

If you have questions concerning reproductions, please contact the Contributing Library.

Note: The colors, contrast and appearance of these illustrations are unlikely to be true to life. They are derived from scanned images that have been enhanced for machine interpretation and have been altered from their originals.

Read/Download from the Internet Archive

See all images from this book

See all MHL images published in the same year

Case 9: Babel Texts (& Gandalf) by donaldboozer

Translating Genesis 11: 1-9 is a common translation exercise used by conlangers to “test drive” their conlangs. This is known as the “Babel Text” since it recounts the story of the Tower of Babel and the creation of the world’s numerous languages, an appropriate text for conlangers. The concept of using these verses for comparisons across conlangs was initiated by Jeffrey Henning, creator of the Langmaker web site (http://www.langmaker.com) and one of the pivotal figures in modern conlanging. For detailed information on any one translation, you are encouraged to take a look at the accompanying source web site. And now, for a sampling of Babel Texts...

9.B. Text:

For comparison, here is the Babel Text in English from the New International Version:

1.Now the whole world had one language and a common speech.

2.As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

3.They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.

4.Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5.But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building.

6.The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.

7.Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8.So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

9.That is why it was called Babel -- because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

9.C. Text:

The Babel Text in Sen:esepera

In honor of Jeffrey Henning, we begin with one of his personal creations: his attempt at reforming Esperanto.

1.O tutan tera eseti codo unin lingifa, o codo unin parola.

2.O tina ocasi, caim:tempo hu foiagi delo orienta, demo hu terofi pelatan loca eno loca codo Sinara [Shinar]; o hu domi dem:loca.

3.O hu paroli unin alo omin:una, "Feni, imu posete cusi berica, o pele beruli hu." O hu hafi berica contero setona, o cota hafi hu contero unigi berica.

4.O hu paroli, "Feni, imu posete conseteri imu ureba, o tura, caim:unon supera ebele atingi alo paradisa; o imu posete cusi imu enoma, ro imu ebele pere:emeti foran supero:eno fisaga codo tutan tera."

5.O Dia feni im:supere o fidi ureba o tura, caimo dimin:homa codo homa conseteri.

6.O Dia paroli, "Fidi, homa eseti unin, o hu hafi tutan unin lingifa; o tino hu comenci o fari: o ene hu ebele inhibici delo an:obica, caimo hu ebele emagi o fari.

7.Feni, imu posete iri im:supere, o dem:loca sangi hun lingifa, demo hu im:ebele compereni unin omin:unan parola."

8.Dia posete pere:emeti hu foron pano fisaga codo tutan tera: o hu cesige conseteri ureba.

9.Hun enoma eseti Babela [Babel]; cuso Dia dem:loca sangi lingifa codo tutan tera: o delo dem:loca Dia pere:emeti hu foran supero:eno fisaga codo tutan tera.

Translated by Jeffrey Henning

(http://www.langmaker.com/babel/senesper.htm)

9.D. Text:

The Babel Text in Lojban

Lojban began development in 1987 by the Logical Language Group. Derived from the much older Loglan, it is specifically designed to be culturally neutral, logic-based, grammatically unambiguous, and easily learned. More information can be found at www.lojban.org.

1..i piro le munje cu se bangu pada gi'e selkau le ka tavla fo makau

2..i ca le nu litru fa'a le stuna kei lei remna cu penmi lo foldi la cinar .i co'a xabju fy

3..i ry simsku lu .e'u mi'o loi kitybli cu zbasu gi'e mo'u seltokygau li'u .i ry pilno loi kitybli pe seba'i loi rokci .i loi tarla peseba'i loi rokpu'o

4..i ry cusku lu .e'u mi'o zmadu lo tcadu .e lo galdi'u poi le cpana be ke'a cu lamji le tsani .ija'ebo mi'o misno gi'enai pulce fi le terdi sefta li'u

5..i ku'i le nolcei cu dzikla tezu'e le nu catlu le tcadu .e le galdi'u poi lei remna ke'a ca'o zmadu

6..i le nolcei cu cusku lu za'a lei remna noi se bangu pa da cu ba'oco'a zmadu ti .ija'o no selpla ba nalselka'e ry

7..i .ai mi dzikla gi'e fi'urgau le bangu ry ja'e le nu na simjmi li'u

8..i le nolcei fairgau ry piro le terdi .i ry de'a zmadu le tcadu

9..i ki'u la'e di'u ty se cmene zo babel .i ki'u le nu bu'u ty le nolcei pu fi'urgau le bangu be le munje .i fe'eco'a ty le nolcei fairgau ry le pirosi'e terdi sefta

(http://www.omniglot.com/babel/lojban.htm)

9.E. Text:

The Babel Text in Elasin

Elasin, created as the language of a fictional race of beings, was intended to give the flavor of a cross between Zulu and Finnish.

1.Huana! Yevopa (Yeneva votelor pali) fathieneth avute vesotham dofa li mabienen sotheram thoshi.

2.Uitukieneth vuanana maku'ii hadarova mi'iamem Shinaroth li panamiene parshoth ka.

3.Vasieneth. Ti Fana. Sathitudison mosuanoram li kathitudison pivani ti. Sathitiene avu mosuanorsa hau kivashersa le'i ratemsa hau molesa le'i.

4.Vasieneth. Ti Fana. Sathitudisoth maram hapamef ludanu'ii kalathem shasta sathitudisoth manalam ebas ko. Hau kanitudiso lafonesa le ti.

5.Palakieta somara uhanin panamesh. Fanieta shasta faruthuditu tashemun avu marami hapamemi ko.

6.Vasieta takaleba. Ti Shemath. Iene vuanana dofa li mabuaneth vesotham dofa. Uatu sathitu ka uamuineth nekuare shipa dofani. Faruthudito shado avunash aben.

7.Fana. Shibaludisoth nivesotham ko hau wevakudinen le ko ti.

8.Kanitietan somara uhanin li sathitievinen avu nimarami nihapamemi.

9.Mabietoth mar manalam Shibalu'in kashko shibalietan parshoth ka somara uhanin vesotharam uhanin ko.

Translated by Don Boozer

(http://www.geocities.com/donaldboozer/elasin_trans.html)

9.F.1. Image: zhyler_babel.jpg

9.F.2. Text:

The Babel Text in Zhyler

“Zhyler is an SOV language with fifty-seven noun cases (in honor of the ketchup co.), all suffixing, and a robust vowel harmony system. In addition, there are seventeen noun classes, à la Swahili, which do much of the derivational footwork.” ~ David J. Peterson

(transliteration)

1.al erwi ymM ergajajan las MlDaja.

2.kedemiT dZarm2sleraz, urDar MlDaz Sinaraja Dejler, ras vMnase eZZanlar.

3.kaja n2nzerler, "zin! rymSuj kenlymeje, ame dZimMSSMja." ame rymSuj tSurjujkMjat mekler, ame kenelwi solwMxMja mekler.

4.ame n2nlerkaja, "zin! majaS tajdZar, enedwizM dZ2f deJdZeje ulbolarnam valzamaja, ras l2Za majaS ZenDer levzemeje, volanaz meJjaf ketSlerjes noGenzerneswimej."

5.ame ziliryf meSkajaja valdZajalara tajdZa, ulbolnamuf mataljatSot valar.

6.ame n2nler, "mat! al MlDa, je al erwi laskaS bel, ame ledZer edZZaNkaja. je manarDawMxMja r2zDe kajas Zarreznezze.

7.zin! tSot zixM erwixMf SirkMjar matkMNwMriz, vazamaja, ame erwixMjMr vMnase ugdazamaj.

8.ame meJjaf ketSlerjes vMnaseT noGenzerkajalar, ras kaja tajdZar valzMklar.

9.ras "babelet" Zennesler, tSot meJjaf erwijes vMnase ugdalar, ame meJjaf ketSlerjes vMnaseT noGenzerkajalar.

Translated by David J. Peterson

(http://dedalvs.free.fr/zhyler/babel.html)

9.G. Text:

The Babel Text in Alurhsa

Alurhsa is the creation of Anthony Harris of Vermont and is only a small part of his imaginary world. For much more on the language and culture of Aluria, visit Anthony's site at alurhsa.org.

1.Ná, ttòsnë zh'óñen ñeveláynû dwi sùlën hályen, ddá vìgeláynû dwi sùlë ¿óv ñevóznáyëná.

2.Ddá vëzhelû, shthálázályën ghel máçisáç, dyárán ghílâ ddeksánthán tye tirá Shínár, ddá geveláynun vá.

3.Ddá dívelùnyun áyáshénÿ, ráyv, ersháyá vóçón, ddá túgròsháyá dyárán. Ddá vóçón kúweláynun kólf senéfón ddá móllán kólf jóttem.

4.Ddá dívelun, ká, vreleksáyá íthlánán vùn tárháyá, teyá beren yáqánô Kálrÿíszán, ddá ersháyá kìvá ólvínÿ fárshán eleván, spé ághálsárrenelyá ás ttòsnënÿ zh'óñenyánÿ.

5.Ddá qíëdelû Áxván pólef sperrâ zh'íthlánán vùn zhë tárháyá ten vrelekseláyná káyár bóyená.

6.Ddá dívelû Áxván, ráyv, lhôñ dwensá zhë ¿áms ddá xónyá dwi sùlën hályen, ddá úmázhën fakályónyá. Kólfe ñeyësán dyáráç feñené ten ïnáqánónyá kályâ.

7.Ká, ándzáláyá ddá vezénáyá dyárs-hályen pólef el ñe vùzùnùnyá ñevësán áyáshéyá.

8.Eref dyárán ághálsárrelô Áxván ghel váç ás ttòsnënÿ zh'óñenyánÿ, ddá lepelun vreleksâ zh'íthlánán.

9.Ddá eref zhë shthevá sódlô Bábel, kálÿ vá vezénelû Áxván hályen ttòsná zh'óñenyá, ddá ghel váç ághálsárrelû Áxván dyárán ás ttòsnënÿ zh'óñenyánÿ.

Translated by Anthony Harris

(http://alurhsa.org/)

9.H. Text:

The Babel Text in Kimva

Kimva was part of the ConlangEvolutionExperiment (http://talideon.com/concultures/wiki/?doc=ConlangEvolutionExperiment).

1.shes gu mitp fok yi kimva ka fi loffaloffa.

2.shes liyley gÿif fontshixka, nashumva i mitsa, kalepfing kasinrasing, ka napische.

3.liyley fish, kalinzrak, gÿidachighng pekxutpekxut ka tugngoxorzeko gÿidapevma. nafok pekxutpekxut, ka natugngona ngu ngindu, ka mwech, ka natugngofa ngu lunggo.

4.nafish, gÿidafing i kex kayifok, ka i xaxsulofsa kafafok sich kakusxasing, ka gÿidachighng ngu kagÿifok, ka xiy ufefpagÿi gu kamitpfing.

5.ka YEF kom fombmogÿika fingghiche ka fesombi kex ka xaxsulofsa, liyley fingna.

6.ka YEF fish, desombi, na-s yi pum, ka gu nafok yi kimva, ngong xiÿghey nasek, yu vakepchina, ka nafuvmviy, nahumikxekxa.

7.kom fombmogÿika ayidafinghiche ka ayidapoy kimva kenofak, kumash nahumwitpu vaf kalimvok.

8.va-s muy YEF fepfeno kamitpfing gu, ka nachimving kex.

9.vaxkup kefofak nga si pabwu, kumash kangugÿising YEF poy kimva kenofak, ka YEF fepfeno fombjika gu kamitpfing.

Translated by Alex Fink

(http://talideon.com/concultures/wiki/?doc=kimva)

[ADDENDUM: From an email from Alex Fink to Don Boozer on the misattribution of this Babel Text: "I've spotted a misattribution, in the case of Babel texts. Kimva is not in fact my creation, but that of Pete Bleackley. I presume the misattribution came about because of the "Descendents" listing on talideon.com/concultures/wiki/?doc=kimva attributing the daughter language kimwa lilyeho to me; the attribution proper to kimva itself is the line saying "PeteBleackley" below that." Please check out the web source for this Babel Text for further information - DB]

9.I. Text:

The Babel Text in Itlani

Itlani is the creation of James E. Hopkins who speaks and writes the language fluently. James holds a B.A. in French and a Master's degree in Philosophy and has a wide range of interests including writing, dancing, poetry, and linguistics. His recently self-published book, Eden's Day, includes poetry in English and Itlani.

1.Shukhrám tá kúlit untár mú sholóva véy mú eypotóva lafiyáva.

2.Véy brinkiyáva ú mashrá tá pirénay dzevyáven, brenduóva díni tá skáan Shinár zhanyáven, véy izá paleyáven.

3.Véy marruvyáven, "Kadimyátay, shevedzovó korunyáti véy vutóva iküirunchyáti." Véy tá shevedzovó résh chendjeynúey lafiyáven véy tá khalmasóva résh indisíey lafiyáven.

4.Véy ruvyáren, "Kadimyátay, mogése shatardjaóva sitagyáti, véy kitsanóva, tá móyto kiína díni tá fridádjan onyázha: komshayóva mogése vataranyáti reshú véyla tá vísan tá kúlit untára rá-kreyifyáti.

5.Rúzay Uramún stinatyávad reshú tá shatardjaóva véy tá kitsanóva shunyátad, kiinovó tá peshsuú sitagávit onyáven.

6.Véy Uramún ruvyávad, "Tá ebón mú onyára khaá véy shéy vút mú sholóva lafiyáren, véy iíd onyára idá kiinóva korúnya mabugyáren; tsórni rahá kiinóva harvolyázhen vútay inutebyízha."

7.Kadimyátay, stinatyáti véy izá vútit sholóva ubikeyyáti, reshú tá eypotóva mutatamág dayáten rá.

8.Chalí, Uramún vutóva izáay véyla tá vísan tá kúlit untára kreyafyávad, véy tá shatardjaóva sitágya spranichyáven.

9.Idakín Babél mishtaratyíra, vár izá Uramún tá sholóva tá kúlit untára ubikeyyávad; véy izáay Uramún vutóva véyla tá vísan tá untára kreyafyávad.

Translated by James E. Hopkins

(http://www.langmaker.com/db/Itlani_Babel_Text)

9.J. Text

The Babel Text in Interlingua

Interlingua is an international auxiliary language (like Esperanto) that began development in 1924 by the International Auxiliary Language Association (IALA) and was published in 1951. Alice Vanderbilt Morris was the primary founder and funder of the project which was headed by Alexander Gode and William E. Collinson. Interlingua was sometimes referred to as “Standard Average European” by Dr. Gode.

1.Nunc le tote mundo habeva un lingua e un parola comun.

2.Como homines moveva se al est, illes trovava un plana in Shinar e establiva se illac.

3.Illes deciva a le un, "Veni, lassa nos facer briccas e cocer los minutosemente." Illes usava bricca in vice de petra, e catran pro mortero.

4.Tun illes deciva, "Veni, lassa nos construer nos un citate, con un turre que arriva a le celoes, a fin que nos pote facer un nomine pro nos e non esser dispersate trans le facie del tote mundo."

5.Ma le Senior veniva a basso vidar le citate e le turre que le homines construeva.

6.Le Senior deciva, "Si como un gente que parla le mesme lingua illes ha comenciate facer isto, tun nil que illes plana facer essera impossibile pro illes.

7.Veni, lassa nos descender e confunde lor lingua dunque illes non comprendera a le un."

8.Assi le Senior dispersava les de illac trans tote le mundo, e illes cessava construente le citate.

9.Que es proque il esseva appellate Babel -- proque illac le Senior confundeva le lingua del tote mundo. De illac le Senior dispersava les trans le facie del tote mundo.

Submitted to Langmaker by Dan Dawes

(http://www.langmaker.com/babel/interlingua.htm)

9.K. Text

The Babel Text in Talossan

Talossan was created by R. Ben Madison to be the official language of his micronation Talossa (which is entirely surrounded by the city of Milwaukee, WI). Madison has said “The Talossan language was created not as an amorphous conlang project for the world. It is not Esperanto. It was created for one purpose and one purpose only: to give a linguistic identity to the Kingdom of Talossa." For more information on Talossa and its language and culture, check out the official site at www.kingdomoftalossa.net.

1.És toct i tzarâ tigñhova viens glheþ és 'n parlançeu común.

2.Quând që os voiatxevent da l'est, os trovevent 'n azaçhár în Shinar, és os loc þavitevent.

3.Si zireva à sieu amíc, "Vetz! Láßetz që noi ládariçadrent ládarâs és lor baqadrent cumplätsmînt." És las ládarâs füvent els cräpsilor për lor, és la cretâ füt la muôltâ për lor.

4.És os zirevent, "Vetz! Láßetz që noi fraicadrent për üns 'n cità és 'n turmeu cün ça moláirâ în el çéu, és láßetz që noi façadrent 'n nôminâ për noi, da cráintschâ që noi estadrent spaperseschti sür la façâ da toct la tzarâ."

5.És Iáhave descendeva për vidarë la cità és el turmeu që els vürs tigñhovent fraichescù.

6.És Iáhave zireva, "Eiceâ, véiçi viens naziun, qi tent viens glhetg, és os en tienent auspicat. Nun niþil serà catxantat da lhor që os cunceptarhent à façarë.

7.Vetz! Láßetz që noi descendradent és loc cunfundadrent lor glhetg, svo að si non auscultarha el glhetg da sieu amic."

8.Aglhôrc Iáhave lor spaperseva dalà sür la façâ da toct la tzarâ, és os ceßevent à fraicar la cità.

9.Për aceastâ raziun a isch nominadâ Babel, cáir Iáhave loc cunfundeva el glhetg da toct la tzarâ, és c'è dalà që Iáhave lor spaperseva sür la façâ da toct la tzarâ.

Translated by C.M. Siervicül

(http://www.langmaker.com/db/Talossan_Babel_Text)

9.L. Text:

The Babel Text in Tepa

Tepa, created by Dirk Elzinga, is an attempt at "constructing" a plausible, vanished Native American language. Traces of the Tepa, Dirk says, vanished with the creation of Lake Powell.

1.huisi leqa sukuuqu, huisi tepa.

2.hukahekahee metapu sinaa kenipa eaqa kitile. hukate yu.

3.huyakkee, hawananpaqana.

4.huhawaqakkassa hanima etiqe ukaiqu kupine. huwaweletii pewalilkatta metasewe.

5.husahu qamana epite hanimaa akasa tukua.

6.huyakee qamana, hasua! isi tukua huisi leqa nequ. huqanani humuqappulpa eqana eamine.

7.wasahu huhawanulu leqane numuhuyu eteppa.

8.hulika metasewe tukua qamana huapupa ekasa hanimaa.

9.huten papele, anulu yu leqa tukua qamana elika yule metasewe.

Translated by Dirk Elzinga

(http://www.langmaker.com/featured/tepababel.htm)

9.M. Text:

The Babel Text in Konya

Konya is an international auxiliary language created by Larry Sulky designed to be easily learned.

1.posen-wi xoxe yo, telaxi tote tenu sile tokun-moti mune.

2.lawa, suki xoxe xon-ken-yu faisi ye tufu xon-xemapi lun-yo Xinarya ye kepu son-wi.

3.lawa, kusi toku tun-yo failen-sefi kayu "min-min-wi tepu fetu ketaten-peti ye sexen-kusu fine xon-wi" wo. lawa, kusi lilu lone ketaten-peti lono peti ye tauli lono petin-tauli.

4.lawa, kusi toku kayu "min-min-wi tepu fetu xiti wa ten-yo kaipasi, yo lelen-toxu saili wo, leso min-min-wi tepu lan-kenu suki tote ye tepu lan-pefu nin-ye tun-yo telaxi tote" wo.

5.naye, Sailin-punin-ya xain-yu saili leso sinu xiti ye kaipasa, yo suki fetu son-wi.

6.lawa, Sailin-punin-ya toku kayu "suki tote wa sukin-seti, yo toku lilo tokun-moti mune wo, taye kusi kaimu fuxu fetun-wi tise, ye taye fetun-wi tole, yo kusi sepu wo, pan-male wa nolo kusi" wo.

7.kayu min-wi sepu ken-yu telaxi ye pan-fun-pimen-yu tokun-moti yu kusi leso kusi pimen-lolu nin-ye failen-sefi wo.

8.taye Sailin-punin-ya pefu kusi xain-yo lun-tisen-wi tun-yo tote yu telaxi ye kusi kailu fetu xiti.

9.taye noli nemu xiti tuso Bebalya xemo Sailin-punin-ya pan-fun-pimen-yu lun-yo lun-tisen-wi tokun-moti yu telaxi tote. lawa, Sailin-punin-ya pefu kusi xain-yo lun-tisen-wi tun-yo telaxi tote.

Translated by Larry Sulky

(http://ca.geocities.com/handydad/konya/konya-babel.html)

9.N. Text:

Babel Text in Kēlen

Kēlen is the language of the Kēleni, inhabitants of Sylvia Sotomayor's conworld Tērjemar. The language is an attempt at constructing a language with no verbs, thus violating one of Greenberg's Universals. The conlang was the topic of Sylvia's talk at the second Language Creation Conference.

1.ielte la anmārwi pa antaxōni ān tēna;

2.il ñatta jarēþa rūānnie il ñatta jamāes japōññe sū jekiēn xīnār il aþ ñatta āke jamāramma;

3.ē teteñ ien hēja ñanna jacālmi jajūti nā aþ ōrra ñatta ancālmi to ankīþi aþ ōrra ñatta ancērri to anhērmi;

4.ē teteñ ien hēja ñanna jamāonre pa jakōnōr ja ñi jōl rā anīstīli; ē teteñ ien hēja ñanna lewēra tō tūaþ wā ñi ñēim makkepōlien rā anmārwi āñ pēxa;

5.il aþ ñi rā āke ā λi ārōn tō sema mo sarōña jamāonre pa jakōnōr ja ñatta ōrra;

6.il tamma ien ē ñi mēli mānīki ī la sāim antaxōni ān tēna ī la jāo jānne jakāe ja ñatta;

7.il tamma ien rēha ñatta janahan ja ñi jaþēŋŋe cēja lā;

8.il tamma ien ē ñi liēn rā āke tā aþ ñalla anwaxāon tō tūaþ ñi anxiēna ankewōra nīkamma sāim cī;

9.ē ñamma jāo ā λi ārōn ī ñamma sāim makkepōlien rā anmārwi āñ pēxa ī ñamma jamāonre anlāīke ankewōra; tō jāo sete sawēra λi waxāon tō ōrra ñamma anwaxāon antaxōni tēna sū āke ā λi ārōn;

Translated by Sylvia Sotomayor

(The Kēlen Babel Text can be accessed by typing cache:www.terjemar.net/babeltext.php into the Google search box.)

9.O. Text:

The Babel Text in Wasabi

Wasabi was a collaborative conlang venture undertaken by a class taught by David J. Peterson that examined the creation of pidgins. For a detailed look at the development of Wasabi, check out dedalvs.free.fr/wasabi.html.

1.Yasa ukali saya anu alima nala.

2.Si lamu amasu sami ala si siya numa niki isana kunayu si Shinar, aki wima isu.

3.Yasa alima anu si ika, "Wani kana nusika puma samapu aki si kusasi." Puma yumu nusika puma, alasa ukali yumu liwika.

4.Aki alima: "Niki! Wani pila amasu wima kunayu wa pika kunayu, ikala nali, wani ana wani amasu sami, unu lusa yumu wani unu liwika si yasa ukali."

5.Sika si nali niki ukali yata amasu wima kunayu wa pika kunayu malika sika pila.

6.Sika si nali alima: "Yata! Anu liwika kunayu yasa wa anu alima nala, ya aki pila wa unu yumu numa.

7.Niki! Wani niki si ukali, wani sunati nala, si yumu aki unu kisa ika sami alima.

8.Sika si nali unu liwika aki si yasa ukali, aki numa unatu si amasu wima kunayu.

9.Si ya yumu aki tasi ana Babel, yumu isu sika si nali sunati nala si yasa ukali, si isu sika si nali unu liwika aki si yasa ukali.

Translated by Mari Bandoma, Deise Benítez, Allison Buckley, Pablo Cabrera, Marc Callado, Patrick Chan, Charles Chang, Sarah Choi, Lizzy Ghedi-Ehrlich, Julie Gutiérrez, Norma Guzmán, Helen Khlystova, Jason Lin, Tom Nosewicz, Miriam Ochoa, David J. Peterson, Chris Ramiro, Michael Rivera, Adam Simpson, Amy Soong.

(http://www.langmaker.com/db/Bbl_wasabi.htm)

Shana - age 18 by RURO photography

2 22

My name is Shana. I’m 18 years old and I live in Vilvoorde (Belgium). I study Latin-Modern Languages. In my free time, I like reading, music, shopping, dancing and hanging out with my friends. When I was 14, I have been introduced to the gothic scene thanks to my best friend, who was interested in this subculture. I fell in love immediately with this style. Some people think it's ugly or abnormal, but I disagree . I admired the fact that there were people who dressed the way they wanted and didn't care for other people’s opinion. I found the clothes and the music amazing and I soon became a part of this subculture. I’ve been introduced to cyber gothic when they started selling those clothes in Antwerp. I already liked the music because they often play it at the Vampire Party in Antwerp, where I go out sometimes. When I go out, I dress cyber (but I often mix this style with other elements I like, I want to create my own unique style). Sadly enough doesn’t everyone understand my style. Some people call me a freak or think I just want some attention. I think it's sad that some people don't dress or act the way they want because they are affraid of other people's reactions. The world would be a better place if everyone would accept eachother.

This was my first photo shoot and it was a great experience. Rudi contacted me thanks to an article in the newspaper ‘Gazet van Antwerpen’. Hopefully I don’t look to amateurish on these pictures , but luckily he was patient with me and helped me a lot.

Haagse Trekvliet bij Station Hollands Spoor in Den Haag (136FJAKA_3234) by Janko Hoener

4 1

Title in other languages:

Deutsch: Der Kanal "Haagse Trekvliet" nahe des Bahnhofs "Hollands Spoor" in Den Haag, Niederlande

English: Channel "Haagse Trekvliet" close to the station "Hollands Spoor" in The Hague, The Netherlands

English:

Welcome and thank you for being here! This image forms part of a collection of photographs of moments on Planet Earth.

If you enjoy this work and want to support me financially, I’m glad to receive your donation via Paypal: paypal.me/jankohoener

If you intend to use this picture for your own purposes, please credit me with the following attribution line: Janko Hoener / CC-BY-SA-4.0. This is required by the license terms. A link back to this page and informing me about your usage via FlickrMail is appreciated.

Deutsch:

Willkommen und vielen Dank, dass Sie hier sind! Dieses Bild stellt Teil einer Sammlung von Fotografien von Augenblicken auf dem Planet Erde dar.

Wenn Ihnen diese Arbeit zusagt und Sie mich finanziell dabei unterstützen möchten, so freue ich mich über Ihre Spende via Paypal: paypal.me/jankohoener

Wenn Sie dieses Foto für eigene Zwecke nutzen möchten, geben Sie bitte Janko Hoener / CC-BY-SA-4.0 in der Bildunterschrift an. Dies ist per Lizenz gefordert. Über einen Link auf diese Seite und eine Benachrichtigung über die Nutzung via FlickrMail freue ich mich.

language blooms by amy rice

Enamel, Acrylic, Antique Love Letters

36” x 48”

2012

sold

City of Monterey 4th of July Parade by Presidio of Monterey

5 1

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.

Ghetto di Venezia / VI by Vincenzo Pisani

23 15

The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. It is from its name in Italian ("ghetto"), that the English word "ghetto" is derived: in the Venetian language it was named "ghèto". The Venetian Ghetto (incidentally, the first Ghetto) was instituted in 1516, though political restrictions on Jewish rights and residences existed before that date.

Though it was home to a large number of Jews, the population living in the Venetian Ghetto never assimilated to form a distinct, "Venetian Jewish" ethnicity. Four of the five synagogues were clearly divided according to ethnic identity: separate synagogues existed for the German (the Scuola Grande Tedesca), Italian (the Scuola Italiana), Spanish and Portuguese (the Scuola Spagnola), and Levantine Sephardi communities (The Scola Levantina). The fifth, the Scuola Canton, is believed to have been either French, or a private synagogue for the families who funded its construction. Today, there are also populations of Ashkenazic Jews in Venice, mainly Lubavitchers who operate one of two kosher foodstores, a yeshiva, and the aforementioned Chabad synagogue.

In September 1938, the promulgation of the fascist racial laws deprived the Jews of civil rights, and the Jewish community entered a difficult period under the leadership first of Aldo Finzi and subsequently (from June 1940 onwards) of Professor Giuseppe Jona.

In September 1943, Italy changed from being an ally of Nazi Germany into an occupied country, and the Nazis started a systematic hunt for Jews in Venice as in other Italian cities. On 17 September, Professor Jona committed suicide rather than hand over to the German authorities a list of Jewish community residents.

In November 1943, Jews were declared 'enemy aliens' in accordance with the manifesto of the Italian Social Republic, to be arrested and their property seized. Although some Jews managed to escape to neutral Switzerland or Allied-occupied southern Italy, over two hundred were rounded up, most between 5 December 1943 (when approximately 150 were arrested) and late summer 1944. They were held at the city's Marco Foscarini college, the women's prison on Giudecca, the prison at Santa Maria Maggiore and subsequently at Fossoli concentration camp, before being deported, in most cases, to Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944. Those arrested later in 1944 included some 20 residents of a Jewish convalescence home, the Casa di Ricovero Israelitica (including Venice's Chief Rabbi, Adolfo Ottolenghi, who chose to follow the fate of his fellow deportees) and 29 from a Jewish hospital. Most of those arrested in the summer of 1944 spent time incarcerated at Risiera di San Sabba concentration camp, Trieste. Although a figure of two hundred and five Jewish deportees from Venice between November 1943 and August 1944 is often quoted, one source give the higher figure of 246, which includes those deported to Trieste, some of whom died there, and a smaller number of arrests after this point up until the end of the war. Only 8 Jewish residents of Venice emerged from the death camps. The 1938 Jewish population of Venice (2000) was reduced by the war's end to 1500, or in some sources 1050.

What was Europe's first ghetto is now a lively and popular district of the city where the religious and administrative institutions of the Jewish Community and its five synagogues still persist.

Today, the Ghetto is still a center of Jewish life in the city. The Jewish Community of Venice, that counts 500 people, is of such cultural vitality that it is often a centre for the cultural life of the entire city.

springtime daffodil by Margret Maria Cordts

14 12

Case 8: Meet the Conlangers, center by donaldboozer

(Top)Meet the Conlangers: The World-wide Community of Language Creators

8.A. Text: Introductory paragraph

Conlanging transcends national boundaries and enjoys a global community of enthusiasts. A “census” of the Zompist Bulletin Board reveals members from the USA, Finland, France, New Zealand, Germany, UK, Hungary, Scandinavia, and South America. Conlanging is also multigenerational with ages of language creators and enthusiasts ranging from teens to senior citizens. Take a look at the attendees of the Language Creation Conference in this exhibit case. So, without further ado, may we introduce...

(Top left) David J. Peterson

Conlanger Extraordinaire

California

One of the most active conlangers on the web is David J. Peterson. He wrote the "Conlanger's Manifesto," was one of the speakers at both Language Creation Conferences so far (2006 and 2007), has been a vocal member of the CONLANG listserv for well over five years, has one of the finest web sites (http://dedalvs.free.fr) on the Internet devoted to conlanging (and his other various pursuits), and was President of the Society of Linguistics Undergraduates (SLUG) at UC Berkeley. In addition to creating languages like Kamakawi, Zhyler, Wasabi, Megdevi, and many others, David also created SLIPA (Sign Language International Phonetic Alphabet), a detailed system for representing all possible gestures in any signed language which can also be used to create a constructed sign language. Currently, David is also a member of the Board of Directors, as well as Treasurer and Secretary of the Language Creation Society (http://www.conlang.org) and is a contributor to The Speculative Grammarian (http://specgram.com), an online journal of linguistics humor.

David is a University of California (UC), Berkeley, alumnus (where he majored in English and linguistics); his Master's degree in Linguistics is from UC San Diego. David is currently adjunct professor of English at Fullerton College in California: the "Writing Guide" section of his web site is humorous as well as highly informative. He was also engaged last year to a fellow UCSD graduate, Erin McPherson. In his 2-man band, Number 6, David plays guitar, bass, and ukulele, and he sings. David is a devoted Mac user when it comes to computers: "I very use a Mac (try to make sense of that one, Chomsky!)."

Several Babel Texts translated by David are included throughout this exhibit, as well as the "Conlanger's Manifesto," (Exhibit Case #2) and his Amazon.com review of Describing Morphosyntax (Exhibit Case #3).

The Babel Text in Kamakawi (transliteration)

1.Ka peka i ape kalaka oi oalala poi.

2.Kau imawawakaiu upea a ie ku neva'a i ava ae peka Tinala pe, ku hepale ae pe.

3.Ku hekala i ika ti, "He'ea, he lama ue i timitiú u kava i uamo." Kae timitiú i leya ka iele i i'iele poupea.

4.Ku hekala poiu ti, "He paki ue i paleumi oi penute i ue a kopu ono o penute iu kawi, au atau ue, heoku u kawakawa'u heva e ave o peka."

5.Ka kau Takepolilao ele mata ie paleumi oie penute kau paki mali tiemi i.

6.Ke hekala poiu ti, "He! Ape peka, a ape kalaka i upea uila, au hepaka upea i iko. Oku li'u eleumi au takepo'u upea i hoa liwi'u upea a.

7.Ima! He kau ei e mimile ie kalaka o upea pe, aupe kala upea ioku ika.

8.Ke kawakawa Takepolilao i upeape heva e ave o peka, kau pu'uke upea ie paleumi.

9.Ape tomi'u amo ti "Imimile", ale mimile Takepolilao ie kalaka o inotu uila pe, e kawakawa i upeape heva e ave o peka.

Translated by David J. Peterson

(http://dedalvs.free.fr/kamakawi/babel.html)

(Top right) Mark Rosenfelder

"The Zompist"

Illinois

Mark Rosenfelder, a.k.a. “The Zompist” or “The Zomp”, has been creating languages and worlds since he was in grade school. One of The Zomp’s major gifts to the conlanging community is his Language Construction Kit (http://www.zompist.com/kit.html), often the first stop for beginning conlangers. The Kit provides a step-by-step approach to creating one’s own language compiled from resources gathered by Mark while attempting to learn linguistics on his own. Topics as diverse as what sounds to use in a conlang to how to construct language families and dialects are covered. The Zompist Bulletin Board, one of the Internet’s main forums for conlangers and con-worlders, is yet another of Mark’s contributions and is available at www.spinnoff.com/zbb.

Mark’s monumental online work, Virtual Verduria (http://www.zompist.com/virtuver.htm), began as a Dungeons & Dragons setting in his college days. It is the result of over twenty years of tinkering with concepts as diverse as language, history, chemistry, biology, and mythology. Virtual Verduria provides myriad details of Mark’s fantasy world of Almea, from the creation of its planetary system to the evolution of its indigenous inhabitants, and includes comprehensive maps, native stories, and myths of the various nations. There are a dozen individual languages or language families with grammars, vocabulary, and text samples. Mark has succinctly explained how he does all this by saying, “I have no kids and I don’t watch TV.”

Although The Zomp’s day job may be as a programmer, he has assured himself a spot in the Pantheon of Conlangers with his selfless activities in support of the art.

(Photo courtesy of Mark Rosenfelder)

(Bottom left) The Official Conlang Flag

The idea of a “conlang flag” was proposed by David J. Peterson on the CONLANG listserv in a message on Aug. 29, 2004. The next day, Adrian Morgan responded by saying: “Right, it's time to take this seriously,” and a rough sketch was submitted. Discussion on the topic was brisk, over twenty designs and revisions were submitted, and the results were announced on September 23, 2004. The basic layout was suggested by Leland Paul, but the winning flag’s final design was created by Christian Thalmann. Paul’s posting provides some of the symbolism: “Against a purple sky, signifying creativity, an orange sun rises, orange signifying energy, imagination, and communication. It sheds its light over a dark, not-yet-seen world. Silhouetted against the sun is the Tower of Babel, proclaiming the noble nature of the linguistic diversity.” The Tower of Babel also brings to mind the ubiquitous Babel Text often used as a translation exercise. The Conlang Flag has been displayed prominently at the Language Creation Conferences and can be seen on numerous conlangers’ web pages.

(Bottom Middle) Andrew Smith

Creator of Brithenig

New Zealand

Born in Invercargill, New Zealand, in 1965, Andrew currently lives in Dunedin, New Zealand. He is an Archives Assistant for the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand Archives. His native language is English, and, although he speaks several languages, Andrew admits that none are to "conversational level." Brithenig is the result of Andrew's attempt to create an alternative Romance language akin to French and Spanish: namely what would have happened to Latin if it had become established in the Celtic areas of Britain and evolved accordingly. "The earliest known record of Brithenig dates back to 1997," Andrew states. "It was inspired earlier by a reference to a Celtic-influenced romance language I discovered in a book on Celtic languages in 1990, my last year of study at the University of Otago. It would take me another four years before I returned to Dunedin to re-read the reference and create the language. The rest is history. Ill Bethisad is legacy." Ill Bethisad is the imaginary country where Bethisad is spoken. The extensive site dedicated to the imaginary nation and language can be found at www.bethisad.com. With maps, history, grammars, and more, Andrew's site rivals that of Mark Rosenfelder's Virtual Verduria.

Andrew continues: "As well as Brithenig I keep a journal in a conlang based on Old English. In recent years I have started on an eclectic language based on my collection of Teach Yourself Language books. I have about 40 of them. They are getting harder to find."

"Apart from creating languages I have created imaginary worlds, attempted writing, been involved in Mediaeval Re-enactment, work out at the gym for cardio, and practise religion. I have never travelled outside my country. I collect books, CDs, RSS-feeds, and occasionally hats."

(Photo courtesy of Andrew Smith. Quotes taken from an email to Don Boozer.)

The Babel Text in Brithenig

1.Hures il munn inter hav yn linghedig e yn cant commyn.

2.Sig il pobol summoden di'l est, ysses ligavan yn luin in Sennar e lâs'ysteblivan.

3.Ysses digevan il yn a'l altr, "Gwenitz, gwans a fager brics e cogher les interevent." Ysses ysavan brics in log di bedr, e arill per chelcin.

4.Afos ysses digevan, "Gwenitz, gwans a eddifigar per nos yn giwdad, cun yn tyr che tang a'ls cels, sig nos fagians yn novn per nos e no scians ysparied pas syss la fag di la der inter."

5.Mais il Tiern gweniv a vas a widder la giwdad e'l tyr che'l pobol eddifig.

6.Il Tiern digev, "Ec'h, altresi yn pobol che barol il linghedig medissiv, ysses yst han gyvnidiad a fager. Hures ys lâ no haverai negarad ren a les che ysses provassen a fager.

7.Gwenitz, gwans a vas a ystyrddir sew linghedig di les sig ysses no c'hompruinnessen ren di'l yn a'l altr."

8.Sig il Tiern yspariav di lâ syss tud la der, e ysses calvavan a eddifigar la giwdad.

9.Ho es perc'he sa afell Babel -- perc'he lâ il Tiern ystyrddiv il linghedig di'l munn inter. Di lâ il Tiern les yspariav syss la fag di la der inter.

Translated by Andrew Smith

(http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/babeltext.html)

(Bottom right) Dr. Sarah L. Higley

a.k.a. Sally Caves

Academic Conlanger

New York

Earning her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Sarah L. Higley is currently Associate Professor of English at the University of Rochester and a teacher of medieval languages and literature. She is also known by her alias, Sally Caves, which is the name you'll see on her website (http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html) outlining her conlang Teonaht. According to her site, Sally began documenting her language creation in 1962 at the age of nine. Dr. Higley goes on to say that in "the Fall of 2000, she co-taught an independent study with linguistics Professor Jeffrey Runner, wherein then freshman (and linguistics major) Douglas Ball was allowed to develop grammar and text for his invented language Skerre." Sally was a presenter at the first Language Creation Conference, has been interviewed by her local NPR radio station about conlanging, wrote an article entitled "Audience, Uglossia, and CONLANG" for M/C Journal (available online at journal.media-culture.org.au/0003/languages.php), and, in December 2007, published the definitive study of St. Hildegard of Bingen and her Lingua Ignota entitled Hildegard of Bingen's Unknown Language: An Edition, Translation, and Discussion. (For more information on St. Hildegard, see Exhibit Case #4). Dr. Higley is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Language Creation Society (http://www.conlang.org).

The Babel Text in Teonaht

1.Send tand potom takrem tefye uõnim kalalya, uõnim mongwyf.

2.Send seawim il plevvysta elai renek, he twe esteratwe armmandy; rilua-il twe nrinarem celil hea Hsinnarid, send eldwav hovar endõ.

3.Send euab ouarje eldwa jane: "Mantets! Nittaopra uents, uo ad õ potemaht flehhtyzmats." Send nittaopra eldwav uen to mimmivua uo nerik to cicya.

4.Send eldwav ebra: "Mantets! Tesa-ilz lirifel-jo hadhhamats ta mehuen aid kempa ar Erahenahil, send rõ tyr aittearmats, ta vera listsõ hyny il takrem ro ssosyarem.

5.Send Le Hrel elo hsommante sa lõ kerem il tesa liriffel-jo hadhhama-uarrel ihhain le plevvysta.

6.Send Le Hrel elo ebra, "Keyts, il plevvysta somad, uo uõnim kalalya twavhha; aibba estwa mippa: to vokraikarem, send vawem dihhai twav kare deytwav dal ai sebrarem esai lis.

7."Hsobmmantets; send twe kalalya vilvviglats ta vera pre-twav twe mongav rin euab ouarjo."

8.Le Hrel ad hyny il takrem elo toaaiba sossya, send il tesa eldwa beg hadha.

9.Evvaiba Bavel li'aittear ilid lirifel, uanner Le Hrel il uõm kalalya ilid potom takrem elo vilvvigla, send il plevvystan eldwa hovvandy sossyab.

Translation by Sally Caves

(http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/babel.html)

Language of Passing by B. R.

Washington D.C.

Bible by Alyssa Rees

5 2

prisonhouse of language by julio.garciah

"We have to cease to think if we refuse to do it in the prison-house of language; for we cannot reach further than the doubt which asks whether the limit we see is really a limit" - badly quoting Nietzsche

Sign Language by Ian Fichman

aka: HANDS

nickel & brass-plated steel

6"H x 4"W x 4"D / 3 lbs ea

2016

London by MKDarlo (Richard)

Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer whose works include the poems "Do not go gentle into that good night" and "And death shall have no dominion"; the 'play for voices' Under Milk Wood; and stories and radio broadcasts such as A Child's Christmas in Wales and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog. He became widely popular in his lifetime and remained so after his premature death at the age of 39 in New York City. By then, he had acquired a reputation, which he had encouraged, as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet".[3]

Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1914. An undistinguished pupil, he left school at 16 and became a journalist for a short time. Many of his works appeared in print while he was still a teenager; however, it was the publication of "Light breaks where no sun shines," in 1934, that caught the attention of the literary world. While living in London, Thomas met Caitlin Macnamara, whom he married in 1937. Their relationship was defined by alcoholism and was mutually destructive.[3] In the early part of their marriage, Thomas and his family lived hand-to-mouth, settling in the Welsh fishing village of Laugharne.

Thomas came to be appreciated as a popular poet during his lifetime, and he found earning a living as a writer difficult. He began augmenting his income with reading tours and radio broadcasts. His radio recordings for the BBC during the late 1940s brought him to the public's attention, and he was frequently used by the BBC as a populist voice of the literary scene.

Thomas first traveled to the United States in the 1950s. This is where his readings brought him a level of fame while his erratic behaviour and drinking worsened. His time in America cemented Thomas's legend, however, and he went on to record to vinyl such works as A Child's Christmas in Wales. During his fourth trip to New York in 1953, Thomas became gravely ill and fell into a coma, from which he never recovered. He died on 9 November 1953. His body was returned to Wales where he was interred at the village churchyard in Laugharne on 25 November 1953.

Though Thomas wrote exclusively in the English language, he has been acknowledged as one of the most important Welsh poets of the 20th century. He is noted for his original, rhythmic and ingenious use of words and imagery. Thomas's position as one of the great modern poets has been much discussed, and he remains popular with the public.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dylan_Thomas

This blue plaque is affixed to 54 Delancey Street, Camden

Language by NatalieMaynor

1 1

Language barriers are a big challenge. Stockholm, Sweden.

Nepal - Kathmandu - Art Shop - 49 by Manfred Sommer

Kathmandu is the capital and largest municipality of Nepal. It is the only city of Nepal with the administrative status of Mahanagar (Metropolitan City), as compared to Upa-Mahanagar (Sub-Metropolitan City) or Nagar (City). Kathmandu is the core of Nepal's largest urban agglomeration located in the Kathmandu Valley consisting of Lalitpur, Kirtipur, Madhyapur Thimi, Bhaktapur and a number of smaller communities. Kathmandu is also known informally as "KTM" or the "tri-city". According to the 2011 census, Kathmandu Metropolitan City has a population of 975.453 and measures 49,45 square kilometres.

The city stands at an elevation of approximately 1.400 metres in the bowl-shaped Kathmandu Valley of central Nepal. It is surrounded by four major hills: Shivapuri, Phulchoki, Nagarjun, and Chandragiri. Kathmandu Valley is part of three districts (Kathmandu, Lalitpur, and Bhaktapur), has the highest population density in the country, and is home to about a twelfth of Nepal's population.

Historically, the Kathmandu Valley and adjoining areas were known as Nepal Mandala. Until the 15th century, Bhaktapur was its capital when two other capitals, Kathmandu and Lalitpur, were established. During the Rana and Shah eras, British historians called the valley itself "Nepal Proper". Today, Kathmandu is not only the capital of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, but also the headquarters of the Bagmati Zone and the Central Development Region of Nepal.

Kathmandu is the gateway to tourism in Nepal. It is also the hub of the country's economy. It has the most advanced infrastructure of any urban area in Nepal, and its economy is focused on tourism, which accounted for 3.8% of Nepal's GDP in 1995–96. Tourism in Kathmandu declined thereafter during a period of political unrest, but since then has improved. In 2013, Kathmandu was ranked third among the top 10 travel destinations on the rise in the world by TripAdvisor, and ranked first in Asia.

The city has a rich history, spanning nearly 2000 years, as inferred from inscriptions found in the valley. Religious and cultural festivities form a major part of the lives of people residing in Kathmandu. Most of Kathmandu's people follow Hinduism and many others follow Buddhism. There are people of other religious beliefs as well, giving Kathmandu a cosmopolitan culture. Nepali is the most commonly spoken language in the city. English is understood by Kathmandu's educated residents. Kathmandu was devastated by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on April 25, 2015.

ETYMOLOGY

The city of Kathmandu is named after Kasthamandap temple, that stood in Durbar Square. In Sanskrit, Kastha (काष्ठ) means "wood" and Mandap (/मण्डप) means "covered shelter". This temple, also known as Maru Satal (in ″Newar language″), was built in 1596 by King Laxmi Narsingh Malla. The two-storey structure was made entirely of wood, and used no iron nails nor supports. According to legend, all the timber used to build the pagoda was obtained from a single tree. The structure unfortunately collapsed during the major earthquake in April 2015.

The colophons of ancient manuscripts, dated as late as the 20th century, refer to Kathmandu as Kasthamandap Mahanagar in Nepal Mandala. Mahanagar means "great city". The city is called "Kasthamandap" in a vow that Buddhist priests still recite to this day. Thus, Kathmandu is also known as Kasthamandap. During medieval times, the city was sometimes called Kantipur (कान्तिपुर). This name is derived from two Sanskrit words - Kanti and pur. "Kanti" is one of the names of the Goddess Lakshmi, and "pur" means place.

Among the indigenous Newar people, Kathmandu is known as Yen Desa (येँ देश), and Patan and Bhaktapur are known as Yala Desa (यल देश) and Khwopa Desa (ख्वप देश). "Yen" is the shorter form of Yambu (यम्बु), which originally referred to the northern half of Kathmandu.

HISTORY

Archaeological excavations in parts of Kathmandu have found evidence of ancient civilizations. The oldest of these findings is a statue, found in Maligaon, that was dated at 185 AD. The excavation of Dhando Chaitya uncovered a brick with an inscription in Brahmi script. Archaeologists believe it is two thousand years old. Stone inscriptions are an ubiquitous element at heritage sites and are key sources for the history of Nepal

The earliest Western reference to Kathmandu appears in an account of Jesuit Fathers Johann Grueber and Albert d'Orville. In 1661, they passed through Nepal on their way from Tibet to India, and reported that they reached "Cadmendu, the capital of the Kingdom of Necbal".

ANCIENT HISTORY

The ancient history of Kathmandu is described in its traditional myths and legends. According to Swayambhu Purana, the present day Kathmandu was once a lake called Nagdaha. The lake was drained by Manjusri, who established a city called Manjupattan and made Dharmakar the ruler of the land.

Kotirudra Samhita of Shiva Purana, Chapter 11, shloka 18 refers to the place as Nayapala city famous for its Pashupati Shivalinga. The name Nepal probably originates from this city Nayapala.

Very few historical records exist of the period before the medieval Licchavis rulers. According to Gopalraj Vansawali, a genealogy of Nepali monarchs, the rulers of Kathmandu Valley before the Licchavis were Gopalas, Mahispalas, Aabhirs, Kirants, and Somavanshi. The Kirata dynasty was established by Yalamber. During the Kirata era, a settlement called Yambu existed in the northern half of old Kathmandu. In some of the Sino-Tibetan languages, Kathmandu is still called Yambu. Another smaller settlement called Yengal was present in the southern half of old Kathmandu, near Manjupattan. During the reign of the seventh Kirata ruler, Jitedasti, Buddhist monks entered Kathmandu valley and established a forest monastery at Sankhu.

MEDIEVAL HISTORY

LICCHAVI ERA

The Licchavis from the Indo-Gangetic plain migrated north and defeated the Kiratas, establishing the Licchavi dynasty. During this era, following the genocide of Shakyas in Lumbini by Virudhaka, the survivors migrated north and entered the forest monastery in Sankhu masquerading as Koliyas. From Sankhu, they migrated to Yambu and Yengal (Lanjagwal and Manjupattan) and established the first permanent Buddhist monasteries of Kathmandu. This created the basis of Newar Buddhism, which is the only surviving Sanskrit-based Buddhist tradition in the world. With their migration, Yambu was called Koligram and Yengal was called Dakshin Koligram during most of the Licchavi era.Eventually, the Licchavi ruler Gunakamadeva merged Koligram and Dakshin Koligram, founding the city of Kathmandu. The city was designed in the shape of Chandrahrasa, the sword of Manjushri. The city was surrounded by eight barracks guarded by Ajimas. One of these barracks is still in use at Bhadrakali (in front of Singha Durbar). The city served as an important transit point in the trade between India and Tibet, leading to tremendous growth in architecture. Descriptions of buildings such as Managriha, Kailaskut Bhawan, and Bhadradiwas Bhawan have been found in the surviving journals of travelers and monks who lived during this era. For example, the famous 7th-century Chinese traveller Xuanzang described Kailaskut Bhawan, the palace of the Licchavi king Amshuverma. The trade route also led to cultural exchange as well. The artistry of the Newar people - the indigenous inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley - became highly sought after during this era, both within the Valley and throughout the greater Himalayas. Newar artists travelled extensively throughout Asia, creating religious art for their neighbors. For example, Araniko led a group of his compatriot artists through Tibet and China. Bhrikuti, the princess of Nepal who married Tibetan monarch Songtsän Gampo, was instrumental in introducing Buddhism to Tibet.

MALLA ERA

The Licchavi era was followed by the Malla era. Rulers from Tirhut, upon being attacked by Muslims, fled north to the Kathmandu valley. They intermarried with Nepali royalty, and this led to the Malla era. The early years of the Malla era were turbulent, with raids and attacks from Khas and Turk Muslims. There was also a devastating earthquake which claimed the lives of a third of Kathmandu's population, including the king Abhaya Malla. These disasters led to the destruction of most of the architecture of the Licchavi era (such as Mangriha and Kailashkut Bhawan), and the loss of literature collected in various monasteries within the city. Despite the initial hardships, Kathmandu rose to prominence again and, during most of the Malla era, dominated the trade between India and Tibet. Nepali currency became the standard currency in trans-Himalayan trade.

During the later part of the Malla era, Kathmandu Valley comprised four fortified cities: Kantipur, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, and Kirtipur. These served as the capitals of the Malla confederation of Nepal. These states competed with each other in the arts, architecture, aesthetics, and trade, resulting in tremendous development. The kings of this period directly influenced or involved themselves in the construction of public buildings, squares, and temples, as well as the development of water spouts, the institutionalization of trusts (called guthis), the codification of laws, the writing of dramas, and the performance of plays in city squares. Evidence of an influx of ideas from India, Tibet, China, Persia, and Europe among other places can be found in a stone inscription from the time of king Pratap Malla. Books have been found from this era that describe their tantric tradition (e.g. Tantrakhyan), medicine (e.g. Haramekhala), religion (e.g. Mooldevshashidev), law, morals, and history. Amarkosh, a Sanskrit-Nepal Bhasa dictionary from 1381 AD, was also found. Architecturally notable buildings from this era include Kathmandu Durbar Square, Patan Durbar Square, Bhaktapur Durbar Square, the former durbar of Kirtipur, Nyatapola, Kumbheshwar, the Krishna temple, and others.

MODERN ERA

EARLY SHAH RULE

The Gorkha Kingdom ended the Malla confederation after the Battle of Kathmandu in 1768. This marked the beginning of the modern era in Kathmandu. The Battle of Kirtipur was the start of the Gorkha conquest of the Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu was adopted as the capital of the Gorkha empire, and the empire itself was dubbed Nepal. During the early part of this era, Kathmandu maintained its distinctive culture. Buildings with characteristic Nepali architecture, such as the nine-story tower of Basantapur, were built during this era. However, trade declined because of continual war with neighboring nations. Bhimsen Thapa supported France against Great Britain; this led to the development of modern military structures, such as modern barracks in Kathmandu. The nine-storey tower Dharahara was originally built during this era.

RANA RULE

Rana rule over Nepal started with the Kot Massacre, which occurred near Hanuman Dhoka Durbar. During this massacre, most of Nepal's high-ranking officials were massacred by Jang Bahadur Rana and his supporters. Another massacre, the Bhandarkhal Massacre, was also conducted by Kunwar and his supporters in Kathmandu. During the Rana regime, Kathmandu's alliance shifted from anti-British to pro-British; this led to the construction of the first buildings in the style of Western European architecture. The most well-known of these buildings include Singha Durbar, Garden of Dreams, Shital Niwas, and the old Narayanhiti palace. The first modern commercial road in the Kathmandu Valley, the New Road, was also built during this era. Trichandra College (the first college of Nepal), Durbar School (the first modern school of Nepal), and Bir Hospital (the first hospital of Nepal) were built in Kathmandu during this era. Rana rule was marked by tyranny, debauchery, economic exploitation and religious persecution.

GEOGRAPHY

Kathmandu is located in the northwestern part of Kathmandu Valley to the north of the Bagmati River and covers an area of 50,67 square kilometres. The average elevation is 1.400 metres above sea level. The city is directly bounded by several other municipalities of the Kathmandu valley: south of the Bagmati by Lalitpur Sub-Metropolitan City (Patan) with which it today forms one urban area surrounded by a ring road, to the southwest by Kirtipur Municipality and to the east by Madyapur Thimi Municipality. To the north the urban area extends into several Village Development Committees. However, the urban agglomeration extends well beyond the neighboring municipalities, e. g. to Bhaktapur and just about covers the entire Kathmandu valley.

Kathmandu is dissected by eight rivers, the main river of the valley, the Bagmati and its tributaries, of which the Bishnumati, Dhobi Khola, Manohara Khola, Hanumant Khola, and Tukucha Khola are predominant. The mountains from where these rivers originate are in the elevation range of 1.500–3.000 metres, and have passes which provide access to and from Kathmandu and its valley. An ancient canal once flowed from Nagarjuna hill through Balaju to Kathmandu; this canal is now extinct.

Kathmandu and its valley are in the Deciduous Monsoon Forest Zone (altitude range of 1.200–2.100 metres), one of five vegetation zones defined for Nepal. The dominant tree species in this zone are oak, elm, beech, maple and others, with coniferous trees at higher altitude.

TOURISM

Tourism is considered another important industry in Nepal. This industry started around 1950, as the country's political makeup changed and ended the country's isolation from the rest of the world. In 1956, air transportation was established and the Tribhuvan Highway, between Kathmandu and Raxaul (at India's border), was started. Separate organizations were created in Kathmandu to promote this activity; some of these include the Tourism Development Board, the Department of Tourism and the Civil Aviation Department. Furthermore, Nepal became a member of several international tourist associations. Establishing diplomatic relations with other nations further accentuated this activity. The hotel industry, travel agencies, training of tourist guides, and targeted publicity campaigns are the chief reasons for the remarkable growth of this industry in Nepal, and in Kathmandu in particular.

Since then, tourism in Nepal has thrived; it is sometimes called the "third religion" of Nepal. It is the country's most important industry. Tourism is a major source of income for most of the people in the city, with several hundred thousand visitors annually. Hindu and Buddhist pilgrims from all over the world visit Kathmandu's religious sites such as Pashupatinath, Swayambhunath, Boudhanath and Budhanilkantha. From a mere 6179 tourists in 1961–62, the number jumped to 491504 in 1999-2000. With the end of Maoist insuregency period in 2009 there was a significant rise of 509,956 tourist arrivals. Since then, tourism has improved as the country turned into a Democratic Republic. In economic terms, the foreign exchange registered 3.8% of the GDP in 1995–96 but then started declining. The high level of tourism is attributed to the natural grandeur of the Himalayas and the rich cultural heritage of the country.

The neighborhood of Thamel is Kathmandu's primary "traveler's ghetto", packed with guest houses, restaurants, shops, and bookstores, catering to tourists. Another neighborhood of growing popularity is Jhamel, a name for Jhamsikhel coined to rhyme with Thamel. Jhochhen Tol, also known as Freak Street, is Kathmandu's original traveler's haunt, made popular by the hippies of the 1960s and 1970s; it remains a popular alternative to Thamel. Asan is a bazaar and ceremonial square on the old trade route to Tibet, and provides a fine example of a traditional neighborhood.

With the opening of the tourist industry after the change in the political scenario of Nepal in 1950, the hotel industry drastically improved. Now Kathmandu boasts several five-star hotels like Hyatt Regency, Hotel Yak & Yeti, The Everest Hotel, Hotel Radisson, Hotel De L'Annapurna, The Malla Hotel, Shangri-La Hotel (which is not operated by the Shangri-La Hotel Group) and The Shanker Hotel. There are several four-star hotels such as Hotel Vaishali, Hotel Narayani, The Blue Star and Grand Hotel. The Garden Hotel, Hotel Ambassador, and Aloha Inn are among the three-star hotels in Kathmandu. Hotels like Hyatt Regency, De L'Annapurna and Hotel Yak & Yeti are among the five-star hotels providing casinos as well.

DEMOGRAPHICS

Kathmandu's urban cosmopolitan character has made it the most populous city in Nepal, recording a population of 671846 residents living in 235387 households in the metropolitan area, according to the 2001 census. According to the National Population Census of 2011, the total population of Kathmandu city was 975543 with an annual growth rate of 6,12% with respect to the population figure of 2001. 70% of the total population residing in Kathmandu are aged between 15 and 59.

Over the years the city has been home to people of various ethnicities, resulting in a range of different traditions and cultural practices. In one decade, the population increased from 427045 in 1991 to 671805 in 2001. The population was projected to reach 915071 in 2011 and 1.319.597 by 2021. To keep up this population growth, the KMC-controlled area of 5,076.6 hectares has expanded to 8.214 hectares in 2001. With this new area, the population density which was 85 in 1991 is still 85 in 2001; it is likely to jump to 111 in 2011 and 161 in 2021.

ETHNIC GROUPS

The largest ethnic groups are Newar (29.6%), Matwali (25.1% Sunuwar, Gurung, Magars, Tamang etc.), Khas Brahmins (20.51%) and Chettris (18.5%) . Tamangs originating from surrounding hill districts can be seen in Kathmandu. More recently, other hill ethnic groups and Caste groups from Terai have become present as well in vast majority. The major languages are Nepali, Nepal Bhasa and English is understood by about 30% of the people. The major religions are Hinduism and Buddhism.

The linguistic profile of Kathmandu underwent drastic changes during the Shah dynasty's rule because of its strong bias towards the Brahminic culture. Sanskrit language therefore was preferred and people were encouraged to learn it even by attending Sanskrit learning centers in Terai. Sanskrit schools were specially set up in Kathmandu and in the Terai region to inculcate traditional Hindu culture and practices originated from Nepal.

ARCHITECTURE AND CITYSCAPE

The ancient trade route between India and Tibet that passed through Kathmandu enabled a fusion of artistic and architectural traditions from other cultures to be amalgamated with local art and architecture. The monuments of Kathmandu City have been influenced over the centuries by Hindu and Buddhist religious practices. The architectural treasure of the Kathmandu valley has been categorized under the well-known seven groups of heritage monuments and buildings. In 2006 UNESCO declared these seven groups of monuments as a World Heritage Site (WHS). The seven monuments zones cover an area of 188,95 hectares, with the buffer zone extending to 239,34 hectares. The Seven Monument Zones (Mzs) inscribed originally in 1979 and with a minor modification in 2006 are Durbar squares of Hanuman Dhoka, Patan and Bhaktapur, Hindu temples of Pashupatinath and Changunarayan, the Buddhist stupas of Swayambhu and Boudhanath.

DURBAR SQUARES

The literal meaning of Durbar Square is a "place of palaces". There are three preserved Durbar Squares in Kathmandu valley and one unpreserved in Kirtipur. The Durbar Square of Kathmandu is located in the old city and has heritage buildings representing four kingdoms (Kantipur, Lalitpur, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur); the earliest is the Licchavi dynasty. The complex has 50 temples and is distributed in two quadrangles of the Durbar Square. The outer quadrangle has the Kasthamandap, Kumari Ghar, and Shiva-Parvati Temple; the inner quadrangle has the Hanuman Dhoka palace. The squares were severely damaged in the April 2015 Nepal earthquake.

Hanuman Dhoka is a complex of structures with the Royal Palace of the Malla kings and of the Shah dynasty. It is spread over five acres. The eastern wing, with ten courtyards, is the oldest part, dating to the mid-16th century. It was expanded by King Pratap Malla in the 17th century with many temples. The royal family lived in this palace until 1886 when they moved to Narayanhiti Palace. The stone inscription outside is in fifteen languages.

Kumari Ghar is a palace in the center of the Kathmandu city, next to the Durbar square where a Royal Kumari selected from several Kumaris resides. Kumari, or Kumari Devi, is the tradition of worshipping young pre-pubescent girls as manifestations of the divine female energy or devi in South Asian countries. In Nepal the selection process is very rigorous. Kumari is believed to be the bodily incarnation of the goddess Taleju (the Nepali name for Durga) until she menstruates, after which it is believed that the goddess vacates her body. Serious illness or a major loss of blood from an injury are also causes for her to revert to common status. The current Royal Kumari, Matina Shakya, age four, was installed in October 2008 by the Maoist government that replaced the monarchy.

Kasthamandap is a three-storeyed temple enshrining an image of Gorakhnath. It was built in the 16th century in pagoda style. The name of Kathmandu is a derivative of the word Kasthamandap. It was built under the reign of King Laxmi Narsingha Malla. Kasthamandap stands at the intersection of two ancient trade routes linking India and Tibet at Maru square. It was originally built as a rest house for travelers.

PASHUPATINATH TEMPLE

The Pashupatinath Temple is a famous 5th century Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva (Pashupati). Located on the banks of the Bagmati River in the eastern part of Kathmandu, Pashupatinath Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kathmandu. It served as the seat of national deity, Lord Pashupatinath, until Nepal was secularized. However, a significant part of the temple was destroyed by Mughal invaders in the 14th century and little or nothing remains of the original 5th-century temple exterior. The temple as it stands today was built in the 19th century, although the image of the bull and the black four-headed image of Pashupati are at least 300 years old. The temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Shivaratri, or the night of Lord Shiva, is the most important festival that takes place here, attracting thousands of devotees and sadhus.

Believers in Pashupatinath (mainly Hindus) are allowed to enter the temple premises, but non-Hindu visitors are allowed to view the temple only from the across the Bagmati River. The priests who perform the services at this temple have been Brahmins from Karnataka, South India since the time of Malla king Yaksha Malla. This tradition is believed to have been started at the request of Adi Shankaracharya who sought to unify the states of Bharatam (Unified India) by encouraging cultural exchange. This procedure is followed in other temples around India, which were sanctified by Adi Shankaracharya.

The temple is built in the pagoda style of architecture, with cubic constructions, carved wooden rafters (tundal) on which they rest, and two-level roofs made of copper and gold.

BOUDHANATH

The Boudhanath, (also written Bouddhanath, Bodhnath, Baudhanath or the Khāsa Chaitya), is one of the holiest Buddhist sites in Nepal, along with Swayambhu. It is a very popular tourist site. Boudhanath is known as Khāsti by Newars and as Bauddha or Bodhnāth by speakers of Nepali. Located about 11 km from the center and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupa's massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. Boudhanath became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.The base of the stupa has 108 small depictions of the Dhyani Buddha Amitabha. It is surrounded with a brick wall with 147 niches, each with four or five prayer wheels engraved with the mantra, om mani padme hum. At the northern entrance where visitors must pass is a shrine dedicated to Ajima, the goddess of smallpox. Every year the stupa attracts many Tibetan Buddhist pilgrims who perform full body prostrations in the inner lower enclosure, walk around the stupa with prayer wheels, chant, and pray. Thousands of prayer flags are hoisted up from the top of the stupa downwards and dot the perimeter of the complex. The influx of many Tibetan refugees from China has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan gompas (monasteries) around Boudhanath.

SWAYAMBHU

Swayambhu is a Buddhist stupa atop a hillock at the northwestern part of the city. This is among the oldest religious sites in Nepal. Although the site is considered Buddhist, it is revered by both Buddhists and Hindus. The stupa consists of a dome at the base; above the dome, there is a cubic structure with the eyes of Buddha looking in all four directions.[clarification needed] There are pentagonal Toran above each of the four sides, with statues engraved on them. Behind and above the torana there are thirteen tiers. Above all the tiers, there is a small space above which lies a gajur.

CULTURE

ARTS

Kathmandu valley is described as "an enormous treasure house of art and sculptures", which are made of wood, stone, metal, and terracotta, and found in profusion in temples, shrines, stupas, gompas, chaityasm and palaces. The art objects are also seen in street corners, lanes, private courtyards, and in open ground. Most art is in the form of icons of gods and goddesses. Kathmandu valley has had this art treasure very long, but received worldwide recognition only after the country opened its doors to the outside world in 1950.

The religious art of Nepal and Kathmandu in particular consists of an iconic symbolism of the Mother Goddesses such as: Bhavani, Durga, Gaja-Lakshmi, Hariti-Sitala, Mahsishamardini, Saptamatrika (seven mother goddesses), and Sri-Lakshmi(wealth-goddess). From the 3rd century BC, apart from the Hindu gods and goddesses, Buddhist monuments from the Ashokan period (it is said that Ashoka visited Nepal in 250 BC) have embellished Nepal in general and the valley in particular. These art and architectural edifices encompass three major periods of evolution: the Licchavi or classical period (500 to 900 AD), the post-classical period (1000 to 1400 AD), with strong influence of the Palla art form; the Malla period (1400 onwards) that exhibited explicitly tantric influences coupled with the art of Tibetan Demonology.

A broad typology has been ascribed to the decorative designs and carvings created by the people of Nepal. These artists have maintained a blend of Hinduism and Buddhism. The typology, based on the type of material used are: Stone Art, Metal Art, Wood Art, Terracotta Art, and Painting.

MUSEUMS

Kathmandu is home to a number of museums and art galleries, including the National Museum of Nepal and the Natural History Museum of Nepal. Nepal's art and architecture is an amalgamation of two ancient religions, Hinduism and Buddhhism. These are amply reflected in the many temples, shrines, stupas, monasteries, and palaces in the seven well-defined Monument Zones of the Kathmandu valley recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This amalgamation is also reflected in the planning and exhibitions in museums and art galleries throughout Kathmandu and its sister cities of Patan and Bhaktapur. The museums display unique artifacts and paintings from the 5th century CE to the present day, including archeological exportation.

KATHMANDU MUSEUMS ABD ART GALLERIES INCLUDE:

The National Museum

The Natural History Museum

Hanumandhoka Palace Complex

The Kaiser Library

The National Art Gallery

The NEF-ART (Nepal Fine Art) Gallery

The Nepal Art Council Gallery

Narayanhity Palace Museum

The Taragaon Museum

The National Museum is located in the western part of Kathmandu, near the Swayambhunath stupa in an historical building. This building was constructed in the early 19th century by General Bhimsen Thapa. It is the most important museum in the country, housing an extensive collection of weapons, art and antiquities of historic and cultural importance. The museum was established in 1928 as a collection house of war trophies and weapons, and the initial name of this museum was Chhauni Silkhana, meaning "the stone house of arms and ammunition". Given its focus, the museum contains an extensive quantity of weapons, including locally made firearms used in wars, leather cannons from the 18th–19th century, and medieval and modern works in wood, bronze, stone and paintings.

The Natural History Museum is located in the southern foothills of Swayambhunath hill and has a sizeable collection of different species of animals, butterflies, and plants. The museum is noted for its display of species, from prehistoric shells to stuffed animals.

The Tribhuvan Museum contains artifacts related to the King Tribhuvan (1906–1955). It has a variety of pieces including his personal belongings, letters and papers, memorabilia related to events he was involved in and a rare collection of photos and paintings of Royal family members. The Mahendra Museum is dedicated to king Mahendra of Nepal (1920–1972). Like the Tribhuvan Museum, it includes his personal belongings such as decorations, stamps, coins and personal notes and manuscripts, but it also has structural reconstructions of his cabinet room and office chamber. The Hanumandhoka Palace, a lavish medieval palace complex in the Durbar, contains three separate museums of historic importance. These museums include the Birendra museum, which contains items related to the second-last monarch, Birendra of Nepal.

The enclosed compound of the Narayanhity Palace Museum is in the north-central part of Kathmandu. "Narayanhity" comes from Narayana, a form of the Hindu god Lord Vishnu, and Hiti, meaning "water spout" (Vishnu's temple is located opposite the palace, and the water spout is located east of the main entrance to the precinct). Narayanhity was a new palace, in front of the old palace built in 1915, and was built in 1970 in the form of a contemporary Pagoda. It was built on the occasion of the marriage of King Birenda Bir Bikram Shah, then heir apparent to the throne. The southern gate of the palace is at the crossing of Prithvipath and Darbar Marg roads. The palace area covers 30 hectares and is fully secured with gates on all sides. This palace was the scene of the Nepali royal massacre. After the fall of the monarchy, it was converted to a museum.The Taragaon Museum presents the modern history of the Kathmandu Valley. It seeks to document 50 years of research and cultural heritage conservation of the Kathmandu Valley, documenting what artists photographers architects anthropologists from abroad had contributed in the second half of the 20th century. The actual structure of the Museum showcases restoration and rehabilitation efforts to preserve the built heritage of Kathmandu. It was designed by Carl Pruscha (master-planner of the Kathmandy Valley) in 1970 and constructed in 1971. Restoration works began in 2010 to rehabilitate the Taragaon hostel into the Taragaon Museum. The design uses local brick along with modern architectural design elements, as well as the use of circle, triangles and squares. The Museum is within a short walk from the Boudhnath stupa, which itself can be seen from the Museum tower.

ART GALLERIES

Kathmandu is a center for art in Nepal, displaying the work of contemporary artists in the country and also collections of historical artists. Patan in particular is an ancient city noted for its fine arts and crafts. Art in Kathmandu is vibrant, demonstrating a fusion of traditionalism and modern art, derived from a great number of national, Asian, and global influences. Nepali art is commonly divided into two areas: the idealistic traditional painting known as Paubhas in Nepal and perhaps more commonly known as Thangkas in Tibet, closely linked to the country's religious history and on the other hand the contemporary western-style painting, including nature-based compositions or abstract artwork based on Tantric elements and social themes of which painters in Nepal are well noted for. Internationally, the British-based charity, the Kathmandu Contemporary Art Centre is involved with promoting arts in Kathmandu.

Kathmandu contains many notable art galleries. The NAFA Gallery, operated by the Arts and crafts Department of the Nepal Academy is housed in Sita Bhavan, a neo-classical old Rana palace.

The Srijana Contemporary Art Gallery, located inside the Bhrikutimandap Exhibition grounds, hosts the work of contemporary painters and sculptors, and regularly organizes exhibitions. It also runs morning and evening classes in the schools of art. Also of note is the Moti Azima Gallery, located in a three storied building in Bhimsenthan which contains an impressive collection of traditional utensils and handmade dolls and items typical of a medieval Newar house, giving an important insight into Nepali history. The J Art Gallery is also located in Kathmandu, near the Royal Palace in Durbarmarg, Kathmandu and displays the artwork of eminent, established Nepali painters. The Nepal Art Council Gallery, located in the Babar Mahal, on the way to Tribhuvan International Airport contains artwork of both national and international artists and extensive halls regularly used for art exhibitions.

CUISINE

The staple food of most of Kathmanduites is dal bhat. It consists of rice and lentil soup, generally served with vegetable curries, achar and sometimes Chutney. Momo, a type of Nepali version of Tibetan dumpling, has become prominent in Nepal with many street vendors selling it. It is one of the most popular fast foods in Kathmandu. Various Nepali variants of momo including buff (i.e. buffalo) momo, chicken momo, and vegetarian momo are famous in Kathmandu. Dal Bhaat is the local cuisine of Kathmandu.

Most of the cuisines found in Kathmandu are non-vegetarian. However, the practice of vegetarianism is not uncommon, and vegetarian cuisines can be found throughout the city. Consumption of beef is very uncommon and considered taboo in many places. Buff (meat of water buffalo) is very common. There is a strong tradition of buff consumption in Kathmandu, especially among Newars, which is not found in other parts of Nepal. Consumption of pork was considered taboo until a few decades ago. Due to the intermixing with Kirat cuisine from eastern Nepal, pork has found a place in Kathmandu dishes. A fringe population of devout Hindus and Muslims consider it taboo. The Muslims forbid eating buff as from Quran while Hindus eat all varieties except Cow's meat as the consider Cow to be a goddess and symbol of purity. The chief breakfast for locals and visitors is mostly Momo or Chowmein.

Kathmandu had only one restaurant in 1955. A large number of restaurants in Kathmandu have since opened, catering Nepali cuisine, Tibetan cuisine, Chinese cuisine and Indian cuisine in particular. Many other restaurants have opened to accommodate locals, expatriates, and tourists. The growth of tourism in Kathmandu has led to culinary creativity and the development of hybrid foods to accommodate for tourists such as American chop suey, which is a sweet-and-sour sauce with crispy noodles with a fried egg commonly added on top and other westernized adaptations of traditional cuisine. Continental cuisine can be found in selected places. International chain restaurants are rare, but some outlets of Pizza Hut and KFC have recently opened there. It also has several outlets of the international ice-cream chain Baskin-Robbins

Kathmandu has a larger proportion of tea drinkers than coffee drinkers. Tea is widely served but is extremely weak by western standards. It is richer and contains tea leaves boiled with milk, sugar and spices. Alcohol is widely drunk, and there are numerous local variants of alcoholic beverages. But its use has been now reduced.refnational survey. Drinking and driving is illegal, and authorities have a zero tolerance policy. Ailaa and thwon (alcohol made from rice) are the alcoholic beverages of Kathmandu, found in all the local bhattis (alcohol serving eateries). Chhyaang, tongba (fermented millet or barley) and rakshi are alcohols from other parts of Nepal which are found in Kathmandu. However, shops and bars in Kathmandu widely sell western and Nepali beers. Shops are forbidden to sell alcohol on the first two days and last two days of the Nepali month (Nepal Sambat).

FESTIVALS

Most of the fairs and festivals in Kathmandu originated in the Malla period or earlier. Traditionally, these festivals were celebrated by Newars. In recent years, these festivals have found wider participation from other Kathmanduites as well. As the capital of the Republic of Nepal, various national festivals are celebrated in Kathmandu. With mass migration to the city, the cultures of Khas from the west, Kirats from the east, Bon/Tibetan from the north, and Mithila from the south meet in the capital and mingle harmoniously. The festivities such as the Ghode (horse) Jatra, Indra Jatra, Dashain Durga Puja festivals, Shivratri and many more are observed by all Hindu and Buddhist communities of Kathmandu with devotional fervor and enthusiasm. Social regulation in the codes enacted incorporate Hindu traditions and ethics. These were followed by the Shah kings and previous kings, as devout Hindus and protectors of Buddhist religion.

Cultural continuity has been maintained for centuries in the exclusive worship of goddesses and deities in Kathmandu and the rest of the country. These deities include the Ajima, Taleju (or Tulja Bhavani), Digu taleju, and Kumari (the living goddess).[citation needed] The artistic edifices have now become places of worship in the everyday life of the people, therefore a roster is maintained to observe annual festivals. There are 133 festivals held in the year.

Some of the traditional festivals observed in Kathmandu, apart from those previously mentioned, are Bada Dashain, Tihar, Chhath, Maghe Sankranti, Naga Panchami, Janai Poornima, Pancha Dan, Teej/Rishi Panchami, Pahan Charhe, Jana Baha Dyah Jatra (White Machchhendranath Jatra), and Matatirtha Aunsi.

HINDUISM

Assumedly, together with the kingdom of Licchhavi (c. 400 to 750), Hinduism and the endogam social stratification of the Caste was established in Kathmandu Valley. The Pashupatinath Temple, Changu Narayan temple (the oldest), and the Kasthamandap are of particular importance to Hindus. Other notable Hindu temples in Kathmandu and the surrounding valley include Bajrayogini Temple, Dakshinkali Temple, Guhyeshwari Temple, and the Sobha Bhagwati shrine.

The Bagmati River which flows through Kathmandu is considered a holy river both by Hindus and Buddhists, and many Hindu temples are located on the banks of this river. The importance of the Bagmati also lies in the fact that Hindus are cremated on its banks, and Kirants are buried in the hills by its side. According to the Nepali Hindu tradition, the dead body must be dipped three times into the Bagmati before cremation. The chief mourner (usually the first son) who lights the funeral pyre must take a holy riverwater bath immediately after cremation. Many relatives who join the funeral procession also take bath in the Bagmati River or sprinkle the holy water on their bodies at the end of cremation as the Bagmati is believed to purify people spiritually.

BUDDHISM

Buddhism started in Kathmandu with the arrival of Buddhist monks during the time of Buddha (c. 563 - 483 BC). They started a forest monastery in Sankhu. This monastery was renovated by Shakyas after they fled genocide from Virudhaka (rule: 491-461 BC).

During the Hindu Lichchavi era (c. 400 to 750), various monasteries and orders were created which successively led to the formation of Newar Buddhism, which is still practiced in the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Sanskrit.

WIKIPEDIA

Kazakhstan in Kazakh by ellyoracle77

"A Man Is Lonely Outside a Church" by Sion Fullana

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Body language can be so revealing sometimes.... don't you think?

I wonder if he had lost his faith and hope and was about to leave the place, or if on the contrary he was there trying to find some...

14th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues,

New York

Taken with a 3G iPhone

PATHWAYS Negotiation Education Summer2018 by U.S. Embassy Jerusalem

Negotiation Education: Thirty Jewish and Arab English language educators from diverse communities came together at the Hermon Field School to participate in a Negotiation Education workshop for four intensive days facilitated by PATHWAYS Institute for Negotiation Education funded by the US Embassy Public Affairs Section and the Regional English Language Office. Assistant Clinical Professor at Harvard Law School Rachel Viscomi brought her expertise on how to delve into problem-solving and manage difficult conversations. The schedule also included master classes, with role plays facilitated by Alumni of the Pathways program, and the RELO introduced Embassy opportunities and resources for English Language enhancement. Early morning yoga, a nature hike and evenings packed with a poetry slam and a web chat with Erin Gruwell from the Freedom Writers Foundation allowed the teachers to experience unique creative English techniques and training to take back into their classrooms. The MoE's partnership with the program allowed them to award professional development credits to the teachers for participation.

English language proficiency in England and Wales by Office for National Statistics

The 2011 Census included questions for the first time on English language proficiency for those who had a main language other than English. For residents who lived in Wales, the English category included those whose main language was Welsh.

The latest analysis from ONS has looked at how proficiency in English varied across the different main languages spoken, how health related to proficiency in English and looked at the proficiency of 3-15 year olds across local authorities in England and Wales.

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/detailed-charac...

Blick auf Schienen in Rheinbreitbach (143FJAKA_8401) by Janko Hoener

Title in other languages:

English: View onto railway tracks in Rheinbreitbach, Germany

Nederlands: Zicht op rails in Rheinbreitbach (Duitsland)

English:

Welcome and thank you for being here! This image forms part of a collection of photographs of moments on Planet Earth.

If you enjoy this work and want to support me financially, I’m glad to receive your donation via Paypal: paypal.me/jankohoener

Deutsch:

Willkommen und vielen Dank, dass Sie hier sind! Dieses Bild stellt Teil einer Sammlung von Fotografien von Augenblicken auf dem Planet Erde dar.

Wenn Ihnen diese Arbeit zusagt und Sie mich finanziell dabei unterstützen möchten, so freue ich mich über Ihre Spende via Paypal: paypal.me/jankohoener

Speakers by John Pasden

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Body Language Infographic by Pinchofhealth

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What you can tell from a person’s body language ➡ www.shape-able.com/10-proven-ways-to-be-more-attractive-t...

body language by Joanna Kitchener

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