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Potala-in-Exile

The seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile is in McLeod Ganj (upper Dharamsala), a picturesque town in the Indian Himalayas.

History and Culture

On Caste Privilege NEW!
Much has been written about the unearned privilege of race and gender. What does the privilege of caste look like in Indian society? How and why has caste been politicized?

The Minangkabau: Mixing Islam and Matriarchy NEW!
This matriarchal society of Muslims in Indonesia
reminds us that religion and culture are never cut from whole cloth.

The Dance of Indian Democracy NEW!
Why did democracy take root in India against all odds? What are its distinguishing features? Six decades later, how close is it to Ambedkar's inspiring vision of democracy?

The Blight of Hindustan NEW!
The Indian caste system continues to mystify outsiders. Here is a brisk overview of its origins, spread, and some historical attitudes and debates.

The Other Swastika NEW!
Can the symbol ever be redeemed in the eyes of the West? What might be lost and what could be gained in the possibility of doing so?

On Early Islam NEW!
This five-part series on early Islamic history begins with the rise of Islam, shifts to its golden age, examines two major currents of early Islamic thought—rationalism and Sufi mysticism—and concludes with an epilogue.

Part 1: The Rise of Islam
Part 2: The Golden Age
Part 3: The Path of Reason
Part 4: The Mystic Tide
Part 5: Epilogue

In Light of Nalanda
What was ancient Nalanda University like? Here is a portrait based on the accounts of Chinese scholars of 7th century CE and a recent personal visit.

America, the Cold War, and the Taliban
The roots of transnational Islamic terrorism lie not so much in culture and the Qur’an as in politics and the conduct of the Cold War in Afghanistan.

Marco Polo's India
Returning home from China in 1292 CE, Marco Polo spent a few months in India ... his book, The Travels, contains a rich social portrait of India that still resonates with us today.

Asian Food for Thought
India and China offer a striking illustration of the vast range and malleability of the human palate, and the power of ideas in shaping it.

What Confucius Said
No person has left a deeper mark on Chinese culture than Confucius, who lived 2500 years ago in an age of social turmoil.

Homosexuality in India
"We don't have any," is the classic Indian response to homosexuality in India. Curiously, Indians say this even when they know of and tolerate homosexual acts.

 

Books and Authors

Joothan: A Dalit's Life NEW!
Joothan by Omprakash Valmiki is a deeply affecting memoir of growing up achoot (‘untouchable’) starting in the 1950s outside a typical village in Uttar Pradesh, India.

The Reach of Reason
Perceptions of culture, history, and identity are necessarily subjective and selective. There's no impartial and omniscient chronicler of events, no 'scientific' history.

The Tragedy of the Congo
The history of European colonialism is replete with examples of extreme cruelty. The decimation of the American Indians in South America.

The Wonder That Was India
Various societies at different times have dazzled with their bursts of creative and intellectual energy. Historians call them Golden Ages.

Science, Religion, Philosophy

The Dearth of Artificial Intelligence
Despite big advances in computing, AI has fallen woefully short of its ambition and hype. Why is AI in such a braindead state?

Being Liberal in a Plural World
In the absence of a consensus on the ‘truly universal’ values of liberalism, and hence rights—whether on empirical or practical grounds—how is a liberal to act in the world?

From the Outside, Looking In
Speaking of Muslims as fanatics and terrorists is not even considered bad manners; it’s seen as a comic expression of the truth.

On Knowledge Without Wisdom
Philosophy today is not how the Greeks understood it, as the love of wisdom. It now paves the way for the acquisition of theoretical knowledge as an end in itself.

Atheistic Materialism in Ancient India
It comes as a surprise to many that in ancient "spiritual" India, atheistic materialism was a major force to reckon with.

How Terrorism Works
Experts on Islamic terrorism are now everywhere, spouting wisdom on countless media outlets and blogs on what turns Muslims into terrorists.

 

Cinema, Fiction, Art

The Man in the BMW NEW!
On their way to China Town, they pass an area with red curtained massage parlors and hookers pacing the streets in tight clothes.

Putty in Her Hands NEW!
Sasha calls on Saturday afternoon, ‘Are you free?’ Sasha is a Russian escort, 28, slim, dark-haired, with dreamy green eyes.

Avatar: A Review NEW!
Outlandishly expensive, visually stunning, and politically loaded, Cameron took every risk with this film. And what did he give us, after all? A heroic fantasy of White Guilt. The story of Pocahontas, re-imagined.

A Sales Conference
On Sunday evening, Ved flies to Palm Springs, California, to represent his product at Omnicon’s annual sales conference. More than a thousand of his coworkers from scores of countries will attend the three-day event
.

Advice to a Young Artist
The idea for writing this came to me from an interview in which an author was reverentially asked, "Sir, what would be your advice to a young artist
?

 

Travel

An Indian-American in China
Arriving at the mausoleum of Mao Zedong on Tian'anmen Square, I looked expectantly to join a long line of Chinese tourists awaiting their moment to view Mao's body.

Divinity is Here
I am in the village of Rum in south Jordan, all signed-up for two days in the desert. The clincher was the Bedouin honcho's sell job:  "I have open jeep, ...

The Lost City of Ugarit
The road to Lattakia goes over the Anti-Lebanon Range. I had left Aleppo under a blue sky at noon; now a thick fog rolls in, tall conifers appear in the valleys, visibility drops.

At the Foot of Mount Yasur
I am six hundred miles east of the Great Barrier Reef in the archipelago of Vanuatu-or, as they say in Vanuatu, the "ni-Vanuatu" archipelago, home to nine active volcanoes.

Nobody's Land
"Cuiabá is the city of mangoes. We don't buy them, just pluck and eat," says Rizardo, our wildlife guide. Riding in the bed of a pickup truck, we are going down the Transpantaneira.

Dholavira

The road to Dholavira goes through a dazzling white landscape of salty mudflats. It is close to noon in early April and the mercury is already past 100F.

Forbidden City

The fabled Forbidden City earned its name by being closed to everyone outside the Chinese royal family and their eunuchs and maidservants.

The Burning Ghats of Varanasi

Varanasi, on the left bank of the Ganga, is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindus.

Bodh Gaya
Bodh Gaya is the single most sacred site of Buddhism. It was in the forest here that Prince Siddharta sat under a tree and achieved enlightenment.

Nagarjunakonda

About 1,700 years ago, Nagarjunakonda flourished as a city and a great religious and educational center of Brahmanism and Buddhism in south India.

Anandpur Sahib

Anandpur Sahib is a holy city in Punjab. Its historical significance to the Sikhs is second only to Amritsar. Hundreds of Sikhs once embraced martyrdom here.

Melting Girls, Serpent Women
A day trip to the Pushkar camel fair that attracts over 250,000 visitors from India and abroad. Villagers turn up for both business and pleasure.

The Rann of Kutch
Once an extension of the Arabian Sea, the Rann ("salt marsh") has been closed off by centuries of silting. During Alexander's time it was a navigable lake.

Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka
Bhimbetka remained a center of human activity from the lower Paleolithic times—the oldest [rock] paintings are believed to be 12,000 years old.

The Art of Borobudur

The world's largest Buddhist monument located near the city of Jogjakarta on the island of Java, Indonesia.

The Orangutans of Sumatra

A video slideshow on the orangutan ("person of the forest"), the only great ape outside Africa.

Kumbh Mela 2001, India
The greatest of the Hindu pilgrimage festivals is a riverside religious fair held every 12 years.

White Desert, Egypt
Scenes from the hauntingly beautiful White Desert in the eastern Sahara, with its otherworldly white chalk rocks.

Ghost Town in the Levant
Quneitra was once a bustling town in the Golan Heights ... now it is a ghost town. Scenes from my visit to Quneitra, Syria, 2001. Music by Fairuz Wahdon.

A Sunday in São Paulo

Wander the streets of the most energetic and cosmopolitan metropolis of Brazil.

Whirling Dervishes
Whirling dervishes performing at a restaurant in Damascus, Syria, 2001 (plus a titillating dinner buffet!)

A Folk Singer from Himachal

He sings in a language called Pahari in the highlands of Khajjiar, Himachal Pradesh, India.

 
 

 India Photo Archive on Shunya

Photos from hundreds of Indian sites, including portraits, wildlife, archaeology, culture, and nature.

The Himalayas      |       The Indo-Gangetic Plain       |     The Western Desert       |       The Deccan     

 

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