Tag: Embroidery
-
Lapis Lazuli
More than four millennia ago, the high priestess Enheduanna, daughter to the Akkadian King Sargon, wrote in Ezagin, the House of Lapis Lazuli: “O Ezagin, house of lapis lazuli, bright like the stars of heaven, welcoming shrine in Eresh! All primeval lords look up to you every month. The great Nanigbal, Nisaba, brought down divine…
-
Porcelain
The word “porcelain” appeared some time during Middle Age Europe. At first it seemed to have been applied to rare pieces of artistry in carved shell or mother-of-pearl, because their white pearly surface recalled the sheen of the cowrie or Venus-shell, called by the Italians “Porcellana.” When Marco Polo published his account of China in…
-
The Tea Route
Between the 1850s and 1870s, the clipper ships were the marvel darlings of the maritime trade route that brought tea from China to Britain. From the port of Canton, these magnificent vessels traveled over 16 thousand miles, crossing the Indian Ocean toward Cape of Good Hope on South Africa’s southern tip before heading north along…
-
Journey to the West
Buddhist books arrived in China during the first century AD. From these books, the Chinese learned of the Buddha and became familiar with the names of the sacred places he had consecrated by his presence. Over time, new converts who desired to learn more of their religion risked the peril of travel to visit the…
-
The Heavenly Steed
More than two millennia ago, the Han people knew of the Horse of Heaven from far to the west of China. It came from Ta Yuan, ancient Ferghana, the Chinese equivalent for a local name for Greeks or Ionians, “Yavan”, which was described by Zhang Qian, China’s pioneer in Western Asia, as a land where…
-
The Silk Road
It is said that almost five thousand years ago, while sitting in the shade of a mulberry tree in her garden, the Empress Hsi Ling-Shi found a fallen cocoon in her teacup. The cocoon softened in the hot tea and unraveled into a long, lustrous thread, thus beginning the invention of the silk loom and…
-
Norwegian Wood
Among all of the Beatles’ ballads that I listened to in my youth, Norwegian Wood stood out for its romantic tune and peculiar title. I didn’t understand English as well then, but a read of this song’s lyrics is anything but. As the authors had clarified straightaway, it was about an affair gone awry. As…
-
The Snow-Queen
“Except ye become as little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of God.”– Matthew 18:3 When I was a child, I knew of Finland as the garden of the Snow-Queen. In Hans Christian Andersen’s story, a little girl named Gerda rode a reindeer, passing Lapland to reach Finland in order to…
-
The Birch Tree
At Loschwitz above the cityThe air is sunny and chill;The birch-trees and the pine-treesGrow thick upon the hill. Lone and tall, with silver stem,A birch-tree stands apart;The passionate wind of spring-timeStirs in its leafy heart. I lean against the birch-tree,My arms around it twine;It pulses, and leaps, and quivers,Like a human heart to mine. One…
-
Neptune
The planet Neptune is the farthest planet orbiting the Sun and is invisible to the naked eye. In 1613, Galileo Galilei had mapped the planet with his telescope, but he mistakenly perceived it as a star, even though he appeared to observe that it had moved relative to other fixed stars. Rather it was unexpected…
hardlyplaying.blog 