Tag: Scarves
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Tropical Paradise
The tropics bring images of luxurious holidays with magnificent sunset views, the romance of lost civilizations, the allure of exotic flora, fruits, and spices. Epic seafaring adventures were made in order to obtain the most precious spices grown only on the most remote islands of Southeast Asia, all the while proving that after all, the…
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Food is Desire
“With apricots and dewberries,With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;The honey-bags steal from the humble-bees,And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighsAnd light them at the fiery glow-worm’s eyes,To have my love to bed and to arise;And pluck the wings from painted butterfliesTo fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes:Nod to him, elves, and do him…
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Food is Science
Legend has it that the panettone came into being from a forbidden romance in the 15th century. During a Christmas Eve feast hosted by the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro, his head pastry chef burnt the dessert while stealing a kiss from a nobleman’s beautiful wife in the medieval passageway. A young scullery boy…
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Food is Art
The Last SupperPainted in 1498, Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper has been described as “one of the greatest manifestations of intellectual power in art,” the most literary of all great pictures. The painting interweaves powerful telling of the gospel story and visual techniques which illustrate the artist’s mastery. It tells the Bible story of…
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Cocktail
Late afternoon in Bali, the cockfights will go on for three, four hours until sunset. Nine to ten matches, arranged impromptu, are held in a ring of 50 feet square. Once a match is made, the cocks are affixed with their spurs, which are razor sharp, pointed steel swords of five inches long, by winding…
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The Dancer
With the days stretching longer begins the mating season for the mourning doves in my backyard. The male stretches his wings to make a downward circular glide. Then he puffs out his chest and slowly bounces his head up and down to call for his mate. They like to perch close to each other on…
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The Peacock
“The sight of a feather in a peacock’s tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick!” wrote Charles Darwin in 1860. Darwin, along with other naturalists of his times, had theorized that the broad diversification in bird coloration evolved as a function of sexual selection. But the peacock took it to such extreme that…
