In 1127, the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) lost control of northern China and, with it, access to the Silk Road and Persia's riches. After overthrowing the Song Dynast...
In ancient India, legendary King Udayana was a king of the city of Kaushambi in the north-central India as well as a patron of Shakyamuni Buddha. The Buddhist scripture Samyutta Nikaya records Udayana’s conversion to Buddhism after his...
Kinryuzan Sensoji Temple, located in Asakusa, Tokyo is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan. Dedicated to Kannon Bosatsu, the Bodhisattva of compassion, the temple is one of the most widely visited spiritual sites in the world with over ...
The modern-day Java Island of Indonesia now boasts diverse ethnic and religious communities, but the island was once divided by the bitter Battle of Bubat, when a royal wedding turned into a blood bath. The island is traditionally dominated by tw...
Classic works such as Odyssey by Homer, The Tempest by William Shakespeare and Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe tell about mysterious distant islands. These islands are usually exotic and inaccessible homes to treasures,...
Eucleia, the ancient Greek female personification of glory and good repute, is the youngest of the Charites. She was the daughter of Hephaestus and Aglaea, the goddess of splendor and adoration. Alternatively, Greek biographer Plutarch t...
Commodus, the son and heir of the distinguished ‘philosopher emperor’ Marcus Aurelius, was a failure as a Roman ...
Written in the early 11th century Japan, Genji Monogatari (源氏物語, The Tale of Genji) vividly describes the complex life and relationships of Genji, a handsome courtier, an excellent lover and a worthy friend. At ...
The Maenads are often written off simply as ‘mad women’ by historians. However, although the name Maenad literally translates as the ‘raving ones’, these women were much more than that. The Maenads were actually sacred worshipper...
Euripides (circa 480 – 406 BC) was the last of the three great tragedians of Classical Greece - the other two being Aeschylus, the ‘Father of Tragedy’ who, among many others wrote Agamemnon (458 BC) and Seven Against Thebes (467 BC), a...
