• South Asia

    The missing links of Asian history

    Emeritus Professor Kim Byung-Mo of the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Hanyang University in South Korea has been looking for his roots. After a laborious forty years of research, he was perhaps not surprised to find that he shared a “genetic connection” with the royal family of Ayodhya, a non-descript…

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  • Central Asia

    Kazakh director Zhanabek Zhetiru: Recreating myth in cinema

    As Otilija Kerbelyte says, in cinema we find the myths and legends portrayed with fantastic genres, special effects, and mythological creatures such as elves and orcs in the The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Mythical creatures usually wear the clothes, which no human would wear (e.g. faun and fairies in…

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  • Culture

    Nomadic Art: the world’s true identity

    In Latin American geography and culture, each and every human being is at once a unit and a multiplicity – identical to him/herself while constantly changing. That is how we validate the existential game of cohabitation, how we celebrate presence of a human course originated in wanderings and shipwrecks that…

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  • East Asia

    ‘Hallyu’ wave on Egyptian shores

    Guys singing Korean songs in the street, girls tuning in to Korean dramas on TV every day, and people just making plans to go work in Korea, and maybe even live there, all of these aspects affecting the world, including Egypt, is what’s called the Hallyu or Korean wave. Korean…

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  • East Asia

    [Photo Break] Live today!

    Yesterday is a dream, tomorrow but a vision. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well, therefore to this day. – Sanskrit Proverb

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  • South Asia

    37 killed as train runs over Hindu pilgrims at eastern India’s station

    A train ran over a group of Hindu pilgrims at a crowded station in eastern India early Monday, killing at least 37 people. A mob infuriated by the deaths beat the driver severely and set fire to coaches, officials said. Several hours after the accident, flames and dark smoke could…

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  • Challenging social norms easier said than done in Pakistan

      Challenging Social Norms is easier said than done in Pakistan Society is a regulatory authority for individuals connected through diverse relationships either based on blood, love or friendship. Criticism by society is deterrence for individuals, which makes them move in a specific direction shunning certain unwelcome behaviors no matter…

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  • South Asia

    Indian Hindu devotees attend ‘worship of snakes’ Nag Panchami festival

    Indian Hindu devotees queue up to offer prayers at the Nag Vasuki Temple during the annual Nag Panchami festival, in Allahabad, India, Sunday, Aug. 11, 2013. The festival is dedicated to the worship of snakes. <AP/NEWSis>

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  • Culture

    [Novel] The Road to Shamawes ⑯

    [25] Nargis’s early tension began to ease as she saw the old and new faces coming to the villa. She forgot for a while the beginning of the crisis, but she was aware that the end would not be so smooth. She might have looked at her watch over two…

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  • South Asia

    Pakistani Muslims start celebrating Eid al-Fitr holiday that marks end of Ramadan

    Pakistani customers buy bangles at a stall ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday in Islamabad, Pakistan on Thursday, Aug. 8, 2013. Pakistani Muslims will start celebrating the Eid al-Fitr holiday Friday that marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan. A Pakistani beautician paints a hand of…

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