The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, also known as the temple of gratitude, is a historical archaeological site located on the south bank of the Yangtze in Nanjing, China.

It was constructed in the fifteenth century as a Buddhist place of worship but was then largely destroyed in the nineteenth century during the Taiping rising, but luckily the tower is once again, in the process of being reconstructed. (more…)

Punjabi for “first book”; the sacred book of the Sikhs. It is also known as the Guru Granth Sahib.The Adi Granth contains almost 6,000 hymns written by Sikh Gurus and other saints. The hymns are mostly arranged according to the musical modes in which they are sung. (more…)

At the age of 20, fed up with the life at court, Ivan Rilski moved into a cave in a remote part of Bulgaria to do penance. His reputation for sanctity attracted many disciples, who built a hermitage a short distance southeast of the present monastery. Here, the saint’s tomb can still be seen, together with his cell and a chapel dedicated to St. Luke. (more…)

Bernard Maybeck viewed the architectural canon as a style smorgasbord. Gothic, Romanesque, Asian, Arts and Crafts, Classicism – all were there to be sampled, interpreted, and reintroduce as California Craftsman. His belief in pure materials – untreated redwood shingles, exposed reinforced concrete, raw timber trellises – was balanced by unbridled curiosity for new materials, colours, and patterns combined in untested ways. (more…)

A religion practiced by people of African descent in Haiti, and by people who have emigrated from Haiti. Haiti is a country that occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic occupies the other two-thirds. (more…)

A specific philosophical school in China, but more broadly a manner of conceiving of the world in terms of the harmonious interaction of complementary opposites. This article discusses the latter. (more…)