Buddhist Immersion from Shanghai: No Need to Board a Plane—Paradise Is Right at Your Doorstep

Buddhist Immersion from Shanghai: No Need to Board a Plane—Paradise Is Right at Your Doorstep Residents of Shanghai eager to learn more about Buddhist art and history often think they must undertake long journeys to reach the sacred mountains of this religion. What...

The Lost Mythology of Ancient China

The Lost Mythology of Ancient China Reconstructing the mythology of ancient China is a painstaking task that tries to characterize some legendary figures and situations based only on the few sentences about them found in later works by philosophers and historians. The...

How a Eunuch Was Created in 19th-Century China

How a Eunuch Was Created in 19th-Century China A wealthy eunuch would purchase a boy from a poor family. This boy had to be between seven and ten years old. He would be kept confined for two weeks and subjected to a very strict diet; he ate little. Use of...

Dunhuang in the Silk Road

Dunhuang in the Silk RoadDunhuang is a city in the middle of the desert. Over its 2,000-year history, it has always been the last Chinese outpost before reaching the Western Regions—those kingdoms more or less dominated by the imperial regimes, yet showing customs so...

Discover China’s Largest and Most Beautiful Salt Lake

Discover China’s Largest and Most Beautiful Salt Lake The development of tourism and transportation in China is bringing to light places that were previously very hard to access and virtually unknown. Some of these destinations are beginning to gain a certain...
A Giant Mandala in the Heart of Tibet
A Giant Mandala in the Heart of Tibet

A Giant Mandala in the Heart of Tibet The Palkor of Gyantze is one of Tibet’s great marvels and a unique jewel of universal architecture and art. Its shape, scale, and iconography defy comparison with any other construction. Amidst some of the highest mountains of...

Tales of the faithful dog: China, Mongolia, the West
Tales of the faithful dog: China, Mongolia, the West

In Chinese culture there are many historical and folkloric stories that extolled dogs, placing the animal friend above the other human beings. This was due to the dogs  fidelity to their master, one of the most appreciated virtues in Chinese society. In legends,...

Ethnic groups

Sexual aspects of Gu venom
Sexual aspects of Gu venom

Gu illness resulted from a contamination by gu poison, which a recent analyst has characterized as “an alien evil spirit which entered [the] body and developed into worms or some similar animal that gnawed away at the intestines or genitalia.” This poison was thought...

Linghu Zhuan’s Skepticism Leads Him to the Underworld
Linghu Zhuan’s Skepticism Leads Him to the Underworld

Linghu Zhuan’s Skepticism Leads Him to the Underworld Linghu Zhuan was a man of great integrity who did not believe in gods or spirits. Whenever someone spoke of ghostly transformations or divine retribution in the afterlife, he refuted their words with compelling...

Chinese culture

Chinese characters -person
Chinese characters -person

A sample of the first three pages of the English translation of my book on Chinese characters 人 rén – person, human being • adult • each.  This is a pictogram of a person standing, with legs separated. Person > kind of person > every > other. It is one of the...

We are working to republish all the old post in this new format, but due to the vast amount of post published in the last years, it is possible that old and new design posts will coexist during some months.

INDEX OF ETHNIC GROUPS PAGES

 

GeneralAchang BaiBaima – BaoanBulangBuyangBuyiChashanDaiDaur – DeangDengDong – DongxiangDulong – Ersu – EwenkiGejia – GelaoHaniHezheJingpoJinoKucongLahuLhobaLiLisuManchuMaonanMiaoMongolsMosoMulaoNamziNaxiNuOroqenPumiQiangSaniSheShuiTaluTibetanTuTujiaUygurWaXibeYaoYiYugurZhuang