"All girls [should read] The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis." — Malala Yousafzai, New York TimesThe three books in Deborah Ellis's Breadwinner trilogy bound into one handsome volumeDeborah Ellis's novels The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey and Mud City have been a phenomenal success, touching the hearts of readers the world over.Here are the three books bound into one handsome volume -- for readers new to Deborah Ellis and for those who would like a collector's edition for their libraries.

    By asking challenging questions with respect and empathy, Liao Yiwu managed to get his subjects to talk openly and sometimes hilariously about their lives, desires, and vulnerabilities, creating a book that is an instance par excellence of what was once upon a time called “The New Journalism.” The Corpse Walker reveals a fascinating aspect of modern China, describing the lives of normal Chinese citizens in ways that constantly provoke and surprise.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    If you buy only one book on the Vietnam War, this is the one you want. -Chicago TribuneChristian G. Appy's monumental oral history of the Vietnam War is the first work to probe the war's path through both the United States and Vietnam. These vivid testimonies of 135 men and women span the entire history of the Vietnam conflict, from its murky origins in the 1940s to the chaotic fall of Saigon in 1975. Sometimes detached and reflective, often raw and emotional, they allow us to see and feel what this war meant to people literally on all sides: Americans and Vietnamese, generals and grunts, policymakers and protesters, guerrillas and CIA operatives, pilots and doctors, artists and journalists, and a variety of ordinary citizens whose lives were swept up in a cataclysm that killed three million people. By turns harrowing, inspiring, and revelatory, Patriots is not a chronicle of facts and figures but a vivid human history of the war.A gem of a book, as informative and compulsively readable as it is timely. -The Washington Post Book World

    She chronicles the many accomplishments in America of Chinese immigrants and their descendents: building the infrastructure of their adopted country, fighting racist and exclusionary laws, walking the racial tightrope between black and white, contributing to major scientific and technological advances, expanding the literary canon, and influencing the way we think about racial and ethnic groups. Interweaving political, social, economic, and cultural history, as well as the stories of individuals, Chang offers a bracing view not only of what it means to be Chinese American, but also of what it is to be American.

    In 1979, the young dancer arrived in Texas as part of a cultural exchange, only to fall in love with America-and with an American woman. Two years later, through a series of events worthy of the most exciting cloak-and-dagger fiction, he defected to the United States, where he quickly became known as one of the greatest ballet dancers in the world. This is his story, told in his own inimitable voice.THE BASIS FOR A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE

    She is an astute young Housekeeper, with a ten-year-old son, who is hired to care for him. And every morning, as the Professor and the Housekeeper are introduced to each other anew, a strange and beautiful relationship blossoms between them. Though he cannot hold memories for long (his brain is like a tape that begins to erase itself every eighty minutes), the Professor’s mind is still alive with elegant equations from the past. And the numbers, in all of their articulate order, reveal a sheltering and poetic world to both the Housekeeper and her young son. The Professor is capable of discovering connections between the simplest of quantities--like the Housekeeper’s shoe size--and the universe at large, drawing their lives ever closer and more profoundly together, even as his memory slips away. The Housekeeper and the Professor is an enchanting story about what it means to live in the present, and about the curious equations that can create a family.

    These exiles men and women were subjected to horrific conditions, and by 1961 the camp was closed because of the stench of death: of the rougly three thousand inmates, only about five hundred survived.In 1997, Xianhui Yang traveled to Gansu and spent the next five years interviewing more than one hundred survivors of the camp. In Woman from Shanghai he presents thirteen of their stories, which have been crafted into fiction in order to evade Chinese censorship but which lose none of their fierce power. These are tales of ordinary people facing extraordinary tribulations, time and again securing their humanity against those who were intent on taking it away.Xianhui Yang gives us a remarkable synthesis of journalism and fiction—a timely, important and uncommonly moving book.

    For the first time ever in English, here is the complete text, with an introduction and extensive notes by renowned translator, Red Pine. Over one hundred poets are represented in this bilingual edition, including many of China’s celebrated poets: Li Pai, Wang Wei, Tu Fu, Wang Po, and Ou-yang Hsiu.Poems of the Masters was compiled during the Sung dynasty (960–1278), a time when poetry became the defining measure of human relationships and understanding.As Red Pine writes in his introduction: "Nothing was significant without a poem, no social or ritual occasion, no political or personal event was considered complete without a few well-chosen words that summarized the complexities of the Chinese vision of reality and linked that vision with the beat of their hearts . . . [Poetry’s] greatest flowering was in the T’ang and Sung, when suddenly it was everywhere: in the palace, in the street, in every household, every inn, every monastery, in every village square.""Chiupu River Song" by Li PaiMy white hair extends three milesthe sorrow of parting made it this longwho would guess to look in a mirrorwhere autumn frost comes fromRed Pine (the pen name of writer and independent scholar Bill Porter) is one of the world’s most respected translators of Chinese literature, bringing into English several of China’s central religious and literary texts: Taoteching, The Diamond Sutra, Zen Teachings of Bodhidharma, and Collected Songs of Cold Mountain. He lives near Seattle, Washington.

    Almost no visual documentation of the period exists and that which does is biased due to government control over media, arts and cultural institutions.Red-Color News Soldier is a controversial visual record of an infamous, misunderstood period of modern history that has been largely hidden from the public eye, both within China and abroad. Li Zhensheng (b.1940) - a photo journalist living in the northern Chinese province of Heilongjiang - managed, at great personal risk, to hide and preserve for decades over 20,000 stills. As a party-approved photographer for The Heilongjiang Daily , he had been granted unusual access to capture events during the Cultural Revolution. This account has remained unseen until now, except for some eight photographs that were released for publication in 1987.Red-Color News Soldier includes over 400 photographs and a running diary of Li's experience. The images are powerful representations of the turbulent period, including photographs of unruly Red Guard rallies and relentless public denunciations and Mao's rural re-education centres, as well as portraits prominent participants in the Cultural Revolution.Jonathan Spence, Yale Professor and pre-eminient historian of modern China, presents a rigorous introduction. In it, he states: 'Li was tracking human tragedies and personal foibles with a precision that was to create an enduring legacy not only for his contemporaries but for the generations of his countrymen then unborn. As Westerners confront the multiplicity of his images, they too can come to understand something of the agonizing paradoxes that lay at the centre of this protracted human disaster.'This book excels as a volume of both compelling photography and riveting historical record. It is truly unique - in terms of both its artefactual value and its deconstruction - and indispensable for anyone interested in modern Chinese history or the powerful cultural role of photojournalism.

    With candour and wit, she tells of her taking up law studies because this could be combined with caring for her husband and son, Intertwining family life with professional, the author describes the years after her father's premature death. It is an intricate, amusing and charming rendering of her life.

    It gives special emphasis to the 1980s and 1990s when Japan's economy experienced vast swings in activity. According to the author, the most recent upheaval in the Japanese economy is the result of the policies of a central bank less concerned with stimulating the economy that with its own turf battles and its ideological agenda to change Japan's economic structure. The book combines new historical research with an in-depth behind-the-scenes account of the bureaucratic competition between Japan's most important institutions: the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Japan. Drawing on new economic data and first-hand eyewitness accounts, it reveals little known monetary policy tools at the core of Japan's business cycle, identifies the key figures behind Japan's economy, and discusses their agenda. The book also highlights the implications for the rest of the world, and raises important questions about the concentration of power within central banks.

    However the advancing Japanese army soon leads to a mass evacuation of the island but, as Sylvie's family begins to board their ship, there is no sign of Sylvie. Somehow, in the confusion, Sylvie finds refuge with her governess, Virginia Chen. But neither Virginia nor her family believe they will escape the Japanese internment camps, where Virginia may have to pay the ultimate price for Sylvie's survival.For ten-year-old Sylvie Sambuck, Singapore seems a long way from the fighting of the Second World War. However the advancing Japanese army soon leads to a mass evacuation of the island but, as Sylvie's family begins to board their ship, there is no sign of Sylvie. Somehow, in the confusion, Sylvie finds refuge with her governess, Virginia Chen. But neither Virginia nor her family believe they will escape the Japanese internment camps, where Virginia may have to pay the ultimate price for Sylvie's survival.

    These infamous posters were, in turn, central fixtures in Chinese homes, railway stations, schools, journals, magazines, and just about anywhere else where people were likely to see them. Chairman Mao, portrayed as a stoic superhero (a.k.a. the Great Teacher, the Great Leader, the Great Helmsman, the Supreme Commander), appeared in all kinds of situations (inspecting factories, smoking a cigarette with peasant workers, standing by the Yangzi River in a bathrobe, presiding over the bow of a ship, or floating over a sea of red flags), flanked by strong, healthy, ageless men and "masculinized" women and children wearing baggy, sexless, drab clothing. The goal of each poster was to show the Chinese people what sort of behavior was considered morally correct and how great the future of Communist China would be if everyone followed the same path toward utopia by uniting together. Combining fact and fiction in a way typical of propaganda art, these posters exuded positive vibes and seemed to suggest that Mao was an omnipresent force that would accompany China to happiness and greatness. This book brings together a selection of colorful propaganda artworks and cultural artifacts from photographer Michael Wolf's vast collection of Chinese propaganda posters, many of which are now extremely rare.

    Himm was a young member of a large family in Siemreap City, Cambodia. When the country fell to the Khmer Rouge in April 17, 1975, his family joined the exodus to the jungle villages. As the young Khmer Rouge soldiers consolidated their grip, the deaths increased. Anyone who complained; anyone educated; anyone an informer disliked: all were "sent to study", killed. Teenage boys were brainwashed into amoral, vindictive thugs.Finally the day dawned when the family were marched to a ready dug grave in a jungle clearing: one by one they fell as they were hacked down. Sokreaksa, gravely wounded, was covered by the bodies of his brothers and sisters. His executioners walked away, laughing.That morning Sokreaska climbed from the mass grave. Hatred burned in his heart. Could he possibly forgive his family's killers?

    Weinberger begins with Ezra Pound's Cathay (1915), and includes translations by three other major U.S. poets -- William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder -- and an important poet-translator-scholar, David Hinton, all of whom have long been associated with New Directions. Moreover, it is the first general anthology ever to consider the process of translation by presenting different versions of the same poem by various translators, as well as examples of the translators rewriting themselves. The collection, at once playful and instructive, serves as an excellent introduction to the art and tradition of Chinese poetry, gathering some 250 poems by nearly 40 poets. The anthology also includes previously uncollected translations by Pound; a selection of essays on Chinese poetry by all five translators, some never published before in book form; Lu Chi's famous "Rhymeprose on Literature" translated by Achilles Fang; biographical notes that are a collage of poems and comments by both the American translators and the Chinese poets themselves; and also Weinberger's excellent introduction that historically contextualizes the influence Chinese poetry has had on the work of American poets.

    Adopted by the community, Kampol is soon being raised by figures like Chong the shopkeeper, who rents out calls on his telephone and goes into debt while extending his customers endless credit. Kampol also plays with local kids like Noi, whose shirt is so worn that it rips right in half, and the sweet, deceptively cute toddler Penporn.Dueling flea markets, a search for a ten-baht coin lost in the sands of a beach, pet crickets that get eaten for dinner, bouncy ball fads in school, and loneliness so merciless that it kills a boy’s appetite all combine into Bright, the first-ever novel by a Thai woman to appear in English translation. Duanwad Pimwana’s urban, and at times gritty, vignettes are balanced with a folk-tale-like feel and a charmingly wry sense of humor. Together, these intensely concentrated, minimalist gems combine into an off-beat, highly satisfying coming-of-age story of a very memorable young boy and the age-old legends, practices, and personalities that raise him.

    Her family is forced to flee, and she and her siblings end up in a children's labor camp, separated from everything they've ever known. At long last, Cambodia is liberated and Nakri's family sets out for America, a place to begin again. There, Nakri learns that she can leave Cambodia behind, but the memories will be a part of her forever.

    Four see-through vellum sections, of four layers each, begin with a "naked" geisha; they show, stage by stage, how her distinctive costume and make-up are assembled. You'll view the subtle changes of appearance through the round of seasonal events, and the elaborate array of equipment in the geisha's wardrobe, as well as everything she needs to do her demanding jobs. Equally revealing is the incredibly detailed information about the women's training, lives, and history.

    President Truman decided to recover the gold but to keep its riches secret. These, combined with Japanese treasure recovered during the US occupation, and with recovered Nazi loot, would create a worldwide American political action fund to fight communism. This ‘Black Gold’ gave Washington virtually limitless, unaccountable funds, providing an asset base to reinforce the treasuries of America’s allies, to bribe political and military leaders, and to manipulate elections in foreign countries for more than fifty years.

    Burnam’s account of his tenure as a scout dog handler patrolling the jungles of Vietnam with his German shepherd, Clipper, at his side.There were 10,000 soldiers in Vietnam like Burnam, accompanied by these intelligent, adaptable scout dogs.  Between hazardous missions, the dogs were loving, playful friends who shared the lives of their human squadmates, while in the combat zone they were all business.  Routinely braving danger, the canines searched for injured GIs, probed for potentially lethal booby traps, located underground weapons caches, and warned of approaching enemy attacks and ambushes.  So valuable was the dogs’  service that the Viet Cong offered a hefty bounty for their lives. Despite their heroism, many of these dogs were abandoned at the conflict’s end, left to fend for themselves.  Since the 1990s, this book has had two runs as a self-published book, and one as a trade title, with all three of these print runs selling out.

    Xuanzang should be known as one of the world's great heroes. His travels across Asia to bring true Buddhism back to China are legendary, and his own book provides a unique record of the history and culture of his time. Yet he is unknown to most of us and even to most Chinese, whose knowledge of Buddhist history has been eradicated by decades of Communist rule.Sun Shuyun was determined to follow in his footsteps, to discover more about Xuanzang and restore his fame. She decided to retrace his journey from China to India and back, an adventure that in the 8th century took Xuanzang eighteen years and led him across 118 kingdoms, an adventure that opened up the east and west of Asia to each other – and to us.A man of great faith and determination, Xuanzang won the hearts of kings and robbers with his teaching, his charm and his indomitable will. Against all odds he persuaded the Confucian emperors to allow Buddhism to flourish in China.At the heart of the book lies Sun Shuyun's own personal journey towards understanding the Buddhist faith of her grandmother, recognising the passionate idealism of the communist beliefs of her own family and discovering her own ideological and personal path through life.

    Ozu and cowriter Kogo Noda viewed the script as literature; once completed, it was little changed during filming. Here is a translation of the Japanese screenplay to Tokyo Story, with critical observations by Donald Richie on Ozu’s filmmaking, a filmography, and twenty stills. Students of screenwriting will learn much from Ozu’s lean approach, while film lovers will treasure this unique keepsake of a great cinematic achievement.Yasujiro Ozu (1903–1963) was one of Japan’s greatest film directors.Kogo Noda (1893–1968), an influential screenwriter, was a frequent Ozu -collaborator.Donald Richie is the preeminent Western authority on Japanese film.

    Anne Brodsky, the first writer given in-depth access to visit and interview their members and operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, shines light on the gruesome, often tragic, lives of Afghan women under some of the most brutal sexist oppression in the world.

    It also offers a fascinating look into the world of Japanese Buddhism prior to the wholesale influence of Zen.

    Sabriye, who had lost her sight at the age of twelve as the result of a retinal disease, promised herself early on that she would never allow her blindness to turn her into an invalid. When she heard of a place where sightlessness was practically akin to leprosy, the decision was instant: she would go to Tibet to help these children.Armed with nothing but her conviction and determination, she single-handedly devised a Tibetan Braille alphabet and opened the first school for the blind in Lhasa, with only a handful of students. From its modest beginnings, that school has grown into a full-fledged institution for visually impaired people of all ages. In My Path Leads to Tibet, Sabriye, whom some have called a modern Mother Teresa, shares the inspiring story of how she shined an unlikely light in a dark place.

    They were missions no one else wanted, but the ones all other pilots prayed for when shot down. Flying the World War II-vintage Douglas A-1 Skyraider, a single-engine, propeller-driven relic in a war of “fast-movers,” these intrepid US Air Force pilots, call sign Sandy, risked their lives with every mission to rescue thousands of downed Navy and Air Force pilots.With a flashback memory and a style all his own, George J. Marrett depicts some of the most dangerous aerial combat of any war. The thrilling rescue of “Streetcar 304” and William Jones's selfless act of heroism that earned him the Medal of Honor are but two of the compelling tales he recounts. Here too are the courages Jolly Green Giant helicopter crews, parajumpers, and forward air controllers who worked with the Sandys over heavily defended jungles and mountains well behind enemy lines.Passionate, mordantly witty, and filled with heart-pounding adrenaline, Cheating Death reads like the finest combat fiction, but it is the real deal: its heroes, cowards, jokers, and casualties all have names and faces readers will find difficult to forget.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    Set against the backdrop of the Meiji Restoration, it tells the saga of Himura Kenshin, once an assassin of ferocious power, now a humble rurouni, a wandering swordsman fighting to protect the honor of those in need. A hundred and fifty years ago in Kyoto, amid the flames of revolution, there arose a warrior, an assassin of such ferocious power he was given the title Hitokiri: Manslayer. With his bloodstained blade, Hitokiri Battosai helped close the turbulent Bakumatsu period and end the reign of the shoguns, slashing open the way toward the progressive Meiji Era. Then he vanished, and with the flow of years became legend.In the 11th year of Meiji, in the middle of Tokyo, the tale begins. Himura Kenshin, a humble rurouni, or wandering swordsman, comes to the aid of Kamiya Kaoru, a young woman struggling to defend her father's school of swordsmanship against attacks by the infamous Hitokiri Battosai. But neither Kenshin nor Battosai are quite what they seem...

    It not only places the language in its natural context but also highlights along the way key aspects of Tibetan civilization and Vajrayana Buddhism. The Manual, which consists of forty-one lessons, is illustrated with many drawings and photographs and also includes two informative political and linguistic maps of Tibet. Two CDs provide an essential oral complement to the manual. A detailed introduction presents a linguistic overview of spoken and written Tibetan.

    Avoiding land mines and bullets, he spent months travelling through Iraq and Iran negotiating a way into Afghanistan. Joining forces with the war-weary Mujahedeen, he found unexpected allies and unforgettable friends.

    Based on intimate interviews with three hundred Armenians and featuring Jerry Berndt's superb photographs, it brings together firsthand testimony about the social, economic, and spiritual circumstances of Armenians during the 1980s and 1990s, when the country faced an earthquake, pogroms, and war. At times shocking and deeply emotional, Armenia: Portraits of Survival and Hope is a story of extreme suffering and hardship, a searching look at the fight for independence, and an exceptionally complex portrait of the human spirit.A companion to the Millers' highly acclaimed work Survivors: An Oral History of the Armenian Genocide, which documented the genocide of 1915, this book focuses on four groups of people: survivors of the earthquakes that devastated northwestern Armenia in 1988; refugees from Azerbaijan who fled Baku and Sumgait because of pogroms against them; women, children, and soldiers who were affected by the war in Nagorno-Karabakh; and ordinary citizens who survived several winters without heat because of the blockade against Armenia by Turkey and Azerbaijan. The Millers' narrative situates these accounts contextually and thematically, but the voices of individuals remain paramount. The Millers also describe their personal experiences in repeated research trips, inviting us to look beyond the headlines and think beyond the circumstances of our own lives as they bring contemporary Armenia to life.

    In 1947, none of the three major race of Malaya - Malays, Chinese, and Indians - regarded themselves as pan-ethnic "Malayans" with common duties and problems. When the occupation forcibly cut them off from China, Chinese residents began to look inwards towards Malaya and stake political claims, leading inevitably to a political contest with the Malays. As the country advanced towards nationhood and self-government, there was tension between traditional loyalties to the Malay rulers and the states, or to ancestral homelands elsewhere, and the need to cultivate an enduring loyalty to Malaya on the part of those who would make their home there in future.As Japanese forces withdrew from the countryside, the Chinese guerrillas of the communist-led resistance movement, the Malayan People's Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), emerged from the jungle and took control of some 70 per cent of the country's smaller towns and villages, seriously alarming the Malay population. When the British Military Administration sought to regain control of these liberated areas, the ensuing conflict set the tone for future political conflicts and marked a crucial stage in the history of Malaya. Based on extensive archival research, Red Star Over Malaya provides a riveting account of the way the Japanese occupation reshaped colonial Malaya, and of the tension-filled months that followed Japan's surrender. This book is fundamental to an understanding of social and political developments in Malaysia during the second half of the 20th century.

    But what happens to Shampoo? This tale combines action, adventure, and romantic comedy, and is the longest-running manga in the United States.

    The most important Hymns are quoted in full; extracts are also included from the Brahmanas, the part of the Rig Veda that that guides the Brahmans, the highest class of priests, in Vedic ceremonies. This is one of the oldest and most important of the world's holy books. It is primarily composed of hymns, poems, incantations and rituals from ancient India. Not only is this the "bible" of the Hindu religion, it also offers a unique snapshot of normal, everyday life in India as it occurred over four thousand years ago.

    During the 1950s and 1960s, India launched an extremely ambitious and highly regarded program of state-led development. But it soon became clear that the Indian state lacked the institutional capacity to carry out rapid industrialization. Drawing on newly available archival sources, Vivek Chibber mounts a forceful challenge to conventional arguments by showing that the insufficient state capacity stemmed mainly from Indian industrialists' massive campaign, in the years after Independence, against a strong developmental state.Chibber contrasts India's experience with the success of a similar program of state-building in South Korea, where political elites managed to harness domestic capitalists to their agenda. He then develops a theory of the structural conditions that can account for the different reactions of Indian and Korean capitalists as rational responses to the distinct development models adopted in each country.Provocative and marked by clarity of prose, this book is also the first historical study of India's post-colonial industrial strategy. Emphasizing the central role of capital in the state-building process, and restoring class analysis to the core of the political economy of development, Locked in Place is an innovative work of theoretical power that will interest development specialists, political scientists, and historians of the subcontinent.

    This work incorporates nearly twenty years of on-going research and draws on both new readings of primary sources and the most recent secondary scholarship.It overturns many of the stereotypes that have dominated views of the period. Friday analyzes Heian -, Kamakura- and Nambokucho-period warfare from five thematic angles. He examines the principles that justified armed conflict, the mechanisms used to raise and deploy armed forces, the weapons available to early medieval warriors, the means by which they obtained them, and the techniques and customs of battle.A thorough, accessible and informative review, this study highlights the complex casual relationships among the structures and sources of early medieval political power, technology, and the conduct of war.

    The United Nations has stepped in to help South Korea by providing weapons and soldiers. Nearly all of these soldiers come from the United States. Will you: Serve as a pilot in Korea with the U.S. Marine Corps? Lie about your age to enlist as a 16 year old member of the U.S. military reserves? Join in the fight for your country as a young South Korean man? Everything in this book happened to real people. And YOU CHOOSE what you do next. The choices you make could lead you to survival or to death.

    Join our culinary journey from the street snacks found in Bangkok's markets to the seafood freshly cooked on the beaches of the Gulf of Thailand.

    This fictionalized memoir of Cixi, a former Imperial concubine who ruled behind the throne for nearly half a century, includes intimate details about daily court life and presents a sympathetic look at how this strong woman thrived in a male-dominated world.

    As he starts digging deeper and deeper into the mystery of her sudden reappearance, he discovers a secret that is somehow linked to the past...and the future. Is it possible to experience first love for a second time? Without question, the answer is yes!

     Illustrated by Benrei Huang.

    Catapulted into the news by events in Afghanistan, just across the water, these strategically important, intriguing and beautiful countries remain almost completely unknown to the outside world. In this book, Monica Whitlock goes far beyond the headlines. Using eyewitness accounts, unpublished letters and firsthand reporting, she enters into the lives of the Central Asians and reveals a dramatic and moving human story unfolding over three generations. There is Muhammadjan, called 'Hindustani', a diligent seminary student in the holy city of Bukhara until the 1917 revolution tore up the old order. Exiled to Siberia as a shepherd and then conscripted into the Red Army, he survived to become the inspiration for a new generation of clerics. Henrika was one of tens of thousands of Poles who walked and rode through Central Asia on their way to a new life in Iran, where she lives to this day. Then there were the proud Pioneer children who grew up in the certainty that the Soviet Union would last forever, only to find themselves in a new world that they had never imagined. In Central Asia, the extraordinary is commonplace and there is not a family without a remarkable story to tell. "Land Beyond the River" is both a chronicle of a century and a clear-eyed, authoritative view of contemporary events.

    Since that time, the work has established a powerful hold on the western popular imagination, and is now considered a classic of spiritual literature. Over the years, The Tibetan Book of the Dead has inspired numerous commentaries, an illustrated edition, a play, a video series, and even an opera. Translators, scholars, and popular devotees of the book have claimed to explain its esoteric ideas and reveal its hidden meaning. Few, however, have uttered a word about its history. Bryan J. Cuevas seeks to fill this gap in our knowledge by offering the first comprehensive historical study of the Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Bardo, and by grounding it firmly in the context of Tibetan history and culture. He begins by discussing the many ways the texts have been understood (and misunderstood) by westerners, beginning with its first editor, the Oxford-educated anthropologist Walter Y. Evans-Wentz, and continuing through the present day. The remarkable fame of the book in the west, Cuevas argues, is strikingly disproportionate to how the original Tibetan texts were perceived in their own country. Cuevas tells the story of how The Tibetan Book of the Dead was compiled in Tibet, of the lives of those who preserved and transmitted it, and explores the history of the rituals through which the life of the dead is imagined in Tibetan society. This book provides not only a fascinating look at a popular and enduring spiritual work, but also a much-needed corrective to the proliferation of ahistorical scholarship surrounding The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

    Where once the viewer' s gaze met the eyes of a reclining female nude, a European master painter, or a Western religious icon, that gaze is now returned by the hauntingly photo-realistic eyes of a Japanese man. Since the early eighties, Yasumasa Morimura has been invading the established canon of Western art-- offering both wry commentary and loving tribute-- by replacing the figures and faces of its well-known masterpieces with his own. After painstakingly recreating the surroundings of some of art-history' s most iconic paintings, like a chameleon, Morimura assumes their subjects' identities through elaborate makeup and costume, and inserts himself into the scene. To view the resulting photographs is an uncanny experience. "Daughter of Art History" begins with a foreword by renowned art historian Donald Kuspit who describes Morimura's art as "a kind of Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, in which painting, sculpture, and photography form a seamless conceptual whole. His photographs may be mock masterpieces, but they are nonetheless masterpieces, for they show mastery of three mediums usually regarded as irreconcilable." Morimura has shown extensively in international solo exhibitions, and his work is in the collections of the Yokohama Museum of Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; The Modern Art Museum, Fort Worth; The Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia; TheMuseum of Fine Arts, Boston; and The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

    Having studied,practiced and internalised the principles contained in this work,Sri Sankaracharya received special instructions based upon the personal experience of his guru. And adding his own personal experience to the above,he composed this famous work, consiting of hundred slokas - the first forty one of these form "Ananda Lahari" and the rest forming the "Soundarya Lahari".In this work,commentaries of several great scholars have been compiled and translated into English. All the "Prayogas" are illustrated with yantras.

    Under the patronage of the royal court, the aristocracy and the Buddhist elite—whose taste are for luxury and refinement was unprecedented in the history of Korea—spectacular achievements were made in all areas of the arts during this period.This catalogue documents not only the famous Goryeo achievements in ceramics but also lesser known Buddhist paintings, illuminated sutras, sculpture, lacquer, and metal crafts. Drawing from thirty-five contributing institutions, it brings together some of the most exquisite works of Korean art from the tenth to the fourteenth century, including many that have never before traveled to the West. A valuable resource to anyone interested in the classic arts of East Asia.

    Stories of previous emanations (jātakas) of the Gautama Buddha.

    Following this logic, postmodern scholars have urged postcolonial societies to develop their own “alternative sciences” as a step towards “mental decolonization”. These ideas have found a warm welcome among Hindu nationalists who came to power in India in the early 1990s. In this passionate and highly original study, Indian-born author Meera Nanda reveals how these well-meaning but ultimately misguided ideas are enabling Hindu ideologues to propagate religious myths in the guise of science and secularism.At the heart of Hindu supremacist ideology, Nanda argues, lies a postmodernist assumption: that each society has its own norms of reasonableness, logic, rules of evidence, and conception of truth, and that there is no non-arbitrary, culture-independent way to choose among these alternatives. What is being celebrated as “difference” by postmodernists, however, has more often than not been the source of mental bondage and authoritarianism in non-Western cultures. The “Vedic sciences” currently endorsed in Indian schools, colleges, and the mass media promotes the same elements of orthodox Hinduism that have for centuries deprived the vast majority of Indian people of their full humanity.By denouncing science and secularization, the left was unwittingly contributing to what Nanda calls “reactionary modernism.” In contrast, Nanda points to the Dalit, or untouchable, movement as a true example of an “alternative science” that has embraced reason and modern science to challenge traditional notions of hierarchy.

    Published in conjunction with a 2003 exhibition co-organized by the Columbus Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this hefty, oversize (10x13 catalogue features approximately 160 powerful masterpieces of Indian, Nepalese, Tibetan, Chinese, and Mongolian art produced over the pa

    At the same time, Buddhism had a profound effect on the material world of the Chinese. This wide-ranging study shows that Buddhism brought with it a vast array of objects big and small--relics treasured as parts of the body of the Buddha, prayer beads, and monastic clothing--as well as new ideas about what objects could do and how they should be treated. Kieschnick argues that even some everyday objects not ordinarily associated with Buddhism--bridges, tea, and the chair--on closer inspection turn out to have been intimately tied to Buddhist ideas and practices. Long after Buddhism ceased to be a major force in India, it continued to influence the development of material culture in China, as it does to the present day.At first glance, this seems surprising. Many Buddhist scriptures and thinkers rejected the material world or even denied its existence with great enthusiasm and sophistication. Others, however, from Buddhist philosophers to ordinary devotees, embraced objects as a means of expressing religious sentiments and doctrines. What was a sad sign of compromise and decline for some was seen as strength and versatility by others. Yielding rich insights through its innovative analysis of particular types of objects, this briskly written book is the first to systematically examine the ambivalent relationship, in the Chinese context, between Buddhism and material culture.

    In a few weeks, however, the military government questioned their loyalty and disarmed them. In "No Sword to Bury," Franklin Odo places the largely untold story of the wartime experience of these young men in the context of the community created by their immigrant families and its relationship to the larger, white-dominated society. At the heart of the book are vivid oral histories that recall their service on the home front in the Varsity Victory Volunteers, a non-military group dedicated to public works, as well as in the segregated 442nd Regimental Combat Team. Illuminating a critical moment in ethnic identity formation among this first generation of Americans of Japanese descent (the "nisei"), Odo shows how the war-time service and the post-war success of these men contributed to the simplistic view of Japanese Americans as a model minority in Hawaii.

    At a time when clear social action is needed more than ever, The New Social Face of Buddhism is vital reading for activists, scholars and everyone seeking to transform their spiritual practice into a force for social, political, and global change. A groundbreaking work, Jones's book is a wellspring of inspiration that should not be missed.

    He was responsible for the discovery of numerous varieties previously unknown in Europe and America, including the legendary Tibetan blue poppy, and the introduction of their seeds into the world’s gardens. Kingdon Ward’s accounts capture all the romance of his wildly adventurous expeditions, whether he was swinging across a bottomless gorge on a cable of twisted bamboo strands or clambering across a rocky scree in fear of an impending avalanche. Drawn from writings out of print for almost seventy-five years, this new collection, edited and introduced by professional horticulturalist and House & Garden columnist Tom Christopher, returns Kingdon Ward to his deserved place in the literature of discovery and the literature of the garden.

    Insisting that gay identity is not teleological but fraught with fissures, Martin Manalansan IV describes how Filipino gay immigrants, like many queers of color, are creating alternative paths to queer modernity and citizenship. He makes a compelling argument for the significance of diaspora and immigration as sites for investigating the complexities of gender, race, and sexuality.Manalansan locates diasporic, transnational, and global dimensions of gay and other queer identities within a framework of quotidian struggles ranging from everyday domesticity to public engagements with racialized and gendered images to life-threatening situations involving AIDS. He reveals the gritty, mundane, and often contradictory deeds and utterances of Filipino gay men as key elements of queer globalization and transnationalism. Through careful and sensitive analysis of these men’s lives and rituals, he demonstrates that transnational gay identity is not merely a consumable product or lifestyle, but rather a pivotal element in the multiple, shifting relationships that queer immigrants of color mobilize as they confront the tribulations of a changing world.

    This time the subject is mainland South East Asia, with the armies of Burma, Vietnam, Siam, Cambodia and the Lao and Shan states, plus minor tribal groups, being covered in considerable depth. There are details of each army's history, organisation, tactics, dress and arms supported by 168 drawings of warrior types and 75 photographs, illustrations and maps, plus comprehensive bibliographies.

    The Singapore State has consciously brought religion under its guidance. It has exercised strong bureaucratic and legal control over the functioning of all religions in Singapore. The Chinese community and the Buddhist Sangha have responded to this by restructuring their temple institutions into large multi-functional temple complexes. There has been quite a few books written on the role of the Singapore State but, so far, none has been written on the topic - the relationship between state, society and religion. It will help to fill the missing gap in the scholarly literature on this area. This is also a topic of great significance in many Asian, particularly Southeast Asian, countries and it will serve as an important book for future reference in this area of research and comparative studies.

    But not fearless adventurer Ben Kozel, author of the bestselling Three Men in a Raft. When he returned home after risking life an limb in South America, the question uppermost in his mind was 'where to next?' Ben found the answer in the Yenisey River, which, while it is the fifth longest on the planet, remains one of the world's least-known waterways. So with three companions, Ben embarked on a five month, 5540-kilometre odyssey.They would cross the Mongolian Steppe, traverse the vast boreal forests of Siberia, and enter the realm of tundra high above the Arctic Circle, rowing a leaking and formerly-derelict wooden dory, painstakingly rebuilt by them on a shoe-string budget. Risking rivers in flood, the treacherous and mysterious Lake Baikal, deadly tick-born diseases, Siberian mobsters, radioactive contamination and the onset of the Arctic winter, Ben proved once and for all that he is one of Australia's most gifted and intrepid travel writers - or, as his friends prefer to call him, ;a very lucky bastard'.Filled with hair raising exploits and vivid description, Five Months in a Leaky Boat is both a riveting adventure story, and an intimate look at the beauty and complexity of an almost unknown part of the world.

    An important focus in the book is the author s research into why Rikyu s tragic suicide, enforced by Hideyoshi, was a necessary outcome of the emerging conflict between ritual, art and politics. In addition, the study highlights the tensions and struggles between individual artists who were led by a sense of artistic identity and inspiration, together with the political leaders who imposed their artistic taste on the nation. Plutschow also provides new insights into the sixteenth-century Japanese perception of beauty commonly called wabi a simple, often austere beauty displayed in tea in order to unite host and guests as equals. This book will be of considerable interest in research connected with politics, Zen Buddhism and art history as well as the central issues regarding the history and development of tea in Japan."

    He examines the spiritual aspects that are so important in Tibetan life and the modern international success of Lamanism. Chronicling the paths of early explorers, Peissel relates Tibet's plunder and destruction, from its dismembering in colonial times to the Chinese takeover. He looks at the uniqueness of the Himalayas, where flora and fauna have evolved to suit the high altitude and resulted in such extraordinary species of animals as the yak and the Takin, a huge goat. Through his writing and photography, Michael Peissel brings to life the geographical, spiritual, and intellectual heart of Tibet.

    The literary and artistic works of these women are considered Korean classics, and the featured artists and writers range from a queen, to a courtesan, to a Buddhist nun, to unknown women of Korea. Although women's works were generally meant only to circulate among women, these creative expressions have caught the attention of literary and artistic connoisseurs. By bringing them to light, the book seeks to demonstrate how Korean women have tried to give their lives meaning over the ages through their very diverse, yet common artistic responses to the details and drama of everyday life in Confucian Korea. The stories of these women and their work give us glimpses of their personal views on culture, aesthetics, history, society, politics, morality, and more.

    Incorporating essays by 27 authorities representing a wide variety of cultures and perspectives, the lavishly illustrated book describes rice-related rituals and beliefs in Thailand, Nepal, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Japan, China, and Korea. Throughout, the juxtaposition of magnificent photographs of works of art - paintings, prints, ceramics, textiles, lacquerware, and sculpture - with objects of a more humble nature - agricultural implements, rice-straw ornaments, cooking utensils, baskets, puppets, votive plaques, and more - serves to indicate the striking pervasiveness of rice in all aspects and all walks of life. Wedding ceremonies, parades, festivals, celebrations of birth, rites held to honor the rice goddess, and those performed to ensure success at every step in the rice-growing cycle are vividl

    Contributed articles on the sufferings of women during the partition of Bengal in 1947; includes personal narratives.

    Focusing on the rich heritage of the country, this latest addition to the highly acclaimed World Folklore Series presents 29 stories from across Indonesia, most of which have never been published in the English language. Build your multicultural collection or expand your repertoire with tales that provide a moving and colorful image of the diversity and richness of the people and lands of Indonesia. Six thematic groups are presented: Jealous and Envious Brothers and Sisters; Stories of Independent Princesses; Stories of Ungrateful Children; Stories about Rice; Stories of Place Legends; and Stories of How Things Come to Be.All Levels

    In particular, Goudge focuses on the role played by "race" in discourses and practices of development, and on the impact of unacknowledged - and often unconscious - assumptions of white, Western superiority. For example, the unequal distribution of resources that results from global power imbalances is often attributed to the inferior capabilities of the black poor. Goudge worked for some years as a volunteer in a "third world" country - in her case, Nicaragua - and this book is the result of her subsequent reflections and research. The core of her evidence comes from in-depth interviews with development and aid workers, as well as her own experiences and diaries. She also explores other related texts to illustrate that development and aid practitioners and agencies do not operate in a vacuum, but are a part of a pervasive discourse of superiority and inferiority. She submits her material to stringent analysis and finds much evidence of unconscious attitudes of superiority - with uncomfortable echoes of the assumptions of the colonial epoch. Goudge questions her own beliefs and actions as much as those of others. Indeed it is her contention that in scrutinising the motivations of those of us whose intentions are good, we can discover a great deal about the global operations of the power of whiteness.

    The text's focus on environmental and technological innovations ensures that attention is given to all regions.

    Michel Hockx takes as a point of departure the observation that most writers of the Republican period adhered to a distinctly traditional practice of gathering in literary societies, while at the same time displaying a marked preference for publishing their works through the modern medium of the literary journal. The first part of the book analyses different types of societies and their journals. The case studies in part two convey the wider impact of literary collectives and journal publications on literary practice. Convincingly breaking with the 'May Fourth' paradigm, the author proposes a radically new way of understanding the relationship between New Literature and other styles of modern Chinese writing.

    It has however emerged in Western liberal democracies, and some people question how far it is likely to take root fully in the different cultural, economic and political context of Asia. This book considers how rule of law is viewed and implemented in Asia. Chapters on France and the USA provide a benchmark on how the concept has evolved, is applied and is implemented in a civil law and a common law jurisdiction. These are then followed by twelve chapters on the major countries of East Asia, and India, which consider all the key aspects of this important issue.

    He argues that the now widely accepted truism that "Korean and Japanese cannot be Altaic laguages" because "there are no Altaic languages" can no longer seriously be maintained. Korean and Japanese both possess important early written records, until now either ignored or largely misrepresented by those who dismiss the Altaic hyphotesis. The author shows that these texts, when approached with proper philological precision, bolster the Altaic hyphotesis in much the same way that the discovery of Tokharian and Hittite materials earlier stimulated and clarified Indo-European historical linguistics

    She uses archaeological data to reveal the connections between the early history of peninsular South Asia and its Asian and Mediterranean partners in the Indian Ocean region. Differing from traditional works on the subject, the book discusses maritime history in the broader sense of ancient seafaring activity, religious travel and political economy rather than focusing specifically on maritime trade and shipping.

    Each chapter covers a particular country looking at such core issues as:- the ethnic minorities or groups in the country of concern, how many ethnic groups, population, language and culture group they belong to, traditional religions and arts- government policy towards the ethnic minorities or groups - the economies of the ethnic minorities or groups and the relation with the national economy;- problems of national integration caused by the ethnic minorities or groups;- the impact of ethnic issues on the country's overall foreign relations.

    It has been portrayed as both an exotic and remote land of turbaned warriors and as a 'failed' state requiring our humanitarian assistance. Politically marginal after the withdrawal of Soviet troops, Afghanistan's strategic importance re-emerged after September 11th 2001, when the 'war on terror' was launched as part of a new generation of international interventions. Drawing on the experience of a decade and a half of living and working in Afghanistan, Chris Johnson and Jolyon Leslie examine what the changes of recent years have meant in terms of Afghans' sense of their own identity and argues that if there is to be a hope of peace and stability, there needs to be a new form of engagement with the country, which respects the rights of Afghans to determine their own political future while recognising the responsibilities that must follow an intervention in someone else's land.

    Each writer takes a different perspective on the topic of imperialism. Contextual materials include related works by Darwin, Melville, and other contemporaries; biographical backgrounds; and modern reactions to the novels.

    Max MullerFriedrich Max Muller (1823-1900) was an Anglo-German orientalist and comparative philologist. He was a theologian who also wrote and translated books about the religions and sacred texts of the Far East, such as Buddhism and Confucianism. In 1898 he received the high honor of being made a Privy Councillor.

    Read about the legend behind the founding of Korea, the meaning of the flag, and the creation of the Korean alphabet. Learn how to make kimchi, how to celebrate Korean holidays, and how people ironed their clothes before electricity. Every page explains an aspect of Korean culture and its changes through the years. As North and South Korea quickly become important players in global politics, Land of Morning Calm gives us a better understanding of the people behind the news and the traditions we dont get to see on television. It opens a window into another way of life, reminding us once again that we are all as similar as we are different.

    How Alexander himself promoted this appearance—how he abetted the belief that he enjoyed divine favor and commanded even the forces of nature against his enemies—is the subject of Frank L. Holt's absorbing book.Solid evidence for the "supernaturalized" Alexander lies in a rare series of medallions that depict the triumphant young king at war against the elephants, archers, and chariots of Rajah Porus of India at the Battle of the Hydaspes River. Recovered from Afghanistan and Iraq in sensational and sometimes perilous circumstances, these ancient artifacts have long animated the modern historical debate about Alexander. Holt's book, the first devoted to the mystery of these ancient medallions, takes us into the history of their discovery and interpretation, into the knowable facts of their manufacture and meaning, and, ultimately, into the king's own psyche and his frightening theology of war. The result is a valuable analysis of Alexander history and myth, a vivid account of numismatics, and a spellbinding look into the age-old mechanics of megalomania.