#India influence

[rrcraft-and-lore]

You all have no idea how much I'm waiting for this book, and there's a REASON I named the giant road through Tales of Tremaine, The Golden Road, and get into India's influence along the Silk Road - and, you'll be surprised to learn there were many mini branches off/of the Silk Road. The Jade Way/Porcelain Road, you had a full maritime Silk Road (seriously), a Salt Road. So many that specialized on certain things and you could quite literally make an entire life being a specialized bandit along those ways. But, anyways, yeah, I'm so looking forward to this. Idk what I have to do for the publisher to get me an arc cuz...I want this now.

[waaydamin]

@waydaminbrand | valentine’s day collection

[fuckyeahchinesefashion]

The Cryptic Motif of “Three Hares with Conjoined Ears”

On the Heavenly Palace decorative patterns found in the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang from the late Northern dynasties are images with cryptic patterns, including Buddha's head, the Taotie beast, deer, animals copulating, three hares with conjoined ears, and also writings. This type of decorative pattern is cryptic and difficult to understand and may be closely related to the history of the popular Eastern iconology and divination philosophy from the Han and Wei dynasties and Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou's suppression of Buddhism. They are important references for studying the related history of this period.

[beau-gar]

WISDOM

www.beau-gar.tumblr.com

[potatobugz]

i was hacked by a very unhappy man!

[purpleprincess09]

@ft.gioo 🍀 on instagram.

Gifs by me ⭐️.

[emberwritesinsight]

I know we all kind of assume Anthy and Akio are Indian because of the brown skin and bindis (Google tells me that while it's less common, men do wear bindis sometimes), and I agree, but also. "Dios" is Spanish, "Anthy" is derived from a Greek word, "Himemiya" is Japanese (I would theorize that her name hasn't always been "Himemiya", though she does seem to have had the name "Anthy" as far back as we're allowed to see into her past), and Akio drives an American car and plays jazz (a style of music that developed in America) over the radio in said car. Also, despite bindis being a Hindu, Jain and Buddhist thing, all the religious shit the two of them have going on (the martyrdom, Akio drawing a comparison between himself and Satan, Ohtori looking like a fucked up Cathedral and Dios appearing to Utena in a church) is Pretty Christian.

I know all of this is probably just a product of the writers not having a concrete idea of where they wanted Akio and Anthy to be from other than "not here" but it implies a lot of travel, which does kind of fit with Dios' whole "trying to rescue Every Girl Ever" thing.

Where do their names come from, anyway? "Dios" sounds like it could have been a name given to him by the people he saved. We never hear hide nor hair of their parents, they're fully irrelevant even by the farthest flashback.

[taudad]

[fivestargirlie]

AHHGHHHHH🖤🎀

@indialove

[leroibobo]

the paradesi synagogue in kochi, kerala, india. the first synagogue on the site, built by the city's longstanding malabari jewish community, was destroyed by portugese who'd colonized the area in their persecution of locals. it was rebuilt in 1568 by spanish and portugese jews who fled persecution and later expulsion, hence the name "paradesi" ("foreign" in malayalam).

these sephardic jews and a community of jews of mixed african and european descent who were formerly enslaved ("meshuchrarim", "freedmen" in hebrew) joined the malabari jewish community of kochi and somewhat integrated. they were later joined by some iraqi, persian, yemenite, afghan, and dutch sephardic jews. the middle eastern and european jews were considered "white jews" and permitted malabari jews and meshuchrarim to worship in the synagogue. however, in what seems like a combination of local caste dynamics and racism, malabari jews were not allowed full membership. meshuchrarim weren't allowed in at all, but were instead made to sit outside during services and not allowed their own place of worship or other communal rights.

as the "white jews" tended to be rather wealthy from trade, this synagogue contains multiple antiquities. they include belgian glass chandeliers on its walls, hand-painted porcelain tiles from china on its floors, and an oriental rug that was gifted by ethiopian emperor haile selassie.

[scltbvrns]

everyone who participated in the harrasment of that literal fucking child over a literal useless thing such as "beauty standards"...i wish you a very fucking die in pain.

[beauzos]

If I had a nickel for every time fans of a game that has a clearly India-coded fake nation in it insist the country is supposed to be China, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice

[waaydamin]

@jaydacheaves | swim week sneak peek

[slaviclore]

so this is a thing that's happening:

kremlin's been sending literal russian flags to africa

"“The Russian flag has become a symbol of resistance in West Africa, affiliated with anti-West and anti-French attitudes,” said Kyle Walter, the head of research at Logically, a technology company that tracked an increase of pro-Russian and anti-French narratives related to Niger in the wake of a coup there this summer."

(the full article at nyt -- i know it's a paid subscription so here is the gist)

the russian flag is popular in west african countries as a protest symbol:

"After military rulers in Niger ousted the civilian president in late July, a wave of pro-Russian sentiment spread throughout the capital, coupled with widespread anger against France, Niger’s former colonizer and a longtime security ally. France’s ambassador to Niger left on Wednesday. French troops positioned in the country are set to depart by the end of the year."

and also because they're fashionable:

"“They just look so cool,” Rédouane Halidou, 21, said as he visited a tiny tailor workshop in a residential neighborhood of Niamey one morning. Two freshly sewn polo shirts were displayed on a table, one in Niger’s green, white and orange, another in Russia’s red, white and blue."

"They also make a catchy political statement. Russia is seen by many young Africans as an anticolonial power, there to help them cast off their colonial past and write a new chapter of national history that has nothing to do with democracy, which many associate with exploitative partnerships with Western countries, corruption and poverty."

[aquai04]

Fast Life Mood board Chapters 1. 2.

Money, Clothes, Cars, & Diamonds That fast life catches up to you…

[clarabosswald]

A remarkable discovery has been made in a coconut farm in Ramanathapuram: a tombstone with Hebrew inscriptions dating back to the 13th century. This find is expected to shed new light on the region's historical connection to the Jewish community. Thoufeek Zakriya, a Jewish history researcher and Hebrew calligrapher, the first to decipher the inscription, says that the tombstone dates to 1224 or 1225 AD. "This means that it is older than the Sarah Bat Israel Tombstone in Kerala’s Chennamangalam, which is considered the oldest Hebrew tombstone ever identified in India," Zakriya told THE WEEK. "The Hebrew inscription bears the date as the 1st of Shvat (Hebrew Month) 1536 or 1537 of the Seleucid era," Zakriya explained. [...] "When converting the dates from the Seleucid era to the common era, it was found that the date on the tombstone inscriptions is approximately equivalent to January 1, 1224 AD, or January 18, 1225 AD," Zakriya noted, adding that not every line in the inscription could be deciphered due to damage. "So, I could not find the name of the deceased or his father... But I could see a name partially which could be read as Nehemiah in Hebrew. The initial analysis shows a strong Yemeni Jewish influence in the tombstone's pattern."