Word: mongol
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...various features artists have given the Buddha over thousands of years help to reflect the endless political and cultural changes in Afghanistan. A 2nd century marble head representing Siddhartha Gautama, the Nepalese prince who after years of futile asceticism sat down and found enlightenment, looks like a Mongol warrior, with moustache and wild curly hair. In most other sculptures in the exhibition the Buddha has fine, often-feminine looks...
Many other arms stretched the same way: Indian, Persian, Arab, Mongol, Turkish, Chinese. There were also lesser-known tribal groups, like the Kushans, a Central Asian nomadic lot who around the start of the Christian era controlled northern India, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, using the Kabul region as a summer vacation spot. For all their power, the Kushans handled cultural and religious diversity better than those who have ruled Afghanistan in recent decades. Cambon says they showed "an extreme tolerance and true eclecticism if we bear in mind the diverse origins of the divinities that appear on the reverse...
...early. He was born in 1371, during the first years of the Ming dynasty, to an Islamic family in what is now the western province of Yunnan. (His name at birth was Ma He.) When the Ming armies moved into the region to wipe out the last vestiges of Mongol influence, 11-year-old Ma gained the attention of a conquering general. He was taken back to Nanjing, where he became a page to a young prince, known as Zhu Di. He was castrated and destined for a life serving with other eunuchs in the imperial household, guarding the harem...
...Collateral damage,” Timothy McVeigh calls the victims in Oklahoma City, and the people who want to “cure” evil ooh and aah, as if the Middle American murderer is expressing a horrifyingly original thought. But the story of humanity, from the Mongol hordes sacking Silk Road cities and piling up skulls like gumdrops, to Hutus and Tutsis hacking at each other in the Rwandan bush, has always been one of “collateral damage”—of killing people who happen to get in your...
...architectural wonders include the giant ramparts of the fortress known as the Ark, the banded patterns of the dizzying 47-m high Kalan minaret and the delicate brickwork of the Ismail Samani Mausoleum. They were among the few structures to survive Genghis Khan's passing. From the minaret, the Mongol chieftain ordered the destruction of everything around him, declaring: "I am God's punishment for your sins." The crumbling Ark (entry 60) has an equally dark history. From the square in front, 19th century ruler Nasrullah Khan oversaw the executions of thousands. Behind is the Zindon jail, where prisoners were...