The Land of the Camel - Tents and Temples of Inner Mongolia

The Land of the Camel - Tents and Temples of Inner Mongolia PDF Author: Schuyler Cammann
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473381835
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
This book describes western Inner Mongolia in 1945. For almost nine years this region had been cut off by hostilities with the Japanese, which began there in 1936, and it will probably be a very long time before any American can get there again. Even before the war it was little known, as the distance from the China coast had prevented foreign contacts, except for a handful of missionaries. The war years had brought marked changes to Inner Mongolia, accelerating the exploitation, terrorization, and dispossession of the Mongols which the Chinese had begun some forty years before. Enough Mongols were still living there, however, to enable us to see and share their life in tents and temples, after the end of the war brought us leisure from other activities. It seemed important to write down what we saw of their strange customs and complex religion, as well as to describe the forces that were undermining their old traditions and their way of life. Thus this is primarily an account of the Mongols we met, and their opponents among the immigrant settlers and border officials. But it would not present a complete picture of the region if it did not also describe the semifeudal realm of the Belgian missionary fathers, which has now passed into history.

The Land of the Camel - Tents and Temples of Inner Mongolia

The Land of the Camel - Tents and Temples of Inner Mongolia PDF Author: Schuyler Cammann
Publisher: Read Books Ltd
ISBN: 1473381835
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 274

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book describes western Inner Mongolia in 1945. For almost nine years this region had been cut off by hostilities with the Japanese, which began there in 1936, and it will probably be a very long time before any American can get there again. Even before the war it was little known, as the distance from the China coast had prevented foreign contacts, except for a handful of missionaries. The war years had brought marked changes to Inner Mongolia, accelerating the exploitation, terrorization, and dispossession of the Mongols which the Chinese had begun some forty years before. Enough Mongols were still living there, however, to enable us to see and share their life in tents and temples, after the end of the war brought us leisure from other activities. It seemed important to write down what we saw of their strange customs and complex religion, as well as to describe the forces that were undermining their old traditions and their way of life. Thus this is primarily an account of the Mongols we met, and their opponents among the immigrant settlers and border officials. But it would not present a complete picture of the region if it did not also describe the semifeudal realm of the Belgian missionary fathers, which has now passed into history.

Yurts

Yurts PDF Author: Becky Kemery
Publisher: Gibbs Smith
ISBN: 9781586858919
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 168

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Book Description
Yurts: Living in the Roundjourneys from Central Asia to modern America and reveals the history, evolution, and contemporary benefits of yurt living. One of the oldest forms of indigenous shelter still in use today, yurts have exploded into the twenty-first century as a multi-faceted, thoroughly modern, utterly versatile, and immensely popular modern structure whose possibilities are still being explored. Kemery introduces the innovators who redesigned the yurt and took it from back country trekking and campground uses to modern permanent homes and offices.

China's Old Dwellings

China's Old Dwellings PDF Author: Ronald G. Knapp
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
ISBN: 0824881117
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 377

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Book Description
China's Old Dwellings is the most comprehensive critical examination of China's folk architectural forms in any language. It and its companion volume, China's Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation (UH Press, 1999), together form a landmark study of the environmental, historical, and social factors that influence housing forms for nearly a quarter of the world's population. Both books draw on the author's thirty years of fieldwork and extensive travel in China as well as published and unpublished material in many languages. China's Old Dwellings begins by tracing the interest in Chinese vernacular buildings in the twentieth century. Early chapters detail common and distinctive spatial components, including the interior and exterior modular spaces that are axiomatic components of most Chinese dwellings as well as conventional structural components and building materials common in Chinese construction. Later chapters examine representative housing types in the three broad cultural realms--northern, southern, and western--into which China has been divided. Knapp completes his survey with an exploration of China's old dwellings in the context of the rapid economic and social changes that are destroying so many of them.

A Monastery in Time

A Monastery in Time PDF Author: Caroline Humphrey
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022603206X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
A Monastery in Time is the first book to describe the life of a Mongolian Buddhist monastery—the Mergen Monastery in Inner Mongolia—from inside its walls. From the Qing occupation of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries through the Cultural Revolution, Caroline Humphrey and Hürelbaatar Ujeed tell a story of religious formation, suppression, and survival over a history that spans three centuries. Often overlooked in Buddhist studies, Mongolian Buddhism is an impressively self-sustaining tradition whose founding lama, the Third Mergen Gegen, transformed Tibetan Buddhism into an authentic counterpart using the Mongolian language. Drawing on fifteen years of fieldwork, Humphrey and Ujeed show how lamas have struggled to keep Mergen Gegen’s vision alive through tremendous political upheaval, and how such upheaval has inextricably fastened politics to religion for many of today’s practicing monks. Exploring the various ways Mongolian Buddhists have attempted to link the past, present, and future, Humphrey and Ujeed offer a compelling study of the interplay between the individual and the state, tradition and history.

The Tibetan History Reader

The Tibetan History Reader PDF Author: Gray Tuttle
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231513542
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 749

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Book Description
Covering the social, cultural, and political development of Tibet from the seventh century to the modern period, this resource reproduces essential, hard-to-find essays from the past fifty years of Tibetan studies, along with several new contributions. Beginning with Tibet's emergence as a regional power and concluding with its profound contemporary transformations, the collection is both a general and specific history, connecting the actions of individuals, communities, and institutions to broader historical trends shaping Asia and the world. With contributions from American, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan scholars, the anthology reflects the international character of Tibetan studies and its multiple, interdisciplinary perspectives. By far the most concise scholarly anthology on Tibetan civilization in any Western language, this reader draws a clear portrait of Tibet's history, its relation to its neighbors, and its role in world affairs.

A Historical Geography of China

A Historical Geography of China PDF Author: Yi-Fu Tuan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351535382
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 247

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Book Description
The Chinese earth is pervasively humanized through long occupation. Signs of man's presence vary from the obvious to the extremely subtle. The building of roads, bridges, dams, and factories, and the consolidation of farm holdings alter the Chinese landscape and these alterations seem all the more conspicuous because they introduce features that are not distinctively Chinese. In contrast, traditional forms and architectural relics escape our attention because they are so identified with the Chinese scene that they appear to be almost outgrowths of nature. Describing the natural order of human beings in the context of the Chinese earth and civilization, "A Historical Geography of China" narrates the evolution of the Chinese landscape from prehistoric times to the present.Tuan views landscape as a visible expression of man's efforts to gain a living and achieve a measure of stability in the constant flux of nature. The book ranges the period of time from Peking man to the epoch of Mao Tse-tung. It moves through the ancient and modern dynasties, the warlords and conquests, earthquakes, devastating floods, climatic reversals, and staggering civil wars to the impact of Western civilization and industrialization. The emphasis throughout is on the effect of a changing environment on succeeding cultures.This classic study attempts to analyze and describe traditional Chinese settlement patterns and architecture. The result is a clear and succinct examination of the development of the Chinese landscape over thousands of years. It describes the ways the Communist regime worked to alter the face of the nation. This work will quickly prove to be crucial reading for all who are interested in this pivotal nation. It goes far beyond the usual political spectrum, into the physical and social roots of Chinese history.

Eat Not this Flesh

Eat Not this Flesh PDF Author: Frederick J. Simoons
Publisher: Univ of Wisconsin Press
ISBN: 9780299142544
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 568

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Book Description
Examines the use and avoidance of flesh foods, including beef, pork, chicken, and eggs, camel, dog, horse, and fish, from antiquity to the present day. Simoons finds that the recurrent theme of maintaining ritual purity, good health, and well-being underlies diet habits. He emphasizes that only a full range of factors can explain eating patterns, and stresses the interplay of religious, moral, hygienic, ecological, and economic factors in the context of human culture. From publisher description.

Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III

Asia in the Making of Europe, Volume III PDF Author: Donald F. Lach
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 9780226467696
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 756

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Book Description
First systematic, inclusive study of the impact of the high civilizations of Asia on the development of modern Western civilization.

Tibetan Border Worlds

Tibetan Border Worlds PDF Author: Wim Van Spengen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113617351X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
The focus of the study is the Tibetan and Tibetanized border populations in the little known Himalayan high-valley of Nyishang in West Central Nepal close to the Tibetan border. There, a group of traders have greatly extended their external relations over the past century in the form of long-distance trade ventures, thereby thoroughly changing the internal conditions of socio-economic organizations in their home district. The object of the study is to establish whether larger geohistorical processes of structural change may be conceptualized in such a way as to link structuration at the level of the localized social group to the dynamics of the wider regional setting.

Nomonhan

Nomonhan PDF Author: Alvin D. Coox
Publisher: Stanford University Press
ISBN: 9780804718356
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1284

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Book Description
From May to September 1939 Japan and the Soviet Union fought a fierce, large-scale undeclared war on the Mongolian plains that ended with a decisive Soviet victory with two important results: Japan reoriented its strategic emphasis towards the south, leading to war with the United States, Britain, and the Netherlands; and Russia freed itself from the fear of fighting on two fronts, thus vitally affecting the course of the war with Germany.