Monthly Archives: October 2020 Every society that has been studied by history, anthropology, or sociology, celebrates the passage of its individuals from one social or religious status to another. The ceremonial events that mark these rites of passage can take very different and colourful forms. Many are private affairs, with elders initiating others into secrets that are not shared […]  Patan, or Lalitpur (ललितपुर), or Manigal, is an ancient Newari city of just over 200,000 people. It sits on the southern plateau of the Bagmati River, eight kilometers south of Kathmandu, and was – up until the conquest and unification in the late 1700s, under Prithvi Narayan Shah, the Gorkha Prince and future King of […]  Sometimes Facebook ads get it right! I am always looking for walks in interesting places. And, I had been wanting to study a language again. But, I honestly can’t remember if I saw the ad in the corner of my consciousness before I decided on studying Spanish, or if I had decided on Spanish first… […]  The Kazakh people of Western Mongolia practically live on horseback. For hundreds of years, Kazakh nomads had been roaming across the Altai Mountains – between what is now Mongolia and Kazakhstan – riding their small but hardy Kazakh horses (similar to Mongolian horses, but daintier), herding their fat-tailed sheep, horses, cattle, goats, Bactrian camels, and […]  Ethiopia is a big country: at 1,104,300 sq km, it is number 28 in the world in terms of area. And, it remains – despite recent progress in alleviating extreme poverty – one of the poorest countries in the world (CIA World Factbook). So, local infrastructure is not what it might be, and the country […] |
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