History Sites for KJ Media Issue: Asia Online

ASIA ONLINE

H i s t o r y

Aizu History Project
www.fire.csua.ucla.edu/~jan/ah/menu.html
The University of Aizu, Japan & Cad/Art, Oregon, USA are developing educational software on Japanese history, focusing on the Aizu region. Using hypertext and hypermedia to promote free form exploration of text and audiovisual materials the site has some amazing computer reconstructions and animated walkthroughs. By focusing on the Aizu region, they depart from the standard emphasis on centers of political power in Kyoto and Edo (Tokyo). Contains solid sections on history and Buddhism:

Like other provincial Buddhist temples, Enichiji may have been a vehicle for extending government power to remote locations. Wary of religious institutions not under its own control, Japan's imperial government in Kyoto incorporated existing provincial shrines and temples into its own systems, or established new ones to "convert" local people and lay claim to their loyalty.

Lost Cities of the Silk Road
www.alumni.caltech.edu/~pamlogan/silkroad/
Using NASA's Spaceborne Imaging Radar (or SIR-C), which flew on the Space Shuttle twice in 1994, Pam Logan (photographer, archeologist, anthropologist, explorer, and rocket scientist) has been remotely examining the Taklamakan Desert in China's arid northwest. The technology promises to relieve explorers of tedious and hazardous searching among the Taklamakan's treacherous dunes:

The team will work in the Taklamakan Desert, so inhospitable that its name in the local language means "Go in, and you don't come out." At the desert's edge, glacial melt- water feeds a string of oases where Silk Road caravans once stopped to rest and resupply. Because the climate has been getting steadily drier over the last two millennia, inhabitants were forced to move closer to the water sources, abandoning their cities to encroaching desert. Hidden for centuries among high dunes, ancient Silk Road settlements such as the already-discovered sites of Niya and Lulan hold a wealth of clues about the movement of people, goods, and ideas across Eurasia. Now, armed with radar images that show scientists where the ruins can be found, more of the Silk Road's secrets can be uncovered at last.

Features satellite images of the Silk Road. Also stories about her work on a Scythian Dig in Tuva, her incredible involvement in restoration and education in Tibet, and upcoming journey to the North Pole.

Hendrick Hamel
www.henny-savenije.demon.nl/
A complete transcript of the journal of Hendrick Hamel, the first Westerner to write about Korea (1666). Shipwrecked off the coast of Cheju island, he wrote his journal on Dejima after he and 7 of the other survivors escaped from a 13 year long internment in Chosun Korea. Hamel's contemporary observations of Korean society are interesting but laden with ideas of European superiority:

With regard to the moral standards, it has to be said that the Koreans are not very strict when it comes to mine and thine, they lie and cheat and that's why they can't be trusted. They are proud if they have cheated somebody and they don't think that's a disgrace. On the other hand the Koreans are very gullible. We could fool them with anything. This was particularly true for the monks, who liked to listen to stories about foreign countries and their people. Furthermore they are very cowardly.

Beauty and Darkness: Cambodia in Modern History
http://allithai.mekong.net/cambodia/
Comprehensive site detailing the years around the rule of the Khmer Rouge. Alongside documents and analysis of the genocide, there is a collection of harrowing oral histories from survivors. Highlights include some wonderful photographs by Bruce Sharp, information on Khmer culture, and a debate about Chomsky's analysis of the Khmer Rouge in the media.

It is my recollection that Chomsky declared that in El Salvador "the population became the battlefield." The same was true - on a much more massive scale - in Cambodia. But he did not make the same declaration with regard to that nation; rather, he described the reports emerging from that country as "a flood of lies".

See also the Cambodian Genocide Program at Yale

Mark Shepard's Nonviolence Page ﾑ Mahatma Gandhi and More
www.markshep.com/nonviolence/index.html
Simple layout and lengthy unattractive slabs of text ﾑ but a goldmine of information on Gandhi. There is a very good transcript of a speech given by the creator, Mark Shepard, attacking the myths around Gandhi, and the attempts to have him portrayed as a religious figure. There are also articles on Gandhi's legacy and using non-violence. A sample:

One of the most common and most dangerous myths about Gandhi is that he was a saint. The name ﾑ or rather, the title ﾑ Mahatma itself means "Great Soul." That's somewhere between a saint and a Messiah. Gandhi tried to avoid the title, but the people of India ignored his protests. Now I see that even the Library of Congress has begun to classify him under "Gandhi, Mahatma," so I guess he's lost that battle.

Itihaas:The History of India
www.itihaas.com/
Covers the entire history of India in a news-story style. The highlights are some great contributions including one titled "Alexander the Ordinary."

The facts of Alexander's miserable defeat and his shattered dream at Indian soil have been avoided consistently by Greek historians and the same was perpetuated during British regime. But the truth which is documented in many narratives of the Europeans themselves presents a totally different picture. The depictions by Curtius, Justin, Diodorus, Arrian and Plutarch are quite consistent and reliable in concluding that Alexander was defeated by Porus and had to make a treaty with him to save his and his soldiers' lives. He was a broken man at his return from his mis-adventures in India.

Oyunbilig's Great Mongol Home Page
www.mongols.com/
The history section of this site has a translation of "The Eight White Ordon, the Offering Ceremonies of Genghis Khan" and information about the Chinese-built Mausoleum of Genghis Khan.

Tarim Basin Mummies
www.kirby.on.ca/tbm/home.html

History of the recent finds in the Tarim Basim, China, possibly shedding light on early origins of Indo-Europeans. Includes information on language, origins, culture and textiles of Xinjiang-Uyghur region. The very graphic pictures of the mummies are not for the squeamish!

Salt Range Temples, Pakistan
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/arth/meister/pakistan.html
Exhaustive photos of temples, dating from the sixth to the early eleventh century, in upper Pakistan archeological sites.