The Asian Studies WWW Monitor: early Dec 2003
Vol. 10, No. 19 (203)

14 Dec 2003

Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR), India
NDBR, Janadhar, India
Supplied note: "The communities surrounding the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India invite you as their very special guest to share in the grandeur of their blessed mountain home. The newly created web site at [the URL below] aims to acquaint you with their epic story of cultural and ecological survival in the lap of the Great Himalayas - sk."
Site contents: Home; The Land; NDBR Sketch Map; The People; The Story (Timeline Gaura Devi & Chipko); Tourism (Proposed Tourism Packages - Shepherd's Trail, Shradha, Footprints on Wheels, Devi Darshan, Soulo Search, Reaching Higher); Photos (Lata People Photos, Peak Photos, Lata Village Photos, Core Zone Photos, Workshop Photos); Support (CD Package : Maletha ki Kool, CD Package : Teri Saun Soundtrack); Contact; Resources (Sustainable Mountain Communities Conference Case Study, Nanda Devi Biodiversity Conservation and Eco Tourism Declaration, Namche Conference Presentation, Joshimath Workshop Proceedings)
[a campaign website for Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve, India - ed.]
URL http://www.nandadevi.org
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Dr. Sunil Kainthola (dhaar@vsnl.com)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Corporate Info.
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: NGO
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

10 Dec 2003

Bikes of Burden
Visionary World Ltd., Hong Kong, China
Supplied note: "A unique photo book, showing the motorbike as backbone of Vietnam's economy - hk."
[An online advertisement of a forthcoming book with "160 pages with 148 full color photographs of bikes" - ed.]
URL http://www.bikes-of-burden.com
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Hans Kemp (info@bikes-of-burden.com)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Corporate Info.
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Business
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Interesting
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

04 Dec 2003

Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road, Jun 2004
Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
Supplied note: "Conservation of Ancient Sites on the Silk Road: Second International Conference on the Conservation of Grotto Sites, Dunhuang, Gansu Province, China, June 28-July 3, 2004.
This is a postponement from the original summer 2003 dates due to the SARS epidemic.
Organized by the Getty Conservation Institute and the Dunhuang Academy.
The purpose of this conference is to bring together specialists in relevant aspects of cultural preservation for the exchange of ideas on the conservation and management of cave temple sites along the Silk Road. Because of limited facilities, the number of delegates is restricted to 200. Conference languages are English and Chinese.
The conference program will include visits to the Mogao grottoes, a World Heritage Site with wall paintings and statuary dating from the 4th to the 14th centuries. A ten- day post-conference tour visiting Silk Road sites between Urümqi and Kashgar, in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is also planned.
The full conference announcement is posted in the Conservation section of the Getty Web site, [see the URL below - ed.] - kl."
URL http://www.getty.edu/conservation/activities/mogao/grottoconf.html
Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.getty.edu/conservation/activities/mogao/grottoconf.html
Link reported by: Kathleen Louw (klouw@getty.edu), forwarded by central-eurasia-l@fas.harvard.edu
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Corporate Info.
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

04 Dec 2003

Early Medieval China - Web Archive
Early Medieval China, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
Self-description: "Early Medieval China is a journal devoted to academic scholarship relating to the period roughly between the end of the Han and beginning of the Tang eras. Boundaries in historical time are rarely abrupt or sharp, so the journal's coverage is, at times, extended in either direction. The focus, though, remains on the people, events, and culture of the years 220-589 A.D.
[...]
This page contains articles archived from past issues of Early Medieval China. PDF viewing software necessary to read the archived journals, such as Adobe Acrobat Reader.
For information regarding hard copy subscriptions, submissions, as well as notices on the Early Medieval China Group's activities please refer to the Early Medieval China Group web site [http://www.usc.edu/isd/archives/arc/libraries/eastasian/china/emcg/wjnbc.htm ; NOTE - the page in question is visible to Mac Netscape 4.08 browser, but not to a Mac Explorer 5.0 - ed.].
This journal is maintained by the Early Medieval China Group; the web archive is maintained and hosted by the University of Florida, Department of African and Asian Languages and Literatures. For questions concerning the Early Medieval China Group please contact Dr. Ken Klein [of U. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA]. For questions and comments regarding the Early Medieval China Web Archive please contact James McDougall."
Site contents: Early Medieval China 1 (1994); Early Medieval China 2 (1995-96); Early Medieval China 3 (1997); Early Medieval China 4 (1998); Early Medieval China 5 (1999); Early Medieval China 6 (2000); Early Medieval China 7(2001).
URL http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/cchenna/journal/
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: James McDougall (jmcdoug@english.ufl.edu)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

04 Dec 2003

The Genealogy of Afghan Royal Dynasties
Institute of Asian and African Studies, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia.
Supplied note: "The Genealogy of Afghan Royal Dynasties of Sadozais, Muhammedzais and The Great Moguls is now available on-line in Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF) format.
The genealogy is compiled by Georgiy Ezhov and edited and designed by Yuri Bossin, Moscow State University. It provides a tree-look of the ancestor-descendant relationship of the two Afghan Royal dynasties of Sadozais and Muhammedzais as well as of the Dynasty of The Great Moguls. An addendum represents the line of Afghan Rulers from 1747 through 2003.
The Genealogy is available in two files:
1) http://www.iaas.msu.ru/pub_on/afg_1.pdf for on-screen view, image width - 175 cm, image height - 60 cm, size 143 Kb
2) http://www.iaas.msu.ru/pub_on/afg_10.pdf for printing out in 10 A4 pages to put together into a single sheet with dimensions 148.5 cm x 42 cm. [size 104 Kb - ed.]
Authors' Biograph[ies]:
Georgiy Ezhov is a professor of Economic Geography at Moscow State University, Institute of Asian and African Studies. His most recent work is Afghanistan: Biographical Handbook (IAAS, MSU, Moscow 2002).
Yuri V. Bossin is an associate professor at Moscow State University, Institute of Asian and African Studies. His most recent monograph is Afghanistan: Multi-Ethnic Society and State Power in Historical Context, (IAAS, MSU, Moscow 2002). - yb."
URL http://www.iaas.msu.ru/pub_on/
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Yuri Bossin (iouri@iaas.msu.ru), forwarded by central-eurasia-l@fas.harvard.edu
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: V.Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

03 Dec 2003

Tibetan Grammar and Phrasebook
www.geocities.com, USA?
Supplied note: "I would like to inform you that I have written, with the help of a Tibetan friend [Tenzin Norbu - ed.], a simple text to learn the basic rules of Tibetan language. It consist of about 70 pages. The first part is a simple grammar, the second part is a phrasebook with many useful sentences to be used in conversation. This book can be freely downloaded from my web site: [see the URL below] I think that it is the most complete text that can be freely available by Internet so far. - sv."
Site contents: * "Tibetan grammar and phrasebook" (PDF, 432 KB) by Silvia Vernetto in collaboration with Tenzin Norbu; * Useful links (Tibetan Language Audio Guide, Tibetan Alphabet, List of online resources on Tibetan Language and Literature, Overview on the Tibetan Language and related links, Information on Tibetan language and courses, Tibetan Software, Homage to Tibet [Tibet Photo Gallery], www.tibet.com [The site of the Tibetan Government in exile in Dharamsala], www.tibetinfo.net, www.tibet.org, www.tibet.cn [The Chinese point of view]).
URL http://www.geocities.com/tibetanlanguage/language.html
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Silvia Vernetto (vernetto@to.infn.it)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study/Online Guide
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Other
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: V.Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

03 Dec 2003

NO to Political Islam (NTPI)
www.ntpi.org, USA?
Supplied note: "This organization and their website are a new endeavor that attempts to advocate the practice of religion as a private (as opposed to state instituted) matter. It constitutes a critique that includes comment on religion and human rights, sharia, etc. - jk."
Self-description: "We, the undersigned, oppose Political Islam, its agenda of hatred and oppression, and its imposition of the most barbaric interpretation of Sharia law. We seek a future in which all people, men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims, enjoy the benefits of equality, justice, democracy and human rights, and freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought, and freedom of expression [...]
The [NTPI] Campaign partners are: * A.I.M.E. (d'Ailleurs ou d'Ici Mais Ensemble); * Article-18; * Asiapeace; * Bangladesh Human Rights Watch; * Bangladeshi Civil Society in Europe; * Centre for Study of Society and Secularism; * Committee to Defend Women's Rights in the Middle East (CDWRME); * Council for Democracy and Tolerance; * Institute for the Secularisation of Islamic Society; * International Humanist and Ethical Union; * Liberal Muslims; * Progressive Muslims 1998; * Society for the Promotion of Rational Thinking; * World Sindhi Institute."
Site contents: Why NO to PI?; Learn More; Human Rights; Democracy; Modernity; Forums (ntpi.org Website, ntpi.org Campaign); About Us; Signatures [the count of]; Contact Us; Donations; Site map.
URL http://www.ntpi.org/
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Joanna Kirkpatrick (jkirk@spro.net)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Corporate info./Documents
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Other
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Interesting
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

03 Dec 2003

The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh
www.ricksha.org, USA
Self-description: "[The celebration] of Bangladesh's unique popular arts, the paintings and decorations on the three-wheeled cycle ricksha -- or 'rickshaw', as spelled in English dictionaries. This site is based on my anthropological field visits to Bangladesh between 1975 and 1998, when I traveled about, took photos, and interviewed people."
Supplied note: "My CD-ROM, titled 'Transports of Delight. The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh. A CD-ROM' was published earlier this year by Indiana University Press. [...] Joanna Kirkpatrick, [2003], 'Transports of Delight: The Ricksha Arts of Bangladesh' (CD-ROM) CD-ROM 0-253-34148-5
A colorful multimedia exploration of folk art, culture, and religion. [with] more than 1,000 brilliantly colored photographs, videos, music, and text [...] System requirements: PC system with display set for 16 bit color at 800x600 resolution, 4x or better CD-ROM drive, Apple QuickTime 4 or better, Internet Explorer 5.0 or higher. Video segments require Pentium II Processor. - jk."
Site contents: Map [Regions and Ricksha Art Styles], Views, CD-ROM, Image Gallery, Readings [incl. the 53KB strong 'Selected Bibliography on Ricksha Arts and Related Studies' - ed.], Links.
[Both a specialist virtual library and a feast for the eyes - ed.]
URL http://www.ricksha.org
[The site is also available at http://www.webpak.net/~ricksha/index.htm - ed.]
Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.ricksha.org
Link reported by: Joanna Kirkpatrick (jkirk@spro.net)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Documents/Study/Online Guide
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Other
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

03 Dec 2003

The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces
www.gruzim.de, Freiburg, Germany.
Andreas Gruschke. 2001. The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces - Amdo (Northeastern Tibet) . Volume 1. The Qinghai Part of Amdo. Volume 2. The Gansu and Sichuan Parts of Amdo. White Lotus Publishers, Bangkok. In preparation: The Cultural Monuments of Tibet's Outer Provinces: Kham (Eastern Tibet). [to be published in three volumes at White Lotus Press, ca. 2003/2004].
[Details of paper publications. The site offers information previously placed on http://gruschke.topcities.com/Amdo.htm - ed.]
URL http://www.gruzim.de/Amdo.htm
Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.gruzim.de/Amdo.htm
Link reported by: Andreas Gruschke (gruschke@freenet.de)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Document
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Other
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Useful
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

03 Dec 2003

The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art On-line Exhibition
The Huntington Archive, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
Supplied note: "An on-line version of the exhibition, 'Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art,' organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Columbus Museum of Art. The exhibition, focusing on the theme of Chakrasamvara Tantra, will be on view in Los Angeles from October 5, 2003- January 4, 2004; and in Columbus from February 6-May 9, 2004. On-line exhibition contains 160 images with didactic text and graphics. There are 13 thematic sections, include Enlightenment of Shakyamuni, Buddhist Cosmology: Mount Meru, Enlightenment Explained: Jina Buddhas, Perfection of Wisdom: Prajnaparamita; Gurus of Tantric Buddhism; Refuge on the Three Jewels; Bodhisattvas, Chakrsamvara, Vajravarahi, Related Tantras, such as Guhyasamaja, Hevajra, Vajrabhairava, Mahottama Heruka, and Kala Chakra; and Benevolent Protectors
The exhibition is co-curated by Professor John C. Huntington and Dina Bangdel, with contributions from the graduate students of the Department of History of Art at The Ohio State University. - db."
URL http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/exhib/circleofbliss/index.html
Internet Archive (www.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: Dr. Dina Bangdel, Curator of Huntington Archive (bangdel.1@osu.edu)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Documents/Study
* Publisher [academic - business - govt. - library/museum - NGO - other]: Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

02 Dec 2003

New China Time Series Historical GIS released
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
Supplied note: "For those who are interested the new Time Series CHGIS Version 2.0 datasets have been released and published [...]
In Version 2 a completely new set of county-level polygons (circa 1911 CE) have been constructed using the 1990 ArcChina Basemap. Draft prints of the 1911 county maps were used to construct space-time composite polgyons to show boundary changes over time, which were then digitized into GIS. The process is described [in:]
http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/data/chgis/downloads/v2/compilation.html
The resulting Time Series database, showing continuous series of historical changes from 222 BCE to 1911 CE has been completed for the Southeast Coastal area (including Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu). Work continues on the areas for which the 1911 counties have been completed (including Guangdong, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Henan, Shanxi), as does the reconstruction of additional 1991 counties.
All of the data is available for download from the main CHGIS website: http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/
or on CD-ROM from Cheng & Tsui Company.
The CHGIS data has also been integrated with NIMA and CITAS datasets (totaling 250,000 records) in our online search engine, allowing the user to search by place-name, feature type, year, and dataset. Access the search engine from the main website SEARCH TOOLS section. - mlb."
[The CHGIS project has been established in Dec 2000 under the aegis of the Harvard-Yenching Institute and Harvard University. The CHGIS develops a standardized coding system to identify historical administrative units and settlements for different periods in Chinese History. It provides a GIS platform for spatial analysis, temporal statistical modeling, and representation of selected historical units as digital maps. The project, which builds on the work of the late Robert M. Hartwell, intends to make the multi-lingual base GIS available to the scholarly community at no charge through download sites throughout the world. - ed.]
URL http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/
Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.fas.harvard.edu/~chgis/
Link reported by: Merrick Lex Berman (mberman@fas.harvard.edu)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study/Documents
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library - NGO - other]: Academic
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 100

01 Dec 2003

Islamic Tourism Magazine
Technical Consulting and Publishing House (TCPH), London, UK
Self-description: "We are pleased to present the new our website. One of the main modifications is the weekly news bulletin. You will be able now to read the news in brief and then should you want the details you can click on the particular news title or the attached photo to get access to the news in full. The news is up dated weekly, the old ones transferred automatically to the archive. They are archived according to the related countries. You can follow them there if you click on the section 'Select Country News' and you select the right country. We are providing this service for the reader free of charge."
Site contents: [A site in Arabic and English, est. 2001, 8 issues by Dec 2003 - ed.] News ([Date: 30/11/03] Baghdad rises from the ashes, Ninety percent of tourists want to revisit Antalya, Giant Elephants in Abu Dhabi, Yemeni religious singers in Cairo, Bahrain flag to fly at South Pole, Lebanon's Tourists to top 1 million, Gulf Air recovery plan on track to meet target Raining in a desert kingdom, Iranian Experts Studying Tourism in Japan, Soul-searching among the sand dunes, Dubai: a dream destination ...); Q&A; Country Profile [short profiles of countries in:] (Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, North America); Contact us; FAQ, Editorial; Articles.
URL http://www.islamictourism.com/
Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.islamictourism.com/
Link reported by: (travelwirenews@travelwirenews.com)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Corporate info./News
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library - NGO - other]: Business
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Interesting
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 30

01 Dec 2003

South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP)
Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi, India
Self-description: "The Institute for Conflict Management is a non-Profit Society set up in 1997 in New Delhi, and is committed to the continuous evaluation and resolution of problems of internal security in South Asia. The Institute was set up on the initiative of, and is presently headed by, its President, Mr. K.P.S. Gill, IPS (Retd). [...] The Institute is a registered non-profit, non-governmental organisation supported by voluntry contributions and project aid. Current Projects are supported by, among others, the Indian Council for Social Science Research (ICSSR), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), and the Bureau of Police Research & Development (BPR&D)."
Site contents: * Latest on SATP [new analyses, revised analyses] * [daily] Terrorism Update; * Security Overviews [assessments, backgrounders, bibliography, documents, timelines] (South Asia, India, Pakistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, The States of India (Mizoram, Assam, J&K, Manipur, Nagaland, Punjab, Tripura, Meghalaya); * South Asia Intelligence Review: Weekly Assessments and Briefings; * Publications; * Documents; * Data; * Bibliography; * Links (South Asian Institutional Sites on Terrorism, Official Home Pages of the Governments of Countries in South Asia, Media in the Region, Global Sites on Terrorism); * Contact; * Feedback; * Internship Programme.
URL http://www.satp.org/
Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.satp.org/
Link reported by: (satporg@satp.org)
* Resource type [news - documents - study - corporate info. - online guide]: Study/Documents/News
* Publisher [academic - business - government - library - NGO - other]: NGO
* Scholarly usefulness [essential - v.useful - useful - interesting - marginal]: Essential
* External links to the resource [over 3,000 - under 3,000 - under 1,000 - under 300 - under 100 - under 30]: under 3,000

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Internet Archive http://web.archive.org/web/*/coombs.anu.edu.au/asia-www-monitor.html
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