Replica of Vietnam's Tien Mu Temple pagoda for the 1906 Colonial Exposition in Marseille.

Socialist, theosophist + women's rights activist Annie Besant was born #onthisday 1847. Read @ResObscura on her book Thought-Forms (1901), an intriguing work grounded in the theory that ideas, emotions, and even events, can manifest as visible auras publicdomainreview.org/essay/v... #OTD

Born #onthisday in 1547, Miguel de Cervantes, author of one of the most illustrated books of all time, #DonQuixote. Read Rachel Schmidt on how the varying approaches to illustrating it have reflected + impacted its reading through the centuries: publicdomainreview.org/essay/p... #otd

Original testimony of Abigail Williams from the Salem Witch Trials, 1692. Now located in the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.

#newpost! By guest contributor Andrew Chittick. A description of his latest project Maritime #Asia in the Third Century CE, using the #ESRI #StoryMap #Maritimestudies #Vietnam #SoutheastAsia, #India, #MiddleEast #DHinpractice #DHtools 🔗 Link in bio

Fritz Kapp, albumen photograph, w/ pencil on back "Lama priests by F. Kapp./ Lama Sherb, Gyatso (front middle)/ 239.” Sold at Sotheby's November 2021. Source photo for the postcard below.

A good stereophotograph will have depth with at least two layers so a more pronounced stereoscopic effect will occur. Kotte Temple, Sri Lanka, 1901.

Felice Beato, "Bronze Statue of Jeso Sama-Hakoni Lake [sic]," albumen print, c. 1868 [modified 😎]

Felice Beato, "Bronze Statue of Jeso Sama-Hakoni Lake [sic]," albumen print, c. 1868 [modified 😎]

Happy first day of autumn!!! (In the northern hemisphere at least... and those west of UTC-02:00). ⁠ Pictured here: Maple Trees at Mama (1857) by Utagawa Hiroshige. More works by Hiroshige → https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/utagawa-hiroshige-last-great-master-of-ukiyo-e

"In a landmark study, OpenAI researchers reveal that large language models will always produce plausible but false outputs, even with perfect data, due to fundamental statistical and computational limits." www.computerworld.com/article/4059...

“There’s a running joke on Chinese social media that Xi’an’s subway system has the worst feng shui—not because it’s cursed, but because the tracks have to twist and turn to avoid all the tombs buried beneath the city.” news.artnet.com/art-world/xi...

"At a Funeral", one of the many enigmatic images to be found in Thought-Forms (1901), a work co-authored by the theosophist Annie Besant, who died #onthisday in 1933. More on these “synesthetic” abstractions in our essay by @ResObscura here: publicdomainreview.org/essay/v... #otd

During the height of chinoiserie, French artist Jean Barbault painted himself dressed as a "Chinese Ambassador" for the 1748 Roman Carnival Masquerade. His remarkable hat was topped by a tiny sitting buddha, wearing the same hat.

"Anyone who works in manuscript studies or philology knows that these are thoroughly digital disciplines. ... Accusations of technophobia ... would therefore be completely inappropriate. It is precisely our technical literacy ... that must make us critical." @dehypotheses.bsky.social

@madpoli.bsky.social maps out essential DO posts for anyone working with #EastAsian sources 🔍 A handy resource guide covering everything from #OracleBone inscriptions to #mapping tools. 🔗 digitalorientalist.com/2025/09/19/a...

I'm so excited about the work the Crossroads Project fellows have done and hope you will check out the new projects and teaching resource.

Philip Klier titled several photographs in his souvenir albums as "Scene on Shwe Dagon Pagoda," each showing different areas of the main platform. This photo shows a similar view to the one he chose below to produce as a postcard. Note the small elephant statue in both. 👀🐘📸

Mostly known for "pictorialist" artistic nudes, Arthur Kales took at least one dramatic photo of a Guanyin statue. www.getty.edu/art/collecti...

The Jizō statue shown below is no longer in Hakone, but Utagawa Sadahide 歌川貞秀 made a print of the shoreline in 1863 before the cluster of statues were either destroyed or sold off.

My latest column for National Geographic is on Joseph Smith. It features the amazing new biography by @georgemasonu.bsky.social prof. John Turner and quotes from @benjaminepark.bsky.social's American Zion. www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

Colleges are cutting many types of departments, but religious studies in particular keeps ending up on lists of doomed programs. I looked into why: www.chronicle.com/article/why-...

Reading about this brought to mind a piece I wrote two years ago, inspired by one of my favourite authors. Ursula K. Le Guin emphasized that there’s a big difference “between production of a market commodity and the practice of an art.” OpenAI’s AI-generated movie offers us nothing.

Eliphalet Brown was the official photographer of the 1853/54 Perry Expedition to Japan. Brown appears to be captured at work below in a watercolor by William Heine, the expedition's artist. Notice he's setting up a portrait of three men. See Brown's work in the re-post below! 📸

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

We're returning Monday with a new series of objects to explore! 👀 Starting off with this lithograph daguerreotype from the Perry Expedition to Japan in 1853. 🗃️ 📜 #Japan

So new studies showcase that the more you know how GenAi works, the less likely you are to use it! 😌 This reminds me of ai advocates who claim that those who refuse to use GenAi do so because they dont know how it works, yet it’s the opposite! The less you know the more you are likely to use GenAi

Chance discovery of this 1885 painting in Berkeley Library showing a SF Chinatown alley has finally let me resolve the location of Eastern Glory Temple 東華廟 owned by the famed doctor Li Po Tai 黎普泰. Newest map of Chinatown's temples is up to 34!: tinyurl.com/jmh2x4yp

In her essay “Picturing Scent: The Tale of a Beached Whale”, @Lizzie_Marx follows a “whale-trail” across history to discover the olfactory paradoxes of the Dutch Golden Age: https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/picturing-scent

Chance discovery of this 1885 painting in Berkeley Library showing a SF Chinatown alley has finally let me resolve the location of Eastern Glory Temple 東華廟 owned by the famed doctor Li Po Tai 黎普泰. Newest map of Chinatown's temples is up to 34!: tinyurl.com/jmh2x4yp

Woljeongsa - Ceremonies, Founders Hall, Portrait Hall, Bell Tower (final photos!) In mid-July the temple hosted hundreds of devotees to chant the Diamond Sutra early into the morning. The main hall and another hall were filled! Later in the month was a ceremony related to the deceased. 1/4

Woljeongsa - Ceremonies, Founders Hall, Portrait Hall, Bell Tower (final photos!) In mid-July the temple hosted hundreds of devotees to chant the Diamond Sutra early into the morning. The main hall and another hall were filled! Later in the month was a ceremony related to the deceased. 1/4

Woljeongsa - Shrine of Three Sages: The Shrine of Three Sages 三聖閣 was new to me; it's common to modern Korean temples and tends to replace the shrine to the local mountain spirit (Sanshin 山神) seen in older temples. This was a lively shrine hall, a monk chanted here daily. 1/3

Woljeongsa - Shrine of Three Sages: The Shrine of Three Sages 三聖閣 was new to me; it's common to modern Korean temples and tends to replace the shrine to the local mountain spirit (Sanshin 山神) seen in older temples. This was a lively shrine hall, a monk chanted here daily. 1/3

The study is by Harvard physicists whose study design does not allow us to extrapolate much really; and I dont know how many times to tell people outside academia that administrators and universities will use studies like this to defund grad students, TAs, tutors, writing centers, faculty and staff.

Woljeongsa - Pagoda & Main Hall: In terms of art history, Woljeongsa is famous for its eight-sided nine story stone pagoda. It possibly dates to the 11th century, although excavations in 1970 and 2001/02 and the discovery of reliquary deposits have suggested both earlier and later dates. 1/4

Woljeongsa 月精寺 - Gates: In comparison to traditional Chinese Buddhist temples, a Korean mountain temple was a nice change. The entrance gate, the iljumun 一柱門, is the first of 3 gates. Its often placed at a distance, yet at Woljeongsa the iljumun is 1 km east of the second temple gate! 1/6

Another summer of the Woodenfish "experiential education" is complete, my first year back teaching since the pandemic. Always an outstanding group of curious and engaged students. This year we spent a month in Woljeongsa, on the beautiful Mt. Odea (=Mt. Wutai) in S. Korea. 1/3

Dunhuang Digital Library Cave Database 数字藏经洞 cave17.e-dunhuang.com

"In many fields of study, including literature, philosophy, and the humanities more broadly, ambiguity is not a problem to be solved. It is a resource for continuous critical thinking, renegotiating arguments, and reflection." Co-written w/ @jeppestricker.bsky.social www.unesco.org/en/articles/...

The exhibition showcased 39 rare artifacts from the Gandhara and Indus Valley civilizations, all recovered and repatriated to Pakistan through the efforts of the Manhattan District Attorney's Antiquities Trafficking Unit. www.radio.gov.pk/24-05-2025/p...

This unexpected image of Kannon / Avalokiteśvara continued to be re-used well into the 19th century, having a life-span of nearly 200 years. For example, we also see it a Picturesque Trip around the World (Viaje pintoresco alrededor del mundo) from 1841.

12th century manuscript leaf depicting St. John and Philadelphia - one of the Seven Churches of Asia. Originally from the monastery of San Pedro de Cardena at Burgos in Spain, the manuscript is now part of the collections at the Met in New York. 📷 My own. #ManuscriptMonday

The lotuses in this 9th or 10th-century Tibetan manuscript from Dunhuang mark the end of a section and represent a relatively early example of Tibetan illuminated manuscripts. Most lotuses are in black ink, but at least one is in color. #ManuscriptMonday gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

Buddha Hole at Wacky Golf, North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina From Library of Congress' John Margolies Roadside America Collection - "one of the most comprehensive documentary studies of vernacular commercial structures along main streets, byways, and highways throughout the United States."

Posted 99 objects with 99 stories so far @buddhasinthewest.bsky.social ...#100 coming Monday. 🙌 Thank you to everyone supporting this...wildly experimental project. Updated archive of all 99 posts can be found here: tinyurl.com/4kmcwp87

Sherab Gyatso, the head of Yiga Choeling Monastery, can be found in several early Victorian era photographs depicting Tibetan Buddhism. Here's a staged photo from the Journey to Lhasa and Central Tibet in 1902, he's seated in the center.

Stereoviews are two photographs taken from slightly different angles, thus when viewed properly provide an illusion of depth. James Ricalton, "Buddhist Priest and Scholar," 1903

An update to my map San Francisco Chinatown temples before the 1906 earthquake and fire. 🗃️ 💥 25 locations (inc. district assoc., sec. societies, guilds) 💥 40+ photos & illustrations of shrine halls & building exteriors 🗺️ tinyurl.com/yv5z2pxa