1.
Jean-Jacques Annaud
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Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, best known for directing Quest for Fire, The Name of the Rose, The Lover, and Seven Years in Tibet. Annaud has received awards for his work, including four César Awards, one David di Donatello Award. Annauds first film, Black and White in Color, received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, jean-Jacques Annaud was born on 1 October 1943 in Juvisy-sur-Orge, Essonne in France. He was educated at the school in Vaugirard, and in 1964 graduated from the prestigious film school Institut des Hautes Études Cinématographiques in Paris. Annaud began his career by directing television advertisements in the late 1960s to early 1970s, in his first feature film, Black and White in Color from 1976, he used personal experience obtained during his own military service in Cameroon. The film won an Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film and his third film Quest for Fire received two Césars for best film and best director. In 1986, Annaud directed The Name of the Rose, a adaptation of Umberto Ecos popular novel of the same name. The film version, with a written by Andrew Birkin. Jean-Jacques Annaud spent four years preparing for the film, traveling throughout the United States as well as Europe, searching for the perfect cast and film set locations. He supposedly felt personally intrigued by the project, among other things because of a fascination with medieval churches. For Seven Years in Tibet, a adaptation of the life of Heinrich Harrer, he reportedly received a lifelong denial of entry to China, along with starring actors Brad Pitt. In 2012 however, Annaud was invited to chair the jury at the Shanghai Film Festival, in 2000 he wrote and produced Running Free directed by Sergei Bodrov. He also directed the 2001 film Enemy at the Gates, detailing the exploits of Vassili Zaitsev during the Battle of Stalingrad and his latest film is Black Gold, an epic drama set in the 1930s Arab states which premiered in 2011. The film was filmed in Tunisia and Qatar, annauds most recent project is the film adaptation of the award-winning best-selling Chinese novel Wolf Totem
2.
Seven Years in Tibet
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The book covers the escape of Harrer and his companion, Peter Aufschnaiter, from a British internment camp in India. Harrer and Aufschnaiter then traveled across Tibet to Lhasa, the capital, here they spent several years, and Harrer describes the contemporary Tibetan culture in detail. Harrer subsequently became a tutor and friend of the 14th Dalai Lama, Seven Years in Tibet was translated into 53 languages, became a bestseller in the United States in 1954, and sold three million copies. At the beginning of the Flamingo edition of the book, a message from the 14th Dalai Lama praises the work and his most important contribution to our cause, his book, Seven Years in Tibet, introduced hundreds of thousands of people to my country. Two films have been based on the book, Seven Years in Tibet, there is also a David Bowie song entitled Seven Years in Tibet, from his album Earthling. Kundun The Cup Dreaming Lhasa Book Review, Seven Years in Tibet, archived from the original on January 17,2013
3.
Heinrich Harrer
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Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author. He is best known for being on the climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in Switzerland. Heinrich Harrer was born 6 July 1912 in Hüttenberg, Austria in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in the state of Carinthia and his father was a postal worker. From 1933 to 1938, Harrer studied geography and sports at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz, Harrer became a member of the traditional student corporation ATV Graz. In 1935, Harrer was designated to participate in the Alpine skiing competition at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the Austrian Alpine skiing team, however, boycotted the event due to a conflict regarding the skiing instructors status as professionals. As a result, Harrer did not participate, in 1937, Harrer won the downhill event at the World Student Championships at Zell am See. Mountain climbing was Harrers true passion, the near vertical wall, with its ice-field known as The White Spider, had claimed several lives, and the Bernese authorities even banned climbing it. Following his university finals in July 1938, Harrer and Kasparek traveled to Kleine Scheidegg at the foot of the Eiger, halfway up the mountain, Harrer and Kasparek encountered another team making the attempt, Ludwig Vörg and Anderl Heckmair from Germany. The four decided to make the rest of the climb as a single team, throughout the climb, the four men were constantly threatened by snow avalanches and rock falls. They were caught in an avalanche as they climbed the White Spider on the upper face, the members successfully reached the summit at four oclock in the afternoon 24 July 1938. In 1996 the ORF-editor and filmmaker Gerald Lehner found in American archives the membership card of Harrer joining the Sturmabteilung in October 1933, after the Anschluss of March 1938, as Germany annexed Austria, he joined the Schutzstaffel on 1 April. He held the rank of Oberscharführer, and on 1 May he became a member of the Nazi Party, after their ascent of the Eiger North Face the four climbers were received by and photographed with Adolf Hitler. Harrer later said he wore his SS uniform only once, the day of his marriage to Charlotte Wegener, daughter of the eminent explorer, after returning to Europe in 1952, Harrer was cleared of any pre-war crimes and this was later supported by Simon Wiesenthal. In his memoir, Beyond Seven Years in Tibet, Harrer called his involvement with the Nazi Party a mistake made in his youth when he had not yet learned to think for himself. In 1939, Harrer joined an expedition, led by Peter Aufschnaiter. Having concluded that the face was viable, the four mountaineers were in Karachi at the end of August, two days later, war was declared, and on 3 September 1939 all were put behind barbed wire to be transferred to a detention camp at Ahmednagar near Bombay. Aufschnaiter and Harrer escaped and were re-captured a number of times before finally succeeding. On 29 April 1944, Harrer and six others, including Rolf Magener and Heins von Have, Aufschnaiter, the Salzburger Bruno Treipel, Magener and von Have took the train to Calcutta and from there found their way to the Japanese army in Burma
4.
Brad Pitt
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William Bradley Brad Pitt in Shawnee Oklahoma. He is an American actor and producer and he has received multiple awards and nominations including an Academy Award as producer under his own company Plan B Entertainment. Pitt first gained recognition as a hitchhiker in the road movie Thelma & Louise. His first leading roles in big-budget productions came with the dramas A River Runs Through It and Legends of the Fall, Pitt starred in the cult film Fight Club and the heist film Oceans Eleven and its sequels, Oceans Twelve and Oceans Thirteen. As a public figure, Pitt has been cited as one of the most influential and powerful people in the American entertainment industry, as well as the worlds most attractive man and his personal life is also the subject of wide publicity. Divorced from actress Jennifer Aniston, to whom he was married for five years and they have six children together, three of whom were adopted internationally. In September 2016, Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt, William Bradley Pitt was born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, to William Bill Alvin Pitt, manager of a trucking company, and Jane Etta, a school counsellor. The family soon moved to Springfield, Missouri, where he lived together with his siblings, Douglas. Pitt has described Springfield as Mark Twain country, Jesse James country, having grown up with a lot of hills, Pitt attended Kickapoo High School, where he was a member of the golf, swimming and tennis teams. He participated in the schools Key and Forensics clubs, in school debates, following his graduation from high school, Pitt enrolled in the University of Missouri in 1982, majoring in journalism with a focus on advertising. As graduation approached, Pitt did not feel ready to settle down and he loved films—a portal into different worlds for me—and, since films were not made in Missouri, he decided to go to where they were made. Two weeks before earning his degree, Pitt left the university and moved to Los Angeles, while struggling to establish himself in Los Angeles, Pitt took lessons from acting coach Roy London. Pitts acting career began in 1987, with uncredited parts in the films No Way Out, No Mans Land and his television debut came in May 1987 with a two-episode role on the NBC soap opera Another World. In November of the same year Pitt had a guest appearance on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains and he appeared in four episodes of the CBS primetime series Dallas between December 1987 and February 1988 as Randy, the boyfriend of Charlie Wade. Later in 1988, Pitt made a guest appearance on the Fox police drama 21 Jump Street, in the same year, the Yugoslavian–U. S. Co-production The Dark Side of the Sun gave Pitt his first leading film role, the film was shelved at the outbreak of the Croatian War of Independence, and was not released until 1997. He made guest appearances on television series Head of the Class, Freddys Nightmares, Thirtysomething, and Growing Pains. Pitt was cast as Billy Canton, an addict who takes advantage of a young runaway in the 1990 NBC television movie Too Young to Die. the story of an abused teenager sentenced to death for a murder
5.
David Thewlis
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David Thewlis is an English actor. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin in the Harry Potter film series and he has also done voice work in the films James and the Giant Peach, The Miracle Maker and Anomalisa. He is also known for the role of Cyrus Crabb in the TV mini series Dinotopia, Thewlis, the second of three children, was born in Blackpool, Lancashire, the son of Maureen and Alec Raymond Wheeler. Both parents worked at his fathers shop, as a teenager, he played in a rock band called QED, and played lead guitar with a punk rock band called Door 66. He was educated at Highfield High School, a secondary school in South Shore. Later, he enrolled in the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Thewlis had a minor role in an episode of the 1980s sitcom Up the Elephant and Round the Castle. He also appeared in an episode of popular sitcom Only Fools and his first professional role was in the play Buddy Holly at the Regal in Greenwich. That same year, he appeared on television as a sexual predator named James Jackson in Prime Suspect 3, opposite Helen Mirren, before that, his first television appearance was alongside Ken Jones in Valentine Park. He was nominated for a British Independent Film Award for Divorcing Jack, notable appearances also include Bernardo Bertoluccis Besieged and Paul McGuigans Gangster No. 1, opposite Paul Bettany and Malcolm McDowell and he auditioned for the role of Quirrell in the film Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone, but the part went to Ian Hart. Despite missing out on the first film, he was cast in 2004 as Professor Lupin in Harry Potter and he did not have to audition as he was director Alfonso Cuaróns first choice for the role. Thewlis reprised the role in four films in the series. He appeared as an SS Commandant of a Nazi death camp and father of the character in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Other credits include Ridley Scotts Kingdom of Heaven, Terrence Malicks The New World and The Omen. Thewlis played the late Dr. Michael Aris, husband of Nobel Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Burma, with Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh as Suu Kyi, in the biopic The Lady directed by Luc Besson. He also starred in Regression, a released in autumn 2015, in which he was reunited with Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson. In September 2015, Thewlis starred as Inspector Goole in Helen Edmundsons BBC TV adaptation of J. B, priestleys An Inspector Calls, alongside Ken Stott and Miranda Richardson. In October 2015, he played King Duncan in the film Macbeth, with Michael Fassbender starring as Macbeth, Thewlis will reportedly be portraying Ares in Wonder Woman, the upcoming DC Comics film adaptation based on the character of the same name, set for release in 2017
6.
B. D. Wong
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Bradley Darryl B. D. Wong is an American actor. Wong has also done extensive work and stage acting. The most well known of his acting roles is that of Li Shang from the Disney animated film Mulan. He would later reprise this role twice, most notably for the video game Kingdom Hearts II, beginning in 2016, Wong appeared in the TV series Gotham as Hugo Strange. BD Wong was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Roberta Christine, a telephone company supervisor, and William D. Wong and he has one older brother and one younger brother. He is of Chinese descent, with family from Hong Kong, Wong attended Lincoln High School, where he discovered his love of acting and starred as the lead in numerous school plays, before attending San Francisco State University. Wong gained wide attention as a result of his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly opposite John Lithgow, the play won multiple awards, including several for Wong, who at that time ceased using his full name in favor of his initials. He has since ceased the use of punctuation in his initials and he is notable as the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. He also provided the voice of Captain Shang in Disneys Mulan, its sequel. He returned to Broadway as Linus in a revival of Youre a Good Man Charlie Brown, alongside Anthony Rapp, Roger Bart and Kristin Chenoweth, and the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheims Pacific Overtures. In 2008, he starred in the one-man show Herringbone, in which he portrayed 12 roles and he brought the show to the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego the following year. In 2012, Wong starred in Herringbone to benefit Dixon Place in New York for two performances. The production, recorded live for a 2014 CD release, was his first appearance in New York of the material, in 2014, Wong starred in the U. S. The Orphan of Zhao is a story of self-sacrifice and revenge. In the aftermath of a coup, a country doctor is forced to sacrifice his own son in order to save the last heir of a noble. The Orphan of Zhao was a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, Wong guest starred in a thirteenth season episode of Law & Order, SVU titled Father Dearest. In 2015, he was named Artist-in-Residence at La Jolla Playhouse, Wong guest starred on a NCIS, New Orleans Episode 1.13 titled The Walking Dead, where he portrayed Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. Gabriel Lin. Wong also guest-starred as the enigmatic White Rose in episodes 8 and 10 of USA Networks Mr. Robot, Wong began a long-term relationship with talent agent Richie Jackson in 1988
7.
Mako Iwamatsu
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Mako Iwamatsu was a Japanese American actor and voice artist who was nominated for numerous awards. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, where he omitted his surname and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7095 Hollywood Blvd. Mako was born in Kobe, Japan, the son of noted childrens book authors and illustrators Atsushi Iwamatsu, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, his parents, who were political dissidents, moved to the United States, leaving Mako in the care of his grandmother. After the war, his parents were able to arrange for him to join them and he enlisted in the military in the 1950s and became a naturalized American citizen in 1956. When Mako first joined his parents in the USA, he studied architecture, during his military service, he discovered his theatrical talent, and trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. Makos first film role was in the 1959 film Never So Few and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as engine-room coolie Po-Han in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles. Lee in Sidekicks, Kanemitsu in RoboCop 3 in 1993, Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet and he also had a role in Bulletproof Monk. In 2005, Mako had a role in Memoirs of a Geisha. Makos last leading role was in the 2005 film Cages, written and he also appeared in some Japanese TV dramas and films, such as Masahiro Shinodas Owls Castle and Takashi Miikes The Bird People in China. Mako has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7095 Hollywood Blvd and he remained artistic director of the company until 1989. Makos landlord at the time, Jerry Orbach, was nominated for his role in Chicago. Mako recalled being woken up at 4,30 the morning after the Tony ceremony by Orbach, I cant believe it, we lost to a f------ revival. He also starred in the run of the play Shimada in 1992. He appeared on the TV show McHales Navy several times, playing Imperial Japanese officers, soldiers and he later appeared on the TV show M*A*S*H, playing multiple roles such as a Chinese doctor, North Korean soldier, and a South Korean lieutenant. In 1974, he appeared on Ironside episode Terror on Grant Avenue and he appeared as a Japanese chef in the 1978 Columbo episode Murder Under Glass. He was the blind philosopher Li Sung in two episodes of the TV show The Incredible Hulk and he also appeared on an episode of Magnum, P. I. called The Arrow That Is Not Aimed in 1983. Mako also appeared in an episode of the TV show F Troop and he appeared as Lo Sing, fighting Bruce Lees Kato character in The Green Hornet episode The Preying Mantis. He played the character Lin Duk Coo in an episode of The A-Team and he guest-starred in an episode of season one of Frasier as well as in an episode of Tour of Duty as a Vietnamese scout
8.
John Williams
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John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, Jurassic Park, Schindlers List, Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but two of his feature films. Williams has won five Academy Awards, four Golden Globe Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, with 50 Academy Award nominations, Williams is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. In 2005, the American Film Institute selected Williams score to 1977s Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time. The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry, for being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowls Hall of Fame in 2000, and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004, Williams composed the score for eight movies in the Top 20 highest-grossing films at the U. S. box office. John Towner Williams was born on February 8,1932 in Floral Park, New York, the son of Esther and Johnny Williams, Williams has said of his lineage, My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My fathers parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, people with those roots are not inclined to be lazy. In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School graduating in 1950 and he later attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Williams had originally briefly attended Los Angeles City College for one semester as the school had a Studio Jazz Band. In 1952, Williams was drafted into the U. S. Air Force, in 1955, following his Air Force service, Williams moved to New York City and entered The Juilliard School where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. During this time Williams worked as a jazz pianist in the many jazz clubs. After moving to Los Angeles he began working as a session musician, Williams has two brothers, Donald and Jerry, both of whom work as percussionists in Los Angeles. After his studies at Juilliard, and the Eastman School of Music, Williams returned to Los Angeles, among other composers, Williams worked with Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, and also with his fellow orchestrators Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn. Williams was also a studio pianist, performing on film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Williams recorded with Henry Mancini the film scores of 1959s Peter Gunn, 1962s Days of Wine and Roses, and 1963s Charade. Williamss first film composition was for the 1958 B movie Daddy-O and he soon gained notice in Hollywood for his versatility in composing jazz, piano, and symphonic music. Williams received his first Academy Award nomination for his score for 1967s Valley of the Dolls. Williams broke through to win his first Academy Award for his score in the 1971 film Fiddler on the Roof
9.
TriStar Pictures
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TriStar Pictures is an American film production/distribution studio of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, owned by the Sony subsidiary Sony Pictures Entertainment. On May 16,1983, it was given the name Tri-Star Pictures and it was the first new major Hollywood studio to be established since RKO Pictures was founded in 1928. The studios first produced film in 1984 was The Natural starring Robert Redford, during this venture, many of Tri-Stars releases were released on VHS by either RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video, CBS/Fox Video, or HBO Video. In addition, HBO would gain exclusive distribution rights to these films. CBS dropped out of the venture in 1985, though still distributed some of TriStars films on home video until at least 1992. In 1986, HBO dropped out of the Tri-Star venture as well, the same year, Tri-Star entered into the television business as Tri-Star Television. It was formed when the studio joined forces with Stephen J. Cannell Productions and Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, both studios continued to produce and distribute films under their separate names. On April 13,1988, CPE spun off Tri-Star Pictures, in 1989, all of Cokes entertainment holdings were acquired by Sony Corporation of Japan, who merged Columbia and Tri-Star, but continued to use the separate labels. On July 11,1990, Tri-Star Pictures dissolved and sold its venture in TeleVentures to Stephen J. Cannell Productions, most of the series and the Tri-Star film packages that were distributed by TeleVentures were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution. The Tri-Star film packages were transferred to Columbia Pictures Television Distribution, both studios continued to operate separately until TriStar folded in 1999 and CPT in 2001. In addition to its own slate, TriStar was the distributor for many films produced by Carolco Pictures. TriStar also theatrically distributed some FilmDistrict movies, TriStar was relaunched on May 13,2004 as a marketing and acquisitions unit that had a particular emphasis on genre films. Screen Gems executive vice president Valerie Van Galder was tapped to run the studio after being dormant. However, the release of its 2013 film Elysium represents the labels first big-budget release since The Mask of Zorro in 1998, the same year, former 20th Century Fox co-chairman Tom Rothman joined Sony Pictures and created TriStar Productions as a joint venture with existing Sony Pictures executives. The new TriStar will develop, finance and produce up to four films per year, as well as programming and acquisitions. Sonys TriStar Pictures unit will be retained for other product, including titles from Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions, TriStars logo of Pegasus, introduced in 1984, has become something of a cultural icon. The idea came about because of executive Victor Kaufman and his familys interest in riding horses, the original logo was created with the assistance of Sydney Pollack, who was an adviser at Tri-Star. The horse in that logo was the one used in Pollacks film The Electric Horseman
10.
Entertainment Film Distributors
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Entertainment Film Distributors is a British distributor of independent films in the UK and Ireland for various production companies, currently run by Nigel and Trevor Green. Michael L. Green, their father, was a veteran producer/distributor involved in the industry since the 1930s when he was a teenager. In 1972 he formed Variety the prolific film distributor, in 1978 Green closed Variety and with his two sons Nigel and Trevor formed Entertainment Film Distributors, and was one of the leading forces in UK distribution. Michael L. Green died on 17 June 2003 aged 84 and their first big success was Teen Wolf starring Michael J. Fox. Entertainment also released films for Empire Pictures and New World Pictures, most notably, between 1990 and 2010, Entertainment distributed films made by New Line Cinema along with films from other independent production companies. One of the most notable series of films distributed to date is The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Entertainment Film Distributors have released many BAFTA- and Oscar-winning films including The Departed, Million Dollar Baby, Gosford Park, Brokeback Mountain and The Artist. List of films distributed include, Entertainment Film Distributors at the Internet Movie Database
11.
War film
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War film is a film genre concerned with warfare, typically about naval, air, or land battles, with combat scenes central to the drama. It has been associated with the 20th century. The fateful nature of battle scenes means that war films often end with them, themes explored include combat, survival and escape, sacrifice, the futility and inhumanity of battle, the effects of war on society, and the moral and human issues raised by war. War films are categorized by their milieu, such as the Korean War. The stories told may be fiction, historical drama, or biographical, critics have noted similarities between the Western and the war film. Subgenres, not necessarily distinct, include anti-war, comedy, animated, propaganda, the war film genre is not necessarily tightly defined, the American Film Institute, for example, speaks of films to grapple with the Great War without attempting to classify these. However, some directors and critics have offered at least tentative definitions, the director Sam Fuller defined the genre by saying that a war film’s objective, no matter how personal or emotional, is to make a viewer feel war. However, Neale notes, films set in the American Civil War or the American Indian Wars of the 19th century were called war films in the time before the First World War, the film scholar Kathryn Kane points out some similarities between the war film genre and the Western. Both genres use opposing concepts like war and peace, civilization, james Clarke notes the similarity between a Western like Sam Peckinpahs The Wild Bunch and war-movie escapades like The Dirty Dozen. They take place in the combat zones of World War II, against the established enemies, on the ground. They contain many repeated events, such as mail call, all presented visually with appropriate uniforms, equipment and she argues that the combat film is not a subgenre but the only genuine kind of war film. This in turn pushes combat scenes to the ends of war films. Not all critics agree, either, that war films must be about 20th century wars, the costliest war in U. S. history in terms of American life, this war has been the subject of, or the backdrop to, numerous films, documentaries and mini-series. One of the earliest films using the Civil War as its subject was D. W. Griffiths 1910 silent picture, The Fugitive. Some films such as Gettysburg focused on a battle during the war, or even on a single incident, like the French short film. Others like the 1993 miniseries North and South spanned the entire breadth of the war, some films deal with the human aspects of the war, such as The Red Badge of Courage, or Shenandoah, on the tragedy that the war inflicted on the civilian population. Ken Burnss The Civil War is the most watched documentary in the history of PBS, the first war films come from the Spanish–American War of 1898. Short actualities – documentary film-clips – included Burial of the Maine Victims, Blanket-Tossing of a New Recruit and these non-combat films were accompanied by reenactments of fighting, such as of Theodore Roosevelts Rough Riders in action against the Spanish, staged in the United States
12.
Austria
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Austria, officially the Republic of Austria, is a federal republic and a landlocked country of over 8.7 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Hungary and Slovakia to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, the territory of Austria covers 83,879 km2. The terrain is mountainous, lying within the Alps, only 32% of the country is below 500 m. The majority of the population speaks local Bavarian dialects of German as their native language, other local official languages are Hungarian, Burgenland Croatian, and Slovene. The origins of modern-day Austria date back to the time of the Habsburg dynasty, from the time of the Reformation, many northern German princes, resenting the authority of the Emperor, used Protestantism as a flag of rebellion. Following Napoleons defeat, Prussia emerged as Austrias chief competitor for rule of a greater Germany, Austrias defeat by Prussia at the Battle of Königgrätz, during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, cleared the way for Prussia to assert control over the rest of Germany. In 1867, the empire was reformed into Austria-Hungary, Austria was thus the first to go to war in the July Crisis, which would ultimately escalate into World War I. The First Austrian Republic was established in 1919, in 1938 Nazi Germany annexed Austria in the Anschluss. This lasted until the end of World War II in 1945, after which Germany was occupied by the Allies, in 1955, the Austrian State Treaty re-established Austria as a sovereign state, ending the occupation. In the same year, the Austrian Parliament created the Declaration of Neutrality which declared that the Second Austrian Republic would become permanently neutral, today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy comprising nine federal states. The capital and largest city, with a population exceeding 1.7 million, is Vienna, other major urban areas of Austria include Graz, Linz, Salzburg and Innsbruck. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,724, the country has developed a high standard of living and in 2014 was ranked 21st in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995, Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995, and adopted the euro currency in 1999. The German name for Austria, Österreich, meant eastern realm in Old High German, and is cognate with the word Ostarrîchi and this word is probably a translation of Medieval Latin Marchia orientalis into a local dialect. Austria was a prefecture of Bavaria created in 976, the word Austria is a Latinisation of the German name and was first recorded in the 12th century. Accordingly, Norig would essentially mean the same as Ostarrîchi and Österreich, the Celtic name was eventually Latinised to Noricum after the Romans conquered the area that encloses most of modern-day Austria, around 15 BC. Noricum later became a Roman province in the mid-first century AD, heers hypothesis is not accepted by linguists. Settled in ancient times, the Central European land that is now Austria was occupied in pre-Roman times by various Celtic tribes, the Celtic kingdom of Noricum was later claimed by the Roman Empire and made a province
13.
Mountaineering
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The term mountaineering describes the sport of mountain climbing, including ski mountaineering. Hiking in the mountains can also be a form of mountaineering when it involves scrambling, or short stretches of the more basic grades of rock climbing. All require experience, athletic ability, and technical knowledge to maintain safety, mountaineering is often called Alpinism, especially in European languages, which implies climbing with difficulty such high and often snow and ice-covered mountains as the Alps. A mountaineer with such great skill is called an Alpinist, historically, many cultures have harbored superstitions about mountains, which they often regarded as sacred due to their proximity with heaven, such as Mount Olympus for the Ancient Greeks. In 1492 Antoine de Ville, lord of Domjulien and Beaupré, was the first to ascend the Mont Aiguille, in France, with a team, using ladders. It appears to be the first recorded climb of any technical difficulty, in 1573 Francesco De Marchi and Francesco Di Domenico ascended Corno Grande, the highest peak in the Apennine Mountains. During the Enlightenment, as a product of the new spirit of curiosity for the natural world, in 1741 Richard Pococke and William Windham made a historic visit to Chamonix. By the early 19th century many of the peaks were reached, including the Grossglockner in 1800, the Ortler in 1804, the Jungfrau in 1811, the Finsteraarhorn in 1812. In 1808 Marie Paradis became the first female to climb Mont Blanc and this inaugurated what became known as the Golden age of alpinism, with the first mountaineering club - the Alpine Club - being founded in 1857. Well-known guides of the era include Christian Almer, Jakob Anderegg, Melchior Anderegg, J. J. Bennen, Michel Croz, in the early years of the golden age, scientific pursuits were intermixed with the sport, such as by the physicist John Tyndall. In the later years, it shifted to a more competitive orientation as pure sportsmen came to dominate the London-based Alpine Club and this ascent is generally regarded as marking the end of the mountaineering golden age. By this point the sport of mountaineering had largely reached its modern form, with a body of professional guides, equipment, mountaineering in the Americas became popular in the 1800s. In North America, Pikes Peak in the Colorado Rockies was first climbed by Edwin James, though lower than Pikes Peak, the heavily glaciated Fremont Peak in Wyoming was thought to be the tallest mountain in the Rockies when it was first climbed by John C. Frémont and two others in 1842, pico de Orizaba, the tallest peak in Mexico and third tallest in North America, was first climbed by U. S. military personnel which included William F. Raynolds and a half dozen other climbers in 1848. Heavily glaciated and more technical climbs in North American were not achieved until the late 19th, in 1897 Mount Saint Elias on the Alaska-Yukon border was summitted by the Duke of the Abruzzi and party. But it was not until 1913 that Mount Mckinley, the tallest peak in North America was successfully climbed by Hudson Stuck, Mount Logan, the tallest peak in Canada was first summitted by a half dozen climbers in 1925 in an expedition that took more than two months. In 1879-1880 the exploration of the highest Andes in South America began when English mountaineer Edward Whymper climbed Chimborazo, the summit of Aconcagua was finally reached on January 14,1897 by Swiss mountaineer Matthias Zurbriggen during an expedition led by Edward FitzGerald that began in December 1896. The Andes of Bolivia were first explored by Sir William Martin Conway in 1898 and it took until the late 19th century for European explorers to penetrate Africa
14.
Tibet
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Tibet is a region on the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, spanning about 2.4 million km2 and nearly a quarter of Chinas territory. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an elevation of 4,900 metres. The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earths highest mountain, the Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but with the fall of the empire the region soon divided into a variety of territories. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of Tibet Area. The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913 without recognition by the subsequent Chinese Republican government, later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang, China. There are tensions regarding Tibets political status and dissident groups that are active in exile and it is also said that Tibetan activists in Tibet have been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, in there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is an influence on the art, music. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences, staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley, yak meat, and butter tea. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means Tibet or Tibetan Plateau, although it meant the central region around Lhasa. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription and Poi in Tibetan pinyin. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zang although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor through the addition of a prefix meaning west to Zang, the best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century, in the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon. Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include Wusiguo, Wusizang, Tubote, the English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that Tibet names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt, itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd, literally, according to Matthew Kapstein, From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan
15.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
16.
People's Liberation Army
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The Chinese Peoples Liberation Army is the armed forces of the Communist Party of China and the Peoples Republic of China. The PLA consists of five service branches, the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force. The PLA is the worlds largest military force, with a strength of approximately 2,183,000 personnel. In September 2015, Xi Jinping, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, the PLAs insignia consists of a roundel with a red star bearing the Chinese characters for Eight One, referring to the Nanchang Uprising which began on August 1,1927. The PLA is under the command of the Central Military Commission of the CPC and its commander in chief is the Chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Ministry of National Defense, which operates under the State Council and this conception of the role of the PLA requires the promotion of specialised officers who can understand modern weaponry and handle combined arms operations. Units around the country are assigned to one of five Theater commands by geographical location, Military service is compulsory by law, however, compulsory military service in China has never been enforced due to large numbers of military and paramilitary personnel. In times of emergency, the Peoples Armed Police and the Peoples Liberation Army militia act as a reserve. They were then known as the Chinese Workers and Peasants Red Army, between 1934 and 1935, the Red Army survived several campaigns led against it by Chiang Kai-Shek and engaged in the Long March. After the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the Communist Party merged the Eighth Route Army and New Fourth Army and they eventually won the Chinese Civil War, establishing the Peoples Republic of China in 1949. The PLA then saw a reorganisation with the establishment of the Air Force leadership structure in November 1949 followed by the Navy leadership the following April. In 1950, the structures of the artillery, armoured troops, air defence troops, public security forces. The chemical warfare defence forces, the forces, the communications forces. During the 1950s, the PLA with Soviet assistance began to transform itself from a peasant army into a modern one, part of this process was the reorganisation that created thirteen military regions in 1955. The PLA also contained many former National Revolutionary Army units and generals who had defected to the PLA, Ma Hongbin and his son Ma Dunjing were the only two Muslim generals who led a Muslim unit, the 81st corps, to ever serve in the PLA. Han Youwen, a Salar Muslim general, also defected to the PLA, in November 1950, some units of the PLA under the name of the Peoples Volunteer Army intervened in the Korean War as United Nations forces under General Douglas MacArthur approached the Yalu River. Under the weight of offensive, Chinese forces drove MacArthurs forces out of North Korea and captured Seoul. The war also served as a catalyst for the modernisation of the PLAAF
17.
Yo-Yo Ma
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Yo-Yo Ma is a Chinese American cellist. Born in Paris, he spent his years in New York City and was a child prodigy, performing from the age of four. He graduated from the Juilliard School and Harvard University and has enjoyed a career as both a soloist performing with orchestras around the world and a recording artist. He has recorded more than 90 albums and received 18 Grammy Awards and he also collaborated with Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Bobby McFerrin. Mas primary performance instrument is a Montagnana cello crafted in 1733 valued at US$2.5 million and he has been a United Nations Messenger of Peace since 2006. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2001, Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011, Yo-Yo Ma was born in Paris on October 7,1955, to Chinese parents and had a musical upbringing. His mother, Marina Lu, was a singer and his father, Hiao-Tsiun Ma, was a violinist, the family moved to New York when Ma was seven years old. At a young age, Ma began studying violin and piano and later viola, according to Ma, his first choice was the double bass due to its large size, but he compromised and took up cello instead. The child prodigy began performing before audiences at age five and performed for Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, at age eight, he appeared on American television with his sister, Yeou-Cheng Ma, in a concert conducted by Leonard Bernstein. In 1964, Isaac Stern introduced them on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and he attended Trinity School in New York but transferred to the Professional Childrens School, from which he graduated at age 15. He appeared as a soloist with the Harvard Radcliffe Orchestra in a performance of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations, Ma studied at The Juilliard School at age 19 with Leonard Rose and attended Columbia University but dropped out. He later enrolled at Harvard College, prior to entering Harvard, Ma played in the Marlboro Festival Orchestra under the direction of cellist and conductor Pablo Casals. However, even before that time, Ma had steadily gained fame and had performed many of the worlds major orchestras. He has also played music, often with the pianist Emanuel Ax. Ma received his bachelors degree from Harvard in 1976, in 1991, he received an honorary doctorate from Harvard. In 1997, he was featured on John Williams soundtrack to the Hollywood film Seven Years in Tibet. In 2000, he was heard on the soundtrack of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and, in 2003, on that of Master and Commander and he collaborated with Williams again on the original score for the 2005 film Memoirs of a Geisha. He also has over 90 albums,18 of which are Grammy Award winners, Ma is a recipient of the International Center in New Yorks Award of Excellence
18.
Peter Aufschnaiter
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Peter Aufschnaiter was a Tyrolean mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer, and cartographer. His experiences with fellow climber Heinrich Harrer during World War II were depicted in the 1997 film Seven Years in Tibet, born in Kitzbühel, Austria, Peter Aufschnaiter went to high school in Kufstein. During his school education he was drafted into service in the First World War in 1917. After he finished his final exams in 1919 he went to Munich in Germany to study agriculture, in his early years he began climbing in his beloved Kaiser mountain range and later, in Munich, Aufschnaiter became acquainted with several German alpinists of the time. He took part in expeditions to the Kangchenjunga in Sikkim and had first contacts with Tibetans, after the Machtergreifung of 30 January 1933 he joined the Nazi Party. From 1936 he worked full-time for the German Himalaya Foundation established that year by Paul Bauer. After several attempts at the Nanga Parbat, Aufschnaiter led a small expedition in 1939, including Heinrich Harrer. Having concluded that the face was viable, they were in Karachi at the end of August waiting for a freighter to take them home. Two days later war was declared and on 3 September 1939 and they considered escaping to Portuguese Goa but when further transferred to Dehradun, where they were detained for years with 1,000 other enemy aliens, they found Tibet more promising. Their goal was the Japanese front in Burma or China, Aufschnaiter and Harrer escaped and were re-captured a number of times before finally succeeding. On 29 April 1944 after lunch a group of seven, Rolf Magener, Harrer, Aufschnaiter, the Salzburger Bruno Treipel and the Berliners Hans Kopp and Sattler, disguised as native Indian workers, walked out of the camp. While Magener and von Have took the train to Calcutta and from there found their way to the Japanese army in Burma, the others headed for the closest border. After Sattler had given up on 10 May, the four entered Tibet crossing the Tsang Chok-la Pass on 17 May 1944. On 17 June Treipel, exhausted, bought himself a horse, several months later, when the remaining three were still without visas for Tibet, Kopp gave up too and left for Nepal. From then on Aufschnaiter played an important role in Tibet, employed by the government he helped plan a hydroelectric power plant and a sewage system for Lhasa and started first attempts at river regulations and reforestation in the area. He also looked into improving the quality of seeds, with Harrer he charted the first exact map of the capital city. His archaeological findings led to a correspondence with the scholar Giuseppe Tucci and his extensive work is described in Heinrich Harrers Seven Years in Tibet and Harrers autobiography Beyond Seven Years in Tibet, my life before, during and after. Aufschnaiters own book Eight Years in Tibet includes many of his own photographs, Harrer proceeded to India, but Aufschnaiter stayed at Gyantse and left Tibet only 10 months later
19.
POW
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
20.
Dehradun
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Dehradun or Dehra Dun is the capital city of the state of Uttarakhand in the northern part of India. Dehradun is in the Doon Valley on the foothills of the Himalayas nestled between the river Ganges on the east and the river Yamuna on the west, the city is famous for its picturesque landscape and slightly milder climate and provides a gateway to the surrounding region. It hosts training institutions of importance such as the Indian Military Academy, ITBP Academy & Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy. The city population has significant contribution of government servants, Dehradun Municipal Corporation is locally known as Nagar Nigam Dehradun. Dehradun is also known for its Basmati rice and bakery products, Dehradun is made up of two words, Dehra is derived from the word dera, deriving from griha and meaning home. Doon is a term for the valley lies between the Himalayas and the Shivaliks. When Ram Rai Ji, son of Guru Har Rai Ji, came to region with his followers. Around this time, the city of Dehradun started to develop. This is when the word dehra was linked to doon, in Skanda Purana, Dun is mentioned as a part of the region called Kedar Khand, the abode of Shiva. In ancient India during the Mahabharata epic era, Dronacharya the great teacher of Kauravas and Pandavas, lived here hence the name, some historians believe that the word dehra can be regarded as a term for camping. The history of the city of Uttarakhand, Dehradun is linked to the story of Ramayana and it is believed that after the battle between Ravan and Lord Ram, Lord Ram and his brother Laxman visited this site. Dronacharya, the legendary Royal guru to the Kauravas and Pandavas in the epic Mahabharata, is believed to have been born, evidence such as ancient temples and idols have been found in the areas surrounding Dehradun which have been linked to the mythology of Ramayana and Mahabharata. These relics and ruins are believed to be around 2000 years old, furthermore, the location, the local traditions and the literature reflect this regions links with the events of Mahabharata and Ramayana. Even after the battle of Mahabharata, the Pandavas had influence on this region as the rulers of Hastinapur with the descendants of Subahu ruled the region as subsidiaries. Likewise, Rishikesh is mentioned in the pages of history when Lord Vishnu answered the prayers of the saints, slaughtered the demons, sudhnagar later came to be recognised as the name of Kaalsi. Edicts of Ashoka have been found in the region along the banks of river Yamuna in Kaalsi indicating the wealth, gerards map names the place as Dehra or Gooroodwara. Surrounding this original Sikh temple were many villages that are now the names of parts of the modern city. Dehradun itself derives its name from the fact that Shri Ram Rai
21.
Himalayas
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The Himalayas, or Himalaya, form a mountain range in Asia separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The Himalayan range has the Earths highest peaks, including the highest, the Himalayas include over a hundred mountains exceeding 7,200 metres in elevation. By contrast, the highest peak outside Asia – Aconcagua, in the Andes – is 6,961 metres tall. The Himalayas are spread across five countries, Bhutan, India, Nepal, China, the Himalayan range is bordered on the northwest by the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges, on the north by the Tibetan Plateau, and on the south by the Indo-Gangetic Plain. Some of the major rivers, the Indus, the Ganges, and the Tsangpo-Brahmaputra, rise in the Himalayas. The Himalayas have profoundly shaped the cultures of South Asia, many Himalayan peaks are sacred in Hinduism and Buddhism. Lifted by the subduction of the Indian tectonic plate under the Eurasian Plate and its western anchor, Nanga Parbat, lies just south of the northernmost bend of Indus river. Its eastern anchor, Namcha Barwa, is just west of the bend of the Tsangpo river. The range varies in width from 400 kilometres in the west to 150 kilometres in the east, the name of the range derives from the Sanskrit Himā-laya, from himá and ā-laya. They are now known as the Himalaya Mountains, usually shortened to the Himalayas, formerly, they were described in the singular as the Himalaya. This was also previously transcribed Himmaleh, as in Emily Dickinsons poetry and Henry David Thoreaus essays. The mountains are known as the Himālaya in Nepali and Hindi, the Himalaya or The Land of Snow in Tibetan, the Hamaleh Mountain Range in Urdu, the flora and fauna of the Himalayas vary with climate, rainfall, altitude, and soils. The climate ranges from tropical at the base of the mountains to permanent ice, the amount of yearly rainfall increases from west to east along the southern front of the range. This diversity of altitude, rainfall and soil conditions combined with the high snow line supports a variety of distinct plant. The extremes of high altitude combined with extreme cold favor extremophile organisms, the unique floral and faunal wealth of the Himalayas is undergoing structural and compositional changes due to climate change. The increase in temperature is shifting various species to higher elevations, the oak forest is being invaded by pine forests in the Garhwal Himalayan region. There are reports of early flowering and fruiting in some species, especially rhododendron, apple. The highest known tree species in the Himalayas is Juniperus tibetica located at 4,900 metres in Southeastern Tibet, the Himalayan range is one of the youngest mountain ranges on the planet and consists mostly of uplifted sedimentary and metamorphic rock
22.
Uttarakhand
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Uttarakhand, officially the State of Uttarakhand, formerly known as Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Devbhumi due to many Hindu temples, Uttarakhand is known for its natural beauty of the Himalayas, the Bhabhar and the Terai. On 9 November 2000, Uttarakhand became the 27th state of the Republic of India, being created from the Himalayan, the state is divided into two divisions, Garhwal and Kumaon, with a total of 13 districts. The interim capital of Uttarakhand is Dehradun, the largest city in the region, the High Court of the state is in Nainital. Archaeological evidence supports the existence of humans in the region since prehistoric times, the region formed a part of the Kuru and the Panchal kingdoms during the Vedic age of Ancient India. Among the first major dynasties of Kumaon were the Kunindas in the 2nd century BCE who practised a form of Shaivism. Ashokan edicts at Kalsi show the presence of Buddhism in this region. During the medieval period, the region was consolidated under the Kumaon Kingdom, in 1816, most of modern Uttarakhand was ceded to the British as part of the Treaty of Sugauli. The natives of the state are generally called Uttarakhandi, or more specifically either Garhwali or Kumaoni by their region of origin, according to the 2011 Census of India, Uttarakhand has a population of 10,116,752, making it the 19th most populous state in India. Uttarakhands name is derived from the Sanskrit words uttara meaning north, the name finds mention in early Hindu scriptures as the combined region of Kedarkhand and Manaskhand. Uttarakhand was also the ancient Puranic term for the stretch of the Indian Himalayas. Chosen for its allegedly less separatist connotations, the name change generated enormous controversy among many activists for a separate state who saw it as a political act, the name Uttarakhand remained popular in the region, even while Uttaranchal was promulgated through official usage. In August 2006, Union Cabinet of India assented to the demands of the Uttaranchal state assembly, legislation to that effect was passed by the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly in October 2006, and the Union Cabinet brought in the bill in the winter session of Parliament. The bill was passed by Parliament and signed into law by then President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in December 2006, and since January 1,2007 the state has been known as Uttarakhand. Ancient rock paintings, rock shelters, paleolithic stone tools, there are also archaeological remains which show the existence of early Vedic practices in the area. The Pauravas, Kushanas, Kunindas, Guptas, Gurjara-Pratihara, Katyuris, Raikas, Palas, Chands, Parmars or Panwars, at that time, present-day Uttarakhand also served as a habitat for Rishis and Sadhus. It is believed that the sage Vyasa scripted the Hindu epic Mahabharata in the state, among the first major dynasties of Garhwal and Kumaon were the Kunindas in the 2nd century BCE who practised an early form of Shaivism and traded salt with Western Tibet. It is evident from the Ashokan edict at Kalsi in Western Garhwal that Buddhism made inroads in this region, folk shamanic practices deviating from Hindu orthodoxy also persisted here
23.
Lhasa
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Lhasa is a city and administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. Lhasa is the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining and, at an altitude of 3,490 metres, the city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. It contains many culturally significant Tibetan Buddhist sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa literally means place of the gods. Lhasa is first recorded as the name, referring to the temple of Jowo. By the mid 7th century, Songtsän Gampo became the leader of the Tibetan Empire that had risen to power in the Brahmaputra River Valley, Bhrikuti is said to have converted him to Buddhism, which was also the faith attributed to his second wife Wencheng. In 641 he constructed the Jokhang and Ramoche Temples in Lhasa in order to house two Buddha statues, the Akshobhya Vajra and the Jowo Sakyamuni, respectively brought to his court by the princesses. Lhasa suffered extensive damage under the reign of Langdarma in the 9th century, when the sites were destroyed and desecrated. A Tibetan tradition mentions that after Songtsän Gampos death in 649 C. E. Chinese troops captured Lhasa, Chinese and Tibetan scholars have noted that the event is mentioned neither in the Chinese annals nor in the Tibetan manuscripts of Dunhuang. Lǐ suggested that this tradition may derive from an interpolation, tsepon W. D. Shakabpa believes that those histories reporting the arrival of Chinese troops are not correct. From the fall of the monarchy in the 9th century to the accession of the 5th Dalai Lama, however, the importance of Lhasa as a religious site became increasingly significant as the centuries progressed. It was known as the centre of Tibet where Padmasambhava magically pinned down the earth demoness, islam has been present since the 11th century in what is considered to have always been a monolithically Buddhist culture. Two Tibetan Muslim communities have lived in Lhasa with distinct homes, food and clothing, language, education, trade, by the 15th century, the city of Lhasa had risen to prominence following the founding of three large Gelugpa monasteries by Je Tsongkhapa and his disciples. The three monasteries are Ganden, Sera and Drepung which were built as part of the puritanical Buddhist revival in Tibet, the scholarly achievements and political know-how of this Gelugpa Lineage eventually pushed Lhasa once more to centre stage. The 5th Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, unified Tibet and moved the centre of his administration to Lhasa in 1642 with the help of Güshi Khan of the Khoshut. With Güshi Khan as a largely uninvolved overlord, the 5th Dalai Lama, the core leadership of this government is also referred to as the Ganden Phodrang, and Lhasa thereafter became both the religious and political capital. In 1645, the reconstruction of the Potala Palace began on Red Hill, in 1648, the Potrang Karpo of the Potala was completed, and the Potala was used as a winter palace by the Dalai Lama from that time onwards. The Potrang Marpo was added between 1690 and 1694, the name Potala is derived from Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the Dalai Lamas divine prototype, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The Jokhang Temple was also expanded around this time
24.
14th Dalai Lama
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The 14th Dalai Lama (/ˈdɑːlaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, /ˌdælaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, is the current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are important monks of the Gelug school, the newest school of Tibetan Buddhism which is headed by the Ganden Tripas. From the time of the 5th Dalai Lama to 1959, the government of Tibet. The Gelug schools government administered an area corresponding to the Tibet Autonomous Region just as the nascent PRC wished to assert central control over it. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama fled to India, the 14th Dalai Lama received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989. His family was of Monguor extraction and his mother, Diki Tsering, gave birth to him on a straw mat in the cowshed behind the house. He was one of seven siblings to survive childhood, the eldest was his sister Tsering Dolma, eighteen years his senior. His eldest brother, Thupten Jigme Norbu, had been recognised at the age of eight as the reincarnation of the high Lama Taktser Rinpoche and his sister, Jetsun Pema, spent most of her adult life on the Tibetan Childrens Villages project. The Dalai Lamas first language was, in his own words, a broken Xining language which was the Chinese language, a form of Central Plains Mandarin, and his family did not speak the Tibetan language. Sir Basil Gould, British delegate to Lhasa in 1936, related his account of the team to Sir Charles Bell, former British resident in Lhasa. The Regent, Reting Rinpoche, shortly afterwards had a vision at the lake of Lhamo La-tso indicating Amdo as the region to search. This vision also indicated a large monastery with a roof and turquoise tiles. This team, led by Kewtsang Rinpoche, went first to meet the Panchen Lama, the Panchen Lama had been investigating births of unusual children in the area ever since the death of the 13th. He gave Kewtsang the names of three boys whom he had discovered and identified as candidates, within a year the Panchen Lama had died. There they found a house, as described in the vision, according to the 14th Dalai Lama, at the time the village of Taktser stood right on the real border between the region of Amdo and China. When the team visited, posing as pilgrims, its leader and he held an old rosary that had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and the boy Lhamo Dhondup, aged two, approached and asked for it. The monk said if you know who I am, you can have it, the child said Sera Lama, Sera Lama and spoke with him in a Lhasa accent, in a language the boys mother could not understand. The next time the party returned to the house, they revealed their real purpose, one test consisted of showing him various pairs of objects, one of which had belonged to the 13th Dalai Lama and one which had not
25.
Nanga Parbat
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Nanga Parbat is the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,126 metres above sea level. It is the anchor of the Himalayas around which the Indus river skirts into the plains of Pakistan. It is located in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of India and is known as Deo Mir. Nanga Parbat is one of the eight-thousanders, with an elevation of 8,126 metres. An immense, dramatic peak rising far above its surrounding terrain, numerous mountaineering deaths in the mid and early 20th century lent it the nickname killer mountain. Nanga Parbat forms the anchor of the Himalayan Range and is the westernmost eight-thousander. It lies just south of the Indus River in the Diamer District of Gilgit–Baltistan in Pakistan, not far to the north is the western end of the Karakoram range. Nanga Parbat has tremendous vertical relief over local terrain in all directions, to the south, Nanga Parbat boasts what is often referred to as the highest mountain face in the world, the Rupal Face rises 4,600 m above its base. The other is Mount Everest, which is first on both lists and it is also the second most prominent peak of the Himalayas, after Mount Everest. The key col for Nanga Parbat is Zoji La in Kashmir, Nanga Parbat along with Namcha Barwa on the Tibetan Plateau mark the west and east ends of the Himalayas. The core of Nanga Parbat is a long ridge trending southwest–northeast, the ridge is an enormous bulk of ice and rock. It has three faces, Diamir face, Rakhiot and Rupal, the southwestern portion of this main ridge is known as the Mazeno Wall, and has a number of subsidiary peaks. In the other direction, the main ridge arcs northeast at Rakhiot Peak, the south/southeast side of the mountain is dominated by the massive Rupal Face, noted above. The north/northwest side of the mountain, leading to the Indus, is more complex and it is split into the Diamir face and the Rakhiot face by a long ridge. There are a number of summits, including North Peak some 3 km north of the main summit. Near the base of the Rupal Face is a glacial lake called Latbo. Climbing attempts started very early on Nanga Parbat, in 1895 Albert F. Mummery led an expedition to the peak, and reached almost 6,100 m on the Diamir Face, but Mummery and two Gurkha companions later died reconnoitering the Rakhiot Face. In the 1930s, Nanga Parbat became the focus of German interest in the Himalayas, the German mountaineers were unable to attempt Mount Everest, as only the British had access to Tibet
26.
British India
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Provinces of India, earlier Presidencies of British India and still earlier, Presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in the subcontinent. Collectively, they were called British India, in one form or other they existed between 1612 and 1947, conventionally divided into three historical periods. During 1612–1757, the East India Company set up factories in several locations, mostly in coastal India and its rivals were the merchant trading companies of Holland and France. By the mid-18th century, three Presidency towns, Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta had grown in size, during the period of Company rule in India, 1757–1858, the Company gradually acquired sovereignty over large parts of India, now called Presidencies. However, it increasingly came under British government oversight, in effect sharing sovereignty with the Crown. At the same time it gradually lost its mercantile privileges, following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Companys remaining powers were transferred to the Crown. In the new British Raj, sovereignty extended to a few new regions, increasingly, however, unwieldy presidencies were broken up into Provinces. In 1608, the English East India Company established a settlement at Surat, and it was followed in 1611 by a permanent factory at Machilipatnam on the Coromandel Coast, and in 1612 the company joined other already established European trading companies in Bengal. Company rule in Bengal, however, ended with the Government of India Act 1858 following the events of the Bengal Rebellion of 1857 and these rulers were allowed a measure of internal autonomy in exchange for British suzerainty. British India constituted a significant portion of India both in area and population, in 1910, for example, it covered approximately 54% of the area, in addition, there were Portuguese and French exclaves in India. Independence from British rule was achieved in 1947 with the formation of two nations, the Dominions of India and Pakistan, the latter also including East Bengal, present-day Bangladesh. The term British India also applied to Burma for a time period, starting in 1824, a small part of Burma. This arrangement lasted until 1937, when Burma commenced being administered as a separate British colony, British India did not apply to other countries in the region, such as Sri Lanka, which was a British Crown colony, or the Maldive Islands, which were a British protectorate. It also included the Colony of Aden in the Arabian Peninsula, the original seat of government was at Allahabad, then at Agra from 1834 to 1868. Bombay Presidency, East India Companys headquarters moved from Surat to Bombay in 1687, the East India Company, which was incorporated on 31 December 1600, established trade relations with Indian rulers in Masulipatam on the east coast in 1611 and Surat on the west coast in 1612. The company rented a trading outpost in Madras in 1639, meanwhile, in eastern India, after obtaining permission from the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to trade with Bengal, the Company established its first factory at Hoogly in 1640. Almost a half-century later, after Emperor Aurengzeb forced the Company out of Hooghly, by the mid-18th century the three principal trading settlements, now called the Madras Presidency, the Bombay Presidency, and the Bengal Presidency were each administered by a Governor. After Robert Clives victory in the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in 1772, the Company also obtained the Nizāmat of Bengal and thereby full sovereignty of the expanded Bengal Presidency
27.
POW camp
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A prisoner-of-war camp is a site for the containment of enemy combatants captured by a belligerent power in time of war. It should be noted there are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps. In addition, non-combatants, such as merchant mariners and civilian aircrews, have imprisoned in some conflicts. Not all belligerents have consistently applied the convention in all conflicts, before the Peace of Westphalia, enemy combatants captured by belligerent forces were usually executed, enslaved, or held for ransom. This, coupled with the small size of armies, meant there was little need for any form of camp to hold prisoners of war. This is generally considered to mark the point where captured enemy combatants would be treated before being released at the end of the conflict or under a parole not to take up arms. The practice of paroling enemy combatants had begun thousands of earlier, at least as early as the time of Carthage. The consequent increase in the number of prisoners was to eventually to the development of the prisoner of war camps. Following General John Burgoynes surrender at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777, several thousand British and German troops were marched to Cambridge, for various reasons, the Continental Congress desired to move them south. For this purpose, one of the congressmen offered his land outside of Charlottesville, the remaining soldiers marched south in late 1778—arriving at the site in January 1779. Since the barracks were barely sufficient in construction, the officers were paroled to live as far away as Richmond, the camp was never adequately provisioned, but the prisoners built a theater on the site. Hundreds escaped Albemarle Barracks because of the shortage of guards, as the British Army moved northward from the Carolinas in late 1780, the remaining prisoners were moved to Frederick, Maryland, Winchester, Virginia, and perhaps elsewhere. No remains of the encampment site are left, while awaiting exchange, prisoners were confined to permanent camps. Neither Union or Confederate prison camps were well run. It is estimated that about 56,000 soldiers died in prisons during the war, during a period of 14 months in Camp Sumter, located near Andersonville, Georgia,13,000 of the 45,000 Union soldiers confined there died. During the Boer Wars the British established concentration camps to hold both civilians and prisoners of war, in total 109 camps were constructed for Boer and black African internees. However, the majority of prisoners of war were sent overseas, the camps were poorly administered, the food rations insufficient to maintain health, standards of hygiene were low, and overcrowding was chronic. Over 26,000 women and children died in the camps during the wars, the first international convention on prisoners of war was signed at the Hague Peace Conference of 1899
28.
Tsarong
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He was an important figure in the early twentieth century conflict with the Chinese and was active in protecting Tibet militarily as the Commander in Chief of Tibet. Namgang Dazang Damdu was born into a peasant family in Phenpo, as a child he demonstrated an unusually high level of intelligence and advanced abilities. In 1900, he was recognised by Khangnyi Jipa, a monk who served as an official of the Norbulingka palace and took on Namgang as his pupil at the age of twelve, considered very young at the time. Within a short amount of time he was employed in the service of His Holiness. Namgang accompanied the Dalai Lama in his trip to Mongolia in 1903, the Dalai Lama grew increasingly fond of Namgang during the first decade of the 20th century. He was said to admire the dedication and hard work that Namgang contributed in his service. The Dalai Lama compassionately named him ‘Chensel’ Nangang, ‘Chensel’ literally meaning ‘visible to the eyes’, as the Dalai Lama grew in trust of Namgang and his abilities, he became increasingly important not only as a servant but as an adviser. In April 1908, for instance, he was entrusted to sign the Trade Regulations in Calcutta on behalf of the Tibetan Government, Namgang played an important role in the pre-Xinhai Revolution defense against the Qing. Shortly afterwards he guided the Dalai Lama to India and resided with him in Darjeeling for well over a year, in the autumn of 1911 he was sent by the Dalai Lama to Shigatse, forcing the Qing garrison to surrender their arms and ammunitions and leave. While in India, in early 1912, the Dalai Lama appointed Namgang as the official Commander-in-Chief of Tibet, the Qing army lacked supplies and reinforcements and were forced to surrender on 12 August 1912 after force from an army led by Tsarong. Following victory, the Dalai Lama returned from exile, declaring the Independence of Tibet in early 1913, in September 1915 Tsarong visited Sikkim on diplomatic purposes and visited India again on a pilgrimage in 1924. His status was something unique in Tibet, growing to possess military, political, in conjunction he was not only the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, but became Senior Cabinet Minister and later Head of the Tibetan Mint and Armoury after 1933. Tsarong gained practical and theoretical experiences by visiting neighboring countries and educating himself about their policies and strategies. In the 1920s the aristocrats in Tibet plotted for his downfall, on his return from India in 1925, Tsarong was deprived of his Commander-in-Chief title and was subsequently demoted out of the Kashag. Despite this he remained a figure and notably had strong support from the monks of one of Tibets important monasteries. Tsarong was prominent in the affairs of Tibet throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Following the death of His Holiness the 13th Dalai Lama in 1933, Tsarong was appointed the Head of the Arsenal-Mint and this department had a number of functions, including to improve the quality of paper currency, stock pile arms, and to introduce electricity into Lhasa. Tsarong was worried about this situation since we continued to print new paper currency and he always used to say that the paper money had to have some hard backing, that a currency note means that the government guarantees the value of the note in gold or some other commodity
29.
Ngawang Jigme
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Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was a Tibetan senior official who assumed various military and political responsibilities both before and after 1951. He is often simply as Ngapo in English sources. Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was born in Lhasa as the son of a leading Tibetan aristocratic family descended from kings of Tibet. His father was governor of Chamdo in Eastern Tibet and commander of the Tibetan armed forces, after studying traditional Tibetan literature, he went to Britain for further education. He was married to Ngapoi Cedain Zhoigar, Vice President of the Tibetan Womens Federation, upon returning in 1932 from his studies in Britain, he served in the Tibetan army. Ngapoi began his career as an official in Chamdo in 1936. As a cabinet member of the government of Tibet under the Dalai Lama. In April 1950 he was appointed governor-general of Chamdo, but took office only in September, after the previous governor, while serving as governor-general of Chamdo, he also became commander-in-chief of the Tibetan armed forces. In October 1950 his forces confronted the Peoples Liberation Army, as he had warned before his departure for Chamdo, the Tibetan forces were no match for the PLA who had liberated the whole of China by defeating several million Kuomintang soldiers. Ngapoi surrendered Chamdo to the Chinese, the PLA surprised him by treating him well and giving him long lectures on the New Chinas policies toward minor nationalities. Within a year, he was the deputy commander-in-chief for the PLA forces in Tibet and he became a leader not only of Tibet but also the Chinese Communist Party in Tibet. The validity of his acceptance on behalf of the Tibetan government has been questioned, sambo recalled that the negotiators brought a secret codebook so that they could establish a wireless link with Yadong and discuss issues as they arose. According to historians Tom A. Grunfeld, Melvyn C, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigmé was one of a small number of progressive elite Tibetans that were eager to modernize Tibet and saw in the return of the Chinese an opportunity to do so. Ngapoi was appointed by the Tibetan government to head the newly formed Reform Assembly and he was the Kashag minister most trusted not only by the Chinese but also by the Dalai Lama. The latter, who was in favour of reforms and modernization, as a result, in 1953-1954, the Reform Assembly crafted new laws reforming interest rates, old loans, and the administration of counties. After 1951, Ngapois career continued within the ranks of Chinese Communist administration of Tibet and he served as the leader of the Liberation Committee of Chamdo Prefecture until 1959. He was appointed as lieutenant general and awarded the Order of Liberation first class in 1955 and he was appointed vice-president of the Committee in 1959, the 10th Panchen Lama being its president. He represented Tibet in seven National Peoples Congress under the committee from the 1st National Peoples Congress in 1954 to the 7th in 1988
30.
Pema Lhaki
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The book covers the escape of Harrer and his companion, Peter Aufschnaiter, from a British internment camp in India. Harrer and Aufschnaiter then traveled across Tibet to Lhasa, the capital, here they spent several years, and Harrer describes the contemporary Tibetan culture in detail. Harrer subsequently became a tutor and friend of the 14th Dalai Lama, Seven Years in Tibet was translated into 53 languages, became a bestseller in the United States in 1954, and sold three million copies. At the beginning of the Flamingo edition of the book, a message from the 14th Dalai Lama praises the work and his most important contribution to our cause, his book, Seven Years in Tibet, introduced hundreds of thousands of people to my country. Two films have been based on the book, Seven Years in Tibet, there is also a David Bowie song entitled Seven Years in Tibet, from his album Earthling. Kundun The Cup Dreaming Lhasa Book Review, Seven Years in Tibet, archived from the original on January 17,2013
31.
Potala Palace
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The Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region was the residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to India during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. It is now a museum and World Heritage Site, the palace is named after Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. It may overlay the remains of a fortress called the White or Red Palace on the site. Tradition has it that the three hills of Lhasa represent the Three Protectors of Tibet. Chokpori, just to the south of the Potala, is the soul-mountain of Vajrapani, Pongwari that of Manjusri, and Marpori, the site on which the Potala Palace rises is built over a palace erected by Songtsän Gampo on the Red Hill. The Potala contains two chapels on its northwest corner that conserve parts of the original building, One is the Phakpa Lhakhang, the other the Chogyel Drupuk, a recessed cavern identified as Songtsän Gampos meditation cave. The external structure was built in 3 years, while the interior, together with its furnishings, the Dalai Lama and his government moved into the Potrang Karpo in 1649. Construction lasted until 1694, some years after his death. The Potala was used as a palace by the Dalai Lama from that time. The Potrang Marpo was added between 1690 and 1694, the new palace got its name from a hill on Cape Comorin at the southern tip of India—a rocky point sacred to the bodhisattva of compassion, who is known as Avalokitesvara, or Chenrezi. The Tibetans themselves rarely speak of the place as the Potala. The palace was damaged during the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese in 1959. It also escaped damage during the Cultural Revolution in 1966 through the intervention of Zhou Enlai. Still, almost all of the over 100,000 volumes of scriptures, historical documents, the Potala Palace was inscribed to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1994. In 2000 and 2001, Jokhang Temple and Norbulingka were added to the list as extensions to the sites, rapid modernisation has been a concern for UNESCO, however, which expressed concern over the building of modern structures immediately around the palace which threaten the palaces unique atmosphere. The Chinese government responded by enacting a rule barring the building of any taller than 21 metres in the area. The palace has also received restoration works between 1989 and 1994, costing RMB55 million, the number of visitors to the palace was restricted to 1,600 a day, with opening hours reduced to six hours daily to avoid over-crowding from 1 May 2003. The palace was receiving an average of 1,500 a day prior to the introduction of the quota, visits to the structures roof was banned after restoration works were completed in 2006 to avoid further structural damage
32.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
33.
Chamdo
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Chamdo, officially Qamdo, and known in Chinese as Changdu, is a prefecture-level city in the eastern part of the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Its seat is the town of Chengguan in Karub District, Chamdo is Tibets third largest city after Lhasa and Shigatse. On 11 July 2014 Chamdo Prefecture was upgraded into a prefecture-level city, Qamdo Bamda Airport, opened in 1994, is located 126 kilometres from Chengguan Town in Karub District. China National Highway 214 and China National Highway 317 are the roads in
34.
Coronation
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The ceremony can also be conducted for the monarchs consort, either simultaneously with the monarch or as a separate event. A ceremony without the placement of a crown on the head is known as an enthronement. Coronations are still observed in the United Kingdom, Tonga, in addition to investing the monarch with symbols of state, Western-style coronations have often traditionally involve anointing with holy oil, or chrism as it is often called. Wherever a ruler is anointed in this way, as in Great Britain and Tonga, some other lands use bathing or cleansing rites, the drinking of a sacred beverage, or other religious practices to achieve a comparable effect. Such acts symbolise the granting of divine favour to the monarch within the relevant spiritual-religious paradigm of the country, in the past, concepts of royalty, coronation and deity were often inexorably linked. Rome promulgated the practice of worship, in Medieval Europe. Coronations were once a direct expression of these alleged connections. Thus, coronations have often been discarded altogether or altered to reflect the nature of the states in which they are held. However, some monarchies still choose to retain an overtly religious dimension to their accession rituals, others have adopted simpler enthronement or inauguration ceremonies, or even no ceremony at all. In non-Christian states, coronation rites evolved from a variety of sources, buddhism, for instance, influenced the coronation rituals of Thailand, Cambodia and Bhutan, while Hindu elements played a significant role in Nepalese rites. The ceremonies used in modern Egypt, Malaysia, Brunei and Iran were shaped by Islam, Coronations, in one form or another, have existed since ancient times. Egyptian records show coronation scenes, such as that of Seti I in 1290 BC, judeo-Christian scriptures testify to particular rites associated with the conferring of kingship, the most detailed accounts of which are found in II Kings 11,12 and II Chronicles 23,11. Following the assumption of the diadem by Constantine, Roman and Byzantine emperors continued to wear it as the symbol of their authority. Although no specific coronation ceremony was observed at first, one gradually evolved over the following century, the emperor Julian was hoisted upon a shield and crowned with a gold necklace provided by one of his standard-bearers, he later wore a jewel-studded diadem. Later emperors were crowned and acclaimed in a manner, until the momentous decision was taken to permit the Patriarch of Constantinople to physically place the crown on the emperors head. Historians debate when exactly this first took place, but the precedent was established by the reign of Leo II. This ritual included recitation of prayers by the Byzantine prelate over the crown, after this event, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the ecclesiastical element in the coronation ceremonial rapidly develop. This was usually performed three times, following this, the king was given a spear, and a diadem wrought of silk or linen was bound around his forehead as a token of regal authority
35.
B.D. Wong
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Bradley Darryl B. D. Wong is an American actor. Wong has also done extensive work and stage acting. The most well known of his acting roles is that of Li Shang from the Disney animated film Mulan. He would later reprise this role twice, most notably for the video game Kingdom Hearts II, beginning in 2016, Wong appeared in the TV series Gotham as Hugo Strange. BD Wong was born in San Francisco, California, the son of Roberta Christine, a telephone company supervisor, and William D. Wong and he has one older brother and one younger brother. He is of Chinese descent, with family from Hong Kong, Wong attended Lincoln High School, where he discovered his love of acting and starred as the lead in numerous school plays, before attending San Francisco State University. Wong gained wide attention as a result of his Broadway debut in M. Butterfly opposite John Lithgow, the play won multiple awards, including several for Wong, who at that time ceased using his full name in favor of his initials. He has since ceased the use of punctuation in his initials and he is notable as the only actor to be honored with the Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Clarence Derwent Award, and Theatre World Award for the same role. He also provided the voice of Captain Shang in Disneys Mulan, its sequel. He returned to Broadway as Linus in a revival of Youre a Good Man Charlie Brown, alongside Anthony Rapp, Roger Bart and Kristin Chenoweth, and the 2004 revival of Stephen Sondheims Pacific Overtures. In 2008, he starred in the one-man show Herringbone, in which he portrayed 12 roles and he brought the show to the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego the following year. In 2012, Wong starred in Herringbone to benefit Dixon Place in New York for two performances. The production, recorded live for a 2014 CD release, was his first appearance in New York of the material, in 2014, Wong starred in the U. S. The Orphan of Zhao is a story of self-sacrifice and revenge. In the aftermath of a coup, a country doctor is forced to sacrifice his own son in order to save the last heir of a noble. The Orphan of Zhao was a co-production with La Jolla Playhouse, Wong guest starred in a thirteenth season episode of Law & Order, SVU titled Father Dearest. In 2015, he was named Artist-in-Residence at La Jolla Playhouse, Wong guest starred on a NCIS, New Orleans Episode 1.13 titled The Walking Dead, where he portrayed Navy Lieutenant Commander Dr. Gabriel Lin. Wong also guest-starred as the enigmatic White Rose in episodes 8 and 10 of USA Networks Mr. Robot, Wong began a long-term relationship with talent agent Richie Jackson in 1988
36.
Mako (actor)
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Mako Iwamatsu was a Japanese American actor and voice artist who was nominated for numerous awards. Many of his acting roles credited him simply as Mako, where he omitted his surname and he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7095 Hollywood Blvd. Mako was born in Kobe, Japan, the son of noted childrens book authors and illustrators Atsushi Iwamatsu, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, his parents, who were political dissidents, moved to the United States, leaving Mako in the care of his grandmother. After the war, his parents were able to arrange for him to join them and he enlisted in the military in the 1950s and became a naturalized American citizen in 1956. When Mako first joined his parents in the USA, he studied architecture, during his military service, he discovered his theatrical talent, and trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse. Makos first film role was in the 1959 film Never So Few and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as engine-room coolie Po-Han in the 1966 film The Sand Pebbles. Lee in Sidekicks, Kanemitsu in RoboCop 3 in 1993, Kungo Tsarong in Seven Years in Tibet and he also had a role in Bulletproof Monk. In 2005, Mako had a role in Memoirs of a Geisha. Makos last leading role was in the 2005 film Cages, written and he also appeared in some Japanese TV dramas and films, such as Masahiro Shinodas Owls Castle and Takashi Miikes The Bird People in China. Mako has a motion picture star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7095 Hollywood Blvd and he remained artistic director of the company until 1989. Makos landlord at the time, Jerry Orbach, was nominated for his role in Chicago. Mako recalled being woken up at 4,30 the morning after the Tony ceremony by Orbach, I cant believe it, we lost to a f------ revival. He also starred in the run of the play Shimada in 1992. He appeared on the TV show McHales Navy several times, playing Imperial Japanese officers, soldiers and he later appeared on the TV show M*A*S*H, playing multiple roles such as a Chinese doctor, North Korean soldier, and a South Korean lieutenant. In 1974, he appeared on Ironside episode Terror on Grant Avenue and he appeared as a Japanese chef in the 1978 Columbo episode Murder Under Glass. He was the blind philosopher Li Sung in two episodes of the TV show The Incredible Hulk and he also appeared on an episode of Magnum, P. I. called The Arrow That Is Not Aimed in 1983. Mako also appeared in an episode of the TV show F Troop and he appeared as Lo Sing, fighting Bruce Lees Kato character in The Green Hornet episode The Preying Mantis. He played the character Lin Duk Coo in an episode of The A-Team and he guest-starred in an episode of season one of Frasier as well as in an episode of Tour of Duty as a Vietnamese scout
37.
Danny Denzongpa
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Danny Denzongpa is an Indian actor, singer and film director of Sikkimese Bhutia descent. He has mainly worked in Bollywood films though he has appeared in several Nepali, Tamil, Bengali. He has acted in around 190 Hindi films since 1971, in 2003, Denzongpa was awarded the Padma Shree, Indias fourth highest civilian honour. Denzongpa is especially noted for his villainous characters as Kancha Cheena in Agneepath, Bakhtawar in Hum, Kaatya in Ghatak, Lethal and Dilawar in 36 Ghante. In addition he is remembered for his positive characters in films like Lahu ke do rang, Bulundi, Hum se badhkar kaun, Boxer, Khuda Gawah,16 December. Dannys film career spans more than 4 decades and he has also starred in some international projects, the most famous being Seven Years in Tibet where he acted alongside Hollywood actor Brad Pitt. Denzongpas love of horses and horse riding began at an early age and he is also a painter, a writer and a sculptor. He nursed an ambition to join the Indian Army and won the Best Cadet award from West Bengal, during his early film career, Danny used to practice learning Hindi by talking to the ocean. Isharas Zaroorat in 1971 which was his debut film and he got his major break in Gulzars Mere Apne, where he had positive role. He had his first major role in B. R. Chopras Dhundh, where he played the role of a crippled and frustrated husband. Danny, in the 1970s period, was open to do versatile roles. It is said Danny was the first choice to play the role of Gabbar Singh in the film Sholay. However, since he was away on the shoot of Feroz Khan film Dharmatma and he played the second lead hero and had more positive roles in commercially successful critically acclaimed films like Chor Machaye Shor,36 Ghante, Fakira, Sangram, Kalicharan, Kala Sona and Devata. After his performance in the film Devata he started getting more significant lengthy roles and he was simultaneously part of big budget films like Aashiq Hoon Baharon Ka, Paapi, Bandish, The Burning Train and Chunoti in negative roles. In the early 1980 period, he had thought of quitting films and he said in an interview, when asked why he decided to direct a film, I remember in 80′s I was so fed up of the films I was doing. Those days every villain was a dacoit and I remember going on the sets where an actor called Tiwari was my henchmen, next day I went on another set and I saw Tiwari again as my henchman, and the same lanterns. I asked myself what was I doing, I did lot of trekking and did not do films for a couple of years. I told NN Sippy about a script that I had in mind, and he asked me to direct
