In this series of articles several aspects of heritage, conservation, design, cultural tourism and sustainable development on the tranquil and rural islands of the Nagasaki Prefecture in Japan are being explored. These are places steeped in history but less known amongst visitors to Japan. The character of these islands is less urbanized than some of …
Category: Cultural Heritage
The Sea and the Mountain in a Sacred Dance: Itsukushima and Mount Misen, Japan
The Island of Itsukushima is located in the Seto Inland Sea (Setonaikai), in the Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan. It is one of about 3,000 islands that are part of the Setonaikai National Park (瀬戸内海国立公園), which was designated in 1934 (Setonaikai National Park, 2017). Miyajima (宮島町, Miyajima-chō) is the historic town located on the island of Itsukushima. …
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Spring
Mount Auburn Cemetery in Watertown and Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1831 and became a model for the American ‘rural’ cemetery movement. It was listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1975 and received National Historic Landmark designation in 2003. In an earlier article on ‘A Landscape of Memory: Mount Auburn Cemetery‘, some …
The Absence of Equality and Seeking the Change: The New National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC), Washington, D.C.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) opened on September 24, 2016, in Washington, D.C., in a ceremony led by U.S. President Barack Obama. It is a Smithsonian Institution museum and has over 36,000 objects in its collection. It is a tour de force in covering extremely important, tough, and still often ignored subject areas within public …
Lantang Valley Festival, Nepal
On April 25, 2015 Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake. The Lantang valley is located in the north of Nepal, close to the border with Tibet, and was one of the worst affected regions. Tremors caused initial damage, but more devastating were the avalanches that followed the earthquake and buried much of Lantang Village. Parts …
After the Earthquake, Gorkha, Nepal
The Gorkha District in Nepal is located to the east of Kathmandu and historically is most important within the context of the creation of modern Nepal. It is here that the Shah Dynasty had its Royal stronghold and Palace and from where Prithvi Narayan Shah (1723-1775), King of the Gurkha Kingdom, created a unified Nepal, becoming its first …
Winter in the Forest: Boulder Park in Chester-Blandford State Park, MA, USA
Boulder Park is located in the Chester-Blandford State Forest, in the scenic Berkshire Hills of New England, USA. I stumbled upon this hidden treasure, an early twentieth century recreational park, a day after one of the first snowy days of the winter in Eastern Massachusetts. In this beautiful forested landscape the mystical Boulder Park offers glacial history together …