Animism is sometimes considered the earliest form of human religion. But what about before we started to think in terms of us vs. them (humans vs. animals), before we left the forests and evolved into our present forms? I'm currently reading The Cultured Chimpanzee: Reflections on Cultural Primatology (2004) by William C. McGrew. The chapter on social culture mentions a very strange practice of male chimpanzees that borders...

“Wenshu, Bodhisattva of Wisdom, at a Writing Table” (China, 1354, glue tempera on mud and straw wall, Cincinnati Art Museum) is a large wall mural which depicts the Bodhisattva Manjusri (Ch. Wenshu, 文殊) sitting at a writing table with a calligraphy brush in hand, poised to write...

The 1663 inscription is engraved on the front and back of a single limestone stele. Here are the scans for both sides. Again, I had to use my scanning wand to do these, so some may appear slightly warped.

FRONT



Chinese Characters

* http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/4946/ptdc0102.jpg...

I have to apologize for how some of the scans came out warped. I had to use my scanning wand because my printer scanner is on the fritz. They are not too bad, though.

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I have decided to start archiving information about the three stone inscriptions that were erected by the Kaifeng Jews in 1489, 1512, and 1663 (sides A and B). I am doing this because the book that they appear in, Chinese Jews: A Complication of Matters Relating to the Jews of K'ai-Feng Fu (2nd ed., 1966), is hard to find, and when you do find it, it is extremely expensive. I’m sure there are plenty of people who would benefit from...