The Lotus Sutra is one of the most popular and influential Mahayana sutras and the basis on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established. According to British professor Paul Williams, "For many East Asian Buddhists since early times, the Lotus [...]
Fela Anikulapo Kuti, also professionally known as Fela Kuti, was a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist, musician, composer, pioneer of the Afrobeat music genre and human rights activist. At the height of his popularity, Fela Kuti was referred to as one of Africa's most "challenging and charismatic music [...]
The Taj Mahal is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the south bank of the Yamuna river in the Indian city of Agra. The Taj Mahal was commissioned in 1632 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (reigned from 1628 to 1658) to house the tomb of [...]
Fantastic art is a broad and loosely defined art genre. It is not restricted to a specific school of artists, geographical location or historical period. Fantastic art can be characterized by subject matter – which portrays non-realistic, mystical, mythical or folkloric subjects or events – [...]
Zuni fetishes are small carvings made from various materials by the Zuni people. Zuni fetishes have traditionally served a ceremonial purpose for their creators and depict animals and icons integral to their culture. As a form of contemporary Native American art, they are sold with secular [...]
Pablo Amaringo was a Peruvian artist, renowned for his intricate, colorful depictions of his visions from drinking the entheogenic plant brew ayahuasca. Pablo Amaringo was first brought to the West's attention by Dennis McKenna and Luis Eduardo Luna, who met Pablo in Pucallpa while traveling [...]
A lamassu is an Assyrian protective deity, often depicted as having a human head, the body of a bull or a lion, and bird wings. In some writings, it is portrayed to represent a female deity. A less frequently used name is shedu, which refers [...]
Oscar Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, Oscar Wilde became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, [...]
Totem poles are monumental carvings, a type of Northwest Coast art, consisting of poles, posts or pillars, carved with symbols or figures. They are usually made from large trees, mostly western red cedar, by First Nations and indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest coast including [...]
Viracocha is the great creator deity in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America. Viracocha was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon and seen as the creator of all things, or the substance from which all [...]
