World's Largest Book - Kuthodaw Pagoda

The world's largest book stands upright, set in stone, in the grounds of the Kuthodaw (literally - royal merit) pagoda at the foot of Mandalay Hill in Mandalay, Myanmar (Burma). It has 730 leaves and 1460 pages; each page is three and a half feet wide, five feet tall and five inches thick. Each stone tablet has its own roof and precious gem on top in a small cave-like structure of Sinhalese relic casket type called kyauksa gu (stone inscription cave in Burmese), and they are arranged around a central golden pagoda.

 
Royal merit
The pagoda itself was built as part of the traditional foundations of the new royal city which also included a pitakat taik or library for religious scriptures, but King Mindon wanted to leave a great work of merit for posterity meant to last five millennia after the Gautama Buddha who lived around 500 BC. When the British invaded southern Burma in the mid nineteenth century, Mindon Min was concerned that Buddhist dhamma (teachings) would also be detrimentally affected in the North where he reigned. As well as organizing the Fifth Buddhist Synod in 1871, he was responsible for the construction in Mandalay of the world's largest book, consisting of 729 large marble tablets with the Tipitaka Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism inscribed on them in gold. One more was added to record how it all came about, making it 730 stone inscriptions in total.

The marble was quarried from Zagyin Hill 32 miles north of Mandalay, and transported by river to the city. Work began on 14 October 1860 in a large shed near Mandalay Palace. The text had been meticulously edited by tiers of senior monks and lay officials consulting the Tipitaka (literally - the three baskets, namely Vinaya Pitaka, Sutta Pitaka and Abhidhamma Pitaka) kept in royal libraries in the form of peisa or palm leaf manuscripts. Scribes carefully copied the text on marble for stonemasons. Each stone has 80 to 100 lines of inscription on each side in round Burmese script, chiselled out and originally filled in with gold ink. It took a scribe three days to copy both the obverse and the reverse sides, and a stonemason could finish up to 16 lines a day. All the stones were completed and open to the public on 4 May 1868.

Assembly and contents
The stones are arranged in neat rows within three enclosures, 42 in the innermost, 168 in the middle and 519 in the outermost enclosure. The caves are numbered starting from the west going clockwise (let ya yit) forming complete rings as follows:

Enclosure	Cave number	Pitaka
inner	1 - 42	Vinaya Pitaka
middle near	43 - 110	Vinaya
middle far	111 - 210	111 Vinaya, Abhidhamma Pitaka 112 - 210
outer nearest	211 -309	Abhidhamma
outermost perimeter	310 - 465	Abhidhamma 310 - 319, Sutta Pitaka 320 - 417, Samyutta Nikaya 418 - 465
outermost next in	466 - 603	Samyutta 466 - 482, Anguttara Nikaya 483 - 560, Khuddaka Nikaya 561 - 603
outermost near	604 - 729	Khuddaka

Thirty years later in 1900, a print copy of the text came out in a set of 38 volumes in Royal Octavo size of about 400 pages each in great primer type of letters. The publisher, Philip H. Ripley of Hanthawaddy Press, claimed that his books were "true copies of the Pitaka inscribed on stones by King Mindon". Ripley was a Burmese born Armenian brought up in the royal court of Mandalay by the king and went to school with the royal princes including Thibaw Min, the last king of Burma. At the age of 17 he fled to Rangoon when palace intrigues and a royal massacre broke out after the death of King Mindon, and he did have the galley proofs checked against the stones.

Source: wikipedia.org


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  The world's biggest-ever book has been launched in the US - but it is not for bedtime reading.

The book weighs 60 kilograms (133 pounds) and the pages are two metres wide (seven foot).

Michael Hawley, a scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is the author of the 122-page book about the Asian country of Bhutan.

The limited edition book is on sale for $10,000, with profits going to the charity he founded, Friendly Planet.
The charity builds schools in Cambodia and Bhutan.

Guinness World Records has certified Mr Hawley's work as the biggest book published. Five hundred copies have been produced.

Picture display
The book, Bhutan: A Visual Odyssey Across the Kingdom measures 1.5 metres by two metres (five-by-seven feet). It is photographic account of a journey across the kingdom of Bhutan.
Mr Hawley has led a number of students to expeditions to Cambodia and Bhutan and thought he could raise money for education there by putting together some of the pictures he had gathered.
He said he had not set out to make the world's largest book, but he discovered, while playing around with a digital printer, how spectacular large digital images can look, especially Bhutan which is a country full of colour in its everyday life.

"What I really wanted was a 5-by-7-foot chunk of wall that would let me change the picture every day," he said.

"And I thought there was an old-fashioned mechanism that might work. It's called the book."

But he said people should not think of it as a book but as "a gigantic picture gallery where you can change the picture every day".
He said it was not a bedtime book as it could flatten the reader if it fell over.
Despite the hefty price tag, Mr Hawley said he had already received two dozen orders of the book.

Source: bbc.co.uk

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The Venice Historical Regatta

Every year, on the first Sunday of September, the Historical Regatta is held in Venice. Hundreds of Venetians pile into the long boats that have plied the city's canals for centuries for the 'Regata Storica' (Historical Regatta), a historical procession that commemorates the welcome given to Caterina Cornaro, wife of the King of Cyprus, in 1489 after she renounced her throne in favour of Venice.

The spectacular historical water pageant is driven by gondoliers wearing historic costume carrying the Doge, the Doge’s wife and all the highest ranking Venetian officials up the Grand Canal in a brightly coloured parade. This is followed by four separate boat races. The winners are awarded flags in place of medals. Until few years ago, together with the symbolic prizes, there were also some kind of awards; the most famous of them was a little living pig, that would parade on a gondola of its own. The pig ceremony has been abolished since few years ago after protests by some animal protection organizations. PETA is always ruining the fun.

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Top 10 Greatest Selling Albums in Music History

In order to gain a spot on the list of
the Top 10 greatest selling albums in history a band needs to be
internationally recognized and extremely popular all

over they world. Here are the 10 most financially successful albums in musical history.

10. Saturday Night Fever Soundtrack - Bee Gees

Worldwide Sales - 40 Million Copies +

The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was released in November of 1977. The

record helped to revive the phenomenon of disco in the U.S. and started a

national trend. It is composed and performed primarily by The Bee Gees and

features numerous hit singles, including Stayin’ Alive, Night Fever, and How

Deep is Your Love. The record went on to win the Grammy Award for Album

of the Year. The Saturday Night Fever soundtrack has become the third

highest selling soundtrack of all time.

9. Backstreet Boys - Millennium

Worldwide Sales - 40 Million Copies +

Millennium is the second studio album by The Backstreet Boys. It was released

on May 18, 1999 and was the group’s first record to be released in both the

U.S. and internationally at the same time. The album holds the U.S. record for

yearly shipments, selling 11 million units in 1999. It spawned four hit singles,

including I Want it That Way, Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely, and

Larger Than Life. Millennium set records for the most albums sold in its debut

week and also most records sold internationally in one week with 2.2 million.

It was certified platinum in over 45 different countries.

8. Andrew Lloyd Webber - The Phantom of the Opera

Worldwide Sales - 40 Million Copies +

The Phantom of the Opera is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, based on the

French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Leroux. The music was

composed by Webber, with lyrics by Charles Hart and additional lyrics by

Richard Stilgoe. The musical focuses on a beautiful soprano, Christine Daaé,

who becomes the obsession of a mysterious and disfigured musical

mastermind, known as The Phantom of the Opera. The show opened in

London's West End in 1986. It is the second longest running musical in

England’s West End and the longest-running Broadway musical. According to

sales numbers The Phantom of the Opera is the most successful entertainment

project in history, amassing an incredible $5 billion dollars worldwide.

7. The Bodyguard Soundtrack - Whitney Houston

Worldwide Sales - 42 Million Copies +

The Bodyguard soundtrack was released on November 17, 1992 and

featured six songs from Whitney Houston, as well as tracks from various

recording artists. Whitney Houston’s cover of I Will Always Love You was an

instant #1 single. Some other artists featured on the record include Kenny G,

Lisa Stransfield, and Joe Cocker. It became the first album to sell more than a

million copies in a single week. It also received the Grammy Award for Album

of the Year.

6. Dirty Dancing Soundtrack

Worldwide Sales - 42 Million Copies +

The Dirty Dancing soundtrack was released on August 21, 1987. The album

had many hit singles including Hungry Eyes by Eric Carmen, Be My Baby by

The Ronettes, and The Time of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes. It

spent 18 weeks on the top of U.S. charts and inspired a follow-up album

entitled More Dirty Dancing. The album still re-enters the Irish charts on

occasion. It has spent over 230 weeks in the Top 30 in Ireland.

5. Eagles - Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)

Worldwide Sales - 42 Million Copies + 

Their Greatest Hits is the fifth album by the rock band the Eagles. It includes a

compilation of singles and was released February 17, 1976. The years in the

album's title, 1971 to 1975, refer to the existence of the band itself, not the

release dates of the tracks. It includes ten classic hits, including Take it Easy,

Lyin’ Eyes, Already Gone, Desperado, and Peaceful Easy Feeling. The

Eagles music greatly influenced the genre of country-rock and paved the way

for numerous bands in the 1970’s. Their Greatest Hits has sold 29 million

copies in the United States, making it the best-selling album of all time in the

U.S.

4. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

Worldwide Sales - 43 Million Copies +

The Dark Side of the Moon is the 6th studio album by English rock group Pink

Floyd. It was released in March of 1973. The record was an instant success

and spawned the singles, Money and Time. The refracting prism cover art is

one of the most recognizable in rock music history. Pink Floyd used some of

the most advanced recording techniques of the time, including multitrack

recording and tape loops. Analogue synthesizers were also given prominence

in many tracks. Founding member Syd Barrett had left the band in 1968, but is

credited as the author of the entire album's lyrics.

3. Meat Loaf - Bat out of Hell

Worldwide Sales - 43 Million Copies +

Bat out of Hell is the 2nd studio album released by Meat Loaf. It was dropped

on October 21, 1977. The main writer on the records production was Jim

Steinman. It was developed from a musical, Neverland, which was a sci-fi

update of Peter Pan, which Steinman wrote for a workshop performed at the

Kennedy Center Music Theatre Lab in 1977. Response to the album was

slow. Australia and England were the first to gain an enthusiastic response

after some popular music video were releases. Ultimately, the record stayed

on the United Kingdom charts for 474 weeks. It continues to sell around

200,000 units each year. The original release only had seven tracks on it,

including classics Bat out of Hell, All Revved Up with No Place to Go, and Two

out of Three Ain’t Bad.

2. AC/DC - Back in Black

Worldwide Sales - 49 Million Copies +

Back in Black is the 7th studio album by Australian hard rock band AC/DC. It

was released on July 25, 1980. Back in Black was the first AC/DC album

recorded without former lead singer Bon Scott, who had died at the age of 33.

It is the best-selling album ever released by a band and has sold 22 million

units in the U.S. alone. The album includes some of the group’s biggest hits

including Hells Bells, You Shook Me All Night Long, and the title track Back in

Black. According to lead guitarist Angus Young the album's all-black cover was

a sign of mourning for Scott. This record is widely considered the best hard

rock album ever created.

1. Michael Jackson - Thriller

Worldwide Sales - 110 Million Copies +

Thriller was Michael’s sixth studio album and was released on November 30,

1982 by Epic Records. The production budget for the record was $750,000

and Jackson wrote four of the tracks on the album. At its peak, the album was

selling a million copies a week worldwide. Seven of the album's nine songs

were released as singles, and all reached the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The album won a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards in 1984. With Michael

Jackson’s death this year Thriller has sold millions more copies around the

world.

credited to www.listzblog.com

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Amazing facts-Cannibalism

Cannibalism is as old as mankind and we certainly weren’t the first to come up with the idea. Animals have been eating members of their own species since the dawn of time and think nothing of it. To them it’s perfectly natural. Many species of arachnid, for example, instinctively begin to chow down on their mothers as soon as they are born and some mammals have been known to do the same thing. In fact, in some cases mammalian mothers will eat their own offspring if they feel the conditions needed to rear offspring have not been met. Ever seen a hamster do this? It’s pretty disturbing.

Of course, the introduction of civilization, the very thing that separates us from the animals, makes it impractical and morally objectionable to kill and eat your kinsmen. When living in a group structure it is much better to let your friends and family live so they can help you carry that massive mammoth carcass back home. But what if your intended victim is not a member of your tribe? By making a meal of a rival tribesman you not only rid yourself of a troublesome neighbor, you also get yourself a family sized bucket of tasty man flesh as a special treat for the kids. This is one widely accepted answer to the question of where all those pesky Neanderthals went. That’s right, we ate them (or some of them at least – the rest probably ate each other).

Here are some examples of cannibalistic societies in recorded history:


The Carib
The Carib people of the Lesser Antilles not only had the entire Caribbean Sea named after them; their name is also the origin of the word cannibal. Christopher Columbus was the first to report cannibalism among the Carib, whom he referred to as the Caniba (a mispronunciation of ‘Karibna’, the Carib word for ‘person’). Following this many Europeans formed the belief that the Carib practiced general cannibalism but this was not true, the Carib practiced ritual cannibalism and only ever against their enemies.

Any conquistador to stumble across a society of cannibals would have been utterly thrilled. At the time it was considered a Christian’s duty to punish and subjugate any society known to practice cannibalism. This led to many tribal cultures in the Africa and the Americas being falsely accused of cannibalism and may have precipitated the slave trade.

The Aztec
The Aztec were without a doubt the most brutal society in pre-Columbian America. They made thousands of human sacrifices each year, ceremonially slaughtering their victims in a variety of grim ways. Typically, victims had their beating hearts torn out but being burned alive was also quite common. So what did the Aztecs do with the bodies after the party was over? While there is no academic consensus on whether or not the Aztecs practiced cannibalism it stands to reason that they did. Cannibalism, while not necessarily a cultural norm, was not uncommon in pre-Columbian societies and many scholars argue that the Aztecs would have thought little of rummaging through the temple bins for a snack. Others theories that human flesh would have been a delicacy eaten only by the aristocratic elite. The lack of animal proteins in the Aztec diet would have made human flesh a healthy and desirable treat, especially considering the novelty value.

The Native Americans
There is evidence to suggest that many Native American peoples, including the Sioux, the Cree, the Comanche and even the Iroquois, may have once practiced ritualistic cannibalism. Of course, this is a highly charged and highly political debate. Many argue that the accusation of cannibalism is an attempt to depict Native Americans as brutal and uncivilized peoples, thus justifying their subjugation. However, some argue the opposite, saying that Native American cannibalism has been denied or even covered up by some historians in the name of political correctness. Whatever the truth, it would seem that cannibalism was once practiced by at least some Native American cultures, particularly those of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The now extinct Karankawa of Texas are a prime example. In 1768 a Spanish priest witnessed and recorded a Karankawa ritual in which a captive was tied to a stake. The Karankawa danced around the man, occasionally slicing off a piece of his flesh to be roasted and eaten in front of him.

Africa
While no single society in Africa can be cannibalistic, the practice of cannibalism in Africa throughout history has been frequent and widespread. Even today there is thought to be an underground trade in human body parts. Some believe that eating certain human organs and body parts will have a magical healing effect and some witchdoctors are thought to run black market operations, actively harvesting, proscribing and selling bits of other people as supposed ‘natural treatments’. As a result, thousands of people across Africa go missing each year after falling prey to the collection gangs. Most cruel of all is the fact that many victims are not killed but have parts of their bodies removed whilst alive. Sickeningly a human penis can be sold as a cure for impotence but there is a market for everything from a victim’s fingers to their lips.

Cannibalism has also been reported in several recent African conflicts, including the Second Congo War and the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. It is usually directed against social or racial groups that are thought to be vulnerable, such as the Congolese Pygmies.

Fiji
Cannibalism seems to have once been widespread in many Polynesian and Melanesian cultures. For example, Fiji was once known as the cannibal isles. One Fijian tribal chief claimed to have eaten 875 people and boasted of his achievement.

The native inhabitants of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia were also thought to be cannibals. When a waling ship capsized near the islands in 1820 the captain decided to lead the survivors 3000 miles upwind to Chile rather than risk taking on the cannibals. Ironically, the survivors themselves later resorted to cannibalism as a means of survival.


The Korowai
The Korowai of Papua, Indonesia may be the only tribe left in the world to practice ritual cannibalism. It is said that they kill and eat members of their tribe that have been convicted of witchcraft, although this may just be a ploy to attract tourists. Apparently the brain is most tasty part of the victim’s body and is eaten raw while still warm. Korowai houses are built high on stilts. It is thought that this design evolved through a need for protection, owing to the once rampant practice of cannibalism on the island. Members of the Fore tribe, who live on the opposite side of the island to the Korowai in what is now Papua New Guinea, are thought to have contracted the degenerative brain disorder Kuru (also known as laughing sickness) through the ritual consumption of their own dead tribesmen.

The Maori
One of the most well documented instances of cannibalism involves the Maori people of New Zealand. Cannibalism has been a part of Maori warfare since time immemorial and they didn’t stop at killing and eating their rival tribesmen. When the crew of a British ship, the Boyd, were accused of unjustly flogging the son of a Maori chieftain, his father’s warriors took revenge by killing and eating 66 of the ship’s passengers and crew. The event became known as the ‘Boyd Massacre’. The Maori also cannibalized European settlers in the ensuing wars and rebellions against the British Empire, as recently as 1869.

Of course, the Maori kicked the habit long ago and now live a healthy flesh-free lifestyle. The same can also be said of all the cultures on this list, with the possible exception of the Korowai. But it cannot be said that the archaic act of cannibalism has completely disappeared; every now and then it rears its ugly, flesh-chewing head to remind us of our gruesome and barbaric past. Sometimes this occurs in extreme survival situation (which can perhaps be forgiven) but it can also take the form of a single crazed lunatic.

Jean-Bédel Bokassa
The self declared Emperor of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, has been tried, but never convicted, of cannibalism. In 1979, when a number of school children protested against the introduction of new, mandatory school uniforms Emperor Bokassa gobbled the naughty children up. Some one hundred school children were massacred and, while Bokassa clearly could not have eaten all of them, he is thought to have beaten many of them to death himself. Bokassa’s Ugandan contemporary, Idi Amin, is also rumored to have eaten his enemies.


Dorangel Vargas
Dorangal Vargas, otherwise known as the ‘Hannibal Lecter of the Andes’, killed and ate at-least ten men while homeless and living in a park in San Cristobal, Venesuala. Vargas used the park as a hunting ground for two years before being arrested in 1999, after which he has spoken openly about his crimes. “I make a very tasty stew out of the tongue” Vargo told reporters “and I use the eyes to make a healthy and nutritious soup.”

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Alexander the Great Alexander of Macedon Biography

King of Macedonia and Conqueror of the Persian Empire 

Alexander III the Great, the King of Macedonia and conqueror of the Persian Empire is considered one of the greatest military geniuses of all times. He was inspiration for later conquerors such as Hannibal the Carthaginian, the Romans Pompey and Caesar, and Napoleon.  Alexander was born in 356 BC in Pella, the ancient capital of Macedonia. He was son of Philip II, King of Macedonia, and Olympias, the princess of neighboring Epirus. He spent his childhood watching his father transforming Macedonia into a great military power, winning victory after victory on the battlefields throughout the Balkans.  When he was 13, Philip hired

Statue of Alexander in Istanbul Archaeology Museum.

the Greek philosopher Aristotle to be Alexander’s personal tutor.  During the next three years Aristotle gave Alexander a training in rhetoric and literature and stimulated his interest in science, medicine, and philosophy, all of which became of importance in Alexander’s later life.  In 340, when Philip assembled a large Macedonian army and invaded Thrace, he left his 16 years old son with the power to rule Macedonia in his absence as regent, which shows that even at such young age Alexander was recognized as quite capable.  But as the Macedonian army advanced deep into Thrace, the Thracian tribe of Maedi bordering north-eastern Macedonia rebelled and posed a danger to the country.  Alexander assembled an army, led it against the rebels, and with swift action defeated the Maedi, captured their stronghold, and renamed it after himself to Alexandropolis. 

Two years later in 338 BC, Philip gave his son a commanding post among the senior generals as the Macedonian army invaded Greece. At the Battle of Chaeronea the Greeks were defeated and Alexander displayed his bravery by destroying the elite Greek force, the Theban Secret Band. Some ancient historians recorded that the Macedonians won the battle thanks to his bravery. 

The March on India

In the spring of 327 BC, Alexander and his army marched into India invading Punjab. The greatest of Alexander's battles in India was at the river Hydaspes, against king Porus, one of the most powerful Indian rulers. In the summer of 326 BC, Alexander's army crossed the heavily defended river during a violent thunderstorm to meet Porus' forces. The Indians were defeated in a fierce battle, even though they fought with elephants, which the Macedonians had never seen before. Porus was captured and like the other local rulers he had defeated, Alexander allowed him to continue to govern his territory. 

In this battle Alexander's horse Bucephalus was wounded and died. Alexander had ridden Bucephalus into every one of his battles in Europe and Asia, so when it died he was grief-stricken.  He founded a city which he named Buckephalia, in his horse's name.

The army continued advancing as far as the river Hydaspes but at this point the Macedonians refused to go farther as reports were coming of far more larger and dangerous armies ahead equipped with many elephants and chariots. General Coenus spoke on army's behalf to the king.  Reluctantly, Alexander agreed to stop here.  Not too long afterwards Coenus died and the army buried him with the highest honors.

It was agreed that the army travel down south the rivers Hydaspes and Indus so that they might reach the Ocean on the southern edge of the world and from there head westward toward Persia. 1,000 ships were constructed and while the navy sailed the rivers, the army rode down along the rivers banks, stopping to attack and subdue the Indian villages along the way. 

 

One of the villages in which the army stopped belonged to the Malli, who were said to be one of the most warlike of the Indian tribes. Alexander was severally wounded in this attack when an arrow pierced his breastplate and his ribcage.  The Macedonians rescued him in a narrow escape from the village. Still the Malli surrendered as Alexander became to recover from the grave wound.  The travel down the river resumed and the Macedonian army reached the mouth of the Indus in the summer of 325 BC. Then it turned westward to Persia.

But the return was a disaster.  The army was marching through the notorious Gerdosian desert during the middle of the summer. By the time Alexander reached Susa thousands had died of heat and exhaustion.

Roman copy of a statue by Lysippus, Louvre Museum. According to Plutarch, sculptures by Lysippus were the most faithful.

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