Saturday, October 31, 2026

Author: inkend

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
The old town of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, with its distinctive balconied houses climbing the hillsides above the Kura river.
Folks

A Language Like No Other and a Feast Like No Other, the Story of the Georgians

A people of the Caucasus with a language unrelated to any other, an alphabet of their own, an ancient faith, and the oldest winemaking tradition on earth. The story of the Georgians, their golden age, their dark centuries, and their unbreakable culture of hospitality.

Folks

A Nation Shaped by Memory, From a Medieval Empire to the Wars of Yugoslavia

Sustained for centuries by faith and the sacred memory of a battle lost at Kosovo, the Serbs rose from empire to subjugation to freedom, and their long memory became both their strength and their tragedy.

Shikara boats on Dal Lake with the mountains behind Srinagar
Folks

A Paradise on Earth and a Wound That Will Not Heal, the Story of the Kashmiri People

The Kashmiris of the Himalayan valley, their Dardic language, ancient Sanskrit and Buddhist learning, the ideal of Kashmiriyat, exquisite crafts, and the long tragedy of the Kashmir conflict.

Folks

A People Forged by Endless Land and Hard Russian Winters

Shaped by the largest land on earth, the Russians are a people of endurance, autocracy and revolution, and a cultural legacy, Tolstoy, Tchaikovsky, the conquest of space, that ranks among humanity greatest.

Folks

A People From the Eastern Steppes Who Stand Alone in the Heart of Europe

Speaking a language unlike any of their neighbors, the Hungarians arrived from the distant steppes, built a great kingdom, survived catastrophe after catastrophe, and never stopped being themselves.

The skyline of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on the shore of the Caspian Sea, a city of oil wealth and modern ambition.
Folks

A People of Fire and Crossroads, the Azerbaijanis Between Turkey, Iran, and Russia

A Turkic people who are Shia Muslims, divided between an independent republic and a larger community in Iran. The story of the Azerbaijanis, their land of fire, the oil of Baku, the wound of Karabakh, and a nation built at the crossroads of worlds.

The Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, once a Byzantine cathedral and later an Ottoman mosque, a symbol of the layered history Turks inherited in Anatolia.
Folks

A People of the Threshold, How the Turks Came From the Steppe to Bridge Two Continents

From the grasslands of Central Asia to the seam of Europe and Asia, the story of the Turks, their Turkic language, the Ottoman Empire, the founding of the republic, and the arguments that still define them.

Towering stone pillars of Zhangjiajie
Folks

A People Who Nearly Vanished Into the Crowd, the Story of the Tujia

Millions strong yet little known, the Tujia of China’s central mountains ruled themselves under their own chiefs and wove famous brocade, before nearly dissolving into the Han majority around them.

Culture

A Pilgrim’s Guide to Etchmiadzin: Faith, History and the Shadow of Ararat

People travel to Etchmiadzin for many reasons, and not all of them are religious. Some come as pilgrims, drawn by faith and the chance to stand where Armenian Christianity began.

Culture

A Pilgrim’s Guide to Lalibela: Faith in the Ethiopian Highlands

To understand Lalibela, it helps to understand the church that fills it with life. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is one of the oldest Christian communities on earth, with roots