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Chingis Khan Rides West is now available on Amazon : Paper Version and Kindle Version . The Kindle version is best read on devices that support color.  (Click on Photo for Enlargement) Back Cover Blurb: Since the time of the Xiongnu two thousand years ago the nomads of the Mongolian Plateau traditionally looked south toward China for both plunder and trade. In 1215 Chingis Khan turned his attention westward and by 1219 had decided to invade the Islamic realms of Inner Asia, unleashing a sequence of events that would result in the sack of Baghdad in 1258 by his grandson Khülegü and the fall of the 508 year-old Abbasid Caliphate. The dissolution of the Caliphate by Khülegü dealt a blow to the Islamic world from which some might argue it has never fully recovered. We are still to this day living with the consequences of the Mongol invasion. Chingis Khan Rides West examines the motivation of Chingis Khan’s ride westward to attack the Islamic world and recounts the fall of the great S...

Yet Another Update: I raqi Yazidi MP Breaks Down in Parliament: ISIL is Exterminating my People Still Newer Update:  The Cruel Jest Of American “Humanitarian Aid” To Iraq Newer Update:  20,000 Iraqis Escape Mt. Sinjar Things can't get worse than this: Iraqi civilians are escaping into Syria to get off a northern mountain wheretthey've been trapped without food or water for weeks. Between 20,000 to 30,000 minority Yazidis have found a safe passage through Syria and back into Iraqi Kurdistan, assisted by Kurdish guerrilla forces. Meanwhile, American and British missions have been dropping emergency relief Mt. Sinjar and U.S. has launched air strikes on Islamic State militants nearby. New Update:  Iraq Accuses Islamic State Of Yazidi Atrocity Update:  'A Catastrophe': Yazidi Survivor Recalls Horror Of Evading ISIS And Death As anyone who pays even cursory attention to the news now knows the United States is airdropping humanitarian aide to the Yezidis in Iraq. See US ...

Lots of news coming out of Mesopotamia . I posted earlier about Midyat , in Turkey, where a refugee camp has been set up to house Syriac Christians fleeing the civil war in Syria. I also posted about the Syriac Christians from Mosel in Iraq who had sought Refuge On Mount Alfaf , about eighteen miles north of current-day Mosul. The plight of Christians in Mesopotamia has continued to worsen; see Ancient Christian population of Mosul Flees Islamic State . Now with the fall of Qaraqosh, Iraq's Largest Christian City , to Jihadists, Syriac Christians in Iraq face annihilation. See ISIS Persecution Of Iraqi Christians Has Become Genocide . Given these conditions, Turkey, which in the past has had its own checkered relationship with its Christian minorities, now appears to be a safe haven for Syriac Christians.  After visiting Midyat we wandered down to Mor Gabriel Monastery , twelve miles southeast of Midyat and fifteen miles north of the Syrian border. Here, at least, Syriac Christian...

I have been somewhat remiss in noting changes to the Galleria of my Hovel In Zaisan Tolgoi . Here are two works by Ulaanbaatar Artist Anunaran . She and her partner Dorje Derem, who is also an well-known UB artiste ,  installed them.    Anunaran prepping her palette  Anunaran putting some finishing touches on her self-portrait  Anunaran putting some final touches on her self-portrait  Anunaran and her self-portrait   Anunaran and Dorje Derem with self-portrait (Dorje Derem’s name by the way, might be translated as “Vajra Guardian of Shambhala”, at least according to one interpretation).   Anunaran putting the final touches on her installation which I call “Dreams of Foxes”.  Making final adjustments At the bottom of each hanging string is an image of a fox fashioned from felt. This is based on the Mongolian belief that if you hang an image of a fox over a baby’s crib the baby will not have bad dreams.   Anunaran and Dorje...

The Hole Story refuses to die: One of the most remote areas in the world seems to be slowly turning into something resembling a slice of Swiss cheese. Two new huge holes have been discovered in a Siberian region nicknamed "the end of the world," reports the Siberian Times . . . At the larger of the two, "there is also ground outside, as if it was thrown as a result of an underground explosion," says a regional lawmaker who inspected the site from a helicopter. "It is not like this is the work of men, but [it] also doesn't look like a natural formation," says one of the Russian experts puzzling over the phenomenon. Could it be that the The King of the World in Agharti  is behind all these new openings to Inner Earth? 

The largely Kurdish city of Nusaybin is located twenty-four miles south of Midyat , on the southern edge of the mountainous plateau known as  Tur Abdin , which is Syriac for “The Mountain of the Servants of God”. It is right on the Turkish-Syrian border. Just across the border is the Syrian city of Qamishli.  The city of Nusaybin in Turkey, top, and the Syrian city of Qamishli, bottom (the border is shown in yellow). The two cities are separated by a No-Man’s Land (click on photos for enlargements).  The No-Man’s Land separating Nusaybin and Qamishli We stopped for tea on a square facing the main border crossing between the two cities. According to locals this square would usually be jammed with day-traders coming over from Qamishli to buy and sell goods. The crossing is now closed because of the civil war in Syria and the cafes lining the square host only old men nodding over cups of coffee. Reportedly the city of Al Hasakah forty-five miles to the southwest is now at ...

Big Holes are in the News. And I am not talking about Courtney Love ,   although Lisa Lampanelli is. I mean the Darwaza Crater in Turkmenistan , which I visited in the Spring of 2013.  Darwaza Crater Now National Geographic has sponsored a Descent Into the Crater . The stunt is going to be shown on National Geographic Channel tonight (if you live on the East Coast of the U.S.A) at 10 p.m. EDT.  On top of this comes news that a Huge Crater Has Opened Up in Siberia . According to the Siberian Times , a scientific team from Russia's Center for the Study of the Arctic and the Cyrosphere Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences has been sent to investigate the crater and is expected to arrive on Wednesday. Helicopters spotted the astronomic hole over the gas-rich Yamal peninsula, but its depth is unknown. There are a number of claims as to how the crater appeared, but nothing is known for sure, and probably won't be known for a little while. Speculated causes ...

As most of you know, 100 years ago today, June 29 1914 , Bosnian-Serb hothead Gabriel Princip assassinated  Arch-Duke Ferdinand of Austria  in the city of Sarajevo, touching off World War I. In 2002 I wandered over to   Graz , in Austria , the birthplace Arch-Duke Ferdinand, and visited the townhouse where he was born and grew up. It is now a museum.  Entrance (center) to Arch-Duke Ferdinand’s townhouse, now a museum I was in town for the Kalachakra Initiation  performed by the 14th Dalai Lama . In connection with the Initiation the museum was holding a Buddhist-themed exhibit.  The Inimitable Madame Blavatsky superimposed on an image of Kalapa, the capital of Shambhala, on display in the museum. You will recall that according to legend the Buddha taught the Kalachakra Tantra to Suchandra, the first King of Shambhala. If you are wondering, we are now living during the reign of Aniruddha, the 21st Kalkin King of Shambhala.   Dharma-Wea...