Buddhism has 300 million followers around the world, mainly in Asia, who know by heart the story of how Buddha was born while his mother, Queen Mayadevi or Maya, was travelling towards her parents' ...

Fast food is often regarded as a modern scourge, one that has made us fatter and ruined family dinners everywhere. But fast food isn’t essentially an American invention. It’s been around since ...

Archaeologists have unearthed a large, centuries-old statue that is believed to have once stood guard over an ancient hospital at Cambodia's world-famous Angkor temple complex. The nearly ...

  An amulet is a small object that a person wears, carries, or offers to a deity because he or she believes that it will magically bestow a particular power or form of protection. The ...

Some numbers carry a universal meaning across different cultures and religions. Many forms of the numeral 108 have made its appearance in various fields of knowledge, religion and culture. Although ...

“As a lotus flower is born in water, grows in water and rises out of water to stand above it unsoiled, so I, born in the world, raised in the world having overcome the world, live unsoiled by the ...

When we think of witches today, what automatically comes to mind? If it is the fearsome, cackling hag leaning over a boiling cauldron or a silhouette in the moon of an old woman in a pointed hat ...

If we look into Iron Age history in Scandinavia we might find a forceful explanation of why it took so long to Christianise parts of the population in the Nordic areas. Who are the Vikings and what ...

Some ancient cultures  believed that many spirits and divine beings inhabited the world around them, and that humans could establish a rapport with these beings. This kind of spiritual practice is ...

Blame it on the high-stress levels associated with the TV industry or simply matters of faith, but an increasing number of telly stars are now finding solace in Buddhism. Indeed, Buddhism has made an ...

At the peak of its power, Rome ruled more than 45 million people across Europe, North Africa and Asia. Its army was the most powerful in the world, and as it conquered more land, Rome grew from a ...

In the latter part of his life, the great writer was considerably influenced by eastern religions. How did these teachings affect Tolstoy's writing and his own philosophical ideas? When Leo Tolstoy ...

Nobody can avoid death because death is a reality. Rinkal Rudrawad  No one can cheat death, but for thousands of years, humankind has tried to elude decomposition. Whether we’re saving our bodies ...

Mudra or Mudras are hand gestures or positions often depicted in Buddhist art and used in practice to evoke a particular state of mind. The most significant mudras (Sanskrit, “seal” or “sign”) are ...

Most of us have heard of the ‘Shaolin’, including those who have little interest in martial arts. Legends state that besides the Northern Shaolin Temple, there was also a Southern Shaolin Temple in ...