Henna Art from Around the World

Been listening to Rango, and their rendition of Henna Night is stuck in my head. :-) Hence the inspiration for this post:

henna-decorated foot in Morocco

henna-painted hands in India

Click thumbnails to view larger images on source pages.

Some African and Asian cultures that decorate brides (and, in some cases, grooms) with henna:

Cheetah Weeping

Inspired by the Zulu folktale concerning the origin of the black lines running down a cheetah's face from its eyes. These lines were the tear tracks of a mother cheetah weeping for her lost cubs. The young cheetahs had been stolen by a hunter who wanted to train them to hunt for him.

When the mother's grief came to the attention of an old man from the hunter's village, he informed the village elders of the hunter’s conduct. The villagers expelled the hunter. The old man returned the cheetah cubs to their mother, reuniting the family. But the tear tracks remained on the cheetah’s face as a reminder to hunters not to do wrong again.

The moral condemnation for keeping hunting cheetahs is certainly not universal. Listed here are a few (not all) of the peoples that had tamed cheetahs for hunting:

Sand painting in Asia and North America

Click thumbnails to view larger images on source pages.

Navajo sand painting

Indian kolam

Some cultures that practice impermanent sand painting:

Wires

Inspired by (but NOT claiming to be an accurate representation of) the accessories of the Iban people of Borneo.

Check out the beauty and complexity of the marik empang, a beaded shoulder covering worn by Iban women in traditional garb.


There are approximately 1 million Iban people living in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. Notable Iban people include Rentap, a war leader who fought against British colonial rulers, and Golda Mowe, a novelist who writes fiction based on Iban history and mythology. Golda Mowe was critical of Hollywood's treatment of Iban culture:

"it was turned into some form of white man’s fantasy of having a child-like beautiful Eurasian woman come willingly into his bed. The Sleeping Dictionary continues to nettle me, even today..."

Use names and true names in our world and Earthsea

Fans of Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea fantasy series are familiar with the concept of true names and use names: All things have a 'true name'. People are generally given a use name at birth, the name they use in public life. When a person comes of age, his/her true name is revealed to him/her by a magic practitioner,¹ but this true name is generally kept secret and only shared with trusted individuals.

Anyway I find it interesting that the concept of private 'true names' in Earthsea has its parallels on our mundane world of Earth. Anthrolopologist Theodora Kroeber, mother of Ursula Le Guin,² wrote: "A California Indian almost never speaks his own name, using it but rarely with those who already know it, and he would never tell it in reply to a direct question."³

The Tohono O'odham people who inhabit Arizona and northern Mexico also have an Earthsea-like naming tradition. Karen Liptak wrote in "Indians of the Southwest": "In times past, a Tohono O'odham mother and her new baby would stay in a special house for a month after the birth. Then a sunrise ceremony was held, at which the medicine man gave the baby a name that had come to him in a dream. This name was never spoken. Instead, nicknames were used."⁴

Notes:

1. "The Rule of Names" on wikipedia
2. Theodora Kroeber on wikipedia
3. Ishi apparently wasn't the last Yahi, according to new evidence from UC Berkeley research archaeologist
4. Karen Liptak, Indians of the Southwest, p52

Lattices (and other parallels between Qing-era China and Mughal-era India)

Inspired by latticework designs from China and Mughal India:

For beardless versions of these gentlemen, see Portrait of an Official and Portrait of a courtier. :-)

Some random (or not so random) parallels between the Qing period (1644-1912) in China and the Mughal period in India (1526-1857):

• Both dynasties were established by non-indigenous rulers:
  • The Mughal Dynasty was established on the Indian subcontinent by Turko-Mongols from Uzbekistan.¹
  • The Qing Dynasty was established in China by Jurchens from Manchuria (present-day Northeastern China).²
• The capitals of both the Qing and the Mughals experienced repeated slaughter of their populations, looting of cultural treasures and destruction of exquisite architecture:

Portrait of an Official

The color and material of the sphere in the hat finial indicates an official's rank.¹ An opaque blue hat knob indicates an official of the 4th rank.

You can see why I decided to portray an official in informal uniform instead of ceremonial or formal dress. ;-) It's much less work, lol. Hats for formal occasions have a hat spike instead of a hat knob,² and hat quills differentiated status according to color - blue quills for 6th rank and below, peacock quills for 5th rank and above,³ - and the number of 'eyes' in the peacock feathers.⁴ Formal uniform also required rank badges.⁵ The ceremonial⁶ necklace of 108 beads was worn by civil officials of 5th rank and higher, and military officers of 4th rank and above.⁷