The hamlet of Bambanglipuro is an archetypal village in the heartland of Java; rows of traditional houses and small mosques interspersed with patches of paddy fields line both sides of the country road we take from the city of Yogyakarta, or Jogja for short. Our […]
All posts tagged: church

Macau: the World’s Last Portuguese Colony
Chapter 4, Part 3 Two years after the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511, Jorge Álvares sailed to the Far East and became the first Portuguese to ever set foot in China – at the Pearl River Delta to be precise. However, it took another […]

Goa and Catholicism in India
Chapter 4, Part 1 For more than a millennium the area known today as Goa had been ruled by different clans, dynasties, kingdoms and sultanates before Vijayanagara took control of it in the 14th century. The once mighty southern Indian empire eventually relented control of […]

The Day when Coldness Brought Warmth
In the midst of the freezing winter wind we walk down a quiet neighborhood of Fatih, a complete opposite of the tourist-overrun district of Sultanahmet. My hands are numb and for the first time in Istanbul I regret for not bringing the gloves. We follow our […]