What Happens to a Kumari When She Stops Being a Kumari?

From BBC News Online
18 June 2014 Last updated at 15:35 ET

Nepal's living goddess who still has to do homework

By Sonia Narang PRI's The World, Nepal

Samita Bajracharya is a 12-year-old Nepalese girl who lives with her family, studies hard, and enjoys playing a Nepali version of the lute. But until recently she was also worshipped by people who believed she was a reincarnated goddess.

 

Samita Bajracharya, when she was a Kumari.

 

Along a busy thoroughfare in Lalitpur, near Kathmandu, a passageway leads into a large, open-air courtyard. In the back corner, there's a modest home, with a red sign outside that simply reads, "Living Goddess".

A narrow wooden staircase leads up to the second floor, where the goddess spends much of her childhood. She's called a Kumari, which means "young, unmarried girl".

She's worshipped by both Hindus and Buddhists in Nepal, who believe she's a reincarnation of the Hindu goddess Durga.

I got to know the mother of this Kumari - Nepal has a few of them - after several visits to her house.

How did it feel when her daughter, Samita, was chosen to be a Kumari, I asked?

"I felt both happy and sad," she says. "On one hand, I felt happy because when your daughter becomes god, having a god in the home is a delightful thing. But I also got scared because I wasn't sure if we would be able to follow all the rules."

There are many rules. For one, Samita's mother has to apply special makeup to her daughter's face in intricate designs. The girl isn't allowed to go outside except for festivals. On those occasions, her feet must not touch the ground. That means someone has to carry the young goddess.

Furthermore, the Kumari is not permitted to speak to anyone besides her family and close friends.

The best way to find out what life is like for a child goddess is to talk to a former Kumari. I call Samita's predecessor, Chanira Bajracharya (no relation), and she agrees to an interview in her home.

Chanira Bajracharya in 2007, when she was about 12 years old.

We sit on the floor of the dark chamber where she spent a decade praying and blessing visitors.

I expect we'll do the interview in Nepali, but when I ask her a question, she starts speaking fluently in English. She tells me that she learned the language by reading newspapers during her Kumari days.

"When I was a goddess, I used to peek through the holes of windows," Chanira says.

She's now a 19-year-old business student, and looks like any ordinary teenager in her fashionable green T-shirt and black trousers. She became a Kumari when she was just five years old.

2014 Milwaukee Summer Challenge

My adopted chess club, Southwest Chess Club, is holding its third Milwaukee Summer Challenge, a two-day event, this First Day of Summer weekend, woo woo!

Milwaukee Summer Challenge III, June 21-22, 2014

FLYER

June 21-22 Milwaukee Summer Challenge III

Chess Magnet School Junior Grand Prix!

Trophies Plus Grand Prix Points: 10

5SS, G/120 d5. 4 Sections: Master/Expert (closed), U2000, U1500, U1000. Olympia Resort Hotel, 1350 Royale Mile Rd., Oconomowoc, WI; 1-800-558-9573; (Mention Southwest Chess Club for $99 room rate). EF: $40 All Sections (except U1000), U1000 Entry Fee: $25, all $5 more after 6/18. $$GTD: Master/Expert (closed section) =1st-$300, 2nd-$200, 3rd-$100. U2000=1st-$150, U1500=1st-$80, U1000=1st-$50. Reg.: 8:30-9:30. Rds.: Saturday, June 21: 10:00 am, 2:30 pm, 7:00 pm, Sunday June 22: 10:00 am-3:00 pm. ENT: Allen Becker, 2130 N. 85th St., Wauwatosa, WI 53226 or allenbecker@wi.rr.com Questions: TD Tom Fogec 414-405-4207 (cell).

 

This year, unfortunately, because of the strain on my finances due to this house downsizing thing -- which had been meant to DOWNSIZE my expenses as well as the time/energy spent in keeping up the yard, etc., thus freeing up more funds and time for my chessly activities -- HA! -- I was not able to fund prizes for female chessplayers for this year's MSC. I hope the ladies will turn out for it, nonetheless.  Goddesschess prizes will return for the next MSC.

As of June 19th, 48 pre-registered entries.  You can follow the action at the Southwest Chess Club blog here.  I see several ladies have, indeed, pre-registered, hooray!  I will be checking in on the action and cheering for you all as I continue to scrape off wallpaper and layers of old wallpaper paste, whilst pulling out my hair (see post below...)

Ta, darlings!  Good luck to all!

Staying Alive, Staying Alive...

Hola darlings!

I have not dropped off the face of the Earth.  I am still wrestling in the throes of this damn selling current house/buying "new" house thing and it's driving me mad, I tell you, mad!  But I believe I am still alive; I do not think I am blogging from "H" "E" double hockey sticks ("L" "L").  Well, maybe I am.  I actually went to You Tube to dig out this little gem from the 1983 sequel to Saturday Night Fever, the (not) big hit Staying Alive:



I have to say John Travolta had a really really nice butt back then...but then, so did I.  LOL!

So, today I am removing the never-ending wallpaper in the family room because I promised my buyers I would do so.  I should just go shoot myself now and be done with it.  But just like John Travolta's character, Tony Manera, I do not know the meaning of the word QUIT ALREADY.  All right, that's two words.  So shoot me.  Please!

It has been raining for the past five days.  My backyard smells like a rotting jungle.  The grass is half a foot tall but I can't get out to cut it because of (1) incessant pouring buckets of rain, accompanied by much thunder and lightning, (2) mud, mud and more mud, the earth is saturated to the point of flooding, and (3) I am out of gasoline for the lawn mower and because of said incessant rain, I have not been able to walk the half mile to the gas station to fill up my gas can, which is not a can at all but a heavy-duty red plastic container with screw-on cap. 

I hope that some time in July I will actually be packed up and moved into the new small home which I have grown to hate Hate HATE over the past sixty days.  This entire process has been a nightmare and, even worse, people all around are telling me "oh, you are having an easy time of it."  Totally insane!

So, there you have it.  Retirement is 895 days away...

The World's Oldest Pants [Thus Far] Discovered

Call it a hunch, but my bet is that females were the first pants-wearing horseback riders. 

Here's why.  Women are credited with taming wolves (dogs), boars (pigs), bovines (cows) -- and eqquines (horses), too.  The dudes were too busy hunting to worry about "taming" animals; it was the women who came into close contact with these animals on a day-in and day-out basis as they went about gathering eggs (but always being careful to leave some behind), wild rice, fish, berries, grains, roots, tender stalks and other assorted shoots, herbs and greens, the origins of which lay the ancient artcraft of medicine. I cannot imagine that most women would be able to resist trying to tend to infant animals found alone in a nest or a den.

Let us hoe that because the trousers (pants) were recovered from two ancient male burials in the Tarim Basin, it is NOT automatically assumed that all pants-wears MUST have been male.  Such a gender biased assumption makes for bad science.

From ScienceNews.org

First pants worn by horse riders 3,000 years ago

Oldest known trousers originated in Central Asia

byBruce Bower

9:05am, May 30, 2014

 

Two men whose remains were recently excavated from tombs in western China put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. But these nomadic herders did so between 3,300 and 3,000 years ago, making their trousers the oldest known examples of this innovative apparel, a new study finds.

With straight-fitting legs and a wide crotch, the ancient wool trousers resemble modern riding pants, says a team led by archaeologists Ulrike Beck and Mayke Wagner of the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin. The discoveries, uncovered in the Yanghai graveyard in China’s Tarim Basin, support previous work suggesting that nomadic herders in Central Asia invented pants to provide bodily protection and freedom of movement for horseback journeys and mounted warfare, the scientists report May 22 in Quaternary International.

“This new paper definitely supports the idea that trousers were invented for horse riding by mobile pastoralists, and that trousers were brought to the Tarim Basin by horse-riding peoples,” remarks linguist and China authority Victor Mair of the University of Pennsylvania.

Previously, Europeans and Asians wore gowns, robes, tunics, togas or — as observed on the 5,300-year-old body of Ötzi the Iceman — a three-piece combination of loincloth and individual leggings.
A dry climate and hot summers helped preserve human corpses, clothing and other organic material in the Tarim Basin. More than 500 tombs have been excavated in a graveyard there since the early 1970s.

Earlier research on mummies from several Tarim Basin sites, led by Mair, identified a 2,600-year-old individual known as Cherchen Man who wore burgundy trousers probably made of wool. Trousers of Scythian nomads from West Asia date to roughly 2,500 years ago.

Mair suspects that horse riding began about 3,400 years ago and trouser-making came shortly thereafter in wetter regions to the north and west of the Tarim Basin. Ancient trousers from those areas are not likely to have been preserved, Mair says. [Possibly not, but we know the weaving techniques and distinctive patterns weavers used to produce their materials came from the west, as did their blue eyes, pale skin, and red hair]. 

Horse riding’s origins are uncertain and could date to at least 4,000 years ago, comments archaeologist Margarita Gleba of University College London. If so, she says, “I would not be surprised if trousers appeared at least that far back.”

The two trouser-wearing men entombed at Yanghai were roughly 40 years old and had probably been warriors as well as herders, the investigators say. One man was buried with a decorated leather bridle, a wooden horse bit, a battle-ax and a leather bracer for arm protection. Among objects placed with the other body were a whip, a decorated horse tail, a bow sheath and a bow. [Oh please.  These items do not, in and of themselves, indicate warfare.  They do indicate a hunter  and "battle ax?"  Who the hell would these people have been "battling?"  They lived in the Tarim Basin, for pete's sake!  Not exactly the greatest population center of the known world.  Gender biased assumptions make for bad science!]

Beck and Wagner’s group obtained radiocarbon ages of fibers from both men’s trousers, and of three other items in one of the tombs.

Each pair of trousers was sewn together from three pieces of brown-colored wool cloth, one piece for each leg and an insert for the crotch. The tailoring involved no cutting: Pant sections were shaped on a loom in the final size. Finished pants included side slits, strings for fastening at the waist and woven designs on the legs.

Beck and Wagner’s team calls the ancient invention of trousers “a ground-breaking achievement in the history of cloth making.” That’s not too shabby for herders who probably thought the Gap was just a place to ride their horses through.

******************************

Source: M. Wagner/German Archaeological Institute.

The design of these trousers/pants sounds like unisex to me -- both genders could have worn them comfortably.  Let's talk anatomy for a moment.  Women have a much wider pelvic base than males do, and women also don't have a penis, since I do not have one, I assume could potentially be quite uncomfortable after a certain amount of time on horseback, particularly on long treks.  Or when galloping...  OUCH! 

Hmmmm....  Did horseback riding lead to the invention of a form of cod's piece/??

"Secret Codes" Embedded in Anglo-Saxon Art

Interesting.  I wonder what linguists of the future will make of our use of words such as "sick" to express awesomeness, approval and acclaim -- you know, the old "cool" that I and millions of others still use (it surely dates us, but I don't give a hoot).  Will the break the "code?"

At Slate Online

British Museum Curator Reveals the Secret Codes Embedded in Ancient Artifacts

By Rosie Weetch

The recently reopened Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery in room 41 of the British Museum covers Europe A.D. 300-1100, and includes many artifacts excavated at an Anglo-Saxon burial mound in Sutton Hoo, England. To mark the new display, curator Rosie Weetch offers an illuminating primer on how to decode the symbols and stories in a piece of Anglo-Saxon metalwork that might otherwise look like mere decoration. Here at The Eye, she shares a recent post from the British Museum blog.

One of the most enjoyable things about working with the British Museum’s Anglo-Saxon collection is having the opportunity to study the intricate designs of the many brooches, buckles, and other pieces of decorative metalwork. This is because in Anglo-Saxon art there is always more than meets the eye.

The objects invite careful contemplation, and you can find yourself spending hours puzzling over their designs, finding new beasts and images. The dense animal patterns that cover many Anglo-Saxon objects are not just pretty decoration; they have multilayered symbolic meanings and tell stories. Anglo-Saxons, who had a love of riddles and puzzles of all kinds, would have been able to "read" the stories embedded in the decoration. But for us it is trickier as we are not fluent in the language of Anglo-Saxon art.

Illustration by Craig Williams, courtesy of the British Museum.

 

Anglo-Saxon art went through many changes between the 5^th and 11^th centuries, but puzzles and storytelling remained central. The early art style of the Anglo-Saxon period is known as Style I and was popular in the late 5^th and 6^th centuries. It is characterised by what seems to be a dizzying jumble of animal limbs and face masks, which has led some scholars to describe the style as an "animal salad." Close scrutiny shows that Style I is not as abstract as first appears, and through carefully following the decoration in stages we can unpick the details and begin to get a sense for what the design might mean.

One of the most exquisite examples of Style I animal art is a silver-gilt square-headed brooch from a female grave on the Isle of Wight. Its surface is covered with at least 24 different beasts: a mix of birds’ heads, human masks, animals, and hybrids. Some of them are quite clear, like the faces in the circular lobes projecting from the bottom of the brooch. Others are harder to spot, such as the faces in profile that only emerge when the brooch is turned upside down. Some of the images can be read in multiple ways, and this ambiguity is central to Style I art.

Top part of brooch (above) turned upside down.  Image from British Museum. 

Once we have identified the creatures on the brooch, we can begin to decode its meaning. In the lozenge-shaped field at the foot of the brooch is a bearded face with a helmet underneath two birds that may represent the Germanic god Woden/Odin with his two companion ravens (see the first image in this post). The image of a god alongside other powerful animals may have offered symbolic protection to the wearer like a talisman or amulet.

Illustration by Craig Williams, courtesy of the British Museum.

The great gold buckle from Sutton Hoo is decorated in this style. From the thicket of interlace that fills the buckle’s surface 13 different animals emerge. These animals are easier to spot: The ring-and-dot eyes, the birds’ hooked beaks, and the four-toed feet of the animals are good starting points. At the tip of the buckle, two animals grip a small doglike creature in their jaws and on the circular plate, two snakes intertwine and bite their own bodies. Such designs reveal the importance of the natural world, and it is likely that different animals were thought to hold different properties and characteristics that could be transferred to the objects they decorated. The fearsome snakes, with their shape-shifting qualities, demand respect and confer authority, and were suitable symbols for a buckle that adorned a high-status man, or even an Anglo-Saxon king.

Animal art continued to be popular on Anglo-Saxon metalwork throughout the later period, when it went through further transformations into the Mercian Style (defined by sinuous animal interlace) in the 8^th century and then into the lively Trewhiddle Style in the 9^th century. Trewhiddle-style animals feature in the roundels of the Fuller Brooch, but all other aspects of its decoration are unique within Anglo-Saxon art. Again, through a careful unpicking of its complex imagery we can understand its visual messages. At the center is a man with staring eyes holding two plants. Around him are four other men striking poses: one, with his hands behind his back, sniffs a leaf; another rubs his two hands together; the third holds his hand up to his ear; and the final one has his whole hand inserted into his mouth. Together these strange poses form the earliest personification of the five senses: Sight, Smell, Touch, Hearing, and Taste. Surrounding these central motifs are roundels depicting animals, humans, and plants that perhaps represent God’s Creation.

Fuller brooch.  Illustration by Craig Williams, courtesy of the British Museum.

This iconography can best be understood in the context of the scholarly writings of King Alfred the Great (died 899), which emphasized sight and the “mind’s eye” as the principal way in which wisdom was acquired along with the other senses. Given this connection, perhaps it was made at Alfred the Great’s court workshop and designed to be worn by one of his courtiers?

Throughout the period, the Anglo-Saxons expressed a love of riddles and puzzles in their metalwork. Behind the nonreflective glass in the newly opened Sir Paul and Lady Ruddock Gallery of Sutton Hoo and Europe A.D. 300-1100, you can do like the Anglo-Saxons and get up close to these and many other objects to decode the messages yourself.

Viking Era Amulet Found at Revninge, Denmark by Metal Detectorist

An interesting find, and the experts are quite excited about it because of the exquisite detailing of the costume dressing the figurine.  Is it Freya?  To keep this in perspective, 4.6 cm (the size of the figurine) is 1.81102362 inches!  She is very tiny, not even two inches long -- and so finely wrought and detailed. 

At Past Horizons

Viking Age Revninge woman: an exceptional find

Article created on Monday, June 2, 2014

A newly discovered female figurine amulet from Revninge in the east of Denmark represents a very interesting find due to her remarkably detailed Viking Age dress.

On April 22, 2014, Paul Uniacke had started to explore a field near Revninge with his metal detector – several items had already been recovered when to his astonishment a small fine figurine appeared. He instantly recognised it as Viking Age and immediately contacted Østfyns Museums, who confirmed his thoughts and started the process of conservation.

New knowledge

It is not always easy to imagine how people of the Viking age really looked. However, the discovery of this small gilt silver figurine contains a wealth of detail giving new knowledge about costume and jewellery of the period.

Archaeologist Claus Feveile, Department of Landscape & Archaeology at Østfyns Museums, explained, “Small characters from the Viking period are extremely rare and Revninge-woman’s dress is incredibly detailed which will contribute to the discussion on the appearance of clothes and how they might have been worn.”

There is no doubt that the 4.6 cm high figure with her hair tightly drawn back into a bun is from the Viking Age, but the detail is providing some surprises.

The body of the figurine is two-dimensional which is often the case, however the head is unusual as it is three-dimensional. Through the back of the head there is a small hole, which shows that the figure has been worn as a hanging decorative amulet. Her arms are placed down her sides with her hands on either side of her abdomen. The dress has long sleeves and is ankle length. Each section of the costume is picked out with different decoration, representing various textile and dress making techniques. It is possible she is wearing a pearl necklace which is picked out on the figure with stamped circles.

Fertility goddess?

It is the three-lobed item of jewellery that sits between her hands that is causing the greatest excitement. Archaeologists had never seen where it was really meant to be located during the life, as when found in graves it is usually placed on the chest area.
The figurine has been dated to 800 AD and can be understood in a variety of ways. They can represent goddesses like Valkyries or Norns but here it is tempting to link Revninge Woman to the fertility goddess Freya.
In 2013 at Hårby a Valkyrie figure with a face that looks like Revninge-woman was found, however unlike the Hårby Valkyrie the Revninge Woman carries no weapons, and the position of the hands and the lobed jewellery over the stomach may refer to fertility, making it more likely she represents the goddess of fertility.
Source: Vikingemuseet Ladby

5000 Year Old Water System Discovered in Iran

Archaeological teams in Iran have been racing against the clock to excavate and rescue (or prepare for submersion and rescue at some later time) at least 100 ancient sites discovered around the site of the Seimareh Dam reservoir area in western Iran.  Several pictures of the intriguing water system piping are at the Payvand Iran News website:

Photos: 5000-year-old water system discovered in western Iran
Source: Tehran Times; photos by CHN A 5000-year-old water system has been unearthed during the second season of a rescue excavation project at the Farash ancient historical site at the Seimareh Dam reservoir area in western Iran.

An archaeological team led by Leili Niakan has been carrying out a second season of rescue excavation since March after the Seimareh Dam came on stream, the Persian service of CHN reported on Monday.

The team plans to save ancients artifacts and gather information about the ancient sites, which are being submerged by the dam that became operational in early March.

This system, which comprises a small pool and an earthenware pipeline, was discovered on the eastern beach of the dam on the border between Ilam Province and Lorestan Province, Niakan said.
Part of the water system has been submerged as the water level has risen. However, the team covered that part of the system beforehand to save it for more archaeological excavations while the dam is out of commission.

Each earthenware conduit measures about one meter in length and it is likely that they were made and baked in this region, Niakan stated.  The team is still working on the site to unearth the rest of pipeline, which may lead the archaeologists to the source of pipeline, she added.

Over 100 sites dating back to the Neolithic, Bronze Age, Copper Age, Stone Age, Parthian, Sassanid, and early Islamic periods were identified at the dam's reservoir in 2007. Afterwards, 40 archaeological teams from the Iranian Center for Archaeological Research (ICAR) were assigned to carry out Iran's largest rescue excavation operation on the 40 ancient sites at the reservoirs of the dam in the first season.

Signs of the Mesopotamians' influence in the region were also identified by studies carried out on the ancient strata at the reservoir.

Most of the sites have been flooded by the dam and the rest will go under water after the filling of the dam is completed.

2014 U.S. Women's Chess Championship

Totally missed it, darlings, so busy involved in this house thing!  I'm going into this news fresh -- don't even know who won.  So, without further ado, here are the final standings:

ch-USA w 2014 Saint Louis USA (USA), 7-21 v 2014															cat. I (2270)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0
1.	Krush, Irina	g	USA	2489	*	1	½	1	½	½	½	½	1	1	6½	2411
2.	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2469	0	*	1	½	½	1	1	½	1	1	6½	2413
3.	Abrahamyan, Tatev	wg	USA	2366	½	0	*	1	½	1	1	½	1	1	6½	2424
4.	Nemcova, Katerina	wg	USA	2282	0	½	0	*	½	½	1	½	1	1	5	2311
5.	Zenyuk, Iryna		USA	2249	½	½	½	½	*	0	½	1	0	½	4	2228
6.	Melekhina, Alisa	f	USA	2151	½	0	0	½	1	*	0	1	½	½	4	2239
7.	Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	wg	USA	2238	½	0	0	0	½	1	*	0	1	1	4	2230
8.	Ni, Viktorija	wm	USA	2206	½	½	½	½	0	0	1	*	0	½	3½	2196
9.	Eswaran, Ashritha		USA	1979	0	0	0	0	1	½	0	1	*	1	3½	2221
10.	Baginskaite, Camilla	wg	USA	2267	0	0	0	0	½	½	0	½	0	*	1½	1996

Round 1 (May 8, 2014)
Abrahamyan, Tatev	- Melekhina, Alisa	1-0	46	C50	Giuoco Piano
Nemcova, Katerina	- Krush, Irina	0-1	57	B89	Sicilian Sozin Attack
Zenyuk, Iryna	- Zatonskih, Anna	½-½	50	E12	Queens Indian Petrosian
Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	- Baginskaite, Camilla	1-0	34	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Ni, Viktorija	- Eswaran, Ashritha	0-1	83	A46	Queen's Pawn Opening
Round 2 (May 9, 2014)
Krush, Irina	- Eswaran, Ashritha	1-0	39	A30	English Symmetrical
Zatonskih, Anna	- Abrahamyan, Tatev	1-0	48	C02	French Advance
Nemcova, Katerina	- Zenyuk, Iryna	½-½	38	B35	Sicilian Defence
Melekhina, Alisa	- Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	0-1	53	C02	French Advance
Baginskaite, Camilla	- Ni, Viktorija	½-½	61	A56	Old Indian Defence
Round 3 (May 10, 2014)
Abrahamyan, Tatev	- Nemcova, Katerina	1-0	47	C53	Giuoco Piano
Zenyuk, Iryna	- Krush, Irina	½-½	30	D38	QGD Ragozin
Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	- Zatonskih, Anna	0-1	45	E34	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Ni, Viktorija	- Melekhina, Alisa	0-1	34	A04	Dutch System
Eswaran, Ashritha	- Baginskaite, Camilla	1-0	62	B92	Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Be2
Round 4 (May 12, 2014)
Krush, Irina	- Baginskaite, Camilla	1-0	23	E56	Nimzo Indian
Zatonskih, Anna	- Ni, Viktorija	½-½	63	E60	King's Indian without Nc3
Nemcova, Katerina	- Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	1-0	29	B06	Modern Defence
Zenyuk, Iryna	- Abrahamyan, Tatev	½-½	55	A33	English Symmetrical
Melekhina, Alisa	- Eswaran, Ashritha	½-½	60	B23	Sicilian Closed
Round 5 (May 13, 2014)
Abrahamyan, Tatev	- Krush, Irina	½-½	41	B32	Sicilian Labourdonnais
Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	- Zenyuk, Iryna	½-½	47	E38	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Ni, Viktorija	- Nemcova, Katerina	½-½	50	E17	Queens Indian
Eswaran, Ashritha	- Zatonskih, Anna	0-1	43	C11	French Defence
Baginskaite, Camilla	- Melekhina, Alisa	½-½	111	A59	Volga Gambit
Round 6 (May 14, 2014)
Krush, Irina	- Melekhina, Alisa	½-½	49	E10	Blumenfeld Counter Gambit
Zatonskih, Anna	- Baginskaite, Camilla	1-0	103	D40	Semi-Tarrasch Defence
Abrahamyan, Tatev	- Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	1-0	38	C54	Giuoco Piano
Nemcova, Katerina	- Eswaran, Ashritha	1-0	54	A22	English Opening
Zenyuk, Iryna	- Ni, Viktorija	1-0	42	A41	Modern Defence
Round 7 (May 16, 2014)
Melekhina, Alisa	- Zatonskih, Anna	0-1	72	C02	French Advance
Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	- Krush, Irina	½-½	78	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Ni, Viktorija	- Abrahamyan, Tatev	½-½	47	A46	Queen's Pawn Opening
Eswaran, Ashritha	- Zenyuk, Iryna	1-0	63	E66	King's Indian Fianchetto
Baginskaite, Camilla	- Nemcova, Katerina	0-1	14	E47	Nimzo Indian
Round 8 (May 17, 2014)
Krush, Irina	- Zatonskih, Anna	1-0	75	A13	Reti Opening
Abrahamyan, Tatev	- Eswaran, Ashritha	1-0	71	B32	Sicilian Labourdonnais
Nemcova, Katerina	- Melekhina, Alisa	½-½	52	C50	Giuoco Piano
Zenyuk, Iryna	- Baginskaite, Camilla	½-½	45	E11	Bogo Indian Defence
Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	- Ni, Viktorija	0-1	52	A53	Old Indian Defence
Round 9 (May 19, 2014)
Zatonskih, Anna	- Nemcova, Katerina	½-½	81	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Melekhina, Alisa	- Zenyuk, Iryna	1-0	47	B31	Sicilian Rossolimo
Ni, Viktorija	- Krush, Irina	½-½	66	B23	Sicilian Closed
Eswaran, Ashritha	- Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	0-1	40	A04	Dutch System
Baginskaite, Camilla	- Abrahamyan, Tatev	0-1	46	E46	Nimzo Indian Rubinstein

ch-USA Armageddon w 2014 Saint Louis USA Wed 7th May 2014 - Wed 21st May 2014 Leading Final Round 1 Standings:
Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	1	Pts
1	Abrahamyan, Tatev	WGM	USA	2366	=	0.5
2	Zatonskih, Anna	IM	USA	2469	=	0.5
2 players

ch-USA TB w 2014 Saint Louis USA Wed 7th May 2014 - Wed 21st May 2014 Leading Final Round 2 Standings:
Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	1	2	Pts
1	Krush, Irina	GM	USA	2489	1	=	1.5
2	Abrahamyan, Tatev	WGM	USA	2366	0	=	0.5
2 players

GM Irina Krush won her 6th U.S. title and successfully defended her 2013 title.  Again, the top three female players in the country -- Anna Zatonskih, Tatev Abrahamyan, and Krush, battled it out to an exciting climax.  Tatev -- continues to be a bridesmaid, not a bride!  But I have faith in her.  She WILL win the title within the next few years, unless she quits chess altogether.  I just can't imagine that happening, not until she's won her title! 

Article at website of St. Louis Chess Club.  Oh yeah.  GM Gata Kamsky won the men's title.

Women's Prize Structure ($72,000 total; men's prizes were $172,000 total.  Yeah, it's bullshit):

Place	Prize	Place	Prize
1st	$20, 000	6th	$4, 500
2nd	$13, 000	7th	$4, 000
3rd	$9, 000	8th	$3, 500
4th	$7, 000	9th	$3, 000
5th	$5, 000	10th	$2, 000
Best Game Prize: $1,000
Total Prize Fund: $72, 000

I was sorry not to see Anjelina Belakovskaia play again this year. 

Two Teenaged Girls Raped and Murdered in Uttar Pradesh, India

May 29, 2014

Indian teen girls gang-raped and hanged from a tree: police

By Nita Bhalla2 hours ago

NEW DELHI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Indian police have arrested one man and are looking for four other suspects after two teenage girls were gang-raped and then hanged from a tree in a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police said on Thursday.

The two cousins, who were from a low-caste Dalit community and aged 14 and 15, went missing from their village home in Uttar Pradesh's Budaun district when they went out to go to the toilet on Tuesday evening.

The following morning, villagers found the bodies of the two teenagers hanging from a mango tree in a nearby orchard.

"We have registered a case under various sections, including that of rape, and one of the accused has been taken into custody. There were five people involved, one has been arrested and we are looking for the others," Budaun's Superintendent of Police Man Singh Chouhan told reporters.

Chouhan said a post-mortem confirmed the two minors were raped and died from the hanging. DNA samples have been also been taken to help identity the perpetrators, he added.

The victim's families say the girls were gang-raped and then hanged by five men from the village. They allege that local police were shielding the attackers as they refused to take action when the girls were first reported missing.

It was only after angry villagers found the hanging corpses and took the bodies to a nearby highway and blocked it in protest, say the families, that police registered a case of rape and murder.

A case of conspiracy has also been registered against two constables, said Chouhan, adding that they had also been suspended.

Sex crimes against young girls and women are widespread in India, say activists, adding that females from poor, marginalized, low-caste communities are often the victims.  A report by the Asian Centre for Human Rights in April last year said 48,338 child rape cases were recorded in India from 2001 to 2011, and the annual number of reported cases had risen more than fourfold - 336 percent - over that period.

Women's rights experts and lawyers say rape victims also have to endure harsh treatment from an archaic, poorly funded and insensitive criminal justice system.  Police often try to dissuade victims from complaining and suggest a "compromise" between the victim and the perpetrator, largely because of their insensitivity to sex crimes, but also because police officials are rarely held accountable.

Public outrage over the fatal gang rape of a woman in New Delhi in December 2012 pushed the government into passing a tougher new law to punish sex crimes. This includes sentences of up to two years’ jail for police and hospital authorities if they fail to register a complaint or treat a victim.

(Editing by Douglas Busvine; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Made in China: Museum Shut Down After Fake "Relics" Uncovered

LOL!  Maybe they imported the fakes from Vietnam...  They're producing such things cheaper than China, now. 

Reported at The Telegraph (UK) online:

Chinese museum shut over fakes

A museum in China has been told to close after almost a third of its exhibits were found to be fake

By Oliver Smith, and agencies

11:52AM BST 22 May 2014

 

According to the Global Times newspaper, Lucheng Museum, in the province of Liaoning, was investigated by police who found thousands of counterfeits among its collection of 8,000 items.

The counterfeits included a sword supposedly from the Qing Dynasty, and claimed to be worth 120 million yuan (£11m).
 

Around 300 new museums have been built in the last year, according to Chinese state media, but the closure is likely to raise further doubts about the authenticity of their exhibits. Experts have already warned that China’s antiques market is rife with fakes.
 

Last year the 60 million yuan (£6.4 million) Jibaozhai Museum, located in Jizhou, a city in the northern province of Hebei, shut its doors amid claims that many of its cultural treasures were in fact forgeries.

Ancient Coin Mold Points to Counterfeiting in 100 CE

Here's another old saying from the Bible, courtesy of King Solomon (allegedly):  There is nothing new under the Sun... Forgery and counterfeiting, as old as man.

Story at The Deccan Herald
Tuesday 27 May 2014
News updated at 1:35 AM IST

Mould for minting Roman coins found in Talkad

Akram Mohammed, Mysore, May 19, 2014, DHNS:

 

For those who think financial fraud or circulating fake currencies is a modern day phenomenon, an ancient Roman coin mould on display at the Department of Archaeology, Museums and Heritage in the city is a startling revelation.

The Roman coin mould, which is being displayed for the first time since its excavation in 1993, indicates that fake coins were in circulation around 19 to 20 centuries ago. The terracotta mould is among the most important objects displayed at the exhibition, apart from terracotta figurines, iron objects, bronze dies, stone beads.

 

The mold is gold, har :)

M S Krishnamurthy, a retired professor of Archaeology who led the team that unearthed the mould, told Deccan Herald that it was a mould for Roman coins in circulation during the first century AD. “The coins probably were minted either during the period of Augustus or his son Tiberius,” he said.

“In the area where we spotted the mould, a foundry with a crucible was also found. Considering this, it is possible that a person living in Talkad was minting duplicate coins of Romans,” he said. He added that it was one of the rare and unique moulds excavated in the State.

Archaelogist Gowda N L said that the mould contained an inscription of Greek goddess Livia with words, ‘Maxim Pontis’.

“The coins with the same inscriptions were in circulation around the country. Roman coins belonging to the first century AD have been found in various excavation sites around the country. However, such a terracotta mould has never been found elsewhere.”

He added that the coins might have been minted at Talkad and circulated around the country. “It is possible that the value of Roman currency was more in India during the period, which might have led a few individuals at Talkad to indulge in minting fake coins,” he added.

Villagers Protect Archeological Site as Civil War Rages

Oh my!

From the UCLA News Room online:

Archaeologist, villagers protect ancient Syrian city as civil war rages

Letisia Marquez | May 23, 2014

Almost 20 years ago, UCLA archaeologist Giorgio Buccellati and his team identified the ancient city of Urkesh in northeastern Syria as a site of an important religious and political center more than 4,000 years ago.
 

The discovery received international media attention and acclaim for Buccellati and his wife, Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati, a visiting professor with UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

 

Buccellati, a professor emeritus of Near Eastern Languages and Culture and history as well as the director of the Cotsen's Mesopotamia Area Lab and International Institute for Mesopotamian Area Studies, had hoped that the next 20 years would lead to even more discoveries at Urkesh as well as the development of an archaeological park to welcome and educate visitors to the site and preserve a national treasure.

 

But civil war, now three years old, has put those plans on hold. Because of the eruption of violence in Syria, the Buccellatis haven’t been able to visit the site since December 2011. They became among the last foreign archaeologists to visit Syria.

 

"The reason we cannot go back is tragic," said Buccellati about the violence between the Assad government and opposition groups that has taken the lives of at least 120,000 and displaced more than 6 million people from their homes. "It is devastating to see what is happening in Syria."

 

So far, the violence hasn’t reached the site, which is located in a rural area that just recently received potable water and a sewer system.

 

"Our particular area is more protected, but there have still been battles within 60 kilometers (37 miles) in either direction so the area is potentially at risk," said Buccellati.

 

His efforts to win the cooperation of the local people who now serve as gardians of the site are documented in a recent report, "In the Eye of the Storm," that details how a plan to protect Urkesh from crumbling unfolded there.

 

Six Syrian villagers, whom Buccellati is constantly in touch with via cell phones, e-mail and Skype, work at the site. One of their main duties is protecting the site’s centuries-old mud brick walls from rain and snow. So far, the damage to the mud brick has been minimal because the workers have covered the site with metal trellises and tarps.

Villagers covering Urkesh archaeological site.

 

UCLA and Gulfsands, a London-based oil company that operates in Syria, help fund the villagers’ employment.

 

New House Found!

Hola darlings!  I've been neglecting both of my blogs while engaged in an intense search for a new home. I will spare you the details :)  I am happy to report that, at last, I found a lovely home and may be moving by the end of June - more quickly than I'd anticipated.

I am frantically running around trying to get projects done around here.  The spirit is willing but the body is weak, as the biblical saying famously notes.  Now that the weather has finally improved here, I've been several weekends out in the yards doing winter clean up, and now the grass is growing leaps and bounds.  It takes several hours to cut the front and back lawns each weekend.  I love working outdoors, but it sure does cut into my weekends, which are the only time to get those projects around here finished!  I'm too tired at night when I get home from the office to do much of anything these days.  Retirement is 920 days away and counting down...

Yesterday I filled the staple holes and some gouges I made digging them out in the staircase.  The holes, and about a gajillion staples, were left behind when I removed the ratty old carpeting a year ago June!  That project sat for a long time, until I sold the house!  Today I sanded down the stairs to leave a (hopefully) smooth surface for refinishing.  I will be putting on a wood conditioner shortly, but right now I'm set up outside enjoying the warm weather.  A storm is coming, I can see it off to the northwest.  It's hot and muggy right now, and overcast.  I had planned on also finishing the stripping of the wallpaper in the family room over this Memorial Day three-day weekend, but that's going to have to wait. I've no intention of turning on the central air to coll down and dry out the house, so hard physical labor will have to wait for another day :)  Today is the warmest of the three -- I actually got quite a bit accomplished Saturday and yesterday (Sunday).

Here she is, so cute!  Just wait until I get a lovely new garden going in the front and add planter boxes
underneath the windows.  And a beautiful trellis between the two ranch-windows.  The architecture is
calling for some vertical accents and circles -- maybe a circular flag-stone area in the middle of the yard centered
on the picture window, with a bird bath in the middle.  A pergola stretching across the front stoop to the end of
the house nearest the driveway, to provide much needed shade in the living room with this western exposure!
Many more improvements planned.  Yes -- it's true!  I'm going to turn into one of those little old ladies
with fake red hair puttering around in her garden...but I will NEVAH wear a house dress, darlings.

So, the new house -- it is some 500 square feet smaller than my current home, which I had built in 1990.  It's a 60 year old one story ranch with beautiful hardwood floors and much smaller front and backyards.  Nearly everything is new in or on the house: new siding; new exterior doors; new concrete patio in the backyard; new steps leading down to said patio from new patio door installed in the dinette area of the kitchen with new laminate floors; new air conditioning unit; new high-efficiency furnace; new privacy fence/gate along the south lot line (borders the driveway.  I will have some painting to do on the inside, and the landscaping -- well, let's just say my gardener's fingers are already itching to get at it!  The kitchen was remodeled in about 2010 and has lovely new appliances.  I will be doing some remodelling of that space, though, to make it exactly as I want it.

A lot of my furniture is being left behind for the young couple who bought my house.  It's a small house!  There is a lower level (basement) rec room that will provide additional living space, but it needs some updating (okay, a lot of updating).  The furniture I am taking with me is too big for the little ranch house!  But I'll make it work.  After all, there is a nice bar in the rec room:

And what self-respecting gal born and raised in Beer City USA doesn't like her own personal bar...

So, I'm going to be consumed with projects and packing, all the logistics of moving to a new home, getting the financing in order and the closing done so I get the keys to the new place.  Oy!  I must be crazy.  Downsizing is a lot of work!  I'll be neglecting the blogs for awhile, alas, but a version of sanity will eventually return to my house and the blog will (eventually) resume it's former pace of posts.  Have patience with me, darlings!

Sarcophagi of Ancient Singer Found In Tomb of Princess

This is an interesting discovery in an 18th Dynasty tomb at Saqqara, at ahramonline:

Funeral relics of pharaonic singer unearthed at Saqqara necropolis
Three painted sarcophagi belonging to an Ancient Egyptian singer have been unearthed at Saqqara

Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 17 May 2014

 

During excavation works carried out in Bastet cemetery at the Saqqara necropolis just outside Cairo, French archaeologists stumbled upon three wooden sarcophagi belonging to Ta-Ekht, a singer in a sacred choir in the 18^th dynasty period (1543–1292 BC).

Presumably Ta-Ekht.  She looks rather like Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra...

Mohamed Ibrahim, the antiquities minister, said that the sarcophagi were found inside each other. The outer sarcophagus is a little deteriorated while the middle and inner ones are well-preserved.

Ibrahim told Ahram Online on Saturday that the sarcophagi were unearthed during excavation works at the tomb of the daughter of 18th dynasty pharaoh Akhenaten, Maya, who was known as Meritee Atun.

Ali El-Asfar, head of the ancient Egyptian antiquities department at the ministry told Ahram Online that the sarcophagi depict the facial features of Ta-Ekht and are decorated with paintings of foliage.
Some elements of Ta-Ekht's funerary collection were also found inside the middle sarcophagus, including two wooden headrests and a rectangular wooden box inlaid with ivory.

The box contained a collection of beauty tools were found, including a spoon with a gazelle-shaped handle, two eye liner containers, a collection of faience beads, and a faience amulet in the famous “eye of Horus” shape.

El-Asfar said that studies are now being conducted to find out why the singer’s sarcophagi were located inside Maya tomb.

Iraqi Law Proposes Nine Year Old Girls Can Be Married Off

Story from The Week. com

foreign affairs 9:58pm ET

Law proposed in Iraq would allow girls to marry at 9

 

Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

A controversial law in Iraq, proposed by former Justice Minister Hassan al-Shammari and passed by the Cabinet, would have girls considered adults at the age of 9 and able to marry, NPR reports.

Known as the Jaafari law (after a school of Islam by the same name), it still has to make its way to the Parliament. Action likely won't be taken until after Iraq forms its new government, following last month's elections. If passed, following the law will be voluntary, and will only apply to the country's Shiite Muslim majority.

Those who oppose the law say that although the people of Iraq have more opportunities to travel and internet access, women's rights are not moving forward, and conservative religious politics are becoming more mainstream. "We know the state of women in Iraq is getting worse, despite the intellectual openness that women had benefited from following the American occupation and the removal of the regime," Fawzia al-Babakhan, a lawyer, told NPR.

While the law is unlikely to be passed and was likely an overture to conservative Shiites, it is still unsettling to radio host Ahlam al-Obeidi. "We are a society plagued by patriarchal attitudes and outdated tribal laws, which are all conducive to violence against women," she said to NPR. "This is not marriage, but rather the selling and buying of young women." --Catherine Garcia

A Closer Look At St. George

Hola Darlings!

This house thing is driving me nuts.  I have no idea what I'm going to do, but I will be doing something...

Meanwhile, back at the Goddesschess Ranch.  After posting that fascinating article last night on Orthodox Christian Palestinians and their reverence for St. George, I turned to Barbara Walker's "The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" and checked to see if there was an entry for St. George.  There was.  But I was too weary to type it all in last night.

So, here it is, but first, I would like you to read yesterday's post on the Christian Palestinians and St. George, because you will find many points of similar references in Walker's take on the subject of St. George. I have liberally sprinkled in my own "Notes"  and commentary and also added highlights,

George, Saint

Fictitious patron saint of England.  St. George's Day was known to the Romans as the Feast of Pales, a fertility festival [Note: Pales, a blatant phallic symbol.  Interestingly, the word "pale" is still used in English today.  It is a rounded stake or pole made of wood.]  Medieval custom honored St. George on Easter Monday, the Moon-day following the Sun-day of the Christian hero.  Folklore named the pagan savior Green George, a spirit of spring.(1)  His image was common in old church carvings, a human head surrounded by leaves or looking out of a tree trunk.  Some called him the witches' god, a confused idea of something between a tree and a man," or "the devil in the shape of a trunk of a tree ...with some form of a human face."(2) [Note: Also known as the "Green Man."  The Arabic word for green translated into English:  green / a-kh-dh-ar /.  Cf. Village of Khadar that features prominently in the article on St. George and the Palestinian Christians.]

St. George the Dragon-slayer apparently evolved from a mythic meld of Green George with an Arian bishop of Alexandria who opposed St. Athanasius, and put to death an orthodox Master of the Mint named Dracontius, "Dragon." (3) [Note: Ripe for further research.  I've no idea who St. Athanasius or the Master of the Mint Dracontius were!]

St. George's emblem was a vesica piscis, a prime fertility symbol because it represented the Goddess's yoni; but Christian authorities preferred to interpret it as a "shield." [Note: The vesica piscis is a well-known geometric form (basically, an oval formed by the intersection of two circles).  Roman Catholics are familiar with the form as the "fish" of Jesus -- a vesica piscis. Astrologists and magi are familiar, of course, with "Pisces, the Fish" as an astrological symbol.]  Still, George was so shamelessly involved in fertility rites that the church discredited him and began calling him the "imaginary saint."  An old English ballad said "Some say there was no George; some, that there no Dragon was; pray God, there was at least a maid." (4)

(Footnotes:)

(1)  Frazer, G.B., 145-146.
(2)  Knight, D.W.P., 221, 229.
(3)  Baring-Gould, C.M.M.A., 269.
(4)  Brewster, 209-10.

And, for your added viewing pleasure:



Christian symbol for Christ, in Greek ,"Ichthys."
Source.

A vesica piscis:

If you don't know what a yoni looks like, you need to find out for yourself, darlings... Well, okay, her[e] is a clue.  I'm really giving away the entire game here, because this ancient stone yoni resembles some ancient board games (or an ancient Egyptian offering table and, in later dynastic tombs, the sacred doors, ahem) with which you all should be familiar by now:

Do you get it yet?

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2014 Khanty Masiysk

Hola darlings!  My last post for tonight.  This selling the house thing is INSANE!  It has consumed weeks and is yet to consume more weeks, because finally, the buyers have fully committed to purchasing after endless contractors tramping through or around the house (sometimes both); now the buyers have to procure a financing commitment, or the entire deal will once again teeter on the brink.  Meanwhile, I now once again have to pick up the house hunt in a market that has extremely slim pickings for me at the moment.  I should have known.  I should have chased the kids away with garlic and a mirror rather than agree to this!  Geez.

One of my chess favorites, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, did very well this event, digging herself out of a hole in this event, but it was won by GM Hou Yifan.  I continue to be impressed by WGM Olga Girya.  Look at her performance rating. 

I last left you off with the standings after R7.  Here are the final standings:

Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	Res.	IRat-Ø	W	n	We	Rtg+/-	Ra	Rp
1	6	GM	Hou Yifan	2618	CHN	8½	0	2484	8,5	11	7,38	11	2484	2695
2	4	WGM	Girya Olga	2450	RUS	7	0	2500	7,0	11	4,75	23	2500	2602
3	12	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2527	RUS	6½	0	2493	6,5	11	5,99	5	2493	2558
4	10	GM	Lagno Kateryna	2543	UKR	6	½	2491	6,0	11	6,26	-3	2491	2527
5	5	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2560	SLO	6	½	2490	6,0	11	6,51	-5	2490	2526
6	9	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2550	GEO	5½	1	2491	5,5	11	6,37	-9	2491	2491
7	1	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2489	BUL	5½	0	2496	5,5	11	5,37	1	2496	2496
8	3	GM	Zhao Xue	2552	CHN	5	½	2490	5,0	11	6,38	-14	2490	2454
9	2	GM	Ushenina Anna	2501	UKR	5	½	2495	5,0	11	5,57	-6	2495	2459
10	11	WGM	Muminova Nafisa	2321	UZB	4	0	2511	4,0	11	2,84	17	2511	2409
11	7	GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	2496	RUS	3½	½	2496	3,5	11	5,47	-20	2496	2363
12	8	WGM	Batchimeg Tuvshintugs	2340	MGL	3½	½	2510	3,5	11	3,11	6	2510	2377

How sad that while Russia is bullying Ukraine, a sovereign independent nation, chessplayers from Russia and Ukraine, who have known each other and played each other many times at these elite events because they are some of the best female players in the world, had to face each other over the board with such international tensions exploding in the headlines day after day.  Many of them are mothers as well as star chessplayers; these women belong to an elite sorority, so to speak, and share many bonds and similarities.  Too bad that the dream of chess cannot be realized in a world still controlled by silly men, one whom has a penchant for riding around with bare breasts.  Yuch!

Official website -- lots of photographs and round by round reports. 

Palestinian Orthodox Christians and St. George

This is absolutely fascinating!  I've written about St. George here before.  (See, for instance, The Maiden, the Dragon, and St. George, a 2008 post).  But I don't recall reading about a Palestinian connection before. Indeed, I don't recall reading any actual biographical information about St. George prior to reading this article! Most westerners know the fellow as the knight on the white horse who slew the dragon to save the maiden.  Er, yeah, right. 

There are lots of images, photographs and even a recording in the full article, so please visit it at the BBC News Magazine website. 

April 2014 Last updated at 19:14 ET

Why St George is a Palestinian hero

By Yolande Knell BBC News

As England celebrates the day of its patron saint, many Palestinians are gearing up for their own forthcoming celebrations of the figure they also regard as a hero.

A familiar flag flaps in the wind above a Palestinian church in the West Bank village of al-Khadr.  The red cross on a white background has been associated with Saint George since the time of the Crusades.

It is the national flag of England and is also used as an emblem by other countries and cities that have adopted him as their own patron saint.

However, Palestinians have particular reason to display the symbol and revere the early Christian martyr. For them he is a local hero who opposed the persecution of his fellow Christians in the Holy Land.

"We believe he was a great martyr for his faith who defended the Christian faith and values," says Greek Orthodox Archbishop Atallah Hanna.

"By making sacrifices for his faith he was able to defeat evil. We take St George as a patron for people living here - and as he was born in historic Palestine, we pray to him to remember us and this holy land."

St George was a Roman soldier during the Third Century AD, when the Emperor Diocletian was in power. It is said that he once lived in al-Khadr near Bethlehem, on land owned by his mother's family.  While the saint's father is usually traced back to Cappadocia, an area in modern Turkey, it is believed his mother was Palestinian from Lydda - now Lod, in Israel.

The saint is remembered for giving away his possessions and remaining true to his religion when he was imprisoned and tortured before he was finally executed.

There are many churches in the West Bank and Israel that bear the name of St George - at al-Khadr, Lod and in the Galilee, for example.

While the Western world marks St George's Day on 23 April, in the Palestinian areas it falls on 6 May, according to the older calendar used by the Eastern Churches.

A service is held for the saint at al-Khadr, bringing worshippers from the Bethlehem area and much further afield to light candles and say prayers. During the feast, special bread is baked that shows him in his typical pose as a dragon slayer.

St. George bread is upper right.  Note the presence of the five-pointed star (a goddess emblem)
 above St. George in the top image, left.