Kashgar Tribal Artifacts - Life for the Modern Nomad | Handmade Jewellery, ethnic handicrafts, antique furniture

If you’ve ever been to Bali, you’ve probably sampled a version of the local savory delicacy called lawar. One of the island’s most iconic dishes, lawar literally means “thinly sliced” or “finely chopped”, and consists of chopped meat and vegetables mixed together with fragrant spices and herbs. It is typically served at important Balinese events and ceremonies. However, visitors to Bali can easily find different versions of lawar in most restaurants and warungs...

This year’s Loy Krathong festival in Thailand takes on a poignant significance with Bangkok submerged in floods...

Story by By Andrew Forbes and Colin Hinshelwood. Photo: Celebrating Loy Krathong in Lumpini Park, Bangkok, Thailand. Photo by Robertpollai

In the tradition of Halloween in the month of October, Kashgar brings you another legend to chill your bones, about the hungry ghosts of Eastern lore. More properly called preta or peta, these are the ghostly remnants of the dead who are afflicted with insatiable desire, hunger or thirst as a result of bad deeds or evil intent carried out in their life times...

Happy Halloween everybody, or should we say Happy All Hallows Eve!  Although it’s an event not much celebrated in Australia because of its commercial overtones and association with the perceived crassness of all things American, the celebration of Hallowmas and All Hallows Eve is actually a Celtic tradition that dates back to at least the 1^st century and represents thousands of years of collective human folklore that honours the dead and strikes a primordial chord in us all.

For better or for worse, Mao Zedong is regarded as an iconoclastic figure in modern world history and was named one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century by Time Magazine. Catalyst for the Cultural Revolution and leader of China’s Communist Party between 1943 and 1976, he was also responsible for the death of over 40 million Chinese.  Today, Mao is undergoing an unprecedented rise in popularity throughout the world. His image, like that of Che Guevara, has transcended itself and his radical policies of peasant reform to become a part of western pop culture and a market leader in the antiques and collectibles market. (Photo Credit: Bettmann/CORBIS)