Islam in China: An Interactive Electronic Atlas and Educational Project
Dru Gladney, University of Hawaii, and Constantinos Vrakas II
dru@hawaii.edu

This educational DVD project introduces students and the wider public to the history of and culture of Islam in China through interactive teaching modules, videos, narrations, and events recorded over the past 20 years among China’s nearly 20 million Muslims. Through Macromedia’s Flash player, students can watch each module independently or follow certain topics at a more indepth level. For example one DVD module deals with China’s nomadic Muslims Kazakhs. China’s 1.3 million Kazakhs number 1/8 of the total number of Kazakhs in the world, and are the second largest Muslim group in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Unlike the vast majority of the Kazakhs in neighboring Kazakhstan Republic, nearly 1/3 of China’s Kazakhs still maintain a fully nomadic pastoralist subsistence livelihood. This is rapidly changing, however, for the Chinese market economy is driving these pastoralists out of business, accomplishing in 10 years what the Chinese Communist Party failed to do in 50, and the forces of Inner Asian social development failed to accomplish in over 200 years, when most nomadic pastoralist in Eurasia have for the most part sedentarized. This paper and video presentation will document the efforts of the Chinese government market to settle one Kazakh herding community in the Altai mountains where the author has conducted fieldwork for the last three years, suggesting that an anthropological approach to nomadology can help to understand both the resiliency and the malleability of their lifestyle to the demands of the 21st century. Other modules focus on the Hui, China’s largest Muslim minority community, while another details the Xinjiang Problem and the Uyghur case inside and outside of China for sovereignty and independence. As a modular, self-teaching program that makes use of virtual resources, this project has potential to tie in a wide range of similar on-line examinations of Islam in Inner Asia and along the Old Silk Road.

Images of Artifacts: An Online Teaching & Learning Model
Tom Nickel, University of the West
tnickel@uwest.edu

This presentation describes an approach to online pedagogy which is robust and satisfying, and at the same time very low cost and do-able. It is a model which anyone can implement; thus, it will not win any awards for instructional design. It is too realistic.

Its strength is derived, in part, from extensive use of still images maps and pictures of cultural artifacts. It is has been tested and evaluated (formative) internationally. The presentation will introduce and provide a theoretical rationale for the model, with examples. It will also suggest future directions as the model evolves.

Processing geospatial Data on the Field, by VR and on Internet: new Challenges for the Virtual Archaeology
Maurizio Forte, CNR-ITABC
maurizio.forte@itabc.cnr.it

- abstract to come

Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha and its environs
Min Bahadur Shakya, Nagarjuna Institute of Exact Methods
niem@wlink.com.np

Lumbini is the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, the Sakya prince, and the ultimate Buddha, the Perfectly Enlightened one. The site of his nativity is marked by the commemorative pillar erected by Indian Buddhist emperor Ashoka over 2,200 years ago and was rediscovered in 1896. Thus, as Ashoka himself acknowledged, Lumbini is a quintessential Buddhist heritage site, currently undergoing a renaissance by the internationally supported Lumbini Development Project.

The central feature of Lumbini is the sacred garden that is spread over 1 sq. km and possesses all the treasures of the historic area. The Mayadevi temple, currently renovated, is the main attraction for pilgrims and archeologists alike.

Across the world and throughout the ages, religious people have made pilgrimages. Many great teachers of the Buddhist tradition maintained the practice of pilgrimages, paying respect to the holy sites. The Buddha himself exhorted his followers to visit what are now known as the four original places of Buddhist pilgrimage: Lumbini, Bodhgaya, Sarnath and Kushinagar.

The purpose of our presentation is to highlight the Lumbini, and its environs as the pilgrimage center for all the peace loving people and the Buddhist alike. There are several sites concerning Buddha's life.We will be presenting the digital images of some of these sites important sites as follows:

1.Maya Devi Temple: Nativity sculpture
2. Marker stone: The exact spot where Siddhartha steps after his birth.
3. Sacred Sakya Pond
4. Ashokan Pillar: Where an inscription says: Here the Buddha was born.
Our presentation will be followed by Vedio documentation about 20 minutes concerning Lumbini and Kapilavastu site.
5. Master Plan of Lumbini Development Project
6. Tilaurakot: King Suddhodana's palace
7.Kudan: Where Buddha met his father Suddhodana first time after his enlightenment
8.Gotihawa: where past Buddha Krakuchanda's stupa exists
9.Niglihawa: where past Buddha Kanakamuni Buddha's stupa exist together with an Ashoka inscription
10.Sagarhawa: it is identified as the site of the ruins of an ancient pond where the sakyas were massacred.