The ferry takes ten minutes. From the east bank of the Chao Phraya to the pier of Capella Bangkok on the west, ten minutes is all it requires. At three in the afternoon, the river runs a scorched brown beneath the tropical sun, its color shaped by silt, heat, and…

The lives of a thousand years ago were transformed by artists into idealized heavenly realms, and today, that ideal has revived in Dunhuang, becoming a scene we can see and hear in the earthly realm.

In the Amansara library, I came across a history of Cambodian architecture. The author noted that Ta Prohm is preserved by a principle of “maintenance as found”—only the most minimal structural support is provided, with no attempt at reconstruction. It is not merely a conservation technique, but a philosophical stance:…

The 1950s and ’60s were, in retrospect, the golden age of postcolonial Cambodia. The horrors yet to come had not descended upon this land; the old elegance of Indochina still lingered in the rhythms of everyday life. As William Shawcross once wrote in Sideshow, it was “a land of pastoral…

This time in Sri Lanka, I will focus my entire journey on the stretch of the southwest coast around Galle – the stretch of sea where the Indian Ocean churns most fiercely.

Geography breeds isolation, and isolation invites myth. Xiahe, deep in the Tibetan lands of Gannan, was spared the weight of tragic histories and abandoned ruins.