(Continued from Following the Ancient Scent of Trầm Hương 1) In one of my previous posts, Following the Ancient Scent of Trầm Hương 1, I touched upon the agarwood tree and how oud was processed. This post digs deeper into the dendrology (study of trees) of agarwood and the various types of agar resins. Ancient Origins... Continue Reading →
The Seven Necessities In ancient Viet culture, there is a very famous old saying: Quan môn thất kiện sự, sài, mễ, du, diêm, tương, thố, trà” When translated, it means, "The seven necessities to begin a day: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea." It was very underwhelming to be honest. What in... Continue Reading →
(Continued from The Original Asian Zodiac 5: The Twelve Earth Branches) Ten Heavenly Stems I have to state for the record that this subject is an exhausting subject to dig into. I kept running into a few issues, and although they are not huge issues, they exhaust me. Firstly, all the words are not modern. ... Continue Reading →
The Twelve Earthly branches 2020 is the year of the Metal Rat on top of the earthen wall. Sounds quite amazing doesn't it? That's the power of the Can Chi working together to give you the whole picture. Out of everything that has to do with the Asian Calendar, the twelve Earthly Branches take the... Continue Reading →
(Continued from The Original Asian Zodiac) In my previous post, The Original Asian Zodiac, I did promise that I would talk about the calendar system we Viets use, which is a sexagenary cycle that lasts 60 years. Of course, since there were much more interesting things to talk about (ghosts and demons and such) I... Continue Reading →
(Continued from Lên Đồng 2: Mounting the Medium) Folk beliefs are all the rage nowadays. Everybody wants to go tribal. It is the hottest new trend. The Japanese have their Shinto. The Chinese have their Zhōngguó mínjiān xìnyǎng. And us Việts, we have our Đạo Mẫu. I am not surprised that this is so. Remember,... Continue Reading →
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