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Bazaar, which is rooted in Middle Persian wāzār and Armenian vačaṟ, has acquired three different meanings: the market as a whole, a market day, and the marketplace. The bazaar as a place is an assemblage of workshops and stores where various goods and services are offered.

Primitive forms of shops and trade centres existed in early civilizations in the Near East, such as Sialk, Tepe in Kashan, Çatal Hüyük, Jerico, and Susa. After the 4th millennium BC, the population grew and villages gradually joined together to shape new cities, resulting in trade even with the remote areas as well as the acceleration of the population in towns. The advancement of trade and accumulation of wealth necessitated the creation of trade centres. Trade, and consequently marketplaces, worked as the main driving force in connecting separate civilizations, while fostering a division of labour, the diffusion of technological innovations, methods of intercultural communication, political and economic management, and techniques of farming and industrial production....

Balinese Hindu temple (pura) complex. It is situated on the southwestern flank of the volcano Gunung Agung, Bali’s highest mountain, in the northeast of the island. Associated probably since prehistoric times with the Lord of the Mountain, now identified with the Hindu god Shiva, it has been a dynastic temple of several royal families since at least the 15th century. The complex consists of twenty-two temples, spread along three parallel ridges over a distance of more than a kilometer. The complex was not planned as an entity but seems to have been constructed piecemeal, and the overall structure that links the temples is more ritual and symbolic than physical. The annual cycle of more than seventy rituals culminates in the enormous centennial Ekadasa Rudra ceremony.

The symbolic and ritual center of the complex is Pura Penataran Agung, the largest temple, which over the centuries has undergone numerous changes. Its fifty-seven separate structures are arranged on six terraces. Originating probably in a simple prehistoric sanctuary, it has a terraced form suggesting a series of successive enlargements. The earliest structures were probably simple shrines and stone seats, represented now in developed form by the two uppermost shrines dedicated to the Lord of the Mountain. On current evidence, the pagoda-like shrines (...

Buddhist monastery c. 45 km south-east of Leh in Ladakh, India. Founded by King Senge Namgyel in the 17th century, Hemis became the leading monastery in the region of the Tibetan Drukpa sect. Its buildings comprise chortens (stupas), mani walls, monastic dwellings and a large rectangular courtyard used for the annual monastic dance ceremony. This court is surrounded by a balcony with a throne used by the head lama on such occasions; small paintings of saintly figures appear on the rear wall of the balcony. Within the court are four tall poles decked with prayer flags and yak tails. On the right-hand side are two large temples, the Dukhang and the Chökhang; each is two storeys high and preceded by a wooden verandah containing Tibetan-style paintings of protector deities.

In the Dukhang are numerous modern paintings of Buddha figures and Tantric deities executed in the traditional Tibetan style; enormous red-painted pillars support a cupola that illuminates the interior of the hall. The Chökhang contains a fine image of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, a large, early 18th-century chorten and many other chortens ornamented with silver, gilt and hardstones. Images and paintings of Buddhas, great lamas and Tantric teachers abound. The Lhakhang Nyingpa Temple, at the rear of the monastery, contains the finest wall paintings at Hemis. The paintings of great abbots and Tantric masters are in an Indian style but show Chinese influence; adjoining paintings illustrating scenes from the Buddha’s life and furiously energetic Tantric deities also have a strong Chinese character. One of the most beautiful paintings depicts the 18th-century monk Shambunath delicately painted in a Kashmiri–Central Asian style....

Town and temple site in West Bengal, India, about 80 km north of Calcutta. Located on the banks of the Bhagirathi River, it was once an important port and commercial centre, but by the late 19th century its importance had declined owing to the silting up of the river and the opening of the East Indian Railway. It is now best known for several temples built during the 18th and 19th centuries by wealthy landowners, merchants and officers of local governors. Many are dated by inscription. Built of brick, they are decorated with dense arrangements of terracotta reliefs depicting scenes from the Rāmāya ṇa, the Krishna legend and scenes of everyday life, including figures in European dress. A variety of temple types are seen; the most common have squat, curvilinear superstructures, sometimes double-storey, or upper levels consisting of several towers (see Indian subcontinent: Architecture from the 16th–19th centuries). The Lalji Temple (...

[anc. Kāsī: ‘City of Light’KashiVārāṇasīBanārasBenares]

Sacred city and pilgrimage centre on the banks of the Ganga River between the Barna, or Varuna, and Asi rivers in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is the most holy of the seven sacred cities of Hinduism (the others being Ayodhya, Mathura, Hardwar, Kanchipuram, Ujjain and Dwarka) and has been the focus of Brahmanical learning and religious pilgrimage from ancient times.

The existence of the city from earliest times is attested by myriad references in the sacred texts. The kingdom of Kashi is mentioned in the Vedas, and the kings of Kashi are referred to in the Mahābhārata, although not until the Puranas is Varanasi mentioned as the capital city of Kashi. Around the time of the Buddha (600 bc) 16 great city states flourished in north India, the three most prominent being Maghada, Koshala and Varanasi. Owing to its strategic position at the confluence of the Ganga and Varuna rivers, Varanasi was a significant trading and commercial centre. In many tales of the previous lives of Buddha (Skt ...

(Joseph )[Johannes Josephus John ]

(b nr Frankfurt am Main, March 13, 1733; d Strand-on-the-Green, nr Kew, London, Nov 11, 1810).

German painter, active in England. Born Johannes Josephus Zauffaly, he was the son of Anton Franz Zauffaly (1699–1771), Court Cabinetmaker and Architect in Regensburg to Alexander Ferdinand, Prince of Thurn and Taxis. After an apprenticeship in Regensburg under the painter and engraver Martin Speer (c. 1702–65), a pupil of Francesco Solimena, Zoffany left in 1750 for Rome, where he studied under the portrait painter Agostino Masucci and came into contact with Anton Raphael Mengs. By 1757 and after a second trip to Rome, Zoffany was commissioned by Clemens August, Prince-Archbishop and Elector of Trier, to produce frescoes and paintings for his new palace at Trier and the palace of Ehrenbreitstein at Koblenz. All Zoffany’s early work at Ehrenbreitstein and Trier has been destroyed, but it may have been in the German Rococo manner of Cosmas Damian Asam and Johann Baptist Zimmermann. A number of small easel paintings such as ...