Taking digital pictures

Composition:

Anyone can point a digital camera at a subject and get a good quality snap shot. The camera will almost insure that the photo will be sharp and exposed correctly. However, the one thing the camera can’t do for you is compose the shot.

One of the major differences between average photographers and professionals is that the pros spend a lot of time thinking about composition while amateur’s just point and shoot.

Composition is important because it helps set the mood for the shot and tells a story. It can also be used to evoke an emotional response from the viewer. If you keep composition in mind whenever you look into your viewfinder, it will eventually become second nature to you.

You will greatly improve the impact of your photos and hopeful move out of the armature ranks by following these few easy tips.

The Law of Thirds

If you mentally divide your camera viewfinder into three horizontal and three vertical sections, where the lines intersect are considered ideal focal points. Focal points are what the eyes are naturally drawn to when you look at a photograph. Therefore, any one of these focal points is a good place to position your main subject.

It's not a hard and fast rule, but you should always mentally divide your viewfinder into a grid and try to place your subject at one of the focal points. The upper and lower horizontal lines represent the ideal location to place the horizon of a landscape picture. It depends on whether you want more surface or more sky in the photo.

The "Law of Thirds" grid Example

Portraits

When taking portraits the closer you get to the subject the better. You will focus attention to the subject by cutting down on the amount of superfluous background detail.

You can also bring out your main subject by making the background go out of focus. Use your camera aperture priority mode and set as large an f/stop (about F2.8) as your camera will allow. If your camera has a zoom function you could use it to zoom in and achieve the same results. Use optical zoom only for best results.

If the subject is in shadow compared to the rest of the picture, you should use a fill-in flash to properly expose the face. In order to eliminate shadows, do not place the subject too close to a wall etc.

Recommended camera settings for portraits:

Focal length: 100 mm

Aperture: F2.8 (as large a f/stop as is available for proper exposure)

Exposure / Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority / Portrait

Flash: Fill-in, if face is in shadow

Landscapes

When shooting landscapes you usually want everything in focus all the way to infinity. Therefore, you will want to use as small an f/stop as your camera will allow.

You should use a wide-angle lens setting and consider adding a foreground object to help draw the eye into the photo. Experiment by isolating different portions of the scene using an optical zoom lens. And of course always apply the law of thirds.

Recommended camera settings for landscapes:

Focal length: 38 mm

Aperture: F16 (as small a f/stop as is available for proper exposure)

Exposure / Shooting Mode: Aperture Priority / Landscape

Tripod: Yes, for long exposures

Vary your shooting angle: 

Instead of always shooting at eye level try shooting overhead, waist-level or ground-level. When photographing small children or animals get down to their level for best results.

Steady the camera for sharp pictures:

The key to getting sharp photos is keeping your camera steady while pressing the shutter button. Digital cameras are so light that special care is required to hold them steady during shooting. Squeeze the button very gently, making sure you don't jerk the camera as you press the shutter button.

When using an LCD preview, make sure that you hold the camera to your body to prevent movement.

Consider using a tripod especially in low light situations, long zooms or slow shutter speeds. If you don’t have a tripod try leaning against a wall to help steady your shot. Another option is to rest the camera on something solid such as a table.

You can also lock the focus and exposure by half-pressing the shutter button. To do this, compose your shot, press the button halfway down, and then depress it fully. The picture will be taken immediately, so you don't have to hold steady as long.

Framing the shot:

The first thing to decide before taking a picture is what's the main subject. To compose your shot, you either need to move your subject around or get closer yourself. Try to frame it, so that your intended content fills most of the picture area. Don’t forget to use the law of thirds
.

Take time to check your framing in your camera's LCD or optical viewfinder before you press the button. Always check to make sure that the horizon is straight.

Zoom in or move closer to your main subject in order to reduce distracting elements.

Use movement:

Sometimes you will want to simulate movement such as a race car going by at a racetrack. Use a fast shutter speed or pan the camera to follow the subject to maintain focus. Done correctly, panning will keep the subject clear, while blurring the background, giving the impression of motion.

Getting the exposure right:

Digital cameras use a light-sensitive chip rather than film to capture an image. The camera is designed to let light through a hole (aperture) on to the chip for a limited amount of time (exposure). Digital cameras use “auto exposure” to take care of exposing the picture for you. But there are a few things about aperture and exposure that you should be aware of.

A digital camera will gather the same amount of light with a large aperture and a short exposure or with a small aperture and a long exposure, but the image won't look the same. A wider aperture will reduce the “depth of field”, so that only objects at the focal point are in sharp focus. This is great for isolating a person from a busy background, but not so great for landscape photos, which require that everything be in focus.

Cheap cameras have a fixed aperture, so only exposure is affected by light. More expensive cameras offer “programmed exposure” modes, such as Landscape (narrower aperture, greater depth of field, longer exposure), Portrait (wider aperture, reduced depth of field, shorter exposure) and Sport (shortest exposure to freeze motion), while high-end cameras also offer full manual controls.

Even with a fully automatic camera, you can modify the exposure. Point the camera at the object you want correctly exposed and half-press the shutter button. Move the camera to compose your shot, and then squeeze the button fully to take the picture.

Many landscape photos turn out too dark because the exposure is overly influence by a bright sky. The trick is to lower the camera so that the light meter exposes more for the foreground area and then press the shutter button part way in order to lock in the exposure. Then re-compose the shot as before and press the shutter completely.

Use the appropriate camera setting:

Digital cameras allow you to take pictures at different quality setting. The higher the setting the better the photo quality. Higher settings use more memory then lower settings. If you intend to make prints, always use a medium or high setting. The low setting should only be used when all you want to do is view the pictures on your computer or send them by email or over the Internet.

Using white balance:

Automatic exposure settings can produce an unnatural reddish glow when shooting indoor pictures. Most digital cameras automatically adjust the ”white balance” to compensate for oddly colored lighting. However, this may not always result in natural looking photos. If your camera allows you to set the “white balance” mode manually give it a try. The result will be a picture with more natural looking colors.

Using zoom:

Most digital cameras come with a wide-angle lens as standard. This enables you to get the whole scene into the frame without having to stand too far back. However, it's not so great if you can't get close to your subject. That is why it is recommended that you buy a camera that includes a zoom lens.

Digital cameras usually have “optical zoom” and “digital zoom”. Digital zoom is a way of using the camera electronics to simulate additional detail, but this will produce a degraded image. It is best to use the camera’s optical zoom and stay away from digital zoom as much as possible.

Bear in mind that using zoom reduces depth of field, so make sure you carefully focus on your subject, and be aware that objects at different distances won't be as sharp. Zooming in will also magnify camera movement, so it's very important that the camera is well supported.

Wide-angle lenses are good for getting a whole room into the picture but are not ideal for portrait pictures. If you get too close with a wide-angle lens your subjects face will appear distorted. It’s always better to stand back a bit and use some zoom. Make sure you focus on the eyes.

Focus:

Auto-focus is great, but it isn't perfect. Most digital cameras tend to simply focus on what’s in the center of the picture. If your main subject is not dead center, point your camera at the subject, half-press the shutter button, re-compose to the desired scene, then finish pressing the shutter button. This will ensure that the main subject is perfectly sharp.

When taking close-up photos of say flowers, be aware of your camera limitations. Most cameras will only focus down to about a foot or two. A better way to get real close is to use the “macro mode” if one is available.

When taking wide-angle landscape shots, the camera will normally focus on infinity. This may result in closer objects not being in focus. If you focus on an object about 10 to 15 feet away, the foreground will be sharper and you'll still get the background in focus thanks to depth of field.

Use flash creatively:

Generally, poor lighting conditions results in poor pictures. Usually you don’t need flash for normal daytime outdoor shots unless it's very gloomy. Keep in mind that flash has a very limited range so it should only be used when the subject is fairly close. Use fill flash to help lighten up a subject which in deep shadow.

It is best to avoid using flash indoors unless absolutely necessary: it tends to “burn out” subjects and can create harsh shadows. A better choice is to bounce the flash off the ceiling if your camera and flash support this option.

Another option is to let as much daylight in as possible and, turn on all of the lights. You have the option of using fill flash when there's enough light in the scene but your subject isn't well lit.

Under certain circumstances you might want to turn the flash off and let the camera deal with the low light condition by increasing exposure. This won't work in very dim conditions, but can give better results than flash. Be sure to guard against camera shake.

Experiment - experiment - experiment: 

People take good pictures not cameras. It's up to you to compose the shot carefully, making sure that the lighting is correct, etc. Digital cameras are great for this. You can experiment by taking as many test shots as you like using various camera settings, compositions, etc. You get instant feed back by way of the preview screen. If you don't like the shot, it can be deleted right away. "Practice Makes Perfect".

Buddhism and Its Spread Along the Silk Road

"There one sees a structure of an elevation prodigious in height; it is supported by gigantic pillars and covered with paintings of all the birds created by God. In the interior are two immense idols carved in the rock and rising from the foot of the mountains to the summit....One cannot see anything comparable to these statues in the whole world."

---Yakut describing Bamiyan in his geographical dictionary in 1218

Besides silk, paper and other goods, the Silk Road carried another commodity which was equally significant in world history. Along with trade and migration, the world's oldest international highway was the vehicle which spread Buddhism through Central Asia. The transmission was launched from northwestern India to modern Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, Xinjiang (Chinese Turkistan), China, Korea and Japan. Buddhism not only affected the lives and cultures on those regions but also left us with a world of wonders in arts and literature. (Figure on the right: Princes from Central Asian states in Lamentation, Dunhuang Cave 158. After Sakyamuni entered nirvana, princes of different Central Asian states gathered to express their grief, crying, beating their chests, piercing themselves with swords or knives, or cutting off their noses or ears. This painting not only depicts their devotions to Buddha, but also accurately presents the appearances, garments and customs of different nations along the Silk Road and the history of cultural exchange between them.)

Birth of Buddha and the Development of Buddhism in India
According to legend, the Buddha (The Awakened), or Gotama (Sanskrit) lived in northern India in the 6th century BC. Gotama was his family name and his personal name was Siddhattha in Pali language. He was born in a noble family and ancient lineage, the Sakyas. A title by which Siddhattha came to be known as 'the Sage of the Sakyas', Sakyamuni. To the West, he is known as the Buddha.
What is known of the Buddha's life is based mainly on the evidence of the canonical texts, the most extensive and comprehensive of which are those written in Pali, an ancient Indian language. According to the canon, Buddha's birth place was Lumbini, near the small city of Kapilavastu on the borders of Nepal and India. In his twenties, he renounced his life in the palace and left home in search of enlightenment after witnessing sights of suffering, sickness, aging and death. He achieved Enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and gave the first sermon at Sarnath. He spent his remaining life in travelling, teaching and spreading Buddhism.

It is not clear when the first Buddhist community was established in India. By the time of Buddha's death at the age of 80 he had become a famous and respected figure and had allies and supporters among rich and poor. In 484 BC, seven days after the Buddha's death at Kushinagara (modern Kasia), his body was cremated and the relics were divided equally among eight clans. Each of these built a sacred cairn over the relics, a form of memorial known in India as a stupa, which later became the focus for Buddhists' devotions. For the next two centuries, there was a steady growth of Buddhism in India.

Not long after the Buddha's death, the followers gathered at Rajagriha for the first general council. The second council was held in Vaishali one hundred years after the death of Buddha. The third one is said to be held in Pataliputra in the time of the Mauryan king Ashoka.

The Indian King Ashoka (273-232 BC), the grandson of the founder of the Mauryan dynasty, demonstrated his conversion to Buddhism by vigorously promulgating the religion across India. His edicts were carved on pillars of stone and wood, from Bengal to Afghanistan and into the south. He celebrated the distribution of the ashes of the Buddha, according to legend, placed inside 84,000 stupas. His best-known dedications are the Sarnath lion capital imprinted on India's currency and the Wheel of the Law at the center of the national flag of India. Ashoka's empire extended to the northwestern borders of the Punjab. The Buddhist monks were free to move throughout the whole area. As the result, the Buddhist community probably had reached the Hellenized neighbor, the Kushan/Bactrian kingdom, by the end of Ashoka's reign.

The Dissemination of Buddhism by Kushan/Bactria
The Kushans dominated the areas of Hindu Kush into Kabul, Gandhara, northern Pakistan and north-western India. They controlled the trade between India, China, Parthia and the Roman Empire. This provided an ideal medium for the further spread of Buddhism. From the 2th century BC to the 2nd century AD, Buddhism gradually developed in northwestern India and the great Kushan ruler, Kanishak reigned from 144-172, was converted. Under his influence, Gandhara, a Buddhist settlement, flourished and created a distinctive Graeco-Buddhist art form, which affected the arts in Central Asia and eastward in the first four centuries of our era, which is to be discussed later. According to Prof. A. Litvinskii, Buddhism had reached Merv and Parthia as early as Achaemenid times. The Mahavamsa, the Great Chronicle of Ceylon described that Parthian and Alexandrian delegates were in attendance at a Buddhist council held by King Duttha Gamani (108-77BC). With the extension of Kushan influence, Buddhism further penetrated the realm of the Parthians and Sassanians. Parthian's Buddhist faith was also confirmed by the Chinese records of the missions of the Parthian Buddhist preachers, An-Shih-Kao and An Hsuan during the 2nd century.

Bactria was introduced to Buddhism by the 1st century AD as suggested by the Buddhist settlement discovered at Airtam, 18 kilometers northwest of Termez. For the next few centuries Kushan/Bactrian Buddhist centers were expanded to Hadda, Bamiyan and Kondukistan. Among them the most important one is Bamiyan, 240 kilometers northwest of Kabul, Afghanistan. It became one of the greatest Buddhist monastic communities in all Central Asia by the 4th century. At the west stands the 53 meter Buddha (Figure on the left), still the largest statue in the world. With its strategic location at the intersection of roads to Persia, India, Tarim basin, and China, it developed an art style with a fusion of Iranian, Indian, Gandharan and local style into an independent mode of its own. This style of Buddhist art traveled eastward and was quickly adopted at Kizil, Xinjiang and ultimately Dunhuang. Buddhism reached the height of its power in the 8th and 9th centuries in Afghanistan before it fell to the Arabs.
In terms of the distribution of Buddhist schools, we rely on the travel accounts of the pilgrims and envoys. Hadda was a center of Hinayana (Small Vehicle). Bamiyan, described by Xuan Zang in the 7th century, practiced Hinayana Buddhism whereas by 727 AD, another visitor Hui-chao described the monastery devoting to Mahayana (Big Vehicle) Buddhism. Other centers such as Kapisa, Kakrak and Fondukistan seemed to also follow Mahayana Buddhism, from the evidence of their paintings and sculptures.

Buddhism in the Tarim Basin
We learn that by the 7th century all the small kingdoms of the Tarim region had been entirely won over to Buddhism, which brought with it so much of Indian culture that Sanskrit had become the religious language. As Buddhism advanced towards the Tarim basin, Kashgaria with Yarkand and Khotan in the west, Tumsuk, Aksu and Kizil in the north, Loulan, Karasahr and Dunhuang in the east, and Miran and Cherchen in the south became important centers of Buddhist art and thought. The Buddhist texts were translated from Sanskrit into various local Indo-European dialects such as Tocharian or Kuchean. By 658 Kucha developed to be a leading center of Hinayana Buddhism and the paintings were found at the cave temples of Kizil (near Kucha) (Figure on the right: Goddess and Celestial Musician, Wall-painting at Kizil cave. 600-605 AD) dated from the 1st to 8th centuries. The early art form in the Tarim area were strongly Indo-Persian in style, but Persian elements were gradually overlaid by the Chinese in the 6th century after Tang's power dominated the Tarim basin.

It is impossible to make any general rules about the precise schools of Buddhism that flourished in the Tarim basin, but the early pilgrims who traveled there gave some clues. Fa-hsien and Xuan Zang appeared to indicate that most of the kingdoms such as Kashgar, Kizil, Karashahr and Kucha on the northern route followed the Hinayana Vehicle whereas Mahayana flourished along the southern route including the kingdoms of Khotan and Yarkand.
 
The Nomads Established the Buddhist Faith in the Steppes
The information on how the nomads adopted Buddhism is fragmentary but the Chinese seemed to indicate that Buddhism penetrated Hun, or Xiongnu (Early Hun), as early as the 2nd century BC. The Xiongnu lost few major battles at Hexi Corridor (Gansu province) and surrendered to Han general Ho. It was reported that the Xiongnu chief Kun-hsieh offered General Ho a golden statue called "Great Divinity". The statue was later placed in the Kanchuan Temple. People burned incense and worshipped him. This incident seems to indicate that the conversion to Buddhism had taken place among the Xiongnu at an early stage of Buddhism.

Buddhism certainly had a strong effect on some other lives in the steppes. Grousset has pointed out that once a nomadic tribe adopted the Buddhist faith, they no longer possessed tough barbaric and soldierly qualities. Eventually they lost their nomadic identity and were absorbed by the civilized neighbors. This can demonstrated by the Tobgatch Turks or the Toba, whose empire extended to Mongolia and northern China. From 386-534, they controlled northern China under the Northern Wei dynasty. These eastern Turks had contact with Chinese Buddhism early on. Some of the Turkic emperors were foremost patrons of Buddhism. In 471 Toba king Hung was so devoted to Buddhism that he had his son become a monk. This son, Toba king Hung II (471-499), was equally devoted to Buddhism and under his influence he introduced a more humane legislation. By the time he moved his capital from Pingcheng in Jehol to the south, Loyang in 494, he and his Turkic people have been completely sinicized. At his instigation, work began on the famous Buddhist Longmen caves, south of Loyang. According to Chinese sources, Turkish Buddhist temples were erected for the Turkish ruler, Mu-han (553-572) in Ch'angan and other places during Northern Chou dynasty (556-581). Mu-han's successor and younger brother Tapar Qayan (To-po, 572-581) was also devotee to Buddhism and erected a Buddhist temple. In 680 Eastern Turks, the kingdom of Kok-Turks (682-745) disassociated themselves from Chinese Buddhism and returned to their nomadic native life style and religion.

The next time Buddhist activities were seen in this area were by the Uighur Turks who became masters of the steppes around 745. Around 840 the Uighur Turks were driven out from Mongolia and many settled in the area of the northern Tarim oases, mainly Turfan from 850 to 1250. They practiced Manichaeism but quickly abandoned it in favor of the local Buddhist faith. In the early 20th century, much Turkish Buddhist literature was discovered in Turfan, Hami and Dunhuang. At the end of 10th century, a Chinese envoy, Wang Yen-te, found in Kaochang (near Turfan) a flourishing Buddhist culture with some fifty Buddhist convents and a library of Chinese Buddhists texts. Turfan remained the main center of Turkish Buddhism until the end of the 15th century when its ruler converted to Islam.

As for the Western Turks, who came in power in the steppes during the middle of 8th century, we have the records that they established Buddhist sanctuaries in the Kapisa (Begram) area. When the Chinese Buddhist monk Wu-kung visited Gandhara between 759-764, he found there Buddhist temples, which as he believed, were built by the Turkish kings. Even though their empire stretched far to the Sassanian border and may have included some Buddhist communities, little is known of their Buddhist activities.

While the Mongols were controlling the Silk Road, Kublai Khan clearly showed his preference for Buddhism even though most of the Mongol kingdoms converted to Islam. Buddhist doctrine was expounded by Na-mo, who won the debate with Taoists in 1258. Marco Polo tell us that Kublai Khan accorded a magnificent ceremonial reception to the relics of the Buddha, sent him by the raja of Ceylon. Most of Kublai's successors were equally fervent Buddhists. Khaishan Khan (1307-1311) had many Buddhist texts translated into Mongolian.

Buddhism Introduced to China from the Silk Road
It is not certain when Buddhism reached China, but with the Silk Road opened in the second century BC, missionaries and pilgrims began to travel between China, Central Asia and India. The record described that Chang Ch'ien, on his return from Ta-hsia (Ferghana) in the 2nd century BC, heard of a country named Tien-chu (India) and their Buddhist teaching. This is probably the first time a Chinese heard about Buddhism. A century later, a Buddhist community is recorded at the court of a Han prince. However the most famous story is the Han emperor Mingdi's dream about Buddha. In 68 AD, Mingdi sent his official Cai Yin to Central Asia to learn more about Buddhism after a vision of a golden figure appeared to him in a dream. The next morning he asked his ministers what the dream meant and was told that he had seen the Buddha - the god of the West. Cai Yin returned after 3 years in India and brought back with him not only the images of Buddha and Buddhist scriptures but also two Buddhist monks named She-mo-teng and Chu-fa-lan to preach in China. This was the first time that China had Buddhist monks and their ways of worship. A few years later, a Buddhist community was established in Loyang, the capital, itself. From then on, the Buddhist community grew continuously. They introduced the sacred books, texts and most importantly the examples of Buddhist art, never before seen in China. In 148 AD, a Parthian missionary, An Shih-kao arrived China. He set up a Buddhist temple at Loyang and began the long work of the translation of the Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. The work of scripture translation continued until the 8th century when access to Central Asia and India by land was cut off by the Arabs. In 166 AD Han Emperor Huan formally announced Buddhism by having Taoist and Buddhist ceremonies performed in the palace. The unrest situation in China at the end of the Han dynasty was such that people were in a receptive mood for the coming of a new religion.

During the 4th century, Kumarajiva, a Buddhist from Central Asia organized the first translation bureau better than anything that had existed before in China. He and his team translated some 98 works from many languages into Chinese, of which 52 survive and are included in the Buddhist canon. By around 514, there were 2 million Buddhists in China. Marvelous monasteries and temples were built and the work of translating the scriptures into Chinese was undertaken with great industry.

Buddhism in China reached its apogee during the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907). Popular forms of Buddhism percolated down to the ordinary folk. A fully sinicized Buddhist religion and art. (Figure on the right: Buddha preaching to his disciples. Silk banner from the Dunhuang cave, 8th century) emerged and spread into Korea, and thence into Japan by the end of the sixth century. However in 845 a persecution of Buddhists in China had 4600 temples destroyed and 260,500 monks and nuns defrocked; this was a severe setback Buddhism.

While numerous pilgrims arrived China from the West, Chinese Buddhist pilgrims were sent to India during different times and the accounts which some of them have left of their travels in the Silk Road provide valuable evidence of the state of Buddhism in Central Asia and India from the 4th to the 7th centuries. Some of the more famous Chinese pilgrims were Fa-hsien (399 to 414), Xuan-zang (629-645), and I-tsing (671-695).

Decline of Buddhism
The decline of Buddhism along the Silk Road was due to the collapse of the Tang Dynasty in the East and the invasion of Arabs in the West. The conversion to Islam started in the 8th century in Central Asia. Since Islam condemned the iconography, most of the Buddhist statues and wall-paintings were damaged or destroyed. Buddhist temples and stupas were abandoned and buried beneath the sand. By the 15th century, the entire Central Asia basin had been converted to Islam.

Buddhist Art and its Impact
It is impossible to talk about Buddhism without mentioning its profound impact on the development of Central Asian art. It is through those artworks that a fusion of eastern and western cultures was demonstrated. The art of Buddhism left the world the most powerful and enduring monuments along the Silk Road, and among them, some of the most precious Buddhist sculptures, paintings and murals. Furthermore the contact with the Hellenized Gandharan culture resulted in the development of a new art form, the Buddha statue, sometimes referred as a Buddha image. Before Buddhism reached Gandhara in the 3rd century BC, there had been no representation of the Buddha, and it was in the Gandharan culture that the use of Buddha images had begun. The earliest Buddha images resembled the Greek god Apollo. (Figure on the left: Buddha image, Gandhara, 2-3 century) It has been suggested by the scholars that the earliest Buddha images in Gandhara were created by the local Greeks who carried their classic artistic conception and Indianized it by transforming it into the figure of the Greek-featured Buddha, dressed in a toga and seated in the yoga pose. The Gandhara style represented a union of classical, Indian, and Iranian elements continued in Afghanistan and the neighboring regions throughout most of the first millennium until the end of the 8th century.

Though it was largely as a result of Greek influence that Gandhara became the center of development in Buddhist sculpture, it was on the Indian foundation from which Buddhist architecture evolved. The development of Buddhism along the Silk Road resulted in a proliferation of monasteries, grottoes, vishanas and stupas throughout the entire Buddhist communities. However the cave temples hold the most unique position in the development of Buddhist architecture. The Buddhists' devotion was deeply reflected by the wall paintings of its rock-cut caves. From Gandhara, Bamyin, Kumtura, Kizil, to Bezeklik, and Dunhuang, the Buddhist artists, with arduous labor , created the most impressive wall paintings of cave temples dedicated to the Buddha, his saints, and his legend. They present us an astonishing pageant of local societies with kings, queens, knights, ladies, monks and artists. Aside from their artistic values, those cave temples provide us with an immense amount of historical information. The portraits of Kizil donors with light complexions, blue eyes, and blond or reddish hair teach us they are more Indo-European than Mongol in appearance. The processions of Uighur prince and princess from Dunhuang illustrate how Uighurs dressed in the 9th century. It is from these wall paintings that we can have a glance at the lives and cultures of these fascinating but vanished ancient peoples.


Timeline on the Buddhist Activities Along the Silk Road

Periods	Events
560s BC	Buddha's birth
484 BC	Buddha's death
484-494	The First Council in Rajagriha.
350-300	The second Council in Vaishali.
272-231	Buddhism flourished in India under king Ashoka.
272-231	Missionary activity started under Ashoka's reign.
272-231	The first known carving of monumental shrines into the sides of mountains appeared in Bihar, India
250	The Third council of Buddhist monks met at Patna in Ashoka's reign.
100BC-200AD	Buddhism flourished in Kushan.
0-100AD	Mahayana school appeared.
0s	Buddhist settlement in Airtam-Termez, Bactria
100	Gandhara art school flourished. Artform of Buddha images introduced from Gandhara. The site was destroyed by Hephthalites in 6th century.
144-172	Kushan ruler, Kanishka disseminated Buddhism.
148	An Shih-kao, a Parthian missionary arrived China. Scriptures translations.
170	Chu-sho-fu, an Indian missionary arrived China. Scripture translations.
181	An Hsuan, Parthian missionary arrived China.
200s	Buddhist shrine at Giaur Kala (Merv).
223-253	Che K'ien Yueh-chih missionary translated several Buddhist writings into Chinese in China.
300s	Buddhist stupa at Merv.
300s	Buddhist settlements at Hadda, Afghanistan. Destroyed by the Hephthalites in 450.
300s	Buddhist community established and the world's largest statue of 53-memter Buddha created at Bamiyan. The site was destroyed by Genghis Khan in 1222, but the statues remain.
300s	Sassano-Buddhic art seen Kabul valley and penetrated into the Tarim basin.
300s	Anti-Buddhist propaganda of Varahran IIs adviser, Kartir, the Mazdean evangelist in Sasania (Persia).
344-413	Kumarajiva, Indian pilgrim, built the largest Buddhist text translation bureau in China.
366	Mogao caves started in Dunhuang.
395-414	Fa-hsien's pilgrimage to India.
450-750	Buddhist caves started in Kizil, Xinjiang
446	Persecution of Buddhism by Toba Turkic king
450-494	Yunkang cave temples
494	Buddhism again adopted by Toba Turkic King Hung II. Buddhist crypts of Longmen started. Gupta kingdom in India. Strong Buddhist faith and art development.
500s	strong Buddhist faith in the Tarim basin, especially Kucha - religious culture developed.
515-528	Queen Hu of Toba sent the Buddhist pilgrim Sung Yun to northwestern India.
520	Sung Yun's pilgrimage to India. passed through Lob Nor, Khotan, the Pamirs, and Hephthalite Huns in Badakhshan, Udiyana and Gandhara.
520	Persecution of Buddhism in Gupta empire by the invading Hephthalites
553-582	Muhan
550s	Paramartha, an Indian, lived in China and translated some seventy works.
629-644	Xuan Zang's pilgrimage to India.
682-745	Kok Turks abandoned Buddhism and returned to nomadic religion.
800s	Buddhist Uighur kingdom appeared in Turfan until 1250.
845	Persecuation of Buddhists in China.
1258	Buddhist debated with Taoist and won in Kublai Khan's court.
1307-1311	Translation of many Buddhist texts into Mongolian.

Central Asian Translators Working in China (to 316 AD)
K=Kuchean; Kh=Khotanese; P=Parthian; S=Sogdian; Y=Yueh-chih

Names	Periods
An Shih-kao (P)	Parthian prince 148-170
An Hsuan (P)	Parthian merchant who became a monk in China 181
Lokaksema (Y)	167-186
Chih-yao (Y)	Yueh-chih origins; 185
K'ang Meng-hsiang (S)	Forefathers from K'ang-chu; 194-207
Chih Ch'ien (Y)	Grandfather had settled in China during 168-190;220-252
Chih Yueh (Y)	worked at Nanjing; 230
K'ang Seng-hui (S)	born in Chiao-chih in extreme south a Chinese empire, son of Sogdian merchant; 247-280
Tan-ti (P)	Parthian origins; 254
Po Yen (K)	Kuchean prince; 259
Dharmaraksa (Y)	Family had lived for generations at Dunhuang; 265-313
An Fa-chi'in (P)	Parthian origins; 281-306
Po Srimitra (K)	Kuchean prince; 317-322

Blood: the global need for donation

Blood transfusion — the process of transferring blood or blood components from one person into another — treats massive blood loss due to trauma or replaces blood lost during surgery. It's also used to treat people suffering from conditions such as severe anemia caused by a blood disease, such as hemophilia, sickle-cell anemia and thalassemia.

(Photo - A nurse inserts a needle into a donor at a JCAA Blood donation camp  in Brampton)

The early history of blood transfusion was dominated by trial and error. Mostly error.

So many people died after receiving the earliest recorded transfusions in the mid-17th century that the practice was banned in several European countries. Back then, doctors often used small quantities of the blood of animals, believing there was some benefit to inter-species blood exchange. Several of those early human patients survived, probably because the small quantity of blood used kept any reactions to a minimum.

International blood factoids

• Over 80 million units of blood are donated every year around the world.
• Only 38% is collected in developing countries where 82% of the global population live.
• More than half a million women die every year from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth worldwide — 99% of them are in developing countries. Hemorrhage, which accounts for 25% of the complications, is the most common cause of maternal death.
• Up to 70% of all blood transfusions in Africa are given to children with severe anemia due to malaria, which accounts for about one in five of all childhood deaths in Africa.

Transfusion remained a risky proposition until the early 20th century, when scientists discovered that people had different blood types and mixing some types could lead to a fatal reaction. Another discovery — that refrigerated blood treated with special preservatives could be stored and used days later — made transfusion a viable treatment method.

Today, most blood transfusions do not involve whole blood but one or several of the components that make up blood. Blood is a mixture of cells and liquid, and each component performs specific tasks.

• Red blood cells carry oxygen to the body's tissues. They remove carbon dioxide. These cells comprise up to 45 per cent of your blood.
• White blood cells are the immune system's main defence against infection. They make up less than one per cent of your blood.
• Platelets are cell fragments that clot, which helps to prevent and control bleeding. Platelets make up five per cent of your blood.
• Plasma is a straw-coloured liquid that is 90 per cent water. It is vital to your survival. It provides the transportation system for blood cells. Without plasma, the cells would not be able to do their work. Besides water, plasma also contains dissolved salts and minerals like calcium, sodium, magnesium, and potassium. Plasma also carries microbe-fighting antibodies that fight disease, and makes up about 55 per cent of our blood.

The average adult carries about five litres of blood. The average unit of donated blood is half a litre.

Blood types

The eight major types of blood (and the percentage of the population that have them) are:

• O positive (about 38%)
• O negative (about 7%)
• A positive (about 34%)
• A negative (about 6%)
• B positive (about 9%)
• B negative (about 2%)
• AB positive (about 3%)
• AB negative (about 1%)

People who are O negative can donate blood to anyone. People who are AB positive can receive blood from anyone.

Blood cells are produced by bone marrow. Some cancer patients may need transfusions to build up red blood cell counts that have been reduced by chemotherapy, which can interfere with the ability of bone marrow to produce red blood cells. People suffering from hemophilia, a disease that affects their blood's ability to clot, may require plasma or the clotting factors contained in plasma to help their blood clot and prevent internal bleeding.

While the science of blood transfusion has advanced, there remain risks to the procedure. They include:

• Fever, which can be caused by a reaction between the recipient's immune system and immune cells in the donor blood.
• Allergic reactions like hives or itching sometimes happen because of a reaction between the recipient's immune system and proteins in the donated blood. These are usually mild but can be severe enough to force doctors to stop the transfusion.
• Hemolytic reaction, or the destruction of red blood cells, occurs when the donated blood and the patient's blood are not a match. This can be life-threatening. It's also extremely rare as health-care professionals go to great lengths to make sure that blood types are compatible before the transfusion.

There are other risks, like the transmission of certain diseases, including HIV, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and Lyme disease. (For a complete list, go to the Public Health Agency of Canada.)

Since November 1985, all blood collected in Canada has been screened for HIV and other communicable diseases. It's estimated that the risk of contracting HIV from donated blood is now 1 in 2.1 million. In the mid-1980s, that risk was 1 in 16,000. The risk of contracting hepatitis C is estimated at 1 in 1.9 million.

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and Héma-Québec are responsible for collecting blood and administering the blood supply in Canada. The two agencies supply hospitals with well over 1.2 million units of blood a year. They strive to maintain a six-day supply of blood but periodically they fall below that.

'There just isn't going to be enough blood for all the procedures that patients need'—Dr. Graham Sher

On Oct. 29, 2008, CBS issued an urgent appeal for donors, saying the blood supply had fallen to just a two-day supply. Dr. Graham Sher, an official with the CBS national office in Ottawa, said donations had dropped 40 per cent over the previous two months.

"Demand for blood continues to outstrip our ability to collect it and if that continues, we're going to get into a very difficult situation where there just isn't going to be enough blood for all the procedures that patients need."

While the agencies do appeal for more blood donors from time to time, an October appeal is uncommon. Normally, the blood supply drops off during the summer, when people take holidays and donors are scarce.

CBS and Héma-Québec have established basic criteria that blood donors must meet before they can give blood. They include that you must:

• Be between 17 and 71 years old to be a regular donor (17 to 61 to be a first-time donor).
• Weigh at least 50 kg (110 pounds).
• Be in general good health and feeling well when you donate.
• Complete a screening questionnaire.

Certain people are not allowed to donate at all. They include:

• People who lived in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Niger and Nigeria who may have been exposed to a new strain of HIV.
• People who received a blood transfusion while visiting those countries or who have had sex with someone who lived there.
• People who spent three months or more in Britain or France between 1980 and 1996. They may have been exposed to variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
• All men who have had sex with another man, even once, since 1977. CBS argues that statistics show men who have sex with men are at greater risk for HIV/AIDS infection than other people.
• Anyone who has taken illegal drugs intravenously.
• Diabetics who are treated with insulin.

If you've recently had part of your body tattooed or pierced, you're also excluded as a blood or bone marrow donor, but for only six months. If you've given blood and want to donate again, you have to wait at least 56 days.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 65 countries do not test all donated blood for HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis. Tainted blood still accounts for as much as five per cent of HIV infections in Africa. The WHO estimates that six million tests that should be done for infections in donated blood are not carried out.