Asia
From the tranquil gardens of Japan to the busy streets of Baghdad, meet the women of Asia a thousand years ago.
July 2018
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Niguma
Kaimur Range, India A yogini, or female master of yoga, who chose a radical lifestyle of tantric Buddhism. She helped found the Shangpa Kagyu school, and her teachings had a profound influence on the development of Tibetan Buddhism. |
November 2018
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Empress Chengtian
Lake Baiyang, China Empress of the semi-nomadic Liao Empire for thirty years. Her military victories included invasions of Korea and China, and she was the first foreign leader to successfully demand tribute from the Song Emperor. |
May 2019
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Ama
Toba, Japan A specially trained diver who free dove off the coast of Japan. Her most prized find was the abalone shell which would be sold for use in the imperal shrines. |
June 2019
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Sahiqat
Baghdad, Iraq A lesbian couple relaxes inside to cool off on a hot summer's day in the world's largest city. Medical and literary texts from the Islamic Golden Age reveal a nuanced attitude towards women who loved women. |
December 2019
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Mahendradatta
Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia The queen Mahendradatta prays before an icon of Durga, Hindu goddess of war, whose worship she introduced to Bali. She ruled with at least as much authority as her husband and accelerated the Hinduization of the island, bringing in holy men from Java to spread their teachings. |
January 2020
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Miss Zeng
Taiyuan, China A young girl reads Chinese history while her cats provide her with pleasant company. In later life she will be renowned for her ability to debate and discuss historical issues at least as well as the male scholars of her age. |
April 2020
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High Priestess Senshi
Kamigamo Shrine, Japan Senshi, an imperial princess, leads the Kamo Festival as part of her duties as Kamo High Priestess. Her heart belongs to Buddhism, however, and though she is forbidden from saying the Buddha's name, she looks silently to his abode in the west. |
June 2020
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Kokannon
Eguchi, Japan Kokannon, an asobi singer and prostitute, approaches the boat of Fujiwara Michinaga, the most powerful man in Japan. By entertaining Michinaga and his sister, the Empress Dowager, she will bring her community an incredible influx of rice as payment for her services. |
July 2020
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Duong Vân Nga and Lê Thį Phât Ngân
Duyen Ninh, Vietnam The empress of Vietnam and her daughter rest in the temple where the princess just gave birth to a future emperor. Both women played key political roles in bringing their husbands to power during the early years of Vietnam's independence from China. |
November 2020
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Karīma al-Marwaziyya
Mecca, Saudi Arabia A muhadditha, or female scholar of the hadīth, begins a lesson with an eager student. Having travelled all over West Asia, she has now settled in Mecca to share her knowledge with students and pilgrims from across the Islamic world. |
January 2021
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Sembiyan Mahādevi and Kundavai Pirāttiyār
Sembiyan Mahādevi, India A Chola queen and princess dance before the image of Shiva as Lord of the Dance. Sembiyan Mahādevi had the temple built in her unprecedented programme of artistic patronage across the Chola dynasty's territories. |
May 2021
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Lady Yeli, Lady Wang, and the Yicheng Princess
Yulin, Shaanxi, China Three wives of Li Jiqian pray together. While Lady Wang and the Yicheng Princess are familiar with Buddhism, Lady Yeli is less sure of herself. Lady Wang's Buddhism had a monumental influence on the future of the Western Xia Empire. |
June 2021
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The Migraineur of Nishapur
Nishapur, Iran A woman soaks her limbs in the waters of the hammam. The bath and the cold compress on her forehead are parts of a migraine treatment recommended by the best of Persian doctors. Nishapur was home to many women who were active in the city's cosmopolitan intellectual climate. |
January 2022
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Ladies Li, Liu and Yang
Kaifeng, China Three palace women gather on a spring day in a garden in the women's quarters. Consorts of Emperor Zhenzong, they will all be named empress one day. But only one of them, Empress Liu, would govern over China, rising to the highest power in the empire from lowly origins as an entertainer and prostitute. |
January 2022
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Queen Heonae
Kaesong, North Korea The queen dowager of the Goryeo kingdom attends the Lantern Festival astride her horse. She ruled Korea during a time of tentative peace with its enemies, but her personal ambitions may have been responsible for that peace being torn apart. |
April 2022
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Hrugs 'or za
Tsaprang, Tibet A wealthy woman from the Hrugs wer clan looks out from the summer palace's balcony in Tsaparang. Along with other aristocratic Tibetan laywomen, she patronized the monasteries at Tabo and Tholing, helping to launch the second diffusion of Buddhism in western Tibet. |
May 2022
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Bharima
Chittagong, Bangladesh A yogini shares her song of enlightenment while pounding sesame seeds into oil. Her origins as a prostitute from an untouchable caste didn't prevent her from becoming a master of tantra, a radical Buddhist sect that rejected the caste system. |
October 2022
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The Rice Farmers of Yamashiro
Kyoto, Japan A group of women sing together while transplanting rice seedlings into the summer paddies. They joke together about how the song of the hototogisu bird is the reason they have to start working so hard. A scandalized Sei Shōnagon looks on with horror as they sing so scathingly about a bird she values for its poetic associations. |
April 2023
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Prana
Angkor, Cambodia Sitting proudly astride an elephant, the stepmother of the king and the chief of his private secretaries rides through a royal procession. Prana was a member of the influential Saptadevakula family and propelled her family to the highest echelons of power through her role in the government of the Khmer Empire. |
May 2023
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The Woman in the Window
Tashkent, Uzbekistan A woman looks out a lancet window into a spring garden. Her clothing and hair show a mix of Turkish and Sogdian styles, reflecting the integration of two very different cultures following the Turkish conquest of cities on the Silk Road. |
October 2023
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Taung Pyinthe, Ale Pyinthe, and Myauk Pyinthe
Bagan, Myanmar Three sisters, all queens of the Pagan Kingdom, gather in the palace courtyard. The king has just been assassinated, and the two eldest sisters, pregnant with his sons, debate whether to accept the usurper as king. |
November 2023
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Tusukur
Mt. Rebun, Japan A masked shaman dances while two drummers play beside her. Their music will help her enter a trance where she channels a kamuy spirit or deity. Women played an important role in shamanism in the Okhotsk culture of Northeast Asia. |
March 2024
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Nomolun
Transbaikal, Russia A Mongol khatun arrives in her ox-cart to meet the refugees who have torn up her fields in search of food. Medieval historians tell conflicting stories of how she responded to the refugees, leaving this ancestress of Genghis Khan with an ambivalent legacy. |