Asian Century or Asian Millennium?

This is no place for an essay on Vedic religion but it is worthwhile describing one deity Agni -fire; the sacred flame that lifted sacrifices to heaven, the lightning and the fiery life and spirit of the world that was essential to all ceremony and ritual. 218 of the 1028 Rigveda hymns are dedicated to Agni and the first hymnbegins with an invocation to him. Since the correct pronunciation of the Rigveda was an essential aspect of the ceremonial chants Agni was the first deity committed to memory and the first word recited.

The 30 Rigveda manuscripts held at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute were written on birch bark and paper in the Sharada and Devanagari scripts, the oldest of them dating to 1464. By then Vedic ritual had transformed into Hindu tradition and the Rigveda had become a sacred text. Changed from a spirit to a humanized image in Hindu mythology, Agni's form - luminous, red, two headed, with six black eyes, seven tongues, seven arms, three legs and a body that emitted seven rays of light - revealed his control over earthly and cosmic realms. Such a fabulous creature changed into a deva who inhabited the celestial regions of the Buddhist universe when Ashoka, Emperor of India's Mauryan Dynasty (272-231 BC), converted. From India Buddhism travelled north to the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet, through Central Asia to China, Korea and Japan, and south to Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. In Buddhist imagery flames surround Agni, the guardian of the hearth and the Southeast direction.

Another fallen leaf is recovered from the cave floor: The Golden History or Lu Altan Tobchi, nominated by Mongolia and inscribed in the International Register in 2011. Handwritten in 1651 by historian, GüüshLubsandanzan, using a bamboo pen and black ink on muutuu paper, the Golden History is the only surviving original manuscript in Mongolian vertical script, the first writing system for the Mongolian language. The work incorporates most of the 13^th century Secret History – which records the founding myth and genealogy of Mongol clan chieftains – and ends with the death of the Northern Yuan chief Ligdan Khan in 1634. Home to the major political, trade, cultural and religious centres of successive nomadic empires, the Orkhon River Valley in central Mongolia served as a crossroads of civilizations, influencing societies across Eurasia. Its strategic location was the main factor that determined the shape and extent of Mongolian territorial expansion, which at its height was the largest continuous land empire in the history of the world.

Mongolian history begins with the birth of Bataciqan, son of a bluish wolf and a fallow deer, at the head of the Onan river at Mount Burqan Qaldun. Thirteen generations later Temujin or Chinggis Khan was born. Chinggis conquered the Suddites, Tartars, Oyirads, Buryals, Boryans, Ursuds, Qabqanas, Qangqas, Tubas, Kirgisuds, Kereyids, Naiman, Tumads, Kitads, Sarta'uls, Tang'uds and Merkids. His language was one of rebuke, admonition, decree and submission. His weapons were quivers, bows, bone-tipped arrows, spears, knives, swords, axes and lances. Princes, ambassadors, captains, quiver bearers, stewards, night guards, day guards, servants and cooks surrounded him. Whether journeying or at rest life took place in tents with felt doors and we become familiar with leather pails holding curds and camel carts packed with wool. Herd and hunting animals include milk mares, white geldings, wolves, deer, black sables, marmots, squirrels, sheep, goats, mules, oxen, pheasants and falcons. Seized booty includes gold, silver, brocades, damasks, silks and pearls.

In 1206 Chinggis Khan unified the Mongol nationality. Proclaimed Great Khan he established court, administrative and military protocols that served as a model for later rulers: he appointed loyal relatives as his captains and allocated the lands and peoples they would rule. Before his death in 1227 he transferred his authority to his third son, Ogodei. Pope Innocent IV sent the Franciscan Giovanni de Plano Carpini to the Mongol capital Kharakharom in 1245. Travelling on horseback for 106 days through Bohemia, Poland, Russia and Bulgaria and then along the network of urtege or messenger post stations identified by Ogodei as one of his four achievements (the others being the destruction of the Jarad people, brick lined water wells and a spy network) his arrival coincided with the appointment of the third Great Khan, Guyuk. Carpini was taken to the Khan's golden Orda or court in Kharakharom where he was received along with 4000 ambassadors paying tribute. By 1254 his successor, Mongke, controlled vassal states that connected Eastern Europe to the Chinese coast. The fabled Kublai Khan was proclaimed Great Khan in 1260after displacing his younger brother although the internecine rivalry that surrounded this decision lead to the fragmentation of the empire. The Golden Horde khanate in Eastern Europe, the Chagatai khanate in Central Asia and the Ilkhanate in Persia later recognized the power of Kublai's Great Khanate (Yuan Dynasty), a unified Mongolia and China, achieved whenHangzhou fell in 1276.

Western fascination with the riches of the Orient was cemented when Marco Polo, a Venetian, who reached Kublai's court in 1291 and remained there for seventeen years, published his Travels. Polo's detailed description of Dadu, the Yuan capital, with its great palaces and lofty rooms adorned with gold and silver ceilings, its high defensivewall extending six miles in each direction, its 12,000 horse guards and large central gate that remained closed to all except the Great Khan was matched by descriptions of island kingdoms he visited on his return voyage (1290-1295). Which European power could resist trying to find Java, for example, an island frequented by a vast amount of shipping, and by merchants who buy and sell costly goods, black pepper, nutmegs, spikenard, galingale, cubebs, cloves, and all other kinds of spices from which they reap great profit. Indeed the treasure of this Island is so great as to be past telling?

Christopher Columbus made emendations to his copy of Polo's Travels before his first voyage to the East Indies in 1492 although this is not the next leaf to get whipped up by the wind. Rather it is the Castilian and Portuguese versions of the Treaty of Tordesillas, signed by Isabella I, Queen of Castile, Ferdinand V, King of Aragon and John II, King of Portugal on 7 June 1494. These royal parchments were nominated by Spain and Portugal and inscribed in the International Register in 2007. The driving force behind the Treaty was the need to establish a new demarcation line between the two crowns, running from pole to pole, 370 leagues to the west of Cape Verde islands effectively enablingKing Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to claim the non Christian lands discovered by Spanish ships west of the line, while John II could claim non Christian lands discovered by Portuguese ships east of the line.

What followed was Iberian hegemony over a large part of the world. The Treaty of Tordesillas effectively divided religious and political power into two spheres: Portuguese navigators reached India in 1498. They claimed territory and established ports along the west and east African coasts, India, Ceylon, Malacca, the Moloccas, Timor, Banda Islands, Ambon Island and Seram. The Spanish took control of the Caribbean islands and Bahamas and the northeast coast of South America from Panama to the Orinoco River. During the sixteenth century trade in spices and slaves made Portugal rich. Aztec and Peruvian gold and silver did likewise for Spain. Lands were bought, sold and traded so that the possessions conformed to the meridian 370 leagues to the west of Cape Verde Islands. Other treaties followed but the legacy of conquered lands reminds us of the Treaty's audacious nature: dividing the world into two and profiting from the division.

By the seventeenth century Asiatic trade was well established and English and Dutch armed merchant fleets were in competition to supply the rapidly emerging market in luxury goods, furniture and accessories. Of all the fashions in the decorative arts that have swept Europe, that for chinoiserie – bamboo, fretwork, tea wood, sophisticated colour combinations, glazed tiles, cloisonné, lacquer wares, porcelains, silks and wallpapers in the Chinese idiom – was the most long lived. But what fuelled this mania? When the wind abates and the next leaf falls it reveals an architectural and decorative arts archive that is impressive for its scope and design detail. The Yangshi Lei archive was nominated by China and inscribed in the International Register in 2011.Seven generations of Lei Jinyu's family acted as architects for Qing emperors: Kangxi (1662-1722) Yongzheng (1723-1735) and Qianlong (1736-1795). Recognized for their outstanding architectural achievements the Lei family was honorifically known as the Yangshi Lei.

Strategically located between the Yellow River plain and the mountainous regions to the north Beijing has been occupied since prehistoric times. It developed into a busy trading centre; it was the site of the Khitan and Jurched capitals, Yanking and Zhong du. Zhong du was razed to the ground during the struggles between the Jurched and the Mongols.Kublai Khan created his capital Dadu on the site in 1260. In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty when the peasant uprising he led drove the Mongols north of the Great Wall.In 1403 the third Ming emperor, Yong le, moved the Ming capital from Nanking to Dadu. He named it Beijing - the northern capital - and encircled it in new defensive walls effectively giving the capital the appearance of a double city (a large section of Dadu was left outside the walls and to the south the walls were extended). In Yong le's reign the Imperial Palace was rearranged and the Temple of Heaven and the Altar of Agriculture were built in the outer city. In 1644 when the revolutionary army leader, Li Zicheng, entered Beijing and overthrew the Ming Dynasty, he in turn was soon overcome. The Manchu (Tartar) armies, in collusion with Han officials and landlords, captured Beijing, suppressed the uprising and founded the Qing Dynasty that was to last until 1911.

Under successive Qing reigns Beijing developed in complexity. In the middle of the city was the Emperor's residence - theImperial Palace or Purple Forbidden City. Purple, symbolically attributed to the North Star, was used to show that the Imperial residence was a cosmic centre inhabited by the Son of Heaven - a role claimed by Chinese emperors. It contained buildings for official occasions, private apartments and courtyards connected by gates and bridges. Surrounding the Imperial Palace was a larger enclosure known as the Imperial City. All the guilds that worked on the upkeep of the Imperial Palace were lodged there (stone-masons, carpenters, brick-makers, joiners, painters) as well as those in charge of supplies to the court (food, clothes, handicrafts). The Imperial City contained horticultural gardens, lakes, military grounds, stables, vegetable gardens, granaries, storehouses, schools and residences for princes, high officials and the palace guard. The Imperial City was both a commercial and administrative hub comprising buildings linked to imperial office, the ministries and their dependencies. Surrounding the Imperial City was the inner Manchu or Tartar city. It was divided into eight districts each belonging to one of the eight banners or military units. The populous outer Chinese city was located to the south of the inner city. Enclosed within its walls were workshops and produce, mule, meat, flower, jewel and pearl markets. The profusion of gates that regulated the entry of supplies (wood, water, grain, wine and coal)and the exit of waste (including the dead, condemned prisoners, refuse and night soil) was a feature of the Yuan capital.

The archive's 20,000 architectural and engineering drawings, documents, plans and models are worked in paint, ink-brush or charcoal on paper and wood. Technically they document the use of a grid system, layered images, direct parallelism and perspective shadowing.It should be no surprise that the Yangshi Lei were connected with the restoration, redesign or construction of one-fifth of China's current World Cultural Heritage Sites: the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Gardens, the sumptuous Summer Palace, the Altar of Heaven, the Chengde Mountain Palace and the Eastern and Western Qing Mausoleums. The golden age of the Qing court not only filled the cargo holds of merchant ships with export wares but extended Western design vocabulary. It was the source of the exuberant ornamentation that graced stately palaces and homes and lingers today in the ubiquitous Chinatown decorative gate.