西螕: I'll close this with a true story that has a deeper logic than what it appears to say. Tolerance in diversity is one of the key boasts of the modernist racket. In the good old days, before the huge machinery of Western power obsessions began to grind east like Godzilla, and mangle its way mercilessly through dozens of traditional worlds, demanding they take sides, kill each other ad majorem civitatis gloriam, adopt modernizing ideologies, and be useful to London, Paris, Berlin, Washington and Moscow by yielding up their dowry of oil, really odd things (not really) would happen that are inconceivable in our embittered, rankled world now. Ignác Goldziher would certainly have understood it. A devoutly Christian ancestor of Anthony Shadid, to cite one unforgettable example, lived in a Greek Orthodox village, Marjayoun just north of Palestine, side by side with a small but devout Sunni minority, and on occasion the fellow would ascend the minaret and do the muezzin a favour by sharing the burden and singing out over the town the prayers of his Muslim neighbours. His voice was famous for its sweet, powerful euphony, and the gesture, lending his gift to the faith of a minority, secured a conviviality we can no longer imagine.
Incomplete list of cultural heritage resources (Japan):
Hokkaido edit
Aomori edit
Iwate edit
Hachimantai Hanamaki Ichinoseki Kitakami Morioka Tono Hiraizumi Sumita Yahaba