Until just five hundred years ago, Vietnamese speakers were mostly limited to the Red River Basin of Northern Vietnam.
South Vietnam, meanwhile, was dominated by a constellation of Hindu states known as Champa, the eastern-most Hindu states in mainland Asia
The largest of the early centres was Mỹ Sơn, a complex built to identify King Bhadravarman with the Hindu god Shiva.
The tallest temples, meanwhile, would be built around the city of Vijaya, and rival the temples of the Cholas in their enormous height
Over a thousand years, Champa would produce a fascinating matrilineal society, constructing vast Hindu temples - not only to Shiva and Vishnu - but also to Allah and the Abrahamic first woman Eve.
As a matriarchal society, they would also produce their own remarkable spin on the Shiva lingam - the 'uroja' breast pedestal
From 1471 onwards, however, the Viet kingdom to the north would gradually begin encroaching upon its territory
To finish off my Temples of Pakistan series, Ive decided to post the first temple we actually visited. Amb Shariff is one of the earliest Hindu Shahi temples in Pakistan and can be found in the ruins of a Kushan-era fortress.
The Amb Shariff temples were far larger than any of us imagined. The main one stood on a vast Gandharan style platform, and had three floors that we could climb up. Until recently they were in pretty bad shape, but a fantastic restoration was recently completed.
A second, smaller temple, stood off to one side. Built from kanjur, a porous type of sedimentary stone, the temples are built in the North Indian nagara style but betray Kashmiri influences like the trefoil arch.
This week I finally got to visit Pakistan's two greatest Gupta masterpieces: the Brahma of Mirpur Khas in Karachi...
And the Jain sculptures of Murti in Lahore Museum!
The greatest Punjabi Gupta site - Murti - suffered during Partition, with the site's archeological finds divided between Chandigarh and Lahore. Here you can see some of the temple fragments now in India as a result.
In the early 18th century, a young Telugu prince named Vijaya Rajasinha set sail from the South Indian city of Madurai for the island of Sri Lanka.
Vijaya Rajasinha's family had once ruled a vast kingdom in Southern India but by the time Vijaya was born, his family’s power was fading.
Then, in 1739, a convoluted dynastic succession suddenly placed this Hindu prince on the throne of Kandy in Sri Lanka.
His successor – Kirti Sri Rajasinha – would subsequently kickstart one of the most sophisticated schools of painting in Ancient and Medieval South Asia: the Kandyan school of Art
Tucked away in the heart of West Bengal, the small town of Bishnupur remains one of India’s best-kept secrets. Still largely unknown outside the state, it hosts some of the most refined temples in the subcontinent.
As our car drove westward from Kolkata, the urban sprawl of the Hooghly delta fell away and revealed lush paddy fields crisscrossed by lazy distributaries. Then, as we entered Bankura district, the paddy gave way to the ‘Jungle Mahals’ - a rugged forest region of silver-barked Sal trees and gnarled, thick-leaved Mahua.
For centuries, these forests had served as a refuge for Bengal’s most independent-minded chiefs, and even today it feels a world away from the riverine plains to the east.
Why is the King of Afghanistan Buried Near Chandigarh?
Well it turns out to be linked with how the Sikhs got hold of the Kohinoor Diamond.
Shah Zaman became king of Afghanistan in 1793. Two years later, with his treasuries empty, he ordered an invasion of Punjab - "the time honoured Afghan solution to a cash crisis."
But Punjab was increasingly falling under the sway of the East India Company and Governor General Wellseley managed to persuade the Qajar Shah of Iran to attack Durrani's kingdom's rear. In 1799, Shah Zaman was forced to retreat.
In the subsequent power vacuum, a young Sikh Raja called Ranjit Singh ended up as the new ruler of Lahore. And over the next two years, this new Sikh rulers would gradually prise away the Durrani Empire's most lucrative provinces.
Why is the tomb of the last Ottoman Emperor in Ellora
The Ellora Caves have long been considered one of the most sacred sites in the world. So much so that the last Ottoman Caliph chose to be buried on a hill overlooking it.
Ridiculously, the tomb is not a protected site. Indeed there is no road there, and you still have to scramble up a goats path to reach it.