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Associated Press
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
The 35th Grassland Naadam Fair of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Kicks Off
XILINGOL LEAGUE, China, July 21, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On July 19, the 35th Grassland Naadam Fair of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region kicked off in Xilinhot, Xilingol League, welcoming over 100,000 visitors from across China alongside local residents to share in this celebration. At dawn, the opening ceremony commenced as tens of thousands of attendees representing diverse ethnic groups converged from all directions, adorned in their finest traditional attire. Under the theme 'Musical Tours in Inner Mongolia, Daily Naadam', the event unfolded through three carefully choreographed chapters, namely 'Meeting', 'Gathering' and 'Promise of Reunion', vividly showcasing the profound heritage of grassland culture. This Naadam Fair has elaborately planned 18 characteristic zones, featuring both traditional Mongolian cultural displays such as the 'Three Manly Skills' competitions and intangible cultural heritage exhibitions, as well as innovative modern experiences like grassland photography in folk costumes and family camping. Visitors can not only watch captivating performances but also join activities such as horseback riding and stamp collection, experiencing the unique charm of grassland culture through interaction. As the host of Inner Mongolia's Summer Naadam for four consecutive years, Xilingol League is advancing decisively toward becoming a nationally celebrated grassland eco-cultural tourism destination by leveraging its exceptional natural and cultural assets. This summer, Xilingol has launched multiple hospitality-driven measures: distributing digital vouchers worth 1 million yuan on short-video platforms, preparing 20,000 complimentary gift sets containing heatstroke prevention gear and guidebooks for visitors, and offering 50% admission discounts at all scenic spots at Level A and above in Xilingol League from July 18 to 21. Source: Organizing Committee of the 35th Grassland Naadam Fair of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Contact person: Mr. Hao, Tel: 86-10-63074558.
The National
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- The National
At Kashtat Amina, Mariam Almansoori serves up Emirati home cooking inspired by childhood memories
It begins with a kettle. Not the tall, sleek kind that whistles in designer kitchens, but the round, sturdy bronze squat vessel with a thickened base found in many Emirati homes 'It's the same one we used in our house in Abu Dhabi,' says chef Mariam Almansoori. 'Every day we used to boil the water and pour it into this big kettle with black tea with cardamom, cloves, sugar. The smell would fill the whole house.' The kettle is now just inside the entrance of Kashtat Amina, Almansoori's newly opened restaurant in Sharjah's Aljada district, with its suburban walkways and lush greenery. There's no sign beside it. No curated description. Just the quiet suggestion that memory lives in objects as much as it does in taste. For Almansoori, the decision to launch her first Emirati standalone restaurant – its name translates to 'Amina's picnic' after her mother – is more than a professional step. It's a homecoming. 'I had a lot of chances to open a restaurant before,' she says. 'But I always waited. I wanted it to be at the right time, in the right place, with the right meaning.' That meaning comes through strongest in the food, which draws directly from Almansoori's childhood meals. Dishes such as keema hamsa (minced meat sauteed with tomatoes and onions), grilled jeder (lamb shank with tamarind sauce, basmati rice and nuts) and thareed (bread soaked in meat broth with vegetables) appear on the menu not as nostalgic flourishes, but as cultural inheritances. 'It's not only about the food,' she says. 'Lots of people come and say: 'Chef, can we take this home with us?' It's just a flower on the table, or a cushion, nothing big. But to me, it's full of love. It's my mother's hand in it. I still feel her, even when I'm serving strangers.' Raised in Ras Al Khaimah, Almansoori grew up in a home with two kitchens – one run by her mother, the other often commandeered by her father – each guided by a distinct culinary philosophy that she learnt to absorb early on. 'If I ask mama how long to cook something, she never says minutes,' Almansoori says. 'She says: 'When the smell starts to change' or: 'When the rice starts to dance.' That's the kind of knowledge that stays with you.' Her father, also a skilled cook, brought a flair for presentation. 'He was all about hospitality,' she adds. 'He loved to garnish, while my mother didn't. They were always arguing about that.' Kashtat Amina carries both impulses – the quiet intimacy of home cooking and the polish of a well-run kitchen – in its expert take on rustic Emirati staples. The restaurant, bright and lined with woven baskets, with furniture and staff in indigo, is both modern and homely – and is full of local markers, from the kettle and old transistor radio to shelves of clay jars. A painting of Almansoori's mother Amina hangs proudly in the centre of the kitchen, her eyes warm in invitation. One dish that carries particular weight is the chicken maragooga, a stewed chicken with vegetables and thin bread layers. 'This was always loved by the family and guests,' she says. 'The pot would come straight from the stove to the table and we would eat it immediately.' That inherent sense of hospitality, so central to Emirati cuisine, is something she learnt from her mother. 'My mother used to make it when people came after the dhuhr prayer. It wasn't just food. It was the way she opened the house, welcomed people, showed care.' Almansoori's other ventures – including the popular Montauk in Abu Dhabi's Yas Island, where Sri Lankan rice might be topped with slow-roasted ribs and cinnamon coconut cream served alongside Emirati majboos and an apple Danish – have long embraced reinterpretation. But this time, she wanted to move in the opposite direction. 'I wanted to stop mixing. No fusion,' she says. 'I wanted to go back. Bring things to their original taste. To say: this is what we had in our houses. This is how it was done.' That backward glance, however, isn't about retreat. She speaks frequently about Emirati food as something underrepresented, not just internationally, but at home. 'If you go outside the UAE, you see restaurants from everywhere. You see Turkish, Lebanese, Japanese, but not Emirati. Even here in Sharjah or Dubai, how many restaurants are really doing Emirati cuisine? I don't mean owned by Emiratis. I mean the food.' And she's intent on giving those local flavours a global platform, with Almansoori hoping Kashtat Amina will be recognised if the Michelin Guide extends its UAE presence to Sharjah. 'We want to be ready, because there is a guideline that Michelin follows – from using organic produce to changing the menu regularly,' she says. 'We try to update parts of the menu every three months, not just to change, but to keep enhancing and evolving. There's a lot we still need to do, but I think we're more than capable – because we're doing it for the right reasons.' That desire to teach without diluting also informs her next venture: a culinary training academy for Emiratis as well as residents. 'I want to create a space where we train them from zero,' she says. 'Not just how to cook, but how to work in a kitchen, how to run a restaurant. 'I already have six or seven with me now. Some of them were not confident at first, but now they are leading the service. They are managing the guests. I'm so proud.' When asked what makes a dish truly Emirati, she doesn't hesitate. 'It's not the ingredients or technique. It's when you know what each one means and why we why we use turmeric, when we add ghee, how much to stir the rice. It's not rules. It's memory.' By the end of the visit, our own kettle of tea has gone cold. A young staff member moves to take it away, but she stops him. 'Leave it,' she says quietly. 'I just want to savour this moment a little more.'
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on the cultural life of trees: we must protect our natural heritage
If the mindless felling of the Sycamore Gap tree has taught us anything, it is that there is no such thing as 'just a tree', as one of the perpetrators, Adam Carruthers, told the jury. 'It was almost as if someone had been murdered,' he said of the ensuing public outcry. For many it was. Animism runs deeply through our relationship with arboreal life. From Macbeth's prophetic Birnam Wood to the towering Ents in The Lord of the Rings, trees have long been personified in literature. And, from Constable's bucolic Suffolk to David Hockney's Yorkshire wold, they have helped shape Britain's artistic landscape. This cultural heritage is being celebrated by the Woodland Trust UK Tree of the Year 2025. The Sycamore Gap tree won in 2016. The shortlist, announced this week, brings together William Wordsworth and the Beatles, Virginia Woolf and Radiohead, all united by the trees they have helped put on the UK's cultural map. The Tree of Peace and Unity in County Antrim, where the Good Friday agreement was signed in 1998, also makes the list of 10 culturally remarkable trees. British history is written in its trees: the ancient Ankerwycke Yew at Runnymede, where Henry VIII is rumoured to have courted Anne Boleyn; the Royal Oak in Shropshire, which hid the future Charles II; and the Tolpuddle Martyrs Tree in Dorset. Like the rings in their trunks, over centuries trees become the keeper of stories. They also, of course, provide paper on which to read them. This is ingeniously encapsulated in The Future Library by the Scottish conceptual artist Katie Paterson. Starting with Margaret Atwood in 2014, each year a manuscript by a different novelist is buried in Oslo's Nordmarka forest. In 2114, 100 books will be published out of the 1,000 specially planted pine trees. In fairytales and crime fiction, forests signal danger, but they are also places of sanctuary and renewal, hence the ancient Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku or forest bathing. Peter Rabbit finds safety in a burrow at the bottom of a tree. They also promise adventure and character-building, as in Robin Hood and the ethos behind Scandinavian forest schools. We learn to anthropomorphise arboreal beings from an early age: Enid Blyton's Magic Faraway Tree and JK Rowling's Whomping Willow are characters in their own right. Trees have very human qualities: they can learn from past traumas, such as droughts, and they make good 'parents', allowing their seedlings just the right amount of sugar through their roots. But they cannot protect them from global heating and disease. New research has revealed that saplings in British woodlands have been dying at an alarming rate since 2000. As much as 70% of ancient woods in the UK have been lost or damaged in the last 100 years. After the destruction of the Sycamore Gap tree, and the 500-year old oak in Enfield near a Toby Carvery restaurant this year, the government has set out much-needed plans to give legal protection to older and culturally important trees in England. Our ancient woodlands are irreplaceable. We must protect them as they protect us. As Woodland Trust patron Judi Dench put it, our oldest trees 'are as much part of our heritage as any literature'. They should be cherished and celebrated. In the words of WH Auden: 'A culture is no better than its woods.'
Shafaq News
5 days ago
- General
- Shafaq News
Ilam: Historic Shirin and Farhad monument restored in Iwan city
Shafaq News – Ilam On Thursday, Iranian cultural authorities launched a restoration and preservation project for the historic Shirin and Farhad monument in the city of Eyvan, located in Feyli Ilam Province. According to a statement by Farzad Sharifi, Director General of Cultural Heritage, Tourism, and Handicrafts in the province, two billion Iranian Rials ( Approx. $47,500) have been allocated from the provincial budget for the renovation and development of the site, which he described as a 'cultural treasure.' He noted that the monument dates back to the Sassanid era and is regarded locally as a symbol of love and affection. The arch, known as the Shirin and Farhad Arch, was officially registered on Iran's National Heritage List in the year 2000. Sharifi described the structure as a rare example of stone architecture, built entirely from large, meticulously carved stones and featuring a semi-underground chamber measuring 320 cm in length, 290 cm in width, and 220 cm in height. Situated in a mountainous and strategically important area of Eyvan, the monument stands out for its distinctive design and architectural style, which set it apart from other structures of the same era. The restoration project, he noted, aims not only to preserve this unique Sassanid-era landmark but also to revitalize the broader historical and cultural heritage of the region.
Arab News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Arab News
Saudi Cultural Week concludes at Osaka Expo
TOKYO: The Saudi Ministry of Culture hosted the Saudi Cultural Week in Osaka from July 12 to 15 at the Osaka Expo's Gallery EAST to celebrate Saudi culture and the cultural intersections between Japan and Saudi Arabia. The event was held in honor of the Kingdom's designation of 2025 as the Year of Handicrafts and highlighted artistic exchange between the two countries. It offered a diverse program of exhibitions, performances and interactive showcases that invited visitors to explore the Kingdom's cultural heritage and learn about the traditions shared by both nations. It was organized by the Saudi Ministry of Culture with the participation of the Royal Institute of Traditional Arts, the Saudi Artisanal Company, the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Global Center for Arabic Calligraphy, and the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives. Visitors were welcomed into the Saudi Heritage Majlis, where they experienced traditional Saudi hospitality and viewed side-by-side presentations of cultural garments, including a Saudi bisht and a Japanese kimono. Live performances by a Saudi oud musician and a Japanese shamisen musician symbolized the harmony between the two cultures. The program also featured collaborative demonstrations with Saudi and Japanese artisans presenting crafts together, including Al-Sadu weaving and Japanese tapestry, Khous making and bamboo crafting, and pottery from both traditions. Visitors participated in hands-on workshops led by craftspeople and students, highlighting the event's emphasis on cultural exchange and shared learning. A photographic exhibition curated by the King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives chronicled the history of Saudi Japanese relations over the past seven decades.
