User talk:John Hill/Archive03

Tibet

HI John. There appears to be a problem with my email so I can't log in - I hope its not bugged!!! The Jat people article is pretty huge!!! Have you considered condensing it a little and putting the full information into a series of new articles such as Jat people in Islam etc etc. Hope the books going well. Hey I just had to mention my grandparents on wikipedia!! Jennifer Sullivan happens to be my father's sister. Its odd that she has moved to France - when I am of Huguenot (and Jewish and Swedish) descent. Writing appears to run in the family -I'd very much like to publish some work one day.

There appears to be many missing articles on monasteries in Tibet. Many thousands were destroyed by the Chinese but it would be great if there is info available about historical monasteries that existed in Tibet -any idea where I can access this??

Hope you are well

♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you" Contribs} 13:10, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

HI John I am going to begin taking the coverage of Tibetan articles on wikipedia to the next level. I am very interested in Tibetan artefacts and art and am going to begin (amidst my film work) adding new articles on individual Tibetan and Bhutanese mandalas, paintings of buddhas etc. Portrait of Yutog Yontan Gonpo is the first - I have found a terrific site at Himilayanart.org -it has some 25,000 articles on it!!!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you" Contribs} 09:59, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

At present there appears to be a problem with my email unfortunately I can't log in as I said before. it comes up with an error -I do hope it hasn't been attacked ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you" Contribs} 09:36, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Good work on Jat people

Thanks for checking false claims of jats.

Regards,

collusion

Dear John, I must say I am very alarmed to see that one or two "anti-Jat people" elements seem to be viewing as if you involved in a battle with them and giving you pats on the back "good work".

All I will say is collusion is seen as a serious offence on wikipedia and is reportable - don't get involved with their games. If these "anti-Jat people" elements have an axe to grind against the Jat people that’s their business just don't get involved. Just try and solve any differences with other long time wikipedians through compromise and working together .--Oiws 12:17, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

collusion?

Dear Oiws: There is absolutely no "collusion" between me and anyone else on the Wikipedia. What "collusion" is there if people write to my Discussion Page and congratulate me on the work I am doing? And why do you think thanking me for checking false claims constitutes "collusion"? On what grounds do you refer to such writers as "anti-Jat people"?

Furthermore, if you look at the edits carefully you will discover that the person who last wrote thanking me (but did not sign his note) has also been removing a number of my own edits which I will now have to restore. Sincerely, John Hill 22:47, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

Fixed

Ah phew!!1 its ok I just sorted it - email is okay now -don;t know what it was -thanks a milion fro sending me the e books - I'll have a good read later ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you" Contribs} 10:54, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

I've think I've seen four. The first two you sent when it was working I think. Yes it was strange I would try to log in and it would come up with a computer error pages with thousands of digits and weird letters!!!! Its a relief to me now it is ok. There are so many topics on Tibet I would like to cover - I would also like to cover more biographies of contemporary Tibetan people. I have begun to do this -I can't remember his name but see Category:Tibetan musicians . He is a close friend of His Holiness. I'd like to cover more places also - I think I'll start an article on the Traditional Hospital in Lhasa later - I have some info a book I have. I don't know if you are interested but I am also very into Khmer history and history of Cambodia. I worked a bit on this yesterday with some new articles. Category:Cambodian sculptors - very intersting life -but very sad with the horror of the Khmer Rouge. In the coming weeks I will we adding new articles for Cambodia too ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you" Contribs} 11:04, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

Ha! Some new articles Nomadic tents, Khata and Yak racing - it took me some time to convince new page patrollers it wasn't a hoax!!! Did you see yak racing at the Shoton festival? -it looks pretty good fun ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you" Contribs} 13:13, 15 July 2007 (UTC)

Re : Jatt Page

Hi John, I have noticed you have encountered some real abuse on the Jat page. This page could be a great informative page about Jatt people but as it stands it is a work of fiction. Kingdoms such as Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Nabha, Jind, Patiala etc were all Sikh Kingdoms, and not Jatt as the authors have claimed. I would question some of the refrences used as they do not have ISBN numbers. Finally I would like to point out that everytime I have tagged the article for neutrality the tag has been removed. The people who are editing this page are treating it as their own personal property and not the property of wikipedia. They are also not adhering to NPOV. --Sikh-history 09:29, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

Kingdoms

Sikhism is not a ethnic religion so for example if you are Chinese & Sikh and you set-up a kingdom - if then someone says your ethnic blood origin is Sikh is completely incorrect - that is your religion. Your ethnicity is still Chinese. The same thing applies if you set-up a kingdom and are Jat in ethnicity but Sikh in religion. If someone says your ethnic blood origin is Jat this is correct but you practice Sikhism as your religion. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was Sandhawalia Jat. Maharaja Ranjit Singh wasn't even a baptised Sikh (Khalsa) and drank alcohol, had a Muslim wife Moran, many mistresses - completely against Sikhism. Nabha, Jind, Patiala were of Phool Jats branch (Sidhu Jat clan) ethnic origin. --Sikh historian 00:50, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi Sikh Historian. Some nice points, but let us not forget, if the Guru Hargobind had not chastised the Bhullars, Dhaliwal, Bhatti and other Rajput tribes there would be no Patiala, Nabha or Jind state today. Thanks--Sikh-history (talk) 13:59, 16 May 2008 (UTC)

Dear John

Hi the only advice I can offer is to work with Burdak together because no matter what you may think his knowledge on the Jat people is impressive and in fairness I feel Wikipedia is lucky to have an expert like Mr Burdak on the Jat people. The Jat people have an impressive history and set of achievements made throughout history. I feel you have have work with Mr Burdak rather than against him, I had a look back many months ago when you two were working together and I thought you two made a pretty good team. It would be a shame too let it ruin it - so please make a fresh start and work with Mr Burdak - this is the best way to improve things.--Oiws 03:39, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Is "Oiws" a sockpuppet? Administrators - would you please investigate?

Mr. "Owis", who claims to be a member of the Wikipedia's "Counter-Vanadlism Unit" and a "recent-changes patroller" has, apparently, made only two "contributions" to the Wikipedia - both to my Talk page.

The first was on 12th July this year when he warned me against "collusion" with "anti-Jat people" and said: "collusion is seen as a serious offence on wikipedia and is reportable." I strongly object to this completely groundless and insulting insinuation.

His next and final entry, so far, was on the 21st of July when he "suggests" that I work together with Mr. Burdak. He feels the "Wikipedia is lucky to have an expert like Mr Burdak on the Jat people." He then adds: "I feel you have have work with Mr Burdak rather than against him, I had a look back many months ago when you two were working together and I thought you two made a pretty good team. It would be a shame too let it ruin it - so please make a fresh start and work with Mr Burdak - this is the best way to improve things."

What "Owis" ignores is the fact that I have tried very hard for over a year to work with Mr. Burdak to improve this page, with very little success and regular abuse for my efforts. In that time Mr. Burdak has repeatedly been shown to distort history, to insert false and even non-existent references and to stoop to spreading outrageous lies accusing me of racial and religious prejudice. He was asked to apologise for these outright and baseless lies - but he never has. These facts are clearly recorded on the Jat people Talk Page and in the archives.

Mr. Burdak may well have considerable knowledge about Jat people but this knowledge is wasted as he has regularly demonstrated an appalling ignorance of how to assess historical evidence, and many times has been exposed as distorting evidence (and even inventing it) to support his own biased, vainglorious, romantic and, basically, racist view of Jat history.

I respectfully ask the Administrators to investigate "Owis" to determine if he is really a "sockpuppet" for someone else and, furthermore, to consider banning Mr. Burdak from these pages for abusing the trust of its readers and bringing both Jats and the Wikipedia into disrepute. Sincerely, John Hill 23:18, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

Yueji

Dear John Hill, WP never stops to amaze me, its only been 60 sec since I added a sentence, and I've got a feedback... I've got the book through ILL, from a Ca university, ISBN 9985-441-52-9, sorry for my omission, I just added ISBN. BTW, I was hunting for Zuev's books for a couple of years, seems that they were all burnt, his name erased, even Russian Academy of Sciences library does not have any of his publications. If you need more help, I will be happy to do what I can. Barefact 05:33, 22 July 2007 (UTC) Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Barefact"

For aborigenes from the Australian booneys we always make a special break :-). Can you please e-mail me? It would make things easier to handle :-). Barefact 06:16, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

Favour required

Dear John can you help. Please can you apply the same rigour you have applied to the Jat people article on the Porus article there is user (User:Intothefire) saying King Porus was from the Kukhran according to Oral history. I mean come on this outrageous to even post something like this on Wikipedia without any references or verifiable references but say ORAL HISTORY says he was from the Kukhran is appalling. I am Indian and there is NO scholar or University academic who says he was from the some fringe group called the Kukhran. Most Indian academics would be appalled by this falsehood and unsubstantiated claim. Please take this up immediately and apply you regular rigour to this article - absolutely appalling abuse of Wikipedia.--Sikh historian 23:35, 23 July 2007 (UTC)

Dear Sikh Historian: I have just had a look at the article on Porus and it seems there is no longer any mention of the Kukhran in it - so there does not seem to be any need to do anything about it at the moment. The "oral history" regarding Porus is mentioned in the article on the Kukhran but there is a proper "citation needed" tag on it and it was only entered in June. So, I don't think anything need be done about it until either a citation is found or a significant time has gone by with no citations forthcoming. I will, however, keep a watch on these pages and comment if and when I think I may have something useful or pertinent to add. Best wishes, John Hill 08:14, 24 July 2007 (UTC)

Hi John

Hi John, I think putting a small section of the most recent additions back by un-archived I think it was a good move by you and I agree with. However, as a Jat I find some of the comments made by other new users about Jat people quite offensive labelling an entire people in negative insulting words and descriptions. I must absolutely clarify I do not mean you. Whenever, you have commented it has usually been fair minded and respectful of Jat people so my thank you goes to you. However, please can you remind these new users of the Wikipedia talk page guidelines and behaviour considered unacceptable by Wikipedia on its talk page. Please just keep an eye on the unacceptable behaviour by these new others. Thank you once again.--Jat78 00:00, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

You're welcome

Hi John. It's a privilege being able to recognize your efforts. I empathise with you because I run into such opiniated people often, and like you, find myself at my wits end on how to argue with them. Keep up the good work!! Regards --Amit 12:15, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

I hope you noticed the "Vandal whacking stick" too :D -- Amit 15:31, 25 July 2007 (UTC)

Oh the best of luck with the book after so much work!!!! I'm sure it'll be excellent. I have been cutting down my Tibet work though and adding many Cambodian articles at present - its poorly covered ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you?" Contribs} 11:40, 26 July 2007 (UTC)

Right I've split many of the sections on the Jat people article. It needs serious condensing now!!!!The article should try to be more balanced I think. The history section is a little overlong in relation to the rest of the article I think. E.g Ancient Jat Kingdoms section etc needs summarizing. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you?" Contribs} 17:12, 4 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow a difficult period. I wish you the best of luck with what life throws at you. All the best and look forward to your return. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^{"Expecting you?" Contribs} 11:29, 8 August 2007 (UTC)

The Stick !

It's right up there in the awards section, under the "Tibetan award...". Pick it up and get goin!!! --Amit 06:32, 27 July 2007 (UTC)

Jatt Names

You are undoubtedly right that the article ins nonsense, but I think it would be better if you take it to AfD, where it will get a more definitive verdict; if it is inserted again after that, it can be removed via speedy. DGG (talk) 17:57, 16 August 2007 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:On the way to market, Van, 1973.jpg

Image Copyright problem

Thank you for uploading Image:On the way to market, Van, 1973.jpg. However, it currently is missing information on its copyright status. Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously. It may be deleted soon, unless we can determine the license and the source of the image. If you know this information, then you can add a copyright tag to the image description page.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thanks again for your cooperation. NOTE: once you correct this, please remove the tag from the image's page. STBotI 01:38, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Photographs from Lake Van

Nice photographs! I noticed that the caption in the article (Kurds in Turkey) for the horseman at Lake Van gives the date as 1974, but the description from the photograph itself gives the date as 1993. Should be consistent... --Anthon.Eff 01:53, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Wow, that was quick! I had just uploaded 4 or 5 photos and put the wrong date (1974) on each of them and was in the process of correcting the captions when you wrote. They actually were all taken taken in 1973. Put it down to "Old Timer's Disease"! I should change the date in the full titles of the photos - not just the captions - but I am not sure how to do it - so have just added a note to each. Anyway, I am glad you enjoyed the photos. I hope to add more when I can find the time - they have got slightly damaged and pretty faded and need a bit of editing before I upload them. All best wishes, John Hill 02:02, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Can you be more precise about the location of the "Image:Armenian_gravestones._Lake_Van._.JPG" picture. Is it to the south-west of Van city, above Edremit, and overlooking lake Van, perhaps? I photographed the remains of a graveyard in that location this year, and it seems to be in the same location as your photo, based on the mountains in the background. If it is, then the gravestones you photographed no longer exist. If it is the same site, I would be interested to know if you have more photographs of it, or of the ruined church that was located close to the graveyard in the district of Edremit called Sarmansuyu. Meowy 21:22, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi

Hi John,

I noticed you added a picture to the Golden temple article (reformat fix: moved it to gallery). I didn't know you had visited the Golden temple in 1973. I'm a bit busy now but I would love to have a chat with you about your experience there. I have been to the Golden temple many times but I would love to compare my experiences with yours and a non-Sikh. As I say I'm a bit busy at the moment but when I'm a bit free- I would love to chat about your experience there all those many years ago. Kind regards--Sikh historian 09:44, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

Indo-Aryan origin of Jats

I just ran into this via the AFD on Common Ancestry of Jatt Names. Looks like you're up against a combination of origin myth and outdated colonial anthropology. It's not a territory I know enough about to want to get involved, but a wider variety of editors might help: have you tried a Request for Comment? Gordonofcartoon 12:51, 20 August 2007 (UTC)

Jat

I share your concerns about this article. I suggest you take those to Wikipedia:Fringe theories/Noticeboard for wider opinion and appropriate action .Shyamsunder 12:52, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

Help

Hi,

I am the owner them

How can I transfer in English Wikipedia???

I just wanna use in English Wikipedia.

I just wanna forbidden to use in Turkish Wikipedia

Can you help me?

Kızılsungur 03:39, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

No. U misunderstood me. I just wanna permit to use in English Wikipedia.

Where is the red © ???

I will put this tag.

Thanks a lot for your help

Kızılsungur 04:16, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

Pls do not annoy with me. I am trying to improve my English.

Firstly, I am changing the names of photos. 'Cause I had uploaded the photos in Turkish Wiki, then a user put them in Commmons. Their names are Turkish. So that I have got to change their name as English.

Thx again

Kızılsungur 04:25, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't wanna put this tag in my photos hehehe. I wanna put the red ©

Meanwhile I was a professional user in Turkish Wikipedia.

Kızılsungur 04:28, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

You are a clever person my bro. (Meanwhile I am a Tengrici Someone says it "Shamanism") I got 48 hours punishment a few hours ago in Turkish Wiki.

I don't understand why you are having trouble getting permission to upload the files into the English Wikipedia. In fact I don't like Turkish Wikipedia because of admins. They are so bigoted. They did the biggest false for Turkish wikipedia. 'Cuz I was a diligent new user there. I have approximately 4800 edit and 171 article which I began and improved. Have a look my "land mine" article. I wrote mostly all of them. I added the solutions how we can find the mines and destroy. I added about jammers. But they blocked me because of their individual rules. I said to a user just "I think You talk like a newbie." I didnt say "you are a newbie". 10 minutes later they blocked me. I could defend myself. This is not fairy. I thought they had to warn me about this circumstance. To sum up, they are bigoted. They give orders about users immediately. Not considerly. Anyway...

Thx for your big helps my bro

The unique God will be with you

Kızılsungur 04:52, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

It is no problem. My English is not good. That was my fault.

I had a muslim before. Than I grew up and chose the my religion. I searched and searched before changed my religion. I read hourly lots of books of about Tengrisism. I have a bro whose name is Erdal and live in Germany. He is a Turk and he is my master. He did teach this religion to me. Tengricilik is the elite article in Turkish Wiki. 'Cause Erdal and me worked a lot for this. But you must know: Erdal is a muslim. He is so interested this Religion. Later I will explain the gods (I thought they are like angels) of Shamisim. I will tell Umay, Ülgen, Erklig Khan and other gods later. I am a happy person and I have to hide my religion in Türkiye. 'Cause there are lots of radical muslim here.

The God = Allah = el-Ilah = Tengri. They are the same. There is only unique god.

Loves from Türkiye

Kızılsungur 05:22, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

More fuss over the Jats

I've just had an unwarranted ticking off from User:Street Scholar because of my efforts to inform Ravi three months ago. Why is this? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 15:33, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

AFD

Would you mind striking out your earlier delete vote at this AFD? I too changed my opinion from delete to keep after the improvement in the article due to User:Zeborah and it would be a pity if our earlier opinion (and votes such as these ) resulted in the article being deleted. Regards. Abecedare 19:44, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

Franco-Mongol alliance

Hi John, I thought you might be interested in the above article. I am also trying to make it a featured article: you can vote should you wish to [1]. Best regards PHG 07:00, 4 September 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much John for your support! I am glad you like the article. PHG 05:13, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

re: Yarkand

Thanks for your note. I appreciate your hard work and the fact that you take references seriously. I have seen your work on other articles so I know you will come through. Regards, --Mattisse 00:34, 7 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi

Hi my buddy,

What's up?

I am very busy nowadays.

Take care of yourself

Kızılsungur 22:18, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

Its OK block has been lifted ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 14:59, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Phew it was ok there was a misunderstanding with my IP address. Yesterday was terrible for many reasons but I got through it. I feel much better today. Thanks for supporting me when you can't even edit a talk page I had top email somebody!! Here recently I've resumed my work on Tibet I've added a few article stub slike Trimon and the infamous Drapchi Prison. But you'll be most pleased to know I've beguin adding all of the List of towns and villages in the Tibet Autonomous Region‎. With the new WIki Atlas technology once the A-Z is completed we'll have the most detailed map of Tibet on the Internet.Hope you are well. Amigo ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 11:32, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Troyes Cathedral

With respect to this edit...

Assuming you have cited that correctly (which I have reason to doubt, but more on that below), that notion is built on the following series of theories that have all at one stage or another been debunked.

1. Ernst Herzfeld, when he investigated the ruins at Kuh-i Kwajeh postulated (Sakastan 115-116) that it had been build during the reign of Gondophares
2. Herzfeld saw three figures painted on a wall, and postulated that they represented the Magi. He then happily concluded that Gondophares must be Gaspar
3. Herzfeld identified (the hitherto unidentified) figure of Christian legend known as Gondopharr-Rustam with Gondophares

Herzfeld's identification of Kuh-i Kwajeh with the Parthians falls flat. As we now know, the place was built during the Sassanid period, at least 5 centuries after Gondophares. With that #1 and #2 are dead in the water. Nonetheless, between 1932 and 1987 numerous authors had taken Herzfeld's identification at face value, and propagated it to the extent that it is now hard to get rid off.

Now onto Bivar (whom you cite): Bivar himself - though following the identification with the Acts of Thomas (and which is primarily accepted only on Herzfeld/Bivars authority) - debunked both the identification with the Magi and with Rustom (the latter also being a Herzfeld favourite). Indeed, the Encyclopedia Iranica article on Gondophares, which is written by Bivar, does not even use the word "Magi," so fringe had Herzfeld become by 2003.

Hence, I somehow cannot believe that now, in 2007, Bivar would resuscitate the Magi idea. Are you sure that you are quoting him correctly, and that he is not just saying someone else came up the idea of Gondophares being in the Troyes cathedral and then demonstrating how absurd the idea was?

Sorry if I must say this, but even from the perspective of someone who does not have the stature of Vesta Curtis (the editor of the book you cite), the arc is being bent beyond breaking point. Troyes was only build in the 18th century, 17 centuries after Gondophares. In any case how exactly was a - probably illiterate - Central-European glass-blower supposed to know what the Central-Asian Gondophares looked like? Even with 20th century technology we can barely make out what Gondophares looked like ("guy on coin with headband and beard") and now he's supposed to be clearly identifiable in a cathedral half way around the world? Wow. Sound like right-out-of-Dan Brown. :)

-- Fullstop 04:41, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Bivar does indeed claim on p. 30 of this latest work that: "In church iconography, there is a colourful representation of Gondophares in the stained glass of the cathedral of Troyes in central France."

I have tried to check this on the internet with no success so far. If you know how we might check this claim I would be very grateful.

However, I am glad you questioned me about the passage as it prodded me to reread the Acts of Thomas and there is no mention of Mary or the "twin" in them - only that Thomas (Gk. Diordios = "twin") refers to Jesus as his brother. I have, apparently, combined two stories I read some years ago and did not check them closely enough before I wrote the note. Therefore, I have toned down that passage. Cheers and best wishes, John Hill 06:18, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Does Bivar cite a source - or other kind of justification - for that p. 30 statement? I have not seen that connection made before, but then again, it may have appeared in a journal or context (such as art) that is outside my sphere of interest.

Unfortunately the book is too new for it to have been reviewed yet or to be otherwise on the academic radar. IB Taurus, the publisher of the book, doesn't even list it on its website yet, and google books which includes all other IB Taurus titles, doesn't have a preview yet either. I expect a first review in December or so.

Regards, Fullstop 21:03, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

ps: please reply here, saves the back-and-forth.

Hi Fullstop! No, Bivar does not give a source for his claim in his chapter ("Gondophares and the Indo-Parthians", pp. 26-36) about the representation of Gondophares - and I have (so far) been unable to find any supportive evidence. Yes, the book has just been published as Vol. II of The Idea of Iran series in association with The London Middle East Institute at SOAS and The British Museum. Do you have any suggestions as to how we could check on Bivar's claim? Cheers, John Hill 22:29, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I've since done some digging and come up with ... nothing, at least not on JSTOR or ProQuest or at Cambridge Journals or on springerlink or on Vascoda. G-scholar has nothing for Gondophares+Troyes either, which is a reasonably good sign that "its not been said."

Yes, I checked Amazon (the ISBN you cited is broken btw), thats how I know its an IB Taurus book.

-- Fullstop 03:09, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi again! Thanks for doing all that checking. I, too, have been unable to discover anything more about the representation of Gondophares at Troyes so I have written to Prof. Bivar to ask him if he has any references or other info. So, I think I may leave it all there until I here from him (maybe it will stir another reader to reply as well). I have also repaired the ISBN number on the book - thanks for pointing out the faulty link. Cheers and best wishes, John Hill 10:40, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

good idea. Please post a heads-up on my talk page when he replies. Thanks. -- Fullstop 18:02, 13 September 2007 (UTC)

(unindent) John, whats the status on this? Have you received a reply from Bivar? -- Fullstop 22:39, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi! Yes, I wrote to Bivar but never received a reply - so now I am not sure what to do about this. I am thinking of posting a query on the Lonely Planet website to see if anyone can check it out for me. Will let you know, of course, if and when I hear anything. Cheers, John Hill 23:20, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Well, what exactly are you going to ask for? -- Fullstop 23:40, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

ps: please reply here (to save the back and forth)

Hi again! I have become very curious about this so I have just written to both the Lonely Planet discussion list (where tourists exchange information from around the world) and also sent an email letter to the official Tourism Office in Troyes containing the following request:

"A respected scholar, A.D.H. Bivar, has claimed that there is a colourful representation of the Indo-Parthian king Gondophares - to whose court in Taxila (in modern Pakistan) the Apostle Thomas is said to have visited after the crucifixion of Jesus - in a stained glass window of the cathedral of Troyes.

The claim is mentioned in: Bivar, A.D.H. (2007). "Gondophares and the Indo-Parthians," pp. 26-31. In: The Age of the Parthians'. Edited by Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sarah Stewart. Ib. Tauris, New York. ISBN 978-84511-406-0.

I am wondering if you could please check out this claim (and, if possible, could I buy or otherwise obtain a photo of the window)?"

Will let you know if and when I hear anything. Cheers, John Hill 23:52, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

Any news on this front? -- Fullstop 16:39, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the note. Even though the Wikipedia entry for biblical Magi is altogether rather flaky, the statement "Christian legend may have chosen Gondofarr simply because he was an eastern king living in the right time period" correctly summarizes the general - and appropriately skeptical - treatment of the issue. Its simply too strange to contemplate a king going on six-month long gander.

Both wp and the dark-legion.org link also ignore the fact that in Greek "Magi" is a specific term for a Zoroastrian priest (not specifically "astrologer", though the priests were also astrologers).

Anyway, please give me a day or two to mull over how best to deal with it. Thanks. -- Fullstop 00:02, 1 December 2007 (UTC)

Tibetan towns and villages

HI John. I am currently as you know adding all the towns and villages in Tibet. I want to create a standard infobox Tibetan settlement for all the towns and villages. Let me know if you think the info box on Domartang is a good idea. There don't appear to be many WP:Tibet members I can speak to as most are inactive. If you and others such as Nat Krause approve I am going to attempt to add this to all articles on all towns and villages. The locator map and nearest towns and villages is also an asset I think. I now wish we could have images on all the villages too. Hey go back to tibet!!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 15:30, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

Cool. Ekai Kawaguchi is a fantastic new article great - I also love the fact you took the images from a book !!!!! For me wikipedia is the greatest task of decentralising knowledge in history and this is exactly what I want to see is summarising all knowledge from every local library in the world into one giant edition!!!. Imagine how many such articles are missing!!! I'm gonna take it a bit easier of the next few weeks on here and do some more reading incidentally I have a book on the Brahmputra a travel book of a journalist hiking down from the Tibetan foothills. Its quite excellent I definately have to visit Tibet sometime. Hey you ought to quit those fags stub them out!!!! Not good for you. I have a painting of the Potala on my wall and Machu Picchu where my parents are heading next year. I'm glad you like the infobox. I think it helps to know where these places are but it is a shame theres not much web info available on them when I am certain they could all be fuller articles. I want people in the world to know there is actually more to Tibet than Lhasa!! It'll take some time I am feeling a bit lazy at the moment!! Hope you are well. Hey you don't have any more images of Lhasa do you? Theres a few landmarks I wouldn't mind some images for. All the best. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 15:21, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

CHeck this out at Youtube. It is one of the most beautiful and spiritual thangs I've ever seen or heard. It makes me feel so peaceful - check out:

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoTSIRE_WAs

♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 16:26, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi John. Thankyou for your message. I would love to visit Aussieland someday. I have relatives living down in Melbourne incidentally my (Great as in mothers uncle )uncle is Wesley Harris (now theres a man who has travelled!!!!) who almost made it to general (world leader) of the Salvation Army who if I went I would stay with for a while then venture up into Queensland where I also have dome distant relations and an old surfer friend of my dads known as "The Bear" who stands 6ft 8 inches has lived for thirty years since emigrating. The Great Barrier Reef looks absolutely stunning! There are so many places I would love to visit. In Peru I do have cousin living in Lima where he is working as a tree geneticist (ecology is a career I'm thinking about) and regulates some of the Peruvian national parks. He has worked in Tegucigalpa where he met his beautiful Honduran wife and indeed Costa Rica for many years. It would be good to see him again then travel through the Andes. Its a fascinating history also of the Aztecs, the Mayans and the Incas on that continent. Machu Piccu and the Andes like Tibet I reagrd as one of the worlds most magical and atmospheric places. There so many places to go so little money!!!

Seriously keep up the new articles even if they are stubs - I really think its terrific the prospect that specialist info on Tibet should be part of wikipedia delving parts in history the vast majority of the world would not have access to or never know about. This is exactly why I wish I had my own library of such specialist books particularly on central asian history that I can create many articles from. I'll return to adding more biographical and cultural Tbietan articles once I have finsihed mapping out the country. Yesterday I started 500 villages!!! -ready for adding the infobox and locator map. I really hope they can then expand fully. Regards always good to hear from you ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 09:17, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

Did you know you can design your own main page if you set it to default??? I have mine programmed in as Wikipedia:Main Page of Blofeld. Cool? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 18:38, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

I've added one of your fantastic images to my article Nomadic tents. The images of Tsurphu are great!!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 20:49, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On September 17, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Ekai Kawaguchi, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Thanks for this article John, which was kindly nominated by Carabinieri (talk · contribs). We really do not have great coverage of Buddhism on WP so it's great to have articles like this. Do feel free to self-nominate in future as most entries are self nominated. Happy editing, Blnguyen (bananabucket) 04:49, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

I've undone your edit at Zoroaster

I've had to unwind your edit at Zoroaster for a number of reasons outlined below. Please keep these issues in mind when you readd.

• When adding references to an article, please first check what kind of referencing they use. Your edit was not appropriate for the referencing used in that article. I'm going to have to rewind your edit completely. If you wish to readd it, please use the notes section + harvard referencing + {{citation}} templates.
• For a hotly debated subject such as the date of Zoroaster or the date of the Vedas, I'm going to have to insist on multiple tertiary sources. Not that your addition actually contradicts the existing text, any RV date has to come from the same source as the one that establishes Zoroaster's date based on the RV date. Moreover, the Date section is in its entirety a cohesive unit with introduction, body, and summary. Your edit destroyed that coherence.
• In your edit you removed a key section that began with "this 9th/10th century BCE date is now almost universally accepted among Iranists". This sentence is NOT open to question (read: I don't give a hoot what Oberlies has to say). Anything contradicting the Iranica will have to be extraordinarily well cited.
• Also, in your rewrite, don't forget that the article is about Zoroaster. The date of the RV is only relevant in a very tiny aspect, and an essay on RV dating is inappropriate. Oh, and its seldom legitimate to say "usually" when citing only one source. When readding please take care that your assertion does not contradict with what the rest of the article/section says, or what other articles say.

Thanks. -- Fullstop 04:50, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Dear Fullstop: Fair enough - your points seem good ones and I accept them - if I do make any further edits I will certainly keep your comments in mind. Thanks for the advice. Cheers, John Hill 05:16, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Image copyright problem with Image:Dalai Lama & Bishop Tutu. Carey Linde.jpg

Image Copyright problem

Thank you for uploading Image:Dalai Lama & Bishop Tutu. Carey Linde.jpg. However, it currently is missing information on its copyright status. Wikipedia takes copyright very seriously. It may be deleted soon, unless we can determine the license and the source of the image. If you know this information, then you can add a copyright tag to the image description page.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them at the media copyright questions page. Thanks again for your cooperation. NOTE: once you correct this, please remove the tag from the image's page. STBotI 00:29, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Tibet

Wow you've been excelling yourself your images are fantastic and they are a privelage to look at. Excellent work on Dhingri - check it out i've kitted it out with the new info box and nearest towns/villages etc and connected with MSN map. - not a bad effort between us huh? I wish every article on the town and villages could soon become like this!! Great !! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 10:11, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

Its also great that you have been scanning images form your books of earlier Tibetan fugures invluding many of the stubs I started ages ago. I'd forgotten I have started any of them. John could you tell me roughly how many towns and villages you have information on in Tibet? And what images of towns/villages do you have. If you let me know I can prepare the village articles with infoboxready for us. I'd really appreciare your work on the towns and vilages -I want to know about far more places in the country vt unfortunately I don't have any info on them just the basics ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 19:06, 24 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi John I am currently working through List of towns and villages in Tibet. most have been stubbed for now -but I will gradually be adding the infoboxes and geo data/maps of them gradually like Alamdo etv etc. If you have info on any of them in your library even a few basics please add what you can thanks. Nice new pictures -. For many of them there probably isn't much available but i do feel an eneyclopedia of this size should include them even if it just geo /location data for now. After all places in the USA, UK which have only 50 people have an articles so why shouldn't Tibet have most covered?? I'm sure each of these places does have a story to tell but unfortunately on the web there isn't hardly anything available. I'm currently taking it easy for the next few days or so so won't be editing that much regards ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 09:53, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

I think Muru Nyingba is referring to Muru Ningba Monastery ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 10:41, 25 September 2007 (UTC)

Mmmm I'm kind of regretting adding all the places. I have a lot of work to do adding the infoboxes. What do you think? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 19:41, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

I guess - I mean Bamda is definately a worthy encyclopedia article and it does fill in gaps in knowledge as do the others. I agree with you though that it is an enormous task to fill all of them like this but if I work through them gradualy this is the best thing and not to feel stressed about developing everyone of them immediately. The infobox is actually easier than you'd think -a cut and paste job and just adding the relevant details but I wish a bot could have done it. Hey great work on the Panchen lamas - I remember stubbing them ages ago . I really hate stubbing I prefer to write decent articles like yourself - like my new article on Aaron Sapiro but so much needs doing with setting up articles that I rarely have time to write like this.. But hopefully it can develop - I did want your advice on this as you have been Tibet and I didn't want to think I was wasting my time on these places if they have nothing to give. Thanks. Hope you are well great work Saludos ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 10:59, 29 September 2007 (UTC)

Hi John congrats also on the DYK. I was wonderong if you clear up why there are two categories Category:Tibetan emperors and Category:Tibetan kings. I have a feeling the kings category is redundant and should be deleted and relocated to emperors. What do you think? I also have a long request for a missing article which I have known has been missing for ages. Could you create an article on the Tibetan "Annals" which I've seen red linked in countless articles. It appears as if it was of prime importance to documents about early Tibetan history. Know anything about it? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 09:12, 6 October 2007 (UTC)

HI John I've seen Dzongsar Monastery red linked in many articles. It this another way of spelling an existing article or is it ineed missing? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 00:06, 15 October 2007 (UTC)

Tingri/Dinghri

Please revert the cut and paste move you just made. A cut and paste move is not acceptable, as it loses the edit history of all of the edits made in the original page. You have to use the Move this page link. If you can't do that because there is already an article there, you will need to go to WP:RFPM to have the move done. Corvus cornix 22:27, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

Not a problem. Thanks for taking care of that.  :) Corvus cornix 22:55, 28 September 2007 (UTC)

An article which you started, or significantly expanded, Ralpacan, was selected for DYK!

On September 30, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Ralpacan, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Thanks for your contributions! Nishkid64 (talk) 16:53, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Image sizes

Hi. Sorry not to have replied earlier but I missed your note, seeing only the latest comment from someone else on my talk page.

From your response, I suspect you are not aware that you can control the default image size from Preferences -> Files. Those with vision issues can go there and make all their images larger. Or those with slow connections can specify a smaller image size. Manually specifying an image size overrides that, taking away user control of image size. So we typically only manually increase the size on images with detailed diagrams or text which needs to be readable, so the user can maintain control over the size of photos or other images where readability is not an issue.

I hope this helps you understand the image size issue. Other things from the image use guidelines you might want to note. Starting a section with a left justified image is discouraged, as is putting images on both sides of text so that the text is squeezed between them. These probably cover most of the issues I try to correct. Also, when there are lots of images, it's better to use a gallery since it frequently gets so that the above guidelines cannot be observed.

Best wishes to you as well. GlassFET 14:40, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

Deletion of Image of Indian Bison

Mr John Hill, I would like to draw your attention about Deletion of Image of Indian Bison. Somebody vandalized Indian Bison as 'Indian Buffalo' and you deleted the Image without any discussion saying that it is not Bison. This is again vandalism. From History now your bias has come to wildlife? One should not delete unless he is an expert and it should not be done without discussion. Here it is important to know that Indian Bison is the species Bos gauraus, locally known as Gaur. It is not buffalo. It is The Indian Bison. Hence the Image again added to the article - Bison. Please do not do such actions in future!!! --burdak 03:30, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

Why I moved the image of the so-called "Indian Bison"

It seems that Mr. Burdak has not read the article on bison from which I moved the image. It very clearly says: "Bison is a taxonomic group containing six species of large even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Only two of these species still exist: the American Bison (B. bison) and the European Bison, or wisent (B. bonasus)."

In fact the article on Bison states very clearly: "The gaur, a large, thick-coated ox found in Asia, is also known as the Indian Bison, although it is in the genus Bos and thus not a true bison."

This means that, even though the Gaur is sometimes referred to as the "Indian Bison" - this is an incorrect naming (rather like the American Bison being called a Buffalo - which it is not). So, it should not be pictured on the bison page.

I will, therefore, move this image once again - to its proper place in the article on the Gaur (Bos gaurus). John Hill 04:02, 3 October 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On 12 October, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Dus-rong Mang-po-rje, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Well done! --Espresso Addict 13:27, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu photo

I really love the photo Image:Dalai Lama & Bishop Tutu. Carey Linde.jpg which you uploaded (right). It shows two great men who have been touched by intense grief and suffering, but have managed to preserve their childlike joy. However, the image page for the photo doesn't give very many details about it other than the photographer and permission. It appears to be a conference of some sort--what was the name of the conference? What organization hosted it? What is the specific date of the photo (more than "2004")? This information would be helpful. Thank you very much. MishaPan 19:09, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi MishaPan! Sorry I have taken so long to write but I wrote to my friend Carey Linde who took the photo of H.H. the Dalai Lama and Bishop Tutu and he just replied today Oct. 16th saying: "The info on this photo is that there was a conference in Vancouver in 2004 with noble peace prize winners around the Dalai Lama’s theme for education the heart. I took the picture at a round table event." Best wishes, John Hill 04:52, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

An article which you started, or significantly expanded, Mahāvyutpatti, was selected for DYK!

On October 16, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Mahāvyutpatti, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

Thanks for your contributions! Nishkid64 (talk) 03:24, 16 October 2007 (UTC)

Oh wow this is so great. Image:Dalai Lama Congressional Medal.jpg. His holiness receiving the medal. Now this isn't going to do Chinese American relations very good is it!!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 20:50, 18 October 2007 (UTC)

Or are you not pleased with the Dalai Lama receiving a medal from George W.? What are your views on it? it does make me wonder if Bush has some agenda to aggravate China with it ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 17:28, 19 October 2007 (UTC) Yes I had a late one last night - i was staying up waiting for my parents to return from San Francisco. I happened to just look at the new pages before I logged out and saw your new article just as you had posted it! You must think I just hang around waiting for you to do something!! Keep up the good work, Regards ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 11:56, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Image:Blackfoot gathering, Alberta..JPG

Hey, this is a nice photo so thanks for uploading. Do you have any more info you could post though? Who are these people? More specifics about where/when it was taken? Thanks, TheMightyQuill 15:56, 19 October 2007 (UTC)

Indo-Greeks

Hi John, for your information, the article on the Indo-Greek kingdom is under FA review following a request by User:Devanampriya to User:Blnguyen. You may leave a comment at Wikipedia:Featured article review/Indo-Greek Kingdom should you wish to. Best regards PHG 11:59, 21 October 2007 (UTC)

Please check the references before you weigh on this article. I began by supporting it myself, as the tangled conversation at the FAR will show; but there are three widely accepted reconstructions of Indo-Greek history: Tarn's from 1938 and Narain's from 1957 are detailed and intricate conjectures, which differ widely from each other; Bopearchchi, in 1991, disagrees with both on many points. When I had the books in front of me (they're not my bedside reading, although I had studied the subject long before) I found that the article told Tarn's narrative, fairly accurately, but as though it were consensus.

As another matter, many of the notes are in error. I checked a sample, and more than half were simply wrong; Blnguyen has checked others. For example, when I surveyed the article (here) footnote 4, about Taxila as a capital, cited the following phrase: a new and orderly Taxila with a rectilinear street plan of established Hellenistic type. There are two problems with this:

• Our article was claiming that Taxila was refounded as a capital. The source doesn't say that.
• More seriously, on looking up what it actually did say and on what authority, I found that, where our article claimed this as 180 BC, Taxila's foundation as a Hellenistic city is of uncertain date, anywhere from 200 BC to 100 AD; it may even have been given a Hellenistic plan by the Kushans, who learned about such cities in Bactria.

I've fixed this, and so far the fix has stuck; but all the notes will have to be checked before we can put this on the front page without embarassment. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 17:58, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Hi John. Sorry to bring you into that, but you are highly knowledgeable on Central Asian history, and, I think, highly capable of making a comment on the general validity of this Indo-Greeks article. All references are valid, as I just take quotes from published sources, and, as always, I am open to other sources and references being added (I have no pretention to be exhaustive!). You are welcome to vote now (Wikipedia:Featured article review/Indo-Greek Kingdom), as the article goes into FARC. Don't vote if you don't feel like it. Best regards. PHG 18:18, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

"I just take quotes from published sources". That's the problem. PHG: the way to edit is "read, understand, explain"; you are omitting the second, and frequently the third, step. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 18:48, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

In general you are right, but when an article is challenged, the only solution is to show what authors actually said. This is the only way to get rid of abusive interpretations. I have added about 100 references and quotes for this very purpose. PHG 18:59, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Yes, one of them the example about Taxila above, where you have misunderstood both the sentence quoted and the context in which it stands. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 19:02, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Could you be more specific on what would have been wrongly quoted?? And let's leave User:John Hill's page if you don't mind. PHG 19:08, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

No, I don't see how I could be more specific. You used a quote to support a claim which the quote doesn't make, and which the authority actually quoted disagrees with. You've done each of these separately as well. Septentrionalis PMAnderson 19:18, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

You know, I am not even the one who wrote about these "capitals" initially, and, sorry I do not see what your problem is with the quote about the streets being of Hellenistic type. PHG 19:28, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Where in that phrase is the word capital, or any synonym of it? Septentrionalis PMAnderson 23:04, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

Thank you very much John for your support! I do appreciate tremendously! Best regards. PHG 18:59, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On 26 October, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Mustagh Pass, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Royalbroil 12:06, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Picture in the Tibetan script article

Hi. As it looks now (without your change), at least on my computer at home and at work (both Windows XP, Mozilla Firefox but different resolution), the picture doesn't cover any text. It just looks a bit strange to have it on the left side of the article. Before that (after your edit), I found the picture covering the upper right edge of the Tibetan alphabet shown in a big font. I have no idea why it seems to be the other way round on your computer. I had a look at both versions in the Internet Explorer (at work, right now), there neither version covers anything, but there's a large gap where the picture sorta "pushes" the text down. Strange. A good alternative would be to move the picture (or the text) around so that they can't interfere each other anymore at all. Wanna try it? :) — N-true 13:09, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Agvan Dorzhiev

On 1 November, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Agvan Dorzhiev, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--howcheng {chat} 16:47, 1 November 2007 (UTC)

Tibetan

Well, you're welcome, but i didn't do the most difficult thing in this world, the names were already in Tibetan in several wikipedias.

If you want, you can do the same thing, you can create a link from, hmm, Dutch wikipedia for instance, something like: bo: བསོད་ནམས་ཕྱོག་ཀྱི་གླང་པོ་་[2] and you write the name in Tibetan and པན་ཆེན་བླ་མ་(Pachen Lama) 2, you can put the years of death and birth, too. In my humble opinion, even those short contributions are important in wikipedias like Tibetan wikipedia.

About the boxes of all Dalai Lamas, they were already created too, you have to contact the person who made them.

There are several places where you can download Tibetan fonts, you can find some of them in Tibetan script article links.

But maybe you have to configure your computer first. This computer is in Spanish, and it is not configured with Asian complex script, but I found you this: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/winxp/yourlanguage.mspx

You have to go to start>control panel> etc. In that link, they explain it all. Look for your windows CD-ROMs too, maybe you need them :)

I think that's the only thing i can do for you from here, Australia is so so far away to get the metro and help you out :)

I wish i have helped you

Ciao

Gaudio 10:37, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, you can use me to practise your Spanish if you want, but i can speak English more or less :)

Happy to know that all that information was useful for you :)

Ciao. Gaudio 12:46, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Thibet under the Tang

I answered to you on commons. The Cambridge History of China and myself are talking about Thibet in the years 641 (vassalization) to 670 (fully successful rebellion). You are talking about the years 740's, one hundred years later. Yug 13:37, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

By the way, If you are interested by Thibetan calligraphy or are able to look on books on the subject, that's may be really welcome. In the Calligraphy article, I wrote the sections about European Calligraphy and East Asian Calligraphy, but I think the Thibetan calligraphy may be expand :

• historical evolution (main historical styles) ;
• main feartures/specificities ;
• tools

Regards, Yug 13:41, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Reply to above note

Dear Yug - First of all, thank you very much for your good comments on the need for more work on Tibetan calligraphy in the Wikipedia. Unfortunately, I know very little about it - but I will ask my son who has far better knowledge of Tibetan than me.

Now, I don't want to make a big issue of all this but the map does not make it clear that Tibet was definitely not a Chinese vassal for most of the time between 616 and 710 - it was only for about 20 to 28 years, at the most, that one could make this claim and, even then, it was probably more of a nominal rather than real vassalage, because China did not have troops in or any control over Tibet, which was a very powerful state at this period. The rest of the time Tibet was very definitely not only independent, but mostly hostile to China. I know you have just marked the period of Tibet recognising China as 641 to 670, but even this is not quite correct. According to the Tangshu and the Xin Tangshu (See: Pelliot's Histoire ancienne du Tibet, pp. 7, 85-86; and Lee's English translation in The History of Early Relations between China and Tibet from the Chiu t'ang-shu, pp. 15-16), the Tibetans were arguing with the Touyuhuan from 661-666 during which time the Chinese could not make up their mind which side to support. During the Zongzhang period (668 to 670) the Chinese deliberated whether to send an army against the Tibetans (Pelliot, pp. 85-86) and, finally, the Tibetans got angry and totally defeated the Touyuhuan (probably in 669). In 670 the Tibetans invaded and conquered 18 vassal states of the Chinese including Khotan and Aksu and the "Four Garrisons" of the Chinese in the Tarim Basin, which they then held for a very long time (Pelliot, p. 86). So, I think your map should show Tibet only as a nominal vassal for the period from 641 to 661, or, perhaps, to 669, at the latest. I believe it should also make it clear that Tibet was totally independent for the rest of the period 616-710. I hope I haven't made things too difficult for you. Best wishes, John Hill 23:25, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Ok: this time, I really appreciate your answer ! Really clear, sourced, et efficient answer ! (You read the Tang Shu and Xin shu !!! I'm still looking for them everywhere =.=")

When I wrote "670 (fully successful rebellion)", it's because -from what I read- it appear that the Thibetan kingdom is clearly "agitated" in the 660's, but not yet frankly revolted. The Thibetan kingdom was effectively powerfull in this time, but the Tang Taizong Empire was amazing, and it's only his death in 649, and the lack of strong and military abilities of his son and sussecor (Tang Gaozong) which allow the Thibetan King to remembered his previous ambitions (in the 660's, and making a major attack on the Chinese Empire in 670 or 669 I don't remember).

I understand now that your opposition for this map are not on my claims, but on the fact that the legend it's not clear enough.

Today I wrote this answer, and I will try to find a solution later. Yug (talk) 09:12, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Ok, I think I will change the colors, to make a clear difference between temporal vassal and the Tang Empire. I don't like to add dates in historical maps... dates are too controversial since they are often link to one definition (=POV). In the other hand, The legend in the image page already show clearly that thibet was "vassal" only from 641 to 670. It is just need to check that this information is also copy in wikipedia. In example, the article Tang Taizong already make a perfect honest use of the map, stating clearly the legend and this thibetan point.

So I currently plan to change a bit the colors and to continue to encourage a fair use of the map (stating clearly the full legend). No more is need. Yug (talk) 10:50, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

See Nlu's comment.

I will probably make this image editing in one month, but I take this issue as now close. If I'm too slow to edit the map, feel free to remember to me that I have to edit it.

If your son may make a 10-15 lines summary about thibetan calligraphy : that's would be wonderful :] Yug (talk) 11:01, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment concerning Rig Veda

Hi, John,

Thanks for your observations about what I said on the Rig Veda discussion page. You asked me to reinstate the comments I deleted, so I did.

We'll see what kind of discussion, if any, they elicit. Anger, agreement, amusement -- all of these perhaps. What I hope happens is that people who edit for egotistical reasons, that is, to push themselves forward as experts, real or imagined, will start thinking a bit more deeply about what they're doing. Idealistic, I suppose, but who knows...

Thanks again.

Timothy Perper 08:11, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

Oh, BTW -- you might find my comments on the discussion page for Elizabeth Báthory‎ interesting. They're way at the bottom. Timothy Perper 08:25, 11 November 2007 (UTC)

copyright

Hi,

I removed the statement "The Sixth Dalai Lama finally visited Lobsang Yeshe, the Fifth Panchen Lama, in Shigatse and requested his forgiveness, and renounced the vows of a novice monk. Though he continued to live in the Potala Palace, he roamed around Lhasa and other outlying villages, spending his days with his friends in the park behind the Potala Palace and nights in taverns in Lhasa and Shol (an area below the Potala) drinking chang and singing songs. He was known to be a great poet and writer and he wrote several poems." from the Tibet article, as it looked like a copyright violation to me. It appears word-for-word on http://namgyalmonastery.org/hhdl/hhdl6. My guess is you either need to make clear it's a verbatim quote, or rephrase it. see WP:Copyvio for details. Yaan 11:05, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

Sad to hear you have physical problems. Hope it gets better. Yaan 16:24, 14 November 2007 (UTC) I am also sad to hear you have physical problems. Are you OK buddy? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 14:13, 16 November 2007 (UTC)

LOL yes those images are cool aren't they!! I have a pretty good sense of humor as people always tell me and couldn't help it. Oh they are images I came across on my wiki travels and help piece together the whole Ernst Stavro Blofeld/ Dr. Evil thing which is intentionally exaggerated!!! Its a parody more than anything -the whole idea of a volcano base!! in which I hope the boring image taggers and people who have no personality will see and lighten up when they visit me and to show I am nothing like them!!! I'm very sorry to hear about your back -it sounds terrible. My uncle who is in his mid 60s has started getting it and its painful to see him walk. Looks like plenty of painkillers and hot baths and cups of tea should keep you going for the time being for the time being. Have you thought about looking at some herbal remedies/alternative medicines to help cure it? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 11:11, 17 November 2007 (UTC)

iguania vs iguana

John,

The article you cited mentions iguania not iguana two entirely different things. The genus Iguana contains the Green iguana and the Lesser Antillean iguana neither of which ever mentioned by Fry as being studied for having venom glands (because neither of them do). thanks--Mike Searson (talk) 00:25, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Dear Mike: Thanks so much for pointing out my careless mistake - I have added a note on your talk page and corrected (I think) all the entries in which I made this error. Cheers, John Hill (talk) 04:12, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

John, I used your reference in the snake article in the venom section. Here's how I formatted it:

<ref name="Fry_2006_earlyevolution"> {{citation | last = Fry | first = Brian G | last2 = Vidal | first2 = Nicholas | last3 = Norman | first3 = Janette A. | last4 = Vonk | first4 = Freek J. | last5 = Scheib | first5 = Holger | last6 = Ramjan | first6 = Ryan | last7 = Kuruppu | first7 = Sanjaya | title = Early evolution of the venom system in lizards and snakes. | journal = Nature (Letters) | volume = 439 | pages = 584-588 | year = 2006 | doi = 10.1038/nature04328 }} </ref>

If you want to add it to articles using inline citations, you should be able to copy/paste it from here!--Mike Searson 15:36, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Komodo dragon

Thanks for the help to Komodo dragon. I noticed that you moved Komodo dragon to Komodo Dragon. In the sources I've seen, it's been with the dragon uncapitalized. I moved it before from the capitalized form to the uncapitalized form before to be consistent with my sources. Would you mind if I moved it back to the uncapitalized form? bibliomaniac15 03:30, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Komodo Dragon vs. Komodo dragon

Hi! Thanks for your note on the common names. There is no hard and fast rule for most animals, but it has been the common convention with bird names for many years to capitalise the first letter of each major part of the common name - hence Bald Eagle, Common Crow, Black Swan. See, for example, the notes at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Tree_of_Life#Animals and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:BIRD#Bird_names_and_article_titles. This general rule - for some reason - has not always been applied to other orders of animals - I am not sure why.

However, the capitalising of common English names is becoming much more widely used, and so you will frequently see names written like: "Sign-bearing Froglet" (rather than "Sign-bearing froglet") and "Ornate Soil-crevice Skink" (rather than "Ornate Soil-crevice skink"), Alpine Cool-skink (rather than Alpine cool-skink) or Curl Snake (rather than Curl snake). None of these forms is "incorrect", but it is certainly becoming more standard to capitalise.

There are good reasons for this. First it clearly shows that the last part of the name is seperate from the first and to some degree classificatory - thus, Froglet, Snake, Monitor, etc. In the case of the Komodo Dragon I think it usefully emphasises that we are not talking about some other sort of "dragon" (perhaps raising thoughts of dragons in mythology), and that it is a shortened form of the name of a real animal. Thus, I think it especially important to refer to them as Dragons rather than dragons when the first name (Komodo) is dropped - as was the case in the article. Finally, I think it is best to stick with one convention to improve consistancy and prevent confusion and I don't see why the convention should be limited to birds.

However, as I said above, your method of naming is certainly not "wrong" (there are not really rigid rules for common names - as for scientific names) - I just think that capitalisation is not only becoming more commonplace, I believe it is preferable. Over to you. Best wishes, John Hill (talk) 04:13, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Caps on names

Hi John,

It bugs me, too. I don't have a preference , either way...just as long as we're consistent (although subconciously I probably capitalize everything) most of the original species articles I created were Latin taxo names (Cyclura for example and that's how I've always referred to them). You may want to bring it up at the reptiles and amphibians project page. You might even want to join it. I've been trying to fix alot of what were "caresheets" on pets passed off as science articles.--Mike Searson (talk) 05:10, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

venomous lizards

John,

I cleaned up a few places where you added the source to Fry. To clarify...Mexican Beaded Lizards and Gila Monsters have always been known to be venomous. While I agree with the essence of what Fry says, I do not agree with the way he presents his findings (its also not that new of a revelation).--Mike Searson (talk) 05:44, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

Alot of what he's saying was said by Trooper Walsh at the National Zoo in Washington DC, 20+ years ago, concerning monitors. In simple terms...venom is saliva. Saliva is a pre-digestant. It's purpose is to break down food. Ross Allen did some studies on venom breaking down food "from the inside of the prey" to help the snake digest it. People have suffered non-bacterial tissue damage from bites by humans, cats, horses, dogs, etc...why would a non-venomous reptile be any different? Read back that quote you included in the Bearded dragon article and parse it out, you'll see what I mean. I'm just glad my tax dollars aren't going toward his grant money.--Mike Searson (talk) 06:17, 30 November 2007 (UTC)

George Bogle

Ah I thought we were missing the article on George Bogle (diplomat)‎ it was wrongly linked in tons of articles - good find and nice work on the DYK. I recently started Deforestation in Brazil and have been working on [[Thunderball (film). Forgive the besh barmak humour on my user talk page. It isn't meant to be offensive to Central Asian culture -I didn't want you to think this ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 14:18, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Hello? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 14:45, 5 December 2007 (UTC)

Nope never been to Argentina in my life I don't know how you thought that? Perhaps its because I've done work on Argentine cinema?. I live in Barry, Wales in the UK!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 11:09, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

LOL no amigo!!! Although they do speak welsh in Patagonia! I think it must have been the argentine flag you had seen before when I was working on argentine cinema. If you see my user page now I have the welsh flag and am from Barry, Wales!! I live in a part where very few people speak welsh although in Cardiff more people speak welsh who have ocme from elsewhere in wales. I barely know any words of welsh at all. Too many llll and wychhhhhh's! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 12:06, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Mae'n byrw glaw heddiw. This means It is raining today!. I know hardly anything else. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 12:09, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes there are some lovely parts of wales such as the Brecon Beacons and the Gower Peninsula. ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 12:15, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I don't know if you have heard of these people but I know Charlotte Church and Gavin Henson pretty well I used to see them every week at Culverhouse Cross and have met the Stereophonics and Kelly Jones on several occasions. I haven't seen Shirley Bassey or Tom Jones yet but i have seen Catherine Zeta Jones outside the Millenium Stadium in cardiff! Have you heard of these welsh exports? ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 12:21, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

Wow is this a coincidence or what? Talk:Australian Aboriginal mythology. A few das ago I asked the Aussie wiki group to cleanup the article as it was terrible -it needs a humungous amount of work. Then who do I find but you have edited it!! Either we are very much on the same wavelength or you saw it in the wiki page!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^"Talk"? 13:04, 7 December 2007 (UTC)

Altan Khan

Hey nice work on Altan Khan. If you look at the image -you'll see I added it a while back. Altan Khan keeps popping up in Tibetan history doesn't he!!!

Hi John, can you try to expand the Buryats article if you have info on them. The article seems like it is missing alot. Hey its a cold one today here!!! Quite the opposite from Aus at this time of year -I think it would feel odd having christmas in the sunshine!!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 11:42, 13 December 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On 3 December, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Gungsrong Gungtsen, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Royalbroil 14:20, 3 December 2007 (UTC)

Keriya Town

Hi, I noticed that you created Keriya Town. But I have not found such a town in Keriya County. Could you please give me any online source for this town's name? If you like, please leave a message at Talk:Keriya Town. Thank you. --Neo-Jay (talk) 17:13, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

Reply on Keriya Town

Hi! Thanks for your note. I think the problem you are having is because in the late 19th century the previous Chinese name for Khotan (Pinyin: Hotan) 于窴 (Yutian) began to be applied instead to Keriya. So, the small town of Keriya is now called 于窴 (Yutian). It seems difficult to get much information on the present size and amenities of the town itself although the county is supposed to have a population of some 220,000. I haven't had time to do a thorough search on the internet yet, but there a couple photos taken in the town at the following website: [3] There is also a map showing a fairly large town at: [4] Hope that helps. Cheers, John Hill (talk) 22:54, 9 December 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On 12 December, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Altan Khan, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Cirt (talk) 14:29, 12 December 2007 (UTC)

re: Daxia

Dear John: I agree that Ta-Hia should be renamed to Daxia. The only issue is whether Daxia should be a main page or just a disambiguation page for this ancient state and Daxia River. I think that you can move Ta-Hia to Daxia (Bactria) or Daxia (state) and leave Daxia as a disambiguation page. --Neo-Jay (talk) 22:02, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Well, it's OK with me. You may place the request at Wikipedia:Requested moves.--Neo-Jay (talk) 22:18, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Many thanks for your greetings. Have a nice holiday! --Neo-Jay (talk) 22:35, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

By the way, Wikipedia does not allow renaming a page by cut and paste (see Help:Moving a page). If we cannot move a page, placing a request at Wikipedia:Requested moves is the only thing we can do. I have supported your proposal at Talk:Ta-Hia. Thank you for your contributions.--Neo-Jay (talk) 22:54, 15 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks again for your friendly support and help - I have just listed the article at Wikipedia:Requested moves. Best wishes, John Hill (talk) 00:07, 16 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi buddy I see you have already become acquainted with the good Mr Neo. John I've managed to sort out an infobox for the counties too. Hopefully this will be the first stage to cleaning them up and expanding. I also started making my own map of the counties. See Image:Coqencounty.png. Does this look OK? -I know the shading isn't perfect - I shaded in the relevant county to try to help people. If you see Coqen County now you'll see what I mean. Soon enough I hope we can write full articles on these counties. Felicidad Navidad!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 11:07, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Dunno. I've found a way to modify the maps tidily now see Burang County. Hopefully soon enough every county and village will look like this!! I remain optimistic. I;m currently looking at setting up some places in Burma. Did you know there are over 34,000 settlements in Burma -increible amigo! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 11:31, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

I read your new articles long ago!!! (noticed I nipped in and categorized one or two of them) I was thinking how great your writing is!!! Keep up the good work ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 11:34, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

DYK

On 21 December, 2007, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Palden Lhamo, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Maxim_(talk) 23:16, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

Hi John

Hi John, I'm sorry that it’s been a while since I spoke with you. As I said at the time I was very busy. Therefore, lets pickup where we left off we were speaking about your visit to Amritsar all those years ago. The point you make about Punjab being partitioned being sad is so true. The Punjabi people regardless of the religion have always been one people for thousands of years. It was such shame that for political reasons they were split. Lets talk more. Please tell me why you decided to travel so much and in a time period when many did not?

Moreover, side-point I and a few other long time editors shall do a neutrality check and other checks on Jat people. The article is much better now than 6 months ago and there are many excellent sections in it now. Most of it is now of good standard. I think it is unfair for any highlight tags to be place at the top of the article because it unfairly casts bad light on the excellent and very good sections that exist on the Jat people article now. Therefore, I shall remove them from the top but please, if absolutely required as a last resort, then add them in sentences that are uncited and do not have any published literature about them.

Finally, Let chat more about your time in Punjab I am very interested to compare your experience in Punjab, best regards friends.--Sikh historian (talk) 05:51, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Reply to Jat Historian

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008 from the Bald One ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 13:24, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Thank you for your kind note informing me of all the changes you are making to the Jat people page - and it is good to hear from you again! Yes, I am thrilled with the many improvements to the page and, especially, the removal of racist comments and the more extreme and fanciful sections. It also reads much better now - largely thanks to you.

I have tried to refrain from doing much editing myself (other than a few small grammar corrections and the like) because I have been worried about stirring up the previous unhelpful arguments - but I have been keeping note of the improvements. Anyway, I am not a Jat nor even a Punjabi, and it is far better done by someone who is.

I still think the whole article needs much more shortening and tightening up but, yes, I am in full agreement with removing the tags at the beginning of the article (though some of the ones still heading various sections should, I believe, be retained until the issues are satisfactorily dealt with).

You refer again to my travels in the Punjab. I am not sure of how much interest they will be - I never really spent that much time there - and I never tried to learn the language as it was so easy to get around with just English and a smattering of Hindi and people were so unfailingly helpful and kind to me. I was usually travelling from one place to another, although I did spend a few weeks in Ludhiana when my wife was very sick and had to undergo major surgery at "Miss Brown's Hospital" (in 1980) and I have spent 2 or 3 weeks altogether in Amritsar and have stayed several times in Patankot.

I would like to thank you for taking on this difficult and sensitive job - I am so relieved to see it all progressing so well. I hope when you are done with this page you can find the time to do some work on other, related pages as well (such as the Origin of Jat people page). Congratulations, many thanks, and all best wishes for 2008. As someone said to me yesterday: "May your taxes be small and your joys great!" Cheers, John Hill (talk) 23:52, 22 December 2007 (UTC) PS. I will put this not on your Talk page as well.

See me having a wonderful christmas time

(Its start raining as I speak lol) MERRY CHRISTMAS AMIGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 10:51, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Ah I wish I could completely devote myself to Tibetan articles on wikipedia. I have a chistmas present for you. I;ve started articles on the Dzogchen Rinpoche and created a nice template to connect them specially. Do you have any info on these. Also I need you to research Chokpori, which I believe is the sacred hill at the back of the potala which once had a monastic school built on it I think so my humble source tells me. Could you check this and do what you do best. I only wish I had the books that you do! Also see ne wimage and infobox for Great Gampo.Have a great Christmas -both you and the wife and the little un! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 21:17, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Wishing you the very best for the season - Guettarda 03:59, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

You really are excelling yourself! The Bald One is proud of you, not only have you devloped Chokpuri and added some beautiful new images!! but you've started Batang County I;ve noticed, -excellent collaboration there between you and Neo. I wish every article on a village and county in Tibet looked like that!!! Keep up the great work! ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 17:25, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

First of all have a great New Year -may 2008 bring you peace and happiness and a significant relief in back pain so you can edit longer lol!! I've reassessed Gampo as a B class. It would be great to see him up to a GA status which I believe can be achieved. It has been a long time coming and the article has improved a lot since last year when it was in disarray. I've also requested that MJC add the tibetan;chinese parameters to the monarch boxes so we don't have that undightly extra blue box but have it wirtten into one neat box. This will make a big difference to the Dalai Lama articles also ♦ Sir Blofeld ♦ ^Talk? 12:21, 31 December 2007 (UTC)