La Porte County Public Library System

Unlike other faiths, Confucianism and Daoism focus almost entirely on life in this world, not the next. So how do followers find meaning and consolation in the face of their deaths? The answers can be found in the distinct approaches of the great Chinese thinkers Confucius and Zhuangzi.

We call them o-rang-u-tans, which literally means "forest persons" in the Malay and Indonesian languages. They are the only great apes native to Asia. Of all the apes, they are the closest to man in genetic makeup. And they face extinction. Two years in the making, The Disenchanted Forest is an intimate portrayal of the world of orangutans, the threats to their survival and the people committed to help them thrive. The film focuses on a recent discovery...

First, look at Chinese traditions involving spirits of the dead and other supernatural beings. Then, visit some of the many possibilities for a soul’s destination in Chinese traditions (including a Pure Land, an underworld, and rebirth). Finally, discover how conflicting views of the afterlife accurately capture our ambivalent feelings about death.

Learn about the life of Mohandas "Mahatma"Gandhi, who is perhaps the 20th century’s most well-regarded political activist. You’ll trace his life from his young manhood in India to his education in Britain to his activism in South Africa and India. In this lecture, an admirable—but complex—figure emerges.

If you had the chance to meet some of the world’s most enlightened yoga masters, what would you want to know? What would you ask them? The Yoga Gurus is your chance to hear from them! Filmed on location in India from the lap of the Himalayas in Rishikesh to the south in Mysore, you will meet the top yoga teachers from both east and west. Go beyond the physical asanas of yoga and deep into the mind and inner being of a yoga guru. Their words will...

Shift your attention to India’s other major epic, the Mahabharata, which is the longest major text in human history (clocking in at a whopping 1.8 million words). After examining the sources and style of this epic, Professor Fisher surveys its plot and shows what it means from the "emic"perspective of Indians as well as the "etic"perspective of outsiders.

Continue your study of Indian and British relations with a detailed look at the British Raj, a 90-year period of colonialism that stretched from the 1857 uprising to the region’s independence in 1947. Gain insight into Britain’s racist policies, and view the beginnings of the subcontinent’s struggle for political autonomy.

The political costs for the war began to add up for the Nixon Administration, and the South Vietnamese were now on their own. The American troops were home, but there was little celebration. The scars of the war would linger in American culture for decades to come..

During the course of the war, the NLF captured thousands of US soldiers, some of whom were never recovered. Their recovery was used as part of Nixon's justification for continuing the war..

Unlike Pakistan and Bangladesh, India became a secular state after its 1947 independence, and it is now the world’s largest democracy. This examination of the nation’s early years examines Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s vision to transform the nation and some of his successful economic programs.