Faraway People Series
The Dege Printing House

A printing house built in 1729 in Tibet where old Buddhist texts and scholarly books are still being printed by young and older men today.

Since 1759, in Dege in Tibet, a printing house has been busy printing the Tibetan Buddhist canon and other scholarly texts – astrology, poetry, science, medicine – three quarters of Tibet’s literary heritage. About one hundred men work here. Some are printers, sculptors, engravers, checkers, ink makers… All texts are engraved on sandalwood blocks. There are 300,000 of them kept in a huge library. The printing house has no electricity for fear a fire might destroy the wood blocks.

Treasures of the World Series
The Bahrain Fort

On the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, the Bahrain Fort is the site of 4000 years of continuous human settlement.

In the middle of the desert on the island of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf stands a solitary tree. People say that it’s more than 4000 years old. They call it the tree of life.
It serves as a monument to the long history of this mainly barren island: a fabled place which, according to the ancient Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh, was the embodiment of Paradise. Dilmun, the ancient name for Bahrain, was an advanced civilisation which, 5000 years ago, turned the island into a fertile garden and a busy trading centre. In the early 16th century the Portuguese built Bahrain Fort, a stone colossus.  From the ruins of the Dilmun civilisation to the fortifications of the Portuguese, the area around Bahrain Fort points to 4000 years of continuous human settlement.