Gabar

Any member of the small Zoroastrian minority in Iran. The name Gabar was formerly applied derogatorily to the Iranian Zoroastrians; the term is linguistically related to the Arabic kafir, meaning “infidel.” The Zoroastrians who remained in Persia (modern Iran) after the Arab–Muslim conquest (7th century AD) had a long history as outcasts. Although they purchased some toleration

Alcott, Bronson

The self-educated son of a poor farmer, Alcott traveled in the South as a peddler before establishing a series of schools for children. His educational theories owed something to J.H. Pestalozzi, the Swiss reformer, but more to the examples

Visvakarman

(Sanskrit: “All Accomplishing”), in Hindu mythology, the architect of the gods. The name was originally used as an epithet of any powerful god but later came to personify creative power. Visvakarman is the divine carpenter and master craftsman who fashioned the weapons of the gods and built their cities and chariots. He is the architect of the mythical city, Lanka, and is also

Chiapas Highlands

High-altitude region of dissected plateaus enclosing a central valley (Valle Central de Chiapas) in Chiapas state, southeastern Mexico. The highlands constitute the northwestern end of a mountainous region extending northward from the lowlands of Nicaragua to the Isthmus of Tehauntepec and are composed of three main features running parallel to the Pacific

Esquipulas

Town, southeastern Guatemala, in the central highlands near the borders of Honduras and El Salvador at an elevation of 3,018 feet (920 m). The town itself is not large; it derives its great importance from its magnificent colonial church, now Central America's greatest pilgrimage centre, built in 1737 by the archbishop of Guatemala to house the spectacular Black Christ. The figure,

Ukrainian Catholic Church

Largest of the Eastern Catholic churches, in communion with Rome since the Union of Brest-Litovsk (1596). Byzantine Christianity was established among the Ukrainians in 988 by St. Vladimir (Volodimir) and followed Constantinople in the Great Schism of 1054. Temporary reunion with Rome was effected in the mid-15th century, and a definitive union was achieved at Brest-Litovsk in 1596, when

Lorde, Audre

The daughter of Grenadan parents, Lorde attended Hunter College and received a B.A. in 1959 and a master's degree in library science in 1961. She married in 1962 and wrote poetry while working as a librarian at