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Arts & Culture / Trends & Traditions

Bahb trains in the ring at Saktaywan Boxing Gym with the head trainer, Ajarn Sit (Ajarn means "teacher").

Thailand’s Fight Club

Inside the little-known, action-packed world of Muay Thai boxing

At an altitude of 12,300 feet, the Shandur Pass is usually populated by grazing yaks. But once a year it turns into the world's highest polo ground. When teams from Chitral and Gilgit face off—as they have since 1933—tribesmen gather for the mayhem.

Extreme Polo

There are no holds barred at the annual grudge match in northwest Pakistan’s “land of mirth and murder”

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Last Page: Going Up?

Some brushes with fame are more uplifting than others

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What’s Up

Body language, new stripes and prime real estate

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Say What?

In an era of global communications, regional dialects are hanging in there, y’all

Michelangelo's David, the centerpiece of the Accademia.

Cricket for Dummies

It’s a lot like baseball. Except that it’s profoundly different

Philadelphia was, and remains, the crucible of North American cricket. In 1908, native son J. Barton King set records that stood for 40 years.

The History of Cricket in the United States

The game is both very British and, to Americans, very confusing. But it was once our national pastime, and its gaining fans on these shores

A 30-foot-high communal meetinghouse, or mudheef, is constructed entirely of the region's ubiquitous marsh reeds, which, woven into majestic arches, support even its elegantly curved roof. "If you go back 4,000 years," one villager told the author, "you'll find exactly the same design."

Return to the Marsh

The effort to restore the Marsh Arabs’ traditional way of life in southern Iraq—virtually eradicated by Saddam Hussein —faces new threats

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Joe Robinson, Vacation Advocate, Santa Monica, Calif.

His prescription for overworked Americans: chill

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Last Hurrah

Everyone wanted to see the Babe the day they retired his number; photographer Nat Fein saw the story.

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Land of the Wee

Where else can you decorate the bordello and exercise godlike powers?

China produces about two-thirds of the world's shoes, and its unofficial shoe-making capital is Wenzhou (Chen Wenyi makes a call at the Heyu Shoe Materials Company). Says one factory owner: "Wenzhounese work harder than anyone else in China."

A Tale of Two Chinas

As the red-hot Chinese economy feeds the world’s appetite for consumer goods, the workers’ republic is more than ever a nation of haves and have-nots

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Young and Restless

Saudi Arabia’s baby boomers, born after the 1973 oil embargo, are redefining the kingdom’s relationship with the modern world

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My Cold War Hang-Up

How I learned to stop worrying and make peace with my nuclear phone

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Global Wording

If you can’t say it in English, just borrow le mot juste

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Worlds Apart

Change and constance on sceptered isles

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Royal @

In a web-based monarchy, there are no bans on fox-hunting

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The Old Ballgames

Civil rights chronicler Ernest Withers also photographed the glories of black baseball, including pioneering big leaguer Jackie Robinson

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Last Call

Hang-ups are an occupational hazard

Powell, Wyoming

For Sale By Owners

Threatened by megastores and a shuttered local chain, a Wyoming town revives Main Street by giving power to the people

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