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Bambara language

Bambara, also known as Bamana (N'Ko script: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲) or Bamanankan (N'Ko script: ߓߡߊߣߊ߲ߞߊ߲; Arabic script: بَمَنَنكَن), is a lingua franca and national language of Mali spoken by perhaps 14 million people, natively by 4.2 million Bambara people and about 10 million second-language users. It is estimated that about 80 percent of the population of Mali speak Bambara as a first or second language. It has a subject–object–verb clause structure and two lexical tones.

Classification
Bambara is a variety of a group of closely related languages called Manding, whose native speakers trace their cultural history to the medieval Mali Empire. Varieties of Manding are generally considered (among native speakers) to be mutually intelligible – dependent on exposure or familiarity with dialects between speakers – and spoken by 9.1 million people in the countries Burkina Faso, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Ivory Coast and the Gambia. Manding is part of the larger Mandé family of languages.

Geographical distribution
Bambara is spoken throughout Mali as a lingua franca. The language is most widely spoken in the areas east, south, and north of Bamako, where native speakers and/or those that identify as members of the Bambara ethnic group are most densely populated. These regions are also usually considered to be the historical geographical origin of Bambara people, particularly Ségou, after diverging from other Manding groups.

Dialects
The main dialect is Standard Bamara, which has significant influence from Maninkakan. Bambara has many local dialects: Kaarta, Tambacounda (west); Beledugu, Bananba, Mesekele (north); Jitumu, Jamaladugu, Segu (center); Cakadugu, Keleyadugu, Jalakadougu, Kurulamini, Banimɔncɛ, Cɛmala, Cɛndugu, Baninkɔ, Shɛndugu, Ganadugu (south); Kala, Kuruma, Saro, dialects to the northeast of Mopti (especially Bɔrɛ); Zegedugu, Bɛndugu, Bakɔkan, Jɔnka (southeast).

Writing
Since 1967, Bambara has mostly been written in the Latin script, using some additional phonetic characters from the Africa Alphabet. The vowels are a, e, ɛ (formerly è ), i, o, ɔ (formerly ò ) , u ; accents can be used to indicate tonality. The former digraph ny is now written ɲ when it designates a palatal nasal; the ny spelling is kept for the combination of a nasal vowel with a subsequent oral palatal glide. Following the 1966 Bamako spelling conventions, a velar nasal "ŋ" is written as "ŋ", although in early publications it was often transcribed as ng or nk.

The N'Ko alphabet is a script devised by Solomana Kante in 1949 as a writing system for the Manding languages of West Africa; N’Ko means 'I say' in all Manding languages. Kante created N’Ko in response to what he felt were beliefs that Africans were a "cultureless people" since prior to this time there had been no indigenous African writing system for his language. N'ko first gained a strong user base around the Maninka-speaking area of Kante's hometown of Kankan, Guinea and disseminated from there into other Manding-speaking parts of West Africa. N'ko and the Arabic script are still in use for Bambara, although only the Latin-based orthography is officially recognized in Mali.

Additionally, a script known as Masaba or Ma-sa-ba was developed for the language beginning in 1930 by Woyo Couloubayi (c. 1910-1982) of Assatiémala. Named for the first characters in Couloubayi's preferred collation order, Masaba is a syllabary which uses diacritics to indicate vowel qualities such as tone, length, and nasalization. Though not conclusively demonstrated to be related to other writing systems, Masaba appears to draw on traditional Bambara iconography and shares some similarities with the Vai syllabary of Liberia and with Arabic-derived secret alphabets used in Hodh (now Hodh El Gharbi and Hodh Ech Chargui Regions of Mauritania). As of 1978, Masaba was in limited use in several communities in Nioro Cercle for accounting, personal correspondence, and the recording of Muslim prayers; the script's current status and prevalence is unknown.

Latin orthography
It uses seven vowels a, e, ɛ, i, o, ɔ and u, each of which can be nasalized, pharyngealized and murmured, giving a total number of 21 vowels (the letters approximate their IPA equivalents). Writing with the Latin alphabet began during the French colonization, and the first orthography was introduced in 1967. Literacy is limited, especially in rural areas. Although written literature is only slowly evolving (due to the predominance of French as the "language of the educated"), there exists a wealth of oral literature, which is often tales of kings and heroes. This oral literature is mainly passed on by the griots (Jeliw in Bambara) who are a mixture of storytellers, praise singers, and human history books who have studied the trade of singing and reciting for many years. Many of their songs are very old and are said to date back to the old empire of Mali.

Alphabet

 * A – a – [a]
 * B – be – [b]
 * C – ce – [t͡ʃ]
 * D – de – [d]
 * E – e – [e]
 * Ɛ – ɛ – [ɛ]
 * F – ef – [f]
 * G – ge – [g]
 * H – ha – [h]
 * I – i – [i]
 * J – je – [d͡ʒ]
 * K – ka – [k]
 * L – ɛl – [l]
 * M – ɛm – [m]
 * N – ɛn – [n]
 * Ɲ – ɲe – [ɲ]
 * Ŋ – ɛŋ – [ŋ]
 * O – o – [o]
 * Ɔ – ɔ – [ɔ]
 * P – pe – [p]
 * R – ɛr – [r]
 * S – ɛs – [s]
 * T – te – [t]
 * U – u – [u]
 * W – wa – [w]
 * Y – ye – [j]
 * Z – ze – [z]

Other letters

 * kh – [ɣ] (used for loanwords from other African languages)
 * -n – nasalises vowel
 * sh – she – [ʃ] (regional variant of s)

Vowels

 * ߊ – a – [a]
 * ߋ – e – [e]
 * ߌ – i – [i]
 * ߍ – ɛ – [ɛ]
 * ߎ – u – [u]
 * ߏ – o – [o]
 * ߐ – ɔ – [ɔ]

Consonants

 * ߓ – ba – [b]
 * ߔ – pa – [p]
 * ߕ – ta – [t]
 * ߖ – ja – [d͡ʒ]
 * ߗ – ca – [t͡ʃ]
 * ߘ – da – [d]
 * ߚ/ߙ – ra – [r]
 * ߛ – sa – [s]
 * ߜ? – ga – [g/ʀ/ɣ]
 * ߜ – gba – [ɡ͡b]
 * ߝ – fa – [f]
 * ߞ – ka – [k]
 * ߟ – la – [l]
 * ߡ – ma – [m]
 * ߢ – nya or ɲa – [ɲ]
 * ߒ – nga or ŋa – [ŋ]
 * ߣ – na – [n]
 * ߥ – wa – [w]
 * ߦ – ya – [j]
 * ߤ – ha – [h]
 * ߲ – nasal vowel – [-̃]

Tones

 * ߫ – short high
 * ߬ – short low
 * ߯ – long high
 * ߰ – long low

Consonants
Each consonant represents a single sound with some exceptions:
 * "W" is pronounced as in English (e.g. wait) except at the end of a word, when it is the plural mark and is pronounced as [u].
 * "S" is pronounced most often as in the English word "see" but is sometimes pronounced as "sh" [ʃ] as in the word "shoe" or as [z].
 * "G" is pronounced most often as in the English word "go" but in the middle of a word, it can be pronounced as in the Spanish word "abogado" ([ɣ]) and sometimes at the beginning of a word as [gw].

Grammar
The basic sentence structure is subject–object–verb (SOV). Take the phrase, n t'a lon (I don't know [it]). n is the subject (I), a is the object (it), and [ta] lon is the verb ([to] know). The t'  is from the negative present tense marker té, bé being the affirmative present tense marker (n b'a don would mean "I know it"). Like many SOV languages, Bambara uses postpositions rather than prepositions - their role being similar to English prepositions but placed after the noun.

The language has two (mid/standard and high) tones; e.g. sa 'die' vs. sá 'snake.' The typical argument structure of the language consists of a subject, followed by an aspectival auxiliary, followed by the direct object, and finally a transitive verb.

Bambara does not inflect for gender. Gender for a noun can be specified by adding a suffix, -cɛ or -kɛ for male and -muso for female. The plural is formed by attaching a vocalic suffix -u, most often with a low tone (in the orthography, -w) to nouns or adjectives.

Loan words
In urban areas, many Bamanankan conjunctions have been replaced in everyday use by French borrowings that often mark code-switches. The Bamako dialect makes use of sentences like: N taara Kita mais il n'y avait personne là-bas. : I went to Kita [Bamanankan ] but there was no one there [French]. The sentence in Bamanankan alone would be Ń taara Kita nka mɔkɔ si tun tɛ yen. The French proposition "est-ce que" is also used in Bamanankan ; however, it is pronounced more slowly and as three syllables,.

Bamanankan uses many French loan words. For example, some people might say: I ka kurusi ye nere ye: "Your skirt is yellow" (using a derivation of jaune, the French word for yellow, they often use joni.)

However, one could also say: I ka kulosi ye nɛrɛmukuman ye, also meaning "your skirt is yellow." The original Bamanankan word for yellow comes from "nɛrɛmuku," being flour (muku) made from néré (locust bean), a seed from a long seed pod. Nɛrɛmuku is often used in sauces in Southern Mali.

Most French loan words are suffixed with the sound 'i'; this is particularly common when using French words which have a meaning not traditionally found in Mali. For example, the Bamanankan word for snow is niegei, based on the French word for snow neige. As there has never been snow in Mali, there was no unique word in Bamanankan to describe it.

Examples
N bɛ bamanankan mɛn dɔɔni-dɔɔni

I AUX. Bambara hear small-small

I understand/hear a little bit of Bambara

I tɛna dumuni ke wa?

you AUX.NEG.FUT eating do Q

Aren't you going to eat?

{Du Mara} be ameriki hali bi wa?

{Dou Mara} still America in live Q

Is Dou Mara still living in the United States?

Music
Malian artists such as Oumou Sangaré, Sidiki Diabaté, Fatoumata Diawara, Rokia Traoré, Ali Farka Touré, Habib Koité and the married duo Amadou & Mariam often sing in Bambara. Lyrics in Bambara occur on Stevie Wonder's Journey Through "The Secret Life of Plants".

Additionally, in 2010, Spanish rock group Dover released its 7th studio album I Ka Kené with the majority of lyrics in the language. American rapper Nas also released a track titled "Patience" in 2010, which featured Damian Marley and extensively sampled the Amadou & Mariam song "Sabali", as sabali is a Bambara word meaning patience.

Legal status
Bambara was until 2023 one of several languages designated by Mali as a national language.

In 2023, after a new constitution was approved by a majority of voters, Bambara became co-official, together with 12 other languages spoken in the country. French was removed as the official language and was kept only as a working language.

Descriptions

 * Mali – History – Language

Dictionaries

 * Maliyiri.com is a website which provides English-Bambara-French translations and is a community-based project where users can add new words, comments, provide feedback and follow one another.
 * Corpus Bambara de Référence - Etiquetage online and downloadable Bambara-French Dictionary (about 11,500 entries by the end of 2014), with a French-Bambara index, linked with the Corpus Bambara de Référence
 * An ka taa's Mobile-friendly Bambara-English dictionary that includes French and Jula.
 * Bambara entries (>2300) in the French Wiktionary
 * Bambara-French-English dictionary online and downloadable lexicons for language learners
 * Bambara tree names (scientific name -> common name)

Learning materials

 * Online Bambara Course from the Indiana University
 * (168 KB) on peacecorps.gov

Other

 * Corpus Bambara de Référence Corpus Bambara de Référence, an electronic corpus of Bambara texts (about 2,000,000 words end 2014)
 * Maliyiri.com's Android application, with thousands of daily users, provides English-Bambara-French translations and users can choose to get daily/weekly word notifications for continuous learning.
 * Bambara Electronic Library, AMALAN – LLACAN
 * An ka taa: a website with a dictionary, resources and media for learning Bambara and Manding more generally.
 * Bambara at French Wikibooks contains more material
 * Mandenkan Journal
 * PanAfriL10n page on Manding (includes information on Bambara)
 * Maneno in Bambara (a blogging platform with a full Bambara interface)

title: Bambara language


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Baku

Baku (, ; Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and in the Caucasus region. Baku is 28 m below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world and also the largest city in the world below sea level. Baku lies on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, on the Bay of Baku. Baku's urban population was estimated at two million people as of 2009. Baku is the primate city of Azerbaijan—it is the sole metropolis in metropolitan area.

Baku was separated from Iran by the Russian army in 1813.|url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Gulistan#CITEREFFisherAveryHamblyMelville1991

Baku is divided into twelve administrative raions and 48 townships. Among these are the townships on the islands of the Baku Archipelago, as well as the industrial settlement of Neft Daşları built on oil rigs 60 km away from Baku city in the Caspian Sea. The Old City, containing the Palace of the Shirvanshahs and the Maiden Tower, was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.

The city is the scientific, cultural, and industrial centre of Azerbaijan. Many sizeable Azerbaijani institutions have their headquarters there. In the 2010s, Baku became a venue for major international events. It hosted the 57th Eurovision Song Contest in 2012, the 2015 European Games, 4th Islamic Solidarity Games, the European Grand Prix in 2016, the Azerbaijan Grand Prix since 2017, the final of the 2018–19 UEFA Europa League, and was one of the host cities for UEFA Euro 2020. The Baku International Sea Trade Port is capable of handling two million tonnes of general and dry bulk cargoes per year. Baku is renowned for its harsh winds, reflected in its nickname, the "City of Winds".

Etymology
Baku is long attested under the Perso-Arabic name باکو (Bākū). Early Arabic sources also refer to the city as Bākuh and Bākuya, all of which seem to come from a Persian name. The further etymology is unclear.

A popular etymology in the 19th century considered it to be derived from Persian بادکوبه (Bâd-kube, meaning "wind-pounded city", a compound of bād, "wind", and kube, which is rooted in the verb کوبیدن kubidan, "to pound", thus referring to a place where wind would be strong and pounding, as is the case of Baku, which is known to experience fierce winter snow storms and harsh winds). This popular name (Badkubə in modern Azerbaijani script) gained currency as a nickname for the city by the 19th century (e.g., it is used in Akinchi, volume 1, issue 1, p. 1), and is also reflected in the city's modern nickname as the "City of Winds" (Küləklər şəhəri). Another and even less probable folk etymology explains the name as deriving from Baghkuy, meaning "God's town". Baga (now بغ bagh) and kuy are the Old Persian words for "god" and "town" respectively; the name Baghkuy may be compared with Baghdād ("God-given") in which dād is the Old Persian word for "give".

During Soviet rule, the city was spelled in Cyrillic as "Бакы" in Azerbaijani (while the Russian spelling was and still is "Баку", ). The modern Azerbaijani spelling, which has been using the Latin alphabet since 1991, is Bakı; the shift from the Perso-Arabic letter و (ū) to Cyrillic "ы" and, later, Latin "ı" may be compared to that in other Azerbaijani words (e.g. compare qāpū in old Perso-Arabic spelling with modern Azerbaijani, "door") or in suffixes, as و was often used to transcribe the vowel harmony in Azerbaijani (which was also the practice in Ottoman Turkish). (See also Azerbaijani alphabet.)

Antiquity
Traces of human settlement in the region of present-day Baku date back to the Stone Age. Bronze-Age rock carvings have been discovered near Bayil, and a bronze figure of a small fish in the territory of the Old City. These have led some to suggest the existence of a Bronze-Age settlement within the city's territory. Near Nardaran, a place called Umid Gaya features a prehistoric observatory, where images of the sun and of various constellations are carved into rock together with a primitive astronomic table. Further archeological excavations have revealed various prehistoric settlements, native temples, statues and other artifacts within the territory of the modern city and around it.

In the 1st century AD, the Romans organised two Caucasian campaigns and reached what is today Baku. Near the city, in what is today Gobustan, Roman inscriptions dating from AD 84 to 96 survive – some of the earliest written evidences for a city there.

Rise of the Shirvanshahs and the Safavid era
Baku was the realm of the Shirvanshahs during the 8th century AD. The city frequently came under assault from the Khazars and (starting from the 10th century) from the Rus'. Shirvanshah Akhsitan I built a navy in Baku and successfully repelled a Rus' assault in 1170. After a devastating earthquake struck Shamakhi, the capital of Shirvan, Shirvanshah's court moved to Baku in 1191.

The Shirvan era greatly influenced Baku and the remainder of present-day Azerbaijan. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, massive fortifications were built in Baku and the surrounding towns. The Maiden Tower, the Ramana Tower, the Nardaran Fortress, the Shagan Castle, the Mardakan Castle, the Round Castle and also the Sabayil Castle on the island of the Bay of Baku date from this period. The city walls of Baku were also rebuilt and strengthened.

By the early 16th century, Baku's wealth and strategic position attracted the attention of its larger neighbours; in the previous two centuries, it was under the rule of the Iran-centred Kara Koyunlu and Ak Koyunlu. The fall of the Ak Koyunlu brought the city immediately into the sphere of the newly formed Iranian Safavid dynasty, led by king (shah) Ismail I ((r. 1501 – 1524)). Ismail I laid siege to Baku in 1501 and captured it; he allowed the Shirvanshahs to remain in power, under Safavid suzerainty. His successor, king Tahmasp I ((r. 1524 – 1576)), completely removed the Shirvanshahs from power and made Baku a part of the Shirvan province. Baku remained as an integral part of his empire and of successive Iranian dynasties for the next centuries, until ceded to the Russian Empire through the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan. The House of Shirvan, which had ruled Baku since the 9th century, was extinguished in the course of Safavid rule.

At this time, the city was enclosed within lines of strong walls, which were washed by the sea on one side and protected by a wide trench on land. The Ottomans briefly gained control over Baku as a result of the Ottoman-Safavid War of 1578–1590; by 1607, it came under Iranian control again. In 1604 Shah Abbas I ((r. 1588 – 1629)) destroyed Baku fortress.

Baku had a reputation as a focal point for traders from across the world during the Early modern period; commerce was active and the area prospered. Notably, traders from the Indian subcontinent established themselves in the region. These Indian traders built the Ateshgah of Baku during 17th–18th centuries; the temple was used as a Hindu, Sikh, and Zoroastrian place of worship.

Downfall of the Safavids and the Khanate of Baku
The Safavids temporarily lost power in Iran in 1722; Emperor Peter the Great of Russia took advantage of the situation and invaded. As a result of the Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723, the Safavids were forced to cede Baku to Russia. By 1730 the situation had deteriorated for the Russians; the successes of Nader Shah ((r. 1736 – 1747)) led them to sign the Treaty of Ganja near Ganja on 10 March 1735, ceding the city and all other conquered territories in the Caucasus back to Iran.

The eruption of instability following Nader Shah's death in 1747 gave rise to the various Caucasian khanates. The semi-autonomous Persian-ruled

Russo-Persian Wars and Iran's cession

From the late 18th century, Imperial Russia switched to a more aggressive geopolitical stance towards its two neighbours and rivals to the south, namely Iran and the Ottoman Empire. In the spring of 1796, by Catherine II's order, General Valerian Zubov's troops started a large campaign against Qajar Persia. Zubov had sent 13,000 men to capture Baku, and it was overrun subsequently without any resistance. On 13 June 1796, a Russian flotilla entered Baku Bay, and a garrison of Russian troops was stationed inside the city. Later, however, Emperor Paul I of Russia ordered the cessation of the campaign and the withdrawal of Russian forces following the death of his predecessor, Catherine the Great. In March 1797 the tsarist troops left Baku and the city became part of Qajar Iran again.

In 1813, following the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813, Qajar Iran had to sign the Treaty of Gulistan with Russia this provided for the cession of Baku and of most of Iran's territories in the North Caucasus and South Caucasus to Russia. During the next and final bout of hostilities between the two, the Russo-Persian War of 1826–1828, the Iranians briefly recaptured Baku. However, the militarily superior Russians ended this war with a victory as well, and the resulting Treaty of Turkmenchay (1828) made Baku's inclusion in the Russian Empire definite. When Baku was occupied by the Russian troops during the war of 1804–13, nearly the entire population of some 8,000 people was ethnic Tat. Baku within Russia was the administrative center of the Baku Uyezd, Baku Governorate, and the Baku Gradonachalstvo.

Discovery of oil

The Russians built the first oil-distilling factory in Balaxani in 1837. The first person to drill oil in Baku was an ethnic Armenian Ivan Mirzoev, who is also known as a 'founding father of Baku's oil industry.' Digging for oil began in the 1840s, with the first oil well drilled in the Bibi-Heybat suburb of Baku in 1846. Large-scale oil exploration started in 1872 when the Russian imperial authorities auctioned parcels of oil-rich land around Baku to private investors. The pioneer of oil extracting from the bottom of the sea was the Polish geologist Witold Zglenicki. Soon after, investors appeared in Baku, including the Nobel Brothers in 1873 and the Rothschilds in 1882. An industrial area of oil refineries, better known as Black Town (Чёрный город), developed near Baku by the early 1880s.

Professor A. V. Williams Jackson of Columbia University wrote in his work From Constantinople to the Home of Omar Khayyam (1911): "Baku is a city founded upon oil, for to its inexhaustible founts of naphtha it owes its very existence, its maintenance, its prosperity... At present Baku produces one-fifth of the oil that is used in the world, and the immense output in crude petroleum from this single city far surpasses that in any other district where oil is found. Verily, the words of the Scriptures find illustration here: 'the rock poured me out rivers of oil.

Oil is in the air one breathes, in one's nostrils, in one's eyes, in the water of the morning bath (though not in the drinking water, for that is brought in bottles from distant mineral springs), in one's starched linen – everywhere. This is the impression one carries away from Baku, and it is certainly true in the environs."

By the beginning of the 20th century, half of the oil sold in international markets was extracted in Baku. The oil boom contributed to the massive growth of Baku. Between 1856 and 1910 Baku's population grew at a faster rate than that of London, Paris or New York.

World War I
In 1917, after the October Revolution and amidst the turmoil of World War I and the Russian Revolution, Baku came under the control of the Baku Commune, led by the veteran Bolshevik Stepan Shahumyan. Seeking to capitalize on the existing ethnic conflicts, by spring 1918, Bolsheviks inspired and condoned civil war in and around Baku. During the March Days of 1918, Bolsheviks and Dashnaks, seeking to establish control over Baku streets, faced armed Azerbaijani groups. The Azerbaijanis suffered defeat from the united forces of the Baku Soviet and were massacred by Dashnak teams in what was called the March Days. An estimated 3,000–12,000 Azerbaijanis were killed in their own capital. After the massacre, on 28 May 1918, the Azerbaijani faction of the Transcaucasian Sejm proclaimed the independence of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic (ADR) in Ganja, thereby founding the first Muslim-majority democratic and secular republic. The newly independent Azerbaijani republic, being unable to defend the independence of the country on their own, asked the Ottoman Empire for military support in accordance with clause 4 of the treaty between the two countries. Shortly after, Azerbaijani forces, with support of the Ottoman Army of Islam led by Nuru Pasha, started their advance on Baku, eventually capturing the city from the loose coalition of Bolsheviks, SRs, Dashnaks, Mensheviks and British forces under the command of General Lionel Dunsterville on 15 September 1918.

After the Battle of Baku of August–September 1918, the Azerbaijani irregular troops, with the tacit support of the Turkish command, conducted four days of pillaging and killing 10,000–30,000 Armenians of Baku. This pogrom became known as the "September Days". Shortly after this, Baku was proclaimed the new capital of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic.

The Ottoman Empire, recognising defeat in World War I by October 1918, signed the Armistice of Mudros with the British (30 October 1918); this meant the evacuation of Turkish forces from Baku. Headed by General William Thomson, some 5,000 British troops, including parts of the former Dunsterforce, arrived in Baku on 17 November. Thomson declared himself military governor of Baku and implemented martial law in the city until "the civil power would be strong enough to release the forces from the responsibility to maintain the public order". British forces left before the end of 1919.

Soviet period
The independence of the Azerbaijani republic was a significant but short-lived chapter in Baku's history. On 28 April 1920, the 11th Red Army invaded Baku and reinstalled the Bolsheviks, making Baku the capital of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic.

The city underwent many major changes. As a result, Baku played a great role in many branches of Soviet life. Baku was the major oil city of the Soviet Union. From about 1921 the city was headed by the Baku City Executive Committee, commonly known in Russian as Bakgorispolkom. Together with Baku Party Committee (known as the Baksovet), it developed the economic significance of the Caspian metropolis. From 1922 to 1930 Baku became the venue for one of the major trade fairs of the Soviet Union, serving as a commercial bridgehead to Iran and the Middle East.

World War II
The major powers continued to note Baku's growing importance as a major energy hub. During World War II (1939–1945) and particularly during the 1942 Nazi German invasion of the southwestern Soviet Union, Baku became of vital strategic importance to the Axis powers. In fact, capturing the oil fields of Baku was a primary goal of the Wehrmacht's Operation Edelweiss, carried out between May and November 1942. However, the German Army reached only a point some 530 km northwest of Baku in November 1942, falling far short of the city's capture before being driven back during the Soviet Operation Little Saturn in mid-December 1942.

Fall of the Soviet Union and later
After the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, Baku embarked on a process of restructuring on a scale unseen in its history. Thousands of panel buildings from the Soviet period were demolished to make way for a green belt on its shores; parks and gardens were built on the land reclaimed by filling up the beaches of the Baku Bay. Improvements were made in general cleaning, maintenance, and garbage collection to bring these services up to Western European standards. The city is growing dynamically and developing at pace on an east–west axis along the shores of the Caspian Sea. Sustainability has become a key factor in future urban development.

Geography
Baku is situated on the western coast of the Caspian Sea. In the vicinity of the city there are a number of mud volcanoes (Keyraki, Bogkh-bogkha, Lokbatan and others) and salt lakes (Boyukshor, Khodasan, etc.).

Climate
Baku has a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification: BSk) with hot and humid summers, cool and occasionally wet winters, and strong winds all year long. However, unlike many other cities with such climate features, Baku does not see extremely hot summers and substantial sunshine hours. This is largely because of its northerly latitude and the fact that it is located on a peninsula on the shore of the Caspian Sea.

Baku, and the Absheron Peninsula on which it is situated, is the most arid part of Azerbaijan (precipitation here is around or less than 200 mm a year). This is largely due to the rain shadow effect from the Caucasian Mountains, with corresponding latitudes on the Black Sea on average receiving 2300 mm or more. The majority of the light annual precipitation occurs in seasons other than summer, but none of these seasons is particularly wet.

During Soviet times, Baku, with its long hours of sunshine and dry healthy climate, was a vacation destination where citizens could enjoy beaches or relax in now-dilapidated spa complexes overlooking the Caspian Sea. The city's past as a Soviet industrial centre left it one of the most polluted cities in the world,.

At the same time, Baku is noted as a very windy city throughout the year, hence the city's nickname the "City of Winds", and gale-force winds, the cold northern wind khazri and the warm southern wind gilavar are typical here in all seasons. Indeed, the city is renowned for its fierce winter snow storms and harsh winds. The speed of the khazri sometimes reaches 144 km/h, which can cause damage to crops, trees and roof tiles.

The daily mean temperature in July and August averages 26.4 °C, and there is very little rainfall during that season. During summer, the khazri sweeps through, bringing desired coolness. Winter is cool and occasionally wet, with the daily mean temperature in January and February averaging 4.3 °C. During winter, the khazri sweeps through, driven by polar air masses; temperatures on the coast frequently drop below freezing and make it feel bitterly cold. Winter snow storms are occasional; snow usually melts within a few days after each snowfall.

Administrative divisions
Baku is divided into 12 rayonlar (sub-rayons) (administrative districts) and 5 settlements of city type.

 * Binagadi (Binəqədi) raion
 * Garadagh (Qaradağ) raion
 * Khatai (Xətai) raion
 * Khazar (Xəzər) raion
 * Narimanov (Nərimanov) raion
 * Nasimi (Nəsimi) raion
 * Nizami raion
 * Pirallahi (Pirallahı) raion
 * Sabail (Səbail) raion
 * Sabunchu (Sabunçu) raion
 * Surakhani (Suraxanı) raion
 * Yasamal raion

Demographics
Until 1988, Baku had very large Russian, Armenian, and Jewish populations which contributed to cultural diversity and added in various ways (music, literature, architecture and progressive outlook) to Baku's history. With the onset of the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and the pogrom against Armenians starting in January 1990, the city's large Armenian population was expelled. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev returned several synagogues and a Jewish college, nationalised by the Soviets, to the Jewish community; he encouraged the restoration of these buildings. Seven of the original 11 synagogues, including the Gilah synagogue, built in 1896, and the large Kruei Synagogue, were renovated.

Ethnic groups
Today, the vast majority of Baku's population is made up of ethnic Azerbaijanis, and the rest are Talysh, Russians, Lezgi and others. The intensive growth of the population started in the middle of the 19th century when Baku was a small town with a population of about 7,000 people. The population increased again from about 13,000 in the 1860s to 112,000 in 1897 and 215,000 in 1913, making Baku the largest city in the Caucasus region.

Baku has been a cosmopolitan city at certain times during its history, meaning ethnic Azerbaijanis did not constitute the majority of population. It was only in the 1970s that ethnic Azerbaijanis achieved demographic dominance in Baku. In 2003 Baku additionally had 153,400 internally displaced persons and 93,400 refugees.

Religion
The religion with the largest community of followers is Islam. The majority of the Muslims are Shia Muslims, and the Republic of Azerbaijan has the second-highest Shia population percentage in the world, after Iran. The city's notable mosques include Juma Mosque, Bibi-Heybat Mosque, Muhammad Mosque and Taza Pir Mosque.

There are some other faiths practised among the different ethnic groups within the country. By article 48 of its Constitution, Azerbaijan is a secular state and ensures religious freedom. Religious minorities include Russian Orthodox Christians, Catholic Levantines, Georgian Orthodox Christians, Albanian-Udi Apostolic Christians, Lutherans, Ashkenazi Jews, and Sufi Muslims. Baku is the seat of the Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of Azerbaijan.

Zoroastrianism, although extinct in the city as well as in the rest of the country by the present time, had a long history in Azerbaijan and the Zoroastrian New Year (Nowruz) continues to be the main holiday in the city as well as in the rest of Azerbaijan.

Economy

Baku's largest industry is petroleum, and its petroleum exports make it a large contributor to Azerbaijan's balance of payments. The existence of petroleum has been known since the 8th century. In the 10th century, the Arabian traveler, Marudee, reported that both white and black oil were being extracted naturally from Baku. By the 15th century, oil for lamps was obtained from hand-dug surface wells. Commercial exploitation began in 1872, and by the beginning of the 20th century the Baku oil fields were the largest in the world. Towards the end of the 20th century, much of the onshore petroleum had been exhausted, and drilling had extended into the sea offshore. By the end of the 19th century skilled workers and specialists flocked to Baku. By 1900 the city had more than 3,000 oil wells, of which 2,000 were producing oil at industrial levels. Baku ranked as one of the largest centres for the production of oil industry equipment before World War II. The World War II Battle of Stalingrad was fought to determine who would have control of Baku oil fields. Fifty years before the battle, Baku produced half of the world's oil supply.

The oil economy of Baku is undergoing a resurgence, with the development of the massive Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli field (Shallow water Gunashli by SOCAR, deeper areas by a consortium led by BP), development of the Shah Deniz gas field, the expansion of the Sangachal Terminal and the construction of the BTC Pipeline.

The Baku Stock Exchange is Azerbaijan's largest stock exchange, and largest in the Caucasian region by market capitalization. A relatively large number of transnational companies are headquartered in Baku. One of the more prominent institutions headquartered in Baku is the International Bank of Azerbaijan, which employs over 1,000 people. International banks with branches in Baku include HSBC, Société Générale and Credit Suisse.

Tourism and shopping
Baku is one of the most important tourist destinations in the Caucasus, with hotels in the city earning 7 million euros in 2009. Many sizable world hotel chains have a presence in the city. Baku has many popular tourist and entertainment spots, such as the downtown Fountains Square, the One and Thousand Nights Beach, Shikhov Beach and Oil Rocks. Baku's vicinities feature Yanar Dag, an ever-blazing spot of natural gas. On 2 September 2010 with the inauguration of National Flag Square, Baku set the world record for tallest flagpole; on 24 May 2011, the city of Dushanbe in Tajikistan set a new record with a 3 m-higher flagpole. A few years later, the Flag Pole was dismantled and the National Flag Square was closed off with fences.

Baku has several shopping malls, including Port Baku, Park Bulvar, Ganjlik Mall, Metro Park, 28 MALL, Aygun city and AF MALL. The retail areas contain shops from chain stores up to high-end boutiques.

The city is listed 48th in the 2011 list of the most expensive cities in the world conducted by the Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Its Nizami Street and also the Neftchilar Avenue are among the most expensive streets in the world.

Culture
In 2007, the Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Zaha Hadid, was opened. Baku also has many museums such as Baku Museum of Modern Art and Azerbaijan State Museum of History, most notably featuring historical artifacts and art. Many of the city's cultural sites were celebrated in 2009 when Baku was designated an Islamic Culture Capital. Baku was chosen to host the Eurovision Dance Contest 2010. It has also become the first city to host the first European Games in 2015.

Theatres

 * Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre
 * Azerbaijan State Academic Drama Theatre
 * Azerbaijan State Russian Drama Theatre named after Samad Vurgun
 * Baku Puppet Theatre (formally Azerbaijan State Puppet Theatre named after Abdulla Shaig)
 * Azerbaijan State Theatre of Young Spectators
 * Azerbaijan State Theatre of Musical Comedy
 * Baku State Circus
 * "Oda" Theatre
 * Baku Marionette Theatre
 * Baku Municipal Theatre
 * Azerbaijan State Pantomime Theatre
 * Mugham Azerbaijan National Music Theatre
 * Azerbaijan State Theatre of Song named after Rashid Behbudov
 * "UNS" Theatre
 * "Yugh" Theatre

Among Baku's cultural venues are Azerbaijan State Philharmonic Hall, Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre. The main movie theatre is Azerbaijan Cinema. Festivals include Baku International Film Festival, Baku International Jazz Festival, Novruz Festival, Gül Bayramı (Flower Festival) and the National Theater Festival. International and local exhibitions are presented at the Baku Expo Centre.

Museums

 * The Museum Centre
 * Museum of Archaeology and Ethnography
 * Azerbaijan State Carpet Museum
 * Azerbaijan Museum of Geology

Libraries

 * National Library of Azerbaijan
 * ANAS Central Library of Science
 * Presidential Library (former Library of the Armenian Philanthropic Society)

Architecture
Baku has wildly varying architecture, ranging from the Old City core to modern buildings and the spacious layout of Baku port. Many of the city's landmarks were built during the early 20th century, when architectural elements of the European styles were combined in eclectic style. Baku has an original and unique appearance, earning it a reputation as the Paris of the East. Baku joined UNESCO's Network of Creative Cities as a Design City on 31 October 2019 on the occasion of World Cities' Day.

Hamams
There are a number of ancient hamams in Baku dating back to the 12th, 14th and 18th centuries. Hamams play a very important role in the architectural appearance of Baku.

Teze Bey Hamam
Teze Bey is the most popular hamam (traditional Islamic bath) in Baku. It was built in 1886 in the centre of Baku, and in 2003 it was fully restored and modernised. Along with its modern amenities, Teze Bey features a swimming pool and architectural details inspired by Oriental, Russian and Finnish baths.

Gum Hamam
Gum Hamam was discovered during archaeological excavations underneath the sand; hence the name: Gum hamam (sand bath). It was built sometime during the 12th–14th centuries.

Bairamali hamam
In ancient times, Bairamali Hamam was called "Bey Hamam". The original structure was built sometime during the 12th–14th centuries and was reconstructed in 1881.

Agha Mikayil Hamam
Agha Mikayil Hamam was constructed in the 18th century by Haji Agha Mikayil on Kichik Gala Street in the Old City (Icherisheher). It is still operating in its ancient setting. The Hamam is open to women on Mondays and Fridays and to men on the other days of the week.

Modern architecture
Late modern and postmodern architecture began to appear in the early 2000s. With economic development, old buildings such as Atlant House were razed to make way for new ones. Buildings with all-glass shells have appeared around the city, the most prominent examples being the International Mugham Center, Azerbaijan Tower, Heydar Aliyev Cultural Centre, Flame Towers, Baku Crystal Hall, Baku White City, SOCAR Tower and DENIZ Mall. These projects also caught the attention of international media as notable programmes such as Discovery Channel's Extreme Engineering did pieces focusing in on changes to the city.

The Old City of Baku, also known as the Walled City of Baku, refers to the ancient Baku settlement. Most of the walls and towers, strengthened after the Russian conquest in 1806, survived. This section is picturesque, with its maze of narrow alleys and ancient buildings: the cobbled streets past the Palace of the Shirvanshahs, two caravansaries, the baths and the Juma Mosque (which used to house the Azerbaijan National Carpet and Arts Museum but is now a mosque again). The old town core also has dozens of small mosques, often without any particular sign to distinguish them as such.

In 2003, UNESCO placed the Inner City on the List of World Heritage in Danger, citing damage from a November 2000 earthquake, poor conservation as well as "dubious" restoration efforts. In 2009 the Inner City was removed from the List of World Heritage in Danger.

Visual arts
The three main institutions for exhibiting modern and contemporary art in Baku are:
 * Baku Museum of Modern Art
 * Heydar Aliyev Centre
 * Yarat Contemporary Art Space (Yarat Müasir İncəsənət Mərkəzi)

Music and media

The music scene in Baku can be traced back to ancient times and villages of Baku, generally revered as the fountainhead of meykhana and mugham in the Azerbaijan.

Recently, the success of Azerbaijani performers such as AySel, Farid Mammadov, Sabina Babayeva, Safura and Elnur Hüseynov in the Eurovision Song Contest has boosted the profile of Baku's music scene, prompting international attention. Following the victory of Azerbaijan's representative Eldar & Nigar at the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, Baku hosted the Eurovision Song Contest 2012.

2005 was a landmark in the development of Azerbaijani jazz in the city. It has been home to legendary jazz musicians like Vagif Mustafazadeh, Aziza Mustafa Zadeh, Rafig Babayev and Rain Sultanov. Among Baku's prominent annual fairs and festivals is Baku International Jazz Festival, which features some of the world's most identifiable jazz names.

Baku also has a thriving International Centre of Mugham, which is located in Baku Boulevard, Gulustan Palace and Buta Palace, one of the principal performing arts centres and music venues in the city.

The majority of Azerbaijan's media companies (including television, newspaper and radio, such as, Azad Azerbaijan TV, Ictimai TV, Lider TV and Region TV) are headquartered in Baku. The films The World Is Not Enough and The Diamond Arm, among others, are set in the city, while Amphibian Man includes several scenes filmed in Old City.

The city's radio stations include: Ictimai Radio, Radio Antenn, Burc FM, Avto FM, ASAN Radio and Lider FM Jazz

Some of Baku's newspapers include the daily Azadliq, Zaman (The Time), Bakinskiy Rabochiy (Baku Worker), Echo and the English-language Baku Today.

Baku is also featured in the video game Battlefield 4.

Nightlife
Many clubs that are open until dawn can be found throughout the city. Clubs with an eastern flavour provide special treats from the cuisine of Azerbaijan along with local music. Western-style clubs target younger, more energetic crowds. Most of the public houses and bars are located near Fountains Square and are usually open until the early hours of the morning.

Baku is home to restaurants catering to every cuisine and occasion. Restaurants range from luxurious and expensive to ordinary and affordable.

Parks and gardens
Baku has large sections of greenery, either preserved by the National Government or designated as green zones. The city, however, continues to lack a green belt development as economic activity pours into the capital, resulting in massive housing projects along the suburbs.

Baku Boulevard is a pedestrian promenade that runs parallel to Baku's seafront. The boulevard contains an amusement park, yacht club, musical fountain, statues and monuments. The park is popular with dog-walkers and joggers and is convenient for tourists. It is adjacent to the newly built International Centre of Mugham and the musical fountain.

Other parks and gardens include Heydar Aliyev Park, Samad Vurgun Park, Narimanov Park, Alley of Honor and the Fountains Square. The Martyrs' Lane, formerly the Kirov Park, is dedicated to the memory of those who died during the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and also to the 137 people killed on Black January.

Sports

Baku hosts a Formula One race on the Baku City Circuit. The first was the 2016 European Grand Prix, with the track going around the old city. The track measures 6.003 km, and it has been on the Formula One calendar since its 2016 debut.

The city also hosted three group games and one quarter-final of the UEFA Euro 2020 European Football Championship.

Since 2002, Baku has hosted 36 major sporting events and selected to host the 2015 European Games. Baku is also to host the fourth edition of the Islamic Solidarity Games in 2017.

Baku is also one of world's leading chess centres, having produced grandmasters like Teimour Radjabov, Vugar Gashimov, Garry Kasparov, Shahriyar Mammadyarov and Rauf Mammadov, as well as the arbiter Faik Hasanov. The city also annually hosts the international tournaments such as Baku Chess Grand Prix, President's Cup, Baku Open and bidding to host 42nd Chess Olympiad in 2014.

First class sporting facilities were built for the indoor games, including the Palace of Hand Games and Heydar Aliyev Sports and Exhibition Complex. It hosted many sporting events, including FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships in 2007 and 2009, 2005 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships, 2007 FILA Wrestling World Championships and 2010 European Wrestling Championships, 2011 World Amateur Boxing Championships, 2009 Women's Challenge Cup and European Taekwondo Championships in 2007. Since 2011 the city annually hosts WTA tennis event called Baku Cup.

The Synergy Baku Cycling Project participates in the Tour d'Azerbaïdjan a 2.2 multi-stage bicycle race on the UCI Europe Tour.

Baku made a bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics and 2020 Summer Olympics, but failed to become a Candidate City both times.

The largest sports hub in the city is Baku Olympic Stadium with 69,870 seating capacity, whose construction was completed in 2015. UEFA Europa League Final 2019 was played at the Olympic Stadium in Baku on 29 May 2019 between English sides Chelsea and Arsenal. The city's main football clubs is Neftçi Baku of who first has nine Premier League titles, making Neftchi the most successful Azerbaijani football club. Baku also has several football clubs in the premier and regional leagues, including AZAL and Ravan in Premier League. The city's second-largest stadium, Tofiq Bahramov Stadium hosts a number of domestic and international competitions and was the main sports centre of the city for a long period until the construction of Baku Olympic Stadium.

In the Azerbaijan Women's Volleyball Super League, Baku is represented by Rabita Baku, Azerrail Baku, Lokomotiv Baku and Azeryol Baku.

Transport
Throughout history, the transport system of Baku used the now-defunct horsecars, trams and narrow gauge railways. , 1,000 black cabs are ordered by Baku Taxi Company, and as part of a programme originally announced by the Transport Ministry of Azerbaijan, there is a plan to introduce London cabs into Baku. The move was part of £16 million agreement between Manganese Bronze subsidiary LTI Limited and Baku Taxi Company.

Local rail transport includes the Baku Funicular and the Baku Metro, a rapid-transit system notable for its art, murals, mosaics and ornate chandeliers. Baku Metro was opened in November 1967 and includes 3 lines and 25 stations at present; 170 million people used Baku Metro over the past five years. In 2008, the Chief of Baku Metro, Taghi Ahmadov, announced plans to construct 41 new stations over the next 17 years. These will serve the new bus complex as well as the international airport. In 2019, the Baku suburban railway opened.

BakuCard is a single Smart Card for payment on all types of city transport. The intercity buses and metro use this type of card-based fare-payment system.

Baku Railway Station is the terminus for national and international rail links to the city. The Kars–Tbilisi–Baku railway, which directly connects Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan, began to be constructed in 2007 and opened in 2017. The completed branch will connect Baku with Tbilisi in Georgia, and from there trains will continue to Akhalkalaki, and Kars in Turkey.

Sea transport is vital for Baku, as the city is practically surrounded by the Caspian Sea to the east. Shipping services operate regularly from Baku across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenbashi (formerly Krasnovodsk) in Turkmenistan and to Bandar Anzali and Bandar Nowshar in Iran. The commuter ferries, along with the high-speed catamaran Seabus (Deniz Avtobusu), also form the main connection between the city and the Absheron peninsula.

Baku Port was founded in 1902 and claims to be the largest Caspian Sea port. It has six facilities: the main cargo terminal, the container terminal, the ferry terminal, the oil terminal, the passenger terminal and the port fleet terminal. The port's throughput capacity reaches 15 million tonnes of liquid bulk and up to 10 million tons of dry cargoes. In 2010, the Baku International Sea Trade Port began to be reconstructed. The construction was planned to take place in three stages and to be completed by 2016. The estimated costs were US$400 million. From April to November, Baku Port is accessible to ships loading cargoes for direct voyages from Western European and Mediterranean ports. The State Road M-1 and the European route E60 are the two main motorway connections between Europe and Azerbaijan. The motorway network around Baku is well-developed and is constantly being extended.

The Heydar Aliyev International Airport is the only commercial airport serving Baku. The new Baku Cargo Terminal was officially opened in March 2005. It was constructed to be a major cargo hub in the CIS countries, and is actually now one of the biggest and most technically advanced in the region. There are also several smaller military airbases near Baku, such as Baku Kala Air Base, intended for private aircraft, helicopters and charters.

Secondary schools

 * Elite Gymnasium

Health care
According to the Ministry of Healthcare, healthcare facilities in Baku are "highly developed compared with the regions and doctors are waiting to work there. The regions, meanwhile, lack both doctors and clinics providing specialized medical treatment." Resulting in citizens travelling for many hours to Baku to receive adequate medical treatment.

Twin towns and sister cities
Baku is twinned with: [in chronological order]

Partner cities

 * 🇩🇪 Mainz, Germany
 * 🇫🇷 Paris, France
 * 🇦🇹 Vienna, Austria
 * Tbilisi, Georgia
 * 🇰🇿 Astana, Kazakhstan
 * 🇧🇾 Minsk, Belarus
 * 🇷🇺 Moscow, Russia
 * 🇷🇺 Volgograd, Russia
 * 🇷🇺 Kizlyar, Russia
 * 🇺🇿 Tashkent, Uzbekistan
 * 🇨🇳 Chengdu, China

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Baku


text:
Balalaika

The balalaika (балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck, and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the third string is a perfect fourth higher. The higher-pitched balalaikas are used to play melodies and chords. The instrument generally has a short sustain, necessitating rapid strumming or plucking when it is used to play melodies. Balalaikas are often used for Russian folk music and dancing.

The balalaika family of instruments includes instruments of various sizes, from the highest-pitched to the lowest: the piccolo balalaika, prima balalaika, secunda balalaika, alto balalaika, bass balalaika, and contrabass balalaika. There are balalaika orchestras which consist solely of different balalaikas; these ensembles typically play Classical music that has been arranged for balalaikas. The prima balalaika is the most common; the piccolo is rare. There have also been descant and tenor balalaikas, but these are considered obsolete. All have three-sided bodies; spruce, evergreen, or fir tops; and backs made of three to nine wooden sections (usually maple).

The prima, secunda, and alto balalaikas are played either with the fingers or a plectrum (pick), depending on the music being played, and the bass and contrabass (equipped with extension legs that rest on the floor) are played with leather plectra. The rare piccolo instrument is usually played with a pick.

Etymology
The earliest mention of the term balalaika dates back to a 1688 Russian document. Another appearance of the word is registered in a document from the Verkhotursky district of Russia, dated October 1700. It is also mentioned in a document dated 1714 and signed by Peter the Great regarding the wedding celebrations of N.M. Zotov in Saint Petersburg. In the Ukrainian language the word was first documented in the 18th century as "balabaika"; this form is also present in South Russian dialects and the Belarusian language, as well as in Siberian Russia. It made its way into literature and first appeared in "Elysei", a 1771 poem by V. Maykov. "Balalaika" also appears in Nikolai Gogol's Dead Souls, written between 1837 and 1842.

Types

The most common solo instrument is the prima, which is tuned E4–E4–A4 (thus the two lower strings are tuned to the same pitch). Sometimes the balalaika is tuned "guitar style" by folk musicians to G3–B3–D4 (mimicking the three highest strings of the Russian guitar), whereby it is easier to play for Russian guitar players, although classically trained balalaika purists avoid this tuning. It can also be tuned to E4–A4–D5, like its cousin, the domra, to make it easier for those trained on the domra to play the instrument, and still have a balalaika sound. The folk (pre-Andreev) tunings D4–F♯4–A4 and C4–E4–G4 were very popular, as this makes it easier to play certain riffs.

Balalaikas have been made in the following sizes:
 * {| class="wikitable"

! Name !! Length !! Common tuning
 * descant || c. 46 cm || E5 E5 A5
 * piccolo || c. 61 cm || B4 E5 A5
 * prima || 66 - 69 cm || E4 E4 A4
 * secunda || 68 - 74 cm || A3 A3 D4
 * alto || 81 cm || E3 E3 A3
 * tenor || 91 - 97 cm || A2 A2 D3
 * bass || 104 cm || E2 A2 D3
 * contrabass || 130 - 165 cm || E1 A1 D2
 * }
 * alto || 81 cm || E3 E3 A3
 * tenor || 91 - 97 cm || A2 A2 D3
 * bass || 104 cm || E2 A2 D3
 * contrabass || 130 - 165 cm || E1 A1 D2
 * }
 * contrabass || 130 - 165 cm || E1 A1 D2
 * }
 * }

Factory-made six-string prima balalaikas with three sets of double courses are also common. These have three double courses similar to the stringing of the mandolin and often use a "guitar" tuning.

Four-string alto balalaikas are also encountered and are used in the orchestra of the Piatnistky Folk Choir.

The piccolo, prima, and secunda balalaikas were originally strung with gut with the thinnest melody string made of stainless steel. Today, nylon strings are commonly used in place of gut.

Amateur and/or souvenir-style prima balalaikas usually have a total of 16 frets, while in professional orchestra-like ones that number raises to 24.

Technique
An important part of balalaika technique is the use of the left thumb to fret notes on the lower string, particularly on the prima, where it is used to form chords. Traditionally, the side of the index finger of the right hand is used to sound notes on the prima, while a plectrum is used on the larger sizes.

Because of the large size of the contrabass's strings, it is not uncommon to see players using a plectrum made from a leather shoe or boot heel. Bass and contrabass balalaikas rest on the ground, on a wooden or metal pin that is drilled into one of its corners.

History

It is possible that the emergence and evolution of the balalaika was a product of interaction with Asian-Oriental cultures. In addition to European culture, early Russian states, also called Rus' or Rusi, were also influenced by Oriental-Asian cultures. Some theories say that the instrument is descended from the domra, an instrument from the East Slavs. In the Caucasus, similar instruments such as the Mongolian topshur, used in Kalmykia, and the Panduri used in Georgia are played. It is also similar to the Kazakh dombra, which has two strings. Variants of the dombra played by the Bashkirs often have 3 strings and may represent an instrument related to both the dombra and the balalaika.

The pre-Andreyev period
Early representations of the balalaika show it with anywhere from two to six strings. Similarly, frets on earlier balalaikas were made of animal gut and tied to the neck so that they could be moved around by the player at will (as is the case with the modern saz, which allows for the playing distinctive to Turkish and Central Asian music).

The first known document mentioning the instrument dates back to 1688. A guard's logbook from the Moscow Kremlin records that two commoners were stopped from playing the Balalaika whilst drunk. Further documents from 1700 and 1714 also mention the instrument. In the early 18th century the term appeared in Ukrainian documents, where it sounded like "Balabaika". Balalaika appeared in "Elysei", a 1771 poem by V. Maikov. In the 19th century, the balalaika evolved into a triangular instrument with a neck that was substantially shorter than that of its Asian counterparts. It was popular as a village instrument for centuries, particularly with the skomorokhs, sort of free-lance musical jesters whose tunes ridiculed the Tsar, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Russian society in general.

The Andreyev period
In the 1880s, Vasily Vasilievich Andreyev, who was then a professional violinist in the music salons of St Petersburg, developed what became the standardized balalaika, with the assistance of violin maker V. Ivanov. The instrument began to be used in his concert performances. A few years later, St. Petersburg craftsman Paserbsky further refined the instruments by adding a fully chromatic set of frets and also a number of balalaikas in orchestral sizes with the tunings now found in modern instruments. One of the reasons why the instruments were not standardised, was because people in the outlying areas built their own instruments because there was so little communication for them. There were no roads and weather conditions were generally bad. Andreyev patented the design and arranged numerous traditional Russian folk melodies for the orchestra. He also composed a body of concert pieces for the instrument.

Balalaika orchestra

The end result of Andreyev's labours was the establishment of an orchestral folk tradition in Tsarist Russia, which later grew into a movement within the Soviet Union. The balalaika orchestra in its full form consists of balalaikas, domras, gusli, bayan, Vladimir Shepherd's Horns, garmoshkas, and several types of percussion instruments.

With the establishment of the Soviet system and the entrenchment of a proletarian cultural direction, the culture of the working classes (which included that of village labourers) was actively supported by the Soviet establishment. The concept of the balalaika orchestra was adopted wholeheartedly by the Soviet government as something distinctively proletarian (that is, from the working classes) and was also deemed progressive. Significant amounts of energy and time were devoted to support and foster the formal study of the balalaika, from which highly skilled ensemble groups such as the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra emerged. Balalaika virtuosi such as Boris Feoktistov and Pavel Necheporenko became stars both inside and outside the Soviet Union. The movement was so powerful that even the renowned Red Army Choir, which initially used a normal symphonic orchestra, changed its instrumentation, replacing violins, violas, and violoncellos with orchestral balalaikas and domras.

Solo instrument
Often musicians perform solo on the balalaika. In particular, Alexey Arkhipovsky is well known for his solo performances. In particular, he was invited to play at the opening ceremony of the second semi final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow because the organizers wanted to give a "more Russian appearance" to the contest.

Notable players
See Category: Russian balalaika players (English Wikipedia) and a larger one in Russian

 * Vasily Andreyev
 * Alexey Arkhipovsky
 * Elina Karokhina
 * Boris Sergeyevich Troyanovskiy

In popular culture

Through the 20th century, interest in Russian folk instruments grew outside of Russia, likely as a result of western tours by Andreyev and other balalaika virtuosi early in the century. Significant balalaika associations are found in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta and Seattle.
 * Ian Anderson plays balalaika on two songs from the 1969 Jethro Tull album Stand Up: "Jeffrey Goes to Leicester Square" and "Fat Man".
 * Wes Anderson's 2014 film The Grand Budapest Hotel (winner of the 87th Academy Award for Best Original Score) employs many balalaikas in both Alexandre Desplat's original score and several sound-track recordings by the Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra.
 * Oleg Bernov of the Russian-American rock band the Red Elvises played a red electrified contrabass balalaika during the band's North American tours. Dejah Sandoval currently tours with the Red Elvises and plays the bass balalaika.
 * Kate Bush featured the balalaika (played by her brother Paddy Bush) in two of her Top-40 singles, "Babooshka" and "Running Up That Hill".
 * Katzenjammer, the Norwegian all-girl pop band, uses two contrabass balalaikas, both of which have cat faces painted on the front. They are named Børge and Akerø.
 * David Lean's 1965 film Doctor Zhivago features balalaika prominently in the score and the plot.
 * VulgarGrad, an Australian band fronted by actor Jacek Koman, plays songs of the Russian criminal underground, and uses a contrabass balalaika.
 * RebbeSoul plays the balalaika on numerous songs on the RebbeSoul albums Fringe Of Blue, RebbeSoul-O, Change The World With A Sound, and From Another World. He also plays the balalaika on the Common Tongue album Step Into My Word and on the Shlomit & RebbeSoul album The Seal Of Solomon.
 * The instrument is featured in the episode "The Secret War" of the 2019 Netflix series Love, Death & Robots.
 * The instrument is used alongside a piano and a bayan (a type of Russian accordion) in the piece "A Journey" from the soundtrack of the 2013 Japanese animated film The Wind Rises.
 * Selo i Ludy, a Ukrainian folk band, utilises the balalaika.
 * The instrument makes a brief appearance in Charlie Chaplin's 1931 film City Lights.
 * The Beatles' song "Back in the U.S.S.R." includes the lyric "let me hear your balalaikas ringing out".
 * "Wind of Change" by Scorpions includes the lyric "let your balalaika sing what my guitar wants to say ".
 * The balalaika is played in "Boris the Blade Theme" from the 2000 comedy crime film Snatch directed by Guy Ritchie.
 * It is featured in the soundtrack of Furious (2017 film)
 * The Vampire Weekend song "Pravda" includes the lyric "I took the family balalaika".

title: Balalaika


text:
Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong)

The Bank of China Tower (BOC Tower) is a skyscraper located in Central, Hong Kong. Located at 1 Garden Road on Hong Kong Island, the tower houses the headquarters of the Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited. One of the most recognisable landmarks in Hong Kong, the building is notable for its distinct shape and design, consisting of triangular frameworks covered by glass curtain walls.

The building was designed by Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei and L. C. Pei of I. M. Pei and Partners. At a height of 315 m, reaching 367.4 m high including a 52.4 m spire, the building is the fourth tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, after International Commerce Centre, Two International Finance Centre and Central Plaza. It was the tallest building in Hong Kong and Asia from 1990 to 1992, and it was the first supertall skyscraper outside the United States, the first to break the 305 m (1,000 ft) mark. It was surpassed by Central Plaza on the same island in 1992.

Construction began on 18 April 1985 on the former site of Murray House, and was completed five years later in 1990. Sporting a steel-column design, the building is accessible from the MTR's Central station. The building lies between Cotton Tree Drive and Garden Road.

Site
The 6700 m2 site on which the building is constructed was formerly the location of Murray House. After its brick-by-brick relocation to Stanley, the site was sold by the Government for "only HK$1 billion" in August 1982 amidst growing concern over the future of Hong Kong in the run-up to the transfer of sovereignty.

The building was initially built by the Hong Kong Branch of the Bank of China; its Garden Road entrance continues to display the name "Bank of China", rather than BOCHK. The top four and the bottom 19 stories are used by the Bank, while the other floors are leased out. Ownership has since been transferred to BOCHK, although the Bank of China has leased back several floors for use by its own operations in Hong Kong.

Favouritism controversy
The Government had apparently given preferential treatment to Chinese companies, and was again criticised for the apparent preferential treatment to the BOCHK.

The price paid was half the amount of the 6250 m2 Admiralty II plot, for which the MTR Corporation paid HK$1.82 billion in cash. The BOC would make initial payment of $60 million, with the rest payable over 13 years at 6% interest. The announcement of the sale was also poorly handled, and a dive in business confidence ensued. The Hang Seng Index fell 80 points, and the HK$ lost 1.5% of its value the next day.

Construction

The tower was built by Japanese contractor Kumagai Gumi. Superstructure work began in May 1986. The tower is a steel-frame structure.

The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 interrupted publicity surrounding the building's design and construction. A press conference scheduled for 24 May 1989, two weeks before the incident, was intended to show off the building's "designer socialist furnishings", but was called off as the student demonstrations in Beijing escalated. The public relations firm that organised the conference explained to the South China Morning Post that "under the circumstances, it has been decided to stop any publicity to do with the Bank of China."

Once developed, gross floor area was expected to be 100000 m2. The original project was intended for completion on the auspicious date of 8 August 1988. However, owing to project delays, groundbreaking took place in March 1985, almost two years late. It was topped out in 1989, and occupied on 15 June 1990.

Architecture

Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect I. M. Pei, the building is 315.0 m high with two masts reaching 367.4 m high. The 72-storey building is located near Central MTR station. This was the tallest building in Hong Kong and Asia from 1990 to 1992, the first building outside the United States to break the 305 m (1,000 ft) mark, and the first composite space frame high-rise building. That also means it was the tallest outside the United States from its completion year, 1990. It is now the fourth tallest skyscraper in Hong Kong, after International Commerce Centre, Two International Finance Centre and Central Plaza.

A small observation deck on the 43rd floor of the building was once open to the public, but is now closed.

The whole structure is supported by the four steel columns at the corners of the building, with the triangular frameworks transferring the weight of the structure onto these four columns. It is covered with glass curtain walls. Structural engineer Leslie E. Robertson, best known for his work on the Twin Towers of the original World Trade Center, provided the structural engineering design, while Jaros, Baum & Bolles was the mechanical, electrical and plumbing engineer.

While its distinctive look makes it one of Hong Kong's most identifiable landmarks today, it was the source of some controversy at one time, as the bank is the only major building in Hong Kong to have bypassed the convention of consulting with feng shui masters on matters of design prior to construction.

The building has been criticised by some practitioners of feng shui for its sharp edges and its negative symbolism by the numerous 'X' shapes in its original design, though Pei modified the design to some degree before construction following this feedback. The building's profile from some angles resembles that of a meat cleaver and it is sometimes referred to as a "vertical knife". This earned it the nickname 一把刀 (yaat baa dou) in Cantonese, literally meaning 'one knife'.

Transport
The Bank of China Tower can be accessed by the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) by walking through Chater Garden from Central station Exit J2.

In popular culture

 * In the 1988 film Police Story 2, the building was shown during its construction
 * In the 2012 film Battleship, the building is torn in half by a crashing alien spaceship and its spire falls into the streets of Hong Kong, killing many people.
 * In Star Trek: Voyager, the building is used as the exterior of Starfleet Communications Research Center.
 * The building is seen on the attraction It's a Small World at Hong Kong Disneyland.
 * The building was featured in the film Transformers: Age of Extinction, where Bumblebee and Dinobot Strafe makes their final stand against the Decepticon drone Stinger.
 * The building appears in Cardcaptor Sakura: The Movie for several scenes.
 * The building was featured in the city-building games SimCity 3000 and SimCity 4 as a placeable landmark.
 * The building was featured in the 2017 mobile game Theotown as a vanilla landmark.
 * The building (renamed to Mortensen Electric) appears in the 2012 action-adventure video game Sleeping Dogs in the Central District.
 * In the 2021 movie Godzilla vs. Kong, the building is featured prominently throughout the battle between Godzilla and Kong in Hong Kong. Despite being in close proximity to the battle, the tower is not destroyed and is still standing at the end of the battle.

title: Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong)


text:
Blind Lemon Jefferson

Lemon Henry "Blind Lemon" Jefferson (September 24, 1893 – December 19, 1929) was an American blues and gospel singer-songwriter and musician. He was one of the most popular blues singers of the 1920s and has been called the "Father of the Texas Blues".

Due mainly to his high-pitched voice and the originality of his guitar playing, Jefferson's performances were distinctive. His recordings sold well, but he was not a strong influence on younger blues singers of his generation, who could not imitate him as easily as they could other commercially successful artists. Later blues and rock and roll musicians, however, did attempt to imitate both his songs and his musical style.

Early life
Jefferson was born blind, near Coutchman, Texas. He was the youngest of seven (or possibly eight) children born to Alex and Clarissa Jefferson, who were African-American sharecroppers. Disputes regarding the date of his birth derive from the fact that census records and his draft registration show different dates. By 1900, the family was farming southeast of Streetman, Texas. Jefferson's birth date was recorded as September 1893 in the 1900 census. The 1910 census, taken in May, before his birthday, confirms his year of birth as 1893 and indicated that the family was farming northwest of Wortham, near his birthplace.

In his 1917 draft registration, Jefferson gave his birthday as October 26, 1894, stating that he lived in Dallas, Texas, and had been blind since birth. In the 1920 census, he is recorded as having returned to Freestone County and was living with his half-brother, Kit Banks, on a farm between Wortham and Streetman.

Jefferson began playing the guitar in his early teens and soon after he began performing at picnics and parties. He became a street musician, playing in East Texas towns in front of barbershops and on street corners. According to his cousin Alec Jefferson, quoted in the notes for Blind Lemon Jefferson, Classic Sides:

"They were rough. Men were hustling women and selling bootleg and Lemon was singing for them all night... he'd start singing about eight and go on until four in the morning... mostly it would be just him sitting there and playing and singing all night."

In the early 1910s, Jefferson began traveling frequently to Dallas, where he met and played with the folk musician Lead Belly. Jefferson was one of the earliest and most prominent figures in the blues movement developing in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas. It is probable that he moved to Deep Ellum on a more permanent basis by 1917, where he met Aaron Thibeaux Walker, also known as T-Bone Walker. Jefferson taught Walker the basics of playing blues guitar in exchange for Walker's occasional services as a guide. By the early 1920s, Jefferson was earning enough money for his musical performances to support a wife and, possibly, a child. However, firm evidence of his marriage and children has not been found.

Beginning of recording career
Prior to Jefferson, few artists had recorded solo voice and blues guitar, the first of which were the vocalist Sara Martin and the guitarist Sylvester Weaver, who recorded "Longing for Daddy Blues", probably on October 24, 1923. The first self-accompanied solo performer of a self-composed blues song was Lee Morse, whose "Mail Man Blues" was recorded on October 7, 1924. Jefferson's music is uninhibited and represented the classic sounds of everyday life, from a honky-tonk to a country picnic, to street corner blues, to work in the burgeoning oil fields (a reflection of his interest in mechanical objects and processes).

Jefferson did what few had ever done before him – he became a successful solo guitarist and male vocalist in the commercial recording world. Unlike many artists who were "discovered" and recorded in their normal venues, Jefferson was taken to Chicago in December 1925 or January 1926 to record his first tracks. Uncharacteristically for him, the first two recordings on this session were gospel songs ("I Want to Be Like Jesus in My Heart" and "All I Want Is That Pure Religion"), and they were released under the name Deacon L. J. Bates. A second recording session was held in March 1926. His first releases under his own name, "Booster Blues" and "Dry Southern Blues", were hits. Their popularity led to the release of the other two songs from that session, "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues", which became a runaway success, with sales in six figures. He recorded about a hundred tracks between 1926 and 1929; forty-three records were issued, all but one of them on Paramount Records. Almost all of his recordings for Paramount had poor sound quality because Paramount's studio techniques and production were poor during that time. In May 1926, Paramount re-recorded Jefferson performing his hits "Got the Blues" and "Long Lonesome Blues" in the superior facilities at Marsh Laboratories, and their subsequent releases used these newer versions. Both the original and re-recorded versions appear on modern compilation albums.

Success with Paramount Records
Largely because of the popularity of artists such as Jefferson and his contemporaries Blind Blake and Ma Rainey, Paramount became the leading recording company for the blues in the 1920s. Jefferson's earnings reputedly enabled him to buy a car and employ chauffeurs (this information has been disputed); he was given a Ford car "worth over $700" by Mayo Williams, Paramount's connection with the black community. This was a common compensation for recording rights in that market. Jefferson is known to have done an unusual amount of traveling for the time in the American South, which is reflected in the difficulty of placing his music in a single regional category.

Jefferson's "old-fashioned" sound and confident musicianship made it easy to market him. His skillful guitar playing and impressive vocal range opened the door for a new generation of male solo blues performers, such as Furry Lewis, Charlie Patton, and Barbecue Bob. He stuck to no musical conventions, varying his riffs and rhythm and singing complex and expressive lyrics in a manner exceptional at the time for a "simple country blues singer." According to the North Carolina musician Walter Davis, Jefferson played on the streets in Johnson City, Tennessee, during the early 1920s, at which time Davis and the entertainer Clarence Greene learned the art of blues guitar.

Jefferson was reputedly unhappy with his royalties (although Williams said that Jefferson had a bank account containing as much as $1,500). In 1927, when Williams moved to Okeh Records, he took Jefferson with him, and Okeh quickly recorded and released Jefferson's "Matchbox Blues", backed with "Black Snake Moan". It was his only Okeh recording, probably because of contractual obligations with Paramount. Jefferson's two songs released on Okeh have considerably better sound quality than his Paramount records at the time. When he returned to Paramount a few months later, "Matchbox Blues" had already become such a hit that Paramount re-recorded and released two new versions, with the producer Arthur Laibly. In 1927, Jefferson recorded another of his classic songs, the haunting "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" (again using the pseudonym Deacon L. J. Bates), and two other uncharacteristically spiritual songs, "He Arose from the Dead" and "Where Shall I Be". "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" was so successful that it was re-recorded and re-released in 1928.

Death and grave
Jefferson died in Chicago at 10:00 a.m. on December 19, 1929, of what his death certificate said was "probably acute myocarditis". For many years, rumors circulated that a jealous lover had poisoned his coffee, but a more likely explanation is that he died of a heart attack after becoming disoriented during a snowstorm. Some have said that he died of a heart attack after being attacked by a dog in the middle of the night. In his 1983 book Tolbert's Texas, Frank X. Tolbert claims that he was killed while being robbed of a large royalty payment by a guide escorting him to Chicago Union Station to catch a train home to Texas. Paramount Records paid for the return of his body to Texas by train, accompanied by the pianist William Ezell.

Jefferson was buried at Wortham Negro Cemetery (later Wortham Black Cemetery) in Wortham, Freestone County, Texas. His grave was unmarked until 1967, when a Texas historical marker was erected in the general area of his plot; however, the precise location of the grave is still unknown. By 1996, the cemetery and marker were in poor condition, and a new granite headstone was erected in 1997. The inscription reads: "Lord, it's one kind favor I'll ask of you, see that my grave is kept clean." In 2007, the cemetery's name was changed to Blind Lemon Memorial Cemetery, and his gravesite is kept clean by a cemetery committee in Wortham.

Discography and awards
Jefferson had an intricate and fast style of guitar playing and a particularly high-pitched voice. He was a founder of the Texas blues sound and an important influence on other blues singers and guitarists, including Lead Belly and Lightnin' Hopkins.

He was the author of many songs covered by later musicians, including the classic "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean". Another of his songs, "Matchbox Blues", was recorded more than 30 years later by the Beatles, in a rockabilly version credited to Carl Perkins, who did not credit Jefferson on his 1955 recording. Fellow blues artist B.B. King credited Jefferson as one of his biggest musical influences, next to Lonnie Johnson, Louis Jordan and T-Bone Walker.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame selected Jefferson's 1927 recording of "Matchbox Blues" as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. Jefferson was among the inaugural class of blues musicians inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980.

Cover versions

 * Canned Heat, "One Kind Favor," on "Living the Blues", released in 1968, (credited: "Arr. & Adpt. by L.T.Tatman III")
 * Bukka White, "Jack o' Diamonds", on 1963 Isn't 1962, released in the 1990s
 * Bob Dylan, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", on Bob Dylan
 * Grateful Dead, "One Kind Favor" (a version of "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"), on Birth of the Dead
 * Merl Saunders, Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, Bil Vitt, "One Kind Favor", on Keystone Encores Volume I
 * John Hammond, "One Kind Favor", on John Hammond Live
 * B.B. King, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", on One Kind Favor
 * Peter, Paul & Mary, "One Kind Favor", on In Concert
 * Kelly Joe Phelps, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", on Roll Away the Stone
 * The Dream Syndicate, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", on Ghost Stories
 * Counting Crows, "Mean Jumper Blues". Counting Crows lead singer Adam Duritz accidentally claimed credit for "Mean Jumper Blues" in the liner notes of the deluxe edition reissue of the album August and Everything After. The cover was featured as part of a selection of early demo tracks. Immediately after the error was brought to his attention, Duritz apologized in his personal blog.
 * Laibach, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", on SPECTRE
 * Pat Donohue, "One Kind Favor", live on Garrison Keillor's radio program A Prairie Home Companion and later released on the CD Radio Blues
 * Corey Harris, "Jack o' Diamonds", on Fish Ain't Bitin', released in 1997
 * Diamanda Galás, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", on The Singer
 * Phish, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean", live at Madison Square Garden, New York, August 4, 2017
 * Scott H. Biram, "Jack of Diamonds" on Nothin' But Blood released in 2014
 * Steve Suffet, "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" on Now the Wheel Has Turned, released in 2005

In popular culture

 * In 2009, the Grammy-nominated R&B act Yarbrough and Peoples were featured in the off-Broadway play Blind Lemon Blues.
 * A tribute song, "My Buddy Blind Papa Lemon", was recorded for Paramount Records in 1932 by King Solomon Hill. The record was long considered lost, but a copy was located by John Tefteller in 2002.
 * Geoff Muldaur refers to Jefferson in the song "Got to Find Blind Lemon" on the album The Secret Handshake.
 * Art Evans portrayed Jefferson in the 1976 film Leadbelly, directed by Gordon Parks.
 * Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds recorded the song "Blind Lemon Jefferson" on the album The Firstborn Is Dead.
 * The 2010 video game Fallout: New Vegas, in one of its downloadable add-ons Old World Blues, features an AI jukebox named Blind Diode Jefferson. The AI claims to have been a blues musician before his music hard drives were stripped from him. The voicing of the AI can be characterized as a Southern drawl in homage to Jefferson.
 * In the 2003 movie Masked and Anonymous, Bobby Cupid (Luke Wilson) gives his friend Jack Fate (Bob Dylan) Jefferson's guitar, which he claims was used in recording "Matchbox Blues".
 * Cheech & Chong parodied Jefferson as "Blind Melon Chitlin'" on their self-titled 1971 album Cheech and Chong, on their 1985 album Get Out of My Room, and in a stage routine that can be seen in their 1983 film Still Smokin'.
 * Chet Atkins called Jefferson "one of my first finger-picking influences" in the song "Nine Pound Hammer", on the album The Atkins–Travis Traveling Show.
 * A practical joke played on Down Beat magazine editor Gene Lees in the late 1950s took on a life of its own and became a long-running hoax when one of his correspondents included a reference to the blues legend "Blind Orange Adams" in an article published in the magazine, an obvious parody of Jefferson's name. References to the nonexistent Adams appeared in subsequent articles in Down Beat over the next few years.
 * The American dramatic film Black Snake Moan was named after one of the only songs Jefferson recorded for Okeh Records.
 * Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup took the title of his classic song "That's All Right" (which launched the career of Elvis Presley) from a lyric in Jefferson's "Black Snake Moan".
 * According to some sources, the "Jefferson" in the name of the rock group Jefferson Airplane came from "Blind Lemon Jefferson Airplane", a friend's nickname for founding member and blues guitarist Jorma Kaukonen. However, other sources give other origins for the name, that involve Blind Lemon Jefferson either less directly or not at all.
 * In June 2021, Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean" plays in the Season 6 finale of Fear the Walking Dead while survivalist character Victor Strand discovers an apartment containing artwork and historical artifacts as he awaits his fate.

title: Blind Lemon Jefferson


text:
Talk:Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong)

Height Ranking
At this moment, the constructing ICC has already taller than BOC Tower. I suggest state it is the fourth tallest building in Hong Kong. Kublai (talk) 15:05, 4 September 2008 (UTC)

Feng Shui
It is a masterpiece by I.M. Pei

 * You might think so. According to the guidebook I bought, a lot of local Feng Shui experts think it violates natural laws.  I think it's a moderately elegant but basically unremarkable contemporary skyscraper.  If it won awards or anything to back up the opinion, mention it specificially.  --Robert Merkel

Merge?
This page should either be deleted, or the BOC Tower section in Bank of China (Hong Kong) should be merged into here. --Riyehn

 * This page should definitely not be deleted, since this article is (or at least should be) about the building itself, not about the company. The Tower section in Bank of China (Hong Kong) could be narrowed and some info could be moved here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Siipikarja (talk • contribs) 08:51, 14 September 2007 (UTC)

 * The subject (the building itself) is notable, and there are sufficient sources to attest to this fact. This article is well sourced, and I do not see grounds for deletion. The Bank of China (Hong Kong) is also notable in itself. You don't merge Alan Greenspan into the Federal Reserve. Ohconfucius 00:16, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Refering to edit at 17:43, 30 October 2005
Having to mention that one building exists in two SimCity's is barely worth noting because this is considerably too detailed for readers who are not familiar with the games. Besides, there are comparably more notable landmarks that may merit such mention, such as the Taj Mahal (India), CN Tower (Canada), Saint Basil's Cathedral (Russia) and Hagia Sophia (Turkey), all which are the only landmarks in their respective countries or territories to be featured in both games. ╫ 25 ring-a-ding  18:02, 30 October 2005 (UTC) ╫
 * The question is: the little fact appears as trivia in the article. Big deal. -- Jerry Crimson Mann 09:15, 31 October 2005 (UTC)
 * I appreicate your consideration, frankly. :-D -- Jerry Crimson Mann 13:49, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

Mission Impossible III takes place in Shanghai...
The reference to Mission Impossible III is wrong. Although the building used in the movie is similar, the story takes place in Shanghai and has nothing to do with Hong Kong.

It says Contractor: HKC(Holdings) Limited (Kumagai HK) in the infobox. Please add a reference for this. --Siipikarja ♫ 13:33, 20 September 2007 (UTC)

Night picture
We need a night picture to show off the building's lighting. Night photos of the building would not only make the page look real nice, but would display the building's structural expressionist triangular frameworks. —Preceding unsigned comment added by M.nelson (talk • contribs) 03:42, 20 June 2008 (UTC)

Gallery pulls
Back in March 2008 user BrokenSphere pulled out a picture gallery from this article. When I asked for the reason, user BrokenSphere gave the following reasonable answer. For the same reasons I reverted the last two edits by Alanmak. From my point of view the main reason for these two last edits was just the promotion of the added picture. Especially as the same picture has also been added to article Jardine House recently. What value does the picture add to the article? After all, the picture is still available via the Commons-link.

If you disagree with the reverts, please discuss here before further reverts to avoid Edit war.

I was not specifically targeting the Bank of China article, but rather a series of Hong Kong-related articles which I'm currently uploading some of my pics of to Commons. I've been pulling galleries there and in other articles as well, for the following reasons, which may branch off from NOT:
 * the galleries may be getting large (# of images in them) or dwarf the text in the article especially if it is short, at which point I think they are detracting from the article
 * with all respect to the individual photographers, some of the photos in the galleries don't in my opinion really add to the article; e.g. a closeup up of the King George VI statue's feet which was in the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens article
 * the use of galleries here negates or dilutes the function of Commons, which is to act as a media repository for all Wikimedia projects. The galleries can be replicated there with the same information and layout to showcase the subject in a visual form.  In my opinion, the primary purpose of Wikipedia is to provide information in a text form.  Although it may be illustrated, the images are intended to supplement the text, but are not an article's focus.  If the reader/viewer wants to find more visual information, then Commons is the place to go, which is why it was made easy to link to via template.  Even if a Commons-hosted image is not used in any article by any project at all, it is not in danger of deletion the same way an orphaned fair use image is here.  Replicating a gallery which is more appropriate to Commons is not making full use of this sibling Wikimedia project.

Basically, the question is does the presence of a gallery add to an article or is it starting to detract from it? Articles with images tend to have the appropriate images within the body, although here again, even without a gallery present, it sometimes to me is overdone with too many images, e.g. with the text getting squeezed between images in order to accommodate some images. Not a pretty sight, IMO.

I should note that date info of the picture is normally entered by the uploader into that specific parameter in the Information template for the image. If not and the EXIF camera information is available, then anyone else can do it. I am not seeing why this information is so important to be preserved in a gallery on an article page unless the image itself documents a time-specific event, e.g. the Eiffel Tower when Paris was campaigning for the Olympics, or for historical purposes is helpful to show how something appeared or existed in the past vs. now. It is somewhat similar to why I disagree with the credits for a photo being listed in the caption for an image that appears in the article; if the reader/viewer wants more info then they click on the image and have all the info they want there - author, date, etc. -- Broken Sphere Msg me 00:13, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

The Chinese template is quite nice, we can surely benefit from it. But it's place is not where it was put in the article.

--Siipikarja ♫ 08:54, 23 May 2009 (UTC)

Third opinion
I agree with Siipikarja on this. The Chinese template doesn't need to have another image in it. Just float the box to the right under the main infobox. As to the rest of the images, I personally don't really like galleries, but some people do. In this case, the one on this page isn't too loud and in the way, but I think we might be approaching overkill with the images. We don't need a lot of images of the same building; one or two will do it. For example, the image of the inside isn't really useful unless there's something particularly notable about it. —  Hello Annyong  (say whaaat?!) 14:28, 24 May 2009 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your opinion  Hello Annyong . One more thing: the caption: "The Bank of China Tower (first building from the left) is located in the central business district on Hong Kong Island, next to the HSBC Building, Cheung Kong Center and Jardine House." is misleading. The BOC tower is not next to the Jardine House. Also, the Cheung Kong Center is between BOC tower and HSBC building, so strictly speaking BOC tower is not next to the HSBC Building neither. --Siipikarja ♫ 19:23, 26 May 2009 (UTC)

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title: Talk:Bank of China Tower (Hong Kong)


text:
Baku (mythology)

Baku (or) are Japanese supernatural beings that are said to devour nightmares. They originate from the chinese Mo. According to legend, they were created by the spare pieces that were left over when the gods finished creating all other animals. They have a long history in Japanese folklore and art, and more recently have appeared in manga and anime.

The Japanese term baku has two current meanings, referring to both the traditional dream-devouring creature and to the Malayan tapir. In recent years, there have been changes in how the baku is depicted.

History and description
The traditional Japanese nightmare-devouring baku originates in Chinese folklore from the mo 貘 (giant panda) and was familiar in Japan as early as the Muromachi period (14th–15th century). Hori Tadao has described the dream-eating abilities attributed to the traditional baku and relates them to other preventatives against nightmare such as amulets. Kaii-Yōkai Denshō Database, citing a 1957 paper, and Mizuki also describe the dream-devouring capacities of the traditional baku.

Before its adaptation to the Japanese dream-caretaker myth creature, an early 17th-century Japanese manuscript, the Sankai Ibutsu (山海異物), describes the baku as a shy, Chinese mythical chimera with the trunk and tusks of an elephant, the ears of a rhinoceros, the tail of a cow, the body of a bear and the paws of a tiger, which protected against pestilence and evil, although eating nightmares was not included among its abilities. However, in a 1791 Japanese wood-block illustration, a specifically dream-destroying baku is depicted with an elephant’s head, tusks, and trunk, with horns and tiger’s claws. The elephant’s head, trunk, and tusks are characteristic of baku portrayed in classical era (pre-Meiji) Japanese wood-block prints (see illustration) and in shrine, temple, and netsuke carvings.

Writing in the Meiji period, Lafcadio Hearn (1902) described a baku with very similar attributes that was also able to devour nightmares. Legend has it that a person who wakes up from a bad dream can call out to baku. A child having a nightmare in Japan will wake up and repeat three times, "Baku-san, come eat my dream." Legends say that the baku will come into the child's room and devour the bad dream, allowing the child to go back to sleep peacefully. However, calling to the baku must be done sparingly, because if he remains hungry after eating one's nightmare, he may also devour their hopes and desires as well, leaving them to live an empty life. The baku can also be summoned for protection from bad dreams prior to falling asleep at night. In the 1910s, it was common for Japanese children to keep a baku talisman at their bedside.

title: Baku (mythology)