An Empire Speaks

Authors

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  Rupinder S Brar

  Rupinder Singh Brar, known to friends and family simply as Gorki, is a practicing cardiologist in Yuba City, California, where he serves at the local hospital as a member of the Board of Directors and as Director of the Non-Invasive Cardiology Lab. He finished schooling at the Punjab Public School, Nabha, India, and after obtaining his medical degree went on to complete a twin fellowship in Critical Care and Cardiology at Rush University in Chicago. He is one of the founding members of the Sikh Community Center in Yuba City, California, where he volunteers his spare time by teaching Sikh history and philosophy to high school students. His non-professional reading and writing interests include English and Punjabi literature, philosophy, history, culture and anthropology.

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  Editor: Paul Michael Taylor

  Paul Michael Taylor, a research anthropologist at the Smithsonian Institution since 1981, is Curator for Asia, Europe, and the Middle East in the Smithsonian’s Anthropology Department, and he serves as Director of the Smithsonian’s Asian Cultural History Program. He received a B.A. summa cum laude from UCLA and Ph.D. from Yale University, both in Anthropology; and is an author or editor of numerous books and scholarly articles on the ethnography, ethnobiology, languages, and art (or material culture) of Asia. These include Beyond the Java Sea: Art of Indonesia’s Outer Islands, Fragile Traditions: Indonesian Art in Jeopardy, Sikh Art from the Kapany Collection, and Artists of Modern Kazakhstan. Many of his publications are available at: https://si.academia.edu/PaulMichaelTaylor. He also served as curator of many museum exhibitions.