Kosmos

Culture, travel, fashion and culinary delights: the Kosmos pages of Lufthansa Magazin bring you interesting and useful tidbits from around the world

Shadowplay

CULTURE CLASH

It’s all just staged: The art of using light and shadow to tell stories can traditionally be found all over the world

Epic Gossip
Dainty puppets made of buffalo leather expertly controlled by thin rods, Indonesia’s wayang kulit shadow puppets are famous
the world over. They usually depict scenes from ancient epics, but indulge in current gossip, too.

Punch and Judy in Turkish
Turkey’s traditional Karagöz theater is sure to make you laugh. The hero is a rough but witty fellow who comes up with all kinds of tricks to get by.

Shining Light
It wasn’t until the 17th century that Europeans discovered the shadow play. Today’s artists, such as Fabrizio Montecchi from Italy, are experimenting with music, space and light.

Brazil

Feat of engineering

In northeastern Brazil, an estimated 200 million tightly packed earthen mounds cover an area about the size of Great Britain, with a vast tunnel system stretching beneath it. Here, generations of termites have labored for 4000 years – and their descendants are carrying on the good work.

Mr. Know It All

Business trip

Working in places where others vacation is appealing in the winter. These new hotspots for digital nomads aren’t quite full yet …

Kosmos: Mr. Know-It-All — © Bente Schipp

change of pace

Once you left your computer screen to swim in the cenotes and inspect Mayan ruins in Tulum, Mexico, it’s time for something new. We recommend the excellent beach clubs in Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific coast.

beach included

Rio? Sure, that’s a place you won’t want to leave in a hurry. But if you have to work, Florianópolis, a small town on the South Brazilian coast, is more relaxed and fast becoming a mecca for startups.

quick return

The perfect place is sometimes closer than you think: Las Palmas, the capital of Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, has it all: culture, beaches and high-speed Internet – plus a fast flight home for the European nomad whose business partner insists on a personal meeting.

Worldwide

Otherworldly

British photographer Reuben Wu isn’t interested in realist images; he wants to photograph landscapes as though they were unexplored territory. To do so, he attaches spotlights to a drone and uses a long exposure to create surreal effects.

reubenwu.com

Kosmos: Otherworldly — © itsreuben; reubenwu.com

Culture podcasts

Culture clash

Travel broadens the mind. Particularly if we pass the time at airports, on airplanes or in taxis with fascinating culture podcast.

Living in Sweden

Billy bookcases and cinnamon buns? Certainly not. The German-language podcast “Läget” goes far beyond the usual clichés.

facebook.com/laeget.podcast

All about Asia

Who where the Samurai again? How did the Nüshu script come about? What was the first Japanese manga? “History ofJapan” and “China History Podcast” are top infotainment.

recordedhistory.net / china-history.net / isaacmeyer.net

Tit for tat

“Americana für euch” explains the finer points of U.S. culture in German. Alternatively, check out the “History of Germany Podcast” in English.

podcastnik.com

Header Navigation

Phoenix from the ash

A cockpit in a cube

“Forget the tights!”

Cape of good things

A taste of wilderness