Barn swallows, called jebi in Korean, migrate each year and come back to the same places, and in Korean culture they are a symbol of return and of good fortune. Many sirhyangmin, people displaced from what is now North Korea during the Korean War and their descendants, look at swallows with nostalgia, since the birds fly freely across a border they cannot cross. On the island county of Ganghwa, in an estuary beside the Demilitarized Zone, northern refugees resettled after the war and built communities facing their former homes. An anthropologist whose grandfather came from across the water describes herself as a jebi, a descendant who travels back to the place her family left. The swallow shows how a bird can carry a community's memory of loss and hope for reunion.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.