Columbidae
Pigeons and doves constitute the animal family Columbidae and the order Columbiformes, which includes about 42 genera and 310 species. They are stout-bodied birds with short necks, short slender bills that in some species feature fleshy ceres, they feed on seeds and plants. Pigeons and doves are the most common birds in the world; the distinction between "doves" and "pigeons" in English is not consistent, does not exist in most other languages. In everyday speech, "dove" indicates a pigeon, white or nearly white. In contrast, in scientific and ornithological practice, "dove" tends to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way applied; the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms. The species most referred to as "pigeon" is the species known by scientists as the rock dove, one subspecies of which, the domestic pigeon, is common in many cities as the feral pigeon. Pigeon is a French word that derives from the Latin pipio, for a "peeping" chick, while dove is a Germanic word that refers to the bird's diving flight.
The English dialectal word "culver" appears to derive from Latin columba. Doves and pigeons build flimsy nests using sticks and other debris, which may be placed on trees, ledges, or the ground, depending on species, they lay one or two eggs at a time, both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after 7–28 days. Unlike most birds, both sexes of doves and pigeons produce "crop milk" to feed to their young, secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Young doves and pigeons are called "squabs"; the family Columbidae was introduced by the English zoologist William Elford Leach in a guide to the contents of the British Museum published in 1820. Columbidae is the only living family in the order Columbiformes; the sandgrouses were placed here, but were moved to a separate order Pteroclidiformes based on anatomical differences. Recent phylogenomic studies support the grouping of pigeons and sandgrouse together, along with mesites, forming the sister taxon to Mirandornithes.
The Columbidae are divided into five subfamilies inaccurately. For example, the American ground and quail doves, which are placed in the Columbinae, seem to be two distinct subfamilies; the order presented here follows al. with some updates. The arrangement of genera and naming of subfamilies is in some cases provisional because analyses of different DNA sequences yield results that differ radically, in the placement of certain genera; this ambiguity caused by long branch attraction, seems to confirm the first pigeons evolved in the Australasian region, that the "Treronidae" and allied forms represent the earliest radiation of the group. The family Columbidae also contained the family Raphidae, consisting of the extinct Rodrigues solitaire and the dodo; these species are in all likelihood part of the Indo-Australian radiation that produced the three small subfamilies mentioned above, with the fruit doves and pigeons. Therefore, they are here included as a subfamily Raphinae, pending better material evidence of their exact relationships.
Exacerbating these issues, columbids are not well represented in the fossil record. No primitive forms have been found to date; the genus Gerandia has been described from Early Miocene deposits in France, but while it was long believed to be a pigeon, it is now considered a sandgrouse. Fragmentary remains of a "ptilinopine" Early Miocene pigeon were found in the Bannockburn Formation of New Zealand and described as Rupephaps. Apart from that, all other fossils belong to extant genera. Taxonomy based on the work by John H. Boyd, III, a professor of economics. Pigeons and doves exhibit considerable variation in size, ranging in length from 15 to 75 centimetres, in weight from 30 g to above 2,000 g; the largest species is the crowned pigeon of New Guinea, nearly turkey-sized, at a weight of 2–4 kg. The smallest is the New World ground dove of the genus Columbina, the same size as a house sparrow, weighing as little as 22 g. With a total length of more than 50 cm and weight of 1 kg, the largest arboreal species is the Marquesan imperial pigeon, while the dwarf fruit dove, which may measure as little as 13 cm, has a marginally smaller total length than any other species from this family.
Overall, the Columbidae tend to have short legs, short bills with a fleshy cere, small heads on large, compact bodies. In a series of experiments in 1975 by Dr. Mark B. Friedman, using doves, their characteristic head bobbing was shown to be due to their natural desire to keep their vision constant, it was shown yet again in a 1978 experiment by Dr. Barrie J. Frost, in which pigeons were placed on treadmills; the wings are large, have eleven primary feathers, low wing loading.
Minamoto no Yoshiie
Minamoto No Yoshiie known as Hachimantarō, was a Minamoto clan samurai of the late Heian period, Chinjufu-shōgun. The first son of Minamoto no Yoriyoshi, he proved himself in battle with the Abe clan in the Zenkunen War and the Kiyohara clan in the Gosannen War. Subsequently, he became something of a paragon of samurai bravery. In 1050, Abe no Yoritokiie wave the post of Chinjufu-shōgun, as the Abe clan had for many generations. However, Yoritoki commanded the entire region, denying the official Governor any true power; as a result, Yoshiie's father was appointed both chinjufu shōgun and governor, Yoshiie traveled north with him to resolve the situation. The campaign against the Abe clan lasted twelve years. Yoshiie fought alongside his father in most if not every battle, including the Battle of Kawasaki and the Siege of Kuriyagawa. Abe no Yoritoki died in 1057. Yoriyoshi's first son, Hachimantarō, gave hot pursuit along the Koromo River and called out,'Sir, you show your back to your enemy! Aren't you ashamed?
Turn around a minute, I have something to tell you.' When Sadato turned around, Yoshiie said: Koromo no tate wa hokorobinikeri Sadato relaxed his reins somewhat and, turning his helmeted head, followed that with: toshi o heishi ito no midare no kurushisa ni Hearing this, Yoshiie put away the arrow he had readied to shoot, returned to his camp. In the midst of such a savage battle, a gentlemanly thing to do. Yoshiie returned to Kyoto in early 1063 with the heads of a number of others; as a result of his dramatic prowess in battle, he earned the name Hachimantarō, referring to him as the son of Hachiman, the god of war. The following year, Yoshiie took several followers of the Abe, who he had taken as captives, as attendants. Over twenty years Yoshiie was the chief commander in another important conflict of the Heian period. Beginning in 1083, he battled the Kiyohara family, who had fought alongside him and his father against the Abe, but who had since proven themselves poor rulers of the northern provinces.
Named Governor of Mutsu province in 1083, Yoshiie took it upon himself, without orders from the Imperial Court, to bring some peace and order to the region. A series of disputes between Kiyohara no Masahira and Iehira over leadership of the clan had turned to violence. There emerged a series of battles and skirmishes between Yoshiie's forces and those of the various Kiyohara sub-factions. Everything came at the Kanazawa stockade. Yoshiie, along with his younger brother Minamoto no Yoshimitsu and Fujiwara Kiyohira, assaulted the position held by Kiyohara no Iehira and his uncle Kiyohara no Takahira. After many months of failed starts and skirmishes, the stockade was set aflame, the Kiyohara defeated; the Minamoto forces suffered great losses as well, it is said that Yoshiie was an skilled leader, keeping morale up and preserving a degree of discipline among the warriors. "Yoshiiye returned to Kyoto, where he and his comrades resumed their military posts in command of Palace Guards and the Sovereign's Escorts."
The only drama occurred when Yoshichika was banished to Sanuki. Escaping to Izumo, Yoshichika started a revolt, put down in 1108 by Taira general Masamori, father of Taira no Tadamori. Father: Minamoto no Yoriyoshi Mother: daughter of Taira no Naokata Wife: daughter of Fujiwara no Aritsuna 3rd son: Minamoto no Yoshitada Son: Minamoto no Yoshikuni Wife: daughter of Minamoto no Takanaga 2nd son: Minamoto no Yoshichika Unknown mother: 1st son: Minamoto no Yoshimune 6th son: Minamoto no Yoshitoki 7th son: Minamoto no Yoshitaka Daughter: wife of Imperial Prince Sukehito, son of Emperor Go-Sanjo. Daughter: wife of Minamoto no Shigeto Seiwa Genji Minamoto no Yoritomo Minamoto no Yorinobu Minamoto no Yoshiie at the Samurai-Archives.com
Kamakura shogunate
The Kamakura shogunate was a Japanese feudal military government of imperial-aristocratic rule that ruled from 1185 to 1333. The heads of the government were the shōguns; the first three were members of the Minamoto clan. The next two were members of the Fujiwara clan; the last six were minor Imperial princes. These years are known as the Kamakura period; the period takes its name from the city. After 1203, the Hōjō clan held the office of shikken. In effect, the shikken governed in the name of the shōguns. Before the establishment of the Kamakura shogunate, civil power in Japan was held by the ruling emperors and their regents appointed from the ranks of the imperial court and the aristocratic clans that vied there. Military affairs were handled under the auspices of the civil government. However, after defeating the Taira clan in the Genpei War, Minamoto no Yoritomo seized powers from the aristocracy. In 1192, Yoritomo and the Minamoto clan established a military government in Kamakura. After Yoritomo's death, Hōjō Tokimasa, the clan chief of Yoritomo's widow, Hōjō Masako, former guardian of Yoritomo, claimed the title of regent to Yoritomo's son Minamoto no Yoriie making that claim hereditary to the Hōjō clan.
Tokimasa deposed Yoriie, backed up his younger brother, Minamoto no Sanetomo, as a new shōgun, assumed the post of shikken. The Minamoto clan remained the titular shōguns, with the Hōjō holding the real power. In 1219, Sanetomo was assassinated by his nephew Kugyō. Since Sanetomo died childless, the line of shōguns from the Minamoto clan ended with him. With the Regency, what was an unusual situation became more anomalous when the Hōjō usurped power from those who had usurped it from the Emperor, descending from Emperor Kōkō, who usurped it from the children of Emperor Seiwa; the new regime nonetheless proved to be stable enough to last a total of 135 years, 9 shōguns and 16 regents. With Sanetomo's death in 1219, his mother Hōjō Masako became the shogunate's real center of power; as long as she lived, regents and shōguns would go, while she stayed at the helm. Since the Hōjō family did not have the rank to nominate a shōgun from among its members, Masako had to find a convenient puppet; the problem was solved choosing Kujo Yoritsune, a distant relation of the Minamoto, who would be the fourth shōgun and figurehead, while Hōjō Yoshitoki would take care of day-to-day business.
However powerless, future shōguns would always be chosen from either Fujiwara or imperial lineage to keep the bloodline pure and give legitimacy to the rule. This succession proceeded for more than a century. In 1221 Emperor Go-Toba tried to regain power in what would be called the Jōkyū War, but the attempt failed; the power of the Hōjō remained unchallenged until 1324, when Emperor Go-Daigo orchestrated a plot to overthrow them, but the plot was discovered immediately and foiled. The Mongols under Kublai Khan attempted sea-borne invasions in 1274 and 1281. Fifty years before, the shogunate had agreed to Korean demands that the Wokou be dealt with to stop their raids, this bit of good diplomacy had created a cooperative relationship between the two states, such that the Koreans, helpless with a Mongol occupation army garrisoning their country, had sent much intelligence information to Japan, so that along with messages from Japanese spies in the Korean peninsula, the shogunate had a good picture of the situation of the pending Mongol invasion.
The shogunate had rejected Kublai's demands to submit with contempt. The Mongol landings of 1274 met with some success, but the Japanese had given the Mongols more casualties in an eight-hour engagement than they had had in fighting in China or Korea, there was no rout of the Japanese defenders, who in any case outnumbered the 40,000 combined invasion force of Mongols and Korean conscripts. Noting an impending storm, the Korean admirals advised the Mongols to re-embark so that the fleet could be protected away from shore. After the surviving forces returned to Mongol territory, Kublai was not dissuaded from his intentions on bringing Japan under Mongol control, once again sent a message demanding submission, which infuriated the Hōjō leadership, who had the messengers executed, they responded with decisive action for defense—a wall was built to protect the hinterland of Hakata Bay, defensive posts were established, garrison lists were drawn up, regular manning of the home provinces was redirected to the western defenses, ships were constructed to harass the invaders' fleet when they appeared.
The Mongols returned in 1281 with a force of some 50,000 Mongol-Korean-Chinese along with some 100,000 conscripts from the defeated Song empire in south China. This force embarked and fought the Japanese for some seven weeks at several locations in Kyushu, but the defenders held, the Mongols made no strategic headway. Again, a typhoon approached, the Koreans and Chinese re-embarked the combined Mongol invasion forces in an attempt to deal with the storm in the open sea. At least one-third of the Mongol force was destroyed, half of the conscripted Song forces to the south over a two-day period of August 15–16. Thousands of invading troops were slaughtered by the samurai; such losses in men and the exhaustion of the Korean state in provisioning the two invasions put an end to the Mongol's attempts to conquer Japan. The "divine wind," or kamikaze, was credited for saving Japan from foreign invasion. For two further decades the Kamakura shogunate maintained a watch in case the Mongols attempted another invasion.
However, the s
Tutelary deity
A tutelary is a deity or spirit, a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, lineage, culture, or occupation. The etymology of "tutelary" expresses the concept of safety, thus of guardianship. In late late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore. Chinese folk religion, both past and present, includes a myriad of tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals may become deified after death. Guan Yu is a well-known tutelary. See City God and Tudigong. In Hinduism, tutelary deities are known as Kuldevi or Kuldevta. Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages. Devas can be seen as tutelary. Shiva is patron of renunciants; the City goddesses include: Mumbadevi Sachchika Kuladevis include: Ambika Mahalakshmi In Korean shamanism and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons.
They were worshiped as deities. In Philippine animism, Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians.* Maria Makiling is the deity who guards Mt. Makiling. * Maria Cacao and Maria Sinukuan. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. Thai provincial capitals palladiums; the guardian spirit of a house is known as Pra Poom. Every Buddhist household in Thailand has a miniature shrine housing this tutelary deity, known as a spirit house. Tibetan Buddhism has Yidam as a tutelary deity. Dakini is the patron of those. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion: You have heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me …; this sign I have had since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.
The Greeks thought deities guarded specific places: For instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion; the tutelary deity of a man was that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult. An emperor might adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era, when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games in her honor; each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess; the Capitoline Triad of Juno and Minerva were tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, was housed in an grand temple on the arx or other prominent or central location.
The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna. The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city by the offer of superior cult at Rome; the depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater as "tower-crowned" represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; each Roman home had a set of protective deities: the Lar or Lares of the household or familia, whose shrine was a lararium. The poet Martial lists the tutelary deities; the architecture of a granary featured niches for images of the tutelary deities, who might include the genius loci or guardian spirit of the site, Silvanus, Fortuna Conservatrix and in the Greek East Aphrodite and Agathe Tyche. The Lares Compitales were the tutelary gods of a neighborhood, each of which had a compitum devoted to these.
During the Republic, the cult of local or neighborhood tutelaries sometimes became rallying points for political and social unrest. Some tutelary deities are known to exist in Slavic Europe, a more prominent example being that of Leshy. Animal spirit Dvarapala Eudaemon Guardian angel Landvættir Nagual National god Patron saint Power animal Totem Tulpa Uay
Stirrup
A stirrup is a light frame or ring that holds the foot of a rider, attached to the saddle by a strap called a stirrup leather. Stirrups are paired and are used to aid in mounting and as a support while using a riding animal, they increase the rider's ability to stay in the saddle and control the mount, increasing the animal's usefulness to humans in areas such as communication and warfare. In antiquity, the earliest foot supports consisted of riders placing their feet under a girth or using a simple toe loop. A single stirrup was used as a mounting aid, paired stirrups appeared after the invention of the treed saddle; the stirrup appeared in China in the first few centuries AD and spread westward through the nomadic peoples of Central Eurasia. The use of paired stirrups is credited to the Chinese Jin Dynasty and came to Europe during the Middle Ages; some argue that the stirrup was one of the basic tools used to create and spread modern civilization as important as the wheel or printing press.
The English word "stirrup" stems from Old English stirap, Middle English stirop, styrope, i.e. a mounting or climbing-rope. Compare Old English stīgan "to ascend" and rap "rope, cord"; the stirrup, which gives greater stability to a rider, has been described as one of the most significant inventions in the history of warfare, prior to gunpowder. As a tool allowing expanded use of horses in warfare, the stirrup is called the third revolutionary step in equipment, after the chariot and the saddle; the basic tactics of mounted warfare were altered by the stirrup. A rider supported by stirrups was less to fall off while fighting, could deliver a blow with a weapon that more employed the weight and momentum of horse and rider. Among other advantages, stirrups provided greater balance and support to the rider, which allowed the knight to use a sword more efficiently without falling against infantry adversaries. Contrary to common modern belief, however, it has been asserted that stirrups did not enable the horseman to use a lance more though the cantled saddle did.
The invention of the stirrup occurred late in history, considering that horses were domesticated in 4500 BC, the earliest known saddle-like equipment were fringed cloths or pads with breast pads and cruppers used by Assyrian cavalry around 700 BCThe earliest manifestation of the stirrup was a toe loop that held the big toe and was used in India late in the second century BC, though may have appeared as early as 500 BC. This ancient foot support consisted of a looped rope for the big toe, at the bottom of a saddle made of fibre or leather; such a configuration was suitable for the warm climate of south and central India where people used to ride horses barefoot. A pair of megalithic double bent iron bars with curvature at each end, excavated in Junapani in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have been regarded as stirrups although they could as well be something else. Buddhist carvings in the temples of Sanchi and the Bhaja caves dating back between the 1st and 2nd century BC figure horsemen riding with elaborate saddles with feet slipped under girths.
In this regard archaeologist John Marshall described the Sanchi relief as "the earliest example by some five centuries of the use of stirrups in any part of the world". Some credit the nomadic Central Asian group known as the Sarmatians as developing the first stirrups; the invention of the solid saddle tree allowed development of the true stirrup. Without a solid tree, the rider's weight in the stirrups creates abnormal pressure points and make the horse's back sore. Modern thermography studies on "treeless" and flexible-tree saddle designs have found that there is considerable friction across the center line of a horse's back. A coin of Quintus Labienus, in service of Parthia, minted circa 39 BC depicts on its reverse a saddled horse with hanging objects. Smith suggests they are pendant cloths, while Thayer suggests that, considering the fact that the Parthians were famous for their mounted archery, the objects are stirrups, but adds that it is difficult to imagine why the Romans would never have adopted the technology.
In Asia, early solid-treed saddles were made of felt. These designs date to 200 BC One of the earliest solid-treed saddles in the west was first used by the Romans as early as the 1st century BC, but this design did not have stirrups, it is speculated. Stirrups were used in China at the latest by the early 4th century AD. A funerary figurine depicting a stirrup dated AD 302 was unearthed from a Western Jin dynasty tomb near Changsha; the stirrup depicted is a mounting stirrup, only placed on one side of the horse, too short for riding. The earliest reliable representation of a full-length, double-sided riding stirrup was unearthed from a Jin tomb, this time near Nanjing, dating to the Eastern Jin period, AD 322; the earliest extant double stirrups were discovered in the tomb of a Northern Yan noble, Feng Sufu, who died in AD 415. Stirrups have been found in Goguryeo tombs dating to the 4th and 5th centuries AD, but these do not contain any specific date; the stirrup appeared to be in widespread use across China by AD 477.
The appearance of the stirrup in China coincided with the rise of armoured cavalry in the region. Dated to 357 AD, the tomb of Dong Shou shows armoured riders as well as horses. References to "iron cavalry"
Kojiki
Kojiki sometimes read as Furukotofumi, is the oldest extant chronicle in Japan, dating from the early 8th century and composed by Ō no Yasumaro at the request of Empress Genmei. The Kojiki is a collection of myths, early legends, genealogies, oral traditions and semi-historical accounts down to 641 concerning the origin of the Japanese archipelago, the Kami; the myths contained in the Kojiki as well as the Nihon Shoki are part of the inspiration behind many practices. The myths were re-appropriated for Shinto practices such as the misogi purification ritual. Emperor Tenmu ordered Hieda no Are to memorize stories and texts from history, many of which appear to have been, until the creation of the Kojiki known oral traditions. Beyond this memorization, nothing occurred until after Empress Jitō and Emperor Monmu had both passed and Empress Genmei came to reign. According to the Kojiki, Empress Genmei on the 18th of the 9th month of 711 ordered the courtier Ō no Yasumaro to record what had been learned by Hieda no Are.
He finished and presented his work to Empress Genmei on the 28th of the 1st month of 712. The Kojiki could be made to further the Imperial right to rule; this historical narrative is broken into the Age of Gods and the Age of Humans, wherein the mythology of the gods which gave birth to the land is told and transitioned in a chronological fashion to the reign of the Emperors. This narrative sets forth the divine mandate by which the Yamato line has right to rule, through the rhetoric used in the Age of Humans, the historical and military qualifications were established. Several of the narratives which give support to the imperial line, such as the subjugation of certain Korean kingdoms, have been confirmed as false and were included to erase failures and bolster reputations of Emperors past. Vast amounts of the Age of Humans is spent recounting genealogies, which served not only to give age to the imperial family, much newer than the Kojiki claims as little evidence has been found to support the existence of early Emperors, but served to tie, whether true or not, many existing clan's genealogies to their own.
Regardless of the original intent of the Kojiki, it finalized and even formulated the framework by which Japanese history was examined in terms of the reign of Emperors. The Kojiki contains various poems. While the historical records and myths are written in a form of Chinese with a heavy mixture of Japanese elements, the songs are written with Chinese characters, though only used phonetically; this special use of Chinese characters is called Man'yōgana, a knowledge of, critical to understanding these songs, which are written in Old Japanese. The Kojiki is divided into three parts: the Nakatsumaki and the Shimotsumaki; the Kamitsumaki known as the Kamiyo no Maki, includes the preface of the Kojiki, is focused on the deities of creation and the births of various deities of the kamiyo period, or Age of the Gods. The Kamitsumaki outlines the myths concerning the foundation of Japan, it describes how Ninigi-no-Mikoto, grandson of Amaterasu and great-grandfather of Emperor Jimmu, descended from heaven to Takachihonomine in Kyūshū and became the progenitor of the Japanese Imperial line.
The Nakatsumaki begins with the story of Emperor Jimmu, the first Emperor, his conquest of Japan, ends with the 15th Emperor, Emperor Ōjin. The second through ninth Emperors' reigns are recorded in a minimum of detail, with only their names, the names of their various descendants, the place-names of their palaces and tombs listed, no mention of their achievements. Many of the stories in this volume are mythological, the historical information in them is suspect; the Shimotsumaki covers the 16th to 33rd Emperors and, unlike previous volumes, has limited references to the interactions with deities. These interactions are prominent in the first and second volumes. Information about the 24th to the 33rd Emperors is missing, as well. What follows is a condensed summary of the contents of the text, including many of the names of gods and locations as well as events which took place in association to them; the original Japanese is included in parentheses where appropriate. The handing down of old folklore and its significance Emperor Tenmu and setting out the Kojiki Ō no Yasumaro compiling the Kojiki In the Edo period, Motoori Norinaga studied the Kojiki intensively.
He produced. Chamberlain, Basil Hall. 1882. A translation of the "Ko-ji-ki" or Records of ancient matters. Yokohama, Japan: R. Meiklejohn and Co. Printers. Philippi, Donald L. 1968/1969. Kojiki. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press and Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Heldt, Gustav. 2014. The Kojiki: An Account of Ancient Matters. New York: Columbia University Press. There are two major branches of Kojiki manuscripts: Urabe; the extant Urabe branch consists of 36 existing manuscripts all based on the 1522 copies by Urabe Kanenaga. The Ise branch may be subdivided into the Shinpukuji-bon manuscript of 1371–1372 and the Dōka-bon manuscripts; the Dōka sub-branch consists of: the Dōka-bon manuscript of 1381.
Buddhism
Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions and spiritual practices based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana. Most Buddhist traditions share the goal of overcoming suffering and the cycle of death and rebirth, either by the attainment of Nirvana or through the path of Buddhahood. Buddhist schools vary in their interpretation of the path to liberation, the relative importance and canonicity assigned to the various Buddhist texts, their specific teachings and practices. Observed practices include taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, observance of moral precepts, monasticism and the cultivation of the Paramitas.
Theravada Buddhism has a widespread following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia such as Myanmar and Thailand. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Nichiren Buddhism and Tiantai, is found throughout East Asia. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian adepts, may be viewed as a separate branch or as an aspect of Mahayana Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth-century India, is practiced in the countries of the Himalayan region and Kalmykia. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of the Buddha born Siddhārtha Gautama, known as the Tathāgata and Sakyamuni. Early texts have his personal name as "Gautama" or "Gotama" without any mention of "Siddhārtha," which appears to have been a kind of honorific title when it does appear; the details of Buddha's life are mentioned in many Early Buddhist Texts but are inconsistent, his social background and life details are difficult to prove, the precise dates uncertain. The evidence of the early texts suggests that he was born as Siddhārtha Gautama in Lumbini and grew up in Kapilavasthu, a town in the plains region of the modern Nepal-India border, that he spent his life in what is now modern Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother was Queen Maya, he was born in Lumbini gardens. However, scholars such as Richard Gombrich consider this a dubious claim because a combination of evidence suggests he was born in the Shakyas community – one that gave him the title Shakyamuni, the Shakya community was governed by a small oligarchy or republic-like council where there were no ranks but where seniority mattered instead; some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, claims about the society he grew up in may have been invented and interpolated at a time into the Buddhist texts. According to the Buddhist sutras, Gautama was moved by the innate suffering of humanity and its endless repetition due to rebirth, he set out on a quest to end this repeated suffering. Early Buddhist canonical texts and early biographies of Gautama state that Gautama first studied under Vedic teachers, namely Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta, learning meditation and ancient philosophies the concept of "nothingness, emptiness" from the former, "what is neither seen nor unseen" from the latter.
Finding these teachings to be insufficient to attain his goal, he turned to the practice of asceticism. This too fell short of attaining his goal, he turned to the practice of dhyana, which he had discovered in his youth, he famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in the Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He gained insight into the workings of karma and his former lives, attained enlightenment, certainty about the Middle Way as the right path of spiritual practice to end suffering from rebirths in Saṃsāra; as a enlightened Buddha, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his life teaching the Dharma he had discovered, died at the age of 80 in Kushinagar, India. Buddha's teachings were propagated by his followers, which in the last centuries of the 1st millennium BCE became over 18 Buddhist sub-schools of thought, each with its own basket of texts containing different interpretations and authentic teachings of the Buddha.
The Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism: we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, dukkha, "incapable of satisfying" and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the endless cycle of repeated rebirth and dying again, but there is a way to liberation from this endless cycle to the state of nirvana, namely following the Noble Eightfold Path. The truth of dukkha is the basic insight that life in this mundane world, with its clinging and craving to impermanent states and things is dukkha, unsatisfactory. Dukkha can be translated as "incapable of satisfying," "the unsatisfactory nature and the general insecurity of all conditioned phenomena". Dukkha is most translated as "suffering," but this is inaccurate, since it refers not to episodic suffering, but to the intrinsically unsat
.jpg)
