1.
Standard Tibetan
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Standard Tibetan is the most widely spoken form of the Tibetic languages. It is based on the speech of Lhasa, an Ü-Tsang dialect, for this reason, Standard Tibetan is often called Lhasa Tibetan. Tibetan is a language of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. The written language is based on Classical Tibetan and is highly conservative, like many languages, Standard Tibetan has a variety of language registers, Phal-skad, the vernacular speech. Zhe-sa, the spoken style, particularly prominent in Lhasa. Chos-skad, the style in which the scriptures and other classical works are written. In scientific and astrological works, the numerals, as in Vedic Sanskrit, are expressed by symbolical words, Tibetan is written with an Indic script, with a historically conservative orthography that reflects Old Tibetan phonology and helps unify the Tibetan-language area. Wylie transliteration is the most common system of romanization used by Western scholars in rendering written Tibetan using the Latin alphabet, Tibetan pinyin, however, is the official romanization system employed by the government of the Peoples Republic of China. Certain names may also retain irregular transcriptions, such as Chomolungma for Mount Everest, the following summarizes the sound system of the dialect of Tibetan spoken in Lhasa, the most influential variety of the spoken language. These sounds normally occur in closed syllables, because Tibetan does not allow geminated consonants, the result is that the first is pronounced as an open syllable but retains the vowel typical of a closed syllable. For instance, zhabs is pronounced and pad is pronounced, but the compound word and this process can result in minimal pairs involving sounds that are otherwise allophones. Sources vary on whether the phone and the phone are distinct or basically identical, phonemic vowel length exists in Lhasa Tibet but in a restricted set of circumstances. Assimilation of Classical Tibetans suffixes, normally ‘i, at the end of a word produces a long vowel in Lhasa Tibetan, in normal spoken pronunciation, a lengthening of the vowel is also frequently substituted for the sounds and when they occur at the end of a syllable. The vowels, and each have nasalized forms, and, respectively, in some unusual cases, the vowels, and may also be nasalised. The Lhasa dialect is described as having two tones, high and low. However, in words, each tone can occur with two distinct contours. It is normally safe to only between the two tones because there are very few minimal pairs that differ only because of contour. The difference occurs only in words ending in the sounds or, for instance
2.
Tibetan alphabet
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The Tibetan alphabet is an abugida used to write the Tibetic languages such as Tibetan, as well as Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, and sometimes Balti. The printed form of the alphabet is called uchen script while the cursive form used in everyday writing is called umê script. The alphabet is closely linked to a broad ethnic Tibetan identity, spanning across areas in Tibet, Bhutan, India. The Tibetan alphabet is of Indic origin and it is ancestral to the Limbu alphabet, the Lepcha alphabet, the creation of the Tibetan alphabet is attributed to Thonmi Sambhota of the mid-7th century. Tradition holds that Thonmi Sambhota, a minister of Songtsen Gampo, was sent to India to study the art of writing, the form of the letters is based on an Indic alphabet of that period. The most important, an official orthography aimed to facilitate the translation of Buddhist scriptures, Standard orthography has not altered since then, while the spoken language has changed by, for example, losing complex consonant clusters. As a result, in all modern Tibetan dialects, in particular in the Standard Tibetan of Lhasa and this divergence is the basis of an argument in favour of spelling reform, to write Tibetan as it is pronounced, for example, writing Kagyu instead of Bka-rgyud. In contrast, the pronunciation of the Balti, Ladakhi and Burig languages adheres more closely to the archaic spelling, in the Tibetan script, the syllables are written from left to right. Syllables are separated by a tsek, since many Tibetan words are monosyllabic, spaces are not used to divide words. The Tibetan alphabet has thirty basic letters, sometimes known as radicals, as in other Indic scripts, each consonant letter assumes an inherent vowel, in the Tibetan script its ཨ /a/. The alphabet ཨ /a/ is also the base for dependent vowels marks, although some Tibetan dialects are tonal, the language had no tone at the time of the scripts invention, and there are no dedicated symbols for tone. However, since tones developed from segmental features they can usually be predicted by the archaic spelling of Tibetan words. The unique aspect of the Tibetan script is that the consonants can be either as radicals, or they can be written in other forms. To understand how this works, one can look at the radical ཀ /ka/, in both cases, the symbol for ཀ /ka/ is used, but when the ར /ra/ is in the middle of the consonant and vowel, it is added as a subscript. On the other hand, when the ར /ra/ comes before the consonant and vowel, ར /ra/ actually changes form when it is above most other consonants, thus རྐ rka. However, an exception to this is the cluster རྙ /rnya/, similarly, the consonants ཝ /wa/, ར /ra/, and ཡ /ja/ change form when they are beneath other consonants, thus ཀྭ /kwa/, ཀྲ /kra/, ཀྱ /kja/. Besides being written as subscripts and superscripts, some consonants can also be placed in prescript, postscript, the third position, the post-postscript position is solely for the consonants ད /tʰa/ and ས /sa/. The superscript position above a radical is reserved for the consonants ར /ra/, ལ /la/, the vowels used in the alphabet are ཨ /a/, ཨི /i/, ཨུ /u/, ཨེ /e/, and ཨོ /o/
3.
Karma Kagyu
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Karma Kagyu, or Kamtsang Kagyu, is probably the 2nd largest and certainly the most widely practiced lineage within the Kagyu school, one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The lineage has long-standing monasteries in Tibet, China, Russia, Mongolia, India, Nepal, and Bhutan, the spiritual head of the Karma Kagyu is the Gyalwa Karmapa, and the 2nd through the 10th Karmapas were the principal spiritual advisors to successive Emperors of China. The Karma Kagyu are sometimes called the Black Hat Lamas, in reference to the Black Crown worn by the Karmapa, the Karma Kagyu was founded by Düsum Khyenpa, 1st Karmapa Lama. It is headed by the Karmapa, a reincarnate lama, followers believe that the Karmapas appearance as the first historical consciously reincarnate teacher was predicted by Gautama Buddha in the Samadhiraja Sutra. The Karma Kagyu school belongs to the Vajrayana branch of Mahayana Buddhism and it conceives itself as a member of the third turning of the dharmacakra and participates in the Rimé movement. The central teaching of the Karma Kagyu is the doctrine of Mahamudra and it is through these four stages of development that the practitioner is said to attain the perfect realization of mahamudra. Mahamudra is practiced both independently and as the stage of Vajrayana practice. Within the Karma Kagyu, meditative practice is almost invariably presented in a progressive manner, early practice includes samatha, introduction to Buddhist history and philosophy and initiation into the lower tantras - classically across the iṣṭadevatās Avalokiteśvara, Tārā and Amitābha. This is followed by ngöndro and vipassanā, during the traditional three-year retreat, retreatants usually focus their practice on the Six Yogas of Naropa. At the Anuttarayoga Tantra level of practice, the principal iṣṭadevatās of the lineage are Dorje Pakmo, the supreme lama of the Karma Kagyu is the Karmapa, who always presides as lineage holder once he has reached his majority and received all the necessary training and dharma transmissions. From the death of one Karmapa until the next takes his seat as lineage holder, rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa left the lineage in the hands of four eminent lamas, the 14th Shamarpa, the 12th Tai Situpa, the 3rd Jamgon Kongtrul and the 12th Goshir Gyaltsab. There is controversy over who is the 17th Karmapa, with two candidates both having been recognized and enthroned by their supporters. Neither candidate has been enthroned at Rumtek Monastery, the direct master-disciple transmission of the lineage holders of the Karma Kagyu is known as the Golden Rosary of Kagyu Fathers. Because of the Karmapa controversy, the identities of the lineage holders have not been definitively identified. In all likelihood, they are either,42, 12th Situpa Pema Tönyö Nyinje 1954–present C. E.43. 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje 1985–present C. E. or 42, 14th Shamarpa Mipham Chokyi Lodro 1952–2014 C. E.43. 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje 1983–present C. E, at the next level of precedence, all Kagyu Lamas who have been accorded by His Holiness the title Rinpoche are highly regarded as trustworthy teachers. Those who hold the Khenpo degree have completed the equivalent of a doctorate in Buddhist studies, there are many female Kagyu Lamas
4.
Tibetan Buddhism
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Tibetan Buddhism is the body of Buddhist doctrine and institutions characteristic of Tibet, the regions surrounding the Himalayas and much of Central Asia. It derives from the latest stages of Indian Buddhism and preserves the Tantric status quo of eighth-century India, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Religious texts and commentaries comprise the Tibetan Buddhist canon, such that Tibetan is a language of these areas. Among its prominent exponents is the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the number of its adherents is estimated to be between ten and twenty million. Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism initially turned to China for an understanding, there the term used was lamaism to distinguish it from a then traditional Chinese form. The term was taken up by scholars including Hegel, as early as 1822. Insofar as it implies a discontinuity between Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, the term has been discredited, another term, Vajrayāna is occasionally used mistakenly for Tibetan Buddhism. More accurately, it signifies a certain subset of practices included in, not only Tibetan Buddhism, the native Tibetan term for all Buddhism is doctrine of the internalists. There is an association between the religious and the secular the spiritual and the temporal in Tibet. The term for this relationship is chos srid zung brel, in the west the term Indo-Tibetan Buddhism has become current, in acknowledgement of its derivation from the latest stages of Buddhist development in northern India. Tibetan Buddhism comprises the teachings of the three vehicles of Buddhism, the Foundational Vehicle, Mahāyāna, and Vajrayāna, the Mahāyāna goal of spiritual development is to achieve the enlightenment of buddhahood in order to most efficiently help all other sentient beings attain this state. The motivation in it is the mind of enlightenment — an altruistic intention to become enlightened for the sake of all sentient beings. Bodhisattvas are revered beings who have conceived the will and vow to dedicate their lives with bodhicitta for the sake of all beings, Tibetan Buddhism teaches methods for achieving buddhahood more quickly by including the Vajrayāna path in Mahāyāna. Buddhahood is defined as a free of the obstructions to liberation as well as those to omniscience. When one is freed from all mental obscurations, one is said to attain a state of continuous bliss mixed with a simultaneous cognition of emptiness, in this state, all limitations on ones ability to help other living beings are removed. It is said there are countless beings who have attained buddhahood. Buddhas spontaneously, naturally and continuously perform activities to all sentient beings. However it is believed that ones karma could limit the ability of the Buddhas to help them, there is a long history of oral transmission of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism
5.
Nenang Monastery
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Nénang Monastery is a historical gompa for Buddhist monks and nuns belonging to Sera Monastery. It is located west of Lhasa in Doilungdêqên County in Tibet Autonomous Region, Nenang Monastery is the seat of the Nenang Pawo, an important tulku of the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. The nunnery is located at the end of a valley, approximately 40 kilometres west of Lhasa, above Nenang, is the Tsurphu Monastery, a monastery which served as the traditional seat of the Karmapa. A river runs through the valley and it is the location of a quarry from where aggregates are carried to Lhasa for building construction, which is raising environmental concerns. As in the case of hermitages and nunneries located in the mountainous terrain immense religiosity is associated with it, thus, the peak surrounding this nunnery is called the Glorious Copper-Coloured Mountain, which is the name of Padmasambhava’s celestial palace, as the location was associated with Padmasambhava. Two large caves here were Padmasambhava’s meditation caves, another set of caves, on the hills opposite to the hermitage were caves of the Sixteen Arhats. These sites are all now in total ruins and it is therefore hard to even accept that a live and active hermitage existed here in the past. In the ninth century Padmasambhava, the Indian Buddhist guru credited with the founding of Buddhism in Tibet, lived, according to oral tradition, Padmasmabhava lived in this cave for three years and three months in retreat. However, establishing the nunnery here is credited to a nun named Jetsün Dröldor Wangmo, some also say it was founded in 1333 by Tokden Drakpa Senge, the first Sharmapa. The nunnery flourished briefly for one more generation under an incarnate of the first nun and it was then brought under the jurisdiction of Khardo Hermitage. The third incarnation of Khardo Rikdzin Chökyi Dorjé made it his retreat, however, the nuns who felt insecure at this remote location wished to stay closer to Mkhar rdo. Consequently, as directed by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, in 1930 they exchanged places with the Gnas sgo gdong monastery where monks were residing, post 1959 Following the Cultural Revolution in 1959, the nunnery was locked up and deteriorated into ruins. It was only about a decade ago that some nuns of this nunnery along with an elderly person started building temporary huts from the ruins of the former nunnery
6.
Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa
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The sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje was spiritual leader of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. He was born in Denkhok in the Dergé district of Kham, after the 15th Karmapas passing, the Karmapas attendant, Jampal Tsultrim, hid for months believing that the 11th Tai Situpa would punish him. The 11th Tai Situpa later recognized the 16th Karmapa Rangjung Rigpe Dorje and he was taken to the Palpung Monastery where the 11th Tai Situpa, Pema Wangchok, gave him ordination, the Bodhisattva vows and many teachings. Beru Khyentse Lodro Miza Pampai Gocha taught him the tantras, bo Kangkar Rinpoche taught him the sutras. Jamgon Palden Kyentse Oser taught him Mahamudra and the Six Yogas of Naropa and he regarded the 11th Tai Situpa, Pema Wangchok, and the 2nd Jamgön Kongtrül Khyentse Öser as his root gurus. In 1931, at the age of seven, he performed his first Black Crown ceremony and he received his hair cutting ceremony at age thirteen from Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama. During his education he received all the Kagyu transmissions and was taught by the Sakya Trizin for many years. In the beginning of 1940 he went into retreat, and in 1947 started a pilgrimage to India together with Tenzin Gyatso, Rangjung continued his education with the 10th Mindrolling Trichen of the Nyingma School and it was concluded with the Kalachakra initiation of the Gelugpa School. Rangjung had therefore received all the teachings of all the major Tibetan Buddhist schools. The 16th Karmapa continued his predecessors activities, travelling and teaching throughout Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Sikkim, India and his activity also included locating the rebirths of high reincarnate lamas spontaneously, without meditation. Political circumstances altered Tibet radically with the 1950 takeover by the China, Karmapa, along with the Dalai Lama, government officials, and other high lamas, attended talks in Beijing to negotiate a settlement. This succeeded for a while, but in 1959 the Chinese government insisted on reform. In February of that year Karmapa took 160 students from Tsurphu Monastery and escaped to Bhutan, taking the lineages most sacred treasures, tashi Namgyal, the King of Sikkim, offered land to the Karmapa near the site where the 14th Karmapa had established a monastery. It was here that his new seat, Rumtek Monastery, was built in 1966, the traditional seat of the Karmapa, Tsurphu Monastery, still exists, but the number of monks is restricted. In the beginning of the 1970s the Karmapa made the prediction that Tibet would have a hard struggle gaining independence and even if it did, Rumtek would not be a good place either, and although Sikkim and Bhutan are still stable, they can deteriorate as well. However the Western world will embrace Buddhism, and after that predication he sent Lama Gendün to Europe. In 1976-77 he began an exhaustive tour, giving extensive teachings and empowerments. The sixteenth Karmapa helped foster the transmission of Tibetan Buddhism to the West and he established Dharma centers and monasteries in various places around the world in order to protect, preserve, and spread the Buddhas teachings
7.
Communist Party of China
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The Communist Party of China is the founding and ruling political party of the Peoples Republic of China. It was founded in 1921, chiefly by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the CPC is currently the worlds second largest political party with a membership of 88.76 million as of 2016. It also controls the worlds largest armed force, the Peoples Liberation Army, the highest body of the CPC is the National Congress, convened every fifth year. The partys leader holds the offices of General Secretary, Chairman of the Central Military Commission, through these posts the party leader is the countrys paramount leader. The current party leader is Xi Jinping, elected at the 18th National Congress, the CPC is still committed to communist thought and continues to participate in the International Meeting of Communist and Workers Parties each year. The official explanation for Chinas economic reforms is that the country is in the stage of socialism. The planned economy established under Mao Zedong was replaced by the socialist market economy, the CPC has its origins in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, during which radical ideologies like Marxism and anarchism gained traction among Chinese intellectuals. Other influences stemming from the Bolshevik revolution and Marxist theory inspired the Communist Party of China, Li Dazhao was the first leading Chinese intellectual who publicly supported Leninism and world revolution. In contrast to Chen Duxiu, Li did not renounce participation in the affairs of the Republic of China, both of them regarded the October Revolution in Russia as groundbreaking, believing it to herald a new era for oppressed countries everywhere. The CPC was modeled on Vladimir Lenins theory of a vanguard party, Study circles were, according to Cai Hesen, the rudiments. Several study circles were established during the New Culture Movement, the founding National Congress of the CPC was held on 23–31 July 1921. With only 50 members in the beginning of 1921, the CPC organization, while it was originally planned to be held in Shanghai French Concession, police officers interrupted the meeting on 3 July. Because of that, the congress was moved to a tourist boat on South Lake in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, only 12 delegates attended the congress, with neither Li nor Chen being able to attend. Chen sent a representative to attend the congress. The resolutions of the called for the establishment of a communist party. The communists dominated the left wing of the KMT, a party organized on Leninist lines, when KMT leader Sun Yat-sen died in March 1925, he was succeeded by a rightist, Chiang Kai-shek, who initiated moves to marginalize the position of the communists. Fresh from the success of the Northern Expedition to overthrow the warlords, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the communists, ignoring the orders of the Wuhan-based KMT government, he marched on Shanghai, a city controlled by communist militias. Although the communists welcomed Chiangs arrival, he turned on them, Chiangs army then marched on Wuhan, but was prevented from taking the city by CPC General Ye Ting and his troops
8.
Bhutan
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Bhutan, officially the Kingdom of Bhutan, is a landlocked country in Asia and the smallest state located entirely within the Himalaya mountain range. Located in the Eastern Himalayas, it is bordered by China in the north, Bhutan lacks a border with nearby Nepal due to the Indian state of Sikkim and with Bangladesh due to the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam. Bhutan is geopolitically in South Asia and is the second least populous nation after the Maldives. Thimphu is its capital and largest city, while Phuntsholing is its financial center, the independence of Bhutan has endured for centuries and the territory was never colonized in its history. Situated on the ancient Silk Road between Tibet, the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, the Bhutanese state developed a national identity based on Buddhism. Headed by a leader known as the Zhabdrung Rinpoche, the territory was composed of many fiefdoms. Following a civil war in the 19th century, the House of Wangchuck reunited the country, Bhutan fostered a strategic partnership with India during the rise of Chinese communism and has a disputed border with the Peoples Republic of China. The King of Bhutan is known as the Dragon King, Bhutan is also notable for pioneering the concept of gross national happiness. The countrys landscape ranges from subtropical plains in the south to the sub-alpine Himalayan mountains in the north. The highest mountain in Bhutan is the Gangkhar Puensum, which is also a candidate for the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. There is also diverse wildlife in Bhutan, in South Asia, Bhutan ranks first in economic freedom, ease of doing business and peace, second in per capita income and is the least corrupt country, as of 2016. However, Bhutan continues to be a least developed country, hydroelectricity accounts for the major share of its exports. The government is a parliamentary democracy, Bhutan maintains diplomatic relations with 52 countries and the European Union, but does not have formal ties with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. It is a member of the United Nations, SAARC, BIMSTEC, the Royal Bhutan Army maintains extensive military relations with the Indian Armed Forces. The precise etymology of Bhutan is unknown, although it is likely to derive from the Tibetan endonym Bod used for Tibet. Traditionally, it is taken to be a transcription of the Sanskrit Bhoṭa-anta end of Tibet, since the 17th century the official name of Bhutan has been Druk yul and Bhutan only appears in English-language official correspondence. Names similar to Bhutan — including Bohtan, Buhtan, Bottanthis, Bottan, jean-Baptiste Taverniers 1676 Six Voyages is the first to record the name Boutan. However, in case, these seem to have been describing not modern Bhutan
9.
Kalimpong
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Kalimpong is a hill station in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is located at an elevation of 1,250 metres. The town is the headquarters of the Kalimpong district, the Indian Armys 27 Mountain Division is located on the outskirts of the town. Kalimpong is known for its institutions, many of which were established during the British colonial period. It used to be a gateway in the trade between Tibet and India before Chinas annexation of Tibet and the Sino-Indian War, Kalimpong and neighbouring Darjeeling were major centres calling for a separate Gorkhaland state in the 1980s, and more recently in 2010. Home to ethnic Nepalis, indigenous Lepchas, other groups and non-native migrants from other parts of India. The Buddhist monastery Zang Dhok Palri Phodang holds a number of rare Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, the Kalimpong Science Centre, established under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council in 2008 is a recent addition to its many tourist attractions. The Science Centre, which provides for scientific awareness among the students of the town, the precise etymology of the name Kalimpong remains unclear. There are many theories on the origin of the name, one widely accepted theory claims that the name Kalimpong means Assembly of the Kings Ministers in Tibetan, derived from kalon and pong. It may be derived from the ridge where we play from Lepcha. People from the call the area Kalempung. Another possible derivation points to Kaulim, a plant found in abundance in the region. Until the mid-19th century, the area around Kalimpong was ruled in succession by the Sikkimese and Bhutanese kingdoms, under Sikkimese rule, the area was known as Dalingkot. In 1706, the king of Bhutan won this territory from the Sikkimese monarch, overlooking the Teesta Valley, Kalimpong is believed to have once been the forward position of the Bhutanese in the 18th century. The area was populated by the indigenous Lepcha community and migrant Bhutia. Later in 1780, the Gurkhas invaded and conquered Kalimpong, after the Anglo-Bhutan War in 1864, the Treaty of Sinchula was signed, in which Bhutanese held territory east of the Teesta River was ceded to the British East India Company. At that time, Kalimpong was a hamlet, with two or three families known to reside there. The first recorded mention of the town was a reference made that year by Ashley Eden
10.
India
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India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
11.
Dalai Lama
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The Dalai Lama /ˈdɑːlaɪ ˈlɑːmə/, /ˌdælaɪ ˈlɑːmə/ is a monk of the Gelug or Yellow Hat school of Tibetan Buddhism, the newest of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism founded by Je Tsongkhapa. The Dalai Lama title was created by Altan Khan in 1578, the 14th and current Dalai Lama is Tenzin Gyatso. The Dalai Lama has always been an important figure of the Gelug tradition, although finding dominance in Central Tibet, the Dalai Lama has been an important figure beyond sectarian boundaries. The Dalai Lama figure is important for many reasons, since the time of the Fifth Dalai Lama his personage has always been a symbol of unification of the state of Tibet, where he has represented Buddhist values and traditions. The Dalai Lama is considered to be the successor in a line of tulkus who are believed to be incarnations of Avalokiteśvara, the name is a combination of the Mongolic word dalai meaning ocean and the Tibetan word བླ་མ་ meaning guru, teacher, mentor. The Tibetan word lama corresponds to the better known Sanskrit word guru, special Features of the Gelug Tradition. This government also enjoyed the patronage and protection of firstly Mongol kings of the Khoshut and Dzungar Khanates and this is according to The Book of Kadam, the main text of the Kadampa school, to which the First Dalai Lama, Gendun Drup, first belonged. In fact, this text is said to have ‘laid the foundation’ for the Tibetans later identification of the Dalai Lamas as incarnations of Avalokiteśvara and it traces the legend of the bodhisattva’s incarnations as early Tibetan kings and emperors such as Songsten Gampo and later as Dromtönpa. This lineage has been extrapolated by Tibetans up to and including the Dalai Lamas, thus, according to such sources, an informal line of succession of the present Dalai Lamas as incarnations of Avalokiteśvara stretches back much further than Gendun Drub. First, Tsongkhapa established three great monasteries around Lhasa in the province of Ü before he died in 1419, the 1st Dalai Lama soon became Abbot of the greatest one, Drepung, and developed a large popular power base in Ü. He later extended this to cover Tsang, where he constructed a great monastery, Tashi Lhunpo. The 2nd studied there before returning to Lhasa, where he became Abbot of Drepung, having reactivated the 1sts large popular followings in Tsang and Ü, the 2nd then moved on to southern Tibet and gathered more followers there who helped him construct a new monastery, Chokorgyel. He also established the method by which later Dalai Lama incarnations would be discovered through visions at the oracle lake, the 3rd built on his predecessors fame by becoming Abbot of the two great monasteries of Drepung and Sera. Thus most of Mongolia was added to the Dalai Lamas sphere of influence, after being given the Mongolian name Dalai, he returned to Tibet to found the great monasteries of Lithang in Kham, eastern Tibet and Kumbum in Amdo, north-eastern Tibet. The 4th was then born in Mongolia as the grandson of Altan Khan. Finally, in fulfilment of Avalokiteśvaras master plan, the 5th in the succession used the vast popular power base of devoted followers built up by his four predecessors, overall, they have played a monumental role in Asian literary, philosophical and religious history. Gendun Drup was the name of the monk who came to be known as the First Dalai Lama. Tsongkhapa largely modelled his new, reformed Gelugpa school on the Kadampa tradition, therefore, although Gendun Drup grew to be a very important Gelugpa lama, after he died in 1474 there was no question of any search being made to identify his incarnation
12.
Varanasi
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The spiritual capital of India, it is the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism and Jainism, and played an important role in the development of Buddhism. Varanasi lies along National Highway 2, which connects it to Kolkata, Kanpur, Agra, and Delhi, Varanasi is also one of 72 districts in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. At the time of the 2011 census, there were a total 8 blocks and 1329 villages in this district, Varanasi grew as an important industrial centre, famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture. Buddha is believed to have founded Buddhism here around 528 BC when he gave his first sermon, The Setting in Motion of the Wheel of Dharma, at nearby Sarnath. The citys religious importance continued to grow in the 8th century, Tulsidas wrote his epic poem on Ramas life called Ram Charit Manas in Varanasi. Several other major figures of the Bhakti movement were born in Varanasi, including Kabir, Guru Nanak Dev visited Varanasi for Shivratri in 1507, a trip that played a large role in the founding of Sikhism. The kingdom of Benares was given official status by the Mughals in 1737, silk weaving, carpets and crafts and tourism employ a significant number of the local population, as do the Diesel Locomotive Works and Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. Varanasi Hospital was established in 1964, Varanasi has been a cultural centre of North India for several thousand years, and is closely associated with the Ganges. Hindus believe that death in the city will bring salvation, making it a centre for pilgrimage. The city is known worldwide for its ghats, embankments made in steps of stone slabs along the river bank where pilgrims perform ritual ablutions. Of particular note are the Dashashwamedh Ghat, the Panchganga Ghat, the Manikarnika Ghat and the Harishchandra Ghat, the last two being where Hindus cremate their dead. The Ramnagar Fort, near the bank of the Ganges, was built in the 18th century in the Mughal style of architecture with carved balconies, open courtyards. Among the estimated 23,000 temples in Varanasi are Kashi Vishwanath Temple of Shiva, the Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple, the Kashi Naresh is the chief cultural patron of Varanasi, and an essential part of all religious celebrations. One of Asias largest residential universities is Banaras Hindu University, the Hindi-language nationalist newspaper, Aj, was first published in 1920. The old city is located on the shores of the Ganges, bounded by Varuna. The name was used by pilgrims dating from Buddhas days. Hindu religious texts use many epithets to refer to Varanasi, such as Kāśikā, Avimukta, Ānandavana, according to legend, Varanasi was founded by the god Shiva. It is regarded as one of seven cities which can provide Moksha, Ayodhyā, Mathurā, Gayā, Kāśi, Kañchi, Avantikā
13.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
14.
Boudhanath
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Boudhanath is a stupa in Kathmandu, Nepal. It is known as Khāsti in Nepal Bhasa, Jyarung Khashor in Tibetan language or as Bauddha by speakers of Nepali, located about 11 km from the center and northeastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the stupas massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. The Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline, the ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world. The influx of large populations of refugees from Tibet has seen the construction of over 50 Tibetan Gompas around Boudhanath, as of 1979, Boudhanath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Along with Swayambhunath, it is one of the most popular tourist sites in the Kathmandu area and it then turns directly south, heading over the Bagmati river to Patan - thus bypassing the main city of Kathmandu. Tibetan merchants have rested and offered prayers here for many centuries, when refugees entered Nepal from Tibet in the 1950s, many decided to live around Boudhanath. The Stupa is said to entomb the remains of Kassapa Buddha and this Bauddha stupa was built shortly after the death of Lord Buddha, and is the largest single Chhorten in the world. The legend of its construction begins with an Apsara in a previous life, Jyajima was born into an ordinary family of the earth after the reduction of her religious merit from the heaven. She had four husbands, and gave birth to four sons from each of her husbands, Tajibu was born of a horse trader, Phagjibu from a pig trader, khyijibu from dog trader and Jyajibu from poultry business man. All four had a respect for religion, and decided to construct the largest chhorten. The land necessary for the stupa was made available by Majyajima, the construction materials, soil, brick, and stone, were carried on elephants, horses, donkeys and other animals to the site. Majyajima died four years into the project, shortly after the completion of the fourth story, after three more years of ceaseless efforts, the sons completed The Baudha stupa, totaling nearly seven years of work. Due to being empowered by the Bodhisattvas, this stupa is viewed with a great reverence, after the completion of the construction of Boudha stupa, Tajibu prayed very devoutly to become the king of the northern region to disseminate the religion. He was the Dharma King Trisong Detsen of Tibet in his next life, Phagjibu wished to be a scholar to disseminate the religion, and he became Bodhisattva Śāntarakṣita, an enlightened teacher in Tibet in the next life. Khyijibu was incarnated as the enlightened Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava on Ashada Dashain in Oddiyana, Oḍḍiyāna, in the southwest area and he suppressed the Demons who were barriers to the religion and conserved and protected the religion from the Demonic attacks. Jyajibu prayed to be a minister for the protection of religion in the north, all of these person prayed for themselves, but they did not pray for the animals, who transported the brick, soil, and stone. In the same way, the Donkey prayed to become a minister in the life to destroy the religion. He was born as Lha Lung Pal Gyi Dorje in the next life, the cowherds and shepherds, who prayed for the protection of religion and suppression of demons, were born as Cholon Gos Padma Gung Tsan in Tibet to conserve the religion
15.
Nepal
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Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked central Himalayan country in South Asia. Nepal is divided into 7 provinces and 75 districts and 744 local units including 4 metropolises,13 sub-metropolises,246 municipal councils and 481 village and it has a population of 26.4 million and is the 93rd largest country by area. Bordering China in the north and India in the south, east, Nepal does not border Bangladesh, which is located within only 27 km of its southeastern tip. It neither borders Bhutan due to the Indian state of Sikkim being located in between, Nepal has a diverse geography, including fertile plains, subalpine forested hills, and eight of the worlds ten tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest point on Earth. Kathmandu is the capital and largest city. It is a nation with Nepali as the official language. The territory of Nepal has a history since the Neolithic age. The name Nepal is first recorded in texts from the Vedic Age, the era which founded Hinduism, in the middle of the first millennium BCE, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in southern Nepal. Parts of northern Nepal were intertwined with the culture of Tibet, the Kathmandu Valley in central Nepal became known as Nepal proper because of its complex urban civilization. It was the seat of the prosperous Newar confederacy known as Nepal Mandala, the Himalayan branch of the ancient Silk Road was dominated by the valleys traders. The cosmopolitan region developed distinct traditional art and architecture, by the 18th century, the Gorkha Kingdom achieved the unification of Nepal. The Shah dynasty established the Kingdom of Nepal and later formed an alliance with the British Empire, the country was never colonized but served as a buffer state between Imperial China and Colonial India. In the 20th century, Nepal ended its isolation and forged ties with regional powers. Parliamentary democracy was introduced in 1951, but was suspended by Nepalese monarchs in 1960 and 2005. The Nepalese Civil War resulted in the proclamation of a republic in 2008, modern Nepal is a federal secular parliamentary republic. Nepal is a nation, ranking 144th on the Human Development Index in 2016. The country struggles with the transition from a monarchy to a republic and it also suffers from high levels of hunger and poverty. Despite these challenges, Nepal is making progress, with the government declaring its commitment to elevate the nation from least developed country status by 2022
16.
Lhasa
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Lhasa is a city and administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region of the Peoples Republic of China. Lhasa is the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau after Xining and, at an altitude of 3,490 metres, the city has been the religious and administrative capital of Tibet since the mid-17th century. It contains many culturally significant Tibetan Buddhist sites such as the Potala Palace, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa literally means place of the gods. Lhasa is first recorded as the name, referring to the temple of Jowo. By the mid 7th century, Songtsän Gampo became the leader of the Tibetan Empire that had risen to power in the Brahmaputra River Valley, Bhrikuti is said to have converted him to Buddhism, which was also the faith attributed to his second wife Wencheng. In 641 he constructed the Jokhang and Ramoche Temples in Lhasa in order to house two Buddha statues, the Akshobhya Vajra and the Jowo Sakyamuni, respectively brought to his court by the princesses. Lhasa suffered extensive damage under the reign of Langdarma in the 9th century, when the sites were destroyed and desecrated. A Tibetan tradition mentions that after Songtsän Gampos death in 649 C. E. Chinese troops captured Lhasa, Chinese and Tibetan scholars have noted that the event is mentioned neither in the Chinese annals nor in the Tibetan manuscripts of Dunhuang. Lǐ suggested that this tradition may derive from an interpolation, tsepon W. D. Shakabpa believes that those histories reporting the arrival of Chinese troops are not correct. From the fall of the monarchy in the 9th century to the accession of the 5th Dalai Lama, however, the importance of Lhasa as a religious site became increasingly significant as the centuries progressed. It was known as the centre of Tibet where Padmasambhava magically pinned down the earth demoness, islam has been present since the 11th century in what is considered to have always been a monolithically Buddhist culture. Two Tibetan Muslim communities have lived in Lhasa with distinct homes, food and clothing, language, education, trade, by the 15th century, the city of Lhasa had risen to prominence following the founding of three large Gelugpa monasteries by Je Tsongkhapa and his disciples. The three monasteries are Ganden, Sera and Drepung which were built as part of the puritanical Buddhist revival in Tibet, the scholarly achievements and political know-how of this Gelugpa Lineage eventually pushed Lhasa once more to centre stage. The 5th Dalai Lama, Lobsang Gyatso, unified Tibet and moved the centre of his administration to Lhasa in 1642 with the help of Güshi Khan of the Khoshut. With Güshi Khan as a largely uninvolved overlord, the 5th Dalai Lama, the core leadership of this government is also referred to as the Ganden Phodrang, and Lhasa thereafter became both the religious and political capital. In 1645, the reconstruction of the Potala Palace began on Red Hill, in 1648, the Potrang Karpo of the Potala was completed, and the Potala was used as a winter palace by the Dalai Lama from that time onwards. The Potrang Marpo was added between 1690 and 1694, the name Potala is derived from Mount Potalaka, the mythical abode of the Dalai Lamas divine prototype, the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. The Jokhang Temple was also expanded around this time
17.
Rubin Museum of Art
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It is located at 150 West 17th Street between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The museum originated from a collection of Himalayan art which Donald. In 1998, the Rubins paid $22 million for the building that had been occupied by Barneys New York, the building was remodeled as a museum by preservation architects Beyer Blinder Belle. The original six-story spiral staircase was left intact to become the center of the 25,000 square feet of exhibition space. The museum opened in October 2004, and displays more than 1,000 objects including paintings, sculpture, the new facade on 17th Street and the five floors of galleries were influenced by Tibetan art, and were conceived by New York-based museum architects Celia Imrey and Tim Culbert. Its graphic identity was conceived by graphic designer Milton Glaser, besides exhibitions based on the museums permanent collection, it also serves as a venue for national and international traveling exhibitions. The museum is affiliated with the Himalayan Art website to advance the study of Himalayan arts, in 2011, the museum announced that founders Donald and Shelley Rubin would give a five-year, $25 million gift to support operations, exhibitions, and programs. Donald Rubin also planned to step down as executive, although the couple were to continue to lead the museums board. The 70, 000-square-foot museum occupies what was formerly a portion of the Barneys department store in Manhattans Chelsea neighborhood and it was acquired in 1998 and renovated extensively from 2000-2004. The renovation and new elements were the results of a collaboration headed by the architectural firm of Beyer Blinder Belle and including Atelier Imrey Culbert. In September 2011, the opened a new 5,000 square-foot Education Center adjacent to the main museum building. The new space provides greatly expanded spaces to better facilitate lifelong learning and serve visitors in deeper. The Education Center was designed by Lee H. Skolnick Architecture + Design Partnership, among the museums inaugural exhibitions were Methods of Transcendance and Portraits of Transmission and The Demonic Divine in Himalayan Art. In 2006, an exhibition called Holy Madness spotlighted siddhas with Portraits of Tantric Siddhas, Mahasiddhas at Gyantse. In 2010, the Gateway to Himalayan Art exhibition opened on the second floor. Presenting the fundamentals of Himalayan art, it explains the symbolism, iconography, the exhibit was to remain on view until 2014, with yearly rotations of specific objects. A visit to the Rubin Museum is enhanced by the presence of guides in the galleries, American Sign Language tours, verbal imaging and touch tours, assistive listening devices and wheelchairs are also provided. Culture of New York City List of museums and cultural institutions in New York City Further reading Esplund, paradise on Earth at the Rubin Museum
18.
Yarlung Valley
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It is situated in Nedong County of Lhokha Prefecture in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The capital of Lhokha Prefecture, Zêtang, in the Yarlung Valley, is one of Tibets largest cities and it was originally well-forested and suitable for agriculture. The Tsetang district is famous for its apples and pears, the Yarlung and the adjoining Chongye Valley formed the original seat of the Yarlung dynasty of Tibetan kings and controlled important ancient trade routes into India and Bhutan. The first Tibetan Emperor, Songtsen Gampo, moved the capital to Lhasa after greatly expanding his territories and power. The valley, often referred to as the cradle of Tibetan civilisation, is only 72 km long, there are three renowned power places, Sheldrak, Tradruk, and Yumbu Lagang or. Also, there are three major stupas which serve as receptacles for sacred relics, Takchen Bumpa, Gontang Bumpa, a modern bridge has been built a few kilometres downstream at Nyago. Even by the time Sarat Das visited in 1879 it was in such a state of disrepair that he had to take a boat containing traders and their donkeys. There are four lamaseries around Tse-tang, and in the town are some fifteen Nepalese, twenty Chinese, mutton and butter were abundant, but barley, though cheap, is of inferior quality. It is one of the four sacred mountains of Central Tibet, and the abode of Yarlha Shampo and it is also famous for its cave at 4,060 metres near the summit. This is where, according to legend, Chenrezig incarnated as a red monkey and impregnated a sinmo, or white ogress, in the cave may be seen a naturally occurring image of a monkey and paintings of simian figures. It is said that within the mountain is a beyul or hidden land, Sheldrak Monastery Above the Sekhang Zhika village, bypassing a sacred burial ground with a stupa dedicated to Hayagriva, is Sheldrak Monastery. Founded in the 14th century, it is dedicated to the Terton or treasure-finder Sangye Lingpa. It contains images of Padmasambhava with his two foremost consorts, the Eight Manifestations of Padmasambhava, and Karmapa Rangjung Dorje and it is one of the most revered pilgrimage destinations on the Tibetan plateau and symbolizes the Buddha attributes of Padmasambhava. Originally there was an image of Padmasambhava, but this has now been moved to Traduk Monastery. Tsogyel Sangpuk faces northeast and is the meditation cave of Yeshe Tsogyal. Its location is indicated by a flag to the south of the cave. Pema Shelpuk or Padma Shepuk faces west and this is where the famous Orgyen Lingpa discovered the terma Pema Katang and many other important works here. It is a vital Nyingma site, lhabab Ri - The Hill of Divine Descent is the highest of three hilltops at the southern end of the Pema Tsekpa range, below the Sheldrak Caves
19.
Nyingma
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The Nyingma tradition is the oldest of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Nyingma literally means ancient, and is referred to as Ngangyur because it is founded on the first translations of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Old Tibetan in the eighth century. The Tibetan alphabet and grammar was created for this endeavour, in modern times, the Nyingma lineage has been centered in Kham. The Nyingmapa, a Red Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism, incorporate local religious practices and local deities and elements of shamanism, the group particularly believes in hidden terma treasures. Traditionally, Nyingmapa practice was advanced orally among a network of lay practitioners. Monasteries with celibate monks and nuns, along with the practice of reincarnated spiritual leaders are later adaptations, Nyingma maintains the earliest tantra teachings that have been given the popular nomenclature of Vajrayana. Early Vajrayana that was transmitted from India to Tibet may be differentiated by the specific term Mantrayana, T least in Eastern Tibet, there existed during and after the time of Lha-tho-tho-ri a solid knowledge of Buddhism and that the upper classes of the people were faithfully devoted to it. But the border regions in the north and west probably had also come into contact with Buddhism long before the time of Srong-btsan-sgam-po, there used to be contacts with the Tibetan population in these border regions. It is possible that the knowledge gained from these encounters was spread by merchants over large areas of Tibet, thus, when Srong-btsan-sgam-po succeeded to the throne of Tibet in the year 627, the country was ready for a systematic missionary drive under royal patronage. Around 760, Trisong Detsen invited Padmasambhava and the Nalanda abbot Śāntarakṣita to Tibet to introduce Buddhism to the Land of Snows, Trisong Detsen ordered the translation of all Buddhist texts into Tibetan. Padmasambhava, Śāntarakṣita,108 translators, and 25 of Padmasambhavas nearest disciples worked for years in a gigantic translation-project. The translations from this period formed the base for the large scriptural transmission of Dharma teachings into Tibet, Padmasambhava supervised mainly the translation of tantras, Śāntarakṣita concentrated on the sutras. Padmasambhava and Śāntarakṣita also founded the first Buddhist monastery in Tibet, from this basis, Tantric Buddhism was established in its entirety in Tibet. From the eighth until the eleventh century, the Nyingma was the school of Buddhism in Tibet. Langdarma persecuted monks and nuns, and attempted to wipe out Buddhism and his efforts, however, were not successful. A few monks escaped to Amdo in the northeast of Tibet, indeed, the Nyingma traditionally had no centralized authority or Nyingma-wide hierarchy. Only since the Tibetan diaspora following the Chinese annexure of Tibet have the Nyingma had a head of the Tradition, even so, the Nyingma tradition is still politically decentralized and often decisions are made in an oligarchy or community of the senior sangha within a given jurisdiction or locale. There was never a single head of the lineage in the manner of either the Ganden Tripa or Dalai Lama of the Gelug and it was only recently in exile in India that this role was created at the request of the Central Tibetan Administration and it is largely administrative
20.
Milarepa
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UJetsun Milarepa is generally considered one of Tibets most famous yogis and poets. He was a student of Marpa Lotsawa, and a figure in the history of the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Born in the village of Kya Ngatsa – also known as Tsa – in Gungthang, a province of western Tibet, to a family, he was named Mila Thöpaga. His family name, Josay, indicates noble descent, a sept of the Khyungpo or eagle clan, when his father died, Milarepas uncle and aunt took all of the familys wealth. At his mothers request, Milarepa left home and studied sorcery, the villagers were angry and set off to look for Milarepa, but his mother got word to him, and he sent a hailstorm to destroy their crops. Milarepa later lamented his evil ways in his years in conversation with Rechungpa. Now, released from both good and evil, I have destroyed the root of karmic action and shall have no reason for action in the future, to say more than this would only cause weeping and laughter. What good would it do to tell you and he ascribes his gift to the clever control of internal air. David-Néel comments that at the house of the lama who taught him black magic there lived a trapa who was fleeter than a horse using the same skill, after witnessing such a monk David-Néel described how, He seemed to lift himself from the ground. His steps had the regularity of a pendulum, the traveller seemed to be in a trance. This esoteric skill, which is known as Lung-gom-pa in Tibet, is said to allow a practitioner to run at a speed for days without stopping. This technique could be compared to that practised by the Kaihōgyō monks of Mount Hiei and by practitioners of Shugendō, knowing that his revenge was wrong, Milarepa set out to find a lama and was led to Marpa the Translator. Before Marpa would teach Milarepa he had him build and then demolish three towers in turn, Milarepa was asked to build one final multi-story tower by Marpa at Lhodrag, this 11th century tower still stands. When Marpa still refused to teach Milarepa, he went to Marpas wife and she forged a letter of introduction to another teacher, Lama Ngogdun Chudor, under whose tutelage he practiced meditation. However, when he was making no progress, he confessed the forgery, Milarepa returned to Marpa, and was finally shown the spiritual teachings. Milarepa then left on his own, and after protracted diligence for 12 years he attained the state of Vajradhara and he then became known as Milarepa. Mila is Tibetan for, great man, and repa means, at the age of 45, he started to practice at Drakar Taso cave – Milarepas Cave, as well as becoming a wandering teacher. Here, he subsisted on nettle tea, leading his skin to turn green with a covering, hence the greenish color he is often depicted as having, in paintings
21.
Marpa Lotsawa
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Due to this the Kagyu lineage, which he founded, is often called Marpa Kagyu in his honour. Although some accounts relate that the Mahasiddha Naropa was the teacher of Marpa. Either way, Marpa was a student of the Mahasiddha Maitripa. Born as Marpa Chökyi Lodrö, in Lhodrak Chukhyer in the part of Tibet, to an affluent family, he began studying at a young age but was wild. Marpa first received instruction for three years at Mangkhar with Drokmi Shakya Yeshe and mastered Sanskrit and he decided to travel to India to study with renowned Indian Buddhist masters. Marpa returned home to Lhodrak and converted his entire inheritance into gold to fund his travel expenses, Marpa journeyed first to Nepal where he studied with Paindapa and Chitherpa, two famous students of Naropa. Paindapa later accompanied Marpa to Pullahari, near Nalanda University, where Naropa taught, Marpa spent twelve years studying with Naropa and other great Indian gurus, most prominently Maitripada. After twelve years he set forth on his back to Tibet to teach. Marpa was to travel to India twice more and Nepal three more times and studied with Naropa and other great teachers including Maitripa and he is said to have stayed in the cave at Phugtal Monastery. On his third visit to India, Naropa, who was engaged in tantric practices, however eventually Marpa found him and received the final teachings and instructions from Naropa. It was then that Naropa prophesied that a family lineage would not continue for Marpa, upon his return to Tibet, Marpa spent many years translating Buddhist scriptures and made a major contribution to the transmission of the complete buddhadharma to Tibet. Marpa continued to practice and give teachings and transmissions to many students in Tibet, after his second visit to India Milarepa became his disciple. After the death of Marpas son, Darma Dode, Milarepa inherited his lineage in full, Marpa lived with his wife Dakmema and their sons in Lhodrak in the southern part of Tibet. Marpa is said to have founded Stongdey Monastery in Zanskar in 1052 CE, the Life of Marpa the Translator. By Nalanda Translation Committee, Shambhala Publications, Inc.1982, ISBN 1-57062-087-3, ISBN 1-56957-112-0 Андросов В. П. Жизнеописание Марпы переводчика в историческом контексте школы Карма Кагью, Biography at kagyu office. org Marpa - His Life, Teachings and Images Biography of Marpa - Samye. org How Marpa taught Milarepa - Samye. org Biography at Karma Triyana Dharmachakra
22.
Pawo Tsuglag Threngwa
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Pawo Tsuglag Threngwa, the second Nenang Pawo, was a Tibetan historian of the Karma Kagyu. He was a disciple of Mikyö Dorje, 8th Karmapa Lama, in 1565, a year before his death, he wrote a detailed commentary of the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra. His dharma histories were cited by the 4th Drikung Chetsang, Tenzin Peme Gyaltsen in The Golden Garland of the Throne Lineage, dpa bo gnyis pa/ rgyal ba gtsug lag phreng ba. In Tai si tu pa kun mkhyen chos kyi byu gnas bstan pai nyin byed kyi bka bum, grags pa byungs gnas and Blo bzang mkhas grub. Gangs can mkhas sgrub rim byon ming mdzod, lanzhou, Kan suu mi rigs dpe skrun khang, pp. 995–996. Dge slong gtsug lag phreng ba rang nyid kyi rtogs pa brjod pa khrul pai bzhin ras char bai me long, dpa bo gtsug lag phreng bai rnam thar mdor bsdus. In Gangs can mkhas dbang rim byon gyi rnam thar mdor bsdus, Vol.1, beijing, Krung goi bod kyi shes rig dpe skrun khang. Pawo Tsuglag Threngwa, Index of Collected Works Samten Chhosphel, Second Pawo, Tsuklak Trengwa, Treasury of Lives
23.
5th Dalai Lama
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Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso was the Fifth Dalai Lama, a key religious and temporal leader of Tibet who lived from 1617 to 1682. Gyatso is credited with unifying all Tibet after an era of civil wars. As an independent head of state, he established relations with China and other regional countries. The 5th Dalai Lamas father was called Dudul Rabten, the ruler of the Chonggye valley, also known as Hor Dudül Dorjé, his mother was called Tricham. His father had friendly relations with the Drugpa Kagyu and his mother had connections with the Jonangpa Kagyu through her family at Nakartse Dzong and his family called him Künga Migyur. The childs father, Dudul Rabten, was arrested in 1618 for his involvement in a plot to overthrow Karma Phuntsok Namgyal, Karma Phuntsoks grandfather Zhingshak Tseten Dorje had originally been appointed Governor of Tsang by the Rinpung Prime Minister Ngawang Namgyel in 1548. Tseten Dorje had rebelled against the heirs of Ngawang Namgyel starting in 1557, then Altan Khan, King of the Tumed Mongols, invited Drepung Monasterys abbot Sonam Gyatso to Mongolia. His two predecessors became known as the 1st and 2nd Dalai Lamas posthumously, the Samdruptse government saw this development as a politico-religious alliance between the Gelugpa and a foreign power. When Sonam Gyatso died, the Gelugpa recognised a Mongolian prince as his incarnation and so a Mongolian 4th Dalai Lama and this increased Mongolian involvement with the Gelugpa even further and enabled more Mongolian intervention in Tibetan affairs. Dudul Rabten escaped his captors and tried to reach eastern Tibet, Dudul Rabten died in captivity in 1626 at Samdruptse – Karma Phuntsok Namgyals castle also known as Shigatse – and thus, he never lived to see his son again. The former 4th Dalai Lamas chief attendant, Sonam Choephel, is credited with having discovered the incarnation, Lobsang Gyatso was the name which Künga Migyur received from Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen upon taking novice monastic ordination from him at Drepung. In 1638 when he took ordination, also in the presence of Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa, Ngawang was added to his name. At this time his interest in the Nyingmapa teachings began to deepen, Richardson, declared or pronounced the Panchen to be an incarnation of Dhayani Buddha Amitābha - although other sources all appear to indicate that he was considered as such from the start. Since then, every incarnation of the Panchen Lama has been the master of Tashilhunpo Monastery and it is there that they have all received their education, when Panchen Gyaltsen died in 1662 at 93, the 5th Dalai Lama immediately commenced the tradition of searching for his next incarnation. He composed a prayer asking his master to return and directed the monks of Tibets great monasteries to recite it. He also reserved the title of Panchen - which had previously been a courtesy title for all exceptionally learned lamas - exclusively for the Panchen Lama. He had also predicted that Gyaltsen would continue to be reincarnated in future as the Panchen Lama, the two had a teacher/disciple relationship going back to the 1st Dalai Lama Gendun Drup and his teacher Khedrup Je, considered by some in retrospect as the 1st Panchen Lama. His canonical works total 24 volumes, in all, by 1681 Lobsang Gyatso personally wrote three volumes and his last Regent Desi Sangye Gyatso added another two after his masters death in 1982
24.
Tsurphu Monastery
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Tsurphu Monastery (Tibetan, མཚུར་ཕུ་དགོན་པ or Tölung Tsurphu is a gompa which serves as the traditional seat of the Karmapa, the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located in Gurum in Doilungdêqên District, Tibet Autonomous Region, the monastery is about 4,300 metres above sea level. It was built in the middle of the valley facing south with high mountains surrounding the complex, Tsurphu is a 300-square-meter complex with walls up to 4 meters thick. The gompa, the seat of the Karmapa lamas, is about 28 kilometres up the Dowo Lung Valley on the north side of the river. The original walls of the building were up to 4 meters thick and 300 meters on each side. The monks residences were on the eastern side, in 1189 he revisited the site and founded his main seat there. The monastery grew to hold 1000 monks, the complex was totally destroyed in 1966 during the Cultural Revolution. Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, began to rebuild it in 1980, a Brief History of Tsurpu Monastery. The Power-places of Central Tibet, The Pilgrims Guide, music in the Sky, The Life, Art & Teachings of the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje. Reprint, New Age Books, New Delhi,2004
25.
Karmapa
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The Karmapa is the head of the Karma Kagyu, the largest sub-school of the Kagyu, itself one of the four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism. The historical seat of the Karmapas is Tsurphu Monastery in the Tolung valley of Tibet, the Karmapas principal seat in exile is the Dharma Chakra Centre at Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, India. His regional monastic seats are Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in New York and Dhagpo Kagyu Ling in Dordogne, due to a controversy within the Karma Kagyu school over the recognition process, the identity of the current 17th Karmapa is disputed. The first Karmapa, Düsum Khyenpa, was a disciple of the Tibetan master Gampopa, the source of the oral lineage, traditionally traced back to the Buddha Vajradhara, was transmitted to the Indian master of mahamudra and tantra called Tilopa, through Naropa to Marpa and Milarepa. These forefathers of the Kagyu lineage are called the golden rosary. The second Karmapa, Karma Pakshi, is said to be the first person ever recognized and empowered as a tulku. The Karmapas are the holders of the Black Crown and are sometimes known as the Black Hat Lamas. This crown, is said to have been woven by the dakinis from their hair. The physical crown displayed by the Karmapas was offered to Deshin Shekpa, douglas, Nick, White, Meryl, Karmapa, the Black Hat Lama of Tibet, Milano 1975. Ken Holmes, Karmapa, Altea Publishing 1995, ISBN 0-9524555-4-4, authors website The history of the Karmapa lineage, including biographical details of the historical Karmapas, can be found at the following web sites. Notice that the websites are written to those loyal to one or other of the rival 17th Karmapas, and their accounts of previous incarnations may not be written from a neutral point of view
26.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
27.
Outline of Buddhism
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It is relatively conservative, and generally closer to early Buddhism, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka and most of continental Southeast Asia. The term is used for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice. N. Goenka Ajahn Buddhadasa Ajahn Chah Ajahn Maha Bua Ajahn Mun Bhuridatta Ajahn Thate Balangoda Ananda Maitreya Henepola Gunaratana K. or not, questions referring to the world, concerning the existence of the world in space Is the world finite. Questions referring to personal experience Is the self identical with the body, or is it different from the body. Questions referring to life after death Does the Tathagata exist after death and this Dhamma is for the contented, not for the discontented. This Dhamma is for the secluded, not for one fond of society and this Dhamma is for the energetic, not for the lazy. This Dhamma is for the mindful, not for the unmindful and this Dhamma is for the composed, not for the uncomposed. This Dhamma is for the wise, not for the unwise
28.
Buddhism
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Buddhism is a religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. Buddhism originated in India sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, from where it spread through much of Asia, two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars, Theravada and Mahayana. Buddhism is the worlds fourth-largest religion, with over 500 million followers or 7% of the global population, Buddhist schools vary on the exact nature of the path to liberation, the importance and canonicity of various teachings and scriptures, and especially their respective practices. In Theravada the ultimate goal is the attainment of the state of Nirvana, achieved by practicing the Noble Eightfold Path, thus escaping what is seen as a cycle of suffering. Theravada has a following in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. Mahayana, which includes the traditions of Pure Land, Zen, Nichiren Buddhism, Shingon, rather than Nirvana, Mahayana instead aspires to Buddhahood via the bodhisattva path, a state wherein one remains in the cycle of rebirth to help other beings reach awakening. Vajrayana, a body of teachings attributed to Indian siddhas, may be viewed as a branch or merely a part of Mahayana. Tibetan Buddhism, which preserves the Vajrayana teachings of eighth century India, is practiced in regions surrounding the Himalayas, Tibetan Buddhism aspires to Buddhahood or rainbow body. Buddhism is an Indian religion attributed to the teachings of Buddha, the details of Buddhas 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. Some hagiographic legends state that his father was a king named Suddhodana, his mother queen Maya, and he was born in Lumbini gardens. Some of the stories about Buddha, his life, his teachings, Buddha was moved by the innate suffering of humanity. He meditated on this alone for a period of time, in various ways including asceticism, on the nature of suffering. He famously sat in meditation under a Ficus religiosa tree now called the Bodhi Tree in the town of Bodh Gaya in Gangetic plains region of South Asia. He reached enlightenment, discovering what Buddhists call the Middle Way, as an enlightened being, he attracted followers and founded a Sangha. Now, as the Buddha, he spent the rest of his teaching the Dharma he had discovered. Dukkha is a concept of Buddhism and part of its Four Noble Truths doctrine. It can be translated as incapable of satisfying, the unsatisfactory nature, the Four Truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in saṃsāra, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha
29.
Refuge (Buddhism)
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Buddhists take refuge in the Three Jewels or Triple Gem. The Three Jewels are, the Buddha, the Dharma, the teachings, Refuge is common to all major schools of Buddhism. Pali texts employ the Brahmanical motif of the refuge, found in Rig Veda 9.97.47, Rig Veda 6.46.9. Faith is an important teaching element in both Theravada and Mahayana traditions, in contrast to perceived Western notions of faith, faith in Buddhism arises from accumulated experience and reasoning. In the Kalama Sutra, the Buddha explicitly argues against simply following authority or tradition, there remains value for a degree of trusting confidence and belief in Buddhism, primarily in the spiritual attainment and salvation or enlightenment. Faith in Buddhism centres on belief in the Three Jewels, for someone who wishes to study and practice Buddhism, the five ethical precepts encouraged are to voluntarily undertake the practice to, refrain from killing. Note, The precepts may be listed in order of the gravity of harmful actions guarded against, improper sexual conduct can roughly mean hurtful or harmful sexual conduct. Refrain from sleeping on high and luxurious beddings Sanskrit version, बुद्धं शरणं गच्छामि। धर्मं शरणं गच्छामि। संघं शरणं गच्छामि। Buddhaṃ śaraṇaṃ gacchāmi, I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma, I take refuge in the Sangha. Pāli version, बुद्धं सरणं गच्छामि। दम्मं सरणं गच्छामि। सङ्घं सरणं गच्छामि। Buddhaṃ saraṇaṃ gacchāmi, khmer characters, ទុតិយម្បិ ពុទ្ធំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ ទុតិយម្បិ ធម្មំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ ទុតិយម្បិ សង្ឃំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ For the second time. Khmer characters, តតិយម្បិ ពុទ្ធំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ តតិយម្បិ ធម្មំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ។ តតិយម្បិ សង្ឃំ សរណំ គច្ឆាមិ ៕ For the third time, the Outer form is the Triple Gem, the Inner is the Three Roots and the Secret form is the Three Bodies or trikaya of a Buddha. These alternative refuge formulations are employed by those undertaking Deity Yoga, happiness is temporary, lifetimes are impermanent and ultimately refuge is taken until reaching unsurpassed awakening. Ceremony for Taking Refuge and Precepts by Ven, thubten Chodron A Buddhist View on Refuge Refuge, A Safe and Meaningful Direction in Life by Dr
30.
Gautama Buddha
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Gautama Buddha, also known as Siddhārtha Gautama, Shakyamuni Buddha, or simply the Buddha, after the title of Buddha, was an ascetic and sage, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. He is believed to have lived and taught mostly in the part of ancient India sometime between the sixth and fourth centuries BCE. Gautama taught a Middle Way between sensual indulgence and the severe asceticism found in the śramaṇa movement common in his region and he later taught throughout other regions of eastern India such as Magadha and Kosala. Gautama is the figure in Buddhism. He is recognized by Buddhists as a teacher who attained full Buddhahood. Accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists to have been summarized after his death, various collections of teachings attributed to him were passed down by oral tradition and first committed to writing about 400 years later. Scholars are hesitant to make unqualified claims about the facts of the Buddhas life. Apart from the Vedic Brahmins, the Buddhas lifetime coincided with the flourishing of influential schools of thought like Ājīvika, Cārvāka, Jainism. Brahmajala Sutta records sixty-two such schools of thought, thus, Buddha was just one of the many śramaṇa philosophers of that time. The times of Gautamas birth and death are uncertain, most historians in the early 20th century dated his lifetime as circa 563 BCE to 483 BCE. These alternative chronologies, however, have not yet accepted by all historians. It was either a republic, or an oligarchy, and his father was an elected chieftain. He obtained his enlightenment in Bodh Gaya, gave his first sermon in Sarnath, no written records about Gautama were found from his lifetime or some centuries thereafter. One Edict of Asoka, who reigned from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, another one of his edicts mentions the titles of several Dhamma texts, establishing the existence of a written Buddhist tradition at least by the time of the Maurya era. These texts may be the precursor of the Pāli Canon and they are written in the Gāndhārī language using the Kharosthi script on twenty-seven birch bark manuscripts and date from the first century BCE to the third century CE. The sources for the life of Siddhārtha Gautama are a variety of different and these include the Buddhacarita, Lalitavistara Sūtra, Mahāvastu, and the Nidānakathā. Of these, the Buddhacarita is the earliest full biography, a poem written by the poet Aśvaghoṣa in the first century CE. The Lalitavistara Sūtra is the next oldest biography, a Mahāyāna/Sarvāstivāda biography dating to the 3rd century CE, the Mahāvastu from the Mahāsāṃghika Lokottaravāda tradition is another major biography, composed incrementally until perhaps the 4th century CE
31.
Dharma
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Dharma is a key concept with multiple meanings in the Indian religions — Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. There is no single word translation for dharma in western languages, in Buddhism dharma means cosmic law and order, but is also applied to the teachings of the Buddha. In Buddhist philosophy, dhamma/dharma is also the term for phenomena, Dharma in Jainism refers to the teachings of tirthankara and the body of doctrine pertaining to the purification and moral transformation of human beings. For Sikhs, the word means the path of righteousness. The Classical Sanskrit noun dharma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, the word dharma was already in use in the historical Vedic religion, and its meaning and conceptual scope has evolved over several millennia. The antonym of dharma is adharma, the Classical Sanskrit noun dharma is a derivation from the root dhṛ, which means to hold, maintain, keep, and takes a meaning of what is established or firm, and hence law. It is derived from an older Vedic Sanskrit n-stem dharman-, with a meaning of bearer, supporter. In the Rigveda, the word appears as an n-stem, dhárman-, figuratively, it means sustainer and supporter. It is semantically similar to the Greek Ethos, in Classical Sanskrit, the noun becomes thematic, dharma-. The word dharma derives from Proto-Indo-European root *dʰer-, which in Sanskrit is reflected as class-1 root √dhṛ, etymologically it is related to Avestan √dar-, Latin firmus, Lithuanian derė́ti, Lithuanian dermė and darna and Old Church Slavonic drъžati. Classical Sanskrit word dharmas would formally match with Latin o-stem firmus from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer-mo-s holding, were it not for its development from earlier Rigvedic n-stem. In Classical Sanskrit, and in the Vedic Sanskrit of the Atharvaveda, in Pāli, it is rendered dhamma. In some contemporary Indian languages and dialects it occurs as dharm. Dharma is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion and it has multiple meanings in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It is difficult to provide a concise definition for dharma, as the word has a long and varied history and straddles a complex set of meanings. There is no equivalent single word translation for dharma in western languages, there have been numerous, conflicting attempts to translate ancient Sanskrit literature with the word dharma into German, English and French. The concept, claims Paul Horsch, has caused difficulties for modern commentators and translators. Dharma root is dhri, which means ‘to support, hold and it is the thing that regulates the course of change by not participating in change, but that principle which remains constant
32.
Sangha
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Sangha is a word in Pali and Sanskrit meaning association, assembly, company or community and most commonly refers in Buddhism to the monastic community of bhikkhus and bhikkhunis. These communities are referred to as the bhikkhu-sangha or bhikkhuni-sangha. As a separate category, those who have attained any of the four stages of enlightenment, according to the Theravada school, the term sangha does not refer to the community of sāvakas nor the community of Buddhists as a whole. In a glossary of Buddhist terms, Richard Robinson et al. define Sangha as, the two meanings overlap but are not necessarily identical. Some members of the ideal Sangha are not ordained, some monastics have yet to acquire the Dharma-eye, the Sangha is the third of the Three Jewels in Buddhism. Due to the temptations and vicissitudes of life in the world, monastic life is considered to provide the safest and most suitable environment for advancing toward enlightenment, in Buddhism, the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha each are described as having certain characteristics. These characteristics are chanted either on a daily basis and/or on Uposatha days, the Sangha also fulfils the function of preserving the Buddha’s original teachings and of providing spiritual support for the Buddhist lay-community. The Sangha has historically assumed responsibility for maintaining the integrity of the doctrine as well as the translation and propagation of the teachings of the Buddha. Between midday and the day, a strict life of scripture study, chanting, meditation. Transgression of rules carries penalties ranging from confession to permanent expulsion from the Sangha, saichō, the founder of the Japanese school of Tendai, decided to reduce the number of rules down to about 60 based on the Bodhisattva Precepts. The Order of Interbeing, established in 1964 and associated with the Plum Village movement, has fourteen precepts observed by all monastics and they were written by Thích Nhất Hạnh. In practice, they often have a few personal possessions. Traditionally, Buddhist monks, nuns, and novices eschew ordinary clothes, originally the robes were sewn together from rags and stained with earth or other available dyes. A Buddhist monk is a bhikkhu in Pali, Sanskrit bhikṣu while a nun is a bhikkhuni, Sanskrit bhikṣuṇī. An emphasis on working for food is attributed to additional training guidelines laid down by a Chan Buddhist master, Baizhang Huaihai, notably the phrase, the idea that all Buddhists, especially Sangha members, practice vegetarianism is a Western misperception. In the Pali Canon the Buddha rejected a suggestion by Devadatta to impose vegetarianism on the Sangha, according to the Pali Texts, the Buddha ate meat as long as the animal was not killed specifically for him. Consequently, the Theravada tradition does not practice vegetarianism, although an individual may do so as his or her personal choice. On this question Mahayana and Vajrayana traditions vary depending on their interpretation of their scriptures, in some Mahayana sutras, meat eating is strongly discouraged and it is stated that the Buddha did not eat meat
33.
Four Noble Truths
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The Four Noble Truths are the truths of the Noble Ones, the truths or realities which are understood by the worthy ones who have attained Nirvana. The truths are dukkha, the arising of dukkha, the cessation of dukkha, the four truths express the basic orientation of Buddhism, we crave and cling to impermanent states and things, which is dukkha, incapable of satisfying and painful. This keeps us caught in samsara, the cycle of repeated rebirth, dukkha. But there is a way to real happiness and to end this cycle. The meaning of the truths is as follows, Dukkha, incapable of satisfying, Life in this mundane world, with its craving and clinging to impermanent states and things, is dukkha, unsatisfactory and painful, Samudaya, the origination or arising of dukkha. Dukkha, and repeated life in this world, arises with taṇhā, thirst, craving for and clinging to impermanent states. This craving and clinging produces karma which leads to renewed becoming, keeping us trapped in rebirth and renewed dissatisfaction, Nirodha, the four truths provide a conceptual framework for introducing and explaining Buddhist thought, which has to be personally understood or experienced. The formulation of the four truths, and their importance, developed over time, in the sutras, the four truths have both a symbolic and a propositional function. They represent the awakening and liberation of the Buddha, but also the possibility of liberation for all sentient beings, the four truths are of central importance in the Theravada tradition, which holds to the idea that insight into the four truths is liberating in itself. They are less prominent in the Mahayana traditions, which emphasize insight into sunyata, the four truths are best known from their presentation in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, which contains two sets of the four truths, while various other sets can be found in the Pali Canon. According to the Buddhist tradition, the Buddha first taught the four noble truths in the very first teaching he gave after attaining enlightenment, as recorded in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta. According to Norman, the Pali canon contains various shortened forms of the four truths, the mnemonic set, the earliest form of the mnemonic set was dukkham samudayo nirodho magga, without the reference to sacca or arya, which were later added to the formula. This full set contains grammatical errors, but were considered correct by the Pali tradition, as opposite to sukha, pleasure, it is better translated as pain. S. Cousins notes that the four truths are not restricted to the form where dukkha is the subject. Other forms take the world, the arising of the world or the āsavas, according to Cousins, the well-known form is simply shorthand for all of the forms. The world refers to the saṅkhāras, that is, all compounded things, the Pali terms ariya sacca are commonly translated as noble truths. This translation is a convention started by the earliest translators of Buddhist texts into English, Norman, this is just one of several possible translations. According to Paul Williams, here is no reason why the Pali expression ariyasaccani should be translated as noble truths
34.
Noble Eightfold Path
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The Noble Eightfold Path is an early summary of the path of Buddhist practices leading to liberation from samsara, the painful cycle of rebirth. The Eightfold Path consists of eight practices, right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, in the earliest Buddhism these practices started with insight, culminating in dhyana/samadhi as the core soteriological practice. In later Buddhism insight became the central instrument, leading to a different concept. The Noble Eightfold Path is one of the teachings of Theravada Buddhism. In the Theravada tradition, this path is also summarized as sila, samadhi, in Mahayana Buddhism it is contrasted with the Bodhisattva path, which culminates in full Buddhahood. In Buddhist symbolism, the Noble Eightfold Path is often represented by means of the dharma wheel, the Pali terms ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo is typically translated in English as Noble Eightfold Path. This translation is a convention started by the translators of Buddhist texts into English. However, the phrase does not mean the path is noble, the term maggo means path, while aṭṭhaṅgiko means eightfold. An alternate rendering of ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo is eightfold path of the noble ones, all eight elements of the Path begin with the word samyañc or sammā which means right, proper, as it ought to be, best. The Buddhist texts contrast samma with its opposite miccha, according to Vetter, the description of the Buddhist path may initially have been as simple as the term the middle way. In time, this description was elaborated, resulting in the description of the eightfold path. Vetter and Bucknell both note that descriptions of the path can be found, which can be condensed into the eightfold path. Such an environment aids contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-Self, Right samadhi, practicing four stages of meditation culminating into unification of the mind. That is the ancient path, the ancient road, traveled by the Rightly Self-awakened Ones of former times, following it, I came to direct knowledge of birth. Consciousness, direct knowledge of the origination of consciousness, direct knowledge of the cessation of consciousness, yet, Majjhima Nikaya 117, Mahācattārīsaka Sutta, describes the first seven practices as requisites for right samadhi. According to Vetter, this may have been the original practice in early Buddhism. Moral virtues group consists of three paths, right speech, right action and right livelihood, the meditation group of the path progresses from moral restraints to training the mind. These two factors fall under the category of wisdom, the Noble Eightfold Path, in the Buddhist traditions, is the direct means to nirvana and brings a release from the cycle of life and death in the realms of samsara
35.
Nirvana
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Nirvāṇa literally means blown out, as in an oil lamp. The term nirvana is most commonly associated with Buddhism, and represents its ultimate state of soteriological release, in Indian religions, nirvana is synonymous with moksha and mukti. All Indian religions assert it to be a state of perfect quietude, freedom, highest happiness along with it being the liberation from samsara, however, Buddhist and non-Buddhist traditions describe these terms for liberation differently. In the Buddhist context, nirvana refers to realization of non-self and emptiness, in Hindu philosophy, it is the union of or the realization of the identity of Atman with Brahman, depending on the Hindu tradition. In Jainism, it is also the goal, it represents the release of a soul from karmic bondage. The word nirvāṇa, states Steven Collins, is from the verbal root √vā blow in the form of past participle vāna blown, hence the original meaning of the word is blown out, extinguished. Sandhi changes the spelling, the v of vāna causes nis to become nir, the term nirvana in the soteriological sense of blown out, extinguished state of liberation does not appear in the Vedas nor in the pre-Buddhist Upanishads. According to Collins, the Buddhists seem to have been the first to call it nirvana, nirvāṇa is a term found in the texts of all major Indian religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism. It refers to the peace of mind that is acquired with moksha, liberation from samsara, or release from a state of suffering. The hope for life after death started with notions of going to the worlds of the Fathers or Ancestors and/or the world of the Gods or Heaven. The earliest layers of Vedic text incorporate the concept of life, followed by an afterlife in heaven, however, the ancient Vedic Rishis challenged this idea of afterlife as simplistic, because people do not live an equally moral or immoral life. Between generally virtuous lives, some are more virtuous, while evil too has degrees, the Vedic thinkers introduced the idea of an afterlife in heaven or hell in proportion to ones merit, and when this runs out, one returns and is reborn. The idea of rebirth following running out of merit appears in Buddhist texts as well, the Samsara, the life after death, and what impacts rebirth came to be seen as dependent on karma. The liberation from Saṃsāra developed as a goal and soteriological value in the Indian culture. This basic scheme underlies Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, where the aim is the timeless state of moksa, or, as the Buddhists first seem to have called it. Although the term occurs in the literatures of a number of ancient Indian traditions and it was later adopted by other Indian religions, but with different meanings and description, such as in the Hindu text Bhagavad Gita of the Mahabharata. Nirvana literally means blowing out or quenching and it is the most used as well as the earliest term to describe the soteriological goal in Buddhism, release from the cycle of rebirth. Nirvana is part of the Third Truth on cessation of dukkha in the Four Noble Truths doctrine of Buddhism and it is the goal of the Noble Eightfold Path
36.
Buddha's Birthday
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Buddhas Birthday is a holiday traditionally celebrated in Mahayana Buddhism to commemorate the birth of the Prince Siddhartha Gautama, later the Gautama Buddha and founder of Buddhism. According to the Theravada Tripitaka scriptures, Gautama was born in Lumbini in modern-day Nepal, around the year 563 BCE, Śuddhodana was determined to see his son become a king, so he prevented him from leaving the palace grounds. But at age 29, despite his fathers efforts, Gautama ventured beyond the palace several times and these experiences prompted Gautama to abandon royal life and take up a spiritual quest. In Nepal, the birth-country of Buddha, it is celebrated on the full day of the Vaisakha month of the Buddhist calendar. In Theravada countries following the Buddhist calendar, it falls on a full moon Uposatha day, in China and Korea, it is celebrated on the eighth day of the fourth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. The date varies from year to year in the Western Gregorian calendar, in leap years it may be celebrated in June. The festival is known as Buddha Purnima, as Purnima means full moon day in Sanskrit and it is also called is Buddha Jayanti, with Jayanti meaning birthday in Sanskrit Language. The date falls from the end of April to the end of May in the Gregorian calendar, as a result of the Meiji Restoration, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar in lieu of the Chinese lunar calendar in 1873. In Cambodia, Buddhas birthday known as Visak Bochea is a holiday and monks around the country carry flags, lotus flowers, incense. People also take part in giving to the monks. In China, celebrations often occur in Buddhist temples where people light incense, in Hong Kong, Buddhas birthday is a public holiday. Lanterns are lit to symbolise the Buddhas enlightenment and many people visit the temple to pay their respects, the bathing of the Buddha is a major feature of Buddhas birthday celebrations in the city. Buddha Purnima or Buddha Jayanthi in South India or Tathagata is a holiday in India. Buddhist People go to common Viharas to observe a rather longer-than-usual, full-length Buddhist sutra, the usual dress is pure white. Kheer, a rice porridge is commonly served to recall the story of Sujata. Informally called Buddhas Birthday, it commemorates the birth, enlightenment. In Indonesia, Buddhas birthday known as Waisak is a public holiday, a large procession beginning in Mendut in Java ends at Borobudur – the largest Buddhist temple in the world. In Japan, Buddhas Birthday is known as Kanbutsu-e or Hana-matsuri and is held on April 8, Buddhas birth is also celebrated according to the Buddhist calendar but is not a national holiday
37.
Four sights
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The four sights are four things described in the legendary account of Gautama Buddhas life which led to his realization of the impermanence and ultimate dissatisfactoriness of conditioned existence. However, on his first venture out of the palace with his charioteer Channa, he observed four sights, an old man, a man, a corpse. The spiritual feeling of urgency experienced by Siddhārtha Gautama is referred to as saṃvega, after the birth of the Prince Siddhārtha, King Śuddhodana called upon eight Brahmins to predict his only sons future. While seven of them declared that the prince would either be a Buddha or a great King, after leading a sheltered existence surrounded by luxury and pleasure in his younger years, Prince Siddhārtha ventured out of his palace for the first time at the age of 29. He set off from the palace to the city in a chariot, on this journey he first saw an old man, revealing to Siddhārtha the consequences of aging. When the prince asked about this person, Channa replied that aging was something that happened to all beings, the second sight was of a sick person suffering from a disease. Once again, the prince was surprised at the sight, and Channa explained that all beings are subject to disease and this further troubled the mind of the prince that none can stay healthy and live a pain free life. The third sight was of a dead body, as before, Channa explained to the prince that death is an inevitable fate that befalls everyone. After seeing these three sights, Siddhārtha was troubled in his mind and sorrowful about the sufferings that have to be endured in life. After seeing these three sights, Siddhārtha came upon the fourth sight, an ascetic who had devoted himself to finding the cause of human suffering. This sight gave him hope that he too might be released from the sufferings arising from being repeatedly reborn, after observing these four sights, Siddhārtha returned to the palace, where a performance of dancing girls was arranged for him. Throughout the performance, the prince kept on thinking about the sights, in the early hours of morning, he finally looked about him and saw the dancers asleep and in disarray. The sight of this drastic change strengthened his resolve to leave in search of an end to the suffering of beings, after this incident and realizing the true nature of life after observing the four sights, Siddhārtha left the palace on his horse Kanthaka, accompanied only by Channa. He sent Channa back with his possessions and began an ascetic life, before this, he saw a group of people meditating and he decided to join them. The leaders of this group thought him to be so good that they asked him to run their class, however, he thought that meditation was not the only factor on his path to enlightenment. He tried to discipline his body by fasting, but he realized that by doing this, in the early Pali suttas, the four sights as concrete encounters were not mentioned with respect to the historical Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama. Rather, Siddhārthas insights into old age, sickness and death were abstract considerations, analogous passages for illness and death follow. Similarly, the Ariya-pariyesana Sutta describes rather abstract considerations, These passages also do not mention the fourth sight of the renunciant, the renunciant is a depiction of the Sramana movement, which was popular at the time of Siddhārtha and which he consequently joined
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Physical characteristics of the Buddha
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The physical characteristics of the Buddha refers to the general appearance and characteristics of Gautama Buddhas physical body. A number of early discourses describe the appearance of the Buddha, in particular, the 32 signs of a Great Man are described throughout the Pali Canon, and these are believed to have formed the basis for early representations of the Buddha. These 32 major characteristics are also supplemented by another 80 secondary characteristics, in Mahāyāna Buddhism, including the traditions of Esoteric Buddhism, the 32 major characteristics and 80 minor characteristics are understood to be present in a buddhas sambhogakāya, or reward-body. In contrast, a physical form is understood to be a nirmāṇakāya. The earliest phase of Buddhism was generally aniconic, with the Buddha being represented as such as a footprint, an empty chair. Later, iconic sculptural traditions were established, with two of the most important being in the regions of Gandhara and Mathura, the first statues and busts of the Buddha were made in the Gandhara region of modern-day Afghanistan. Many statues and busts exist where the Buddha and other bodhisattvas have a mustache, Mahāyāna sūtras from this period such as the Maitreyasiṃhanāda Sūtra, only address the image cult as an object of criticism, if it is mentioned at all. Schopen states that followers of Mahāyāna were generally uninterested in worshipping buddhas, but rather in becoming buddhas, the Buddha is traditionally regarded as having the Thirty-two Characteristics of a Great Man. These thirty-two characteristics are also regarded as being present in cakravartin kings as well, the Digha Nikaya, in the Discourse of the Marks enumerates and explains the 32 characteristics. These are also enumerated in the Brahmāyu Sutta of the Majjhima Nikāya, according to Guang Xing, the 80 minor marks are related to the 32 major marks, and are merely a more detailed description of the Buddhas bodily features. These 80 minor characteristics became significant as well, as were adopted by Buddhist traditions including both Mahāyāna and Theravāda traditions, in Pali literature, the 80 minor characteristics are found in the Apadāna and the Milindapañha. Some scholars believe the 80 minor characteristics were a development in the Buddhist tradition. The eighty minor characteristics are, He has beautiful fingers and toes and he has well-proportioned fingers and toes. He has tube-shaped fingers and toes and his fingernails and toenails have a rosy tint. His fingernails and toenails are slightly upturned at the tip and his fingernails and toenails are smooth and rounded without ridges. His ankles and wrists are rounded and undented and his feet are of equal length. He has a beautiful gait, like that of a king-elephant and he has a stately gait, like that of a king-lion. He has a beautiful gait, like that of a swan and he has a majestic gait, like that of a royal ox
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Buddha footprint
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The footprint of the Buddha is an imprint of Gautama Buddhas one or both feet. There are two forms, natural, as found in stone or rock, and those made artificially, the footprints of Buddha are along the path from aniconic to iconic which starts at symbols like the wheel and moves to statues of Buddha. These footprints are meant to remind that Buddha was present on earth and they are special as they are the only monuments which give Buddha a physical presence on earth as they are actual depression in the earth. A depression atop of Adams Peak in Sri Lanka is among the largest and most famous footprints, the footprints of the Buddha abound throughout Asia, dating from various periods. They often bear distinguishing marks, such as a Dharmachakra at the centre of the sole, or the 32,108 or 132 auspicious signs of the Buddha, in Thailand, the most important of these natural footprints imbedded in rock is at Phra Phutthabat in Central Thailand. In China, during Tang Dynasty, the discovery of a footprint of the Buddha in Chengzhou caused Empress Wu Zetian to inaugurate a new reign name in that year,701 CE. The footprint as an object has a long history stemming from the first examples made in India. These were made during the pre-Greco-Buddhist phase of Buddhist art at Sanchi, Bharhut, and other places in India, along with the Bo-Tree, later, the footprint-making tradition became prominent in Sri Lanka, Burma, and Thailand. The veneration of the feet of gurus or deities were commonplace in ancient India, as cetiya, the Buddhas footprint was classified in a variety of ways. Some were uddesika, representational relics, and others were paribhogika, relics of use or of contact, some of the depictions of the footprints may signify events in the life of the Buddha, but others may have been depictions of people worshipping at footprint shrines. To clarify, a footprint of the Buddha is a image of his foot. The images of the Buddha’s feet are convex images which represent the actual soles of his feet, the second one can be thought as an uddissaka element, since it has been created by a devoted artist to commemorate the Buddha, taking as its model a genuine footprint. But we can think of this group, too, as a “pāribhogika by supposition”. According to French scholar Paul Mus, the footprints were the type of objects which enables one to act at a distance on people related to it. Petrosomatoglyph Cicuzza, Claudio, A Mirror Reflecting the Entire World, the Pāli Buddhapādamaṅgala or “Auspicious signs on the Buddha’s feet”. Critical edition with English Translation, Materials for the Study of the Tripiṭaka, VI, Lumbini International Research Institute, Bangkok and Lumbini 2011. Buddhapada, L’odyssée des empreintes de Bouddha, ISBN 978-974-524-163-3 Triratana on the footprints of the Buddha
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Relics associated with Buddha
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According to Mahaparinibbana Sutta, after his death, the Gautam Buddha was cremated and the ashes divided among his followers. Originally his ashes were to go only to the Shakya clan, to which Buddha belonged, however, six clans, often they were enclosed in caskets. The relics were dug up by Ashoka, and used the relics and had stupas built over them throughout the region he rules. Many of the remains were taken to other countries, the Ashokavadana narrates how Ashoka redistributed Buddhas relics across 84,000 stupas, with the distribution of the relics and construction of the stupas performed by Yakshas. When the Chinese pilgrims Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang visited India centuries later, the Lokapannatti tells the story of King Ajatashatru of Magadha who gathered the Buddhas relics and hid them in an underground stupa. The Buddhas relics were protected by spirit-powered mechanical robots from the kingdom of Roma visaya until they were disarmed by King Ashoka, annually in Sri Lanka and China, tooth relics would be paraded through the streets. In the past relics have had the right to own property. A southeast Asian tradition says that after his parinirvana the gods distributed the Buddhas 800,000 body and 900,000 head hairs throughout the universe, in Theravada according to the 5th century Buddhaghosa possessing relics was one of the criteria in Theravada for what constituted a proper monastery. The adventures of many relics are said to have been foretold by Buddha, as spread the dharma. It is said all the Buddhas relics will one day gather at the Bodhi tree where he attained enlightenment and will form his body sitting cross legged. It is said the disappearance of the relics at this point will signal the coming of Maitreya Buddha, in the Nandimitravadana translated by Xuanzang it is said that the Buddhas relics will be brought to parinirvana by sixteen great arhats and enshrined in a great stupa. That stupa will then be worshipped until it sinks into the earth down to the golden wheel underlying the universe, the relics are not destroyed by fire in this version but placed in a final reliquary deep within the earth, perhaps to appear again. The relics of Buddhas disciples like Sariputta and Maugglayana, were also preserved enshrined in stupas, sometime in the middle of the fifth century the Chinese pilgrim Daorong traveled to Afghanistan visiting pilgrimage sites. In Nagaharahara was a piece of bone from the top of Buddhas skull four inches long, also in the city was an enshrined staff, and a jeweled reliquary containing some teeth and hair. A shadow was said to have been projected onto a wall, said to have belonged to Buddha, as well as a set of foot prints. A temple said to have built by Buddha is sinking into the ground here. A tooth of the Buddha was kept in Baktra, in Bamyan a tooth of Buddha was stored along with the tooth of a cakravartin king. An early masterpiece of the Greco Buddhist art of Ghandara, and one of the earliest representations of the Buddha, although the casket bears an inscription saying it contained some of the relics of the Buddha, no relics were discovered when the box was opened
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Iconography of Gautama Buddha in Laos and Thailand
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The Iconography of Gautama Buddha in Laos and Thailand is referred to as pang phraputtarup th, ปางพระพุทธรูป, and a given pose as pang Thai, ปาง episode. In other Buddhist countries, different but related iconography is used, the Buddha is always represented with certain physical attributes, and in specified dress and specified poses. Each pose, and particularly the position and gestures of the Buddhas hands, has a meaning which is familiar to Buddhists. Although the Buddha is not a god, Buddhists seek to communicate with the world through Buddha images, making offerings to them. Buddha images are not intended to be representations of what Gautama Buddha looked like. There are no images of him, and the oldest Buddha images date from 500 to 600 years after his lifetime. But Buddhists believe that Buddha images represent an ideal reality of the Buddha, when creating a Buddha image, the artist is expected to be in a spiritual and mental state that will enable him to visualise this ideal reality. There is no requirement that every Buddha image be identical, and in there is a wide variety of artistic styles. There are, however, certain rules of representation that must be adhered to, by the end of the Gupta Empire, the canon of representation had become more varied, with the seated meditative position becoming common, particularly in Sri Lanka. By the 7th century CE the canon was largely as it is seen today, as Buddhism spread from India to other countries, variations in the depiction of the Buddha evolved. This article describes the canon of Buddha representation in Thailand and Laos and this canon was not formalised until the 19th century, as part of the general project of modernisation that followed the Buddhist worlds encounter with Western civilisation. At the request of King Rama III, Paramanuchit described and represented 40 different postures of the Buddha in a treatise called Pathama Sambodhikatha. Some of these, such as Buddha threading a needle, were new, paramanuchits illustrations were later rendered as bronze miniatures, which can be seen today at Wat Phra Kaew in Bangkok and serve as templates for the creation of modern Buddhist imagery. Th, ปางปรินิพพาน The Dīgha Nikāya, a Pāli text of the 1st century BCE, gives a list of 32 physical attributes of the Buddha. Some of these are poetic or fanciful, while others are specific, feet with level tread, projecting heels, long and slender fingers and toes. Although it is not required that Buddha images reflect all of these attributes, most curiously, the Buddha is said to have had a protuberance on the top of his skull, the usnīsa. This is sometimes shown as a spire or spike, and sometimes only as a small bump, the Buddha always has a serene expression or a faint smile. The Buddha is also depicted with very long earlobes
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