Tibetan Buddhism
Tibetan Buddhism is the form of Buddhist doctrine and institutions named after the lands of Tibet, but found in 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." It has been spread outside of Tibet due to the Mongol power of the Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai Khan, that ruled China. Tibetan Buddhism applies Tantric practices deity yoga, aspires to Buddhahood or the rainbow body. Tibetan Buddhism in Tibet has four major schools, namely Nyingma, Kagyu and Gelug; the Jonang is a smaller school, the Rimé movement is an eclectic movement involving the Sakya and Nyingma schools. Among the prominent proponents of Tibetan Buddhism are the Dalai Lama and Panchen Lama, the leaders of Gelug school in Tibet. Westerners unfamiliar with Tibetan Buddhism turned to China for an understanding. There the term used; the term was taken up by western 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 used mistakenly for Tibetan Buddhism. More it signifies a certain subset of practices included in, not only Tibetan Buddhism, but other forms of Buddhism as well; the native Tibetan term for all Buddhism is "doctrine of the internalists". 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. Buddhism was formally introduced into Tibet during the Tibetan Empire. Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures from India were first translated into Tibetan under the reign of the Tibetan king Songtsän Gampo, In the 8th century King Trisong Detsen established it as the official religion of the state. Trisong Detsen invited Indian Buddhist scholars to his court, including Padmasambhāva and Śāntarakṣita ), who founded the Nyingma, The Ancient Ones, the oldest school of Tibetan Buddhism.
There was influence from the Sarvāstivādins from Kashmir to the southwest and Khotan to the northwest. Trisong Detsen invited the Chan master Moheyan to transmit the Dharma at Samye Monastery. According to Tibetan sources, Moheyan lost the socalled council of Lhasa, a debate sponsored by Trisong Detsen on the nature of emptiness with the Indian master Kamalaśīla, the king declared Kamalaśīlas philosophy should form the basis for Tibetan Buddhism. A reversal in Buddhist influence began under King Langdarma, his death was followed by the socalled Era of Fragmentation, a period of Tibetan history in the 9th and 10th centuries. During this era, the political centralization of the earlier Tibetan Empire collapsed; the late 10th and 11th century saw a revival of Buddhism in Tibet. Coinciding with the early discoveries of "hidden treasures", the 11th century saw a revival of Buddhist influence originating in the far east and far west of Tibet. In the west, Rinchen Zangpo founded temples and monasteries.
Prominent scholars and teachers were again invited from India. In 1042 Atiśa arrived in Tibet at the invitation of a west Tibetan king; this renowned exponent of the Pāla form of Buddhism from the Indian university of Vikramashila moved to central Tibet. There his chief disciple, Dromtonpa founded the Kadampa school of Tibetan Buddhism, under whose influence the New Translation schools of today evolved; the Sakya, the Grey Earth school, was founded by Khön Könchok Gyelpo, a disciple of the great Lotsawa, Drogmi Shākya. It is headed by the Sakya Trizin, traces its lineage to the mahasiddha Virūpa, represents the scholarly tradition. A renowned exponent, Sakya Pandita, was the great-grandson of Khön Könchok Gyelpo. Other seminal Indian teachers were his student Naropa; the Kagyu, the Lineage of the Word, is an oral tradition, much concerned with the experiential dimension of meditation. Its most famous exponent was an 11th-century mystic, it contains one major and one minor subsect. The first, the Dagpo Kagyu, encompasses those Kagyu schools that trace back to the Indian master Naropa via Marpa Lotsawa and Gampopa Tibetan Buddhism exerted a strong influence from the 11th century CE among the peoples of Inner Asia the Mongols.
The Mongols invaded Tibet in 1240 and 1244. The Mongols had annexed Kham to the east. Sakya Paṇḍita was appointed Viceroy of Central Tibet by the Mongol court in 1249. Tibet was incorporated into the Mongol Empire, retaining nominal power over religious and regional political affairs, while the Mongols managed a structural and administrative rule over the region, reinforced by the rare military intervention. Tibetan Buddhism was adopted as the de facto state religion by the Mongol Yuan dynasty, founded by Kublai Khan, whose capital is Xanadu. With the decline of the Yuan dynansty and the loose administration of the following Ming dynasty, Central Tibet was ruled by successive local families from the 14th to the 17th century, Tibet would gain de facto a high autonomy after the 14th century. Jangchub Gyaltsän became the strongest political family in the mid 14th century. During this period the reformist scholar Je Tso
Buddhist chant
A Buddhist chant is a form of musical verse or incantation, in some ways analogous to Hindu, Christian or Jewish religious recitations. In Buddhism, chanting is the traditional means of preparing the mind for meditation as part of formal practice; some forms of Buddhism use chanting for ritualistic purposes. While the basis for most Theravada chants is the Pali Canon and Vajrayana chants draw from a wider range of sources. In the Theravada tradition, chanting is done in Pali, sometimes with vernacular translations interspersed. Among the most popular Theravada chants are: Buddhabhivadana Tiratana Pancasila Buddha Vandana Dhamma Vandana Sangha Vandana Upajjhatthana Metta Sutta Reflection on the Body; the traditional chanting in Khmer Buddhism is called Smot. Since Japanese Buddhism is divided in thirteen doctrinal schools, since Chan Buddhism and Buddhism in Vietnam – although sharing a common historical origin and a common doctrinal content – are divided according to geographical borders, there are several different forms of arrangements of scriptures to chant within Mahayana Buddhism.: Daily practice in Nichiren buddhism is chanting the five character of Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō.
A Mahayana sutra that reveals the true identity of Shakyamuni as a Buddha who attained enlightenment numberless kalpas ago. Kumarajiva's translation, honoured, is entitled the Lotus Sutra of the wonderful law; the mystic relationship between the law and the lives of the people courses eternally through past and future, unbroken in any lifetime. In terms of space, the Nichiren proclaims that the heritage of the ultimate law flows within lives of his disciples and lay supporters who work in perfect unity for the realization of a peaceful world and happiness for all humanity. Nichiren practitioners will chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo - the true aspect of all the phenomena and recite certain chapters from the Lotus Sutra, in particular the 2nd and 16th chapters. Pure Land Buddhists Namu Amida Butsu or Namo Amituofo. In more formal services, practitioners will chant excerpts from the Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life or the entire Smaller Sutra of Immeasurable Life. Popular with Zen, Shingon or other Mahayana practitioners is chanting the Prajñāpāramitā Hridaya Sūtra during morning offices.
In more formal settings, larger discourses of the Buddha may be chanted as well. In the Chinese and the Japanese traditions, repentance ceremonies, involving paying deep reverence to the buddhas and bodhisattvas, as well as executing rituals to rescue and feed hungry ghosts, are occasionally practiced. There is no universally used form for these two practices, but several different forms, the use of which follows doctrinal and geographical borders. Within Chan, it is common to chant Sanskrit formulae, known as dhāraṇīs in the morning. In the Vajrayana tradition, chanting is used as an invocative ritual in order to set one's mind on a deity, Tantric ceremony, mandala, or particular concept one wishes to further in themselves. For Vajrayana practitioners, the chant Om Mani Padme Hum is popular around the world as both a praise of peace and the primary mantra of Avalokitesvara. Other popular chants include those of Tara and Amitabha. Tibetan monks are noted for their skill at throat-singing, a specialized form of chanting in which, by amplifying the voice's upper partials, the chanter can produce multiple distinct pitches simultaneously.
Japanese esoteric practitioners practice a form of chanting called shomyo. In the Ghitassara Sutta, the Buddha teaches: Bhikkhus, there are five dangers of reciting the Dhamma with a musical intonation. What five? Oneself gets attached to the sound, others get attached to the sound, householders are annoyed, saying, “Just as we sing, these sons of the Sakyan sing”, the concentration of those who do not like the sound is destroyed, generations copy it. These, are the five dangers of reciting the Dhamma with a musical intonation. John Daido Loori justified the use of chanting sutras by referring to Zen master Dōgen. Dōgen is known to have refuted the statement "Painted rice cakes will not satisfy hunger"; this statement means that sutras, which are just symbols like painted rice cakes, cannot satisfy one's spiritual hunger. Dōgen, saw that there is no separation between metaphor and reality. "There is no difference between paintings, rice cakes, or any thing at all". The symbol and the symbolized were inherently the same, thus only the sutras could satisfy one's spiritual needs.
To understand this non-dual relationship experientially, one is told to practice liturgy intimately. In distinguishing between ceremony and liturgy, Dōgen states, "In ceremony there are forms and there are sounds, there is understanding and there is believing. In liturgy there is only intimacy." The practitioner is instructed to listen to and speak liturgy not just with one sense, but with one's "whole body-and-mind". By listening with one's entire being, one eliminates the space between the liturgy. Thus, Dōgen's instructions are to "listen with the eye and s
Ainu people
The Ainu or the Aynu, in the historical Japanese texts the Ezo, are an indigenous people of Japan and Russia. The official number of the Ainu is 25,000, but unofficially is estimated at 200,000, as many Ainu have been assimilated into Japanese society and have no knowledge of their ancestry. Recent research suggests that Ainu culture originated from a merger of the Jomon and Satsumon cultures; these early inhabitants did not speak the Japanese language and were conquered by the Japanese early in the 9th century. In 1264, Ainu invaded the land of Nivkh people controlled by the Yuan Dynasty, resulting in battles between Ainu and the Chinese. Active contact between the Wajin and the Ainu of Ezochi began in the 13th century; the Ainu formed a society of hunter-gatherers, surviving by hunting and fishing. They followed a religion, based on natural phenomena. During the Muromachi period, the disputes between the Japanese and Ainu developed into a war. Takeda Nobuhiro killed Koshamain. Many Ainu were subject to Japanese rule which led to a violent Ainu revolt such as Koshamain's Revolt in 1456.
During the Edo period the Ainu, who controlled the northern island, now named Hokkaido, became involved in trade with the Japanese who controlled the southern portion of the island. The Tokugawa bakufu granted the Matsumae clan exclusive rights to trade with the Ainu in the northern part of the island; the Matsumae began to lease out trading rights to Japanese merchants, contact between Japanese and Ainu became more extensive. Throughout this period the Ainu became dependent on goods imported by the Japanese, were suffering from epidemic diseases such as smallpox. Although the increased contact created by the trade between the Japanese and the Ainu contributed to increased mutual understanding, it led to conflict which intensified into violent Ainu revolts; the most important was an Ainu rebellion against Japanese authority. Another large-scale revolt by Ainu against Japanese rule was the Menashi-Kunashir Battle in 1789. In the 18th century, there were 80,000 Ainu. In 1868, there were about 15,000 Ainu in Hokkaido, 2000 in Sakhalin and around 100 in the Kuril islands.
The beginning of the Meiji Restoration in 1868 proved a turning point for Ainu culture. The Japanese government introduced a variety of social and economic reforms in hope of modernizing the country in the Western style. One innovation involved the annexation of Hokkaido. Sjöberg quotes Baba's account of the Japanese government's reasoning: … The development of Japan's large northern island had several objectives: First, it was seen as a means to defend Japan from a developing and expansionist Russia. Second … it offered a solution to the unemployment for the former samurai class … Finally, development promised to yield the needed natural resources for a growing capitalist economy. In 1899, the Japanese government passed an act labelling the Ainu as "former aborigines", with the idea they would assimilate—this resulted in the Japanese government taking the land where the Ainu people lived and placing it from on under Japanese control. At this time, the Ainu were granted automatic Japanese citizenship denying them the status of an indigenous group.
The Ainu were becoming marginalized on their own land—over a period of only 36 years, the Ainu went from being a isolated group of people to having their land, language and customs assimilated into those of the Japanese. In addition to this, the land the Ainu lived on was distributed to the Wajin who had decided to move to Hokkaido, encouraged by the Japanese government of the Meiji era to take advantage of the island's abundant natural resources, to create and maintain farms in the model of Western industrial agriculture. While at the time, the process was referred to as colonization, the notion was reframed by Japanese elites to the common usage kaitaku, which instead conveys a sense of opening up or reclamation of the Ainu lands; as well as this, factories such as flour mills, beer breweries and mining practices resulted in the creation of infrastructure such as roads and railway lines, during a development period that lasted until 1904. During this time, the Ainu were forced to learn Japanese, required to adopt Japanese names, ordered to cease religious practices such as animal sacrifice and the custom of tattooing.
The 1899 act was replaced in 1997—until the government had stated there were no ethnic minority groups. It was not until June 2008, that Japan formally recognised the Ainu as an indigenous group; the vast majority of these Wajin men are believed to have compelled Ainu women to partner with them as local wives. Intermarriage between Japanese and Ainu was promoted by the Ainu to lessen the chances of discrimination against their offspring; as a result, many Ainu are indistinguishable from their Japanese neighbors, but some Ainu-Japanese are interested in traditional Ainu culture. For example, born as a child of an Ainu father and a Japanese mother, became a musician who plays the traditional Ainu instrument tonkori. There are many small towns in the southeastern or Hidaka region where ethnic Ainu live such as in Nibutani. Many live in Sambutsu on the eastern coast. In 1966 the number of "pure" Ainu was about 300, their most known ethnonym is derived
Norway
Norway the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe whose territory comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The Antarctic Peter I Island and the sub-Antarctic Bouvet Island are dependent territories and thus not considered part of the kingdom. Norway lays claim to a section of Antarctica known as Queen Maud Land. Norway has a total area of 385,207 square kilometres and a population of 5,312,300; the country shares a long eastern border with Sweden. Norway is bordered by Finland and Russia to the north-east, the Skagerrak strait to the south, with Denmark on the other side. Norway has an extensive coastline, facing the Barents Sea. Harald V of the House of Glücksburg is the current King of Norway. Erna Solberg has been prime minister since 2013. A unitary sovereign state with a constitutional monarchy, Norway divides state power between the parliament, the cabinet and the supreme court, as determined by the 1814 constitution; the kingdom was established in 872 as a merger of a large number of petty kingdoms and has existed continuously for 1,147 years.
From 1537 to 1814, Norway was a part of the Kingdom of Denmark-Norway, from 1814 to 1905, it was in a personal union with the Kingdom of Sweden. Norway was neutral during the First World War. Norway remained neutral until April 1940 when the country was invaded and occupied by Germany until the end of Second World War. Norway has both administrative and political subdivisions on two levels: counties and municipalities; the Sámi people have a certain amount of self-determination and influence over traditional territories through the Sámi Parliament and the Finnmark Act. Norway maintains close ties with both the United States. Norway is a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, the Nordic Council. Norway maintains the Nordic welfare model with universal health care and a comprehensive social security system, its values are rooted in egalitarian ideals; the Norwegian state has large ownership positions in key industrial sectors, having extensive reserves of petroleum, natural gas, lumber and fresh water.
The petroleum industry accounts for around a quarter of the country's gross domestic product. On a per-capita basis, Norway is the world's largest producer of oil and natural gas outside of the Middle East; the country has the fourth-highest per capita income in the world on the World IMF lists. On the CIA's GDP per capita list which includes autonomous territories and regions, Norway ranks as number eleven, it has the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, with a value of US$1 trillion. Norway has had the highest Human Development Index ranking in the world since 2009, a position held between 2001 and 2006, it had the highest inequality-adjusted ranking until 2018 when Iceland moved to the top of the list. Norway ranked first on the World Happiness Report for 2017 and ranks first on the OECD Better Life Index, the Index of Public Integrity, the Democracy Index. Norway has one of the lowest crime rates in the world. Norway has two official names: Norge in Noreg in Nynorsk; the English name Norway comes from the Old English word Norþweg mentioned in 880, meaning "northern way" or "way leading to the north", how the Anglo-Saxons referred to the coastline of Atlantic Norway similar to scientific consensus about the origin of the Norwegian language name.
The Anglo-Saxons of Britain referred to the kingdom of Norway in 880 as Norðmanna land. There is some disagreement about whether the native name of Norway had the same etymology as the English form. According to the traditional dominant view, the first component was norðr, a cognate of English north, so the full name was Norðr vegr, "the way northwards", referring to the sailing route along the Norwegian coast, contrasting with suðrvegar "southern way" for, austrvegr "eastern way" for the Baltic. In the translation of Orosius for Alfred, the name is Norðweg, while in younger Old English sources the ð is gone. In the 10th century many Norsemen settled in Northern France, according to the sagas, in the area, called Normandy from norðmann, although not a Norwegian possession. In France normanni or northmanni referred to people of Sweden or Denmark; until around 1800 inhabitants of Western Norway where referred to as nordmenn while inhabitants of Eastern Norway where referred to as austmenn. According to another theory, the first component was a word nór, meaning "narrow" or "northern", referring to the inner-archipelago sailing route through the land.
The interpretation as "northern", as reflected in the English and Latin forms of the name, would have been due to folk etymology. This latter view originated with philologist Niels Halvorsen Trønnes in 1847; the form Nore is still used in placenames such as the village of Nore and lake Norefjorden in Buskerud county, still has the same meaning. Among other arguments in favour of the theor
Khakassia
The Republic of Khakassia, or Khakassia is a federal subject of Russia. Its capital city is Abakan, the largest city in the republic; as of the 2010 Census, the republic's population was 532,403. The republic is located in the southwestern part of Eastern Siberia and borders Krasnoyarsk Krai in the north and east, the Tuva Republic in the southeast and south, the Altai Republic in the south and southwest, Kemerovo Oblast in the west and northwest, it stretches for 460 kilometers from north to south and for 200 kilometers from east to west. Mountains cover two-thirds of the republic's territory and serve as the natural boundaries of the republic; the remaining territory is flat, with the Minusinsk Hollow being the most prominent feature. The Yenisei is the largest river in the republic. Other significant rivers include the Abakan, the Chulym between the Yenisei and the eastern mountains. There are over fresh-water. Climate is continental, with the average annual temperature of 0 °C. Natural resources are abundant and include iron, silver, coal and natural gas.
Molybdenum deposits are the largest in Russia. Forests cover the west of the republic; the territory of modern Khakassia was the core of the old Yenisei Kirghiz state from the 6th century CE. In the 13th century, following a defeat by the Mongols, the majority of the Kyrgyz people migrated southwest to Central Asia to what now is Kyrgyzstan. Modern Khakas people regard themselves as the descendants of those Kyrgyz. Khakassia was incorporated into the Russian state under Peter the Great; this incorporation was confirmed in a treaty between Russia and China in 1729. As it was common to deport convicted criminals from European Russia to Siberia, forts were constructed in Khakassia. Many prisoners remained after release. Many of the indigenous Khakas people converted to the Russian Orthodox faith and abandoned their nomadic way of life. By the time of the 1917 Russian Revolution, Russians made up half of the population. Under Soviet rule, autonomy was granted on October 20, 1930, when Khakas Autonomous Oblast was established.
The borders of the autonomy are the same as the borders of the modern Khakas Republic. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Soviet authorities resettled an estimated quarter of a million Russians in the region; these were followed by 10,000 Volga Germans deported in World War II. By the time of the 1959 Census, ethnic Khakas people represented little more than 10% of the population; until 1991, Khakas Autonomous Oblast was administratively subordinated to Krasnoyarsk Krai. In July 1991, it was elevated in status to that of a Soviet socialist republic, in February 1992 it became the Republic of Khakassia. Population: 532,403 . Source: Russian Federal State Statistics ServiceIn 2007, the republic recorded a positive natural increase of population for the first time in many years, being one of the 20 Russian regions to have a positive natural population growth rate. According to the 2010 Russian Census, ethnic Russians make up 81.7% of the republic's population, while the ethnic Khakas are only 12.1%.
Other groups include ethnic Germans, Tatars, a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. According to a 2012 survey, 31.6% of the population of Khakassia adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 6% are unaffiliated Christians, 1% are Orthodox Christian believers without belonging to any church or are members of other Orthodox churches. 2% of the population adheres to Slavic native faith or Khakas Tengrism and folk religion, 1% to Islam, 1% to forms of Protestantism, 0.4% to forms of Hinduism and another 0.4% to Tibetan Buddhism. In addition, 38% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 16% is atheist, 2.6% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question. The main industries in the republic are coal mining, ore mining, timber. Sayany-Khakassia has been playing in the highest division of Russian bandy, the Russian Bandy Super League, for a long time, but was relegated after the 2012–13 season. Now they play in the 2nd highest division.
List of Chairmen of the Supreme Council of Khakassia Music in Khakassia Altai-Sayan region Верховный Совет Республики Хакасия. №45 25 мая 1995 г. «Конституция Республики Хакасия», в ред. Конституционного закона №19-ЗРХ от 8 апреля 2015 г. «О внесении изменений в Конституцию Республики Хакасия». Вступил в силу 30 июня 1995 г. Опубликован: "Вестник Хакасии", №25, 1995.. Верховный Совет РСФСР. Закон №1539-I от 3 июля 1991 г. «О порядке преобразования Адыгейской, Горно-Алтайской, Карачаево-Черкесской и Хакасской автономных областей в Советские Социалистические Республики в составе РСФСР».. Верховный Совет Республики Хакасия. Закон №06-ЗРХ от 11 февраля 2015 г. «О государственно
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia. Its area is equivalent with the historical territory of Outer Mongolia, that term is sometimes used to refer to the current state, it is sandwiched between China to Russia to the north. Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan. At 1,564,116 square kilometres, Mongolia is the 18th-largest and the most sparsely populated sovereign state in the world, with a population of around three million people, it is the world's second-largest landlocked country behind Kazakhstan and the largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea. The country contains little arable land, as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west and the Gobi Desert to the south. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the country's population. Ulaanbaatar shares the rank of the world's coldest capital city with Moscow and Nur-Sultan. 30% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. The majority of its population are Buddhists.
The non-religious population is the second largest group. Islam is the dominant religion among ethnic Kazakhs; the majority of the state's citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs and other minorities live in the country in the west. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic and trade groups; the area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Turkic Khaganate, others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous land empire in history, his grandson Kublai Khan conquered China to establish the Yuan dynasty. After the collapse of the Yuan, the Mongols retreated to Mongolia and resumed their earlier pattern of factional conflict, except during the era of Dayan Khan and Tumen Zasagt Khan. In the 16th century, Tibetan Buddhism began to spread in Mongolia, being further led by the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty, which absorbed the country in the 17th century.
By the early 1900s one-third of the adult male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence, achieved actual independence from the Republic of China in 1921. Shortly thereafter, the country came under the control of the Soviet Union, which had aided its independence from China. In 1924, the Mongolian People's Republic was founded as a socialist state. After the anti-Communist revolutions of 1989, Mongolia conducted its own peaceful democratic revolution in early 1990; this led to a multi-party system, a new constitution of 1992, transition to a market economy. Homo erectus inhabited Mongolia from 850,000 years ago. Modern humans reached Mongolia 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic; the Khoit Tsenkher Cave in Khovd Province shows lively pink and red ochre paintings of mammoths, bactrian camels, ostriches, earning it the nickname "the Lascaux of Mongolia". The venus figurines of Mal'ta testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia.
Neolithic agricultural settlements, such as those at Norovlin, Tamsagbulag and Rashaan Khad, predated the introduction of horse-riding nomadism, a pivotal event in the history of Mongolia which became the dominant culture. Horse-riding nomadism has been documented by archeological evidence in Mongolia during the Copper and Bronze Age Afanasevo culture; the wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC. Pastoral nomadism and metalworking became more developed with the Okunev culture, Andronovo culture and Karasuk culture, culminating with the Iron Age Xiongnu Empire in 209 BC. Monuments of the pre-Xiongnu Bronze Age include deer stones, keregsur kurgans, square slab tombs, rock paintings. Although cultivation of crops has continued since the Neolithic, agriculture has always remained small in scale compared to pastoral nomadism. Agriculture arose independently in the region; the population during the Copper Age has been described as mongoloid in the east of what is now Mongolia, as europoid in the west.
Tocharians and Scythians inhabited western Mongolia during the Bronze Age. The mummy of a Scythian warrior, believed to be about 2,500 years old, was a 30- to 40-year-old man with blond hair; as equine nomadism was introduced into Mongolia, the political center of the Eurasian Steppe shifted to Mongolia, where it remained until the 18th century CE. The intrusions of northern pastoralists into China during the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty presaged the age of nomadic empires; the concept of Mongolia as an independent power north of China is expressed in a letter sent by Emperor Wen of Han to Laoshang Chanyu in 162 BC: Since prehistoric times, Mongolia has been inhabited by nomads who, from time to time, formed great confederations that rose to power and prominence. Common institutions were the office of the Khan, the Kurultai and right wings, imperial army and the decimal military system; the first of these empires, the Xiongnu of undetermined
Vocal resonation
McKinney defines vocal resonance as "the process by which the basic product of phonation is enhanced in timbre and/or intensity by the air-filled cavities through which it passes on its way to the outside air." Throughout the vocal literature, various terms related to resonation are used, including: amplification, enrichment, improvement and prolongation. Acoustic authorities would question many of these terms from a scientific perspective. However, the main point to be drawn from these terms by a singer or speaker is that the result of resonation is to make a "better" sound, or at least suitable to a certain esthetical and practical domain; the voice, like all acoustic instruments such as the guitar, piano, or violin, has its own special chambers for resonating the tone. Once the tone is produced by the vibrating vocal cords, it vibrates in and through the open resonating ducts and chambers. Since the vocal tract is associated with different regions of the body, different resonance chambers might be referred to as: chest, nose/"mask", or head.
In more symbolic/perceptual way, rather than physical, the various terms applied can represent vocal "colors" in a continuous scale: from dark resonance to bright resonance. We may call this spectrum a resonance track. In the lower range, the chest/dark color predominates; the objective of using such images by several teachers and coaches is to achieve command of all the "colors of the spectrum". That may allow a greater scope of emotional expression; the emotional content of the lyric or phrase suggests the color and volume of the tone and is the personal choice of the artist. Head resonance should not be confused with head falsetto, it is used for softer singing in either register throughout the range. Mouth resonance is used for a conversational vocal color in singing and, in combination with nasal resonance, it creates forward placement or mask resonance. Chest resonance adds richer and deeper tone coloring for a sense of power and sensuality, it creates a feeling of drama in the voice. Nasal is present at all times in a well-produced tone, except in pure head tone or at soft volume.
Nasal resonance is bright and edgy and is used in combination with mouth resonance to create forward placement. In an overall sense, it adds overtones that give projection to the voice. There are some singers. In part, such individuality depends on the structure of the singer's vocal instrument, that is, the inherent shape and size of the vocal cords and of the vocal tract; the quality or color of a voice depends on the singer's ability to develop and use various resonances by controlling the shape and size of the chambers through which the sound flows. It has been demonstrated electrographically in the form of "voice-prints" that, like fingerprints, no two voices are alike. In a technical sense resonance is a relationship that exists between two bodies vibrating at the same frequency or a multiple thereof. In other words, the vibrations emanating from one body cause the other body to start vibrating in tune with it. A resonator may be defined as a secondary vibrator, set into motion by the main vibrator and which adds its own characteristics to the generated sound waves.
There are two kinds of resonance: sympathetic resonance and forced resonance The essential difference between both types is what causes the resonator to start vibrating. In sympathetic resonance there is no need of a direct physical contact between the two bodies; the resonator starts functioning because it receives vibrations through the air and responds to them sympathetically, as long as the resonator's natural frequencies of vibration coincides with the exciting oscillations. In forced resonance the resonator starts vibrating because it is in physical contact with a vibrating body, which "forces" the resonator to replicate its oscillations. Both types of resonance are at work in the human voice during singing. Much of the vibration felt by singers; the waves originated by the airflow modulated by the vibrating vocal folds travel along the bones and muscles of the neck and upper chest, causing them to vibrate by forced resonance. There is little evidence that these vibrations, sensed by tactile nerves, make any significant contribution to the external sound.
These same forced vibrations, may serve as sensation guides for the singer, regardless of their effect on the external sound. These sensations may provide evidence to the singer that their vocal folds are forming strong primary vibrations which are being carried from them to the head and chest, thus these vibratory sensations can supply sensory feedback about the efficiency of the whole phonatory process to the singer. In contrast, the sound a person hears from a singer is a product of sympathetic resonance. Air vibrations generated at the level of the vocal folds in the larynx propagate through the vocal tract. In other words, the voice's resultant glottal wave is filtered by the vocal tract: a phenomenon of sympathetic resonance; the vocal resonator is not a sounding board comparable with stringed instruments. Rather, it's a column of air traveling through the vocal tract, with a shape, not only complex
