The Samaritans (. Shamerim are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites of the Ancient Near East. Ancestrally, Samaritans claim descent from the tribe of Ephraim and tribe of Manasseh as well as from the Levites, who have links to ancient Samaria from the period of their entry into Canaan, while some Orthodox Jews suggest that it was from the beginning of the Babylonian captivity up to the Samaritan polity under the rule of Baba Rabba. Samaritans used to include descendants whose ancestry was ascribed to the Benjamin tribe, but this line became extinct in the 1960s. According to Samaritan tradition, the split between them and the Judean-led Southern Israelites began during the biblical time of the priest Eli when the Southern Israelites split off from the central Israelite tradition, as they perceive it. In the Talmud, a central post-exilic religious text of Rabbinic Judaism, the Samaritans are called Cutheans, referring to the ancient city of Kutha, geographically located in what is today Iraq.

In the biblical account, Kuthah was one of several cities from which people were brought to Samaria, they worshiped Nergal. Modern genetics support both the claims of the Samaritans and the account in the Hebrew Bible, suggesting that the genealogy of the Samaritans lies in some combination of these two accounts; this suggests. The Samaritans are adherents of Samaritanism, a religion related to Judaism. Samaritans believe that their worship, based on the Samaritan Pentateuch, is the true religion of the ancient Israelites from before the Babylonian captivity, preserved by those who remained in the Land of Israel, as opposed to Judaism, which they see as a related but altered and amended religion, brought back by those returning from the Babylonian Captivity; the Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Canaan. The major issue between Jews and Samaritans has always been the location of the Chosen Place to worship God: The Temple Mount of Moriah in Jerusalem according to Judaism or Mount Gerizim according to Samaritanism.

Once a large community, the Samaritan population appears to have shrunk in the wake of the bloody suppression of the Samaritan Revolts against the Byzantine Empire. Conversion to Christianity under the Byzantines reduced their numbers. Conversions to Islam took place as well, by the mid–Middle Ages, Benjamin of Tudela estimated only around 1,900 Samaritans remained in Palestine and Syria; the present-day population has been divided between Qiryat Luza on Mount Gerizim and the city of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv. Most Samaritans in Holon and Qiryat Luza today speak Arabic. For liturgical purposes, Samaritan Hebrew, Samaritan Aramaic, Arabic are used, all written with the Samaritan alphabet, a variant of the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, distinct from the Jewish Hebrew alphabet, stylized form of the Imperial Aramaic script. Hebrew and Aramaic were languages in use by the Jewish and Samaritan inhabitants of Judea before the Roman exile. Samaritans have a stand-alone religious status in Israel, there are occasional conversions from Judaism to Samaritanism and vice versa due to marriages.

While the Israeli Rabbinic authorities consider Samaritanism to be a branch of Judaism, the Chief Rabbinate of Israel requires Samaritans to go through a formal conversion to Judaism in order to be recognized as Halakhic Jews. One example is Israeli TV personality Sofi Tsedaka, who formally converted to Rabbinic Judaism at the age of 18. Samaritans with Israeli citizenship are obligated to undertake mandatory service in the Israel Defense Forces, while those with dual Israeli-Palestinian citizenship are exempted. There is conflict over the etymology of the name for the Samaritans in Hebrew, stemming from the fact that they are referred to differently in different dialects of Hebrew; this has accompanied controversy over whether the Samaritans are named after the geographic area of Samaria, or whether the area received its name from the group. This distinction is controversial in part because different interpretations can be used to justify or deny claims of ancestry over this region, contested in modern times.

In Samaritan Hebrew, the Samaritans call themselves "Shamerim", which according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary, is derived from the Ancient Hebrew term meaning "Guardians/Keepers/Watchers ". Biblical Hebrew Šomerim "Guardians" comes from the Hebrew Semitic root שמר, which means "to watch, guard". Samaria was the key geographical concentration of the Samaritan community. Thus, it may suggest the region of Samaria is named after the Samaritans, rather than the Samaritans being named after the region. In Jewish tradition, however, it is sometimes claimed that Mount Samaria, meaning "Watch Mountain", is named so because watchers used to watch from those mountains for approaching armies from Egypt in ancient times. In Modern Hebrew, the Samaritans are called Hebrew: שומרונים‎, romanized: Shomronim, which would appear to mean "inhabitants of Samaria"; this is a politically sensitive distinction. That the etymology of the Samari

Date Munehiro or Chihiro（Japanese:伊達 宗広 or 千広. He was father of Mutsu Munemitsu（陸奥 宗光, his penname was Jitoku ． In 1802, he was born the son of Usami Sukenaga, a samurai of Kii Domain, he became an adoptive son of his uncle, Date Moriaki. He inherited a patrimony by 12 years old, was appointed "Kansatsu" by 18 years old, he assisted Karō of Kii Domain, promoted the reform of that domain, took the lead in the Sonnō jōi movement. In 1852, he was arrested by an opponent for his dangerous Sonnō jōi activity and was imprisoned for nearly 10 years in the town of Tanabe. In 1861, he was released by the agency of Yamanouchi Yōdō, a daimyō of Tosa Domain, he retired. But he returned to the Sonnō jōi movement with Muneoki, they were arrested by Kii Domain officials, were imprisoned again in 1865. After the Meiji Restoration, he was released in 1869. In his years, he lived in Fukagawa, Tokyo with his son, Mutsu Munemitsu. All of Date Munehiro's works were formed while in confinement, he learned at Motoori Ōhira （ 本居大平 ）.

He despised Buddhism because he was a active person. But when he was imprisoned in Kii Tanabe, he borrowed the Issai-Sūtra from a temple in the neighborhood and read it every day. One day he experienced Buddhist enlightenment. "Taizei Santenkō": Japanese name The essay on history "Waka zenwa": Japanese name In the form of the poem, it explains Buddhism. "Manimani Gusa": Japanese name Essays on Buddhism, waka poetry, Chinese poetry "Yomigaeri": Japanese name Essays and memoirs "Zui En syū": Japanese name Anthology of waka poems "Kareno syū": Japanese name Essays on history and literature "Date Jitoku Ō Zen syū": Japanese name His complete works published in 1926 Date clan

The Tiantishan Caves are a series of rock cut Buddhist cave temples in the Liangzhou District of Wuwei, northwest China. Excavated from the eastern cliffs of the Huangyang River in the Qilian Mountains from the time of the Northern Liang, carving and subsequent modification of the caves continued through the Northern Wei and Tang to the Qing dynasty; the complex is identified with the Liangzhou Caves opened during the time of Juqu Mengxun "one hundred li to the south of Liangzhou", as recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of the Sixteen Kingdoms and Fayuan Zhulin. The name Tiantishan consists of three Chinese characters that translate as "Ladder to Heaven Mountain"; the Tang monk Daoxuan in his Ji shenzhou sanbao gantong lu ascribes the opening of Tiantishan to the Xiongnu king of Northern Liang Juqu Mengxun's devotion to "meritorious deeds" alongside his desire to avoid the impermanence of the city by fashioning caves from the mountains. Contrary to the account in the Wei Shu of monks and Buddhist teachers relocating to the east after the conquest of the Northern Liang by the Northern Wei and subsequent persecution, structural and stylistic analysis shows that activity at the site continued.

A total of nineteen caves in three tiers have been identified: Tiantishan disappeared from the historical record after the Tang dynasty. While decoration and modification of the caves continued into the Qing dynasty, five suffered from collapse over the centuries, exacerbated by an earthquake in 1927. Despite initial survey in the early 1950s demonstrating the importance of the site, in April 1959 the Gansu provincial government approved the construction of a reservoir that would flood two of the three tiers of caves when commissioned in May the following year. In the interval, a research team from the Dunhuang Academy and Gansu Provincial Museum documented the site and excavated the collapsed caves, although all the written records and colour photographs and most of the black-and-white photographs have since been lost, along with most of the copies of the wall paintings; some 50 square metres of the paintings were detached, although the colours have since "faded after 40 years of natural weathering", other than for the largest, most of the sculptures were taken down and removed to the Museum.

In 2001, in recognition of their significance as one of the earliest Buddhist grotto sites in the country, the Tiantishan Caves were designated a Major Historical and Cultural Site Protected at the National Level by SACH. Major National Historical and Cultural Sites Principles for the Conservation of Heritage Sites in China Detachment of wall paintings Mogao Caves Tiantishan Caves Photos of the detachment of the paintings