1.
Religion
–
Religions have sacred histories and narratives, which may be preserved in sacred scriptures, and symbols and holy places, that aim mostly to give a meaning to life. Religions may contain symbolic stories, which are said by followers to be true, that have the side purpose of explaining the origin of life. Traditionally, faith, in addition to reason, has considered a source of religious beliefs. There are an estimated 10,000 distinct religions worldwide, about 84% of the worlds population is affiliated with one of the five largest religions, namely Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism or forms of folk religion. With the onset of the modernisation of and the revolution in the western world. The religiously unaffiliated demographic include those who do not identify with any religion, atheists. While the religiously unaffiliated have grown globally, many of the religiously unaffiliated still have various religious beliefs, about 16% of the worlds population is religiously unaffiliated. The study of religion encompasses a variety of academic disciplines, including theology, comparative religion. Theories of religion offer various explanations for the origins and workings of religion, Religion is derived from the Latin religiō, the ultimate origins of which are obscure. One possible interpretation traced to Cicero, connects lego read, i. e. re with lego in the sense of choose, go over again or consider carefully. The medieval usage alternates with order in designating bonded communities like those of monastic orders, we hear of the religion of the Golden Fleece, of a knight of the religion of Avys. In the ancient and medieval world, the etymological Latin root religio was understood as a virtue of worship, never as doctrine, practice. In the Quran, the Arabic word din is often translated as religion in modern translations and it was in the 19th century that the terms Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, and Confucianism first emerged. Max Müller characterized many other cultures around the world, including Egypt, Persia, what is called ancient religion today, they would have only called law. Some languages have words that can be translated as religion, but they may use them in a different way. For example, the Sanskrit word dharma, sometimes translated as religion, throughout classical South Asia, the study of law consisted of concepts such as penance through piety and ceremonial as well as practical traditions. Medieval Japan at first had a union between imperial law and universal or Buddha law, but these later became independent sources of power. There is no equivalent of religion in Hebrew, and Judaism does not distinguish clearly between religious, national, racial, or ethnic identities
Religion
–
Urarina shaman, Peru, 1988
Religion
Religion
–
The
Yazılıkaya sanctuary in
Turkey, with the twelve gods of the underworld
Religion
–
Confucianism,
Taoism, and
Buddhism are one, a painting in the litang style portraying three men laughing by a river stream, 12th century,
Song dynasty
2.
Politics
–
Politics is the process of making decisions applying to all members of each group. More narrowly, it refers to achieving and exercising positions of governance — organized control over a human community, furthermore, politics is the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community as well as the interrelationship between communities. It is very often said that politics is about power, a political system is a framework which defines acceptable political methods within a given society. History of political thought can be traced back to antiquity, with seminal works such as Platos Republic, Aristotles Politics. Formal Politics refers to the operation of a system of government and publicly defined institutions. Political parties, public policy or discussions about war and foreign affairs would fall under the category of Formal Politics, many people view formal politics as something outside of themselves, but that can still affect their daily lives. Semi-formal Politics is Politics in government associations such as neighborhood associations, informal Politics is understood as forming alliances, exercising power and protecting and advancing particular ideas or goals. Generally, this includes anything affecting ones daily life, such as the way an office or household is managed, informal Politics is typically understood as everyday politics, hence the idea that politics is everywhere. The word comes from the same Greek word from which the title of Aristotles book Politics also derives, the book title was rendered in Early Modern English in the mid-15th century as Polettiques, it became politics in Modern English. The history of politics is reflected in the origin, development, the origin of the state is to be found in the development of the art of warfare. Historically speaking, all communities of the modern type owe their existence to successful warfare. Kings, emperors and other types of monarchs in many countries including China, of the institutions that ruled states, that of kingship stood at the forefront until the French Revolution put an end to the divine right of kings. Nevertheless, the monarchy is among the political institutions, dating as early as 2100 BC in Sumeria to the 21st century AD British Monarchy. Kingship becomes an institution through the institution of Hereditary monarchy, the king often, even in absolute monarchies, ruled his kingdom with the aid of an elite group of advisors, a council without which he could not maintain power. As these advisors and others outside the monarchy negotiated for power, constitutional monarchies emerged, long before the council became a bulwark of democracy, it rendered invaluable aid to the institution of kingship by, Preserving the institution of kingship through heredity. Preserving the traditions of the social order, being able to withstand criticism as an impersonal authority. Being able to manage a greater deal of knowledge and action than an individual such as the king. The greatest of the subordinates, the earls and dukes in England and Scotland
Politics
–
Political views differ on average across nations. A recreation of the
Inglehart –
Welzel Cultural Map of the World based on the
World Values Survey.
3.
Philosophy
–
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The term was coined by Pythagoras. Philosophical methods include questioning, critical discussion, rational argument and systematic presentation, classic philosophical questions include, Is it possible to know anything and to prove it. However, philosophers might also pose more practical and concrete questions such as, is it better to be just or unjust. Historically, philosophy encompassed any body of knowledge, from the time of Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle to the 19th century, natural philosophy encompassed astronomy, medicine and physics. For example, Newtons 1687 Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy later became classified as a book of physics, in the 19th century, the growth of modern research universities led academic philosophy and other disciplines to professionalize and specialize. In the modern era, some investigations that were part of philosophy became separate academic disciplines, including psychology, sociology. Other investigations closely related to art, science, politics, or other pursuits remained part of philosophy, for example, is beauty objective or subjective. Are there many scientific methods or just one, is political utopia a hopeful dream or hopeless fantasy. Major sub-fields of academic philosophy include metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, aesthetics, political philosophy, logic, philosophy of science, since the 20th century, professional philosophers contribute to society primarily as professors, researchers and writers. Traditionally, the term referred to any body of knowledge. In this sense, philosophy is related to religion, mathematics, natural science, education. This division is not obsolete but has changed, Natural philosophy has split into the various natural sciences, especially astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and cosmology. Moral philosophy has birthed the social sciences, but still includes value theory, metaphysical philosophy has birthed formal sciences such as logic, mathematics and philosophy of science, but still includes epistemology, cosmology and others. Many philosophical debates that began in ancient times are still debated today, colin McGinn and others claim that no philosophical progress has occurred during that interval. Chalmers and others, by contrast, see progress in philosophy similar to that in science, in one general sense, philosophy is associated with wisdom, intellectual culture and a search for knowledge. In that sense, all cultures and literate societies ask philosophical questions such as how are we to live, a broad and impartial conception of philosophy then, finds a reasoned inquiry into such matters as reality, morality and life in all world civilizations. Socrates was an influential philosopher, who insisted that he possessed no wisdom but was a pursuer of wisdom
Philosophy
–
René Descartes
Philosophy
–
Thomas Aquinas
Philosophy
–
Jeremy Bentham
Philosophy
–
Thomas Hobbes
4.
India
–
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
India
–
Flag
India
–
The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
–
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
5.
Latin
–
Latin is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. The Latin alphabet is derived from the Etruscan and Greek alphabets, Latin was originally spoken in Latium, in the Italian Peninsula. Through the power of the Roman Republic, it became the dominant language, Vulgar Latin developed into the Romance languages, such as Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, and Romanian. Latin, Italian and French have contributed many words to the English language, Latin and Ancient Greek roots are used in theology, biology, and medicine. By the late Roman Republic, Old Latin had been standardised into Classical Latin, Vulgar Latin was the colloquial form spoken during the same time and attested in inscriptions and the works of comic playwrights like Plautus and Terence. Late Latin is the language from the 3rd century. Later, Early Modern Latin and Modern Latin evolved, Latin was used as the language of international communication, scholarship, and science until well into the 18th century, when it began to be supplanted by vernaculars. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the language of the Holy See and the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church. Today, many students, scholars and members of the Catholic clergy speak Latin fluently and it is taught in primary, secondary and postsecondary educational institutions around the world. The language has been passed down through various forms, some inscriptions have been published in an internationally agreed, monumental, multivolume series, the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum. Authors and publishers vary, but the format is about the same, volumes detailing inscriptions with a critical apparatus stating the provenance, the reading and interpretation of these inscriptions is the subject matter of the field of epigraphy. The works of several hundred ancient authors who wrote in Latin have survived in whole or in part and they are in part the subject matter of the field of classics. The Cat in the Hat, and a book of fairy tales, additional resources include phrasebooks and resources for rendering everyday phrases and concepts into Latin, such as Meissners Latin Phrasebook. The Latin influence in English has been significant at all stages of its insular development. From the 16th to the 18th centuries, English writers cobbled together huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek words, dubbed inkhorn terms, as if they had spilled from a pot of ink. Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, many of the most common polysyllabic English words are of Latin origin through the medium of Old French. Romance words make respectively 59%, 20% and 14% of English, German and those figures can rise dramatically when only non-compound and non-derived words are included. Accordingly, Romance words make roughly 35% of the vocabulary of Dutch, Roman engineering had the same effect on scientific terminology as a whole
Latin
–
Latin inscription, in the
Colosseum
Latin
–
Julius Caesar 's
Commentarii de Bello Gallico is one of the most famous classical Latin texts of the Golden Age of Latin. The unvarnished, journalistic style of this
patrician general has long been taught as a model of the urbane Latin officially spoken and written in the floruit of the
Roman republic.
Latin
–
A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the
University Library of Graz
Latin
–
Latin and Ancient Greek Language - Culture - Linguistics at
Duke University in 2014.
6.
Homonym
–
In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings, whether spelled the same or not. A more restrictive definition sees homonyms as words that are simultaneously homographs and homophones – that is to say they have same pronunciation and spelling, the relationship between a set of homonyms is called homonymy. Examples of homonyms are the pair stalk and stalk and the left and left. In non-technical contexts, the term homonym may be used to refer to words that are either homographs or homophones. The words row and row and row are considered homographs, while the read and reed would be considered homophones, under this looser definition. The adjective homonymous can additionally be used wherever two items share the name, independent of how close they are or arent related in terms of their meaning or etymology. The word homonym comes from the Greek ὁμώνυμος, meaning having the same name, thus, it refers to two or more distinct concepts sharing the same name or signifier. Note, for the h sound, see rough breathing and smooth breathing, several similar linguistic concepts are related to homonymy. These include, Homographs are usually defined as words that share the same spelling, if they are pronounced the same then they are also homophones – for example, bark and bark. If they are pronounced differently then they are also heteronyms – for example, homophones are usually defined as words that share the same pronunciation, regardless of how they are spelled. If they are spelled the same then they are also homographs, homographic examples include rose and rose. Heterographic examples include to, too, two, and there, their, they’re, due to their similar yet non-identical pronunciation in American English, ladder and latter do not qualify as homophones, but rather synophones. Heteronyms are the subset of homographs that have different pronunciations, such words include desert and desert, tear and tear, row and row. Heteronyms are also sometimes called heterophones, polysemes are words with the same spelling and distinct but related meanings. The distinction between polysemy and homonymy is often subtle and subjective, and not all sources consider polysemous words to be homonyms. Words such as mouth, meaning either the orifice on ones face, or the opening of a cave or river, are polysemous, capitonyms are words that share the same spelling but have different meanings when capitalized. Such words include polish and Polish, march and March, however, both polish and march at the beginning of sentences still need to be capitalized. A further example of a homonym, which is both a homophone and a homograph, is fluke, fluke can mean, A fish, and a flatworm
Homonym
–
Venn diagram showing the relationships between homonyms (between blue and green) and related linguistic concepts.
7.
Church-sect typology
–
Various classifications of religious movements have been proposed by scholars. In the sociology of religion, the most widely used classification is the church-sect typology, the typology states that churches, ecclesia, denominations and sects form a continuum with decreasing influence on society. Sects are break-away groups from more mainstream religions and tend to be in tension with society, cults and new religious movements fall outside this continuum and in contrast to aforementioned groups often have a novel teaching. They have been classified on their attitude towards society and the level of involvement of their adherents and this church-sect typology has its origins in the work of Max Weber. The basic premise is that there is a continuum along which religions fall, along this continuum are several additional types, each of which will be discussed in turn. Many labels are commonly employed by non-sociologists to refer to religions, sociologists, when speaking technically, will not use these labels interchangeably as they are designations for religions with very specific characteristics. These differing religions are often classified by sociologists as ideal types, ideal types are pure examples of the categories. Because there is significant variation in each religion, how closely an individual religion actually holds as their ideal type categorisation will vary, nevertheless, the categorisation scheme is useful as it also outlines a sort of developmental process for religions. Today, the Catholic Church has been forced into the category because of religious pluralism. This is especially true of Catholicism in the United States, the change from a church to a denomination is still under way in many Latin American countries where the majority of citizens remain Catholics. Islam is a church in countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran, the Basic Law of Saudi Arabia states, Gods Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet. These nations are ruled under an interpretation of religious law. Saudi Arabia, however, lacks Johnstones criteria for an ordained clergy, in the Shia denominations, there is a professional clergy led by a Grand Ayatollah. A slight modification of the type is that of ecclesia. The state churches of some European nations would fit this type, the denomination lies between the church and the sect on the continuum. Denominations come into existence when churches lose their religious monopoly in a society, a denomination is one religion among many. When churches and/or sects become denominations, there are some changes in their characteristics. Sociologically, a sect is defined as a newly formed religious group formed to protest elements of its parent religion
Church-sect typology
–
A diagram of the church-sect typology continuum. Include church, denomination, sect, cult, new religious movement, and institutionalized sect.
8.
Max Weber
–
Karl Emil Maximilian Max Weber was a German sociologist, philosopher, jurist, political economist and the husband of Marianne Schnitger. His ideas profoundly influenced social theory and social research, Weber is often cited, with Émile Durkheim and Karl Marx, as among the three founders of sociology. Unlike Durkheim, he did not believe in monocausality and rather proposed that for any outcome there can be multiple causes and he argued that it was in the basic tenets of Protestantism to boost capitalism. Thus, it can be said that the spirit of capitalism is inherent to Protestant religious values, against Marxs historical materialism, Weber emphasised the importance of cultural influences embedded in religion as a means for understanding the genesis of capitalism. In another major work, Politics as a Vocation, Weber defined the state as an entity that successfully claims a monopoly of the use of physical force within a given territory. He was also the first to categorise social authority into distinct forms, which he labelled as charismatic, traditional and his analysis of bureaucracy emphasised that modern state institutions are increasingly based on rational-legal authority. Weber also made a variety of contributions in economic history, as well as economic theory. Webers analysis of modernity and rationalisation significantly influenced the theory associated with the Frankfurt School. After the First World War, Max Weber was among the founders of the liberal German Democratic Party and he also ran unsuccessfully for a seat in parliament and served as advisor to the committee that drafted the ill-fated democratic Weimar Constitution of 1919. After contracting Spanish flu, he died of pneumonia in 1920, Karl Emil Maximilian Weber was born in 1864, in Erfurt, Province of Saxony, Prussia. Weber Sr. s involvement in public life immersed his home in politics and academia, as his salon welcomed many prominent scholars and public figures. The young Weber and his brother Alfred, who became a sociologist and economist. Before entering the university, he would read many other classical works, in 1882 Weber enrolled in the University of Heidelberg as a law student. After a year of service, he transferred to the University of Berlin. Simultaneously with his studies, he worked as a junior lawyer, in 1886 Weber passed the examination for Referendar, comparable to the bar association examination in the British and American legal systems. Throughout the late 1880s, Weber continued his study of law and this work was used as part of a longer work On the History of Trading Companies in the Middle Ages, based on South-European Sources, published in the same year. Two years later, Weber completed his Habilitationsschrift, Roman Agrarian History and its Significance for Public and Private Law, having thus become a Privatdozent, Weber joined the University of Berlins faculty, lecturing and consulting for the government. In the years between the completion of his dissertation and habilitation, Weber took an interest in social policy
Max Weber
–
Weber in 1894
Max Weber
–
Max Weber and his brothers,
Alfred and Karl, in 1879
Max Weber
–
Max Weber and his wife Marianne in 1894
9.
Ernst Troeltsch
–
His work was a synthesis of a number of strands, drawing on Albrecht Ritschl, Max Webers conception of sociology, and the Neo-Kantians of the Baden school. His The Social Teachings of the Christian Church is a work in this area. Troeltsch was born into a Lutheran family to a doctor but went to a Catholic school in a predominantly Catholic area before attending university in Erlangen and then Göttingen and his ordination in 1889 was followed in 1891 by a post teaching theology at Göttingen. In 1892, he moved on to teach at the University of Bonn, in 1894, finally, in 1915, he transferred to teach at what is now the Humboldt University of Berlin where he took the title of professor of philosophy and civilization. At an academic conference that took place in 1896, following a paper on the doctrine of logos, Troeltsch responded by saying Gentlemen, Troeltsch sought to explain the decline of religion in the modern era through a description of the historical evolution of the role of religion in society. He described European civilisation as having three periods, ancient, medieval and modern, the modern period starts much later on his account. It was later, in the century, that the modern period truly began. The Renaissance in Italy and the scientific revolution planted the seeds for the arrival of the modern period, Troeltsch saw this distinction between early and late Protestantism as the presupposition for any historical understanding of Protestantism. Troeltsch was politically liberal and served as a member of the Parliament of the Grand Duchy of Baden, in 1918, he joined the German Democratic Party. He strongly supported Germanys role in World War I, Yesterday we took up arms, listen to the ethos that resounds in the splendour of heroism, To your weapons, To your weapons. In the immediate aftermath of Troeltschs death, his work was considered passé and this was part of a wider rejection of liberal thought with the rise of Neo-Orthodoxy in Protestant theology, especially with the prominence of Karl Barth in the German speaking world. From 1960 onwards though, Troeltschs thought has seen a revival of interest in academic circles with a variety of books being published on Troeltschs theological and sociological work, harnack and Troeltsch, Two historical theologians Nix, Jr. Echol. Ernst Troeltsch and Comparative Theology 247 pages, a study of Troeltsch, boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Western Theology. G. Cantillo, Introduzione a Troeltsch, I Filosofi, Laterza, Roma-Bari 2004
Ernst Troeltsch
–
Ernst Troeltsch.
10.
Religious denomination
–
A religious denomination is a subgroup within a religion that operates under a common name, tradition, and identity. The term refers to the various Christian denominations and it is also used to describe the four branches of Judaism. Within Islam, it can refer to the branches or sects, as well as their various subdivisions such as sub-sects, schools of jurisprudence, schools of theology, the worlds largest religious denomination is Sunni Islam, followed by Roman Catholicism. A Christian denomination is a term for a distinct religious body identified by traits such as a common name, structure, leadership. Individual bodies, however, may use alternative terms to describe themselves, groups of denominations often sharing broadly similar beliefs, practices, and historical ties are known as branches of Christianity. Jewish religious movements, sometimes called denominations or branches, include different groups which have developed among Jews from ancient times, today, the main division is between the Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative lines, with several smaller movements alongside them. This threefold denominational structure is present in the United States. The movements differ in their views on various issues and these issues include the level of observance, the methodology for interpreting and understanding Jewish law, biblical authorship, textual criticism, and the nature or role of the messiah. Across these movements there are marked differences in liturgy, especially in the language in services are conducted. In Hinduism, the deity or philosophical belief identifies a denomination. The major denominations include Shaivism, Shaktism, Vaishnavism and Smartism, historically, Islam was divided into three major sects well known as Sunni, Khawarij and Shī‘ah. Nowadays, Sunnis constitute more than 85% of the overall Muslim population while the Shias are slightly more than 12%, today, many of the Shia sects are extinct. The major surviving Imamah-Muslim Sects are Usulism, Nizari Ismailism, Alevism, on the other hand, new Muslim sects like African American Muslims, Ahmadi Muslims, non-denominational Muslims, Quranist Muslims and Wahhabis were later independently developed. The term multi-denominational may describe an event that includes several religious denominations from sometimes unrelated religious groups. Many civic events include religious portions led by representatives from several denominations to be as inclusive or representational as possible of the expected population or audience. Schools of Buddhism Christian denomination Hindu denominations Islamic denominations Jewish denominations Non-denominational Schism Sociological classifications of religious movements
Religious denomination
–
Major denominations and religions of the world.
11.
Heresy
–
Heresy /hār ə sē/ is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs. A heretic is a proponent of such claims or beliefs, the term is usually used to refer to violations of important religious teachings, but is used also of views strongly opposed to any generally accepted ideas. It is used in particular in reference to Christianity, Judaism, the word heresy is usually used within a Christian, Jewish, or Islamic context, and implies slightly different meanings in each. The founder or leader of a movement is called a heresiarch. Heresiology is the study of heresy, according to Titus 3,10 a divisive person should be warned two times before separating from him. The Greek for the phrase divisive person became a term in the early Church for a type of heretic who promoted dissension. In contrast correct teaching is called not only because it builds up the faith. The Church Fathers identified Jews and Judaism with heresy and they saw deviations from orthodox Christianity as heresies that were essentially Jewish in spirit. The use of the word heresy was given currency by Irenaeus in his 2nd century tract Contra Haereses to describe. He described the beliefs and doctrines as orthodox and the Gnostics teachings as heretical. He also pointed out the concept of succession to support his arguments. By Roman law the Emperor was Pontifex Maximus, the high priest of the College of Pontiffs of all recognized religions in ancient Rome. To put an end to the doctrinal debate initiated by Arius, Constantine called the first of what would afterwards be called the ecumenical councils and then enforced orthodoxy by Imperial authority. The first known usage of the term in a context was in AD380 by the Edict of Thessalonica of Theodosius I. Prior to the issuance of this edict, the Church had no state-sponsored support for any particular legal mechanism to counter what it perceived as heresy, by this edict the states authority and that of the Church became somewhat overlapping. One of the outcomes of this blurring of Church and state was the sharing of state powers of legal enforcement with church authorities and this reinforcement of the Churchs authority gave church leaders the power to, in effect, pronounce the death sentence upon those whom the church considered heretical. The edict of Theodosius II provided severe punishments for those who had or spread writings of Nestorius and those who possessed writings of Arius were sentenced to death. For some years after the Reformation, Protestant churches were known to execute those they considered heretics
Heresy
–
The
Gospel (allegory) triumphs over Heresia and the
Serpent. Church of King
Gustaf Vasa,
Stockholm, Sweden, sculpture by
Burchard Precht.
Heresy
–
The burning of adherents of the
pantheistic Amalrician sect in 1210, in the presence of King
Philip II Augustus. In the background is the
Gibbet of Montfaucon and, anachronistically, the Grosse Tour of the
Temple. Illumination from the
Grandes Chroniques de France, c. 1255-1260.
Heresy
–
Former German
Catholic priest Martin Luther was famously excommunicated as a
heretic by
Pope Leo X in 1520.
Heresy
–
Massacre of the
Waldensians of
Mérindol in 1545.
12.
Sociology
–
Sociology is the study of social behaviour or society, including its origins, development, organisation, networks, and institutions. It is a science that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about social order, disorder. Many sociologists aim to research that may be applied directly to social policy and welfare. Subject matter ranges from the level of individual agency and interaction to the macro level of systems. The traditional focuses of sociology include social stratification, social class, social mobility, religion, secularization, law, sexuality, the range of social scientific methods has also expanded. Social researchers draw upon a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques, the linguistic and cultural turns of the mid-twentieth century led to increasingly interpretative, hermeneutic, and philosophic approaches towards the analysis of society. There is often a great deal of crossover between social research, market research, and other statistical fields, Sociology is distinguished from various general social studies courses, which bear little relation to sociological theory or to social-science research-methodology. The US National Science Foundation classifies sociology as a STEM field, Sociological reasoning pre-dates the foundation of the discipline. Social analysis has origins in the stock of Western knowledge and philosophy. The origin of the survey, i. e, there is evidence of early sociology in medieval Arab writings. The word sociology is derived from both Latin and Greek origins, the Latin word, socius, companion, the suffix -logy, the study of from Greek -λογία from λόγος, lógos, word, knowledge. It was first coined in 1780 by the French essayist Emmanuel-Joseph Sieyès in an unpublished manuscript, Sociology was later defined independently by the French philosopher of science, Auguste Comte, in 1838. Comte used this term to describe a new way of looking at society, Comte had earlier used the term social physics, but that had subsequently been appropriated by others, most notably the Belgian statistician Adolphe Quetelet. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through the understanding of the social realm. Comte believed a positivist stage would mark the final era, after conjectural theological and metaphysical phases, Comte gave a powerful impetus to the development of sociology, an impetus which bore fruit in the later decades of the nineteenth century. To say this is not to claim that French sociologists such as Durkheim were devoted disciples of the high priest of positivism. To be sure, beginnings can be traced back well beyond Montesquieu, for example, Marx rejected Comtean positivism but in attempting to develop a science of society nevertheless came to be recognized as a founder of sociology as the word gained wider meaning. For Isaiah Berlin, Marx may be regarded as the father of modern sociology
Sociology
–
Ibn Khaldun statue in
Tunis,
Tunisia (1332–1406)
Sociology
–
Auguste Comte (1798–1857)
Sociology
–
Karl Marx (1818–1883)
Sociology
–
Émile Durkheim
13.
William Sims Bainbridge
–
William Sims Bainbridge is an American sociologist who currently resides in Virginia. He is co-director of Cyber-Human Systems at the National Science Foundation and he is the first Senior Fellow to be appointed by the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. Bainbridge is most well known for his work on the sociology of religion, recently he has published work studying the sociology of video gaming. Bainbridge began his career at the Choate Rosemary Hall preparatory school in his birthstate of Connecticut. He went on to matriculate at Yale University and at Oberlin College and he studied music and became a skilled piano-tuner. In his free time, he constructed harpsichords and clavichords with the Bainbridge name, Bainbridge received his Ph. D. in sociology at Harvard University and went on to study the sociology of religious cults. In 1976 he published his first book, The Spaceflight Revolution, the study was one of the last of this type of academic studies done before new rules were introduced restricting unregulated participatory observation and study. During the late 1970s and 1980s Bainbridge worked with Rodney Stark on the Stark-Bainbridge theory of religion, from this period until the 2000s Bainbridge published more books dealing with space, religion, and psychology. These included a text entitled Experiments in Psychology which included psychology experimentation software coded by Bainbridge and he also studied the religious cult The Children of God, also known as the Family International, in his 2002 book The Endtime Family, Children of God. Experiments in Psychology The Future of Religion Satans Power, A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult, in addition, The Future of Religion was reprinted in Chinese in 2006 and Satans Power, A Deviant Psychotherapy Cult was translated into Italian in 1994. In addition to his books, Bainbridge has published over 200 articles and essays in various journals and his recent work has shifted towards the study of the sociology of video gaming, beginning with the publication of a new article on the potentially interesting aspects of glitches in video games. He has also studied personality capture in software, the process by one may save ones personality in a computer through the answering of vast personality surveys. Bainbridge is a member of the Order of Cosmic Engineers and is distantly related to Commodore William Bainbridge. Rodney Stark Bainbridge, William S. Curriculum Vitae, uploading Life, Send Your Personality to Space The Shape of Science Fiction as Perceived by the Fans Religion for a Galactic Civilization 2.0
William Sims Bainbridge
–
Award ceremony for William Sims Bainbridge held by the CITASA section of ASA. 2008 in Boston.
14.
Sectarianism
–
This article concentrates on sectarianism as conflict between groups. For sectarianism as a characteristic of sects, see sect, sectarianism is a form of bigotry, discrimination, or hatred arising from attaching relations of inferiority and superiority to differences between subdivisions within a group. Common examples are denominations of a religion, ethnic identity, class, or region for citizens of a state, the ideological underpinnings of attitudes and behaviours labelled as sectarian are extraordinarily varied. Sometimes a group that is under economic or political pressure will kill or attack members of group which it regards as responsible for its own decline. At other times, sectarianism may be the expression of a nationalistic or cultural ambitions. The phrase sectarian conflict usually refers to violent conflict along religious or political lines such as the conflicts between Nationalists and Unionists in Northern Ireland and it may also refer to general philosophical, political disparity between different schools of thought such as that between Shia and Sunni Muslims. Non-sectarians espouse that free association and tolerance of different beliefs are the cornerstone to successful peaceful human interaction and they espouse political and religious pluralism. Wherever people of different religions live in proximity to each other, religious sectarianism can often be found in varying forms. In some areas, religious sectarians now exist peacefully side-by-side for the most part, although these differences have resulted in violence, death, probably the best-known example in recent times were The Troubles. Catholic-Protestant sectarianism has also been a factor in U. S. presidential campaigns, prior to John F. Kennedy, only one Catholic had ever been a major party presidential nominee, and he had been solidly defeated largely because of claims based on his Catholicism. Many Sunni religious leaders, including those inspired by Wahhabism and other ideologies have declared Shias to be heretics and/or apostates, since the 12th century there has been sectarian conflict of varying intensity in Ireland. This religious sectarianism is connected to a degree with nationalism and this has been particularly intense in Northern Ireland since the early 17th century plantation of Ulster under James I. Sectarian tensions can be found in regions of the British Isles to this day, including Scotland, Liverpool, Birmingham. Historically, some Catholic countries once persecuted Protestants as heretics, for example, the substantial Protestant population of France was expelled from the kingdom in the 1680s following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. In Spain, the Inquisition sought to root out crypto-Jews but also crypto-Muslims, in most places where Protestantism is the majority or official religion, there have been examples of Catholics being persecuted. In countries where the Reformation was successful, this often lay in the perception that Catholics retained allegiance to a foreign power, sometimes this mistrust manifested itself in Catholics being subjected to restrictions and discrimination, which itself led to further conflict. For example, before Catholic Emancipation was introduced with the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, the invasion of Ireland by English parliamentarian forces under Oliver Cromwell in 1659 was notoriously brutal and witnessed the widespread ethnic cleansing of the native Irish. The failure of the Rebellion of 1798, which sought to unite Protestants and Catholics for an independent Ireland, the conflict was primarily fought over the existence of the Northern Irish state rather than religion, though sectarian relations within Northern Ireland fueled the conflict
Sectarianism
–
Sectarian battle between the
Sunni Ottoman and
Shia Safavid empire at the
Battle of Chaldiran, 1514.
Sectarianism
–
In 1871, New York's
Orange Riots were incited by Irish Protestants. 63 citizens, mostly Irish Catholics, were massacred in the resulting police-action.
Sectarianism
–
Painting of the
St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, an event in the
French Wars of Religion
Sectarianism
–
The
sack of Magdeburg by Catholic army in 1631. Of the 30,000 Protestant citizens, only 5,000 survived.
15.
Sociology of religion
–
Sociology of religion is the study of the beliefs, practices and organizational forms of religion using the tools and methods of the discipline of sociology. The works of Karl Marx and Max Weber emphasized the relationship between religion and the economic or social structure of society, Contemporary debates have centered on issues such as secularization, civil religion, and the cohesiveness of religion in the context of globalization and multiculturalism. The contemporary sociology of religion may also encompass the sociology of irreligion, Sociology of religion is distinguished from the philosophy of religion in that it does not set out to assess the validity of religious beliefs. The process of comparing multiple conflicting dogmas may require what Peter L. Berger has described as inherent methodological atheism, whereas the sociology of religion broadly differs from theology in assuming indifference to the supernatural, theorists tend to acknowledge socio-cultural reification of religious practice. Classical, seminal sociological theorists of the late 19th and early 20th century such as Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Karl Marx were greatly interested in religion and its effects on society. Like those of Plato and Aristotle from ancient Greece, and Enlightenment philosophers from the 17th through 19th centuries, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber had very complex and developed theories about the nature and effects of religion. Of these, Durkheim and Weber are often difficult to understand, especially in light of the lack of context. Religion was considered to be an important social variable in the work of all three. Marx was the product of the Enlightenment, embracing its call to replace faith by reason and religion by science, despite his later influence, Karl Marx did not view his work as an ethical or ideological response to nineteenth-century capitalism. His efforts were, in his mind, based solely on what can be called applied science, Marx saw himself as doing morally neutral sociology and economic theory for the sake of human development. As such, the crux of his arguments was that humans are best guided by reason, Religion, Marx held, was a significant hindrance to reason, inherently masking the truth and misguiding followers. As we will see, Marx viewed alienation as the heart of social inequality. The antithesis to this alienation is freedom, thus, to propagate freedom means to present individuals with the truth and give them a choice to accept or deny it. In this, Marx never suggested that religion ought to be prohibited, central to Marxs theories was the oppressive economic situation in which he dwelt. With the rise of European industrialism, Marx and his colleague Friedrich Engels witnessed and responded to the growth of what he called surplus value, Marxs view of capitalism saw rich capitalists getting richer and their workers getting poorer. Not only were workers getting exploited, but in the process they were being further detached from the products they helped create, by simply selling their work for wages, workers simultaneously lose connection with the object of labor and become objects themselves. Workers are devalued to the level of a commodity – a thing… From this objectification comes alienation, the common worker is led to believe that he or she is a replaceable tool, and is alienated to the point of extreme discontent. Here, in Marxs eyes, religion enters, Capitalism utilizes our tendency towards religion as a tool or ideological state apparatus to justify this alienation
Sociology of religion
–
Sociology
16.
Epistemology
–
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief, the term Epistemology was first used by Scottish philosopher James Frederick Ferrier in 1854. However, according to Brett Warren, King James VI of Scotland had previously personified this philosophical concept as the character Epistemon in 1591 and this philosophical approach signified a Philomath seeking to obtain greater knowledge through epistemology with the use of theology. The dialogue was used by King James to educate society on various concepts including the history, the word epistemology is derived from the ancient Greek epistēmē meaning knowledge and the suffix -logy, meaning a logical discourse to. J. F. Ferrier coined epistemology on the model of ontology, to designate that branch of philosophy which aims to discover the meaning of knowledge, and called it the true beginning of philosophy. The word is equivalent to the concept Wissenschaftslehre, which was used by German philosophers Johann Fichte, French philosophers then gave the term épistémologie a narrower meaning as theory of knowledge. Émile Meyerson opened his Identity and Reality, written in 1908, in mathematics, it is known that 2 +2 =4, but there is also knowing how to add two numbers, and knowing a person, place, thing, or activity. Some philosophers think there is an important distinction between knowing that, knowing how, and acquaintance-knowledge, with epistemology being primarily concerned with the first of these, while these distinctions are not explicit in English, they are defined explicitly in other languages. In French, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch to know is translated using connaître, conhecer, conocer, modern Greek has the verbs γνωρίζω and ξέρω. Italian has the verbs conoscere and sapere and the nouns for knowledge are conoscenza and sapienza, German has the verbs wissen and kennen. The verb itself implies a process, you have to go from one state to another and this verb seems to be the most appropriate in terms of describing the episteme in one of the modern European languages, hence the German name Erkenntnistheorie. The theoretical interpretation and significance of linguistic issues remains controversial. In his paper On Denoting and his later book Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell stressed the distinction between knowledge by description and knowledge by acquaintance, gilbert Ryle is also credited with stressing the distinction between knowing how and knowing that in The Concept of Mind. This position is essentially Ryles, who argued that a failure to acknowledge the distinction between knowledge that and knowledge how leads to infinite regress and this includes the truth, and everything else we accept as true for ourselves from a cognitive point of view. Whether someones belief is true is not a prerequisite for belief, on the other hand, if something is actually known, then it categorically cannot be false. It would not be accurate to say that he knew that the bridge was safe, because plainly it was not. By contrast, if the bridge actually supported his weight, then he might say that he had believed that the bridge was safe, whereas now, after proving it to himself, epistemologists argue over whether belief is the proper truth-bearer. Some would rather describe knowledge as a system of justified true propositions, plato, in his Gorgias, argues that belief is the most commonly invoked truth-bearer
Epistemology
–
Plato –
Kant –
Nietzsche
17.
Cult
–
The Committee on Culture and Education is a committee of the European Parliament. This committee has focused on the well-being of all members of the human race, looking at the Unions education policy, Both in the school education systems, and in lifelong-learning programmes, such as museums and libraries. Developing an audiovisual policy and connecting this with educational information systems, looking at the development of a sports and leisure policy with an additional youth policy. Looking to connect information with a media policy, cooperation with third countries in the areas of culture and education and relations with the relevant international organisations and institutions. In this current term, the Committee on Culture and Education has looked at three issues, the first issue is the protection of members of circuses in the European Union. The Committee has declared these members of society as a culture in the EU. This resolution passed on July 12,2005 with a vote of 29 in favor,1 against, the second dealt with the standardization of higher education systems through thorough internal assessments in accordance with the European Higher Education Area. Education also must promote diversity in its students and in the programs offered by the various institutions and it was adopted on August 30,2005 with a vote of 24 in favor,1 against, and 1 abstained. The third issue has regarded the protection of minors, the committee has brought forth a resolution for the protection of minors in all areas of media, including magazines, newspapers, and the Internet. Among numerous other provisions, it will offer classes in safe usage of the Internet and this committee, however, does not desire to diminish freedom of speech. This resolution was adopted on September 22,2005 with a vote of 21 in favor and 1 against, the Parliament has made a point of trying to promote culture. It has hosted cultural events,150 took place in 2005, including art. Some exhibitions have been on the topics of breast cancer, the Srebrenica massacre, as of 2007, is also gives the Lux Prize for European Cinema. There are also three members that are not attached to any particular party
Cult
18.
Europe
–
Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
Europe
–
Reconstruction of
Herodotus ' world map
Europe
Europe
–
A medieval
T and O map from 1472 showing the three continents as domains of the sons of
Noah — Asia to Sem (
Shem), Europe to Iafeth (
Japheth), and Africa to Cham (
Ham)
Europe
–
Early modern depiction of
Europa regina ('Queen Europe') and the mythical
Europa of the 8th century BC.
19.
English language
–
English /ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/ is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and is now the global lingua franca. Named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to England, English is either the official language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. It is the third most common language in the world, after Mandarin. It is the most widely learned second language and a language of the United Nations, of the European Union. It is the most widely spoken Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European branch, English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of English, a set of Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the century, are called Old English. Middle English began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England, Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing press to London and the King James Bible, and the start of the Great Vowel Shift. Through the worldwide influence of the British Empire, modern English spread around the world from the 17th to mid-20th centuries, English is an Indo-European language, and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. Most closely related to English are the Frisian languages, and English, Old Saxon and its descendent Low German languages are also closely related, and sometimes Low German, English, and Frisian are grouped together as the Ingvaeonic or North Sea Germanic languages. Modern English descends from Middle English, which in turn descends from Old English, particular dialects of Old and Middle English also developed into a number of other English languages, including Scots and the extinct Fingallian and Forth and Bargy dialects of Ireland. English is classified as a Germanic language because it shares new language features with other Germanic languages such as Dutch, German and these shared innovations show that the languages have descended from a single common ancestor, which linguists call Proto-Germanic. Through Grimms law, the word for foot begins with /f/ in Germanic languages, English is classified as an Anglo-Frisian language because Frisian and English share other features, such as the palatalisation of consonants that were velar consonants in Proto-Germanic. The earliest form of English is called Old English or Anglo-Saxon, in the fifth century, the Anglo-Saxons settled Britain and the Romans withdrew from Britain. England and English are named after the Angles, Old English was divided into four dialects, the Anglian dialects, Mercian and Northumbrian, and the Saxon dialects, Kentish and West Saxon. Through the educational reforms of King Alfred in the century and the influence of the kingdom of Wessex. The epic poem Beowulf is written in West Saxon, and the earliest English poem, Modern English developed mainly from Mercian, but the Scots language developed from Northumbrian. A few short inscriptions from the period of Old English were written using a runic script. By the sixth century, a Latin alphabet was adopted, written with half-uncial letterforms and it included the runic letters wynn ⟨ƿ⟩ and thorn ⟨þ⟩, and the modified Latin letters eth ⟨ð⟩, and ash ⟨æ⟩
English language
–
The opening to the Old English epic poem
Beowulf,
handwritten in
half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."
English language
–
Countries of the world where English is a majority native language
English language
–
Title page of Geoffrey Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales c.1400
20.
France
–
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
France
–
One of the
Lascaux paintings: a horse –
Dordogne, approximately 18,000 BC
France
–
Flag
France
–
The
Maison Carrée was a temple of the
Gallo-Roman city of Nemausus (present-day
Nîmes) and is one of the best preserved vestiges of the
Roman Empire.
France
–
With
Clovis ' conversion to Catholicism in 498, the
Frankish monarchy,
elective and
secular until then, became
hereditary and of
divine right.
21.
Schools of Buddhism
–
Schools of Buddhism refers to the various institutional and doctrinal divisions of Buddhism that have existed from ancient times up to the present. That have made up or currently make up the whole of Buddhist traditions, the sectarian and conceptual divisions of Buddhist thought are part of the modern framework of Buddhist studies, as well as comparative religion in Asia. The most common classification among scholars is threefold, with Mahāyāna itself split between the traditional Mahāyāna teachings, and the Vajrayāna teachings which emphasize esotericism, Vajrayāna, primarily in Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia and the Russian republic of Kalmykia. The following terms may be encountered in descriptions of the major Buddhist divisions, Ekayāna Mahayana texts such as the Lotus Sutra and the Avatamsaka Sutra sought to unite all the different teachings into a single great way. These texts serve as the inspiration for using the term Ekayāna in the sense of one vehicle and this one vehicle became a key aspect of the doctrines and practices of Tiantai and Tendai Buddhist sects, which subsequently influenced Chán and Zen doctrines and practices. In Japan, the teaching of the Lotus Sutra also inspired the formation of the Nichiren sect. Esoteric Buddhism usually considered synonymous with Vajrayāna, some scholars have applied the term to certain practices found within the Theravāda, particularly in Cambodia. It is considered a term when applied by the Mahāyāna to mistakenly refer to the Theravāda school. Moreover, Hīnayāna refers to the now non extant schools with limited set of views, practices and results and its use in scholarly publications is now also considered controversial. Lamaism an old term, still used, synonymous with Tibetan Buddhism. Mahāyāna a movement that emerged from early Buddhist schools, together with its later descendants, Vajrayāna traditions are sometimes listed separately. The main use of the term in East Asian and Tibetan traditions is in reference to spiritual levels, mainstream Buddhism a term used by some scholars for the early Buddhist schools. Mantrayāna usually considered synonymous with Vajrayāna, the Tendai school in Japan has been described as influenced by Mantrayana. Newar Buddhism a non-monastic, caste based Buddhism with patrilineal descent, nikāya Buddhism or schools an alternative term for the early Buddhist schools. Non-Mahāyāna an alternative term for the early Buddhist schools, northern Buddhism an alternative term used by some scholars for Tibetan Buddhism. Also, a term still sometimes used to encompass both East Asian and Tibetan traditions. It has even used to refer to East Asian Buddhism alone. Secret Mantra an alternative rendering of Mantrayāna, a literal translation of the term used by schools in Tibetan Buddhism when referring to themselves
Schools of Buddhism
–
An image of Gautama Buddha with a
swastika, a traditional Buddhist symbol of infinity, on his chest.
Ananda, the Buddha's disciple, appears in the background. This statue is from
Hsi Lai Temple.
Schools of Buddhism
–
Map showing the three major Buddhist divisions
Schools of Buddhism
–
Thousand-armed
Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva.
Guanyin Nunnery,
Anhui, China
22.
Theravada
–
Theravāda is a branch of Buddhism that uses the Buddhas teaching preserved in the Pāli Canon as its doctrinal core. The Pali canon is the only complete Buddhist canon which survives in a classical Indic Language, Pali, another feature of Theravada is that it tends to be very conservative about matters of doctrine and monastic discipline. As a distinct sect, Theravada Buddhism developed in Sri Lanka, Theravada also includes a rich diversity of traditions and practices that have developed over its long history of interactions with varying cultures and religious communities. It is the dominant form of religion in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, and is practiced by minority groups in Bangladesh, China, Nepal, and Vietnam. In addition, the diaspora of all of these groups as well as converts around the world practice Theravāda Buddhism, contemporary expressions include Buddhist modernism, the Vipassana movement and the Thai Forest Tradition. The name Theravāda comes from the ancestral Sthāvirīya, one of the early Buddhist schools, according to its own accounts, the Theravāda school is fundamentally derived from the Vibhajjavāda doctrine of analysis grouping, which was a division of the Sthāvirīya. Significantly, the Sthāviras in turn comprise three sub-nikāyas, the Jetavanīyas, the Abhayagirivāsins, and the Mahāvihāravāsins, according to Damien Keown, there is no historical evidence that the Theravāda school arose until around two centuries after the Great Schism which occurred at the Third Council. These teachings were known as the Vibhajjavada, emperor Ashoka is supposed to have assisted in purifying the sangha by expelling monks who failed to agree to the terms of Third Council. The elder monk Moggaliputta-Tissa was at the head of the Third council and compiled the Kathavatthu, later, the Vibhajjavādins in turn is said to have split into four groups, the Mahīśāsaka, Kāśyapīya, Dharmaguptaka, and the Tāmraparṇīya. The Theravāda is said to be descended from the Tāmraparṇīya sect, the most distinctive features of this phase and virtually the only contemporary historical material, are the numerous Brahmi inscriptions associated with these caves. They record gifts to the sangha, significantly by householders and chiefs rather than by kings, the Buddhist religion itself does not seem to have established undisputed authority until the reigns of Dutthagamani and Vattagamani. The first records of Buddha images come from the reign of king Vasabha, in the 7th century, the Chinese pilgrim monks Xuanzang and Yijing refer to the Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka as Shàngzuòbù, corresponding to the Sanskrit Sthavira nikāya and Pali Thera Nikāya. Yijing writes, In Sri Lanka the Sthavira school alone flourishes, the school has been using the name Theravāda for itself in a written form since at least the 4th century, about one thousand years after the Buddhas death, when the term appears in the Dīpavaṁsa. According to Buddhist scholar A. K. Warder, the Theravāda, spread rapidly south from Avanti into Maharashtra and Andhra and down to the Chola country, as well as Sri Lanka. According to Richard Gombrich this is the earliest record we have of Buddhist scriptures being committed to writing anywhere, the Theravada Pali texts which have survived are derived from the Mahavihara of Anuradhapura, the ancient Sri Lankan capital. Later developments included the formation and recording of the Theravada commentary literature, the Theravada tradition records that even during the early days of Mahinda, there was already a tradition of Indian commentaries on the scriptures. Of great importance to the tradition is the work of the great Theravada scholastic Buddhaghosa. Buddhaghosa wrote in Pali, and after him, most Sri Lankan Buddhist scholastics did as well and this allowed the Sri Lankan tradition to become more international through a lingua franca so as to converse with monks in India and later Southeast Asia
Theravada
–
Early
Buddhism
Theravada
–
Buddha painting in
Dambulla cave temple in
Sri Lanka. The Buddhist cave-temple complex was established as a Buddhist Monastery in the 3rd century BC. Caves were converted into a temple in the 1st century BC.
Theravada
–
Ruins of
Bagan, an ancient capital of
Myanmar. There are more than 2,000
kyaung there. During the height of Bagan's power, there were some 13,000 kyaung.
23.
South Asia
–
Topographically, it is dominated by the Indian Plate, which rises above sea level as Nepal and northern parts of India situated south of the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush. South Asia is bounded on the south by the Indian Ocean and on land by West Asia, Central Asia, East Asia, the current territories of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka form the countries of South Asia. The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is an economic cooperation organisation in the region which was established in 1985, South Asia covers about 5.1 million km², which is 11. 51% of the Asian continent or 3. 4% of the worlds land surface area. The population of South Asia is about 1.749 billion or about one fourth of the worlds population, overall, it accounts for about 39. 49% of Asias population and is home to a vast array of peoples. The area of South Asia and its extent is not clear cut as systemic. Aside from the region of South Asia, formerly part of the British Empire, there is a high degree of variation as to which other countries are included in South Asia. Modern definitions of South Asia are consistent in including Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar is included by some scholars in South Asia, but in Southeast Asia by others. Some do not include Afghanistan, others question whether Afghanistan should be considered a part of South Asia or the Middle East, the mountain countries of Nepal and Bhutan, and the island countries of Sri Lanka and Maldives are generally included as well. Myanmar is often added, and by various deviating definitions based on often substantially different reasons, the British Indian Ocean Territory, the common concept of South Asia is largely inherited from the administrative boundaries of the British Raj, with several exceptions. The Aden Colony, British Somaliland and Singapore, though administered at various times under the Raj, have not been proposed as any part of South Asia. Additionally Burma was administered as part of the Raj until 1937, the 562 princely states that were protected by but not directly ruled by the Raj became administrative parts of South Asia upon joining Union of India or Dominion of Pakistan. China and Myanmar have also applied for the status of members of SAARC. This bloc of countries include two independent countries that were not part of the British Raj – Nepal, and Bhutan, Afghanistan was a British protectorate from 1878 until 1919, after the Afghans lost to the British in the Second Anglo-Afghan war. The United Nations Statistics Divisions scheme of sub-regions include all eight members of the SAARC as part of Southern Asia, population Information Network includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka as part of South Asia. Maldives, in view of its characteristics, was admitted as a member Pacific POPIN subregional network only in principle, the Hirschman–Herfindahl index of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific for the region includes only the original seven signatories of SAARC. The British Indian Ocean Territory is connected to the region by a publication of Janes for security considerations, the inclusion of Myanmar in South Asia is without consensus, with many considering it a part of southeast Asia and others including it within South Asia. Afghanistan was of importance to the British colonial empire, especially after the Second Anglo-Afghan War over 1878–1880, Afghanistan remained a British protectorate until 1919, when a treaty with Vladimir Lenin included the granting of independence to Afghanistan. Following Indias partition, Afghanistan has generally included in South Asia
South Asia
–
While South Asia had never been a coherent
geopolitical region, it has a distinct geographical identity
South Asia
–
South Asia
South Asia
–
Ethno-linguistic families of South Asia.
24.
Southeast Asia
–
Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India, west of New Guinea and north of Australia. The region lies near the intersection of geological plates, with seismic and volcanic activity. Southeast Asia consists of two regions, Mainland Southeast Asia, also known historically as Indochina, comprising Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar. Maritime Southeast Asia, comprising Indonesia, East Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, East Timor, Brunei, Cocos Islands, definitions of Southeast Asia vary, but most definitions include the area represented by the countries listed below. All of the states are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the area, together with part of South Asia, was widely known as the East Indies or simply the Indies until the 20th century. Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, Papua New Guinea has stated that it might join ASEAN, and is currently an observer. Southeast Asia is geographically divided into two subregions, namely Mainland Southeast Asia and Maritime Southeast Asia, Mainland Southeast Asia includes, Maritime Southeast Asia includes, The Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India are geographically considered part of Southeast Asia. Eastern Bangladesh and the Seven Sister States of India are culturally part of Southeast Asia, the eastern half of Indonesia and East Timor are considered to be biogeographically part of Oceania. Homo sapiens reached the region by around 45,000 years ago, homo floresiensis also lived in the area up until 12,000 years ago, when they became extinct. Austronesian people, who form the majority of the population in Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, East Timor. Solheim and others have shown evidence for a Nusantao maritime trading network ranging from Vietnam to the rest of the archipelago as early as 5000 BC to 1 AD. The peoples of Southeast Asia, especially those of Austronesian descent, have been seafarers for thousands of years and their vessels, such as the vinta, were ocean-worthy. Magellans voyage records how much more manoeuvrable their vessels were, as compared to the European ships, Passage through the Indian Ocean aided the colonisation of Madagascar by the Austronesian people, as well as commerce between West Asia and Southeast Asia. Gold from Sumatra is thought to have reached as far west as Rome and this was later replaced by Hinduism. Theravada Buddhism soon followed in 525, in the 15th century, Islamic influences began to enter. This forced the last Hindu court in Indonesia to retreat to Bali, in Mainland Southeast Asia, Burma, Cambodia and Thailand retained the Theravada form of Buddhism, brought to them from Sri Lanka. This type of Buddhism was fused with the Hindu-influenced Khmer culture, very little is known about Southeast Asian religious beliefs and practices before the advent of Indian merchants and religious influences from the 2nd century BCE onwards. Prior to the 13th century CE, Hinduism and Buddhism were the religions in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
–
A golden vestment similar to those worn by the Hindu
Brahmin Caste, found in Butuan (
Philippines) Archeological Digs. This artefact shows the influence of Indian culture in Southeast Asia, also through trade.
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia
–
Angkor Wat in
Siem Reap,
Cambodia
Southeast Asia
–
Kampung Laut Mosque in
Tumpat is one of the oldest mosques in Malaysia, dating to the early 18th century.
25.
East Asia
–
East Asia is the eastern subregion of the Asian continent, which can be defined in either geographical or ethno-cultural terms. Geographically and geopolitically, it includes China, Taiwan, Mongolia, Korea and Japan, it covers about 12,000,000 km2, or about 28% of the Asian continent, the East Asian people comprise more than 1.5 billion people. About 38% of the population of Asia and 22%, or over one fifth, the overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre, about three times the world average of 45/km2. Historically, societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, major religions include Buddhism, Confucianism or Neo-Confucianism, Taoism, Chinese folk religion in China and Taiwan, Shinto in Japan, Korean shamanism in Korea. Shamanism is also prevalent among Mongolians and other populations of northern East Asia. The Chinese calendar is the root from which many other East Asian calendars are derived, Chinese Dynasties dominated the region in matters of culture, trade, and exploration as well as militarily for a very long time. There are records of tributes sent overseas from the kingdoms of Korea. There were also considerable levels of cultural and religious exchange between the Chinese and other regional Dynasties and Kingdoms, as connections began to strengthen with the Western world, Chinas power began to diminish. Around the same time, Japan solidified itself as a nation state, throughout World War II, Korea, Taiwan, much of eastern China, Hong Kong, and Vietnam all fell under Japanese control. Culturally, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam are commonly seen as being encompassed by cultural East Asia, there are mixed debates around the world whether these countries or regions should be considered in East Asia or not. Vietnam Siberia in Russia Sovereignty issues exist over some territories in the South China Sea, however, in this context, the term Far East is often more appropriate which covers ASEAN countries and the countries in East Asia. However, being a Eurocentric term, Far East describes the geographical position in relation to Europe rather than its location within Asia. Alternatively, the term Asia Pacific Region is often used in describing East Asia and this usage, which is seen in economic and diplomatic discussions, is at odds with the historical meanings of both East Asia and Northeast Asia. The Council on Foreign Relations defines Northeast Asia as Japan and Korea, the military and economic superpower of China became the largest economy in the world in 2014, surpassing the United States of America. Currently in East Asia, trading systems are open, and zero or low duties on imports of consumer and capital goods etc. have considerably helped stimulate cost-efficiency. Free and flexible labor and other markets are important factors making for high levels of business-economic performance. East Asian populations have demonstrated highly positive work ethics, there are relatively large and fast-growing markets for consumer goods and services of all kinds. The culture of East Asia has been influenced by the civilisation of China, East Asia, as well as Vietnam, share a Confucian ethical philosophy, Buddhism, political and legal structures, and historically a common writing system
East Asia
–
Tokyo is the largest city in the world, both in
metropolitan population and
economy.
East Asia
–
East Asia
East Asia
–
Seoul is the capital and largest city of South Korea (ROK), and is a leading global technology hub.
East Asia
–
Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan.
Kaohsiung Harbor is one of the largest harbors in the world.
26.
Vajrayana
–
Vajrayāna, Mantrayāna, Esoteric Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism refer to the Buddhist tradition of Tantra, an esoteric system of beliefs and practices that developed in medieval India. Vajrayāna is usually translated as Diamond Vehicle or Thunderbolt Vehicle, referring to the Vajra, according to Vajrayāna scriptures, the term Vajrayāna refers to one of three vehicles or routes to enlightenment, the other two being the Śrāvakayāna and Mahāyāna. Founded by Indian Mahāsiddhas, Vajrayāna subscribes to the known as the Buddhist Tantras. Elements of Tantric Buddhism can be traced back to groups of wandering yogis called mahasiddhas. These yogic circles came together in tantric feasts often in sacred sites and places which included dancing, singing, sex rites and it is interesting to note that at least two of the Mahasiddhas given in the Buddhist literature are actually names for Shaiva Nath saints who practiced Hatha Yoga. According to Schumann, a movement called Sahaja-siddhi developed in the 8th century in Bengal and it was dominated by long-haired, wandering yogis called mahasiddhas who openly challenged and ridiculed the Buddhist establishment. The Mahasiddhas pursued siddhis, magical powers such as flight and Extrasensory perception as well as liberation, earlier Mahayana sutras already contained some elements which are emphasized in the Tantras, such as mantras and dharani. The practice of visualization of Buddhas such as Amitabha is also seen in texts like the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra. Vajrayana developed a large corpus of texts called the Buddhist Tantras, some of which can be traced to at least the 7th century CE, the dating of the tantras is a difficult, indeed an impossible task according to David Snellgrove. The earliest such texts include the Mahavairocana Tantra and the Guhyasamāja Tantra. Later monastic Vajrayana Buddhists reinterpreted and internalized these radically transgressive and taboo practices as metaphors, the Kalachakra tantra developed in the 10th century. It is farthest removed from the earlier Buddhist traditions, and incorporates concepts of messianism, various classes of Vajrayana literature developed as a result of royal courts sponsoring both Buddhism and Saivism. According to Alexis Sanderson, the Vajrayana Yogini-tantras draw extensively from Shaiva Bhairava tantras classified as Vidyapitha, there is even direct borrowing of passages from Saiva texts. The Guhyasiddhi of Padmavajra, an associated with the Guhyasamaja tradition, prescribes acting as a Shaiva guru and initiating members into Saiva Siddhanta scriptures. The Samvara tantra texts adopted the pitha list from the Shaiva text Tantrasadbhava, according to Louis de La Vallée-Poussin and Alex Wayman, the view of the Vajrayana is based on Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, mainly the Madhyamaka and Yogacara schools. The major difference seen by Vajrayana thinkers is Tantras superiority due to being a vehicle to liberation containing many skillful methods of tantric ritual. The doctrine of Buddha-nature, as outlined in the Ratnagotravibhāga of Asanga, was also an important theory which became the basis for Tantric views, by passion the world is bound, by passion too it is released, but by heretical Buddhists this practice of reversals is not known. As Snellgrove notes, this doctrine is also present in Asangas Mahayana-sutra-alamkara-karika and therefore it is possible that he was aware of Tantric techniques
Vajrayana
–
Statues of Padmasambhava, Buddha and Amitayus at
Namdroling Monastery.
Vajrayana
–
Esoteric practices related to
Cundī have remained popular in
Chinese Buddhism and East Asia.
Vajrayana
–
Young Monk in
Shalu Monastery,
Xigazê,
Tibet
27.
Tibet
–
Tibet is a region on the Tibetan Plateau in Asia, spanning about 2.4 million km2 and nearly a quarter of Chinas territory. Tibet is the highest region on Earth, with an elevation of 4,900 metres. The highest elevation in Tibet is Mount Everest, Earths highest mountain, the Tibetan Empire emerged in the 7th century, but with the fall of the empire the region soon divided into a variety of territories. The current borders of Tibet were generally established in the 18th century, following the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty in 1912, Qing soldiers were disarmed and escorted out of Tibet Area. The region subsequently declared its independence in 1913 without recognition by the subsequent Chinese Republican government, later, Lhasa took control of the western part of Xikang, China. There are tensions regarding Tibets political status and dissident groups that are active in exile and it is also said that Tibetan activists in Tibet have been arrested or tortured. The economy of Tibet is dominated by agriculture, though tourism has become a growing industry in recent decades. The dominant religion in Tibet is Tibetan Buddhism, in there is Bön, which is similar to Tibetan Buddhism. Tibetan Buddhism is an influence on the art, music. Tibetan architecture reflects Chinese and Indian influences, staple foods in Tibet are roasted barley, yak meat, and butter tea. The Tibetan name for their land, Bod བོད་, means Tibet or Tibetan Plateau, although it meant the central region around Lhasa. The Standard Tibetan pronunciation of Bod, is transcribed Bhö in Tournadre Phonetic Transcription, Bö in the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription and Poi in Tibetan pinyin. Tibetan people, language, and culture, regardless of where they are from, are referred to as Zang although the geographical term Xīzàng is often limited to the Tibet Autonomous Region. The term Xīzàng was coined during the Qing dynasty in the reign of the Jiaqing Emperor through the addition of a prefix meaning west to Zang, the best-known medieval Chinese name for Tibet is Tubo. This name first appears in Chinese characters as 土番 in the 7th century, in the Middle Chinese spoken during that period, as reconstructed by William H. Baxter, 土番 was pronounced thux-phjon and 吐蕃 was pronounced thux-pjon. Other pre-modern Chinese names for Tibet include Wusiguo, Wusizang, Tubote, the English word Tibet or Thibet dates back to the 18th century. Historical linguists generally agree that Tibet names in European languages are loanwords from Semitic Ṭībat orTūbātt, itself deriving from Turkic Töbäd, literally, according to Matthew Kapstein, From the perspective of historical linguistics, Tibetan most closely resembles Burmese among the major languages of Asia. More controversial is the theory that the Tibeto-Burman family is part of a larger language family, called Sino-Tibetan
Tibet
–
"Greater Tibet" as claimed by Tibetan exile groups
Tibet
–
Tibetan family in
Kham attending a horse festival
Tibet
–
King
Songtsän Gampo
Tibet
–
Tibet in 1734. Royaume de Thibet ("Kingdom of Tibet") in la Chine, la Tartarie Chinoise, et le Thibet ("China, Chinese
Tartary, and Tibet") on a 1734 map by
Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, based on earlier Jesuit maps.
28.
Bhutan
–
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
Bhutan
Bhutan
Bhutan
–
The
Dzong in the
Paro valley, built in 1646.
29.
Mongolia
–
Mongolia /mɒŋˈɡoʊliə/ is a landlocked unitary sovereign state in East Asia. Its area is equivalent with the historical territory of Outer Mongolia. It is sandwiched between China to the south and Russia to the north, while it does not share a border with Kazakhstan, Mongolia is separated from it by only 36.76 kilometers. At 1,564,116 square kilometers, Mongolia is the 18th largest and it is also the worlds second-largest landlocked country behind Kazakhstan and the largest landlocked country that does not border a closed sea. The country contains very little land, as much of its area is covered by grassy steppe, with mountains to the north and west. Ulaanbaatar, the capital and largest city, is home to about 45% of the countrys population, approximately 30% of the population is nomadic or semi-nomadic, horse culture is still integral. 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 states citizens are of Mongol ethnicity, although Kazakhs, Tuvans, and other minorities also live in the country, especially in the west. Mongolia joined the World Trade Organization in 1997 and seeks to expand its participation in regional economic, the area of what is now Mongolia has been ruled by various nomadic empires, including the Xiongnu, the Xianbei, the Rouran, the Turkic Khaganate, and others. In 1206, Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire, which became the largest contiguous 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 led by the Manchu-founded Qing dynasty. By the early 1900s, almost one-third of the male population were Buddhist monks. After the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911, Mongolia declared independence from the Qing dynasty, shortly thereafter, the country came under the control of the Soviet Union, which had aided its independence from China. In 1924, the Mongolian Peoples Republic was declared as a Soviet satellite 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, homo erectus inhabited Mongolia from 850,000 years ago. Modern humans reached Mongolia approximately 40,000 years ago during the Upper Paleolithic, the Khoit Tsenkher Cave in Khovd Province shows lively pink, brown, and red ochre paintings of mammoths, lynx, bactrian camels, and ostriches, earning it the nickname the Lascaux of Mongolia. The venus figurines of Malta testify to the level of Upper Paleolithic art in northern Mongolia, the wheeled vehicles found in the burials of the Afanasevans have been dated to before 2200 BC
Mongolia
–
Deer stones in Mongolia
Mongolia
–
Flag
Mongolia
–
Pasture land in
Arkhangai Province. Mongolia was the heartland of many nomadic empires.
Mongolia
–
Mongolian ordos (palaces) were likened to "cities on the move" (
Plano Carpini).
30.
Kalmykia
–
The Republic of Kalmykia is a province of Russia. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 289,481 and it is the only region in Europe where Buddhism is the most practised religion. It has become known as an international center for chess. Its former President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is the head of the International Chess Federation, the 33rd Chess Olympiad was held in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia. It is washed by the Caspian Sea in the southeast, a small stretch of the Volga River flows through eastern Kalmykia. Other major rivers include the Yegorlyk, the Kuma, and the Manych, Lake Manych-Gudilo is the largest lake, other lakes of significance include Lakes Sarpa and Tsagan-Khak. In all, however, Kalmykia possesses few lakes, Kalmykias natural resources include coal, oil, and natural gas. The republics wildlife includes the saiga antelope, whose habitat is protected in Chyornye Zemli Nature Reserve, Kalmykia has a cold semi-desert climate, with very hot and dry summers and cold winters with little snow. The average January temperature is −5 °C and the average July temperature is +24 °C, average annual precipitation ranges from 170 millimeters in the east of the republic to 400 millimeters in the west. The small town Utta is the hottest place in whole Russia, on July 12,2010, during a huge heatwave affecting the complete country, an all-time record-warm temperature for Russia was observed with 45.4 °C. On the same day, a remarkebly record-high temperature was observed at Ust-Karsk, Zabaykalsky krai, According to the Kurgan hypothesis the upland regions of Kalmykia formed part of the cradle of Indo-European culture. Hundreds of Kurgans can be seen in areas, known as the Indo-European Urheimat. The territory of Kalmykia is unique in that it has been the home in successive periods to many world religions. Prehistoric paganism and shamanism gave way to Judaism with the Khazars and this was succeeded by Islam with the Alans while the Mongol hordes brought Tengriism, and the later Nogais were Muslim, before their replacement by the present-day Buddhist Oirats/Kalmyks. With the annexation of the territory by the Russian Empire, Christianity arrived with Slavic settlers, while all religions were suppressed after the Russian Revolution, shamanism has in all probability remained a constant, often hidden, substrate of folk-practice, as it is today. The ancestors of the Kalmyks, the Oirats, migrated from the steppes of southern Siberia on the banks of the Irtysh River to the Lower Volga region. Various reasons have been given for the move, but the generally accepted answer is that the Kalmyks sought abundant pastures for their herds, another motivation may have been to escape the growing dominance of the neighboring Dzungar Mongol tribe. They reached the lower Volga region in or about 1630 and that land, however, was not uncontested pastures, but rather the homeland of the Nogai Horde, a confederation of Turkic-speaking nomadic tribes
Kalmykia
–
The
Golden Temple in
Elista
Kalmykia
Kalmykia
–
Memorial dedicated to Kalmyk soldiers who fought in the Red Army during World War II
Kalmykia
–
Parliament of Kalmykia in Lenina Square, Elista
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Sect and Sects". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "
