Mongoose
Mongoose is the popular English name for 29 of the 34 species in the 14 genera of the family Herpestidae, which are small feliform carnivorans native to southern Eurasia and mainland Africa. The other five species in the family are the four kusimanses in the genus Crossarchus, the species Suricata suricatta called meerkat in English. Six species in the family Eupleridae are endemic to the island of Madagascar; these are called "mongoose" and were classified as a genus within the family Herpestidae, but genetic evidence has since shown that they are more related to other Madagascar carnivorans in the family Eupleridae. Herpestidae is placed within the suborder Feliformia, together with the cat and Viverridae families; the name "mongoose" is derived from the Marathi name muṅgūs and from the Telugu name muṅgisa or Kannada muṅgisi. The form of the English name was altered to its "-goose" ending by folk-etymology; the plural form is "mongooses". It has been spelled "mungoose". Mongooses live in southern Asia and southern Europe, as well as in Fiji, Puerto Rico, some Caribbean and Hawaiian islands, where they are an introduced species.
The 34 species range from 24 to 58 cm excluding the tail. Mongooses range in weight from the common dwarf mongoose, at 320 g, to the cat-sized white-tailed mongoose, at 5 kg; some species lead predominantly solitary lives, seeking out food only for themselves, while others travel in groups, sharing food among group members and offspring. Mongooses bear a striking resemblance to mustelids, having long faces and bodies, rounded ears, short legs, long, tapering tails. Most are grizzly, their nonretractile claws are used for digging. Mongooses, much like goats, have narrow, ovular pupils. Most species have a large anal scent gland, used for territorial marking and signaling reproductive status; the dental formula of mongooses is similar to that of viverrids: 3.1.3–4.1–23.1.3–4.1–2. Mongooses have receptors for acetylcholine that, like the receptors in snakes, are shaped so that it is impossible for snake neurotoxin venom to attach to them. Mongooses are one of four known mammalian taxa with mutations in the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor that protect against snake venom.
Pigs, honey badgers and mongooses all have modifications to the receptor pocket that prevents the snake venom α-neurotoxin from binding. These represent four independent mutations. In the mongoose, this change is effected uniquely, by glycosylation. Researchers are investigating whether similar mechanisms protect the mongoose from hemotoxic snake venoms. In contrast to the arboreal, nocturnal viverrids, mongooses are more terrestrial and many are active during the day; the Egyptian mongoose is sometimes held as an example of a solitary mongoose, though it has been observed to work in groups. Mongooses feed on insects, earthworms, lizards and rodents. However, they eat eggs and carrion; the Indian gray mongoose and others are well known for their ability to fight and kill venomous snakes cobras. They are adept at such tasks due to their agility, thick coats, specialized acetylcholine receptors that render them resistant or immune to snake venom. However, they avoid the cobra and have no particular affinity for consuming its meat.
Some species can learn simple tricks. They are kept as pets to control vermin. However, they can be more destructive than desired; when imported into the West Indies to kill rats, they destroyed most of the small, ground-based fauna. For this reason, it is illegal to import most species of mongooses into the United States and other countries. Mongooses were introduced to Hawaii in 1883 and have had a significant adverse effect on native species; the mongoose emits a high-pitched noise known as giggling, when it mates. Giggling is heard during courtship. Communities of female banded mongooses synchronize their whelping to the same day to deter infanticide by dominant females, it is not yet known. The family Herpestidae was first described by French biologist Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1845. In her 1973 book The Carnivores, mammalogist R. F. Ewer included all mongooses in the family Viverridae, though subsequent publications considered them a separate family. In 1864, British zoologist John Edward Gray classified the herpestids into three subfamilies: Galiidinae and Mungotinae.
This grouping was supported by British zoologist Reginald Innes Pocock in his 1919 publication, in which he referred to the family as "Mungotidae". However, in the 2000s, genetic evidence from nuclear and mitochondrial analyses argued against placing the galidiines in the mongoose family. Galiidinae is presently considered a subfamily of Eupleridae. A fossil species, Kichecia zamanae is known from Miocene fossils from Uganda and Kenya Family Herpestidae Subfamily Herpestinae Genus Atilax Marsh mongoose, Atilax paludinosus Genus Bdeogale Bushy-tailed mongoose, Bdeogale crassicauda Jackson's mongoose, Bdeogale jacksoni Black-footed mongoose, Bdeogale nigripes Genus Galerella Angolan slender mongoose, Galerella flavescens Somali slender mongoose, Galerella ochracea Cape gray mongoose, Galerella pulverulenta Slender mongo
Pagoda
A pagoda is a tiered tower with multiple eaves, built in traditions originating as stupa in historic South Asia and further developed in East Asia with respect to those traditions, common to Nepal, Japan, Vietnam, India, Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most Buddhist, were located in or near viharas. In some countries, the term may refer to other religious structures. In Vietnam and Cambodia, due to French translation, the English term pagoda is a more generic term referring to a place of worship, although pagoda is not an accurate word to describe a Buddhist vihara; the modern pagoda is an evolution of the stupa. Stupas are a tomb-like structure where sacred relics could be kept venerated; the architectural structure of the stupa has spread across Asia, taking on many diverse forms as details specific to different regions are incorporated into the overall design. Many Philippine bell towers are influenced by pagodas through Chinese workers hired by the Spaniards.
One proposed etymology is from a South Chinese pronunciation of the term for an eight-cornered tower, Chinese: 八角塔, reinforced by the name of a famous pagoda encountered by many early European visitors to China, the "Pázhōu tǎ", standing just south of Guangzhou at Whampoa Anchorage. Another proposed etymology is Persian butkada, from but, "idol" and kada, "temple, dwelling."Another etymology, found in many English language dictionaries, is modern English pagoda from Portuguese, from Sanskrit bhagavati, feminine of bhagavat, "blessed", from bhag, "good fortune". Yet another etymology of pagoda is from the Sinhala word dāgaba, derived from Sanskrit dhātugarbha or Pali dhātugabbha: "relic womb/chamber" or "reliquary shrine", i.e. a stupa, by way of Portuguese. The origin of the pagoda can be traced to the stupa; the stupa, a dome shaped monument, was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics. In East Asia, the architecture of Chinese towers and Chinese pavilions blended into pagoda architecture also spreading to Southeast Asia.
The pagoda's original purpose was to sacred writings. This purpose was popularized due to the efforts of Buddhist missionaries, pilgrims and ordinary devotees to seek out and extol Buddhist relics. On the other side, the stupa emerged as a distinctive style of Newa architecture of Nepal and was adopted in Southeast and East Asia. Nepali architect Araniko shared his skills to build stupa buildings in China; these buildings became prominent. Chinese iconography is noticeable in Chinese pagoda as well as other East Asian pagoda architectures; the image of Gautama Buddha in the abhaya mudrā is noticeable in some Pagodas. Buddhist iconography can be observed throughout the pagoda symbolism. In an article on Buddhist elements in Han dynasty art, Wu Hung suggests that in these tombs, Buddhist symbolism was so well-incorporated into native Chinese traditions that a unique system of symbolism had been developed. Pagodas attract lightning strikes because of their height. Many pagodas have a decorated finial at the top of the structure, when made of metal, this finial, sometimes referred to as a "demon-arrester", can function as a lightning rod.
Pagodas come in many different sizes, as some may be small and others may be large. Pagodas traditionally have an odd number of levels, a notable exception being the eighteenth century pagoda designed by Sir William Chambers at the Royal Botanic Gardens, London; the pagodas in Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia are different from Chinese and Japanese pagodas. Pagodas in those countries are derived from Dravidian architecture. Tiered towers with multiple eaves: Songyue Pagoda on Mount Song, China, built in 523. Mireuksa at Iksan, built in the early 7th century. Bunhwangsa at Gyeongju, built in 634. Xumi Pagoda at Zhengding, China, built in 636. Daqin Pagoda in China, built in 640. Hwangnyongsa Wooden nine-story pagoda on Hwangnyongsa, Korea, built in 645. Pagoda at Hōryū-ji, Nara, built in the 7th century. Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, built in Xi'an, China in 704 Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built in Xi'an, China in 709. Seokgatap on Bulguksa, Korea, built in 751. Dabotap on Bulguksa, Korea, built in 751. Tiger Hill Pagoda, built in 961 outside of Suzhou, China Lingxiao Pagoda at Zhengding, China, built in 1045.
Iron Pagoda of Kaifeng, built in 1049, during the Song dynasty. Liaodi Pagoda of Dingzhou, built in 1055 during the Song dynasty Pagoda of Fogong Temple, built in 1056 in Ying County, China. Pizhi Pagoda of Lingyan Temple, China, 11th century. Beisi Pagoda at Suzhou, China, built in 1162. Liuhe Pagoda of Hangzhou, built in 1165, during the Song dynasty. Ichijō-ji, Kasai, Hyōgo, built in 1171; the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, built between 1402 and 1424, a wonder of the medieval world in Nanjing, China. Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda in Ping Shan, Hong Kong, built in 1486. Dragon and Tiger Pagodas in Kaohsiung, built in 1976. Seven-storey Pagoda in Chinese Garden at Jurong East, built in 1975. Pazhou Pagoda on Whampoa Island, China, built in 1600. Pagoda of the Celestial Lady, in Huế, built in 1601. Palsangjeon, a five-story pagoda at Beopjusa, Korea built in 1605. Tō-ji, the tallest wooden structure in Kyoto, built in 1644. Nyatapola at Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley built during 1701–1702; the Great Pagoda at Kew Gardens, London, UK, built in 1762.
Trấn Quốc Pagoda, Ha
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, written using Chinese characters; the system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters; the pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang, based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese. It was published by revised several times; the International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as an international standard in 1982, was followed by the United Nations in 1986. The system was adopted as the official standard in Taiwan in 2009, where it is used for international events rather than for educational or computer-input purposes, but "some cities and organizations, notably in the south of Taiwan, did not accept this", so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use.
The word Hànyǔ means'the spoken language of the Han people', while Pīnyīn means'spelled sounds'. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing; this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, issued his Xi Ru Ermu Zi at Hangzhou. Neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing dynasty scholar-official, Fang Yizhi; the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the stunning effect of the kana syllabaries and Western learning there; this galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script.
While Song did not himself create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, further improved by Herbert Giles in the Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892, it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. In the early 1930s, Communist Party of China leaders trained in Moscow introduced a phonetic alphabet using Roman letters, developed in the Soviet Oriental Institute of Leningrad and was intended to improve literacy in the Russian Far East; this Sin Wenz or "New Writing" was much more linguistically sophisticated than earlier alphabets, but with the major exception that it did not indicate tones of Chinese. In 1940, several thousand members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Society's new journal.
Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Fo. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, some contemporary Chinese literature, a spectrum of textbooks. In 1940, the movement reached an apex when Mao's Border Region Government declared that the Sin Wenz had the same legal status as traditional characters in government and public documents. Many educators and political leaders looked forward to the day when they would be universally accepted and replace Chinese characters. Opposition arose, because the system was less well adapted to writing regional languages, therefore would require learning Mandarin. Sin Wenz fell into relative disuse during the following years. In 1943, the U. S. military engaged Yale University to develop a romanization of Mandarin Chinese for its pilots flying over China. The resulting system is close to pinyin, but does not use English letters in unfamiliar ways. Medial semivowels are written with y and w, apical vowels with r or z.
Accent marks are used to indicate tone. Pinyin was created by Chinese linguists, including Zhou Youguang, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou is called "the father of pinyin," Zhou worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he became an economics professor in Shanghai, in 1955, when China's Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned Zhou Youguang the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he was not a professional linguist. Hanyu Pinyin was based on several existing systems: Gwoyeu Romatzyh of 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz of 1931, the diacritic markings from zhuyin. "I'm not the father of pinyin," Zhou said years later. It's a lo
Traditional Chinese characters
Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most the characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong and Macau, in the Kangxi Dictionary; the modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, have been more or less stable since the 5th century. The retronym "traditional Chinese" is used to contrast traditional characters with Simplified Chinese characters, a standardized character set introduced by the government of the People's Republic of China on Mainland China in the 1950s. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau. In contrast, Simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China and Malaysia in official publications. However, several countries – such as Australia, the US and Canada – are increasing their number of printed materials in Simplified Chinese, to better accommodate citizens from mainland China.
The debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. A large number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both character sets. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of China, there is no prohibition against the use of traditional characters. Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China in handwriting and used for inscriptions and religious text, they are retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear. Nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. In Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, simplified Chinese characters in Hong Kong and Macau has appeared to accommodate Mainland Chinese tourists and immigrants; this has led to concerns by many residents to protect their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters.
The use of simplified characters in official documents is prohibited by the government of Taiwan. Simplified characters are understood to a certain extent by any educated Taiwanese, learning to read them takes little effort; some stroke simplifications that have been incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, the semi-simplified name 台灣 is acceptable to write in official documents. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification. While major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, United Daily News still use traditional characters. On the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores.
In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub, used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan. This is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters. Overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the latter half of the 19th century, before the standardization of simplified characters. Therefore, United States public notices and signage in Chinese are in Traditional Chinese. Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world; the government of Taiwan calls traditional Chinese characters standard characters or orthodox characters. However, the same term is used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard and traditional characters from variant and idiomatic characters. In contrast, users of traditional characters outside Taiwan, such as those in Hong Kong and overseas Chinese communities, users of simplified Chinese characters, call them complex characters.
An informal name sometimes used by users of simplified characters is "old characters". Users of traditional characters sometimes refer them as "Full Chinese characters" to distinguish them from simplified Chinese characters; some traditional character users argue that traditional characters are the original form of the Chinese characters and cannot be called "complex". Simplified characters cannot be "standard" because they are not used in all Chinese-speaking regions. Conversely, supporters of simplified Chinese characters object to the description of traditional characters as "standard," since they view the new simplified characters as the contemporary standard used by the vast majority of Chinese speakers, they point out that traditional characters are not traditional as many Chinese characters have been made more elaborate over time. Some people refer to traditional characters as "proper characters" and modernized characters as "simplified-stroke characters" (sim
Four Heavenly Kings
The Four Heavenly Kings are four Buddhist gods, which originates from the Indian version of Lokapalas, each of whom watches over one cardinal direction of the world. In Chinese mythology, they are known collectively as the "Fēng Tiáo Yǔ Shùn" or "Sì Dà Tiānwáng". In the ancient language Sanskrit they are called the "Chaturmahārāja", or "Chaturmahārājikādeva": "Four Great Heavenly Kings"; the Hall of the Heavenly Kings is a standard component of Chinese Buddhist temples. The Kings are collectively named as follows: The Four Heavenly Kings are said to live in the Cāturmahārājika heaven on the lower slopes of Mount Sumeru, the lowest of the six worlds of the devas of the Kāmadhātu, they are the protectors of the world and fighters of evil, each able to command a legion of supernatural creatures to protect the Dharma. Four Heavenly Kings statues at the royal crematorium of King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand All four Kings serve Śakra, the lord of the devas of Trāyastriṃśa. On the 8th, 14th and 15th days of each lunar month, the Kings either send out emissaries or go themselves to inspect the state of virtue and morality in the world of men.
They report their findings to the assembly of the Trāyastriṃśa devas. On the orders of Śakra, the Kings and their retinues stand guard to protect Trāyastriṃśa from another attack by the Asuras, which once threatened to destroy the realm of the devas, they vowed to protect the Buddha, the Dharma, the Buddha's followers from danger. According to Vasubandhu, devas born in the Cāturmahārājika heaven are 1/4 of a krośa in height, they have a five-hundred-year lifespan. The attributes borne by each King link them to their followers; the umbrella was a symbol of regal sovereignty in ancient India, the sword is a symbol of martial prowess. Vaiśravaṇa's mongoose, which ejects jewels from its mouth, is said to represent generosity in opposition to greed. Statues of the Four Heavenly Kings of Jikō-ji, Takasago, Hyōgo, Japan; the Spice Boys are a collective of antagonists called 魔族四天王 in the anime Dragonball Z. The Elite Four from the Pokémon franchise are known as the Four Heavenly Kings in the original Japanese.
The Four Guardians from the video game series Mega Man Zero are known as the Four Heavenly Kings in the original Japanese. The Four Kings of Heaven is the collective name of four antagonists in the Sailor Moon franchise; the Four Heavenly Kings is an association of aliens in Ultraman Mebius. The Four Heavenly Kings of Orochi from The King of Fighters video game series; the Four Heavenly Kings is a group of four powerful "Gourmet Hunters" in the anime/manga Toriko. The Elite Four from the anime Kill la Kill are known as the Four Heavenly Kings in the original Japanese; the Four Heavenly Kings of Shadaloo from Street Fighter However Sagat is replaced by Fang in Street Fighter V. Guardians of the directions Bacab Lokapala Tetramorph Titan Anemoi Four Dwarves Four Stags Svetovid Schumacher, Mark. "Shitenno - Four Heavenly Kings of Buddhism, Guarding Four Cardinal Directions". Digital Dictionary of Buddhism in Japan
Pāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the most complete extant early Buddhist canon. During the First Buddhist Council, Ananda recited the Sutta Pitaka, Upali the Vinaya Pitaka thirty years after the parinibbana of Gautama Buddha in Rajgir; the Arhats present accepted the recitations and henceforth the teachings were preserved orally by the Sangha. The Tipitaka, transmitted to Sri Lanka during the reign of King Asoka were preserved orally and were written down during the Fourth Buddhist Council in 29 BCE 454 years after the death of Gautama Buddha. Textual fragment of similar teachings have been found in the agama of other major Buddhist schools in India, they were however written down in various Prakrits other than Pali as well as Sanskrit. Some of those were translated into Chinese; the surviving Sri Lankan version is the most complete, but one, extensively redacted about 1,000 years after Buddha's death, in the 5th or 6th century CE.
The earliest textual fragments of canonical Pali were found in the Pyu city-states in Burma dating only to the mid 5th to mid 6th century CE. The Pāli Canon falls into three general categories, called pitaka; because of this, the canon is traditionally known as the Tipiṭaka. The three pitakas are; the Vinaya Pitaka and the Sutta Pitaka are remarkably similar to the works of the early Buddhist schools termed Early Buddhist Texts. The Abhidhamma Pitaka, however, is a Theravada collection and has little in common with the Abhidhamma works recognized by other Buddhist schools; the Canon is traditionally described by the Theravada as the Word of the Buddha, though this is not intended in a literal sense, since it includes teachings by disciples. The traditional Theravādin interpretation of the Pali Canon is given in a series of commentaries covering nearly the whole Canon, compiled by Buddhaghosa and monks on the basis of earlier materials now lost. Subcommentaries have been written afterward, commenting further on its commentaries.
The traditional Theravādin interpretation is summarized in Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga. An official view is given by a spokesman for the Buddha Sasana Council of Burma: the Canon contains everything needed to show the path to nirvāna. In Sri Lanka and Thailand, "official" Buddhism has in large part adopted the interpretations of Western scholars. Although the Canon has existed in written form for two millennia, its earlier oral nature has not been forgotten in actual Buddhist practice within the tradition: memorization and recitation remain common. Among recited texts are the Paritta. Lay people know at least a few short texts by heart and recite them regularly. Monks are of course expected to know quite a bit more. A Burmese monk named Vicittasara learned the entire Canon by heart for the Sixth Council; the relation of the scriptures to Buddhism as it exists among ordinary monks and lay people is, as with other major religious traditions, problematic: the evidence suggests that only parts of the Canon enjoyed wide currency, that non-canonical works were sometimes much more used.
Rupert Gethin suggests that the whole of Buddhist history may be regarded as a working out of the implications of the early scriptures. According to a late part of the Pali Canon, the Buddha taught the three pitakas, it is traditionally believed by Theravadins that most of the Pali Canon originated from the Buddha and his immediate disciples. According to the scriptures, a council was held shortly after the Buddha's passing to collect and preserve his teachings; the Theravada tradition states that it was recited orally from the 5th century BCE to the first century BCE, when it was written down. The memorization was enforced by regular communal recitations; the tradition holds that only a few additions were made. The Theravādin pitakas were first written down in Sri Lanka in the Alu Viharaya Temple no earlier than 29-17 B. C. E; the geographic setting of identifiable texts within the Canon corresponds to locations in the Ganges region of northeastern India, including the kingdoms of Kosala, Kasi and Magadha.
While Theravada tradition has regarded Pali as being synonymous with the language of the kingdom of Magadhi as spoken by the Buddha, linguists have identified Pali as being more related to other prakrit languages of western India, found substantial incompatibilities with the few preserved examples of Magadhi and other north-eastern prakrit languages. Linguistic research suggests that the teachings of the Buddha may have been recorded in an eastern India language but were transposed into the west Indian precursor of Pali sometime before the Asokan era. Much of the material in the Canon is not Theravādin, but is
Yama (Buddhism)
In East Asian and Buddhist mythology, Yama is a dharmapala said to judge the dead and preside over the Narakas and the cycle of afterlife saṃsāra. Although based on the god Yama of the Hindu Vedas, the Buddhist Yama has developed different myths and different functions from the Hindu deity, he has spread far more and is known in most countries where Buddhism is practiced, including China, Japan, Vietnam, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Laos. Adopted from Hinduism into Buddhism, Yama's exact role is vague in canonical texts, but is clearer in extracanonical texts and popular beliefs, although these are not always consistent with Buddhist philosophy. In the Pali canon, the Buddha states that a person who has ill-treated their parents, holy persons, or elders is taken upon his death to Yama. Yama asks the ignoble person if he considered his own ill conduct in light of birth, sickness, worldly retribution and death. In response to Yama's questions, such an ignoble person answers that he failed to consider the karmic consequences of his reprehensible actions and as a result is sent to a brutal hell "so long as that evil action has not exhausted its result."In the Pali commentarial tradition, the scholar Buddhaghosa's commentary to the Majjhima Nikaya describes Yama as a vimānapeta, a "being in a mixed state", sometimes enjoying celestial comforts and at other times punished for the fruits of his karma.
However, Buddhaghosa considered his rule as a king to be just. Modern Theravādin countries portray Yama sending old age, disease and other calamities among humans as warnings to behave well. At death, they are summoned before Yama, who examines their character and dispatches them to their appropriate rebirth, whether to earth or to one of the heavens or hells. Sometimes there are thought to be each presiding over a distinct Hell. In Chinese mythology, King Yan is the god of death and the ruler of Diyu, overseeing the "Ten Kings of Hell", he is known as Yanluo, a transcription of the Sanskrit for King Yama. In both ancient and modern times, Yan is portrayed as a large man with a scowling red face, bulging eyes, a long beard, he wears traditional robes and a judge's cap or a crown which bears the character for "king". He appears on Chinese hell money in the position reserved for political figures on regular currency. Yan is not only the ruler but the judge of the underworld and passes judgment on all the dead.
He always appears in a male form, his minions include a judge who holds in his hands a brush and a book listing every soul and the allotted death date for every life. Ox-Head and Horse-Face, the fearsome guardians of hell, bring the newly dead, one by one, before Yan for judgement. Men or women with merit will be rewarded good future lives or revival in their previous life. Men or women who committed misdeeds will be sentenced to miserable future lives. In some versions, Yan divides Diyu into eight, ten, or eighteen courts each ruled by a Yan King, such as King Chujiang, who rules the court reserved for thieves and murderers; the spirits of the dead, on being judged by Yan, are supposed to either pass through a term of enjoyment in a region midway between the earth and the heaven of the gods or to undergo their measure of punishment in the nether world. Neither location is permanent and after a time, they return to Earth in new bodies. "Yan" was sometimes considered to be a position in the celestial hierarchy, rather than an individual.
There were said to be cases in which an honest mortal was rewarded the post of Yan and served as the judge and ruler of the underworld. Some said common people like Bao Zheng, Fan Zhongyan, Zhang Binglin became the Yan at night or after death; these Chinese beliefs subsequently spread to Japan. In Japan, he is called Enma, King Enma, Great King Enma. In Korea, Yan is known as Great King Yeom-ra. In Vietnam, these Buddhist deities are known as Diêm La or Diêm Vương and are venerated as a council of all ten kings who oversee underworld realm of địa ngục. "If you lie, Lord Enma will pull out your tongue" is a superstition in Japan told to scare children into telling the truth. A Japanese kotowaza states "When borrowing, the face of a jizō. Jizō is portrayed with a serene, happy expression whereas Enma is portrayed with a thunderous, furious expression; the kotowaza alludes to changes in people's behaviour for selfish reasons depending on their circumstances. In Tibetan Buddhism, Shinje is both regarded with horror as the prime mover of the cycle of death and rebirth and revered as a guardian of spiritual practice.
In the popular mandala of the Bhavachakra, all of the realms of life are depicted between the jaws or in the arms of a monstrous Shinje. Shinje is sometimes shown with a consort and sometimes pursued by Yamantaka. Lord Yama appears as King Yemma in the manga franchise Dragonball. Lord Yama appears as Great King Emma in manga franchise Dr. slump. Lord Yama appears as King Enma in the anime and manga franchise Yu Yu Hakusho along with a fictional son named "Koenma." Lord Yama appears as King Enma in the manga franchise Hoozuki no Reitetsu. Lord Yama appears as Ancient Enma in the anime and video game franchise Yo-Kai W
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