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Loung Pordaeng
Luang Pho Daeng () was a Thai Buddhist monk who died while meditating in 1973. Biography Daeng was born in 1894. He was briefly interested in becoming a monk in his 20s, but decided that he would rather be married instead. He raised six children with his only wife. After all of his children had grown, Daeng, then in his 70s, realized his earlier dream and finally decided to become a monk. He was briefly an abbot at a temple in southern Thailand, but moved to Wat Khunaram near his childhood home. Daeng died while meditating in 1973. His mummified body is on display at Wat Khunaram. The mummy is notable for sporting a pair of sunglasses, placed by the caretakers to hide the decomposed eye sockets to make the display less disturbing. A native gecko species use Daeng's body as a hatchery, with eggs being laid beneath his skin. See also * Buddhist mummy * ''Sokushinbutsu is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ko Samui
Ko Samui (or Koh Samui), often locally shortened to Samui (, ), is an island off the east coast of Thailand. Geographically in the Mu Ko Samui, Chumphon Archipelago, it is part of Surat Thani Province, though as of 2012, Ko Samui was granted municipal status and thus is now locally self-governing. Ko Samui, with an area of , is Thailand's second largest island after Phuket Province, Phuket. In 2018, it was visited by 2.7 million tourists. History The island was probably first inhabited in about the 6th century, settled by fishermen from the Malay Peninsula and southern China. It appears on Chinese maps dating back to 1687, under the name ''Pulo Cornam''. The origin of the name ''samui'' is unknown. It may come from the Sanskrit-Tamil word สมวย, meaning 'sea weather'. Or it may derive from the name of a Micromelum minutum, tree known locally in Southern Thai language, southern Thailand as (full name ). A third possibility is that it originated from early Hainanese traders ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bhikkhu
A ''bhikkhu'' (, ) is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male, and female monastics (''bhikkhunī''), are members of the Sangha (Buddhist community). The lives of all Buddhist monastics are governed by a set of rules called the pratimokṣa, prātimokṣa or pāṭimokkha, pātimokkha. Their lifestyles are shaped to support their spiritual practice: to live a simple and meditative life and attain Nirvana (Buddhism), nirvana. A person under the age of 20 cannot be ordained as a bhikkhu or bhikkhuni but can be ordained as a samanera, śrāmaṇera or śrāmaṇērī. Definition ''Bhikkhu'' literally means "begging, beggar" or "one who lives by dāna, alms". The historical Buddha, Gautama Buddha, Prince Siddhartha, having abandoned a life of pleasure and status, lived as an alms mendicant as part of his śramaṇa lifestyle. Those of his more serious students who renounced their lives as householders and came to study full-time under his supervision also adopted this lifest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bangkok Post
The ''Bangkok Post'' is an English-language daily newspaper published in Bangkok, Thailand. It is published in broadsheet and digital formats. The first issue was sold on 1 August 1946. It had four pages and cost one baht, a considerable amount at the time when a baht was a paper note. It is Thailand's oldest newspaper still in publication. The daily circulation of the ''Bangkok Post'' is 110,000, 80 percent of which is distributed in Bangkok and the remainder nationwide. It is considered a newspaper of record for Thailand. From July 2016 until mid-May 2018, the editor of the ''Bangkok Post'' was Umesh Pandey. On 14 May 2018, Pandey was "forced to step down" as editor after refusing to soften coverage critical of the ruling military junta. History The ''Bangkok Post'' was founded by Alexander MacDonald, a former OSS officer, and his Thai associate, Prasit Lulitanond. Thailand at the time was the only Southeast Asian country to have a Soviet Embassy. The U.S. embassy felt it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Atlas Obscura
''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professional and user-generated content, operates group trips to destinations around the world, produces a daily podcast, as well as books, TV and film. The brand covers a number of topics including history, science, food, and obscure places. History Thuras and Foer met in 2007, and soon discussed ideas for a different kind of atlas, featuring places not commonly found in guidebooks. They hired a web designer in 2008 and launched ''Atlas Obscura'' in 2009. Annetta Black was the site's first senior editor. In 2010, the site organized the first of the international events known as Obscura Day. Thuras has stated that one of the site's main goals is "Creating a real-world community who are engaging with us, each other and these places and getting away ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abbot
Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the head of an independent monastery for men in various Western Christian traditions. The name is derived from ''abba'', the Aramaic form of the Hebrew ''ab'', and means "father". The female equivalent is abbess. Origins The title had its origin in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria, spread through the eastern Mediterranean, and soon became accepted generally in all languages as the designation of the head of a monastery. The word is derived from the Aramaic ' meaning "father" or ', meaning "my father" (it still has this meaning in contemporary Arabic: أب, Hebrew: אבא and Aramaic: ܐܒܐ) In the Septuagint, it was written as "abbas". At first it was employed as a respectful title for any monk, but it was soon restricted by canon law to certain priestly superiors. At times it was applied to various priests, e.g. at the court of the Frankish monarchy the ' ("of the palace"') and ' ("of the camp") were chaplains to the Merovingian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wat Khunaram
Wat Khunaram () is a Buddhist temple on the island of Ko Samui in Surat Thani Province, Thailand. It is most notable for being the shrine of "the Mummy Monk", Luang Pho Daeng, who died in 1973 and directed that his body be put on display as a reminder of the transience of human existence. It is located in the area between Na Muang and Hua Thanon, Ko Samui, Hua Thanon on Thai route 4169, the main route around the island. It is 13 km southeast of Nathon, the island's "capital city" and main port, and 6 km west of the resort town of Lamai Beach. See also *List of Buddhist temples in Thailand References Buddhist temples in Surat Thani province Tourist attractions in Surat Thani province {{Thailand-Buddhist-temple-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gecko
Geckos are small, mostly carnivorous lizards that have a wide distribution, found on every continent except Antarctica. Belonging to the infraorder Gekkota, geckos are found in warm climates. They range from . Geckos are unique among lizards for their vocalisations, which differ from species to species. Most geckos in the family Gekkonidae use chirping or clicking sounds in their social interactions. Tokay geckos (''Gekko gecko'') are known for their loud mating calls, and some other species are capable of making hissing noises when alarmed or threatened. They are the most species-rich group of lizards, with about 1,500 different species worldwide. All geckos, except species in the family Eublepharidae lack eyelids; instead, the outer surface of the eyeball has a transparent membrane, the brille. They have a fixed lens within each iris that enlarges in darkness to let in more light. Since they cannot blink, species without eyelids generally lick their own brilles whe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hatchery
A hatchery is a facility where eggs are hatched under artificial conditions, especially those of fish, poultry or even turtles. It may be used for ''ex situ'' conservation purposes, i.e. to breed rare or endangered species under controlled conditions; alternatively, it may be for economic reasons (i.e. to enhance food supplies or fishery resources). Fish hatcheries Fish hatcheries are used to cultivate and breed a large number of fish in an enclosed environment. Fish farms use hatcheries to cultivate fish to sell for food, or ornamental purposes, eliminating the need to find the fish in the wild and even providing some species outside their natural season. They raise the fish until they are ready to be eaten or sold to aquarium stores. Other hatcheries release the juvenile fish into a river, lake or the ocean to support commercial, tribal, or recreational fishing or to supplement the natural numbers of threatened or endangered species, a practice known as fish stocking. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Buddhist Mummy
Buddhist mummies, also called flesh body bodhisattvas, full body sariras, or living buddhas (Sokushinbutsu) refer to the bodies of Buddhist monks and nuns that remain incorrupt, without any traces of deliberate mummification by another party. Many were destroyed or lost to history. In 2015, the Hungarian Natural History Museum exhibited a Buddhist mummy hidden inside a statue of Buddha, during its first tour outside China. Methods Self-mummification is a common method in China. Examples of Monks who practiced this include Tao Wing (道榮) or Yuet Kai (月溪). Some practitioners have covered their own bodies with clay or salt. According to Victor H. Mair in the Discovery Channel series ''The Mystery of the Tibetan Mummy'', the self-mummification of a Tibetan monk, who died ''ca.'' 1475 and whose body was retrieved relatively incorrupt in the 1990s, was achieved by the sophisticated practices of meditation, coupled with prolonged starvation and slow self-suffocation using a speci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sokushinbutsu
is a type of Buddhist mummy. In Japan the term refers to the practice of Buddhist monks observing asceticism to the point of death and entering mummification while alive. Although mummified monks are seen in a number of Buddhist countries, especially in Southeast Asia where monks are mummified after dying of natural causes, it is only in Japan that monks are believed to have induced their own death by starvation. There is a common suggestion that Shingon school founder Kukai brought this practice from Tang China as part of secret tantric practices he learned. During the 20th century, Japanese scholars found very little evidence of self-starvation of . They rather concluded that mummification took place after the demise of the monk practising this kind of asceticism, as seen in Southeast Asian lands. Origin There is at least one "self-mummified" 550-year-old corpse in existence: that of a Buddhist monk named Sangha Tenzin in a northern Himalayan region of India, visible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1894 Births
Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * January 9 – New England Telephone and Telegraph installs the first battery-operated telephone switchboard, in Lexington, Massachusetts. February * February 12 – French anarchist Émile Henry sets off a bomb in a Paris café, killing one person and wounding twenty. * February 15 ** In Korea, peasant unrest erupts in the Donghak Peasant Revolution, a massive revolt of followers of the Donghak movement. Both China and Japan send military forces, claiming to come to the ruling Joseon dynasty government's aid. ** French anarchist Martial Bourdin dies of an accidental detonation of his own bomb, next to the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in London, England. March * March 1 – The Local Government Act (coming into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1973 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 14 - The 16-0 1972 Miami Dolphins season, Miami Dolphins defeated the 1972 Washington Redskins season, Washington Redskins in Super Bowl VII, with the Dolphins ending the season a perfect 17-0. This marked the first and only time that an NFL team has had a perfect undefeated season, an achievement the team holds to this day. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. President Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam. * January 17 – Ferdinand Marcos becomes President for Life of the Philippines. * January 22 ** ''Joe Frazier vs. George Foreman, The Sunshine Showdown'': George Foreman defeats Joe Frazier to win the heavyweight world boxing championship in Kingston, Jamaica. ** A Royal Jorda ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
