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Tangut Dharani Pillars
The Tangut dharani pillars () are two stone dharani pillars, with the text of a ''Dharani, dhāraṇī''-sutra inscribed on them in the Tangut script, which were found in Baoding, Hebei, China in 1962. The dharani pillars were erected during the middle of the Ming dynasty, in 1502, and they are the latest known examples of the use of the Tangut script. They are also very rare examples of Tangut monumental inscriptions outside of the territories ruled by the Western Xia, Western Xia dynasty. The only other known example of an inscription in the Tangut script that has been found in north China is on the 14th-century Cloud Platform at Juyongguan in Beijing. These pillars indicate that there was a vibrant Tangut community living in Baoding, far from the Tangut homeland in modern Ningxia and Gansu, during the early 16th century, nearly 300 years after the Western Xia was Mongol conquest of Western Xia, annihilated by the Mongol Empire. History The two pillars were discovered in 1962 in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shi Jinbo
Shi Jinbo () (born 3 March 1940) is a Chinese linguist and Tangutologist. Biography Shi Jinbo was born in Gaobeidian City, Hebei in 1940. After leaving school, he enrolled at the Central College for Nationalities in Beijing, where he studied the Yi language. During 1960–1961 Shi went to live among impoverished Yi peasants in the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Sichuan in order to improve his language skills, and by the end of his time there he was fluent enough in the Liangshan Yi language to be able to act as an interpreter for a local government committee. He graduated in 1962, and encouraged by Wang Jingru (), his advisor for his Master's degree, who believed that the extinct Tangut language was related to the Yi language, Shi applied to study Tangut language as a postgraduate at the Institute of Ethnology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. After graduating in 1966, Shi joined a team researching the Western Xia caves at the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Om Mani Padme Hum
' (, ) is the six-syllabled Sanskrit mantra particularly associated with the four-armed Shadakshari form of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. It first appeared in the Mahayana ''Kāraṇḍavyūha sūtra'', where it is also referred to as the ''sadaksara'' (, six syllabled) and the ''paramahrdaya'', or "innermost heart" of Avalokiteshvara. In this text, the mantra is seen as the condensed form of all Buddhist teachings. The precise meaning and significance of the words remain much discussed by Buddhist scholars. The literal meaning in English has been expressed as "praise to the jewel in the lotus", or as a declarative aspiration, possibly meaning "I in the jewel-lotus". ''Padma'' is the Sanskrit for the Indian lotus (''Nelumbo nucifera'') and ''mani'' for "jewel", as in a type of spiritual "jewel" widely referred to in Buddhism. The first word, '' aum/om'', is a sacred syllable in various Indian religions, and ''hum'' represents the spirit of enlightenment. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stele Of Sulaiman
The Stele of Sulaiman is a Yuan dynasty stele that was erected in 1348 to commemorate the benefactors and donors to a Buddhist temple at the Mogao Caves southeast of Dunhuang in Gansu, China. The principal benefactor is named as Sulaiman (), Prince of Xining (died 1351). The stele, which is now held at the Dunhuang Academy, is renowned for an inscription of the Buddhist '' mantra'' '' Om mani padme hum'' in six different scripts. Another stele, commemorating the restoration of the Huangqing Temple () in 1351 by Sulaiman was found at the same location as the 1348 stele. Discovery The two steles were first recorded by the French explorer, Charles Eudes Bonin (1865–1929), during an expedition to western China from 1898 to 1900. When Aurel Stein visited Dunhuang in 1900–1901 he found both steles outside a shrine next to Cave 96, the home of a colossal Buddha statue, 35.5 m in height. Stein supposed that the steles originally belonged in the cave of the colossal Buddha, and tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mani Stone
Mani stones are stone plates, rocks, or pebbles inscribed with the six-syllabled mantra of Avalokiteshvara (''Om mani padme hum'', hence the name ''mani stone'') as a form of prayer in Tibetan Buddhism. The term mani stone may also be used to refer to stones on which any mantra or devotional designs (such as ashtamangala) are inscribed or painted. Mani stones are intentionally placed along the roadsides and rivers or grouped together to form mounds, cairns, or sometimes long walls, as an offering to spirits of place or '' genius loci''. Creating and carving mani stones as devotional or intentional process art is a traditional sadhana of piety to yidam. Mani stones are a form of devotional cintamani. The preferred technique is sunk relief, where an area around each letter is carved out, leaving the letters at the original surface level, now higher than the background. The stones are often painted in symbolic colours for each syllable (''om'' white, ''ma'' green, ''ni'' yello ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Characters
Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represent the only one that has remained in continuous use. Over a documented history spanning more than three millennia, the function, style, and means of writing characters have changed greatly. Unlike letters in alphabets that reflect the sounds of speech, Chinese characters generally represent morphemes, the units of meaning in a language. Writing all of the frequently used vocabulary in a language requires roughly 2000–3000 characters; , nearly have been identified and included in ''The Unicode Standard''. Characters are created according to several principles, where aspects of shape and pronunciation may be used to indicate the character's meaning. The first attested characters are oracle bone inscriptions made during the 13th century&n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Uyghur Alphabet
The Old Uyghur alphabet was a list of alphabets used by Turkic languages, Turkic script used for writing Old Uyghur, a variety of Old Turkic spoken in Turpan and Gansu that is the ancestor of the modern Western Yugur language. The term "Old Uyghur" used for this alphabet is misleading because Qocho, the Yugur, Uyghur (Yugur) kingdom created in 843, originally used the Old Turkic alphabet. The Uyghur adopted this "Old Uyghur" script from local inhabitants when they migrated into Turfan after 840. It was an adaptation of the Aramaic alphabet used for texts with Buddhism, Buddhist, Manichaeism, Manichaean and Church of the East, Christian content for 700–800 years in Turpan. The last known manuscripts are dated to the 18th century. This was the prototype for the Mongolian script, Mongolian and Manchu alphabets. The Old Uyghur alphabet was brought to Mongolia by Tata-tonga. The Old Uyghur script was used between the 8th and 17th centuries primarily in the Tarim Basin of Central As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibetan Alphabet
The Tibetan script is a segmental writing system, or ''abugida'', forming a part of the Brahmic scripts, and used to write certain Tibetic languages, including Tibetan, Dzongkha, Sikkimese, Ladakhi, Jirel and Balti. Its exact origins are a subject of research but is traditionally considered to be developed by Thonmi Sambhota for King Songtsen Gampo. The printed form is called uchen script while the hand-written form used in everyday writing is called umê script. This writing system is especially used across the Himalayan Region. History Little is known about the exact origins of Tibetan script. According to Tibetan historiography, it was developed during the reign of King Songtsen Gampo by his minister Thonmi Sambhota, who was sent to India along with other scholars to study Buddhism along with Sanskrit and other brahmi languages. They developed the Tibetan script from the Gupta script while at the Pabonka Hermitage. This occurred , towards the beginning of S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lanydza Script
The Rañjanā script (Lantsa) is an abugida writing system which developed in the 11th centuryJwajalapa and until the mid-20th century was used in an area from Nepal to Tibet by the Newar people, the historic inhabitants of the Kathmandu Valley, to write Sanskrit and Newar language, Newar (Nepal Bhasa). Nowadays it is also used in Buddhist monasteries in China, especially in the Tibetan Buddhist areas within the Tibet Autonomous Region, Sichuan, Yunnan, Qinghai and Gansu; Mongolia, and Japan. It is normally written from left to right but the Kutakshar form is written from top to bottom. It is also considered to be the standard Nepali calligraphic script. History Rañjanā is a Brahmic scripts, Brahmic script which developed around 1100 CE. It was used in Nepal and is still u ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Sutra
The ushnisha (, Pali: ''uṇhīsa'') is a protuberance on top of the head of a Buddha. In Buddhist literature, it is sometimes said to represent the "crown" of a Buddha, a symbol of Enlightenment and status the King of the Dharma. Description 250px, Head of the Buddha, crowned by the ushnisha, 3rd century, Hadda, Afghanistan The Ushnisha is the thirty-second of the 32 major marks of the Buddha, wherein the Buddha is said to have a fleshy or cranial protuberance at the top of his head. It is sometimes elaborated that it is covered with hair that curls to the right. In art of Southeast Asia, a flame is sometimes added that ascends from the middle of this protuberance. Representation 250px, Flame Ushnisha, 14–15 century, Sukhothai, Thailand Buddhist art from Gandhara in the 1st century CE often represent the Buddha with a topknot, rather than just a cranial knob. It is thought that the interpretation of the ushnisha as a supernatural cranial protuberance happe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hongzhi Emperor
The Hongzhi Emperor (30 July 1470 – 9 June 1505), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xiaozong of Ming, personal name Zhu Youcheng, was the tenth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1487 to 1505. He succeeded his father, the Chenghua Emperor. The Hongzhi Emperor was born during a time in which his father's favorite concubine, Lady Wan, and her supporters were eliminating all potential heirs to the throne. The former empress protected the young prince from Lady Wan, and he did not reunite with his father until the age of five, when he was named crown prince. From a young age, he displayed exceptional intelligence and excelled in his studies, receiving a comprehensive Confucian education. After ascending the throne in 1487, the emperor's administration was guided by Confucian ideology, and he himself was known for his diligence and hard work. He closely oversaw all state affairs, implementing measures such as reducing taxes and government spending, and appoin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
