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White Elephant (animal)
A white elephant (also albino elephant) is a rare kind of elephant, but not a distinct species. Although often depicted as snow white, their skin is typically a soft reddish-brown, turning a light pink when wet. They have fair eyelashes and toenails. The traditional "white elephant" is commonly misunderstood as being Albinism in biology, albino, but the Thai language, Thai term, ''chang samkhan'', translates as 'auspicious elephant', being "white" in terms of an aspect of purity. , Myanmar has ten white elephants. The king of Thailand also keeps a number of white elephants, eleven of which are still alive . Religious significance Hinduism In Hindu ''puranas'', the vehicle or mount of god Indra (Śakra (Buddhism), Sakra in the Buddhist pantheon) is the white elephant named Airavata, Airāvata, which possesses the ability to fly. Airāvata emerged when the universe was created by the churning of the Kshira Sagara, Ocean of Milk by the demons and the gods. Consequently, Airāva ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
White Elephant
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of without extreme difficulty, and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. In modern usage, it is a metaphor used to describe an object, construction project, scheme, business venture, facility, etc. considered expensive but without equivalent utility or value relative to its capital (acquisition) and/or operational (maintenance) costs. Historical background The term derives from the sacred white elephants kept by Southeast Asian monarchs in Burma, Thailand (Siam), Laos and Cambodia. To possess a white elephant was regarded—and is still regarded in Thailand and Burma—as a sign that the monarch reigned with justice and power, and that the kingdom was blessed with peace and prosperity. The opulence expected of anyone who owned a beast of such stature was great. Monarchs often exemplified their possession of white elephants in their formal titles (e.g., Hsinbyushin, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maya (mother Of The Buddha)
Maya (; Devanagari: , IAST: ), also known as Mahāmāyā and Māyādevī, was Queen of Shakya and the mother of Siddhartha Gautama, better known as the Buddha. She was the wife of Śuddhodana, the king of the Shakya kingdom. She died days after giving birth and the Buddha was raised by her sister, Mahapajapati Gotami, Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī, who became the first Buddhist nun ordained by the Buddha.''Buddhist Goddesses of India'' by Miranda Shaw (Oct 16, 2006) pages 45-46''History of Buddhist Thought'' by E. J. Thomas (Dec 1, 2000) pages In the Buddhist Commentaries, Maya was on a traditional journey to her familial home in Devadaha where she would give birth, but her labor started as they were in Lumbini. The Buddha was then born in the gardens and Maya died soon after the birth of the Buddha, generally said to have been seven days afterwards. Maya was then reborn, or came to life again, in a Buddhist heaven, a pattern that is said to be followed in the births of all Buddhas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kyauktawgyi Buddha Temple (Yangon)
Kyauktawgyi Buddha Temple () is a Buddhist temple located on Mindhamma Hill on Insein Township, Yangon, Burma. The temple houses a feet tall Buddha called the Loka Chantha Abhaya Labha Muni (), which is carved out of a single piece of white marble quarried in Sagyin Hill, Madaya Township, Mandalay Region. The image weighs approximately 560 tons. The Buddha is carved making the abhayamudra (), the gesture of fearlessness. The marble image was transported using a special railroad carriage, which was then placed on a long barge donated by the Metro Asia Myanmar. The barge was pushed down the Irrawaddy River by three steamers, stopping along major towns before reaching Yangon. The barge was accompanied by a fleet of decorated ceremonial boats. The marble image landed at Gyogon, Insein Township on 5 August 2000 to an audience of 500,000 people, including government officials from the State Peace and Development Council The State Peace and Development Council ( ; abbrev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry Of Natural Resources And Environmental Conservation
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation (; MONREC) is a Myanmar government ministry, founded by the merger of the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Environmental Conservation and Forestry by then-president Htin Kyaw in 2016. , Myanmar possesses ten captive white elephants, which are in the custody of the Ministry's Forest Department. They are kept in inhumane conditions, instead of being allowed to roam, they are shackled for 22 hours a day and housed in small open-air pavilions. Departments *Union Minister OfficeForest Department*Dry Zone Greening DepartmentEnvironmental Conservation Department*Survey Department * Myanma Timber Enterprise * University of Forestry and Environmental Science *Department of Mines *Department of Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration *No. 1 Mining Enterprise *No. 2 Mining Enterprise * Myanma Gems Enterprise *Myanma Pearl Enterprise References {{authority control NaturalResourcesEnvironmentalConservation Myan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Myanmar
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by India and Bangladesh to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Early civilisations in the area included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Myanmar and the Mon kingdoms in Lower Myanmar. In the 9th century, the Bamar people entered the upper Irrawaddy River, Irrawaddy valley, and following the establishment of the Pagan Kingdom in the 1050s, the Burmese language and Culture of Myanmar, culture and Buddhism in Myanmar, Theravada Buddhism slowly became dominant in the co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lord White Elephant
Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are entitled to courtesy titles. The collective "Lords" can refer to a group or body of peers. Etymology According to the ''Oxford Dictionary of English'', the etymology of the word can be traced back to the Old English word ''hlāford'' which originated from ''hlāfweard'' meaning "loaf-ward" or "bread-keeper", reflecting the Germanic tribal custom of a chieftain providing food for his followers. The appellation "lord" is primarily applied to men, while for women the appellation "lady" is used. This is no longer universal: the Lord of Mann, a title previously held by the Queen of the United Kingdom, and female Lords Mayor are examples of women who are styled as "Lord". Historical usage Feudalism Under the feudal system, "lord" had a wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konbaung Dynasty
The Konbaung dynasty (), also known as the Third Burmese Empire (တတိယမြန်မာနိုင်ငံတော်), was the last dynasty that ruled Burma from 1752 to 1885. It created the second-largest empire in history of Myanmar, Burmese history and continued the administrative reforms begun by the Toungoo dynasty, laying the foundations of the modern state of Burma. The reforms, however, proved insufficient to stem the advance of the British Empire, who defeated the Burmese in all three Anglo-Burmese Wars over a six-decade span (1824–1885) and ended the millennium-old Burmese monarchy in 1885. Pretenders to the dynasty claim descent from Myat Phaya Lat, one of Thibaw's daughters. An expansionist dynasty, the Konbaung kings waged campaigns against the Mizo Chieftainship, Lushai Hills, Möng Mao, Manipur, Assam, Kingdom of Mrauk U, Arakan, the Mon people, Mon kingdom of Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Pegu, Siam, and the Qing dynasty of China—thus establis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Toungoo Dynasty
''taungnguumainn saat'' , conventional_long_name = Toungoo dynasty , common_name = Taungoo dynasty , status = Empire/Monarchy, Kingdom , event_start = Independence from Kingdom of Ava, Ava Kingdom , year_start = 1510 , date_start = 16 October , event_end = Restored Hanthawaddy Kingdom, Hanthawaddy conquest , year_end = 1752 , date_end = 23 March , event_pre = , date_pre = 1485 , event1 = , date_event1 = 1510–1599 , event2 = , date_event2 = 1599–1752 , p1 = Kingdom of Ava , p2 = Hanthawaddy Kingdom , p3 = Confederation of Shan States , p4 = Lan Na Kingdom , p5 = Ayutthaya Kingdom , p6 = Lan Xang , p7 = Manipur (kingdom) , s1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Toungoo Empire
The First Toungoo Empire (, , lit. "Toungoo Period"; also known as the Second Burmese Empire in traditional historiography, or simply the Taungoo dynasty) was the dominant power in mainland Southeast Asia in the second half of the 16th century. At its peak, Toungoo "exercised suzerainty from present-day Assam, Manipur to the Cambodian marches and from the borders of Arakan to Yunnan" and was the largest empire and the only great power country in the history of Southeast Asia." The "most adventurous and militarily successful" dynasty in Burmese history was also the "shortest-lived." The empire grew out of the principality of Toungoo, a minor vassal state of Ava until 1510. The landlocked petty state began its rise in the 1530s under Tabinshwehti who went on to found the largest polity in Myanmar since the Pagan kingdom by 1550. His more celebrated successor Bayinnaung then greatly expanded the empire, conquering much of mainland Southeast Asia by 1565. He spent the next dec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ayutthaya Kingdom
The Ayutthaya Kingdom or the Empire of Ayutthaya was a Thai people, Thai kingdom that existed in Southeast Asia from 1351 to 1767, centered around the city of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (city), Ayutthaya, in Siam, or present-day Thailand. European travellers in the early 16th century called Ayutthaya one of the three great powers of Asia (alongside Vijayanagara Empire, Vijayanagara and China). The Ayutthaya Kingdom is considered to be the precursor of modern Thailand, and its developments are an important part of the history of Thailand. The name Ayutthaya originates from Ayodhya (Ramayana), Ayodhya, a Sanskrit word. This connection stems from the Ramakien, Thailand's national epic. The Ayutthaya Kingdom emerged from the Mandala (political model), mandala or merger of three maritime city-states on the Lower Chao Phraya Valley in the late 13th and 14th centuries (Lopburi province, Lopburi, Suphan Buri province, Suphanburi, and Ayutthaya). The early kingdom was a maritime confedera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Meru
Mount Meru (Sanskrit/Pali: मेरु)—also known as Sumeru, Sineru or Mahāmeru—is a sacred, five-peaked mountain present within Hindu, Jain and Buddhist cosmologies, revered as the centre of all physical, metaphysical and spiritual universes. It is professed to be located at the junction of the four great cosmic continents—Pubbavideha Dīpa, Uttarakuru Dīpa, Amaragoyāna Dīpa and Jambu Dīpa. Despite not having a clearly identified or known geophysical location, Mount Meru is, nevertheless, always thought of as being either in the Himalayan Mountains or the Aravalli Range (in western India). Mount Meru is also mentioned in scriptures of other, external religions to India, such as Taoism—which was influenced, itself, by the arrival of Buddhism in China. Many Hindu, Jain and Buddhist temples have been built as symbolic representations of Mount Meru. The "Sumeru Throne" ( :zh:须弥座; ''xūmízuò'') style is a common feature of Chinese pagodas. The highe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deva (Buddhism)
A Deva (Sanskrit and Pali: देव; Mongolian: тэнгэр, tenger) in Buddhism is a type of celestial being or god who shares the god-like characteristics of being more powerful, longer-lived, and, in general, much happier than humans, although the same level of veneration is not paid to them as to Buddhas. Other words used in Buddhist texts to refer to similar supernatural beings are devatā ("deities") and devaputta ("son of god"). While the former is a synonym for deva ("celestials"), the latter refers specifically to one of these beings who is young and has newly arisen in its heavenly world. In East Asian Buddhism, the word ''deva'' is translated as 天 (literally "heaven") or 天人 (literally "heavenly person") (see the Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese versions of this article for more). The feminine equivalent of ''deva'', ''devi'', is sometimes translated as 天女 (literally "heavenly female"), in names such as 吉祥天女 or 辯才天女, altho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
