|
Eight Legions
The Eight Legions (, ; 八部衆) are a group of Buddhist deities whose function is to protect the Dharma. These beings are common among the audience addressed by the Buddha in Mahāyāna sūtras, making appearances in such scriptures as the Lotus Sutra and the Golden Light Sutra. They are also referred to as the "Eight Legions of Devas and Nāgas" (天龍八部). Asuras are also listed here as protectors of Dharma in the same sense as demigods are referred as "asuratvam" (holy) in Rigvedic "Hymn to all gods" where devas are related to "asuras" (thus, protectors of Dharma). Related word "ahura" in Zoroastrianism also means "god". Etymology The name ''aṣṭasenā'' (अष्टसेना) is composed of two Sanskrit terms. ''Aṣṭa'' (अष्ट) means ''eight'', with connections to the Latin ''octo'' and the Persian ''hašt'' (هشت). ''Senā'' (सेना) means ''legion'', but can be rendered ''army'', ''general'', ''warrior'' and the like. Yet for the sake of a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mahoraga
The ''Mahoraga'' (Sanskrit: महोरग), also pronounced as ''Maha-Uraga'' ("Greater Reptilians"), are a race of deities in Buddhism, and Jainism. They are the exalted ones among the ''Uragas'', a race of primordial reptilian beings who are cousins to the nāga. Like the nāga, they are often depicted as anthropomorphic beings with reptilian bodies from the waist down. However, their appearance can differ depending on artistic tradition, sometimes having serpent skin with humanoid bodies, or having a serpent head with the body of a human. Buddhism The Mahoraga are one of the eight classes of deities ( aṣṭasenā) that are said to protect the Dharma. They are described as huge subterranean serpents who lie on their sides and rotate the earth, which occasionally causes earthquakes. Like the kinnara, the Mahoraga are also associated with instrumental music. They are understood as being associated with large serpents such as pythons, while the nāgas are more closely rel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eight Classes Of Gods And Demons
The eight classes of gods and demons (Tibetan: ལྷ་སྲིན་སྡེ་བརྒྱད་, ''lha srin sde brgyad'') are a traditional classification of supernatural beings in Tibetan Buddhism and Bön. These entities—sometimes gods, sometimes demons—are believed to inhabit the natural and spiritual world and can have both benevolent and malevolent influence over human life. Overview The term "eight classes of gods and demons" refers to a fluid category of worldly spirits in Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, whose precise composition can vary depending on lineage, ritual purpose, or textual source. Originally grounded in indigenous Tibetan cosmology, the list of eight was later overlaid with Indian Buddhist terminology, resulting in partial overlaps with Sanskrit spirit-classes such as yakṣa, nāga, and rākṣasa.See, for example, . In some ritual contexts, this merger has led to expanded enumerations of ten, eleven, or even sixteen classes, as additional spirit types ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Language
Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language. Chinese languages form the Sinitic languages, Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of a single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a Language family, family. Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin Chinese, Mandarin with 66%, or around 800&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kinnara
A kinnara (Sanskrit: Kiṃnara) is a creature from Hindu and Buddhist mythology. They are described as part human and part bird, and have a strong association with music and love. Believed to come from the Himalayas, they often watch over the well-being of humans in times of trouble or danger. An ancient Indian string instrument is known as the Kinnari vina. Their character is also clarified in the ''Adi Parva'' of the ''Mahabharata'', where they say: They are featured in a number of Buddhist texts, including the Jataka tales and Lotus Sutra. In Southeast Asian Buddhist mythology, kinnaris, the female counterpart of kinnaras, are depicted as half-bird, half-woman creatures. One of the many creatures that inhabit the mythical Himavanta, kinnaris have the head, torso, and arms of a woman and the wings, tail and feet of a swan. They are renowned for their dance, song and poetry, and are a traditional symbol of feminine beauty, grace and accomplishment. Edward H. Schaf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garuḍa
Garuda (; ; Vedic Sanskrit: , ) is a Hindu god, Hindu deity who is primarily depicted as the mount (''vahana'') of the Hindu god Vishnu. This divine creature is mentioned in the Hindu mythology, Hindu, Buddhist mythology, Buddhist, and Jain faiths. Garuda is also the half-brother of the Deva (Buddhism), Devas, Gandharvas, Daityas, Danavas, Nāgas, Vanara and Yakshas. He is the son of the sage Kashyapa and Vinata. He is the younger brother of Aruna (Hinduism), Aruna, the charioteer of the Surya, Sun. Garuda is mentioned in several other texts such as the Puranas and the Vedas. Garuda is described as the king of the birds and a Brahminy kite, kite-like figure. He is shown either in a zoomorphic form (a giant bird with partially open wings) or an anthropomorphic form (a man with wings and some ornithic features). Garuda is generally portrayed as a protector with the power to swiftly travel anywhere, ever vigilant and an enemy of every serpent. He is also known as Tarkshya and Vaina ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gandharva
A ''gandharva'' () is a member of a class of celestial beings in Indian religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, whose males are divine performers such as musicians and singers, and the females are divine dancers. In Hinduism, they are regarded to be the celestial demigods who serve as the musicians of the devas. It is also a term for skilled singers in Indian classical music. In Buddhism, this term also refers to a being in the intermediate state (between death and rebirth). In Hinduism In Hinduism, the gandharvas () are a class of minor deities who serve as divine musicians in Hindu mythology. The term gandharva is present in Vedic sources (including in the Rigveda) as a singular deity. According to Oberlies, "In mandala I, IX and X the gandharva is presented as a celestial being (dwelling near the Sun / in the heavenly waters) which watches over the Soma (apparently) for the benefit of the gods and the sacrificers." The gandharva also "receives the Soma from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yakṣa
The Yakshas (, , ) in Mythology are a broad class of nature spirits, usually benevolent, but sometimes mischievous or capricious, connected with water, fertility, trees, the forest, treasure and wilderness. They appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, as well as ancient and medieval era temples of South Asia and Southeast Asia as guardian deities. The feminine form of the word is or Yakshini (, ; ). In Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, the s have a dual personality. On the one hand, a may be an inoffensive nature-fairy, associated with woods and mountains; but there is also a darker version of the , which is a kind of ( bhuta) that haunts the wilderness and waylays and devours travellers, similar to the rakṣasas. Early yakshas Yakshas appear in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts. Several monumental yakshas are known from the time of the Maurya Empire period. They are variously dated from around the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century BCE. These statues are monumental (usual ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Revised Romanization Of Korean
Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Romanization of Korean, Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Institute of Korean Language, National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (South Korea), Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Proclamation No. 2000-8. The new system addressed problems in the implementation of the McCune–Reischauer system, such as the phenomena where different consonants and vowels became indistinguishable in the absence of special symbols. To be specific, under the McCune–Reischauer system, the consonants (''k''), (''t''), (''p'') and (''ch'') and (''k''), (''t''), (''p'') and (''ch'') became indistinguishable when the apostrophe was removed. In addition, the vowels (''ŏ'') and (''o''), as well as (''ŭ'') and (''u''), became indistinguishable when the breve was removed. Espe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin'' literally means 'spelled sounds'. Pinyin is the official romanization system used in China, Singapore, Taiwan, and by the United Nations. Its use has become common when transliterating Standard Chinese mostly regardless of region, though it is less ubiquitous in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Chinese, normally written with Chinese characters, to students in mainland China and Singapore. Pinyin is also used by various Chinese input method, input methods on computers and to lexicographic ordering, categorize entries in some Chinese dictionaries. In pinyin, each Chinese syllable is spelled in terms of an optional initial (linguistics), initial and a final (linguistics), final, each of which is represented by one or more letters. Initi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wylie Transliteration
Wylie transliteration is a method for Transliteration, transliterating Tibetan script using only the letters available on a typical English-language typewriter. The system is named for the American scholar Turrell V. Wylie, who created the system and published it in a 1959 ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' article. It has subsequently become a standard transliteration scheme in Tibetan studies, especially in the United States. Any Tibetic languages, Tibetan language romanization scheme faces the dilemma of whether it should seek to accurately reproduce the sounds of spoken Tibetan or the spelling of written Tibetan. These differ widely, as Tibetan orthography became fixed in the 11th century, while pronunciation continued to language change, evolve, comparable to the English orthography and French orthography, which reflect late medieval pronunciation. Previous transcription schemes sought to split the difference with the result that they achieved neither goal perfectly. Wyl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lhasa Tibetan
Lhasa Tibetan or Standard Tibetan is a standardized dialect of Tibetan spoken by the people of Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is an official language of the Tibet Autonomous Region. In the traditional "three-branched" classification of the Tibetic languages, the Lhasa dialect belongs to the Central Tibetan branch (the other two being Khams Tibetan and Amdo Tibetan). In terms of mutual intelligibility, speakers of Khams Tibetan are able to communicate at a basic level with Lhasa Tibetan, while Amdo speakers cannot. Both Lhasa Tibetan and Khams Tibetan evolved to become tonal and do not preserve the word-initial consonant clusters, which makes them very far from Classical Tibetan, especially when compared to the more conservative Amdo Tibetan. Registers Like many languages, Lhasa Tibetan has a variety of language registers: * ( Wylie: , literally " demotic language"): the vernacular speech. * ( Wylie: , "honorifics or deference, courtesy"): the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tagalog Language
Tagalog ( ,According to the ''OED'' anMerriam-Webster Online Dictionary ; ''Baybayin'': ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority, mostly as or through Filipino language, Filipino. Its de facto Standard language, standardized and codified form, officially named ''Filipino'', is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of the nation's two official languages, alongside Philippine English, English. Tagalog, like the other and as one of the regional languages of the Philippines, which majority are Austronesian languages, Austronesian, is one of the auxiliary official languages of the Philippines in the regions and also one of the auxiliary media of instruction therein. Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, the Bisayan languages, Ilocano language, Ilocano, Kapampangan language, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
