The amount of solar radiation received during the 45 days leading up to harvest determines final crop output. The Ganden Tripa is the nominal head of the Gelug school, though its most influential figure is the Dalai Lama. A Royal Wood carving machine in sri lanka ge Ceremony is held in certain Asian countries to mark the beginning of the rice planting season. Rice does not contain glutenso is suitable for people on a gluten-free diet. Additional efforts are being made to improve the quantity and quality of other nutrients in golden rice.

One example is the use of yellow roof tiles, yellow having been the Imperial color; yellow roof tiles still adorn most of the buildings within the Forbidden City. The Temple of Heaven , however, uses blue roof tiles to symbolize the sky.

The roofs are almost invariably supported by brackets " dougong " , a feature shared only with the largest of religious buildings. The wooden columns of the buildings, as well as the surfaces of the walls, tend to be red in color. Black is also a famous color often used in pagodas. It was believed that the gods are inspired by the black color to descend to the earth. The Chinese 5-clawed dragon, adopted by the first Ming emperor for his personal use, was used as decoration on the beams, pillars, and on the doors on Imperial architecture.

Curiously, the dragon was never used on roofs of imperial buildings. The ancient Chinese favored the color red. The buildings faced south because the north had a cold wind. The yellow roof tiles and red wall in the Forbidden City Palace Museum grounds in Beijing , built during the Yongle era — of the Ming dynasty. Beijing became the capital of China after the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, completing the easterly migration of the Chinese capital begun since the Jin dynasty.

The Ming uprising in reasserted Chinese authority and fixed Beijing as the seat of imperial power for the next five centuries. The Emperor and the Empress lived in palaces on the central axis of the Forbidden City , the Crown Prince at the eastern side, and the concubines at the back therefore the numerous imperial concubines were often referred to as "The Back Palace Three Thousand".

However, during the mid- Qing dynasty , the Emperor's residence was moved to the western side of the complex. It is misleading to speak of an axis in the Western sense of a visual perspective ordering facades, rather the Chinese axis is a line of privilege, usually built upon, regulating access—there are no vistas, but a series of gates and pavilions. Numerology heavily influenced Imperial Architecture, hence the use of nine in much of construction nine being the greatest single digit number and the reason why the Forbidden City in Beijing is said to have 9, The importance of the East the direction of the rising sun in orienting and siting Imperial buildings is a form of solar worship found in many ancient cultures, where there is the notion of Ruler being affiliated with the Sun.

The tombs and mausoleums of imperial family members, such as the 8th-century Tang dynasty tombs at the Qianling Mausoleum , can also be counted as part of the imperial tradition in architecture.

These above-ground earthen mounds and pyramids had subterranean shaft-and-vault structures that were lined with brick walls since at least the Warring States period — BC.

Generally speaking, Buddhist architecture follows the imperial style. A large Buddhist monastery normally has a front hall, housing the statues of the Four Heavenly Kings , followed by a great hall, housing the statues of the Buddhas. Accommodations for the monks and the nuns are located at the two sides.

Some of the greatest examples of this come from the 18th-century Puning Temple and Putuo Zongcheng Temple. Buddhist monasteries sometimes also have pagodas , which may house the relics of the Gautama Buddha ; older pagodas tend to be four-sided, while later pagodas usually have eight sides.

Daoist architecture, on the other hand, usually follows the commoners' style. The main entrance is, however, usually at the side, out of superstition about demons which might try to enter the premise see feng shui. In contrast to the Buddhists, in a Daoist temple the main deity is located in the main hall at the front, the lesser deities in the back hall and at the sides. This is because Chinese people believe that even after the body has died, the soul is still alive. From the Han grave design, it shows the forces of cosmic yin and yang, the two forces from the heaven and earth that creates eternity.

The tallest pre-modern building in China was built for both religious and martial purposes. The Liaodi Pagoda of AD stands at a height of 84 m ft , and although it served as the crowning pagoda of the Kaiyuan monastery in old Dingzhou, Hebei , it was also used as a military watchtower for Song dynasty soldiers to observe potential Liao dynasty enemy movements.

The architecture of the mosques and gongbei tomb shrines of China's Muslims often combines traditional Chinese styles with Middle Eastern influences. A group of temples at the top of Mount Taishan , where structures have been built at the site since the 3rd century BC during the Han dynasty.

Nanshan Temple in Longkou , Shandong. Lianhuashan lit. Songjiang Square Pagoda , built in the 11th century. The Nine Pinnacle Pagoda , built in the 8th century during the Tang dynasty. A Chinese pavilion instead of a minaret at the Great Mosque of Xi'an. The Fogong Temple Pagoda , located in Ying county, Shanxi province, built in during the Liao dynasty , is the oldest existent fully wooden pagoda in China.

The Liaodi Pagoda , the tallest pre-modern Chinese pagoda , built in during the Song dynasty. Chinese urban planning is based on fengshui geomancy and the well-field system of land division, both used since the Neolithic age. The basic well-field diagram is overlaid with the luoshu, a magic square divided into 9 sub-squares, and linked with Chinese numerology. According to the theory of the traditional Chinese fengshui geomancy, it is a carefully planned ancient village and show the Human-Nature Intergraded Ecological Planning concept.

Since wars happened in northern China very often, people moved to southern China. The building method of a courtyard house was adapted to southern China. The village of Tungyuan in Fujian Province is a good example of a planned settlement that shows the Chinese feng shui elements — psychological self-defense and building structure — in the form of material self-defense. Wood was originally utilised as a primary building material because it was very common.

Also, Chinese people trust that life is connecting with nature and humans should interact with animated things, therefore wood was favored as opposed to stone, which was associated with the homes of the dead. Although now-nonexistent wooden residential towers, watchtowers, and pagodas predated it by centuries, the Songyue Pagoda built in is the oldest extant pagoda in China ; its use of brick instead of wood had much to do with its endurance throughout the centuries.

From the Tang dynasty — onwards, brick and stone architecture gradually became more common and replaced wooden edifices. The earliest examples of this transition can be seen in building projects such as the Zhaozhou Bridge completed in or the Xumi Pagoda built in , yet stone and brick architecture is known to have been used in subterranean tomb architecture of earlier dynasties. In the early 20th century there were no known fully wood-constructed Tang Dynasty buildings that still existed; the oldest so far discovered was the find of Guanyin Pavilion at Dule Monastery, dated during the Song.

While the East Hall of Foguang Temple features only seven types of bracket arms in its construction, the 11th-century Pagoda of Fogong Temple features a total of fifty-four. The earliest walls and platforms in China were of rammed earth construction, and over time brick and stone became more frequently used. This can be seen in ancient sections of the Great Wall of China , while the brick and stone Great Wall seen today is a renovation of the Ming dynasty — Chinese classifications for architecture include:.

Although mostly only ruins of brick and rammed earth walls and towers from ancient China i. This is similar to the paper joss houses burned in some modern Chinese funerals. During the Jin dynasty — and the Six Dynasties , miniature models of buildings or entire architectural ensembles were often made to decorate the tops of the so-called "soul vases" hunping , found in many tombs of that period. Beyond the physically creative architecture techniques that the Chinese used, there was an "imaginary architecture" [38] that was implemented into a Chinese house.

This imaginary architecture projected three major principles, that display a different set of messages about the relations between its inhabitants, the cosmos, and society at large, that each depicts a gender power imbalance. The first design principle was that the Chinese house was the embodiment of Neo-Confucian values.

The values of the home incorporated prominently social values, collaborative values of loyalty, and values of respect and service. The values were depicted through how the Chinese home represented generations, gender, and age. Unlike western homes, the Chinese home was not a private space or a place separated from the state.

It was a smaller community in itself. A place that sheltered a clan's or family's patrilineal kinship. It was quite common for houses to shelter "five generations under one roof. In the case of the relationship between husband and wife, it clearly was male-dominated. Despite this, the husband was still responsible for treating the partner with kindness, consideration, and understanding.

The second aspect was that the Chinese house was a cosmic space. The house was designed as a shelter to thwart away evil influences by channeling cosmic energies qi through means of incorporating Feng shui also known as geomancy.

Depending on the season, astral cycle, landscape's configuration of hills, rocks, trees, and water streams, and the house's arrangement, orientation, and details of roofs or gates, an arbitrary amount of energy would be produced. However, since the cosmic energy was such an arbitrary concept, it would be used in both moral and immoral ways.

The moral way is by adding Feng shui to a local community temple. Yet, it other times Feng shui would be used competitively to raise the value of one's house at the expense of others. For example, if someone built a part of their house against the norm, their house would be considered a threat.

Since it was throwing off the cosmic energy. In one detailed account, a fight broke out over Feng shui. Symmetry, orientations, arrangements of objects, and cleanliness were important factors to cosmic energy. Even in poorer homes cleanliness and tidiness were highly desired since it would compensate for the cramped quarters.

Sweeping was a daily task that was thought to be an act of purifying the room of pollutions such as dirt. As the Chinese historian, Sima Guang writes, "The servants of the inner and outer quarters and the concubines all rise at the first crow of the cock.

After combing their hair, washing, and getting dressed, the male servants should sweep the halls and front courtyard; the doorman and older servants should sweep the middle courtyard, while the maids sweep the living quarters, arrange tables and chairs, and prepare for the toilet of the master and mistress.

The third component was that the house was a space of culture, by depicting the Chinese view of humanity. The house was a domestic domain that marked the separation of the undomesticated world.

Commonly symbolized through walls and gates. Gates were first a physical barrier and second a kind of notice board for the outside world. Walls were the boundaries of a patriarchal domain.

The home culture was also a place where family rules could be enforced, causing divides in the upbringing of the inhabitants. Most commonly, there was a wide gender distinction. Women were often hidden away within the inner walls to do wifely domestic duties. While men would be house representatives. In terms of the marriage duties, "Men would grow up, marry and likely die in the house win which he, his father and paternal grandfather had been born and in which his mother would live until her death.

Women would leave their natal home on marriage to become a stranger in a new house. Often new brides would be treated badly by the senior members of a household. In extreme cases, junior brides were treated like unpaid servants and forced to do unpleasant chores. Additionally, to women, marriage was thought of as a descent into hell. Shes appeals for justice, citing the valuable and unrecognized contribution she has made to her family.

Her language is bitter and unrestrained, and she even curses the matchmaker and her future husband's family. Such lamenting can take place only within her parents' household and must cease halfway on the road to her new home, when the invisible boundary has been crossed.

The confinement of women was a method of controlling their sexuality. It was thought that women needed to be controlled so that they may not get pregnant by an outsider and then try to claim a state in the male's domain. In addition, wives were often represented as "gossiping troublemakers eager to stir up strife between otherwise devoted brothers, the root of family discord, requiring strict patriarchal control. Even though a couple would be married, husbands and wives did not stay in the same private room for long.

During the day, men would go out or work in their studies so that they can avoid any unnecessary contact with female relatives. Women weren't allowed to leave the inner perimeter. In Buddhist teachings generally, too, there is caution about revealing information to people who may be unready for it. Practicing tantra also includes the maintaining of a separate set of vows, which are called Samaya dam tshig.

There are various lists of these and they may differ depending on the practice and one's lineage or individual guru. Upholding these vows is said to be essential for tantric practice and breaking them is said to cause great harm. There has been a "close association" between the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the temporal [] in Tibet.

The term for this relationship is chos srid zung 'brel. Traditionally Tibetan lamas have tended to the lay populace by helping them with issues such as protection and prosperity. Common traditions have been the various rites and rituals for mundane ends, such as purifying one's karma, avoiding harm from demonic forces and enemies, and promoting a successful harvest.

Ritual is generally more elaborate than in other forms of Buddhism, with complex altar arrangements and works of art such as mandalas and thangkas , many ritual objects, hand gestures mudra , chants, and musical instruments.

A special kind of ritual called an initiation or empowerment Sanskrit: Abhiseka , Tibetan: Wangkur is central to Tantric practice. These rituals consecrate a practitioner into a particular Tantric practice associated with individual mandalas of deities and mantras. Without having gone through initiation, one is generally not allowed to practice the higher Tantras.

Another important ritual occasion in Tibetan Buddhism is that of mortuary rituals which are supposed to assure that one has a positive rebirth and a good spiritual path in the future. Cremation and sky burial are traditionally the main funeral rites used to dispose of the body. The use of mainly Sanskrit prayer formulas, incantations or phrases called mantras Tibetan: sngags is another widespread feature of Tibetan Buddhist practice.

Mantras are widely recited, chanted, written or inscribed, and visualized as part of different forms of meditation. Each mantra has symbolic meaning and will often have a connection to a particular Buddha or Bodhisattva. Tibetan Buddhist practitioners repeat mantras like Om Mani Padme Hum in order to train the mind, and transform their thoughts in line with the divine qualities of the mantra's deity and special power.

According to Lama Zopa Rinpoche :. Mantras are effective because they help keep your mind quiet and peaceful, automatically integrating it into one-pointedness.

They make your mind receptive to very subtle vibrations and thereby heighten your perception. By practising a transcendental mantra, you can in fact purify all the defiled energy of your body, speech, and mind. Mantras also serve to focus the mind as a samatha calming practice as well as a way to transform the mind through the symbolic meaning of the mantra.

In Buddhism, it is important to have the proper intention, focus and faith when practicing mantras, if one does not, they will not work. Unlike in Hinduism, mantras are not believed to have inherent power of their own, and thus without the proper faith, intention and mental focus, they are just mere sounds.

Mantras are like non-conceptual wish-fulfilling jewels. Infusing one's being with the blessings of mantra, like the form of a moon reflected on a body of water, necessitates the presence of faith and other conditions that set the stage for the spiritual attainments of mantra.

Just as the moon's reflection cannot appear without water, mantras cannot function without the presence of faith and other such factors in one's being. Mantras are part of the highest tantric practices in Tibetan Buddhism, such as Deity Yoga and are recited and visualized during tantric sadhanas. Thus, Tsongkhapa says that mantra "protects the mind from ordinary appearances and conceptions". In what is called higher yoga tantra the emphasis is on various spiritual practices, called yogas naljor and sadhanas druptap which allow the practitioner to realize the true nature of reality.

Deity Yoga Tibetan: lha'i rnal 'byor ; Sanskrit: Devata-yoga is a fundamental practice of Vajrayana Buddhism involving visualization of mental images consisting mainly of Buddhist deities such as Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and fierce deities , along mantra repetition.

According to Geoffrey Samuel:. If Buddhahood is a source of infinite potentiality accessible at any time, then the Tantric deities are in a sense partial aspects, refractions of that total potentiality. Visualizing one of these deities, or oneself identifying with one of them, is not, in Tibetan Tantric thought, a technique to worship an external entity.

Rather, it is a way of accessing or tuning into something that is an intrinsic part of the structure of the universe — as of course is the practitioner him or herself.

Deity yoga involves two stages, the generation stage utpattikrama and the completion stage nispannakrama. In the generation stage, one dissolves the mundane world and visualizes one's chosen deity yidam , its mandala and companion deities, resulting in identification with this divine reality. In the completion stage, one dissolves the visualization of and identification with the yidam in the realization ultimate reality. Completion stage practices can also include subtle body energy practices, [] such as tummo lit.

These traditions focus on direct experience of the very nature of reality, which is variously termed dharmakaya , buddha nature , or the "basis' gzhi. These techniques do not rely on deity yoga methods but on direct pointing-out instruction from a master and are often seen as the most advanced form of Buddhist practice. In the Nyingma school as well as in Bon , Dzogchen is considered to be a separate and independent vehicle also called Atiyoga , as well as the highest of all vehicles.

Buddhist monasticism is an important part of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, all the major and minor schools maintain large monastic institutions based on the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya monastic rule and many religious leaders come from the monastic community.

That being said, there are also many religious leaders or teachers called Lamas and Gurus which are not celibate monastics. According to Geoffrey Samuel this is where "religious leadership in Tibetan Buddhism contrasts most strongly with much of the rest of the Buddhist world.

Lamas are generally skilled and experienced tantric practitioners and ritual specialists in a specific initiation lineage and may be laypersons or monastics. They act not just as teachers, but as spiritual guides and guardians of the lineage teachings that they have received through a long and intimate process of apprenticeship with their Lamas. Tibetan Buddhism also includes a number of lay clergy and lay tantric specialists, such as Ngagpas Skt. According to Samuel, in the more remote parts of the Himalayas, communities were often led by lay religious specialists.

Samuel outlines four main types of religious communities in Tibet: []. In some cases a lama is the leader of a spiritual community. Some lamas gain their title through being part of particular family which maintains a lineage of hereditary lamas and are thus often laypersons. One example is the Sakya family of Kon, who founded the Sakya school and another is the hereditary lamas of Mindrolling monastery. They are often recognized from a young age through the use of divination and the use of the possessions of the deceased lama, and therefore are able to receive extensive training.

They are sometimes groomed to become leaders of monastic institutions. The system of incarnate lamas is popularly held to be a Tibetan alteration to Indian Buddhism. They are also associated with the idea of beyul "hidden valleys" , which are power places associated with deities and hidden religious treasures. Women in Tibetan society, though still unequal, tended to have a relatively greater autonomy and power than in surrounding societies.

This might be because of the smaller household sizes and low population density in Tibet. There is evidence for the importance of female practitioners in Indian Tantric Buddhism and pre-modern Tibetan Buddhism. Some of these figures were also tantric consorts sangyum, kandroma with male lamas, and thus took part in the sexual practices associated with the highest levels of tantric practice.

While monasticism is practiced there by women, it is much less common 2 percent of the population in the 20th century compared to 12 percent of men.

Nuns were also much less respected by Tibetan society than monks and may receive less lay support than male monastics. There are accounts of fully ordained Tibetan women, such as the Samding Dorje Phagmo , who was once ranked the highest female master and tulku in Tibet, but very little is known about the exact circumstances of their ordination. In the modern era, Tibetan Buddhist nuns have taken full ordinations through East Asian Vinaya lineages.

Buddhist author Michaela Haas notes that Tibetan Buddhism is undergoing a sea change in the West, with women playing a much more central role. Freda Bedi [note 7] was a British woman who was the first Western woman to take ordination in Tibetan Buddhism, which occurred in It offers novice ordination and follows the Drikung Kagyu lineage of Buddhism.

Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo gained international attention in the late s as the first Western woman to be a Penor Rinpoche enthroned tulku within the Nyingma Palyul. His approach is not concerned with "schools" or sects, but rather focuses on the transmission of crucial meditation teachings. They are: []. There are various schools or traditions of Tibetan Buddhism. The four main traditions overlap markedly, such that "about eighty percent or more of the features of the Tibetan schools are the same".

The four major schools are sometimes divided into the Nyingma or "Old Translation" and Sarma or "New Translation" traditions, which follow different canons of scripture the Nyingma Gyubum along with Termas and the Tengyur - Kangyur respectively. Each school also traces itself to a certain lineage going back to India as well as certain important Tibetan founders. While all the schools share most practices and methods, each school tends to have a certain preferred focus see table below.

The features of each major school along with one influential minor school, Jonang is as follows: []. There is another minor sect, the Bodong school. This tradition is also known for maintaining a female tulku lineage of incarnated lamas called the Samding Dorje Phagmo.

While Yungdrung Bon considers itself a separate religion with pre-Buddhist origins, and it is considered as non-Buddhist by the main Tibetan traditions, it shares so many similarities and practices with mainstream Tibetan Buddhism that some scholars such as Geoffrey Samuel see it as "essentially a variant of Tibetan Buddhism".

Sometimes in religion there has been an emphasis on male importance. In Buddhism, however, the highest vows, namely the bhikshu and bhikshuni ones, are equal and entail the same rights. This is the case despite the fact that in some ritual areas, due to social custom, bhikshus go first.

But Buddha gave the basic rights equally to both sangha groups. There is no point in discussing whether or not to revive the bhikshuni ordination; the question is merely how to do so properly within the context of the Vinaya. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

See also: History of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan monasticism. Key personalities. Practices and attainment. Major monasteries. Institutional roles. History and overview.

History Timeline Outline Culture Index of articles. Tantrism Mahasiddha Sahaja. Buddhahood Bodhisattva Kalachakra. Ganachakra Ullambana Puja. Tantric texts. Symbols and tools. Ordination and transmission. Pointing-out instruction Samaya Vajracharya. Dharma Concepts. Buddhist texts. Buddhism by country. Main article: History of Tibetan Buddhism. Main article: Tibetan Empire.

Main article: Yuan dynasty. See also: Sino-Tibetan relations during the Ming dynasty. Unique Doctrines. Key sutras. Regional traditions. Main article: Lamrim.

Play media. Main article: Tibetan Buddhist canon. Main article: Tantras Buddhism. See also: Tantra techniques Vajrayana. Main article: Paramitas. See also: Guru in Buddhism. See also: Deity yoga. Further information: Women in Buddhism and Ordination of women in Buddhism.

In Dharamsala, he encouraged, "We need to bring this to a conclusion. We Tibetans alone can't decide this. Rather, it should be decided in collaboration with Buddhists from all over the world.

Speaking in general terms, were the Buddha to come to this 21st century world, I feel that most likely, seeing the actual situation in the world now, he might change the rules somewhat I think, first, senior bhikshunis need to correct the monks' way of thinking. Everywhere we are talking about equality…. Basically Buddhism needs equality. There are some really minor things to remember as a Buddhist--a bhikshu always goes first, then a bhikshuni….

The key thing is the restoration of the bhikshuni vow. Tantra in Practice. Princeton University Press. ISBN Motilal Banarsidass Publ. Introduction to Tibetan Buddhism Rev.

Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books. Retrieved 11 September The attainment of the rainbow body 'ja' lus as understood by the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is always connected to the practice of the great perfection [ The Nyingma tradition describes a set of nine vehicles, the highest of which is that of the great perfection, considered the swiftest of the tantric methods for attaining supreme realization, identified with buddhahood.

Historical Dictionary of Tibet, Scarecrow Press, p. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Buswell Jr. Lopez Jr. Probably derived from the Chinese term lama jiao , or "teachings of the lamas", the term is considered pejorative by Tibetans, as it carries the negative connotation that the Tibetan tradition is something distinct from the mainstream of Buddhism. Find Jobs in Germany. Saale Bad Neustadt A. Frankfurt A. M Frankfurt A.

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