Abhisamaya-alaṃkāra
‘The Ornament of Direct Realization’, a text in nine chapters with a total of 273 verses ascribed to Maitreyanātha. The work summarizes the topics covered by the Pañca-viṃśati-prajñā-pāramitā Sūtra ...
acupuncture
(ak-yoo-punk-cher)a complementary therapy, developed by Eastern physicians, in which thin metal needles are inserted into selected points beneath the skin. It is used to relieve the symptoms of a ...
alternative theatre
A phrase often used to embrace the successive waves of unconventional theatre and performance groups that formed almost everywhere in the second half of the twentieth century, especially following ...
Amartya Kumar Sen
(1933– )Nobel prize-winning economist and social theorist. Educated at Presidency College, Calcutta and then at Trinity College Cambridge, Sen used the time of a Junior Research Fellowship to study ...
Amitāyurdhyāna-Sūtra
(‘Sūtra on Contemplation on Amitāyus’). One of the three basic sūtras of the Pure Land School (with Amitābha-Sūtra and Sukhāvatīvyūha). It describes the pure land and the moral life which prepares ...
Amoghavajra
(705–74).A native of south India.Amoghavajra is considered the sixth patriarch of esoteric Buddhism in China. He was also a prolific translator. He became a Buddhist novice at the age of 13, arrived ...
Anlan Yuan
China, lies in the small town of Haining, now called Yanguan, 40 km/24 miles north-east of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province. When built by Chen Yujiao between 1573 and 1620, on ...
Anti-Comintern Pact
(25 November 1936)An agreement between Germany and Japan ostensibly to collaborate against international communism (the Comintern). Italy signed the pact (1937), followed by other nations in 1941.
Anyang
A modern city of Henan Province in northern China, is situated in a once-fertile plain at about 36° north latitude and 114° longitude. Not until the end of the nineteenth ...
Asian Development Bank
(ADB; AsDB).Regional international agency patterned on the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank) and based in Manilla, the Philippines, and providing funds to the Asian ...
Asian Martial Arts
Have contributed to dance and theatrical performance both directly and indirectly— for example, as a source of training technique. This article first reviews the history and underlying philosophy of ...
automata
An automaton is a machine with a source of movement contained within its own mechanism; in this broad sense it came to be used to describe clocks and watches, but ...
Banmu Yuan
Beijing, China, was once described as ‘the most beautiful Chinese garden in Peking’, but its fame rests also on that of its owners and the fine art collections they gathered ...
Banpo
Is a large Neolithic village on a tributary of the Wei River, which joins the Yellow River outside Xian, Shansi Province. It is dated in the earlier part of the ...
Banqiao
Taibei, Taiwan, Republic of China, has long been the most famous private compound on the large and subtropical island of Taiwan. This garden in the suburbs of Taibei was built ...
barong
Large mythical supernatural beasts that appear in Balinese ritual performances. Different types of large barong masks, considered spiritually powerful objects when consecrated, are used in rituals ...
Beijing
Capital of China for most of the last seven centuries under Yüan, Ming, Ch'ing dynasties, and currently under the People's Republic. Built according to ancient cosmic principles, it was oriented ...
Ben'en;
1202–80).Japanese Zen master of the Rinzai Yogi school. In 1242, he became abbot of the Tōfuku-ji (monastery) in Kyōto. Enni was thus a man of wide education, but while ...
Bhaiṣajyaguru
The Medicine Buddha, a figure especially venerated in Tibet.China.and Japan. Bhaiṣajya-guru is a Buddha in the Mahāyāna who epitomizes the power of healing, both on a physical and a spiritual level. ...
Bhutan
Bhutan's development objective is to maximize ‘gross national happiness’Bhutan has three main geographical zones. The north falls within the high Himalayas which reach altitudes of 7,300 metres. To ...
