August 15, 2018

From August 13 through today, August 15, people celebrate the annual Obon festival in Japan and in Japanese communities around the world. Also called the Bon, Bon Odori, or Urabon festival, Obon is a Buddhist event that marks the spiritual return of dead ancestors to the living world on Earth. Because lanterns are hung to guide the souls of the dead, Obon is sometimes called the Festival of Lanterns. In some parts of Japan, the festival takes place in July.

Lanterns illuminate the night and guide the spirits of the dead during the Obon festival in Japan. Credit: Yoichiro Akiyama (licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

According to the Buddhist sutra (scripture) Urabon-kyō, Buddha’s disciple Maudgalyāyana found his deceased mother in the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, where spirits suffer from eternal hunger and thirst. Maudgalyāyana tried to give her a bowl of rice, but it burst into flames. He went to the Buddha for help, and was instructed to offer food and drink to monks on the 15th day of the seventh moon, the traditional end of Japan’s rainy season. The act of gratitude and respect freed Maudgalyāyana’s mother from her torment, and he danced with joy. By repeating the disciple’s offerings—and his dance—each year, Buddhists honor the dead and celebrate the relief of their suffering.

The three-day Obon begins with mukaebi, the lighting of fires and lanterns to guide spirits home. Many families build two altars of fruit, incense, and flowers called shōryō-dana. One altar is for ancestors, and the other is for any spirits who have not attained peace. Other common rituals include ohakamairi, the cleaning and decoration of ancestral tombs; prayer services at temples; and the preparation of special foods. Bon Odori, a Buddhist folk dance, is performed during the festival. Dancers in elaborate costumes form a circle around musicians and taiko drummers. (Taikos are large ceremonial drums.) Obon ends with okuribi, when fires and lanterns are again lit to bid spirits farewell. Some communities celebrate Obon with carnivals and other outdoor events.

June 18, 2018

Malay is the language of a large group of people in Southeast Asia. The language is spoken by about 13.5 million in Malaysia, plus millions of other people who live in nearby Brunei, Indonesia, and Singapore. Malay belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian, a language family that includes Javanese, Sundanese, and Tagalog.

The flag of Malaysia flies over some 13.5 million Malay speakers. Credit: © PhotoRoman/Shutterstock

The Malay language has numerous dialects. The official language of Malaysia, Bahasa Malaysia, is based largely on the Malay dialect of Johor, a southern state in Peninsular Malaysia. The official language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, is based on the dialect used in the Riau Islands of Indonesia. Because of the similarities between the language used in Johor and in the nearby Riau Islands, the two forms are sometimes classified together as Johor-Riau Malay. Other dialects include Ambon Malay, Ternate Malay, and Banjar Malay. In most cases, speakers of different dialects can communicate with each other without great difficulty.

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Malaysia. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

The Malay language includes elements of Sanskrit and Arabic. These elements entered the language through contact with the culture and religions of India and the Arab world. Contact with traders from many countries led to the development of Bazaar Malay, which became widely spoken in trading communities.

The oldest known Malay text is a stone inscription from the early years of the Srivijaya Empire, a Malay kingdom that emerged in the late 600′s and lasted until the late 1300′s. The text is written in the Indian Pallava script, and it tells of military expeditions. Later Malay texts were written in Devanagari, an alphabet and script used to write Hindi. Beginning in the late 1300′s, many Malay literary and religious works were written in an Arabic-based script called Jawi or Classical Malay. Beginning in the 1500′s, Dutch and British influence in Malaysia led to the adoption of a Malay writing system using the Roman alphabet.

In the 1970’s, Indonesia and Malaysia adopted a common spelling system for their official languages. Since then, efforts have continued to further standardize the Malay language.

November 26, 2013

The remains of what may be the oldest known Buddhist shrine have been found in southern Nepal, an international team of archaeologists has reported. The remains of a wooden structure, which dates to about 550 B.C., were discovered inside the younger Maya Devi temple in Lumbini, Nepal, the traditional birthplace of the Buddha, the teacher who founded Buddhism. The findings are the first archaeological evidence connecting Buddha’s birth and the Buddhist religion to the 500’s B.C.

Buddhism is one of the world’s major religions. At various times, Buddhism has been a dominant religious, cultural, and social force in most of Asia. Today, Buddhism has about 350 million followers. Most live in Tibet and other regions of China, and in Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Sri Lanka, and mainland Southeast Asia.

The Buddha (center) and eight spiritual leaders called bodhisattvas appear in a painting from the 1300′s. (Buddha Amitabha with the Eight Great Bodhisattvas, a hanging scroll with ink colors and gold on silk; The Avery Brundage Collection, Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, CA)

According to Nepalese tradition, the Buddha was born as Siddhartha Gautama in 623 B.C. Earlier archaeological evidence of Buddhist activity in Lumbini dated back only to the 200’s B.C. Lumbini lies near sites in northeastern India that are significant in the Buddhist tradition. These sites include Bodh Gaya, where Siddhartha Gautama is said to have gained spiritual enlightenment; Samath, where the enlightened Buddha first preached; and Kusinagara, the place of his death.

The archaeological team, headed by Robin Coningham of Durham University in the United Kingdom and Kosh Prasad Acharya of the Pashupati Area Development Trust in Nepal, have been working at the Maya Devi site since 2011. Their findings, published on November 25 in the journal Antiquity, included evidence of multiple temples buried within Maya Devi. One of the older temples appeared to have included an enclosure with trees growing in its center. This arrangement is consistent with a traditional layout of Buddhist temples. Scientists used radiocarbon dating and another dating technique called optically stimulated luminescence to analyze charcoal and sand samples found at the temple site. Both types of analysis indicated that the temple dated back to the 500’s B.C.

Additional World Book articles:

• Bodhisattva
• Dharma
• Nirvana