rocksea

ya ya thatz all on the way., in food & dances.. yet to come.

thankz sas.. you are cho chweet..

rocksea

I have put the slides with the names and brief explanation.
Each dance form is unique in its origin and style.

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rocksea

These are some of the folk dances of the country.
Dandiya is one dance which I love very much. It is simple and
pleasing. Dandiya is performed in groups of pairs, with a pair of sticks in
their hands. Ideally, two circles formed by men and women move in clockwise
and anti-clockwise directions with two sticks called dandiyas held in their
hands. Dandiya dances usually take place during Navaratri (nava-ratri = nine nights)
festival and is popular in north India, especially Gujarat.
My first experience with dandiya was while I was in Goa. After that
I haven't missed a chance to dance along the dandiya tunes.

Bhangra is another popular folk dancing which became very popular
especially recently. It is popular through indian pop (indi-pop) music also.
Origin from Punjab.

Bihu dances performed by young boys and girls characterised by brisk
stepping, flinging and flipping of hands and swaying of hips represents
youthful passion, reproductive urge and enjoying life.
Bihu dance comes from Assam.

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rocksea

Music, classical or of other kinds, takes an essential seat in the life of Indian
people. Like other things, music and musical instruments are different in
different states/regions.

India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a
history spanning millennia and, developed over several eras, remains
fundamental to the lives of Indians today as sources of religious inspiration,
cultural expression and pure entertainment.

Music & Dance are inseparable elements of Indian Movies too!
Shown above on the right is the poster from a movie 'Qayamat se Qayamat Tak' (1988 movie)
starring Amir Khan and Juhi Chawla (their first appearance). Both are famous
actors and are still acting.
Those are my favorite actors too
Amir's recent movie is 'Mangal Pandey: The Rising' story revolving around
India's first freedom struggle.
In most of the Indian movies music, dance & love plays significant role, it is
difficult to find one without these elements.



Indian Film Industry is largely known as Bollywood. B from Bombay and rest
from Hollywood.
The posters above are from old movies, in different languages.
See, each year India produces approximately 1000 movies in 14 or more
different languages.

So the movie list for an enthusiastic movie watcher (like me) is endless
you see . There are movies in hindi, tamil, malayalam, sometimes bengali
and of course English for me to watch.



Amitabh Bachchan: he could be said as the most famous Indian actor.
He started acting in 1969. He came to be known as "The Angry Young Man"
after his film Zanjeer (1973), which made him a superstar.
He is still active with more than 10 movies to his list in 2005.

Himendra

Hi Rox san,
Thank you for your great work to introduce your country India. we got lots of knowladge about the Indian Culture and Histrory from this thread. But, I am not completely agree with the line, that Buddhism was born in india, as you mention. Here I have collected a brif history of Buddhism, it may be helpful to clear your line more accurately.

History

The history of Buddhism is the story of one man's spiritual journey to Enlightenment, and of the teachings and ways of living that developed from it.

Siddhartha Gautama — The Buddha
By finding the path to Enlightenment the Buddha was led from the pain of suffering and rebirth towards the path of Enlightenment and became known as the Buddha or "awakened one".

A Life of Luxury
Siddharta Gautama was born around the year 580 BCE in the village of Lumbini in Nepal.

He was born into a royal family, and his privileged life insulated him from the sufferings of life; sufferings such as sickness, age, and death.

Discovering Cruel Reality
One day, after growing-up, marrying and having a child, Siddhartha went outside the royal enclosure where he lived. When he went outside he saw, each for the first time, an old man, a sick man, and a corpse.

This greatly disturbed him, and he learned that sickness, age, and death were the inevitable fate of human beings — a fate no-one could avoid.

Becoming a Holy Man
Siddartha had also seen a monk, and he decided this was a sign that he should leave his protected royal life and live as a homeless Holy Man.

Siddartha's travels showed him much more of the the suffering of the world.
He searched for a way to escape the inevitability of death, old age and pain first by studying with religious men. This didn't provide him with an answer.

A Life of Self-Denial
Siddartha encountered an Indian ascetic who encouraged him to follow a life of extreme self-denial and discipline.

The Buddha also practiced meditation but concluded that in themselves, the highest meditative states were not enough.

Siddartha followed this life of extreme asceticism for six years, but this did not satisfy him either; he still had not escaped from the world of suffering.

The Middle Way
He abandoned the strict lifestyle of self denial and ascetism, but did not return to the pampered luxury of his early life.

Instead, he pursued the Middle Way, which is just what it sounds like; neither luxury, nor poverty, and sought another way.

Enlightenment
One day, seated beneath the Bodhi tree, (the tree of awakening) Siddartha became deeply absorbed in meditation, and reflected on his experience of life, determined to penetrate its truth.

He finally achieved Enlightenment and became the Buddha.
The Mahabodhi Temple at the site of Buddha's enlightenment, is now a pilgrimage site.

Buddhist legend tells that at first the Buddha was happy to dwell within this state, but Brahma, king of the gods, asked, on behalf of the whole world, that he should share his understanding with others.

The Teacher
Buddha set in motion the "wheel of teaching": rather than worshipping one god or gods, Buddhism centres around the timeless importance of the teaching, or the dharma.

For the next 45 years of his life the Buddha taught many disciples, who became Arahants or "noble ones", who had attained Enlightenment for themselves.

(sourse: bbc.co.uk)

For more information
http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/buddhaintro.html
Dr. C. George Boeree
Shippensburg University

rocksea

I agree with you that Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal.
Especially recent findings point to that.

One point to be noted here is that most of us desis were part of the larger
Indian subcontinent eons back. Indus valley civilization, most of the recovered remains
are in Pakistan now and some in India. Yet we take it as part of the country.
yeah before that we didn't have the identity, india, nepal, pakistan or bangladesh.
Anyways that is not the point I want to tell.

Let me show how I can argue Buddhism was born in present day India
Buddha was born in present day Nepal, I agree again.

1. Code:

   Bodh Gaya in Patna in India is the birth place of Buddhism.This is
   the place where Siddhartha Gautama sat by a pipal tree and got 
   enlightened.This is the place from where Buddha started spreading his 
   enlightenment. Siddhartha became Buddha or the 'awakened one' here. 
   In that ways, one can even say Buddha was born in present day India.

2. Code:

   Though I mentioned the birth of buddhism in (1), I will give the 
   true credits to Ashoka (c.272-235 BC). 
    
   Ashoka was the third descendant in the Mauryan Empire. While he was 
   young, he was said to be cruel and killed all his brothers to get to the 
   throne of his father Bindusara (c.297-272). 
    
   Asoka was succesful in conquering a vast empire (shown in picture). Yet,
   a small kingdom in Kalinga with its patriotic people didn't give up. A long 
   and bloody war broke out and thousands died. Seeing the burnt houses 
   and scattered corpses, Ashoka got sick and his mind drastically 
   changed. 
    
   He adopted Buddhism under Upagupta, the buddhist monk and he used 
   his emperor status to propagate Buddhism to new heights and to the 
   whole world, as far as Rome & Egypt. Though Buddhism originated by 
   6th century BCE,Till then (3rd Century BCE) Buddhism was not well 
   known to the world. Ashoka made Buddhism his state religion around 
   260 BC. He propagated the school of Buddhism and preached it within 
   his domain and worldwide from about 250 BC. Ashoka send his own son 
   son and daughter for propagating buddhism around. 
   
   In other ways, one can say he assumed the role of Constantine I who
   later (272-373 AD) legalized and then legitimized Christianity in the 
   Roman Empire for the first time

References:


Well whatever be the origin of Buddha or Buddhism, India remains to be
the place which have opened her hands to such diverse religions.
Buddhism has grown and sustained in India.
Even now, the Tibetan Buddhism finds its HeadQuarters and warm stay
at Dharamsala in India.

To end, Buddhism is born in those minds who follow the path of enlightenment.
Let our minds be enlightened!

Himendra

Thank you very much for your description and for links you provided. I got lots of knowledge about history and other aspect of Buddhism from your previous post. I hope your posts in this thread will help us to explore various aspects of a complete subcontinent and India, and it is our great opportunity to learn about the world, as we Nepalese are also connected, in some way, to it.
I am expecting more and more such type of knowledge from your thread in future also.
During my study on your previous thread I got lots of information,I also got lots of information of my concern. I think it will be better to share these with all our HUISA family and readers in short:

It was the Lumbini (foot of northern part of Indian subcontinent, now in Nepal), where Buddha was born. He was a prince in Shakyas. At the age of 29, he came across what has become known as the Four Passing Sights: an old crippled man, a sick man, a decaying corpse, and finally a wandering holy man. These four sights led him to the realization that birth, old age, sickness and death come to everyone, not only once but repeated for life after life in succession since beginning less time. He decided to abandon his worldly life, leaving behind his wife, child and rank, etc. to take up the life of a wandering holy man in search of the answer to the problem of birth, old age, sickness, and death, finally, he left his family in mid night.
Taking a little buttermilk from a passing goatherd, he found a large tree (now called the Bodhi tree) and set to meditating. He developed a new way of meditating, which began to bear fruit. His mind became concentrated and pure, and then, after six years since he began his quest in search of a solution to an end of Suffering, he attained Enlightenment, and became a Buddha. This place is in now the state of Bihar in India.
…….With his great compassion, the Buddha agreed to become a teacher. At the Deer Park near Benares (now) in northern India he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma by delivering his first sermon to the group of five companions with whom he sought for enlightenment before. They, together with Buddha, formed the first sangha, the company of Buddhist monks.

Buddhism in Nepal during the Kirata period (?-300 BC): According to archaeological and historical records, Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was born in Lumbini in 563 BCE. His and his disciples' preaching soon spread Buddhism in the surrounding areas.
It is believed that Buddha and his disciple, Ananda, came to the Kathmandu Valley during the rule of the seventh of the 28 Kirati rulers and stayed for a while in Patan, now in Nepal.
Buddhism in Nepal during the Mauryan period (300-400 BC): Emperor Ashoka from India put up a pillar at Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha in the 2nd century BC. It is also believed that Ashoka went to Patan and had four stupas built there. It is believed that his daughter Charumati established the village of Chabahil, which is located between Kathmandu and Bodhnath. There is a stupa and monastery in Chabahil that are said to date back to her time.
It is daid that upon the expansion of the Mauryan dynasty into the Teral plains in Nepal, Buddhism was adopted by the ancestors of the Tharu and flourished until the resurgent Licchavi repelled its adherents in AD 200.But, in fact, the Tharu are the remainants of ancient Sakya, Koliya, Mourya and many other ancient tribes. Thus, obviously, Buddhism in Nepal has been flourishing since Buddha's time if we consider ancient Kapilvastu and Devdah in Nepal.

rocksea

Cheers Himendra san. Let us share our knowledge and get ourselves and
others enlightened


Anyways, let me get back to the topic.
Monuments are something which you can see, touch and feel and
hence they've important place in a country's sketch.
They tell a lot of stories too, ancient and modern.




TajMahal is considered as the symbol of love. Built around 300 years before,
it still carries the glory. Totally made in white marble, Taj Mahal is actually
a tomb where the remains of Shah Jahan's beloved wife Mumtaz is cremated.

Till decades before (may be 10 or so years before) it was the perfect paradise
of lovers and poets. Or so it is quoted from the memories of a lot.
The moonlight nights at Taj are so famous. Now I think due to security
restrictions they close Taj at night.

The view on the other side is also magnificent. Taj Mahal is built on the banks
of Yamuna (Jamuna) river.

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rocksea

This is a temple dedicated to Shiva & Meenakshi, from South India.
Its tallest spire rises 60 meters, and was for many years the tallest structure
in its category in Asia.