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Pure Land Buddhism

(Encyclopedia)Pure Land Buddhism or Amidism, devotional sect of Mahayana Buddhism in China and Japan, centering on worship of the Buddha Amitabha. According to the Pure Land Sutras, composed in India in the 2d cent...

Yazoo land fraud

(Encyclopedia)Yazoo land fraud, name given to the sale in 1795 by an act of the Georgia legislature of vast holdings in the Yazoo River country to four land companies following the wholesale bribery of the legislat...

Shalim, Land of

(Encyclopedia)Shalim, Land of shāˈlĭm [key], in 1 Samuel, unidentified region, perhaps N of Jerusalem. ...

reclamation of land

(Encyclopedia)reclamation of land, practice of converting land deemed unproductive into arable land by such methods as irrigation, drainage, flood control, altering the texture and mineral and organic content of so...

Pathans

(Encyclopedia)Pathans pətänzˈ [key], group of seminomadic peoples consisting of more than 60 tribes, numbering more than 26 million in Pakistan and more than 11 million in Afghanistan, where they form the domina...

mine, in warfare

(Encyclopedia)mine, in warfare, term formerly applied to a system of tunnels dug under an army fortification and ending in a chamber where either explosives were placed to be detonated at a chosen moment or the sup...

Maya, indigenous people of Mexico and Central America

(Encyclopedia)Maya mīˈə, Span. mäˈyä [key], indigenous people of S Mexico and Central America, occupying an area comprising the Yucatán peninsula and much of the present state of Chiapas in Mexico, Guatemala...

Sistan

(Encyclopedia)Sistan sā– [key], border lowland region of SW Afghanistan and E Iran, c.6,000 sq mi (15,540 sq km), fed mainly by the spring flood of the Helmand River and other streams. At low water, the region i...

giant African land snail

(Encyclopedia)giant African land snail, any of several species of large terrestrial snails of tropical Africa that have become agricultural pests in other regions of the world. The species include the giant African...

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