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Yoritomo

(Encyclopedia)Yoritomo (Yoritomo Minamoto) yōrēˈtōmō mēnäˈmōtō [key], 1148–99, Japanese warrior and dictator, founder of the Kamakura shogunate. After a prolonged struggle he led his clan, the Minamoto,...

meditation

(Encyclopedia)meditation, religious discipline in which the mind is focused on a single point of reference. It may be a means of invoking divine grace, as in the contemplation by Christian mystics of a spiritual th...

Three Kingdoms

(Encyclopedia)Three Kingdoms, period of Chinese history from 220 to 265, after the collapse of the Han dynasty. The period takes its name from the three states into which China was divided. Wei occupied the north. ...

Bamian

(Encyclopedia)Bamian or Bamiyan both: bəmyänˈ [key], town, capital of Bamian prov., N central Afghanistan, on the Kunduz ...

United Provinces , former state, India

(Encyclopedia)United Provinces, former state, N India, now almost coextensive with the modern state of Uttar Pradesh. The United Provinces embraced the plain of the Ganges, the heartland of India. This region was t...

pagoda

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Pagoda pagoda pəgōˈdə [key], name given in the East to a variety of buildings of tower form that are usually part of a temple or monastery group and serve as shrines. Those of India (see s...

Swat

(Encyclopedia)Swat swät [key], district of the Malakand division, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly North-West Frontier Province), Pakistan. Saidu Sharif is the capital. The largely inaccessible region is reached by ai...

Buddha

(Encyclopedia)Buddha bo͞oˈdə, bo͝o– [key] [Skt.,=the enlightened One], usual title given to the founder of Buddhism. He is also called the Tathagata [he who has come thus], Bhagavat [the Lord], and Sugata [we...

asceticism

(Encyclopedia)asceticism əsĕtˈĭsĭzəm [key], rejection of bodily pleasures through sustained self-denial and self-mortification, with the objective of strengthening spiritual life. Asceticism has been common i...

Kublai Khan

(Encyclopedia)Kublai Khan ko͞oˈblī kän [key], 1215–94, Mongol emperor, founder of the Yüan dynasty of China. From 1251 to 1259 he led military campaigns in S China. He succeeded (1260) his brother Mongke (Ma...