Asian Road

Ikebana means "arranged flower" is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as — the "way of flowers".

In contrast to the decorative form of flower arranging in western countries, Japanese flower arrangement creates a harmony of linear construction, rhythm, and color; in themselves, decorative requirements. The Japanese emphasize the linear aspects of the arrangement. They have developed the art to include the vase, stems, leaves, and branches, as well as the flowers. The entire structure of a Japanese flower arrangement is based on three main points that symbolize heaven, earth, and man.

Enjoying the beauty of flowers is common to all mankind. Ikebana finds its basis in the beauty and meaning flowers have for man, a perceived beauty which stems from the essential bonds of man and nature. Nature is not only the wellspring of man's existence but also defines the vital spirit of beauty. Flowers, needless to say, represent such beauty.
Japanese ikebana is a creative art which brings indoors the charm and beauty of landscapes, the seashore or lakeside. Ikebana recreates nature on a reduced scale through the arrangement of all types of plant material gathered from nature - from gardens, rivers, valleys. Nature is thus always close by for us to learn of its essence. Flower arrangements thus do more than decorate our homes - they provide moral sustenance as well.

Japanese Ikebana (literally 'flowers kept alive') is very complex. There are many schools, of which the most popular are Ikenobo, Sogetsu and Ohara. There are also different styles depending on the school and the plants and vase used.

Apart from its cultural value, Ikebana is also a lucrative business. Ikebana schools are filled with students, especially eligible young ladies who view proficiency in the art as a means to improve their marriage prospects.

Modern ikebana dates from 1930 and goes by the transliteration zen'ei ikebana or zen'eibana. This form of ikebana is more expressive than the classic style. Along with tea ceremony and calligraphy, ikebana was one of the arts in which women were traditionally schooled in preparation for marriage. Today, flower arrangement is venerated as one of the traditional arts in Japan. It is practiced on many occasions like ceremonies and parties, and modern people are still choosing to study the art.


Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

The Great Wall of China is a series of stone and earthen fortifications in China, built, rebuilt, and maintained between 5th century BC and the 16th century to protect the northern borders of the Chinese Empire during the rule of successive dynasties. Several walls, referred to as the Great Wall of China, were built since the 5th century BC, the most famous being the one built between 220 BC and 200 BC by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang; this wall was located much further north than the current wall built during the Ming Dynasty, and little of it remains.

The Great Wall is one of the existing megastructures and the world's longest man-made structure, stretching over approximately 6,400 km (4,000 miles) from Shanhai Pass in the east to Lop Nur in the west, along an arc that roughly delineates the southern edge of Inner Mongolia.

Before the use of bricks, the Great Wall was mainly built from earth, stones and wood.
During the Ming Dynasty, however, bricks were heavily used in many areas of the wall, as were materials such as tiles, lime, and stone. The size and weight of the bricks made them easier to work with than earth and stone, so construction speed increased. Additionally, bricks could bear more weight and retain their integrity better than rammed earth. Stone can hold under its own weight better than brick, but is more difficult to use. Consequently, stones cut in rectangular shapes were used for the foundation, inner and outer brims, and gateways of the wall. Battlements line the uppermost portion of the vast majority of the wall, with defensive gaps a little over a foot tall, and about 9 inches in width.

The steps that form the Great Wall of China are very steep and tall in some areas. Tourists often become exhausted climbing the wall and walk no more than a mile for this reason.

While some portions north of Beijing and near tourist centers have been preserved and even reconstructed, in many locations the Wall is in disrepair. In such location it may serve as a village playground or a source of stones to rebuild houses and roads. Sections of the Wall are also prone to graffiti and vandalism. Parts have been destroyed because the Wall is in the way of construction sites. No comprehensive survey of the wall has been carried out, so it is not possible to say how much of the wall survives, especially in remote areas. Intact or repaired portions of the Wall near developed tourist areas are often frequented by sellers of tourist kitsch.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org

A tattoo is a mark made by inserting pigment into the skin; in technical terms, tattooing is dermal pigmentation. Tattoos may be made on human or animal skin. Tattoos on humans are a type of body modification, while tattoos on animals are most commonly used for identification or branding.

Tattooing has been practiced worldwide. The Ainu, the indigenous people of Japan, wore facial tattoos. Tattooing was widespread among Polynesian peoples, and among certain tribal groups in the Philippines, Borneo, Africa, North America, South America, Mesoamerica, Europe, Japan, Cambodia and China. Despite some taboos surrounding tattooing, the art continues to be popular all over the world.

Tattooing has been around for thousands of years and has a direct link to culture and symbolism of each culture. Tattooing has been a Eurasian practice at least since Neolithic times. Mummies bearing tattoos and dating from the end of the second millennium BC have been discovered at Pazyryk on the Ukok Plateau. Tattooing in Japan is thought to go back to the Paleolithic era, some ten thousand years ago. Various other cultures have had their own tattoo traditions, ranging from rubbing cuts and other wounds with ashes, to hand-pricking the skin to insert dyes.

Chinese character tattoos or kanji tattoos are tattoos consisting of Chinese characters (hanzi or kanji). Even though they are based on the Chinese or Japanese writing systems, these tattoos are almost unheard of in China and Japan, and are instead a relatively recent phenomenon originating in Western countries which do not use these writing systems.

Many such tattoos are unreadable or nonsense in the original language, and the forms of the Chinese characters are also often mistaken. Furthermore, as most tattoo artists are unfamiliar with Asian writing systems, the characters are often copied directly from a printed source (as if someone had a tattoo in the Times New Roman font), or else are improvised by the artists and often result in illegible or childlike penmanship. The blog Hanzi Smatter gives many examples of the mistaken use of Chinese characters in tattoos. It is for this very reason that any individual wishing to get a tattoo featuring Chinese characters should carefully research their intended design.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org & http://www.anilgupta.com

Traditional and modern..Great work!

Fan death is an urban legend that originated in South Korea, but has since spread to other countries in the Far East. The belief is that an electric fan, if left running overnight in a closed room, can result in the death (by suffocation, poisoning, or hypothermia) of those inside. This belief also extends to air conditioners and the fans in cars. When the air conditioner or fan is on in a car, some people are apt to leave their car windows open a crack to avoid "fan death." Fans manufactured and sold in Korea are equipped with a timer switch that turns them off after a set number of minutes, which users are frequently urged to set when going to sleep with a fan on.

Beliefs

The belief in the myth of fan-death often offers several explanations for the precise mechanism by which the fan kills. However, as explained below, these beliefs do not stand up to logical and scientific scrutiny. Examples for possible justifications of belief in fan death are as follows:

* That an electric fan creates a vortex, which sucks the oxygen from the enclosed and sealed room and creates a partial vacuum inside. In reality, the air pressure at any point in the room varies less than it does during a storm.

* That the fan uses up the oxygen in the room and creates fatal levels of carbon dioxide. There is no actual conversion of oxygen to carbon dioxide happening; unlike a candle, the electric motor in a fan does not alter the chemical composition of the air (apart from creating some ozone if the motor uses brushes, and outgassing from the materials).

* That if the fan is put directly in front of the face of the sleeping person, it will suck all the air away, preventing one from breathing. However, as can be easily verified, it is possible to breathe with one's face in front of a running fan.

* That fanblades chop up air particles (i.e. oxygen molecules) so that the air is no longer breathable, thus resulting in suffocation. If this were true, regular fans could be used to create chemical reactions. However, air ionisers do turn a very small amount of oxygen into unstable ozone.

* That fans cause hypothermia. As the metabolism slows down at night, one becomes more sensitive to temperature, and thus supposedly more prone to hypothermia. If the fan is left on all night in a sealed and enclosed room, believers in fan death suppose that it will lower the temperature of the room to the point that it can cause hypothermia. Empirical measurements will show, however, that the temperature in the room does not fall, at least not due to the fan; if at all, it should rise slightly because of friction and the heat output of the fan motor, but even this is generally not significant. Fans actually make one cooler by increasing the convection around a person's body so that heat flows from them to the air more easily, and by the latent heat of vapourisation as perspiration evaporates from the body. Furthermore, hypothermia occurs only when the body's core temperature drops below normal, and will not generally be caused simply by cooling of the skin or decrease in the body's surface temperature.

* Often, believers claim that a combination of these factors is responsible. For example, it might be claimed that the decrease in oxygen and increase in carbon dioxide, in conjunction with some degree of hypothermia, could prove fatal to a sleeping person.

The explanation of fan death is accepted by many Korean medical professionals. In summer, mainstream Korean news sources regularly report on cases of fan death.

Source : http://en.wikipedia.org