Post 1/4
The videos in third and fourth posts is what's interesting.
This post is just on some loose items I remembered on religion, society and culture in some countries further east:
1. Had caught parts of a couple of episodes in the middle of some Taiwanese drama, it may have been a (romantic?) comedy. From what I could gather:
In it, the heroine's side had planned to marry off the reluctant-looking hero to her, in front of a crowd that included her family. The setting was the bride's turf/ancestral grounds. The hero was trying to avoid getting hitched to her, and argued that since there was no church* in the region, that the wedding can take place "later". (* It's a modern, temporary trend among many E Asians to marry in churches; which are usually faux churches in the case of Japanese.) The bride's side declared that a church was not at all necessary to get married at, especially since the region boasted a temple to the local God, so that the marriage could be performed in front of divine witnesses (the Taoist Gods). The next scene showed the heroine, reluctant hero and the others over at the Taoist temple - the vigraham of the God was in the background, it was definitely a real Taoist temple but perhaps Taiwanese don't film vigrahas casually at temples either. There, the bride's side invoked the God of the temple and other Taoist Gods as witness to the wedding and to safeguard the marriage contract between the hero and heroine. The humans also offered to "sacrifice a chicken" to the God for the occasion (which didn't quite seem to take place, fluttering: there was a live chicken fluttering about IIRC, when people remembered that they had promised to perform the sacrifice, and then it was used as a comic relief).
Further, every time any of the bride's side mentioned the actual name of the temple's God - who is the God of that region and hence the heroine's ancestral God since they're inhabitants of that place - they all did a namaskaram with their hands and their eyes closed, thinking of him. This includes all the occasions when they kept reminding the hero of his wedding oath in front of the Gods to look after his wife. In one scene, the bride's party was repeatedly mentioning the temple Deity's name, so they were constantly doing namaskaaras. It was meant to be both funny and cute. The hero and his sidekick also ended up doing the namaskaaras whenever they recalled their promise to the God. At one point the sidekick declared that they had moved out of the region over which that God presided/had jurisdiction, and desperately suggested that maybe they could cease to be afraid of the consequences now? (The hero and his sidekick wanted his divorce from the heroine whom the hero didn't really know well and didn't originally wish to marry.) The hero's grandma however was one of those that had accompanied him to the temple wedding and in fact one of those who had since early on insisted that all the Gods and all the ancestors/Pitrus should be invoked as witnesses for the marriage, since she took the wedding seriously: and serious weddings required the witness, recognition and blessings of the pantheon of Gods.
Despite many E Asian [live-action] dramas featuring faux-christianisms, I gather from acquaintances that Taoism features quite often and in religious sense even in modern-day Taiwanese programmes of "corporate" characters.
I know from many examples that Shinto features quite heavily in Japanese programming. An example in 4 below.
2. IIRC in some Korean dramas I had watched, the young [and heathen] protagonists did full-body namaskaras to the in-laws, which looked exactly like the way Hindoo men do full-body namaskaarams (as opposed to the manner in which Hindoo females do this).
3. A Korean drama I have not watched and only read the summary for, was specifically described as being about the "outcasts" class of Korean society during the historical Joseon period of the country (an era of IIRC Confucianist rule in Korea). I don't know more than that. Maybe I should make time to watch the drama to find out more.
4. On a side note, traditional Chinese society has a class of people who wear masks with animal motifs - at least, when in contact with the rest of Taoist society - and with whom other Taoists don't seem to interact much (and they're not expected to interact a lot together). These social interactive behaviours/phenomena still exist in rural China. Sometimes the aforementioned class of people - also ancestrally Taoist heathens - don't seem to be held in as high regard as other Taoists by some in the community.
5. A week or two back, came across a Japanese programme where a Shinto God - or more accurately, a class of Shinto special being who work as divine messengers to the Kami, but which class also have Shrines of their own [the way Hindus have Yakshas and Gandharvas and Kinnaras, etc] - again: the Shinto divine being ends up undercover at a school. At one point, it's English class and he looks over the book containing English sentences with surprise and confusion: IIRC he expressed something along the lines of how he doesn't know the language and doesn't understand why he has to learn it.
core: <- See? My point exactly. Actually, it is a running thread in E Asian live-action dramas for at least one of the leads to be totally unfamiliar with English. While this protagonist is not presented as generally clever either, their lack of English skills is never held against them. And indeed, their being challenged when it comes to studying while still being presented as admirable in other respects is held up as a character plus-point: it's why they're the protagonist you're expected to root for. In E Asian programmes, English is weighted equally with other foreign European languages like French and Spanish. In Japanese and Korean programmes, I notice that knowing Mandarin and being familiar with Chinese traditions is weighted slightly higher/more important (both for historical reasons and as an important marker of being cultured) than English or other European languages. Likewise, in Korean and Chinese programmes, some characters can often speak fluent Japanese too, and this is considered an impressive skill. At the very least, English is not given an extra-special place, and not above other E Asian languages or even some other European languages, particularly French (which used to be considered as the language of cultured Europeans by Europeans themselves: Prussian and I think Austrian and German courts used to use French, especially for prominent occasions like royal gatherings and ceremonies). Don't know when English illegally snuck up and replaced more cultured European languages that have longer and better pedigrees. Not to speak of other European languages making more logical *sense* than nonsensical English. English is a constant target of ridicule by mainland Europeans like Germans, especially among those who are fluent in English.
6. Shintos don't just mark sacred rocks/boulders as Kami parents and their divine babies, but mountains too are very sacred in Shinto religion and are embodiments of the Kami.
This next extract is another example illustrating why Shintos will understand Hindus and vice-versa: because they both think/perceive similarly.
eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=9
The bold bit is quite reminiscent of Hindoos worshipping -say- the Himalayan peaks Gauri-Shankar (as the literal embodiments of Gauri Shankar). I wonder if there is any boulder nestled between these two peaks that Hindoos have recognised as Subrahmaniam, marking the entire combination as a Somaskandam formation, since Hindoo temples to these Gods at times appear in this very configuration, so it seems like something Hindoos would typically have done.
And if not, I don't see why Hindoo pilgrims don't immediately identify 2 or 3 boulders - or even pebbles - that are comfortably and naturally nestled between the two parental peaks and declare these to be Ayyappan (aka Shaastaa*), Pillaiyar (Ganapati), and Murugan (Skanda). Hindoos recognise their Gods in shaaligraamams and natural formations regularly anyway. Not different from Shintos.
* Apparently a name already referred to in the Yajus, according to an Ayyappa-bhakta braahmaNa Hindoo quoting from the YV.
The videos in third and fourth posts is what's interesting.
This post is just on some loose items I remembered on religion, society and culture in some countries further east:
1. Had caught parts of a couple of episodes in the middle of some Taiwanese drama, it may have been a (romantic?) comedy. From what I could gather:
In it, the heroine's side had planned to marry off the reluctant-looking hero to her, in front of a crowd that included her family. The setting was the bride's turf/ancestral grounds. The hero was trying to avoid getting hitched to her, and argued that since there was no church* in the region, that the wedding can take place "later". (* It's a modern, temporary trend among many E Asians to marry in churches; which are usually faux churches in the case of Japanese.) The bride's side declared that a church was not at all necessary to get married at, especially since the region boasted a temple to the local God, so that the marriage could be performed in front of divine witnesses (the Taoist Gods). The next scene showed the heroine, reluctant hero and the others over at the Taoist temple - the vigraham of the God was in the background, it was definitely a real Taoist temple but perhaps Taiwanese don't film vigrahas casually at temples either. There, the bride's side invoked the God of the temple and other Taoist Gods as witness to the wedding and to safeguard the marriage contract between the hero and heroine. The humans also offered to "sacrifice a chicken" to the God for the occasion (which didn't quite seem to take place, fluttering: there was a live chicken fluttering about IIRC, when people remembered that they had promised to perform the sacrifice, and then it was used as a comic relief).
Further, every time any of the bride's side mentioned the actual name of the temple's God - who is the God of that region and hence the heroine's ancestral God since they're inhabitants of that place - they all did a namaskaram with their hands and their eyes closed, thinking of him. This includes all the occasions when they kept reminding the hero of his wedding oath in front of the Gods to look after his wife. In one scene, the bride's party was repeatedly mentioning the temple Deity's name, so they were constantly doing namaskaaras. It was meant to be both funny and cute. The hero and his sidekick also ended up doing the namaskaaras whenever they recalled their promise to the God. At one point the sidekick declared that they had moved out of the region over which that God presided/had jurisdiction, and desperately suggested that maybe they could cease to be afraid of the consequences now? (The hero and his sidekick wanted his divorce from the heroine whom the hero didn't really know well and didn't originally wish to marry.) The hero's grandma however was one of those that had accompanied him to the temple wedding and in fact one of those who had since early on insisted that all the Gods and all the ancestors/Pitrus should be invoked as witnesses for the marriage, since she took the wedding seriously: and serious weddings required the witness, recognition and blessings of the pantheon of Gods.
Despite many E Asian [live-action] dramas featuring faux-christianisms, I gather from acquaintances that Taoism features quite often and in religious sense even in modern-day Taiwanese programmes of "corporate" characters.
I know from many examples that Shinto features quite heavily in Japanese programming. An example in 4 below.
2. IIRC in some Korean dramas I had watched, the young [and heathen] protagonists did full-body namaskaras to the in-laws, which looked exactly like the way Hindoo men do full-body namaskaarams (as opposed to the manner in which Hindoo females do this).
3. A Korean drama I have not watched and only read the summary for, was specifically described as being about the "outcasts" class of Korean society during the historical Joseon period of the country (an era of IIRC Confucianist rule in Korea). I don't know more than that. Maybe I should make time to watch the drama to find out more.
4. On a side note, traditional Chinese society has a class of people who wear masks with animal motifs - at least, when in contact with the rest of Taoist society - and with whom other Taoists don't seem to interact much (and they're not expected to interact a lot together). These social interactive behaviours/phenomena still exist in rural China. Sometimes the aforementioned class of people - also ancestrally Taoist heathens - don't seem to be held in as high regard as other Taoists by some in the community.
5. A week or two back, came across a Japanese programme where a Shinto God - or more accurately, a class of Shinto special being who work as divine messengers to the Kami, but which class also have Shrines of their own [the way Hindus have Yakshas and Gandharvas and Kinnaras, etc] - again: the Shinto divine being ends up undercover at a school. At one point, it's English class and he looks over the book containing English sentences with surprise and confusion: IIRC he expressed something along the lines of how he doesn't know the language and doesn't understand why he has to learn it.
core: <- See? My point exactly. Actually, it is a running thread in E Asian live-action dramas for at least one of the leads to be totally unfamiliar with English. While this protagonist is not presented as generally clever either, their lack of English skills is never held against them. And indeed, their being challenged when it comes to studying while still being presented as admirable in other respects is held up as a character plus-point: it's why they're the protagonist you're expected to root for. In E Asian programmes, English is weighted equally with other foreign European languages like French and Spanish. In Japanese and Korean programmes, I notice that knowing Mandarin and being familiar with Chinese traditions is weighted slightly higher/more important (both for historical reasons and as an important marker of being cultured) than English or other European languages. Likewise, in Korean and Chinese programmes, some characters can often speak fluent Japanese too, and this is considered an impressive skill. At the very least, English is not given an extra-special place, and not above other E Asian languages or even some other European languages, particularly French (which used to be considered as the language of cultured Europeans by Europeans themselves: Prussian and I think Austrian and German courts used to use French, especially for prominent occasions like royal gatherings and ceremonies). Don't know when English illegally snuck up and replaced more cultured European languages that have longer and better pedigrees. Not to speak of other European languages making more logical *sense* than nonsensical English. English is a constant target of ridicule by mainland Europeans like Germans, especially among those who are fluent in English.6. Shintos don't just mark sacred rocks/boulders as Kami parents and their divine babies, but mountains too are very sacred in Shinto religion and are embodiments of the Kami.
This next extract is another example illustrating why Shintos will understand Hindus and vice-versa: because they both think/perceive similarly.
eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=9
Quote:Himegami
A female kami ("goddess"). An extant fragment of the Tsukushi no kuni fudoki describes the three separate peaks of the mountain Kishimayama in the following way: "The peak to the southwest is called the hikogami (male-kami), the middle peak is called the himegami (female-kami), and the one to the northeast is called the mikogami (offspring-kami)." As this passage makes clear, the himegami was most often enshrined as a consort to a male hikogami.
In another example, the two deities worshiped at the Wakasahiko Jinja in Fukui Prefecture are Wakasahiko no kami and Wakasahime no kami, and the Samukawa Jinja in Kanagawa Prefecture enshrines the two deities Samukawahiko no mikoto and Samukawahime no mikoto. Likewise, while the himegami worshiped at Usa Jingà « and Iwashimizu Hachimangà « does not exist in name as half of a matched pair, the legendary shrine history Jisha engi Hachimangudà Âkin calls her the "dragon woman" and identifies her as the consort of Emperor à Åjin.
[...]
The bold bit is quite reminiscent of Hindoos worshipping -say- the Himalayan peaks Gauri-Shankar (as the literal embodiments of Gauri Shankar). I wonder if there is any boulder nestled between these two peaks that Hindoos have recognised as Subrahmaniam, marking the entire combination as a Somaskandam formation, since Hindoo temples to these Gods at times appear in this very configuration, so it seems like something Hindoos would typically have done.
And if not, I don't see why Hindoo pilgrims don't immediately identify 2 or 3 boulders - or even pebbles - that are comfortably and naturally nestled between the two parental peaks and declare these to be Ayyappan (aka Shaastaa*), Pillaiyar (Ganapati), and Murugan (Skanda). Hindoos recognise their Gods in shaaligraamams and natural formations regularly anyway. Not different from Shintos.
* Apparently a name already referred to in the Yajus, according to an Ayyappa-bhakta braahmaNa Hindoo quoting from the YV.