Cultural History of East Asia

Airlangga

(1006-1045)
Indonesian King of Mataram; known for religious tolerance; 1045 abdicated throne to resume life as an ascetic

Amaterasu

(legend)
Japanese Sun goddess, founder of the Japanese race through her son Ninigi, and grandson Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan (Yamato)

An Lu-shan

(755)
Tang border commander who led the rebellion that destroyed effective rule over China

Angkor Wat

(1135)
Cambodian Hindu-Buddhist temple complex built by Suryavarman II, dedicated to Vishnu

Anoratha

(1044)
Burmese king who conquered Thailand and inroduced Buddhism there

Ashikaga Takauji

(1338)
Japanese general who first allied with Emperor Go Dai-go, then opposed him, creating Japan's Northern and Southern Dynasties, and founded the Muromachi Shogunate

Ashoka

(250 B.C.)
Indian king who converted from Hinduism to Buddhism and forced the entire kingdom to convert with him, thereby chasing Hindu aristocrats into Southeast Asia

Asuka

(538-710)
period in Japanese history (Tempyo period art); Sun clan; capital moved upon death of Emperor; 552 Buddhism and writing imported from Korea; 562 Mimana lost to Silla (and their chinese Buddhist allies); 593 prince shotoku, empress Suiko; 646 Taika reforms instituted (Hakuho period in art)

Au Lac

(258-208 B.C.)
Vietnamese kingdom with double-cropping of rice, fell to the Chinese

Aung San Suu Kyi

(1989)
Burmese leader, elected in a landslide, then placed under house arrest

Ayuttaya

(1350-1767)
flourishing Thai kingdom on Chao Phraya river, founded by King Ramathibodi, conquer Sukhothai; 1431 sack Angkor; 1684 seek French alliance, French want converts ; 1767 falls to Burma, books burned

Bao Dai

(1925-1955)
Vietnam's last Emperor

Baphuon

(1050)
Hindu temple mountain at Angkor

Basho

(1680)
Japanese haiku poet -frog jumping into pond

Beijing Olympics

(2008)
a chance for China to show its world progress, but pollution and human rights concerns loom

Bon

(1063 B.C.)
Tibet's native religion, founded by the legendary Shenrab Miwo

Bonifacio

Philippine patriot proclaims a republic on june 12, 1889; is largely ignored; 1896 Jose Rizal spearheads the Philippine Revolution, but is executed the same year

Borobudur

(850)
Indonesian Mahayana Buddhist temple complex

Boxer Rebellion

(1900)
Outraged at extraterritoriality, with passive support from Empress Dowager, The Society pf Righteous and Harmonious Fists attacks foreign railroads, Christian missions, and the Western legations; eight nations break the siege of the foreign legations in Beijing, and sack the city

Buddha

(500 B.C.)
Indian religious leader; Nepalese prince, Siddhartha Gautama; Four Noble Truths

Buddhist Councils

(499 B.C.)
established the Buddhist canon
(100 A.D.)
established the Mahayana tradition as unique from the Thervada

Champa

(600-1500)
Kingdom in central Vietnam, Hindu, Indrapura (Danang)

Changjo

(1763)
"The Coffin King" Korean Crown King falsely accused of treason, buried alive in a rice bin, posthumously entitled king

Chiang Kai-shek

1925 takes control of the KMT after Sun Yat-sen's death; 1926 conducts Northern Expedition in cooperation with Communists too dislodge warlords; 1927 marries Soong Mei-ling (Sun's sister-in-law); when Northern Expedition reaches Shanghai, he decides to massacre the Communists, who flee to Mao in Jiangxi, the Civil War has begun

Choson

(2333-108 B.C.) Ancient Korean kingdom; founded by legendary Tangun

Chulalongkorn

(1850)
Thai king, taught by Anna Lenowens, westernizes Siam; cedes Laos and Cambodia to France, northern Malaysia to Britian; introduces the cabinet system, western calendar, religious freedom, Thai Surname Act to reduce tension with Thai Chinese; keeps Thailand free of colonization

Ci Xi

(1861)
Qing Empress Dowager, 1871 Tianjin Massacre of Catholic orphanages; 1888 suppressed Guang-xu's reforms, built marble boat with funds for a modern navy 1900 instigated the Boxer Rebellion

Confucianism

(1500 B.C.)
Chinese thought system, revernece for ancestors, avoidance of conflict, Five Relations

Confucius

(500 B.C.)
Chinese philosopher, stressed "devoted obedience"

Corazon Aquino

(1986)
Philippine leader, led the "People Power" overthrow of Marcos

Cultural Revolution

(1966-1976)
Mao unleashes the power of workers, farmers, and soldiers to combat Western-leaning professional elitism

Dai Viet

(1010-1527)
Name used for Vietnam under the Ly, Tran, Ho, and Le Dynasties, the golden era in Vietnamese history

Dao-guang

(1820)
Qing Emperor, population explosion, erosion of Qing power; British begin trading opium to balance trade

Deng Xiao-ping

(1979)
Chinese leader, pragmatist, opened to the West

Dien Bien Phu

(1954)
Battle in Vietnam in which Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh defeated the French

Dogen

(1200)
Japanese Zen leader, founder of the Soto school, stressed gradual enlightenment (satori) through meditation (zazen), all actions a form of meditation

Dogu

(100-400 B.C.)
Japanese earthenware statuettes with coffee-bean eyes

Dolmen tombs

(900 B.C.)
Stonehenge-like tombs in Korea

Domino Theory

(1970)
Justification for the war in Vietnam, that if we lost Vietnam, all Southeast Asia would fall

Dongson drums

(500 B.C.)
large bronze drums from Vietnam

Dotaku

(100 B.C.)
bronze bells of various sizes buried in Japan for unknown reasons

Dutch East India Company

(1600-1799)
gains control of spice trade from Portugese; found Jakarta (Batavia); use Chinese as tax farmers; East Timor left independent; destry trees to prop up price of spices; use internal political squabbles to gain land from Indonesian princes

Dvaravati

(500-1000)
"many-gated", early Indianized Thai-Mon kindom in Chao Phraya basin

East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere

(1941)
Japan invades Indochina, Burma, Malaya, Philippines, installs local revolutionary leaders, trained in Japan; economic autarchy- growing industrial crops on rice land- alienates locals; peasants worse off