Tametomo

Smallpox is an extremely deadly disease which, in one point in time, was the most feared disease on the planet. In the book Pox Americana, Elizabeth A. Fenn writes about the encounter with the deadly disease in the 1770's to the 1780's. Her book was first published in 2001 in New York City, where she originally wrote it. Her book contains just under 400 words that explain the disease, some of the first encounters with it, who and where it affected people, and how they got the epidemic under control. Pox Americana is a very informative book that teaches the reader various things.

While this dimension is not as important as in some other faiths of a strongly sacramental kind, it is still highly regarded. This can be attributed to the fact that it is through certain rituals that the core experience of enlightenment is obtained. (Hope, 1995) The ritual central to the Buddhist faith is the practice of meditation. The importance of meditation is paramount because it was through meditation that Buddha was able to gain enlightenment. Consequently, Buddhists attempt to emulate Buddha when meditating by endeavouring to cultivate wisdom and compassion, whilst also trying to gain control of the mind and expel suffering. (Mudge et al, 1993) If a Buddhist is successful in accomplishing this then they are said to have gained enlightenment. In terms of mass rituals, Buddhism maintains a plethora of ceremonies dealing with both the 'Sangha' (Order of monks and nuns) and laity. The primary rituals concerning the 'Sangha' includes; the initiation ritual in which the shaving of the head is a common practice and the annual Kathina Festival, in which the laity of the faith offers fabric to the monks for their new robes. For the laity, worship is more personal than congregation. A common practice is the taking of the three refuges (See appendix 3), in which adherents chant the same three sayings in repetition. This type of chanting, along with meditation, are common acts of devotion in Buddhism. Recently

To begin, Asia has exemplified philosophies and beliefs throughout dealing with diseases. Doc 2 indicates that mallows, garlic, and rice were all used as remedial tools in Post Classical China. The use of plants native to China reflects how the response was regionally based and used the belief of Daoism. Another example would be Japan’s response to Doc 4. Japan’s emperor believed that the smallpox outbreak was due to the passive attitude towards Buddhism, so they destroyed Buddhist temples to stop the outbreak. When smallpox continued, they soon found out that disease was not a mere form of punishment from the gods. Finally, Doc 6

The transmission of the smallpox was yet another unavoidable disease that was constantly contracted. “The Negroes are so incident to the smallpox that few ships that carry them escape without it.” (Document B) “pain in the head, back, shivering, vomiting, fever, etc.” (Document B) Due to the small living conditions, diseases, such as the Smallpox, were easily transmitted and passed throughout the

Smallpox believed to be brought by a Portuguese explorer in 1506 who also bring tuberculosis. This disease brings to America by African slaves which kill more than half of the population of Indians, from there this disease spread to Mexico, Colombia, Cuba, Peru, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, and Yucatan. In the 17th century, this disease spread to North America killing large numbers of people. Great pox which is known as syphilis nowadays is another disease after smallpox which dominates this era. This disease is supposed to be traveled with a crew of Columbus who introduce this disease in Europe. This disease traveled to India with Vasco de Gama who also introduce the world with a new type of skin disease which is known as scurvy. Another disease which shows its glimpse is epilepsy. Arabs consider it as ‘divine disease’ and Babylonian consider it was caused by ‘touch of

There are many aspects of this world such as culture, technology, or art that have been influenced by other things. The way that things influence each other has allowed for new possibilities and ideals to be formed. Religion is no exception; there have been many instances where religions have influenced each other and blossomed due to new ideas being presented. A good example of this the relationship between the two religions: Buddhism and Shinto. Buddhism was brought into Japan during the early 6th century from Korea, and was later institutionalized as the state religion in the late 6th century by Prince Shōtoku. The Prince was a great patron of Buddhism and by having made it the state religion, it would help Buddhism spread. However, Japan was not without its own religion—Shinto—which had been there for many years prior to the arrival of Buddhism. With Buddhism gaining traction in Japan with the help of Prince Shōtoku, what then does it mean for the Shinto religion? However, Shinto was not long forgotten, which leads to the question: how did the two religions, Buddhism and Shinto, interact with each other when Buddhism arrived in Japan? In this essay, I will discuss how both Buddhism and Shinto were closely tied to each other in Japan, and how they would influence each other in different ways that allowed them to grow into new directions.

The earliest indicator of smallpox in history is the extensive lesions on three Egyptian mummies. There are also recorded cases from the Hitties (1346 BC), Syracuse (595 BC), Athens (490 BC), China (48AD), Korean Peninsula (583 AD), and Japan (585 AD), however, they are not definite cases because these ancient physicians were unable to distinguish smallpox rashes from other skin rashes. Nevertheless, this distinction was made in 910 AD by physician Al-Razi. As Islam spread across North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula, smallpox followed. By 1000 AD, smallpox epidemics were widely recorded from Japan to Spain. In the 16th century, smallpox outbreaks hit large cities such as London and Geneva, and exploration across oceans facilitated the spread of smallpox as well to the Americas, Australia, and South Africa. In the Americas, natives were seen as lesser and put to work in mines and on plantations where the combination of poor working conditions and European disease thinned out their population. This encouraged the importation of slaves from Africa as replacements and eventual establishment of slave trade to the New World. Smallpox outbreaks killed many natives, starting in Hispaniola and spreading to Cuba, the Yucatan, and other parts of Mexico. The spread was almost systematic, and due to the nature of smallpox, affected isolated, indigenous populations. Even after Edward Jenner created a successful vaccine for smallpox, it remained a serious threat, as many people, especially in rural areas were not

Buddhism originated in the early Fifth century BCE, from the teachings of Siddhartha Buddha (Fisher, 2005). Plagued by the desire to help end human suffering, Buddha reached a state of pure enlightenment showing him the way to end earthly suffering. Through meditation, people can control the desires of their human nature. By gaining control of our desires we can end our suffering. He taught his wisdom to all that wanted to learn. After his death, three main forms of Buddhism emerged; there was the Theravada’s, the Mahayana’s, and the Zen Buddhists (Fisher, 2005). For the sake of this report, the local Buddhist

One of the major health event happen in the 1800s is when Edward Jenner, a english doctor create vaccination to cure smallpox. Edward jenner was born in may 17 1749 and died on january 26 1823 at the age of 74 from a massive stroke. He have safe many life. Smallpox is a contagious viral disease. It cause fever and left scar. Before smallpox is being cure over 400,000 unlucky people die each year from it. SmallPox have been all over the place in the old days. It was first being seen in china in the 4th century.It being said that every 3 out of 10 people died from it and who ever survive will have scar left on them. He thought of the idea when he know a dairymaid who said “i shall never have smallpox for i have had cowpox. I shall never

I found another interesting fact about the smallpox, it can live on cloth for years, therefore it first hit the American Indians prior to ever meeting the European people (Ojibwa, 2009). Consequently, as the American Indians could not cure these diseases with healing part of their religious ceremonies, they began to lose faith. After I read your post, I was interested in finding out if any Europeans educated the American Indians regarding these diseases, such as smallpox, and provided any help with containing the disease. I have found that they did begin a vaccination program for smallpox, for the American Indians around 1800. But, they took care of their own first, the Europeans began vaccination programs for themselves around 1721 (Ojibwa,

Although treatment was limited and symptoms were often treated rather than the virus itself, people did seem to grasp the concept of contagious disease, understanding that infected people should be separated from the healthy (“Smallpox” 3 and 7). A variety of different treatments were developed in different regions all over the world. The Japanese practiced the ‘red treatment’ from the tenth to the nineteenth century, a practice in which the infected patient was surrounded by only the color red because red was believed to have a warming property that encouraged smallpox humors to rise to the surface (Reiss 104). The Chinese ground the scabs into a fine powder and blew it into the nose of a healthy person to immunize them (“Smallpox” 3-4). The Europeans often times treated the symptoms rather than the disease itself by using the methods of purging and bloodletting (Reiss 103). The drinking of tar water was even thought to help cure infected people of the disease in Great Britain; this practice later diffused to Charleston, South Carolina (Reiss

Imagine a quick spreading rash throughout the entire body, leaving not a single space behind; every opening and crevice in your body, including your mouth and eyes covered in painful bumps accompanied by high fever and severe body aches. Flat red spots transforming into fluid-filled lesions and soon oozing out yellow pus, evidently emitting a pungent odor to anyone who dared get close. The live virus present in the darkening crusty scabs that would soon fall off only to leave behind a deep pitted scarred filled complexion on anyone who was fortunate enough to survive. These scars would be forever remembered as the hallmark for the smallpox epidemic which tormented the world for over 3,000 years. (Riedel “Deadly Diseases”).

While many individual monk-warriors are still recognized from the Heian period in Japan, the most notorious amongst them all in Japanese records and literature is Shinjitsu. Regarded as “Japan’s number one evil martial monk,”1 Shinjitsu comes across as more of an akuso (evil monk) than the “ultimate representation of the greedy and violent sōhei”2 that previous interpretations and literature make him out to be. In his book The Teeth and Claws of Buddha, Mikael S. Adolphson attempts to better classify Shinjitsu as the monk-commander and warrior-administrator he was, and it is this new interpretation that makes him so important. Shinjitsu, in historical records, was less likely to use his monastic position than use his ties in the imperial court and with other nobility to assert his control, and was in fact involved in the first event of the imperial court calling for help from monastic troops.

Buddhism has a far-reaching impact on Japanese culture. Back to the 6th century in 552, dated in Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan), Buddhism was introduced by Emperor Kinmei and some buddhist monks and nuns together with an image of Buddha and a number of sutras. Ever since, the arrival and expansion of this religion to Japan started to have massive influence on everything, including a unique Japanese architecture, the Shinto Shrine, the centre of beliefs of Shinto and the spiritual totem for Japanese people. Based on extensive archival research, many studies investigate in great depth the effect of Buddhism on Shinto Shrine architecture, or, in another word, the relationship between the visible appearance of Shinto Shrines and the historical

As Nichiren aged, he saw corruption, arrogance of practitioners, and “devilish teachings” in many of the traditional Buddhist hierarchies including Zen and Nembutsu, and as a result, published works that contained information about the Louts Sutra, its teachings, and how an individual can achieve karma (40). Nichiren spent three years on an island in exile before retreating to mountainous terrain where he spent creating the Dai-Gohonzon, an inscription on a wooden board, for worship and writing to his followers and disciples. Nichiren Shoshu passed away in the year 1282, but his teachings did not die with him; Nichiren’s disciples passed on the “cutting edge” teachings for almost 700 years before they began to gain popularity (43).