Muslim rebellion crumbling

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24279599

I thought this might be interesting to everyone since we talked about Islamic traditions and customs in Southeast Asia. It's been a real, ugly mess in the Philippines with the ongoing conflict between Muslims and the Philippine military. The constant fighting between the troops and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) has displaced thousands of people in the Southern Philippine islands. Since it started, however, reports claim that nearly 300 Muslim rebels have surrendered. This may or may not be accurate depending on if similar reports have been censored or modified within the media. A lot of the fighting has occurred in Zamboanga City, Mindanao, Philippines, where 70,000 residents have been relocated to into a now overcrowded and unsanitary sports stadium. There is information that suggests the MNLF is angry due to being put aside from peace talks between the government and another Muslim group. If you're interested in how tensions grew between the Muslim and Philippine communities, here is the link: 
http://asiasociety.org/countries/conflicts/origins-muslim-separatist-movement-philippines    

History of Bronze technology in the East

Considering how a lot of Western cultural foundations originated in Asia, I decided to look a bit further into the development of bronze technology which our ancestors used to make various weapons and tools. Chapter 5 briefly mentions the Neolithic Era as the time when the first hand tools were created to allow early humans to hunt. Archeological evidence has been uncovered within southern China, indicating the introduction of tools enabled farming and agriculture to thrived in ways impossible to achieve in the hot, dry climate of northern China.

During the Bronze Age, the Chinese people learned how to farm and cultivate food so that the upper class and other workers (bronze-smiths, miners, builders, etc.) could do their parts in sustaining Chinese civilization during the Shang Dynasty. In many ways, the societal setup was very similar to how medieval European civilization was maintained. The farmers and other workers functioned as the peasants monitored by their king's vassals so that the kingdom was prospering. Interestingly, the idea of kingship and religion was very different in the Far East from the European perspective. Another distinct aspect of Chinese royalty was the king's duty to please the ancient sun and rain gods so that the harvest in his land wouldn't be spoiled or ruined. If he wanted the gods on his side, the king had bronze vessels filled with cereals and wined heated over a fire.

The Bronze Age was an extraordinary time in China as numerous materials were made out of the bronze metal and one of the first writing systems was created during that time. One very important representation of Chinese life from this era is underground chamber full of 7,000 life-sized terracotta warriors, charioteers, and cavalry troops. This massive tomb symbolizes how the Chinese ruling families sought to honor their dead preserve their culture by making exact replicas of the people who made China what it is today.   



http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/special/china_4000bce_bronze.htm

China's response to Syria's situation

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/sep/10/china-backs-russias-call-syria-give-chemical-weapo/

 Since China and Russia are on the same page of getting President Assad's government to give up their chemical weapons, I'm curious as to what the Chinese think about President Obama's approach to dealing Assad's regime. Obama will only authorize American forces to locate and destroy the weapons if negotiations between Syrian, American, and Russian governments. While supporting Russia in the call for Assad to surrender his WMDs, China doesn't appear to have much of a role in this conflict. However, it's likely the Chinese government will back up Russia and Syria if American military strikes commence. 

Asian Religions Pg. 31-49

Thousands of years ago, there were great social changes in the Far Eastern nations that helped them establish codes of purpose and responsibility within the confinements of the hierarchical communities. These changes came in the forms of two distinct religious philosophies; one that sought to refine the current social hierarchy and let people conduct themselves accordingly and the other focused more on forces outside of the human world.

Confucianism essentially focused on the needs and desires of each individual, but it put emphasis on the importance of education so that people could obtain a high sense of morality or "virtuous behavior." To Confucius, any form of abusive force or law didn't guarantee individual virtue. He believed people were born good and naturally want to do the right thing, but they needed moral leaders and a decent education in order to good consciences. No one had to become a priest to pass on the teachings of Confucianism; they just needed to continue developing as a person. Another central message to all its followers was the necessity of making the most out of life with the availability of food, producing of children, and passing down important life lessons to your descendants as an elderly person. Similar to Hinduism, Confucianism was very centered on human values and prosperity, regardless of one's social status. It had a concept of another world after death, but Confucius was more concerned with human affairs.

The second major religious philosophy, Daoism, teaches its followers to look to the universe or cosmos for guidance and not rely on human insight. To this day, it's not entirely clear what the main focus of Daoism is as many of the priests wrote riddles about the natural world and how human societal strives mean nothing. A couple of messages were created to persuade people to just let everything go the way it's always been going in the natural world and not make any improvements to it. In the years after the Han dynasty, Daoism grew such a massive following as the worship of nature and the supernatural became common practices, as well as the use of magic and the pursuit for immortality. These activities led Daiost believers to selfishly seek their own pleasures, creating a bad relationship between them and the Confucians. However, the Daiost discovery of medicinal herbs helped them regain favor from others since this event enhanced Chinese  medicine as the time.         

Pages 17-31

When you take into account the establishment of civilization in the Far East, we can see how Western religion originated from the Asian religious ideas which still affect people today. Yet, there are many contrasts between the two distinct systems, such as the Judeo-Christian faith distinguishing what is sacred and profane while the Eastern perspective sees everything that makes life possible as sacred. While Eastern religious customs are distinct from the West in a number of ways, Chapter 2 focuses primarily on the key factors that make up the main religions in Asia.

 While a writing system was created and adapted by every Asian culture, it's interesting how Hinduism, the oldest of all world religions, was never founded by a single original source as the Qur'an is for Islam and the teachings of Buddha is Buddhism. Hinduism was started in India, where the caste system separated the wealthy from the merchants (middle class people of the time) and those who were at the bottom of the social ladder. While the caste system was considered a Hindu practice in India, keep in mind that Hinduism focuses on morality and the importance of intellectual or philosophical perspectives over a rigid set of beliefs. To add, the caste system is observed by not only Indians, but other Asians who are Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. Therefore, the caste system is clearly a nonreligious system with the intention of imposing order on a somewhat chaotic society. However, the caste system (particularly the priests within it) still wanted control and influence over the daily Hindu rituals. The answer to this conflict between truth and power was the formation of Buddhism, which focuses on the individual dealing with their issues through meditation and unparallelled equality for all people. Buddha practices were developed out of the old Hindu beliefs of dharma, karma, samsara (reincarnation), devotion, and leading a life without violence. Buddhism gained such a massive following in Southeast Asia and it eventually spread east to Japan. While the Hindu gods were forgotten, Hinduism's basic monotheism was reaffirmed to adjust the religion's focus towards the individual.