Teravada

=The Culture of Theravada = =__ Material Aspects of Culture __= = Art: 1. This is a picture of a lotus, the national flower of the Theravada culture. As you can see, the lotus appears to have light pink petals and a yellow pollen. Lotuses can have pink, red, blue, purple, yellow and white petals, but the most common lotuses have pink petals. These flowers usually grow in ponds and sometimes streams. There are many types of lotuses, like for example this type is specified to use for worshipping the buddha. 2. The lotus became the flower of buddhism because in the past, when buddhism hasn't even started, there was one prince named Sitata and when he was born, he had lots of wealth and hope so he was suppose to step on 7 lotuses that represented a week. The reason they picked lotus was because the lotus had 4 steps of growing. The first step was the lotus that was under the water getting ready to grow like a baby. The 2nd step was the lotus sprouting like an 11 or 12 years old. The 3rd step would be the lotus under the water, but nearly above the water like a young adult. The last step would be the lotus above the water, all bloomed like an adult. These 4 steps stands for the thinking of a person. When they have pasted all 4 steps that means that person is a mature adult or a fully-bloomed lotus. That is why they chose the lotus. Because it represented human in a way. If you are wondering what happened to Prince Sitata. He became the only buddha in the buddhism culture which is compared to the god Allah in the islamic culture. 3. Today, the lotus is being used for worshipping the buddha. These lotuses cannot be bloomed. They have to be budded. They are also used for decorating homes, but is mostly used inside temples. Music: Food: Religion: Clothing: Literature: Holidays: __Non-Material Aspects of Culture__ Ideas of Modesty: Ideas of Beauty: Child-Raising: Relationship to animals: Ideas about Sin: Ideas of Justice: Ideas about Diseases and Illness: Role based on Age, Gender, Class Job  =