End of Year Reflection

Fun, Ancient Tour

“Hurray! I have completed my time machine! I believe this will work by tomorrow, hopefully it won’t make any trouble while my sleep.” While I was walking out the door, I saw this light shine on my hand just when I was about to open the door. I turned around in a slow-motion movement and something very strange scooped me in a black hole, where I was dragged to this tremendous place. I saw a couple of trees, and I couldn’t see anything because I was apparently stuck among long, thick grass. I looked at the time and it was exactly 10:00 AM. I heard something grinning- oh boy, I was frightened. It approached me. It was extremely short and it didn’t walk on two feet. In my history class I’ve learned that about 1.8 million years ago homo erectus existed. They hunted for animals and developed as time passed by. Since I’ve created a time machine, I I’d stay here for an hour. So, I decided to talk to him. “So, what’s up? Are you chillin’?” I was crazy. There was no way he could understand that. Homo erectus looked at me weirdly and started giving me these sharp tools to help create a fire. I took a look at the tools, and they looked dusty and some edges were torn apart. One of the tools looked like a knife, because it was covered with blood- which smelled like he had killed an already dead animal. About an hour later, I realized that I had to go, so I waved goodbye to so called Homo erectus.

My next stop was Ancient Sumeria. I’ve seen a really, really old place- and the houses were just, reckless compared to my 2011 city! However, I thought for a minute… A cave which I was in as old as 2 million years during the Paeolothic period to look like this? Well, I was surely amazed by their great work to unite Mesopotamia. In my 2011 history classes I’ve learned some pre-historic facts about what the people did here. When Homo erectus spread rapidly throughout the Near East and then into Europe and Southeast Asia, they built these caves and developed more and more- they then started disappearing and humans replaced them. During most times, humans lived in open-air campsites in small natural caves. They hunted wild animals and fished, gathered wild plants, and wandered over a large geographic area. Their daily life was really interesting- but since I had learnt somewhat information in school, I wanted to learn more about the pictographs and Mesopotamian writing. So I headed down to check out their walls. These early humans (Sumerians) first created pictographs to symbolize what they wanted to teach their sons and daughters. After some time, they created a script of their own called cuneiform. This script had 22 letters and was used at Byblos in the 15 century BC. What was also interesting was the Trade. Some of the Trade they had was also quite surprising. Mesopotamians travelled by boat to carry their foods, drinks, jewelry, and all the other useful material, and some travelled by foot, for example, the Assyrians who lived in northern Mesopotamia. They themselves didn’t have what they really wanted, so, to obtain the things they wanted, they came up with Trade. They traded their things for other goods to keep them satisfied. While thinking about all these amazing facts and interesting stories, I thought to myself, wow, I could never go through such a hard life. I mean, sitting at home with an Iphone, computer, and TV is good enough. I wouldn’t want to be a slave, or trader- and I’d certainly want to keep the alphabet that we have today.

While I was daydreaming about these ancient civilizations, an hour already passed and I had arrived to Ancient Egypt! I took a glance at Ancient Egypt, and I found myself sitting on top of a camel. Good enough, I get an hour ride in Ancient Egypt! I looked around and saw really, really soft, dark yellow- ish rich soil that felt like flower. The wind was strong, it blew on my face. However, I was actually sweating because of the heat- it wasn’t cold at all! I then looked up and saw Ancient Egyptians building the Pyramids. They were huge, and much bigger than I expected. I then decided to take a look at the art that the Ancient Egyptians had made. I tried to visualize what they were trying to explain- but I couldn’t. It was too hard. In modern days in 2011, nobody would draw pictures like these. The Ancient Egyptian pictures of people on walls were always sideways, and there were a lot of circles next to them, I guess the circles represented that they were gods. Then I saw jewelry all around the art- I wondered what all these things could mean. Anyhow, I decided to go next to the Nile River and sail on a boat. I hopped off the camel, and started sailing down the Nile. I tried to reach the end, but I couldn’t because the river was too long. About an hour later, the time machine started pulling me away again. I was kind of tired of it, because it kept interrupting my wonderful moments.

Finally, I arrived to Ancient India. I was quite cold though, since the mountains with snowcapped peaks were right behind me. However, they weren’t just mountains, they were the Himalayas. I was surprised how big they were; they extend from west to east about 2,500 km in a curve, and their width is 100 – 400 km. The Himalayas were characterized by their great height, snowcapped peaks, and rich vegetation. I felt like I had shrunk next to them. After some time, I had decided to go see the TAJ MAHAL that we’ve been studying in 2011. It had a huge pass way toward the actual entrance, it took me forever to reach the gate- It wasted 15 minutes of my Ancient tour. When I got there, there were a lot of amazing things I could see. My favorite part of the Taj Mahal was the reflection pool by the Mosque. This is because I had a chance to swim in it without anyone knowing. In the meantime, I decided to head back to visit Mohenjo-Daro, but it was too late. I felt really bad not seeing the largest city settlement of the Indus Valley Civilization.

The time machine scooped me in the black whole instantly and I returned to the modern day; 2011 in an archaeological dig! I saw people around me searching for evidence of cities, and ancient humans, who weren’t really humans. I’m so glad to be back home with lots of knowledge of my previous Ancient trips as a tourist! I never knew I’d learn this much!

8 Fold Path

Choose one practice from the Buddhist Eightfold Path and describe how you could incorporate it in your life:

.To have a right understanding.

To have an understanding means to know something very clearly without any problems. To have a RIGHT understanding is even bigger. There is a difference. If you don't have a right understanding, there would be a possibility you will do some kind of wrong action, or make a small mistake that could mean a lot. To have a right understanding, you will succeed in life much more than you think. However, to have a right understanding may mean something else too. For example, you have to understand your friends in a right way to know how to help them when they need somebody by their side. Also, having a right understanding about your family is very important as well. Your siblings, parents, cousins, grandparents all know they can count on YOU. So, you might as well understand THEM and help them out in any bad situation.

I could incorporate this in my life by having a right understanding in any topic in school, a right understanding when it comes to friends and families too.

The Taj Mahal

THE TAJ MAHAL

The Taj Mahal is one of the most recognizable monuments of India. Protected by UNESCO as a site of World Heritage, the Taj Mahal represents a monument of true love. My summarization will give a short summary of the story that is behind this majestic building of Agra, India.

The love of Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan to his third wife Muftaz Mahal, according to the chroniclers, was thousand times greater than to any other. In order to commemorate the death of his beloved wife, Shah Jahan has decided to build something for his empire, which has been known for its forts. Therefore, he decided to build a complex of buildings, with a white domed mausoleum as its central part. Today, the mausoleum is a widely recognizable building, and one of the symbols of India.

Being a significant example of architectural example of its era, the Taj Mahal has been a major interest for the historians. Although the mausoleum is its central and most well known structure, the Taj Mahal complex consists of many more buildings. First of all, one of the largest parts of the complex is bazaar, which is in front of the gardens of where the mausoleum is located. At the end of the bazaar, there is an entrance to the gardens, which is called Paradise Gardens. One of the most important features of the garden is the Celestial Pool of Abundance, at the centre of the garden. At the end of the garden, stands the majestic mausoleum, which Shah Jahan promised on his wife’s deathbed. On the sides of the central structure, lies a mosque and a meeting house.

The most significant features of the interior of the Mausoleum are the calligraphy reliefs decorated by gemstones and semi-precious stones. Calligraphic inscriptions of ninety-nine names of the God decorate the tombs, whereas a “false” dome, which is decorated with a sun motif, covers the interior walls. An interesting fact about the tombs is that the bodies of Shah and his wife are not laid in them, as Muslim tradition forbids decorations of the tomb. Instead, they are buried beneath the inner chamber.

The Taj Mahal is a true monument of the eternal love, as its beauty continues to inspire generations after it was built.

Reference:
http://www.islamicart.com/library/empires/india/shahjahan.html

Saraswati: Hindu God

SARASWATI

Saraswati is a goddess of knowledge, arts, and wisdom. She is the light which fights against darkness of ignorance. She prevents the world from turning into chaos (disorder) and confusion. Saraswati wears white clothes and wears no jewelry. That shows that she rejects all that is materialistic. She is connected with swan and peacock. Swan represents pure knowledge, and peacock symbolizes arts. Schools and libraries are considered as Saraswati’s temples. Her symbols are all the things that people use to get knowledge or to produce pieces of art.

Saraswati was born when Brahma decided to turn Chaos into something better, in order to do that, he needed knowledge. Saraswati is a personification of that knowledge and wisdom. With knowledge and wisdom, people were able to solve different problems and live better.

Since Saraswati was very beautiful, Brahma fell in love with her. And that’s how desire was created and prevented people from being completely happy. Saraswati had to run away from Brahma- Finally, Bhairava and Shiva saved her.

While creating the world, Brahma was helped by two goddesses; Saraswati- the goddess of knowledge, and Lakshmi- the goddess of wealth. So, a question rose: which one was more necessary in that process? Lakshmi said that people needed to eat in order to live. Saraswati replied that there wouldn’t be life without food, but without knowledge life wouldn’t have any meaning.

Saraswati helped the world in many ways. Once, Shiva decided to burn and destroy the world because it was corrupt and impure. Saraswati turned into pure water and didn’t allow Shiva’s fire to burn the world. She said that Shiva had wanted to destroy the world because of its impurity. As long as people kept wisdom and purity, the world would be safe. In that way, Saraswati taught the people to live safely and happily.

The Indus and Ganges River Valleys

Describe the geography of the Indus and Ganges river valleys.

The Indus River crosses the Himalayas and empties into the Arabian Sea.
The Ganges River flows from the Himalayas into the Bay of Bengal.
The Indus and Ganges Rivers cut through mountains. They flow across Northern India and make farming possible in the river valleys.

How do the monsoons affect India and its climate?

India’s climate is dominated by the Monsoon. Monsoons help India become humid in the monsoon season. People of India depend on summer monsoons to provide life-giving rain. If the monsoon is weak, crops die and this can lead to famine. If the monsoon brings to much rain, overflowing rivers can then cause floods.



How did geography influence the building of Mohenjo-Daro?

Mohenjo-Daro was influenced by geography by having all of it planned. They wanted to be protected from incoming floods, so the city was built above the ground level. Canals helped to control flooding by catching overflow from the river. Also, a citadel was built on a hill that was surrounded by the wall. The wall protected the building from floods.

How was Mohenjo-Daro similar to modern cities?

Mohenjo-Daro was somewhat similar to modern cities. Its houses were built on a street grid which sort of looked like neighborhoods in modern cities. Many of the streets were covered with mud brick. Also, It had one of the most sophisticated drainage systems with drains running beneath the streets. Grains and surplus food was stored in big go-downs, properly constructed near Citadels.


Who were the Aryans?

The Aryans were newcomers to Mohenjo-Daro. They migrated from their homelands in central Asia. The Aryans drove horse-drawn chariots that helped them gain power. The word ‘Aryan’ in their language meant ‘noble’ or ‘highborn’. By their name we can guess that they must’ve been quite sophisticated.

How was it possible for the Aryans to spread their influence over the Indus and Ganges river valleys so successfully?

It was possible for the Aryans to spread their influence over the Indus and Ganges river valleys so successfully probably because they were such nomadic people. They spent a short amount of time in one place; spreading their ideas, languages and beliefs to the people, and then moved on to other places.

Reference:
Textbook: The Indus and Ganges River Valleys. Section 1.

Mohenjo-Daro

MOHENJO-DARO

The article by John Roach examines the case of the civilization of the Indus Valley, called Mohenjo Daro. The excavations that have been made in the 1920s give interesting facts about the town and its development.

Mohenjo Daro was a city in present-day Pakistan, discovered by the archaeologists in 1921. The very unique culture existed roughly 4500 years ago, and it became the puzzle for the scientists. One of the most interesting facts about the culture is the fact that the traits of rulers are very vague. There is an absence of the forms, such as a palace or a castle. On the other hand, archaeologists have concluded that cleanliness was one of the key drivers of this ancient society, given the fact that there was a bath in most of the houses, and the Great Bath on top of the hill.

Moreover, the sense of standardization was highly applied to the civilization, since there is a lot of evidence, such as pottery, that is very much the same shape. Furthermore, the city was built in grid-like order, which gives us an impression of tight control.

The National Geographic article by John Roach gives us basic information on the unique culture of the Indus Vally – Mohenjo Daro.

Citation:

"Mohenjo Daro." National Geographics. Ed. John Roach. Randy Olson, May 2011. Web.

Mapping Project

During Humanities classes these past few days we've been working on Mapping Projects in groups of 2. Firstly, we had to draw climate and Elevation maps of India. Maria and I colored in the two maps, and moved on to making elevation clay maps. When we’ve done that, we were assigned to answer the following questions:

1. How do physical features, climate and elevation relate to each other?

Physical features, climate and elevation all relate to each other in many different ways. Firstly, elevation is related to climate because the higher the surface area of a place is, the more it will affect the climate of the place. The physical features will obviously have an effect on the climate and elevation of an area; if it is a mountainous area it will have a high elevation, if it was a rain-forest the climate would be tropical. They are all inter- connecting, because one of them can cause another to change.

2. What conclusions can you draw?

The climate, elevation and physical features have an influence on where humans settle. The main thing about all these things that humans look for is practicality, are there resources nearby? How can certain features be beneficial? Is it safe? Things like climate influences where people settle because we don’t want to settle in a a hot place where water is scarce, and yet neither do we want to settle in a extremely cold place where food is hard to farm. We look at elevation and include things in such as; Is this terrain of the side of the mountain where it will be hard to grow crops and build a house? Also physical features; Physical features can mean resources if they are the important kind. Things such as the river give water to humans who settle there, whereas as people who settle in the desert, the physical features are not as important.