Y
  • Yaksa, Yaksha

    sk यक्ष yakṣa 'semi-god'  | th ยักษ์ yok 'ogre, ogress' | kh យក្ស yoksa, yeak 'giant'

    Yakṣa or Yaksha:

    1) semi-godly inhabitants of Brahmanic Heaven, a type of Upadevas, the third class after Devas and Gaṇadevas. Among Upadevas, there are Vidyādharas, Apsaras, Yakṣas, Rākṣasas, Gandharvas, Kinnaras, Piśācas, Guhyakas, Siddhas and Bhūtas.

    2) a class of demons, followers of Rudra (Śiva), their overlord, led by Kubera, a group of 'supernatural beings that cause illness' in Saivism; sometimes similar to Asuras.

    3) in Buddhism, originally malevolent spirits or ghosts who came to protect the righteous, the attendants of Vaiśravaṇa, the guardian of the northern quarter.

    4) In Cambodia and Thailand, as male or female supranatural beings with bulging eyes, they are often represented as guardians of pagodas. In Cambodian village festivities, the yeak are scarecrow-like figures or disguised people designed to ward off evil spirits. As they are meant to be 'big and ugly', they were often represented with European traits in the past.

  • Yama

    sk यम yama 'The Binder', 'self-restraint', 'patience' | kh យមរាជ yomreach 'Lord Yom', 'Lord of Death' 

    Yama (यम) 

    1. refers to a deity that was once worshipped in ancient Kashmir (Kaśmīra) according to the Nīlamatapurāṇa. Yama is the son of the god Sun, he is the lord of the dead. His seven names are: Yama, Dharmarāja, Mṛtyu, Antaka, Vaivasvata, Kāla and Sarvaprāṇahara. Dhūmrorṇā who is the wife of Yama according to the Mahābhārata and the Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa is mentioned in the Nīlamata, but her relation to Yama is not pointed out. Also known as Vaivasvata (वैवस्वत);
    2. refers to one of the eight guardians of the quarters, guardian of the South, according to the Sivapurana. Accordingly as Śiva said to Sitā:—“[...] the different parts of the mountain Meru seem to be echoing the pleasing sweet sounds of bees etc. which cause the incitement of love of the guardians of the quarters viz. Indra, Kubera, Yama, Varuṇa, Agni, Nirṛti, Marut (Wind) and the Supreme Lord (Īśa). Heaven, the abode of the Devas is stationed on the summits of the Meru wherein the cities of the guardians of the quarters are also situated. They are brilliant. Beautiful celestial damsels, Rambhā, Śacī, Menakā and others heighten their glory”;
    3. in Buddhism, the God of Death, the overlord of Pitṛis (पितृ), litt. 'fathers', departed ancestors, to whom the Dharmashastra recommends to offer balls (of rice); punishes men after death according to their actions, sinful or otherwise;
    4. refers to “self-restraint”, "forebearance". It is the first of the eight means of attaining mental concentration by yoga practice. The other means are “niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna” and “samādhi”.  

    In Cambodia, Yama (kh យមរាជ) is the king of the Dead, son of Surya reigning over the subterranean world. According to ethnologist Ang Choulean, Vraḥ Yamarāj or ‘King Yama’ is "the God closest to the Khmers", the one to these days invoked in "annual Pchum Ben (Fortnight of the Dead) and mortuary rituals. Yama astride his buffalo looms large in Angkorian lintels across the centuries as the god of death and justice and as the subject in imprecations aimed at transgressors and temple vandals." Prof. Ang Choulean remarked that in Cambodia, Yama's representations and altars, originally facing south like in Indian traditions, started to be oriented in the northeast direction from the 13th-14th centuries, emphasizing the promise of reincarnation over physical death. 

  • Yantra

    sk यन्त्र yantra "sign", "diagram", "design", "device". | pa yant | kh យ័ន្ដ yan't "protective bareer"; សាក់យ័ន្ដ sakyant, "tattooed symbol".

    1. In Shaivism, Yantra is a type of ritualistic worship performed along with Tantra and Mantra. While yantra is a mystical diagram charged with occult powers, tantra is mostly the worship of the female energy of Shiva, his Shakti, through mystical sexual intercourse, and mantra is a magical formula.
    2. Mystical diagrams, usually small-sized and portable, with geometric patterns that can be two- or three-dimensional, while mandalas are mostly two-dimensional. It can be the form of a deity as a symbol.
    3. In Buddhism, yantras are graphic symbols used in the recitation of the mantras and the dhāraṇīs.
    4. In Cambodian traditions, yantras are magical diagrams used for protection. Healing kru (traditional doctors) drawn these "bareers" on cloth, metal foil or paper, or as tattoo. They often combine the five representations of the Buddha, the five corresponding pali letters, and symbols of Brahmanic origin (The Triple Gem). The former ones are often drawn in yellow, the latter in red.
    5. The etymology of Prasat Bayon ប្រាសាទបាយ័ន has often been explained as Pa-Yan(t), "The Great Yantra" or "Ancestor's Yantra", the building being a kind of "diagram in stone."
Z
  • Zomia

    from zomi, "highlander" in Tibeto-Burman languages spoken in Burma, India, and Bangladesh.

    Zomia is a geographical term coined in 2002 by Dutch social scientist Willem van Schendel of University of Amsterdam to refer to the highlands of Asia in a global, macroscopic, transnational perspective. 

    Developing the proposition by Clifford Geerz that research fields in history and anthropology should be more thoroughly combined, the term ‘Zomia’ was applied to the geographical space known as Southeast Asian Massif by research James C. Scott in his 2009 reference study (The Art of Not Being Governed) on an area including parts of Northeastern Cambodia and characterized by low population density, historical isolation, political domination by surrounding states and no state formation process whatsoever. 

    While Zomia's limits have varied amongst authors - encompassing highlands overlapping parts of spme 10 countries (southwest China, Northeast India, eastern Bangladesh, all the highlands of Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Peninsular Malaysia, and Taiwan), with a total population of around 100 million, the Tibetan world was not included in this area, due to its specific political logics. 

Page of 6