Tibet :: essays research papers

The purpose of this term paper is to study a religion I am not familiar with. The religion can not be a from the USA. This narrows the options for my term paper. The paper must inform on historical parts of the religion. It also needs to present two problems the religion is going through.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tibetan Buddhism is the religion I chose for my term paper topic. The religion has always spurred my interest me. The simplicity of the Tibetan monk’s life is amazing. They have no need for material possessions. They live off of what the earth offers them. I find that hard to understand, but very interesting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  China took over Tibet in 1959. Tibet was closed to outside visitors. The Tibetan Buddhist were severely brutalized. Their religion was repressed due to the communist regime that had taken over their home. This is one of the problems I will be discussing in my term paper.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gender and identity are an issue that I plan on covering in my term paper. I am very curious to see what the gender roles are in this religion. They could be the same as what I am used to in the US, or they may be very different.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The most difficult part of this term paper for me will be finding the information I want to write about. I want to find information on gender and identity but I am not sure if it will be what I am looking for. It will also be difficult to be non bias. I was raised in a Christian home and I will find it hard to understand the Tibetan Buddhists.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Christianity is the religion I am most familiar with. I went to a private Christian school in elementary school. We went to church every morning at that school to learn about the bible. I also went three times a week with my grandparents to a Southern 2 Baptist Church. Later in life I became the youth minister for the same church I attended as a child. I had no choice in the religion I belonged to. It was given to me. It was almost forced upon me.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Dialogue Decalogue is very important in this type of term paper. There can be no bias. The reader does not want my opinion on Tibetan Buddhism. They want me to stick to the facts. Though the one part of this I find difficult is the part where I have to understand the religion completely.

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

Final Paper: â€Å"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down† By: Anne Fadiman Meghan Maloney 26 April 2013 To understand the struggles that the Hmong people face living in America it is important to understand where they come from and what they have gone through. The majority of the Hmong people originate from the mountainous country of Laos. The mountains created isolation from the neighboring cultures and cultivated a clan identity. They were part of a society where everyone worked together and lived off the land. They also practiced oral tradition since they could not read or write any language.Unfortunately, in the 1960’s Laos became the battlefield for the Vietnam War. The land was destroyed and the Hmong were forced to move or fight. Many evacuated while many were trained and armed by the U. S. as a secret guerrilla army. During this time of war, the Hmong lost all self-sufficiency, and became dependent on the U. S. for food as well as survival. An exodus of Hmong from Laos to Thailand was the death of many. The Hmong were hunted and forced to leave everything behind. The clan identity was left behind as well for it was everyman for himself. Those that were lucky enough to make it to Thailand were faced with assimilation.The Hmong saw assimilation as an insult and a threat to their culture. In order to resist oppression, the Hmong took the United State’s promise of land and government support, and moved to America. Still resisting assimilation in the U. S. , the Hmong were faced with culture shock. One of the biggest differences between Hmong culture and American culture is the practice of medicine. Anne Fadiman in â€Å"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down† tells this clash as the story of Lia Lee and her American doctors. Lia Lee is a Hmong child that was born in the U. S. n July 19, 1982, after her parents, Foua and Nao Kao Lee, moved to America. She was delivered at a hospital in Merced, California they way Americans th ink is normal-on a metal table, scissors to snip the placenta, washing the baby with soap, and putting the baby in a heated box. Normal childbirth for the Hmong would be the mother pulling the baby out herself in silence on the dirt floor of their hut and then burying the placenta under the house. The Hmong believe that when you die your soul will come back to get your placenta. When Lia was three months old, her sister, Yer, slammed the front door in her face.Moments later Lia’s eyes rolled up, her arms flailed over her head, and she fainted. Lia’s parents believe that the noise of the door had been so frightening that her soul fled her body and became lost. The resulting symptoms are recognized as Quag Dab Peg, â€Å"The spirit catches you and you fall down†. Having Quag Dab Peg gives the person the power to perceive things others cannot see, and is a prerequisite for the journey into the realm of the unseen. Quag Dab Peg is considered an honor and blessing in Hmong culture. It allows the person the opportunity of becoming a txiv neeb, or spirit healer.It also confers an enormous amount of social status in the community because the txiv neeb is seen as a person of high moral character since the spirit chose them. In Hmong culture, saving face is of high importance. Foua and Nao Kao Lee brought Lia to Merced Community Medical Center (MCMC) after she had 20 of what Americans call seizures. At times, the Lees believed that Lia’s epilepsy wasn’t as much of a medical problem as a gift. The Hmong believed in shamanistic animism, which asserts that malevolent spirits are constantly seeking human souls, especially those of vulnerable or unloved children.Their hope was that if the spirits decided to keep hold of Lia, that long-term she would become a tvix neeb, and if she did not become a tvix neeb, then their hope was that the sickness would be short-term. The American doctors in MCMC view the Hmong as problematic patients and were not empathetic with the traditional Hmong lifestyles. Because there are no interpreters, communication is always an issue, they bring lots of family members with them as well as animals, and they make loud noises. When Foua and Nao Kao arrived at MCMC Lia had stopped seizing and was coughing.The doctors were forced to as they put it â€Å"practice veterinary medicine† since they couldn’t talk with the Lees, and treated Lia for her cough. They diagnosed Lia with early bronchiopneumonia because she exhibited those symptoms. The doctors had no way of knowing that the bronchial congestion was caused by aspiration of saliva or vomit during her seizure without trying to communicate with the Lees. The doctors put a pen and paper in front of the Lees and had them scribble on it. The doctors assumed the Lees would be able to buy and administer the medications that the paper described in detail.In reality the Lees had no idea what they just signed and walked out. This same situ ation happened a few more times until one time the Lees brought Lia in when she was still seizing and Dr. Dan Murphy was on shift. Dr. Murphy had some knowledge of the Hmong and could certainly diagnose her with epilepsy. In Hmong-English dictionaries Quad Dab Peg translates to epilepsy. Lees parents and the American doctors both knew what disease she had but to different cultures it meant different things. As stated above, in Hmong culture it was a privilege and was caused by Lia losing her soul.In American culture, we believe epilepsy is caused by a sporadic malfunction of the brain due to a head injury, tumor, infection, etc. We view it as a disease and that it needs to be taken care of by giving the person anticonvulsant drugs since there is no cure. This is just what Dr. Murphy did. Lia was discharged with specific instructions on what medications to take, how much of each, and what time of day they were to be taken. Considering Hmong don’t have the same time keeping sys tem as Americans, can’t read, don’t know how to measure medicine, and don’t believe in all this medication, Lia did not receive any medication.The Lees believed a txiv neeb could help Lia, so they had one come over and sacrificed a cow for her. It did not help and the American doctors continued to see Lia not getting better when her parents kept bringing her to MCMC. The American doctors thought that because Lia had no levels of medication in her blood her parents were guilty of child abuse. If they would have seen how much the Lees loved and cared for Lia at home they would have known this was not the case. Instead, they got the government involved and took Lia from the Lees and sent her to a foster home.The Lees welcomed Lia home after a year apart and lots of work with a social worker, Jeanine, whom was very interested in the Hmong and helped with administering the seizure medications. Hmong have many customs and folkways that are contradicted by those of the American mainstream and medical communities; for example, upon Lia’s arrival home her parents sacrificed a cow to propitiate ancestors and cure her illness. They performed traditional Hmong medial practices like coin rubbing, pinching Lia, gave her an herb necklace, and tried changing Lia’s name so that the spirit would leave her body and not be able to find her.On Nov. 25, 1986 not long after being home, Lia had another seizure episode. After ten minutes had passed, Foua and Nao Kao got in touch with their nephew who could speak enough English to get an ambulance. By calling for an ambulance Lia was given more attention upon arrival in the emergency room, but it delayed her treatment. Lia continued to seize for two hours and was barely breathing. A twenty-minute bout of status elipticus is considered life threatening. Lia was transferred to Fresno Intensive Care Unit for Pediatrics.Foua and Nao Kao thought that Lia was being transferred because the doctor at MCMC was going on vacation, but in fact it was because Fresno had a pediatric unit. At Fresno Lia was diagnosed with septic shock, the result of a bacterial invasion of the circulatory system that triggers the failure of one organ after another starting with the lungs and then moving to the brain. She also developed a condition in which her blood cannot clot. Lia’s EEG was flat. She had no brain activity left. The doctors decided to discontinue the anticonvulsants because she was dead to them.The doctors explained that her seizure medicines lowered her immune system responses, which allowed a bacterium to take over and stop brain activity. Foua and Nao Kao were somewhat right; the doctors were giving too much medicine and not enough neeb. It is most likely though that if the Lees were still in Laos, Lia would have died before she was out of her infancy, from a prolonged bout of untreated status epilepticus. Foua and Nao Kao finally got permission to bring their daughter home as they had been insisting the whole time. Lia went home on Dec. , 1986 as a quadriplegic, spastic, incontinent, incapable of purposeful movement, and in a persistent vegetative state. To Lia’s parents she went home as their little princess that they loved with all their heart. At home, Lia’s parents adored her and never left her side. They fed her teas from powdered roots and herbs, made several pig sacrifices, and bathed and dressed her multiple times a day. Because of the quality care Lia was receiving, she was stable and her medical check-ups decreased. Lia did not die but did not recover.Examination of this unfortunate story of a clash of two cultures has led to the discovery of what can be done to facilitate cooperation between cultures. Dr. Arthur Kleinman from Harvard Medical School designed a series of eight questions to elicit a patient’s explanatory model and enable the understanding of other cultures. The questions include: â€Å"What do you call the proble m? Why do you think it started when it did? What kind of treatment do you think the patient should receive? What do you fear most about the sickness?If the doctors at MCMC had taken the time to find a translator and sit down with the Lees to ask these questions, Lia might not be in a vegetative state. Other suggestions that could have aided in cooperation between the doctors and patients are female doctors for female patients, involvement of the patient’s families in all decisions, the use of interpreters who are both bilingual and bicultural, and the practice of conjoint treatment. The doctor using Western allopathic medicine can cure the disease but the indigenous healer heals the illness. This strategy promotes trust between the cultures.One person’s worldviews should not dominate another’s because they feel it is right. We need to realize our view of reality is only a view, not reality itself. In the U. S. , the medical community rarely has ways to communica te with people of cultures so radically different from mainstream American culture; even a good translator will find it difficult interpreting concepts between the two different cultures' world-concepts. Doctors need to be able to transcend culture and practice cultural responsiveness where they listen to patients and respond to them both as members of their cultures and as un-stereotyped individuals.A whole doctor-whole-patient approach is imperative: Ask not what disease the person has but rather what person the disease has. I am glad to hear that we have been moving in this direction as an American culture since 1995. Medicine in the U. S has been teaching students to separate emotions from the patient; dissociation is part of the job. In the last decade, efforts have been made to correct this way of thinking, and realize you are treating another human being not a universifiable body. Classes incorporating culture studies are being required as part of medical school and undergrad uate school curriculum as well.

Canned Tuna

As a result of numerous consumer complaints of dizziness and nausea, Promofoods requested that eight million cans of tuna be returned for testing last year. Promofoods concluded that the cans did not, after all, contain chemicals that posed a health risk. This conclusion is based on the fact that the chemists from Promofoods tested samples of the recalled cans and found that, of the eight chemicals most commonly blamed for causing symptoms of dizziness and nausea, five were not found in any of the tested cans. The chemists did find that the three remaining suspected chemicals are naturally found in all other kinds of canned foods. The argument is based on consumer complaints of nausea and dizziness after consumption of canned tuna. But chemists have tested some samples of canned tuna and have reported that they are free from any chemical which can pose a health risk. In response to the complain of the customers, some eight million cans of tuna has been sent and tested by the chemists of Promofoods. The chemists reported that the canned tuna are free from the five out of the eight chemicals which can cause symptoms of dizziness and nausea. And the other three cannot be blamed because they are naturally found in all types of canned food. But the results of the test do not provide strong evidence to proof that the canned tuna is free from chemicals which can pose health risk. The chemists have reported that the three chemicals found in canned tuna are found in other canned food also. So, they are harmless. But we should remember that chemicals in contact with different substances behave differently. So, the three chemicals might become harmful when they come in contact with tuna. So, the chemists must have tested how these chemicals behave when they are present in canned tuna. Again, a substance might be harmless when it is present in small amount. But the same substance might be harmful when it is present in large amount. So, while testing the chemists should have determined the percentage of these chemicals in canned tuna. The test reports are being based on the tests done on the eight million samples but not on those which actually caused the customers to complain. The consumed cans should have been brought and tested in order to proof with stronger evidence the safety in consumption of canned tuna. Again, the chemists have concentrated only on the eight chemicals which can cause dizziness and nausea. But there are chemicals too which can cause these effects in the consumers. Therefore, the chemists should not totally ignore the presence of other chemicals. In short, we see that the tests conducted by Promofoods have failed to provide sufficiently strong evidence that can proof that the canned tuna was not responsible for causing dizziness and nausea among the consumers. It should have performed more detailed analysis of the consumed cans and reported the results with stronger evidence and precision.

Hamza Debut Albums and Skateboard Essay

Hamza Debut Albums and Skateboard Essay Hamza: Debut Albums and Skateboard Essay October 28, 2013 Advanced 1 Reading/Writing Skateboarding The are a lot of sports in this world. Every human being goes to what is better for him, what he like the most. Today in this essay, I’m going to write about one of my favorite sports, and one the most useful ones. It’s skateboarding. Skateboarding can be useful in many cases, spatially if you walk a lot or you always be late for work and you need to get to your location as fast as you could Before you start with the process we need to know where can we buy a good skateboard and which skateboard can be good for the person who’s going to use it. The best and nearest place to college you can get a good skateboard from is at the University Dr street in Tempe, I don’t know the place’s name but you can find it easily near K market. When you find it, and get inside, and start looking for a skateboard to buy. Ask the guys who’re working there. They have so much experience and can tell you what’s the best skateboard for you, but remember to tell them that you’re a rookie and why’re you buying it. After you get a skateboard don’t leave the shop until you buy safety gear, like a helmet. remember, safety first. Secondly, after you buy a skateboard, you need to find a good place to train. Usually skateboard training can be good in many places, like : a garage, parking places, empty yards with a brick floor and more like those empty places with good floors Finally, the most important things that will help you learn fast and good skateboarding are so many. The easiest but not the fastest way is experience. Try riding your skateboard as much as you can, even if you don’t know how to ride it at first, try to. Because you will learn how to by time. The

Alternative Meanings for Hand and Names of Its Parts

Alternative Meanings for Hand and Names of Its Parts Alternative Meanings for â€Å"Hand† and Names of Its Parts Alternative Meanings for â€Å"Hand† and Names of Its Parts By Mark Nichol The human hand is such a quintessential element of our anatomy we wouldn’t be human without ours (specifically, without our prehensile thumbs) that we have applied the word to many literal and figurative senses other than the physiological one, as well as a wealth of idiomatic phrases (too many to list here). Here’s a discussion of alternative meanings of hand, as well as those for its parts. Hand can refer to participation or an offer of assistance, or it denotes a round of applause. It applies to a body part or a component of an object resembling a hand, and a symbol resembling a hand with an outstretched index finger is called a hand, or an index. An aspect, direction, or side is called a hand; on the other hand, the word also refers to the concept of control, possession, or supervision. One can give one’s hand as a pledge (usually, in reference to marriage), and one’s signature or handwriting is called one’s hand. The word denotes ability or skill, or interest or participation or a significant role. In card or other games, hand refers to the cards or game pieces held, to a round in a game, or to a player in a game; by figurative extension, it means â€Å"the strength of one’s position.† In the realm of a rougher game, pugilistics (boxing), or in fighting in general, hand identifies a punch. The creator or producer of a work might be acknowledged as a hand; it could also reference someone with knowledge of or skill in a specific topic, or handiwork or workmanship. The word also applies, more mundanely, to an employee or worker, especially a laborer, or a member of a ship’s crew (or the figurative equivalent). In a sense more akin to tactile connotations, hand describes the feel of a material. Finger, too, has other meanings, including something resembling a finger in shape or function, or a measurement equivalent to the general width of a finger. As a verb, it means to identify or to touch, to extend as a finger would be extended, or to play music using one’s fingers. Likewise, thumb applies to something with a thumblike appearance, and, as a verb, it means â€Å"to leaf through a book or to cause wear by doing so,† or â€Å"to hitchhike or to signal for a ride by holding out one’s thumb.† A knuckle, too, is something that looks like a joint in a bodily appendage (or, in the case of a cut of meat, is that anatomical part from livestock), including a weapon worn on the knuckles and more commonly called brass knuckles. Knuckle can also refer to a part of a hinge or to a structural component with the appearance of a knuckle. To knuckle is to press or rub with one’s knuckles. Palm extends to objects that might remind one of that part of the hand; the palm tree derives its name from resemblance of the fan-shaped leaves to a hand. A palm is also the act of palming; to palm is to conceal with one’s hand or to stealthily give or take something, or, by extension, to commit fraud. It also means to touch with one’s palm, as in the basketball violation of resting a ball in one’s hand during dribbling. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:70 "Home" Idioms and ExpressionsRules for Capitalization in TitlesFew vs. Several

Baron in the Trees Analysis

Baron of the tree is a wonderful short story by Italo Calvino. This is a young baroness about 12 years old living in Umbrossa town. One night, Cosimo decided not to eat the nasty snail plate that his sister made that night, so he went to the Great Holm's oak tree in his garden and never got down. . Cosimo can still be a baron and live an adventurous life all day. When they came to Italy to fight Austrians, he was able to help the Napoleonic army, protect the town from pirates, and build a system to irrigate to stop summer firefires. Calvino's most famous book may be an invisible city and cosmology. Both are wonderful, but according to my taste, the best works of Calvino are trilogy with coat of arms, baron of tree, descenders of crow, and no. Knight of existence. My favorite is a baron on a tree, running on a tree and telling a young baron living his life. However, it is only over 200 pages. Therefore, I will name a nonexistent knight, this is a novel about cry, a real knight, and he is summoned to Charlemagne's good faith and faith to the sacred cause. As a bonus, most versions include a similarly good short story for the 17th century visitors The Cloven Viscount. Ding, Ding! Let's say that the author should be judged by his five best books and five best books. In the case of Calvino, they are supposed to be a baron of trees, perfect cosmology, a non-existent knight, and Viscounts of Cloven, invisible streets, and Markovado. According to this standard, William Maxwell and Tolstoy are also strong competitors, but he seems difficult to become a top team. In a recent speech at Missouri State University you have commented that you like physical books that are better than the screen and Kindle is not very appealing for you. You mentioned that as well - I must admit that I did not accept this - your human soul as a Rube Goldberg device: choice of your own adventure story Hold a hidden page only when reading the story before. Did you consider the physical nature of t he text when you write or complete the book?

The Theme of Sexuality in Their Eyes Were Watching God Research Paper

The Theme of Sexuality in Their Eyes Were Watching God - Research Paper Example novel, and Hurston describes it in the context of slavery to show that it was a regular and repeated aspect of the black woman’s experience in slavery, and occurred in the early formative age of adulthood in the place of a woman’s education. The relation of racist authority to rape in the narrative is that Janie’s father and grandfather are both portrayed as white, and the educational system is equated in lineage with the system of slave ownership. This is a fundamental social and political critique that is introduced through the common dialect of the Southern woman and related through her personal sexual experience. The historical base is expressed by Zora Neale Hurston through sexual relationships, and this interracial sexuality is paradoxical, integral, and structural in her writing throughout the novel. In this context of repression, Hurston presents only a brief glimpse of the hope for genuine love in youth, which is quickly replaced with a black folk tradition that is portrayed as repressive to womanhood in a manner equally to be resisted and run away from as slavery. The repression of family tradition is portrayed through forced marriage, which implied another type of rape and forced servitude of the woman. Janie’s compromise is to arrange a marriage on her own terms that supports her own self materially on her own terms, even if she has to leave everything she knows to do so. Thus she provides for her needs while giving herself a limited economic role in the society at large through her husband’s business. When this ends early through the death of Joe Starks, Janie has the ability to choose any man in her society from a position of independent stature. Rather than the professor or tycoon, Hurston presents Tea Cake as a model of the black male with whom Janie most identifies. Their love also accelerates into death, but in this instance it is from the increased slow burn of passions, rather than their extinguishment. In the end, the gossip of black