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Hawaii, which became the latest state of USA in August 21, 1959, is a group of 19 islands and is 2300 miles away from mainland. Though the islands have been a part of the USA since 1898 they constituted a territory rather than a state.

Nowadays, Hawaii is famous for its beautiful culture and scenery. Among its culture, I want to describe about their Hula dance, which is developed by the Native Hawaiians or indigenous Polynesian. Hula dancing is a complex art form, as they want to signify the aspects of nature such as the Basic Hula and Coconut Tree motions or basic leg steps. So, Hula dance is unlike any other dance, and this culture becomes the major tourist for Hawaiians.

Another interesting about them is their ancient Tiki Gods. In their myth, because of the powerful spew from the volcanoes, their land had filled with amazing thing and their history with Tiki Gods. Ancient oracle of Hawaii perched on volcanic cliffs and carved the wooden Tikis peering through the rain-forest. These Tiki Gods temple were located in the Hawaiian Tiki villages and islands. They were worshiped through human sacrifice and chants(for health, weather and love) prayers and lava sledding. That's why, ancient Hawaiian world was a myth land being frightened from Tiki masked warriors.

Here's the Hawaii Hula Dance

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The culture of Portugal is a result of complex flow of different civilisations during past millenia. From prehistoric cultures,to its Pre-Roman civilisations (like Lusitanians, Gallaeci, Celtici and Cynetes) passing through its contacts withe th Phoneician and Carthagninian world ,the Roman period consequent settlement of the Suevi and Buri and the visigoth finnally the Moorish Umaymayyad invasion of the Hispania and the subsequent Reconquista, all made an impact on the country's culture. The name Portugal itself reveals most of the country's early history, stemming from the Roman name Portus Cale, a Latin name meaning Port of Cale, later transformed into Portucale before finnally becoming Portugal, who emerged as a county of the Kingdom of León and became independent in 1139. During the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal was a major economic, political and cultural power, its global empire stretching from Brazil to the Indies.

Note: due to some errors..i cant upload the vid..will fix it asap.

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on snow or ice, a wheel-less vehicle, i.e. a dog sledge pulled by dogs is like the main transportation. Racing sled dogs will travel up to an average 20 mph (32 km/h) over distances up to 25 miles (40 km). But, to be able to use those dogs as sled dogs, they also need to be trained. Since dog sledges are very useful for those people, sled-dog-teams are also put in a great care. But, nowadays, sled dogs can also be found in cold countries like Germany and Japan.

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BAGAN OF MYANMAR



Bagan (Former Pagan), the capital of the first Myanmar Empire, is the most ancient historical place in the middle of Myanmar. It is also one of the richest archaeological sites in Southeast Asia because of its well known unique architectures and the number of the temples and pagodas. The 42 sq km area of Bagan contains over 2000 edifices, the well-preserved pagodas and temples representing the rich cultural heritage of the 11th-13th century.


Bagan is notable for its expense of sacred geography, the numger and size of their individual ancient monuments. Most buildings were built in the 11th to 13th centuries, during the time when Bagan was the capital of the Myanmar dynasty. Bagan is also the first place to have transformed into a religious and cultural centre, by Shin Arahan, the monk who brought Theravada Buddhism to this land.


Bagan is full of ancient architectural designs, mural paintings, precious frescoes and stone inscriptions to see for yourself, and also it is the centre for the manufacturing of lacquerware products in Myanmar. Hence, it is marked as a cultural heritage of the Myanmar people, and also a landmark full of ancient pagodas and monuments which can be rarely encountered today. Bagan is one of the major historical landmarks of Asia and represents the outstanding achievement of Theravada Buddhism.


In 1057, Anawrahta conquered Thaton and brought back to his capital the Theravada scriptures in Pali, a larger number of Buddhist monks, and artists and craftsmens of every description. From the Mon monks the Bagan people received their alphabet, religion and scriptures. It was from this momentous date that there began the extraordinary architectural and artistic activity which, in a little more than two centuries, covered the city and its environs with thousands of splendid monuments of every shape and size, the inner walls of most of which are decorated with incredible frescoes.






The square temples domintated by Mon influence are distinguished by their dark corridors which are dimly lighted by perforated windows and the bright frescoes of variegated colour with Mon writing on the walls.




The typical Bagan Style temples are bright and airy within, with imposing plan and height. But there are also some temples with intermediate forms.














The end of the thirteenth century witnessed the fall of the Bagan dynasty. Thousands of pagodas were despoiled by the invaders and vandals and the king, who fled from the Chinese, is believed to have dismantled a considerable number of the monuments to collect materials for building forts. Most of the sites were damaged by the 1975 earthquake and cooperation with UNESCO projects helps some experimental conservation work, restoration of mural paintings and maintaining some of the rare monuments. Since then the great mass of the religious edifices were left to decay and ruin and today we see no more than a hundred splendid monuments which attract and retain attention and since their foundation, have remaied as places of worship.

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I want to share some knowledge about Ancient Egyptians why they built pyramids. During the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Pharaoh established the kingdom on the fertile Nile Valley. They believed that when a Pharaoh died, they became Osiris, which means the king of dead, and the new Pharaoh became Horus, the king of heaven and protector of the Sun. This circle symbolized the rising sun and setting sun. But, the main reasons they built the pyramids were that they had a belief that some part of the spirit, called ka, still
remained inside the dead body of Pharaoh. So, they thought that if they don't take care the dead body, the owner of that dead body, the former Pharaoh, would not be able to perform well in his tasks as the king of death. So, the circle would be broken and the kingdom would not be stable anymore because of the disaster. Thus, in order to prevent such catastrophe, they mummified the body of dead Pharaoh and put inside the Pyramid all together with vessels made of clay, stone, and gold, furniture, food, even doll-like representations of servants, known as ushabti. They put such things with the mummy as they believed that they would provide the King in his afterlife.

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MEMORY OF A GEISHA MOVIE

The Geisha are so popular and you can't forget them when you are think about Japan. And here is a film called "Memory of Geisha" which was released in 2005 December in USA and it is very good for those people who want to know about the Geisha's life....

Memory of a Geisha tells the story of a young girl, Chiyo Sakamoto, who is sold into slavery by her family. Her new family then sends her off to school to become a Geisha. This movie is mainly about older Chiyo and her struggle as a geisha to find love, in the process making a lot of enemies.

Cast

• Zhang Ziyi as Chiyo Sakamoto/Sayuri Nitta
• Ken Watanabe as The Chairman / Iwamura Ken
• Gong Li as Hatsumomo
• Michelle Yeoh as Mameha
• Youki Kudoh as Pumpkin
• Kōji Yakusho as Nobu
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as The Baron
• Suzuka Ohgo as Young Chiyo Sakamoto
• Kaori Momoi as Mother
• Kenneth Tsang as The General
• Karl Yune as Koichi

The movie trailer of "Memory of a Geisha"...

APA Citation >>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geisha

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GEISHA'S APPEARANCES

Hairstyles...

The hairstyle of Geisha in 17th century which is called Shimada, has three major types/Chignon. These are the Shimada, a high Chignon usually worn by young and single women, the Tsubushi Shimada, a more flattened Chignon generally worn by the older ones, the Uiwata Shimada, a Chignon that is usually bound up with a piece of colored cotton and a divided-peach-liked style which is worn only by Maiko(the young Geisha).

The hairstyles are decorated with hair-combs and hairpins. Geisha sleep with their necks on a small supports called Takamakura, instead of pillows, so that they could keep their hairstyle perfect.

The tradional makeup features a thick white based with red lipstick that is applied only around the middle of lips and black accents around the eyes and eyebrows. Originally, the white base mask was made with lead, but after the discovery that it poisoned the skin, it was replaced by rice powder.

Applying makeup of a Geisha is a lot time-consuming process. It also has to be applied first before dressing the Kimono to prevent dirtying the Kimono. A unique feacture of their makeup is that they use purely white power to look like a mask with a skin line of V or W shape around the hair line and the unique way of colouring the lips.

Some young Geisha, Maiko, even coloured their teeth black. It is because uncoloured teth seem very yellow compared to white face makeup. By coloring their teeth, the teeth will disapper in the darkness when they open the mouth.

Dress...

Geisha always wear Kimono but Maiko wear Obi which is brighter than Kimono. Older Geisha wear more subdued patterns and styles. the colour, pattern and the styles of the Kimono is dependent on the season and the event of which the Geisha is attending.

Geisha wear red or pint Nagajuban which is just underwear under kimono. The junior Maiko wear the coolar with red and white, or silver or gold. Two to three years after trainning and around the age of 20, the red collar will be entirely embroidered into white to show her seniority.

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THE CULTURE OF CHINA

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GEISHA...


Geisha are tradistional Japanese artist/entertainers who entertain the customers by performing the arts. The word "Gei" means arts of performances and "Sha" means people in Japanese. Some call Geisha as Geiko. They were very commom during 18th and 19th centuries, They are even still in existence today although the number is not that much as those in past.

There are basically two types of Geisha, one is called Tachikatawho who mainly does the traditional Japanese dance called Mai and the another is Jikata who mainly sing or play instruments. Tachikata are usually young Geisha called Maiko and Jikata are older ones.

The tradition of Geisha started from the Taikomochi/Hokan which is similar to court jesters. The very first Geisha were males who dressed like females and they were called Onna Geisha which means "Female form of Woman artist".

Traditionally, Geisha are trained from their young childhood. Geisha Houses bought young girls from poor families, then they raised and trained them to be a Geisha. During their childhood, they worked as maid at first, then assistants of the Geisha Houses' senior Geisha as a part of their training to contibute to the costs of their education. Such a long-held traditional training of Geisha still exists in Japan nowadays.



A Geisha usually belongs to an Okiya Houses (Same as Geisha Houses) where they are trained and worked. The head woman called Okami of those houses looks after Geisha who belong to her Okiya House. If a young girl wants to be a Geisha, she has to be introduced to Okami through someone who has a connection with her. This is usually a better way than going to Okiya houses to inquire. When Okami accepts the girl, that girls must stay in Okiya house for her training.

Once a girl becomes a Geisha trainee, she can't quit for 5 to 6 years. While helping with the chores and errands of the house, the girl learns customs and social skills and begins music and dance lessons. After about half a year, she becomes a Maiko (Young Geisha). The dressing of a Maiko is a colorful Kimono with long sleeves and hight wooden shoes which is not the same as the old Geisha whose is more elegant light color with shorter sleeves. As soon as she has become a Maiko, she has to accompany a Senior Geisha to learn all the things by helping and following her wherever she goes such as tea houses, parties and banquets which aer all Geisha work's enviroments. When a Maiko becomes a 20 year old, she has to decide whether she wants to quit or become a Geisha. But a Geisha must quit her job when she get married.



The course of the study of a Geisha starts from a wide variety of arts, including Japanese musical instruments called the Shamisen and tradional forms of singing, dancing, tea ceremony, flower arranging called Ikebana, poetry and literature. In their training, they can learn the skills of selecting the complex traditon surrounding, matching and wearing the precious Kimono flawlessly and the skills in the arts of conversation and in dealing with clients by watching and assisting senior Geisha.

The Geisha districts are called Hanamachi which are developed near temples and shrines where many Ochaya, commonly known as tea house, are located. Ochaya are small japanese style houses with wooden doors, Tatami floor, Japanese style garden, and so on. They are different from those tea houses which merely server only tea. It's a sort of banquet house which rents rooms for dinner parties, and Geisha entertain customers in those rooms.

Occasionally, a Geisha may choose to take a Danna whic is an old fashion word of Husband. Danna is typically a wealthy man who can support a Geisha mistress. Although a Geisha may fall in love with her Danna, the affair is contigent upon the Danna's ability to support financially the Geisha's lifestyle. The tradional conventions and values within such relationship are not well understood even by many Japanese.

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