Pu-Tai is said to have been so kind that he has become the incarnate of the bodhisattva who will come at some point in the distant future as the Maitreya. Buddhists look forward to a future date when the Maitreya will come to earth bringing with him world peace and harmony between warring factions. According to legend, from time to time throughout the history of mankind, Maitreya is born among men. Though he is recognized as a generous and wise man, he is never recognized by the men of the age for who he really is. The Maitreya lives his life around those who never know the real person.

Pu-Tai is represented as a heavy, bald, laughing man. These characteristics symbolize happiness, good luck, and fortune. Sometimes he is shown with children, other times he has a fan in his hand. The fan is a symbol used by nobility to communicate to their vassals that their wishes will be granted. So, a statue of Pu-Tai holding a fan represents that he is coming to take away the sorrows and unhappiness they feel and replace them with happiness and wealth. Pu-Tai images in statues often also have a bag of money or Chinese coins in their hands.

The image of Pu-tai is not limited to China. This image and story has traveled across the world wherever Buddhism has been transported. In Japan he is known as Hotei. In North America it is not uncommon to see statues of Pu-tai or Hotei in restaurants, temples or worn on amulets. In Western culture, the image of the Happy Buddha comes to mind when people think of Buddha.

There is a strong cultural tradition that rubbing the fat belly of Pu-tai or the Happy Buddha will bring good luck, fortune and prosperity. This isn’t actually a part of Buddhism, but it is a common practice to carry small happy Buddha statues in your pocket. The legend states that there is nothing that will bring more happiness to Pu-Tai than watching all the sorrow and suffering of mankind changed to happiness and prosperity. His inner smile is so bright that it radiates throughout his entire being and is certain to bring happiness wherever he may be. Set this Happy Buddha in a place of honor where he may work to lift the burdens you must carry.

Sometimes, for in many countries, especially in the east, the existence of gays are still not accepted by society. Homosexual still suffer discrimination both in law, economics, education, politics and so forth. Whereas most gay men don’t disturb other people, they tend to be closed and will understand their position, so that they can socially adjust.

Discrimination against homosexual has been much criticized by gay activists in various parts of the world. They demanded that the state and society to admit it. They want to be treated as an ordinary human.

You may be surprised to learn that with all the recent discoveries being made concerning the achievements and spontaneous collapse of the Mayans, that there in fact was no Maya empire.

Throughout the Classic Period (defined as the timeframe when the Mayans achieved their height 250BCE-900CE), the cities of the Maya lands were apparently independent city-states. Scholars compare the Maya cities to the city-states of ancient Greece: all used a common language, had the same religious beliefs and group of common assumptions, but all were strongly independent and often at a constant state of war with one another, but no one central state enforced rule over the others.

To judge from surviving glyphs in pyramids, temples and Maya pottery, the dynastic ruler of a Maya state gained great prestige if he could capture a rival king, hold him captive, inflict humiliating pain upon him and finally decapitate him. Wars seem to have taken place more for ceremonial purposes than for capturing and holding land. Indeed, the boundaries between the Mayans city-states remained fixed over the many years that were marked by great bloodshed. It is assumed that instead more powerful city-states held the weaker ones in a tribute paying relationship without confiscating their lands.

In the 9th century CE, the cities in the Mayans Southern Lowlands began to be abandoned. The jungle vegetation that the Maya farmers had tamed grew back, and in time even swamped the great temples and plazas that had once been decorated with vibrant pre Colombian art where priests and kings had celebrated royal power.

But, not all the Mayans cities’ were abandoned, to the north towards the tip of the Yucatan peninsula, Maya cities such as Mayapan, Uxmal, Labna and Chichen Itza continued to thrive, making the decline of the Mayans lowland cities all the more puzzling. Within four to five generations, the great civilization of the Lowland Maya faded. This event has been called “the great Maya collapse” by archaeologists and historians.

Why would a determined and resourceful people abandon their great constructions of stone which had been laboriously erected in honor of their rulers, ancestors and gods? After 900 CE no more Maya stelae that marked the dynastic achievements and history of the proud Maya of the Lowlands were carved or erected. These fantastic monuments of pre Columbian art were seen no more.

One of the present theories states that the Lowlands Maya basically wiped one another out. Centuries of constant fighting between the city-states greatly depleted the population. In time, the combination of falling population from warfare and inadequate food from constant battles contributed to the condition where the cities could not be maintained and so were abandoned. In effect the jungle soil would no longer produce the food necessary to support a continuous state of war.

Disease may have also contributed to the acceleration of the decline. Maya pottery from surviving cities depicts diseases in greater numbers being present. As the population began to fall, fear of hunger and future shortages fuelled ever-more violent conflicts for the dwindling resources available. The end was apparent; people chose to flee for safety and away from cities that offered no safety.

A true catastrophe took place, the mighty Maya; timekeepers of the universe, together with their centers of learning were no more. Their incredible achievements in astronomy, mathematics, Maya pottery and other pre Columbian art as well as monumental constructions in stone were erased. All was claimed by the jungle and forgotten. Even their writing was forgotten.

Until very recent, the glyphs in stone and four surviving Maya manuscripts were considered undecipherable. It is only now at present with some breakthroughs that we are starting to decipher what words were written and truly comprehend the splendor of their achievements, and their great fall.

Shakespeare was an English play writer and poet and lived from 1564 to 1616.He was born in Stratford-Avon-in Warwickshire and was baptized on 26th April 1564. It is thought that no paintings of Shakespeare were painted when he was alive so we can’t be sure what he looked like, but we do know that he spent his acting career with Lord Chamberlain’s Company.

His family:- Shakespeare married a woman in 1582 named Anne Hatheway who was a daughter of a farmer.In a year’s time after their marriage they had a baby daughter, and then later in 1585 they had twins and all lived happily ever after.

Towards the end of his life Shakespeare had become a wealthy man and lived in his home town. He died on 23 April 1616 and was buried in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. ‘The First Folio’ was the very first published collection of his works in 1623.

Shakespeare’s plays:- Type of plays he wrote:-

The type of plays he did were comedys, romance, tragedy, tragicomedy and history plays.

Comedys are a funny play which usually ends with a happy ending. Tragedy always has a death or two in. A revenge tragedy such as Titus Andronicus, one kill happens and then sets off into a killing chain. Romance storys such as Romeo and Juliet are mainly about love and companionship. Tragic comedy is a play that involves bad luck and unfortunate events but is still funny because its comedy. History plays are the type of plays based on English kings and there life and troubles.

Famous plays William Shakespeare wrote:- Some of his most famous plays are Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, King Henry V, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello and Antony and Cleopatra.

A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream:- A Midsummer’s night dream is a play about two fairies and the fairy king and queen fall out and the queen gets given a boy from her friend to look after and Oberon the king or fairies is jealous and get his little helper to put the juice from a flour into her eyes and makes her fall in love with a worker named bottom who’s been given a head of a donkeys to try and humiliate her… There is much written about this world renowned playwright and his extremely clever use of words. We shall be continuing to delve into the life history of Shakespeare in future articles.

Less Predictable Plots:

As the trend set by the former writers, most of the writers write stories in a typical way which is often predictable. Nevertheless, some writers break through the typical plot structure and venture into less predictable plots. One of such powerful writers is Canadian Margaret Atwood. Her Significant Moments in the Life of My Mother (1983) seems to be plot-less but it is intentionally divided into 13 brief episodes.

Complicating the Plot Structure Using Certain Techniques:

Some innovative writers do not like to write story with simple plot. They complicate the structure of their plots by way of using certain techniques, and tactics. They make use of some flashbacks and flash-forwards; with a frame that beautifully encloses the story or a story within a story. If you study Indian writings in English, you’ll witness the presence of story within the story. Moreover, such writers also use subplots often known as secondary storylines. Furthermore, they sometimes use double plots that mean two or more likewise important narratives developing simultaneously.

Enhancing the Plot Structure:

There are other devices that authors often use for enhancing the plot structure. They are reversals of fortune, foreshadowing, abrupt transitions, digressions, and juxtapositions of contrasting settings or characters. You’ll find these elements in most of the modern writings.

Deliberate Ambiguity vs. Unambiguous Resolutions

There is deliberate ambiguity or open-enddness in stead of unambiguous resolutions or closed-endedness plot feature in many modern stories. The surprise endings of the stories of French author Guy de Maupassant influenced many commercial writers as well as some literary ones. His 1884 story The Necklace is remarkable. American author O. Henry became famous for his surprise endings and paradoxical style. His story A Gift of the Magi (1905) is remarkable for this. Later on, American writer William Faulkner used this kind of surprise ending in A Rose for Emily (1931).

A powerfully crafted story can create the sense of awe, entertainment and pleasure in the reader. Nevertheless, it is up to the reader how to appreciate and enjoy a literary work.