title: Yogurt

text: Contamination occurs in traditionally prepared yogurts more often than industrially processed ones, but may affect the latter as well if manufacturing and packaging practices are suboptimal.


title: Yogurt

text: When mold forms on yogurt it can not be scraped away. The consistency of yogurt allows the mold to penetrate deeply under the surface where it spreads.


title: Yogurt

text: "Dahi" is a yogurt from the Indian subcontinent, known for its characteristic taste and consistency. The word "dahi" seems to be derived from the Sanskrit word "dadhi" ("sour milk"), one of the five elixirs, or panchamrita, often used in Hindu ritual. Sweetened dahi ("mishti doi" or "meethi dahi") is common in eastern parts of India, made by fermenting sweetened milk. While cow's milk is currently the primary ingredient for yogurt, goat and buffalo milk were widely used in the past, and valued for the fat content (see buffalo curd).


title: Yogurt

text: Dadiah or dadih is a traditional West Sumatran yogurt made from water buffalo milk, fermented in bamboo tubes. Yogurt is common in Nepal, where it is served as both an appetizer and dessert. Locally called "dahi", it is a part of the Nepali culture, used in local festivals, marriage ceremonies, parties, religious occasions, family gatherings, and so on. One Nepalese yogurt is called "juju dhau", originating from the city of Bhaktapur. In Tibet, yak milk (technically dri milk, as the word yak refers to the male animal) is made into yogurt (and butter and cheese) and consumed.


title: Yogurt

text: In Northern Iran, "Mâst Chekide" is a variety of kefir yogurt with a distinct sour taste. It is usually mixed with a pesto-like water and fresh herb purée called delal. Common appetizers are spinach or eggplant borani, "Mâst-o-Khiâr" with cucumber, spring onions and herbs, and "Mâst-Musir" with wild shallots. In the summertime, yogurt and ice cubes are mixed together with cucumbers, raisins, salt, pepper and onions and topped with some croutons made of Persian traditional bread and served as a cold soup. Ashe-Mâst is a warm yogurt soup with fresh herbs, spinach and lentils. Even the leftover water extracted when straining yogurt is cooked to make a sour cream sauce called kashk, which is usually used as a topping on soups and stews.


title: Yogurt

text: Matsoni is a Georgian yogurt in the Caucasus and Russia. Tarator and are cold soups made from yogurt during summertime in eastern Europe. They are made with ayran, cucumbers, dill, salt, olive oil, and optionally garlic and ground walnuts. Tzatziki in Greece and milk salad in Bulgaria are thick yogurt-based salads similar to tarator.


title: Yogurt

text: Khyar w Laban (cucumber and yogurt salad) is a dish in Lebanon and Syria. Also, a wide variety of local Lebanese and Syrian dishes are cooked with yogurt like "Kibbi bi Laban" Rahmjoghurt, a creamy yogurt with much higher fat content (10%) than many yogurts offered in English-speaking countries. Dovga, a yogurt soup cooked with a variety of herbs and rice, is served warm in winter or refreshingly cold in summer. Jameed, yogurt salted and dried to preserve it, is consumed in Jordan. Zabadi is the type of yogurt made in Egypt, usually from the milk of the Egyptian water buffalo. It is particularly associated with Ramadan fasting, as it is thought to prevent thirst during all-day fasting.


title: Yogurt

text: To offset its natural sourness, yogurt is also sold sweetened, sweetened and flavored or in containers with fruit or fruit jam on the bottom. The two styles of yogurt commonly found in the grocery store are set-style yogurt and Swiss-style yogurt. Set-style yogurt is poured into individual containers to set, while Swiss-style yogurt is stirred prior to packaging. Either may have fruit added to increase sweetness.


title: Yogurt

text: Lassi is a common Indian beverage made from stirred liquified yogurt that is either salted or sweetened with sugar commonly, less commonly honey and combined with fruit pulp to create flavored lassi. Consistency can vary widely, with urban and commercial lassis having uniform texture through being processed, whereas rural and rustic lassi has discernible curds or fruit pulp.


title: Yogurt

text: Large amounts of sugar – or other sweeteners for low-energy yogurts – are often used in commercial yogurt. Some yogurts contain added modified starch, pectin (found naturally in fruit) or gelatin to create thickness and creaminess. This type of yogurt may be marketed under the name Swiss-style, although it is unrelated to conventional Swiss yogurt. Some yogurts, often called "cream line", are made with whole milk which has not been homogenized so the cream rises to the top. In many countries, sweetened, flavored yogurt is common, typically sold in single-serving plastic cups. Common flavors may include vanilla, honey, and toffee, and various fruits. In the early 21st century, yogurt flavors inspired by desserts, such as chocolate or cheesecake, became common. There is concern about the health effects of sweetened yogurt due to its high sugar content, although research indicates that use of sugar in yogurt manufacturing has decreased since 2016 in response to WHO and government initiatives to combat obesity.


title: Yogurt

text: Strained yogurt has been strained through a filter, traditionally made of muslin and more recently of paper or non-muslin cloth. This removes the whey, giving a much thicker consistency. Strained yogurt is made at home, especially if using skimmed milk which results in a thinner consistency. Yogurt that has been strained to filter or remove the whey is known as Labneh in Middle Eastern countries. It has a consistency between that of yogurt and cheese. It may be used for sandwiches in Middle Eastern countries. Olive oil, cucumber slices, olives, and various green herbs may be added. It can be thickened further and rolled into balls, preserved in olive oil, and fermented for a few more weeks. It is sometimes used with onions, meat, and nuts as a stuffing for a variety of pies or kibbeh balls.


title: Yogurt

text: Some types of strained yogurts are boiled in open vats first, so that the liquid content is reduced. The East Indian dessert, a variation of traditional dahi called mishti dahi, offers a thicker, more custard-like consistency, and is usually sweeter than western yogurts. In western Indian (Marathi and Gujarati) cuisine, strained yogurt is macerated with sugar and spices such as saffron, cardamom and nutmeg to make the dessert "shrikhand". Strained yogurt is also enjoyed in Greece and is the main component of "tzatziki" (from Turkish ""), a well-known accompaniment to gyros and souvlaki pita sandwiches: it is a yogurt sauce or dip made with the addition of grated cucumber, olive oil, salt and, optionally, mashed garlic. Srikhand, a dessert in India, is made from strained yogurt, saffron, cardamom, nutmeg and sugar and sometimes fruits such as mango or pineapple.


title: Yogurt

text: In North America, strained yogurt is commonly called "Greek yogurt". Powdered milk is sometimes added in lieu of straining to achieve thickness. In Britain as "Greek-style yogurt". In Britain the name "Greek" may only be applied to yogurt made in Greece.


title: Yogurt

text: Ayran, doogh ("dawghe" in Neo-Aramaic) or dhallë is a yogurt-based, salty drink. It is made by mixing yogurt with water and (sometimes) salt.


title: Yogurt

text: Borhani (or burhani) is a spicy yogurt drink from Bangladesh. It is usually served with kacchi biryani at weddings and special feasts. Key ingredients are yogurt blended with mint leaves (mentha), mustard seeds and black rock salt (Kala Namak). Ground roasted cumin, ground white pepper, green chili pepper paste and sugar are often added.


title: Yogurt

text: Lassi is a yogurt-based beverage that is usually slightly salty or sweet, and may be commercially flavored with rosewater, mango or other fruit juice. Salty lassi is usually flavored with ground, roasted cumin and red chilies, may be made with buttermilk.


title: Yogurt

text: An unsweetened and unsalted yogurt drink usually called simply "jogurt" is consumed with "burek" and other baked goods in the Balkans. Sweetened yogurt drinks are the usual form in Europe (including the UK) and the US, containing fruit and added sweeteners. These are typically called "drinkable yogurt". Also available are "yogurt smoothies", which contain a higher proportion of fruit and are more like smoothies.


title: Yogurt

text: Yogurt is made by heating milk to a temperature that denaturates its proteins (scalding), essential for making yogurt, cooling it to a temperature that will not kill the live microorganisms that turn the milk into yogurt, inoculating certain bacteria (starter culture), usually "Streptococcus thermophilus" and "Lactobacillus bulgaricus", into the milk, and finally keeping it warm for several hours. The milk may be held at for a few minutes, or boiled (giving a somewhat different result). It is typically cooled to or somewhat less. That step is followed by addition of starter culture and standing


title: Yogurt

text: Milk with a higher concentration of solids than normal milk may be used; the higher solids content produces a firmer yogurt. Solids can be increased by adding dried milk. The yogurt-making process provides two significant barriers to pathogen growth, heat and acidity (low pH). Both are necessary to ensure a safe product. Acidity alone has been questioned by recent outbreaks of food poisoning by "" that is acid-tolerant. "E. coli O157:H7" is easily destroyed by pasteurization (heating); the initial heating of the milk kills pathogens as well as denaturing proteins. The microorganisms that turn milk into yogurt can tolerate higher temperatures than most pathogens, so that a suitable temperature not only encourages the formation of yogurt, but inhibits pathogenic microorganisms. Once the yogurt has formed it can, if desired, be strained to reduce the whey content and thicken it.


title: Yogurt

text: Under US Food and Drug Administration regulations, milk must be pasteurized "before" it is cultured, and may optionally be heat treated after culturing to increase shelf life. Most commercial yogurts in the United States are not heat treated after culturing, and contain live cultures.


title: Yogurt

text: Yogurt with live cultures is more beneficial than pasteurized yogurt for people with lactose malabsorption.


title: Yogurt

text: Lactose intolerance is a condition in which people have symptoms due to the decreased ability to digest lactose, a sugar found in dairy products. In 2010, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) determined that lactose intolerance can be alleviated by ingesting live yogurt cultures (lactobacilli) that are able to digest the lactose in other dairy products. The scientific review by EFSA enabled yogurt manufacturers to use a health claim on product labels, provided that the "yogurt should contain at least 10 CFU live starter microorganisms ("Lactobacillus delbrueckii" subsp. "bulgaricus" and "Streptococcus thermophilus") per gram. The target population is individuals with lactose maldigestion." A 2021 review found that yogurt consumption could improve lactose tolerance and digestion.


title: Yogurt

text: A variety of plant-based yogurt alternatives appeared in the 2000s, using soy milk, rice milk, and nut milks such as almond milk and coconut milk fermented with cultures. These products may be suitable for people with lactose intolerance or those who prefer plant-based foods such as vegetarians or vegans. Plant-based milks have different structures and components than dairy milk. Though they can be used to make many products similar to those made from dairy, there are differences in taste and texture. For example, "soy, almond, [and] coconut yogurts do not have the same delicate and smooth structure that conventional yogurts have." Since plant-based milks do not contain lactose (the food of "Streptococcus thermophilus" and "Lactobacillus bulgaricus"), plant-based products usually contain different bacterial strains than yogurt, such as "Lactobacillus casei", "Lactobacillus rhamnosus", and "Bifidobacterium bifidum". Plant-based products also vary considerably in their nutrition and ingredients, and may contain gums, stabilizers, high-intensity sweeteners, and artificial colors.


title: Yogurt

text: In Europe, companies may not market their plant-based products using the word "yogurt" since that term is reserved for products of animal origin only – per European Union regulation 1308/2013 and a 2017 ruling in the Court of Justice of the European Union. Reaffirmed in 2021, per the USA FDA's Standard of Identity regulations, the word "yogurt" has been reserved for a product made from lactation and is a product of "milk-derived ingredients".


title: Monsoon

text: A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscillation of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between its limits to the north and south of the equator. Usually, the term monsoon is used to refer to the rainy phase of a seasonally changing pattern, although technically there is also a dry phase. The term is also sometimes used to describe locally heavy but short-term rains.


title: Monsoon

text: The major monsoon systems of the world consist of the West African, Asia–Australian, the North American, and South American monsoons.


title: Monsoon

text: The term was first used in English in British India and neighboring countries to refer to the big seasonal winds blowing from the Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea in the southwest bringing heavy rainfall to the area.


title: Monsoon

text: The etymology of the word monsoon is not wholly certain. The English "monsoon" came from Portuguese ultimately from Arabic (, "season"), "perhaps partly via early modern Dutch "monson"".


title: Monsoon

text: Strengthening of the Asian monsoon has been linked to the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau after the collision of the Indian subcontinent and Asia around 50 million years ago. Because of studies of records from the Arabian Sea and that of the wind-blown dust in the Loess Plateau of China, many geologists believe the monsoon first became strong around 8 million years ago. More recently, studies of plant fossils in China and new long-duration sediment records from the South China Sea led to a timing of the monsoon beginning 15–20 million years ago and linked to early Tibetan uplift. Testing of this hypothesis awaits deep ocean sampling by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. The monsoon has varied significantly in strength since this time, largely linked to global climate change, especially the cycle of the Pleistocene ice ages. A study of Asian monsoonal climate cycles from 123,200 to 121,210 years BP, during the Eemian interglacial, suggests that they had an average duration of around 64 years, with the minimum duration being around 50 years and the maximum approximately 80 years, similar to today.


title: Monsoon

text: A study of marine plankton suggested that the South Asian Monsoon (SAM) strengthened around 5 million years ago. Then, during ice periods, the sea level fell and the Indonesian Seaway closed. When this happened, cold waters in the Pacific were impeded from flowing into the Indian Ocean. It is believed that the resulting increase in sea surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean increased the intensity of monsoons. In 2018, a study of the SAM's variability over the past million years found that precipitation resulting from the monsoon was significantly reduced during glacial periods compared to interglacial periods like the present day. The Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) underwent several intensifications during the warming following the Last Glacial Maximum, specifically during the time intervals corresponding to 16,100–14,600 BP, 13,600–13,000 BP, and 12,400–10,400 BP as indicated by vegetation changes in the Tibetan Plateau displaying increases in humidity brought by an intensifying ISM.


title: Monsoon

text: During the Middle Miocene, the July ITCZ, the zone of rainfall maximum, migrated northwards, increasing precipitation over southern China during the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) while making Indochina drier. The East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) was significantly weaker during the Early Pliocene but abruptly became more intense around 3.8 million years ago as crustal stretching widened the Tsushima Strait and enabled greater inflow of the warm Tsushima Current into the Sea of Japan. Circa 3.0 million years ago, the EAWM became more stable, having previously been more variable and inconsistent, in addition to being enhanced further amidst a period of global cooling and sea level fall. The EASM, which was weaker during cold intervals of glacial periods such as the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and stronger during interglacials and warm intervals of glacial periods, expanded its influence deeper into the interior of Asia as sea levels rose following the LGM and underwent a period of intensification during the Middle Holocene, around 6,000 years ago, due to orbital forcing made more intense by the fact that the Sahara at the time was much more vegetated and emitted less dust. This Middle Holocene interval of maximum EASM was associated with an expansion of temperate deciduous forest steppe and temperate mixed forest steppe in northern China. By around 5,000 to 4,500 BP, the East Asian monsoon's strength began to wane, weakening from that point until the present day. The location of the EASM shifted multiple times over the course of the Holocene: first, it moved southward between 12,000 and 8,000 BP, followed by an expansion to the north between approximately 8,000 and 4,000 BP, and most recently retreated southward once more between 4,000 and 0 BP.


title: Monsoon

text: The January ITCZ migrated further south to its present location during the Middle Miocene, strengthening the summer monsoon of Australia that had previously been weaker.


title: Monsoon

text: Five episodes during the Quaternary at 2.22 Ma (PL-1), 1.83 Ma (PL-2), 0.68 Ma (PL-3), 0.45 Ma (PL-4) and 0.04 Ma (PL-5) were identified which showed a weakening of the Leeuwin Current (LC). The weakening of the LC would have an effect on the sea surface temperature (SST) field in the Indian Ocean, as the Indonesian Throughflow generally warms the Indian Ocean. Thus these five intervals could probably be those of considerable lowering of SST in the Indian Ocean and would have influenced Indian monsoon intensity. During the weak LC, there is the possibility of reduced intensity of the Indian winter monsoon and strong summer monsoon, because of change in the Indian Ocean dipole due to reduction in net heat input to the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian Throughflow. Thus a better understanding of the possible links between El Niño, Western Pacific Warm Pool, Indonesian Throughflow, wind pattern off western Australia, and ice volume expansion and contraction can be obtained by studying the behaviour of the LC during Quaternary at close stratigraphic intervals.


title: Monsoon

text: The impact of monsoon on the local weather is different from place to place. In some places there is just a likelihood of having a little more or less rain. In other places, quasi semi-deserts are turned into vivid green grasslands where all sorts of plants and crops can flourish.


title: Monsoon

text: The Indian Monsoon turns large parts of India from a kind of semi-desert into green lands. See photos only taken three months apart in the Western Ghats. In places like this it is crucial for farmers to have the right timing for putting the seeds on the fields, as it is essential to use all the rain that is available for growing crops.


title: Monsoon

text: Monsoons were once considered as a large-scale sea breeze caused by higher temperature over land than in the ocean. This is no longer considered as the cause and the monsoon is now considered a planetary-scale phenomenon involving the annual migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone between its northern and southern limits. The limits of the ITCZ vary according to the land–sea heating contrast and it is thought that the northern extent of the monsoon in South Asia is influenced by the high Tibetan Plateau. These temperature imbalances happen because oceans and land absorb heat in different ways. Over oceans, the air temperature remains relatively stable for two reasons: water has a relatively high heat capacity (3.9 to 4.2 J g K), and because both conduction and convection will equilibrate a hot or cold surface with deeper water (up to 50 metres). In contrast, dirt, sand, and rocks have lower heat capacities (0.19 to 0.35 J g K), and they can only transmit heat into the earth by conduction and not by convection. Therefore, bodies of water stay at a more even temperature, while land temperature are more variable.


title: Monsoon

text: During warmer months sunlight heats the surfaces of both land and oceans, but land temperatures rise more quickly. As the land's surface becomes warmer, the air above it expands and an area of low pressure develops. Meanwhile, the ocean remains at a lower temperature than the land, and the air above it retains a higher pressure. This difference in pressure causes sea breezes to blow from the ocean to the land, bringing moist air inland. This moist air rises to a higher altitude over land and then it flows back toward the ocean (thus completing the cycle). However, when the air rises, and while it is still over the land, the air cools. This decreases the air's ability to hold water, and this causes precipitation over the land. This is why summer monsoons cause so much rain over land.


title: Monsoon

text: In the colder months, the cycle is reversed. Then the land cools faster than the oceans and the air over the land has higher pressure than air over the ocean. This causes the air over the land to flow to the ocean. When humid air rises over the ocean, it cools, and this causes precipitation over the oceans. (The cool air then flows towards the land to complete the cycle.)


title: Monsoon

text: Most summer monsoons have a dominant westerly component and a strong tendency to ascend and produce copious amounts of rain (because of the condensation of water vapor in the rising air). The intensity and duration, however, are not uniform from year to year. Winter monsoons, by contrast, have a dominant easterly component and a strong tendency to diverge, subside and cause drought.


title: Monsoon

text: Similar rainfall is caused when moist ocean air is lifted upwards by mountains, surface heating, convergence at the surface, divergence aloft, or from storm-produced outflows at the surface. However the lifting occurs, the air cools due to expansion in lower pressure, and this produces condensation.


title: Monsoon

text: The monsoon of western Sub-Saharan Africa is the result of the seasonal shifts of the Intertropical Convergence Zone and the great seasonal temperature and humidity differences between the Sahara and the equatorial Atlantic Ocean. The ITCZ migrates northward from the equatorial Atlantic in February, reaches western Africa on or near June 22, then moves back to the south by October. The dry, northeasterly trade winds, and their more extreme form, the harmattan, are interrupted by the northern shift in the ITCZ and resultant southerly, rain-bearing winds during the summer. The semiarid Sahel and Sudan depend upon this pattern for most of their precipitation.


title: Monsoon

text: The North American monsoon (NAM) occurs from late June or early July into September, originating over Mexico and spreading into the southwest United States by mid-July. It affects Mexico along the Sierra Madre Occidental as well as Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, West Texas and California. It pushes as far west as the Peninsular Ranges and Transverse Ranges of Southern California, but rarely reaches the coastal strip (a wall of desert thunderstorms only a half-hour's drive away is a common summer sight from the sunny skies along the coast during the monsoon). The North American monsoon is known to many as the "Summer", "Southwest", "Mexican" or "Arizona" monsoon. It is also sometimes called the "Desert monsoon" as a large part of the affected area are the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. However, it is controversial whether the North and South American weather patterns with incomplete wind reversal should be counted as true monsoons.


title: Monsoon

text: The Asian monsoons may be classified into a few sub-systems, such as the Indian Subcontinental Monsoon which affects the Indian subcontinent and surrounding regions including Nepal, and the East Asian Monsoon which affects southern China, Taiwan, Korea and parts of Japan.


title: Monsoon

text: The southwestern summer monsoons occur from July through September. The Thar Desert and adjoining areas of the northern and central Indian subcontinent heat up considerably during the hot summers. This causes a low pressure area over the northern and central Indian subcontinent. To fill this void, the moisture-laden winds from the Indian Ocean rush into the subcontinent. These winds, rich in moisture, are drawn towards the Himalayas. The Himalayas act like a high wall, blocking the winds from passing into Central Asia, and forcing them to rise. As the clouds rise, their temperature drops, and precipitation occurs. Some areas of the subcontinent receive up to of rain annually.


title: Monsoon

text: The southwest monsoon is generally expected to begin around the beginning of June and fade away by the end of September. The moisture-laden winds on reaching the southernmost point of the Indian Peninsula, due to its topography, become divided into two parts: the "Arabian Sea Branch" and the "Bay of Bengal Branch".


title: Monsoon

text: The "Arabian Sea Branch" of the Southwest Monsoon first hits the Western Ghats of the coastal state of Kerala, India, thus making this area the first state in India to receive rain from the Southwest Monsoon. This branch of the monsoon moves northwards along the Western Ghats (Konkan and Goa) with precipitation on coastal areas, west of the Western Ghats. The eastern areas of the Western Ghats do not receive much rain from this monsoon as the wind does not cross the Western Ghats.


title: Monsoon

text: The "Bay of Bengal Branch" of Southwest Monsoon flows over the Bay of Bengal heading towards north-east India and Bengal, picking up more moisture from the Bay of Bengal. The winds arrive at the Eastern Himalayas with large amounts of rain. Mawsynram, situated on the southern slopes of the Khasi Hills in Meghalaya, India, is one of the wettest places on Earth. After the arrival at the Eastern Himalayas, the winds turns towards the west, travelling over the Indo-Gangetic Plain at a rate of roughly 1–2 weeks per state, pouring rain all along its way. June 1 is regarded as the date of onset of the monsoon in India, as indicated by the arrival of the monsoon in the southernmost state of Kerala.


title: Monsoon

text: The monsoon accounts for nearly 80% of the rainfall in India. Indian agriculture (which accounts for 25% of the GDP and employs 70% of the population) is heavily dependent on the rains, for growing crops especially like cotton, rice, oilseeds and coarse grains. A delay of a few days in the arrival of the monsoon can badly affect the economy, as evidenced in the numerous droughts in India in the 1990s.


title: Monsoon

text: The monsoon is widely welcomed and appreciated by city-dwellers as well, for it provides relief from the climax of summer heat in June. However, the roads take a battering every year. Often houses and streets are waterlogged and slums are flooded despite drainage systems. A lack of city infrastructure coupled with changing climate patterns causes severe economic loss including damage to property and loss of lives, as evidenced in the 2005 flooding in Mumbai that brought the city to a standstill. Bangladesh and certain regions of India like Assam and West Bengal, also frequently experience heavy floods during this season. Recently, areas in India that used to receive scanty rainfall throughout the year, like the Thar Desert, have surprisingly ended up receiving floods due to the prolonged monsoon season.


title: Monsoon

text: The influence of the Southwest Monsoon is felt as far north as in China's Xinjiang. It is estimated that about 70% of all precipitation in the central part of the Tian Shan Mountains falls during the three summer months, when the region is under the monsoon influence; about 70% of that is directly of "cyclonic" (i.e., monsoon-driven) origin (as opposed to "local convection"). The effects also extend westwards to the Mediterranean, where however the impact of the monsoon is to induce drought via the Rodwell-Hoskins mechanism.


title: Monsoon

text: Around September, with the sun retreating south, the northern landmass of the Indian subcontinent begins to cool off rapidly, and air pressure begins to build over northern India. The Indian Ocean and its surrounding atmosphere still hold their heat, causing cold wind to sweep down from the Himalayas and Indo-Gangetic Plain towards the vast spans of the Indian Ocean south of the Deccan peninsula. This is known as the Northeast Monsoon or Retreating Monsoon.


title: Monsoon

text: While travelling towards the Indian Ocean, the cold dry wind picks up some moisture from the Bay of Bengal and pours it over peninsular India and parts of Sri Lanka. Cities like Chennai, which get less rain from the Southwest Monsoon, receive rain from this Monsoon. About 50% to 60% of the rain received by the state of Tamil Nadu is from the Northeast Monsoon. In Southern Asia, the northeastern monsoons take place from October to December when the surface high-pressure system is strongest. The jet stream in this region splits into the southern subtropical jet and the polar jet. The subtropical flow directs northeasterly winds to blow across southern Asia, creating dry air streams which produce clear skies over India. Meanwhile, a low pressure system known as a monsoon trough develops over South-East Asia and Australasia and winds are directed toward Australia.


title: Monsoon

text: The East Asian monsoon affects large parts of Indochina, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. It is characterised by a warm, rainy summer monsoon and a cold, dry winter monsoon. The rain occurs in a concentrated belt that stretches east–west except in East China where it is tilted east-northeast over Korea and Japan. The seasonal rain is known as "Meiyu" in China, "Jangma" in Korea, and "Bai-u" in Japan, with the latter two resembling frontal rain.


title: Monsoon

text: The onset of the summer monsoon is marked by a period of premonsoonal rain over South China and Taiwan in early May. From May through August, the summer monsoon shifts through a series of dry and rainy phases as the rain belt moves northward, beginning over Indochina and the South China Sea (May), to the Yangtze River Basin and Japan (June) and finally to northern China and Korea (July). When the monsoon ends in August, the rain belt moves back to southern China.


title: Monsoon

text: Also known as the Indo-Australian Monsoon. The rainy season occurs from September to February and it is a major source of energy for the Hadley circulation during boreal winter. The "Maritime Continent Monsoon" and the "Australian Monsoon" may be considered to be the same system, the Indo-Australian Monsoon.


title: Monsoon

text: It is associated with the development of the Siberian High and the movement of the heating maxima from the Northern Hemisphere to the Southern Hemisphere. North-easterly winds flow down Southeast Asia, are turned north-westerly/westerly by Borneo topography towards Australia. This forms a cyclonic circulation vortex over Borneo, which together with descending cold surges of winter air from higher latitudes, cause significant weather phenomena in the region. Examples are the formation of a rare low-latitude tropical storm in 2001, Tropical Storm Vamei, and the devastating flood of Jakarta in 2007.


title: Monsoon

text: The onset of the monsoon over the Maritime Continent tends to follow the heating maxima down Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula (September), to Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines (October), to Java, Sulawesi (November), Irian Jaya and northern Australia (December, January). However, the monsoon is not a simple response to heating but a more complex interaction of topography, wind and sea, as demonstrated by its abrupt rather than gradual withdrawal from the region. The Australian monsoon (the "Wet") occurs in the southern summer when the monsoon trough develops over Northern Australia. Over three-quarters of annual rainfall in Northern Australia falls during this time.


title: Monsoon

text: The European Monsoon (more commonly known as the return of the westerlies) is the result of a resurgence of westerly winds from the Atlantic, where they become loaded with wind and rain. These westerly winds are a common phenomenon during the European winter, but they ease as spring approaches in late March and through April and May. The winds pick up again in June, which is why this phenomenon is also referred to as "the return of the westerlies".


title: Monsoon

text: The rain usually arrives in two waves, at the beginning of June, and again in mid- to late June. The European monsoon is not a monsoon in the traditional sense in that it doesn't meet all the requirements to be classified as such. Instead, the return of the westerlies is more regarded as a conveyor belt that delivers a series of low-pressure centres to Western Europe where they create unsettled weather. These storms generally feature significantly lower-than-average temperatures, fierce rain or hail, thunder, and strong winds.


title: Monsoon

text: The return of the westerlies affects Europe's Northern Atlantic coastline, more precisely Ireland, Great Britain, the Benelux countries, western Germany, northern France and parts of Scandinavia.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the family Limulidae and the only living members of the order Xiphosura. Despite their name, they are not true crabs or crustaceans: they are chelicerates, most closely related to arachnids, such as spiders and scorpions.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Horseshoe crabs live primarily in and around shallow coastal waters on soft, sandy or muddy bottoms. They are generally found in the intertidal zone at spring high tides. They are eaten in some parts of Asia, and used as fishing bait, in fertilizer and in science (especially "Limulus" amebocyte lysate). In recent years, population declines have occurred as a consequence of coastal habitat destruction and overharvesting. Tetrodotoxin may be present in one horseshoe crab species, "Carcinoscorpius rotundicauda".


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Fossil records for horseshoe crabs extend back as far as 480 million years ago, with extant forms being living fossils. A 2019 molecular analysis places them as the sister group of Ricinulei within Arachnida.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Horseshoe crabs resemble crustaceans but belong to a separate subphylum of the arthropods, Chelicerata. Horseshoe crabs are closely related to the extinct eurypterids (sea scorpions), which include some of the largest arthropods to have ever existed, and the two may be sister groups. Other studies have placed eurypterids closer to the arachnids in a group called Merostomata. The enigmatic Chasmataspidids are also thought to be closely related to the horseshoe crabs. The earliest horseshoe crab fossils are found in strata from the Lower Ordovician period, roughly 480 million years ago.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: The Limulidae are the only recent family of the order Xiphosura, and contains all four living species of horseshoe crabs:


title: Horseshoe crab

text: The entire body of the horseshoe crab is protected by a hard carapace. It has two compound lateral eyes, each composed of about 1,000 ommatidia, plus a pair of median eyes that are able to detect both visible light and ultraviolet light, a single parietal eye, and a pair of rudimentary lateral eyes on the top. The latter become functional just before the embryo hatches. Also, a pair of ventral eyes is located near the mouth, as well as a cluster of photoreceptors on the telson. Having relatively poor eyesight, the animals have the largest rods and cones of any known animal, about 100 times the size of humans, and their eyes are a million times more sensitive to light at night than during the day. They use their chelicerae—a pair of small appendages—for moving food into the mouth. The next five pairs of appendages, the first of which are the pedipalps, are used for locomotion (ambulatory legs). The mouth is located in the center of the legs, whose bases are referred to as gnathobases, and have the same function as jaws and help grind up food. In extant species their appendages are uniramous, but the fossil genus "Dibasterium" had four pairs of branched walking legs. The pedipalps on a male change shape on their terminal molt, becoming boxing glove-like claspers that are used for grasping the female during mating. The last pair of legs for both male and female are the main legs used for pushing when walking on the ocean floor. The remaining leg pairs have a weak claw at the tip. Lost legs or the telson (tail) may slowly regenerate, and cracks in the body shell can heal.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Behind its legs, the horseshoe crab has book gills, which exchange respiratory gases, and are also occasionally used for swimming.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: As in other arthropods, a true endoskeleton is absent, but the body does have an endoskeletal structure made up of cartilaginous plates that support the book gills.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Horseshoe crabs are more often found on the ocean floor searching for worms and molluscs, which are their main food. They may also feed on crustaceans and even small fish.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Females are about 20–30% larger than males. The smallest species is "C. rotundicauda" and the largest is "T. tridentatus". On average, males of "C. rotundicauda" are about long, including a tail (telson) that is about , and their carapace (prosoma) is about wide. Some southern populations (in the Yucatán Peninsula) of "L. polyphemus" are somewhat smaller, but otherwise this species is larger. In the largest species, "T. tridentatus", females can reach as much as long, including their tail, and up to in weight. This is only about longer than the largest females of "L. polyphemus" and "T. gigas", but roughly twice the weight. The juveniles grow about 33% larger with every molt until reaching adult size. Atlantic horseshoe crabs molt in late July.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: During the breeding season (spring and summer in the Northeast U.S.; year-round in warmer locations), horseshoe crabs migrate to shallow coastal waters. The smaller male horseshoe crab clings to the back of the larger female using specialized front claws and fertilizes the eggs as they are laid in the sand. Additional males called "satellite males" which are not attached to the female may surround the pair and have some success in fertilizing eggs. Young female horseshoe crabs can be identified by the lack of mating scars. The female can lay between 60,000 and 120,000 eggs in batches of a few thousand at a time. In "L. polyphemus", the eggs take about two weeks to hatch; shore birds eat many of them before they hatch. The larvae molt six times during the first year and annually after the first 3 or 4 years.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Natural breeding of horseshoe crabs in captivity has proven to be difficult. Some evidence indicates that mating takes place only in the presence of the sand or mud in which the horseshoe crab's eggs were hatched. It is not known with certainty what is in the sand that the crabs can sense or how they sense it. Artificial insemination and induced spawning have been done on a relatively large scale in captivity, and eggs and juveniles collected from the wild are often raised to adulthood in captivity.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: In order to preserve and ensure the continuous supply of the horseshoe crab, a breeding centre was built in Johor, Malaysia where the crabs are bred and released back into the ocean in thousands once every two years. It is estimated to take around 12 years before they are suitable for consumption.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Horseshoe crabs use hemocyanin to carry oxygen through their blood. Because of the copper present in hemocyanin, their blood is blue. Their blood contains amebocytes, which play a similar role to the white blood cells of vertebrates in defending the organism against pathogens. Amebocytes from the blood of "L. polyphemus" are used to make "Limulus" amebocyte lysate (LAL), which is used for the detection of bacterial endotoxins in medical applications. There is a high demand for the blood, the harvest of which involves collecting and bleeding the animals, and then releasing them back into the sea. Most of the animals survive the process; mortality is correlated with both the amount of blood extracted from an individual animal, and the stress experienced during handling and transportation. Estimates of mortality rates following blood harvesting vary from 3–15% to 10–30%. Approximately 500,000 "Limulus" are harvested annually for this purpose.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Bleeding may also prevent female horseshoe crabs from being able to spawn or decrease the number of eggs they are able to lay. Up to 30% of an individual's blood is removed, according to the biomedical industry, and the horseshoe crabs spend between one and three days away from the ocean before being returned. As long as the gills stay moist, they can survive on land for four days. Some scientists are skeptical that certain companies return their horseshoe crabs to the ocean at all, instead suspecting them of selling the horseshoe crabs as fishing bait.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: The harvesting of horseshoe crab blood in the pharmaceutical industry is in decline. In 1986, Kyushu University researchers discovered that the same test could be achieved by using isolated Limulus clotting factor C (rFC), an enzyme found in LAL, as by using LAL itself. Jeak Ling Ding, a National University of Singapore researcher, patented a process for manufacturing rFC; on 8 May 2003, synthetic isolated rFC made via her patented process became available for the first time. Industry at first took little interest in the new product, however, as it was patent-encumbered, not yet approved by regulators, and sold by a single manufacturer, Lonza Group. In 2013, however, Hyglos GmbH also began manufacturing its own rFC product. This, combined with the acceptance of rFC by European regulators, the comparable cost between LAL and rFC, and support from Eli Lilly and Company, which has committed to use rFC in lieu of LAL, is projected to all but end the practice of blood harvesting from horseshoe crabs.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: In December 2019, a report of the US Senate which encouraged the Food and Drug Administration to "establish processes for evaluating alternative pyrogenicity tests and report back [to the Senate] on steps taken to increase their use" was released; PETA backed the report.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: In June 2020, it was reported that U.S. Pharmacopeia had declined to give rFC equal standing with horseshoe crab blood. Without the approval for the classification as an industry standard testing material, U.S. companies will have to overcome the scrutiny of showing that rFC is safe and effective for their desired uses, which may serve as a deterrent for usage of the horseshoe crab blood substitute.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Vaccine research and development during the COVID-19 pandemic has added additional "strain on the American horseshoe crab."


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Horseshoe crabs are used as bait to fish for eels (mostly in the United States) and whelk, or conch. Nearly 1 million (1,000,000) crabs a year are harvested for bait in the United States, dwarfing the biomedical mortality. However, fishing with horseshoe crab was banned indefinitely in New Jersey in 2008 with a moratorium on harvesting to protect the red knot, a shorebird which eats the crab's eggs. A moratorium was restricted to male crabs in Delaware, and a permanent moratorium is in effect in South Carolina. The eggs are eaten in parts of Southeast Asia, Johor and China.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: A low horseshoe crab population in the Delaware Bay is hypothesized to endanger the future of the red knot. Red knots, long-distance migratory shorebirds, feed on the protein-rich eggs during their stopovers on the beaches of New Jersey and Delaware. An effort is ongoing to develop adaptive-management plans to regulate horseshoe crab harvests in the bay in a way that protects migrating shorebirds.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: The population of T. gigas in Indonesia and Malaysia has decreased dramatically in the past decade. The harvesting of T. gigas is largely used to supply Thailand with primarily female T. gigas, which is considered a local delicacy. This female biased harvesting has led to an unbalanced sex ratio in the wild, which also contributes to its declining population in the area.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Development along shorelines is dangerous to horseshoe crab spawning, limiting available space and degrading habitat. Bulkheads can block access to intertidal spawning regions as well.


title: Horseshoe crab

text: Because of the destruction of habitat and shoreline development, use in fishing, status as a culinary delicacy in some areas, and use for scientific research and advancements, the horseshoe crab is facing down endangered and extinct statuses. One species, "T. tridentatus", has already been declared extinct in one area of Taiwan. Facing a greater than 90% population decrease in "T. tridentatus" juveniles, it is suspected that Hong Kong will be the next to declare the horseshoe crab extinct in its area. The species is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List, specifically because of overexploitation and loss of critical habitat leading to a steep decline in population size.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: , titled Laputa: Castle in the Sky for release in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, is a 1986 Japanese animated fantasy adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. The first film produced by Studio Ghibli, it was produced for Tokuma Shoten. Set in a fictional late 19th century, it follows the adventures of a boy and girl who are trying to keep a powerful crystal from the army, a group of secret agents, and a family of pirates, while searching for a legendary floating castle. The film was distributed by Toei Company.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The film won the "Animage" Anime Grand Prix in 1986. The film received positive reviews and grossed over at the box office. It went on to gross a total of approximately in box office, home video and soundtrack sales, . In Japanese polls asking about the greatest animations, it was voted the second-best animated film at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival and was voted first place in a 2008 Oricon audience poll. "Castle in the Sky" has had a strong influence on Japanese popular culture, and has inspired numerous films, media and games, in Japan and internationally. It has been cited as an influential classic in the steampunk and dieselpunk genres.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: An airship carrying Sheeta—an orphan girl abducted by government agent Muska—is attacked by Captain Dola and her air pirate sons, seeking Sheeta's blue crystal pendant. Trying to escape, Sheeta falls from the airship but, thanks to the amulet, she floats to earth, unconscious. An orphan boy named Pazu catches her and takes her to his home in a mining town. Pazu shows her a picture of a legendary floating city, Laputa, taken by his late father. When Dola's pirates and Muska's men appear and pursue them, Pazu and Sheeta, aided by the amulet, fall into an abandoned mine, where she tells how she was kidnapped from her mountain home because of her necklace. Old miner Uncle Pom shows them the glowing deposits of Aetherium around them.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Leaving the mine, Sheeta tells Pazu her full name - Lucita Toel Ul Laputa - revealing her as a descendant of the Laputan royal family. Muska captures them and takes them to his fortress where the children are imprisoned in different rooms. Muska shows Sheeta a broken Laputan robot; knowing her name, he intends to make her reveal Laputa's location. Muska threatens Pazu; for his own safety, Sheeta orders him to leave. A despondent Pazu returns home, where Dola and her sons await. To rescue Sheeta, Pazu joins them.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Sheeta recites a spell her grandmother taught her, unintentionally activating the amulet and the robot, which wreaks havoc until it is destroyed by the military's huge airship, "Goliath". Pazu rescues Sheeta, but Muska obtains the amulet. Pazu, Sheeta and the pirates return to their airship and pursue the "Goliath", which is navigating by Sheeta's amulet. Along the way, Dola tells Pazu and Sheeta how to turn the lookout into a kite, giving them a higher vantage point. Pazu spots a swirl of clouds in an approaching hurricane. Recognizing the clouds from his father's stories, he tells Dola they have found Laputa and insists that they head toward the eye of the storm. However, the "Goliath" appears, damages the pirate ship and severs the lookout kite from it, sending Pazu and Sheeta into the clouds.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Sheeta and Pazu safely reach Laputa, where they find plants and animals thriving in the ruins of the castle, which surround a huge tree. However, the army plunders the city, with the pirates as their captives. Muska captures Sheeta while Pazu frees the pirates. Muska takes Sheeta into the center of Laputa, a vast repository of scientific knowledge where an immense crystal powers the city. Muska reveals his real name, “Romuska Palo Ul Laputa", another member of the royal line that left Laputa centuries ago. Using Sheeta's crystal to access Laputan technology, he unleashes Laputa's secret weapon of mass destruction and a dormant robot army, destroys the "Goliath" and its crew, and declares his plans to conquer the world. Horrified, Sheeta steals back the amulet and flees. She gives the amulet to Pazu through a gap in the wall but is cornered by a pursuing Muska in Laputa's dilapidated throne room.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Sheeta rebukes Muska, also revealing the people of Laputa left because they realized that man was meant to live on earth. Undaunted, Muska threatens to kill her unless she gives him the amulet. Pazu arrives and asks to speak with her, and Muska grants them one minute. Sheeta and Pazu recite a Spell of Destruction connected to the crystal, causing the center of Laputa to collapse and blinding Muska, who falls to his death offscreen, while the children are protected by the tree roots. The remainder of Laputa's ruins ascend until they disappear from view, supported by its crystal. Pazu and Sheeta take the kite to rendezvous with the pirates before both groups part ways.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Miyazaki's earlier anime series "Future Boy Conan" (1978) featured a number of elements that he later adapted for "Castle in the Sky". Conan and Lana, for example, were forerunners of Pazu and Sheeta, and it had similarities to Sheeta's rescue by Pazu. Some of the characters and themes in "Future Boy Conan" set the blueprint for "Castle in the Sky". The name "Laputa" is derived from Jonathan Swift's novel "Gulliver's Travels", wherein Swift's Laputa is also a flying island propelled by a giant central crystal and controlled by its citizens. Anthony Lioi feels that Miyazaki's "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" is similar to Swift's Laputa, where the technological superiority of the castle in the sky is used for political ends.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Miyazaki, through the dialog of Colonel Muska, credited Laputa as having informed Biblical and Hindu legends—thus tying the world of Laputa to the real Earth (including Western and Eastern civilizations)—as do Miyazaki's choices of the medieval castle architecture on the ground; the Gothic and half-timbered buildings in the village near the fort; the Welsh mining-town architecture, clothing, and ground vehicles of Pazu's homeland; and the Victorian ambiance of the pirate ship. The film also features the use of ancient Babylonian cuneiform script on Laputa's interactive panels and tombstones; and makes references to the Hindu epic "Ramayana", including "Indra's arrow", while the name Sheeta may be related to Sita, the protagonist of the "Ramayana". The flying city of Laputa has an architectural design resembling the ancient Mesopotamian city of Babylon, including ziggurat-like structures, and with murals resembling ancient Egyptian and Assyrian art.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Some of the architecture seen in the film was inspired by a Welsh mining town. Miyazaki first visited Wales in 1984 and witnessed the miners' strike firsthand. He returned to the country in 1986 to prepare for "Laputa", which he said reflected his Welsh experience: "I was in Wales just after the miners' strike. I really admired the way the miners' unions fought to the very end for their jobs and communities, and I wanted to reflect the strength of those communities in my film." Miyazaki told "The Guardian", "I admired those men, I admired the way they battled to save their way of life, just as the coal miners in Japan did. Many people of my generation see the miners as a symbol; a dying breed of fighting men. Now they are gone."


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Except for the technology of Laputa itself, the technologies (especially the flying machines) are an example of the retrofuturistic genre of steampunk. Telecom Animation Film, and Oh! Production helped animate the film.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The film had a production budget of , at the time equivalent to , making it the most expensive anime film up until then. It matched the budget record of Miyazaki's Lupin III film "Castle of Cagliostro" (1979), and it was in turn surpassed a year later by "" (1987).


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The film was released in Japan on August 2, 1986, by the Toei Company, which also released "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". In the late 1980s, an English dubbed version, produced by Magnum Video Tape and Dubbing for international Japan Airlines flights at the request of Tokuma Shoten, was briefly screened in the United States by Streamline Pictures. Carl Macek, the head of Streamline, was disappointed with this dub, deeming it "adequate, but clumsy". Following this, Tokuma allowed Streamline to dub their future acquisitions "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Kiki's Delivery Service". In UK, the premiere took place on August 12, 1987 on MTV Europe in its own dubbing. The original dub of "Castle in the Sky" is also seen on the 1996 Ghibli ga Ippai Laserdisc set, and on the first Japanese DVD release. The initial Japanese DVD release is now out of print and the subsequent re-release in 2014 replaces it with the Disney dubbed version.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The English dub produced by Walt Disney Pictures was recorded in 1998 and planned for release on video in 1999, but the release was cancelled after "Princess Mononoke" (1997) did not fare as well in the US as Japan, and so "Laputa's" release date was pushed back yet again; on occasion the completed dub was screened at select children's festivals. The film was finally released on DVD and video in the US on April 15, 2003, alongside a rerelease of "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Spirited Away". As with "Mononoke" and "Kiki", critical opinion was mixed about the new dub, but Cloris Leachman and Mark Hamill's performances as Dola and Muska drew praise. "Laputa" was reissued on American home video on March 2, 2010, as a tribute accompanying the home video release of "Ponyo". The film was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment on Blu-ray in North America on May 22, 2012, alongside "Whisper of the Heart" and "The Secret World of Arrietty". Shout! Factory and GKIDS re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on October 31, 2017.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The film received a re-screening on May 22, 2011, in Aberystwyth as part of a charity fund for Japan. The print shown was the original theatrical Japanese print with English subtitles. For a special promotion, it went back into US theaters November 18–20, 2018, with the widest release at 648 theaters.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: At the Japanese box office, the film grossed ¥1.16billion, at the time equivalent to . In Hong Kong, the film's 1987 release grossed HK$13.1million, at the time equivalent to . In the United Kingdom, the film's 2012 release grossed $327,559 in its first week. In the United States, the film's 2018 limited release grossed $523,664. In other territories, the film's 2003 release grossed $5,434,627, including $4,670,084 in France alone. This adds up to a combined worldwide box office gross of .


title: Castle in the Sky

text: In terms of box office admissions, the film sold about 800,000 tickets in Japan and 1,066,427 tickets in Europe. Combined, about tickets were sold in Japan and Europe.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: By 2003, "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" had sold 1.612million VHS and DVD units in Japan. At an average retail price of ( on DVD and on VHS), this is equivalent to approximately () in estimated Japanese sales revenue as of 2012.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: In the United Kingdom, it was 2019's eighth best-selling foreign language film on home video (below six other Japanese films, including five Miyazaki anime films).


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Although the plot and much of the script was left intact, Disney's English dub of "Castle in the Sky" contains some changes:


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Although all these alterations were approved by Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki, some critics have called them into question. Regarding the soundtrack, Miyazaki himself is said to have approved of Hisaishi's reworking; his compliments were echoed by several reviewers.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The 2010 DVD rerelease reverts some of these changes. The updated score and sound mix are replaced by the originals in the Japanese-language audio, retaining the updates in the dub. Some of the added dialogue is removed in the dub, restoring silence where it is in the original Japanese version. However, the English subtitles are not updated to reflect the trimmed dialogue, which sometimes results in text being displayed when no characters are speaking. These changes are also seen in the 2012 US Blu-ray release. For the Japanese, Australian, and British Blu-rays, the updated score is used, and the subtitles are properly timed, literal translations from the original Japanese, rather than the improperly timed dubtitles.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The 2017 Blu-ray rerelease by GKIDS, besides offering the original Japanese, features the 2010 edit of the English dub but presents the option of playing it with either the original or the new score. For subtitles, the correctly translated from Japanese to English subtitles are added. The HBO Max release of the English dub only uses the original score. In the film's release on Netflix, the Japanese audio features the original audio mix and score, while the English audio features the updated audio mix and score. Subtitles are only available for the original Japanese audio.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: As with all other films by Hayao Miyazaki, Joe Hisaishi composed the music for "Castle in the Sky". For the film, Azumi Inoue performed the original song "Carrying You".


title: Castle in the Sky

text: According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "With a storytelling palette as rich and brilliant as its animation, "Castle in the Sky" thrillingly encapsulates Studio Ghibli's unique strengths." At Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 78 out of 100 based on 7 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Castle in the Sky

text: In 2001, the Japanese magazine "Animage" ranked "Laputa:Castle in the Sky" 44th in their list of "100 Best Anime Productions of All Time". In a 2006 poll of 100 best animations of all time by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs conducted at the 2006 Japan Media Arts Festival, "Castle in the Sky" was the second highest-ranked animated film (after "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", and third highest-ranked animation overall on the list (below "Neon Genesis Evangelion" and "Nausicaä"). In a 2008 animation audience poll conducted by Oricon in Japan, "Laputa: Castle in the Sky" was voted first place, above "Nausicaä" in second place. Andrew Osmond of "All the Anime" calls "Laputa" the "best steampunk film" of all time. The film was ranked at number 10 on the list of "Greatest Japanese Animated Films of All Time" by Japanese film magazine kinema Junpo in 2009.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: "Castle in the Sky" has had a strong impact on Japanese popular culture, with the "Laputa Effect" comparable to "a modern day monomyth for Japanese genre films and media." Jeff VanderMeer and S.J. Chambers, in "The Steampunk Bible", consider the film a milestone in the steampunk genre, calling it "one of the first modern steampunk classics." Archetypal steampunk elements in "Laputa" include airships, air pirates, steam-powered robots, and a view of steam power as a limitless but potentially dangerous source of power. Philip Boyes of "Eurogamer" also considers it an influential work in the dieselpunk genre.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The most tweeted moment in the history of Twitter was during one airing of "Castle in the Sky" on Japanese TV on August 2, 2013, when fans tweeted the word "balus" at the exact time that it was said in an important moment of the movie. There was a global peak of 143,199 tweets in one second.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: "Castle in the Sky" has also had an influence on popular music; the popular jazz-funk band Hiatus Kaiyote has a song called 'Laputa' and its lyrics directly reference the film. Another example of a song directly referencing the film is a song titled 'Laputa' by the indie rock band Panchiko.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The success of "Laputa" led to a wave of steampunk anime and manga. A notable example is the anime series "" (1990). The success of "Laputa" inspired Hideaki Anno and Studio Gainax to create "Nadia", their first hit production, loosely adapting elements from "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", with Captain Nemo making an appearance. In turn, "Nadia" was influential on later steampunk anime, such as Katsuhiro Otomo's film production "Steamboy" (2004). Other steampunk anime and manga followed in the wake of "Laputa", including Miyazaki's own films "Porco Rosso" (1992) and "Howl's Moving Castle" (2004), Sega's anime series "Sakura Wars" (1997), Square Enix's manga and anime franchise "Fullmetal Alchemist" (2001), and the manga and anime series "Elemental Gelade" (2002).


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Manga author Katsura Hoshino, known for the manga and anime series "D.Gray-man", was fascinated by "Castle in the Sky" to the point where she decided to seek work as an animator when growing up, before she ended up writing manga. Anime filmmaker Yasuhiro Yoshiura described his film "Patema Inverted" (2013) as his venture into "the world of "Laputa" and the boy-meets-girl story". Anime filmmaker Makoto Shinkai, known for the hit anime films "Your Name" (2016) and "Weathering With You" (2019), cited "Laputa" as his favourite animation. The anime series "No Game No Life" (2014) references the film in episode five.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: "Castle in the Sky" influenced a number of animated films from Disney and Pixar. For example, Disney films such as "" (2001), and Pixar films such as "WALL-E" (2008) and "Up" (2009). The French animated film "April and the Extraordinary World" (2015) was also influenced by "Laputa".


title: Castle in the Sky

text: "Castle in the Sky" has influenced numerous video games, particularly Japanese video games, with its success leading to a wave of steampunk video games. Game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi cited "Laputa" as an inspiration behind his "Final Fantasy" video game series, particularly citing it as an influence on the series' airships. Sega AM2 game designer Yu Suzuki cited "Laputa" as his original inspiration behind the hit arcade game "After Burner" (1987). "Steel Empire" (1992), a shoot 'em up game originally released as "Koutetsu Teikoku" on the Sega Mega Drive console in Japan and considered to be the first steampunk video game, was inspired by "Laputa", helping to propel steampunk into the video game market. This influenced "Final Fantasy VI" (1994), a Japanese role-playing game developed by Squaresoft, which had a considerable influence on later steampunk video games. Sega's video game franchise "Sakura Wars" (1996) also followed in the wake of "Laputa".


title: Castle in the Sky

text: "Castle in the Sky" also inspired a number of other video games, including the "Mega Man Legends" series (whose Japanese version, coincidentally, would feature voice acting by Mayumi Tanaka [Pazu] and Keiko Yokozawa [Sheeta] as Rock/Mega Man Volnutt and Roll Caskett, respectively), "Zack & Wiki", and Japanese role-playing games such as the "Lunar" series, "Valkyrie Profile" (1999), "Skies of Arcadia" (2000), "Steambot Chronicles" (2005), and "Dark Cloud 2" (2002). "Laputa" also influenced the first-person shooter "BioShock Infinite" (2013), the action-adventure game "" (2017), and the airships in the "Mario" and "Civilization" franchises. It also inspired Mojang to add the Iron Golem mob to Minecraft.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The name "Laputa" comes from Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels". Certain English- and Spanish-language releases have opted to omit the name "Laputa" due to it resembling "la puta" ( "the whore") in Spanish.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: In 2003, the film's title was shortened to "Castle in the Sky" in several countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Mexico, and Spain. In Spain the castle was named "Lapuntu" in the first dub in 2003, although in the second one made in 2010 retains the original name "Laputa." In the Catalan dub in 2012, the meaning of "Laputa" was said with the tonic syllable in "La".


title: Castle in the Sky

text: The film's full title was later restored in Britain, in February 2006, when Optimum Asia – a division of London-based Optimum Releasing (StudioCanal UK since 2011) – acquired the UK distribution rights to the Studio Ghibli collection from Buena Vista Home Entertainment.


title: Castle in the Sky

text: Additionally, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the pre-Disney dub was screened in the UK as an art-house film, under the alternative title "Laputa: The Flying Island". It also aired at least twice on British television, but with some scenes cut.


title: Zen

text: Zen (; ; ; ) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School ("Chánzong" 禪宗), and later developed into various sub-schools and branches. From China, Chán spread south to Vietnam and became Vietnamese Thiền, northeast to Korea to become Seon Buddhism, and east to Japan, becoming Japanese Zen.


title: Zen

text: The term Zen is derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the Middle Chinese word 禪 ("chán"), an abbreviation of 禪那 ("chánnà"), which is a Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit word ध्यान "dhyāna" ("meditation"). Zen emphasizes rigorous self-restraint, meditation-practice and the subsequent insight into nature of mind (見性, Ch. "jiànxìng," Jp. "kensho," "perceiving the true nature") and nature of things (without arrogance or egotism), and the personal expression of this insight in daily life, especially for the benefit of others. As such, it de-emphasizes knowledge alone of sutras and doctrine, and favors direct understanding through spiritual practice and interaction with an accomplished teacher or Master.


title: Zen

text: Zen teaching draws from numerous sources of Sarvastivada meditation practice and Mahāyāna thought, especially Yogachara, the Tathāgatagarbha sūtras, the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra, and the Huayan school, with their emphasis on Buddha-nature, totality, and the Bodhisattva-ideal. The Prajñāpāramitā literature, as well as Madhyamaka thought, have also been influential in the shaping of the apophatic and sometimes iconoclastic nature of Zen rhetoric.


title: Zen

text: Furthermore, the Chan School was also influenced by Taoist philosophy, especially Neo-Daoist thought.


title: Zen

text: The word "Zen" is derived from the Japanese pronunciation (kana: ぜん) of the Middle Chinese word 禪 (Middle Chinese: [dʑian]; ), which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word "dhyāna" (ध्यान), which can be approximately translated as "contemplation", "absorption", or "meditative state".


title: Zen

text: The actual Chinese term for the "Zen school" is 禪宗 (), while "Chan" just refers to the practice of meditation itself () or the study of meditation () though it is often used as an abbreviated form of "Chánzong".


title: Zen

text: "Zen" is traditionally a proper noun as it usually describes a particular Buddhist sect. In more recent times, the lowercase "zen" is used when discussing the philosophy and was officially added to the Merriam-Webster dictionary in 2018.


title: Zen

text: The practice of "dhyana" or meditation, especially sitting meditation (坐禪，Chinese: "zuòchán", Japanese: "zazen" / ざぜん) is a central part of Zen Buddhism.


title: Zen

text: The practice of Buddhist meditation first entered China through the translations of An Shigao (fl. c. 148–180 CE), and Kumārajīva (334–413 CE), who both translated "Dhyāna sutras", which were influential early meditation texts mostly based on the "Yogacara" (yoga praxis) teachings of the Kashmiri Sarvāstivāda circa 1st–4th centuries CE. Among the most influential early Chinese meditation texts include the "Anban Shouyi Jing" (安般守意經, Sutra on "ānāpānasmṛti"), the "Zuochan Sanmei Jing" (坐禪三昧經，Sutra of sitting dhyāna samādhi) and the "Damoduoluo Chan Jing" (達摩多羅禪經, Dharmatrata dhyāna sutra)"." These early Chinese meditation works continued to exert influence on Zen practice well into the modern era. For example, the 18th century Rinzai Zen master Tōrei Enji wrote a commentary on the "Damoduoluo Chan Jing" and used the "Zuochan Sanmei Jing" as source in the writing of this commentary. Tōrei believed that the "Damoduoluo Chan Jing" had been authored by Bodhidharma.


title: Zen

text: While "dhyāna" in a strict sense refers to the four "dhyānas", in Chinese Buddhism, "dhyāna" may refer to various kinds of meditation techniques and their preparatory practices, which are necessary to practice "dhyāna". The five main types of meditation in the "Dhyāna sutras" are "ānāpānasmṛti" (mindfulness of breathing); "paṭikūlamanasikāra" meditation (mindfulness of the impurities of the body); "maitrī" meditation (loving-kindness); the contemplation on the twelve links of "pratītyasamutpāda"; and contemplation on the Buddha. According to the modern Chan master Sheng Yen, these practices are termed the "five methods for stilling or pacifying the mind" and serve to focus and purify the mind, and support the development of the stages of "dhyana". Chan also shares the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness and the Three Gates of Liberation (emptyness or "śūnyatā", signlessness or "animitta", and wishlessness or "apraṇihita") with early Buddhism and classic Mahayana.


title: Zen

text: According to Charles Luk, in the earliest traditions of Chán, there was no fixed method or formula for teaching meditation, and all instructions were simply heuristic methods, to point to the true nature of the mind, also known as "Buddha-nature". According to Luk, this method is referred to as the "Mind Dharma", and exemplified in the story (in the Flower Sermon) of Śākyamuni Buddha holding up a flower silently, and Mahākāśyapa smiling as he understood. A traditional formula of this is, "Chán points directly to the human mind, to enable people to see their true nature and become buddhas."


title: Zen

text: According to John McRae, "one of the most important issues in the development of early Ch'an doctrine is the rejection of traditional meditation techniques," that is, gradual self-perfection and the practices of contemplation on the body impurities and the four foundations of mindfulness. According to John R. McRae the "first explicit statement of the sudden and direct approach that was to become the hallmark of Ch'an religious practice" is associated with the East Mountain School. It is a method named "Maintaining the one without wavering" ("shou-i pu i," 守一不移), "the one" being the nature of mind, which is equated with Buddha-nature. According to Sharf, in this practice, one turns the attention from the objects of experience, to the nature of mind, the perceiving subject itself, which is equated with Buddha-nature. According to McRae, this type of meditation resembles the methods of "virtually all schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism," but differs in that "no preparatory requirements, no moral prerequisites or preliminary exercises are given," and is "without steps or gradations. One concentrates, understands, and is enlightened, all in one undifferentiated practice." Sharf notes that the notion of "Mind" came to be criticised by radical subitists, and was replaced by "No Mind," to avoid any reifications.


title: Zen

text: Early Chan texts also teach forms of meditation that are unique to Mahāyāna Buddhism, for example, the "Treatise on the Essentials of Cultivating the Mind", which depicts the teachings of the 7th-century East Mountain school teaches a visualization of a sun disk, similar to that taught in the "Sutra of the Contemplation of the Buddha Amitáyus."


title: Zen

text: Later Chinese Buddhists developed their own meditation manuals and texts, one of the most influential being the works of the Tiantai patriarch, Zhiyi. His works seemed to have exerted some influence on the earliest meditation manuals of the Chán school proper, an early work being the widely imitated and influential "Tso-chan-i" (Principles of sitting meditation, c. 11th century), which doesn't outline a vipassana practice which leads to wisdom ("prajña"), but only recommends practicing samadhi which will lead to the discovery of inherent wisdom already present in the mind.


title: Zen

text: During sitting meditation (坐禅, Ch. "zuòchán," Jp. "zazen", Ko. "jwaseon"), practitioners usually assume a position such as the lotus position, half-lotus, Burmese, or seiza, often using the dhyāna mudrā. Often, a square or round cushion placed on a padded mat is used to sit on; in some other cases, a chair may be used.


title: Zen

text: To regulate the mind, Zen students are often directed towards counting breaths. Either both exhalations and inhalations are counted, or one of them only. The count can be up to ten, and then this process is repeated until the mind is calmed. Zen teachers like Omori Sogen teach a series of long and deep exhalations and inhalations as a way to prepare for regular breath meditation. Attention is usually placed on the energy center ("dantian") below the navel. Zen teachers often promote diaphragmatic breathing, stating that the breath must come from the lower abdomen (known as hara or tanden in Japanese), and that this part of the body should expand forward slightly as one breathes. Over time the breathing should become smoother, deeper and slower. When the counting becomes an encumbrance, the practice of simply following the natural rhythm of breathing with concentrated attention is recommended.


title: Zen

text: A common form of sitting meditation is called "Silent illumination" (Ch. "mòzhào," Jp". mokushō"). This practice was traditionally promoted by the Caodong school of Chinese Chan and is associated with Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091—1157) who wrote various works on the practice. This method derives from the Indian Buddhist practice of the union (Skt. "yuganaddha") of "śamatha" and "vipaśyanā."


title: Zen

text: In Hongzhi's practice of "nondual objectless meditation" the mediator strives to be aware of the totality of phenomena instead of focusing on a single object, without any interference, conceptualizing, grasping, goal seeking, or subject-object duality.


title: Zen

text: This practice is also popular in the major schools of Japanese Zen, but especially Sōtō, where it is more widely known as "Shikantaza (Ch. zhǐguǎn dǎzuò, "Just sitting")." Considerable textual, philosophical, and phenomenological justification of the practice can be found throughout the work of the Japanese Sōtō Zen thinker Dōgen, especially in his "Shōbōgenzō", for example in the "Principles of Zazen" and the "Universally Recommended Instructions for Zazen". While the Japanese and the Chinese forms are similar, they are distinct approaches.


title: Zen

text: During the Tang dynasty, "gōng'àn ("Jp. "kōan)" literature became popular. Literally meaning "public case", they were stories or dialogues, describing teachings and interactions between Zen masters and their students. These anecdotes give a demonstration of the master's insight. Kōan are meant to illustrate the non-conceptual insight ("prajña") that the Buddhist teachings point to. During the Sòng dynasty, a new meditation method was popularized by figures such as Dahui, which was called "kanhua chan" ("observing the phrase" meditation), which referred to contemplation on a single word or phrase (called the "huatou", "critical phrase") of a "gōng'àn". In Chinese Chan and Korean Seon, this practice of "observing the "huatou"" ("hwadu" in Korean) is a widely practiced method. It was taught by the influential Seon master Chinul (1158–1210), and modern Chinese masters like Sheng Yen and Xuyun. Yet, while Dahui famously criticised "silent illumination," he nevertheless "did not completely condemn quiet-sitting; in fact, he seems to have recommended it, at least to his monastic disciples."


title: Zen

text: In the Japanese Rinzai school, "kōan" introspection developed its own formalized style, with a standardized curriculum of "kōans", which must be studied and "passed" in sequence. This process includes standardized "checking questions" ("sassho") and common sets of "capping phrases" ("jakugo") or poetry citations that are memorized by students as answers. The Zen student's mastery of a given kōan is presented to the teacher in a private interview (referred to in Japanese as "dokusan", "daisan", or "sanzen"). While there is no unique answer to a kōan, practitioners are expected to demonstrate their spiritual understanding through their responses. The teacher may approve or disapprove of the answer and guide the student in the right direction. The interaction with a teacher is central in Zen, but makes Zen practice also vulnerable to misunderstanding and exploitation. Kōan-inquiry may be practiced during "zazen" (sitting meditation)", kinhin" (walking meditation), and throughout all the activities of daily life. The goal of the practice is often termed "kensho" (seeing one's true nature), and is to be followed by further practice to attain a natural, effortless, down-to-earth state of being, the "ultimate liberation", "knowing without any kind of defilement".


title: Zen

text: Kōan practice is particularly emphasized in Rinzai, but it also occurs in other schools or branches of Zen depending on the teaching line.


title: Zen

text: "Nianfo" (Jp. "nembutsu," from Skt. "buddhānusmṛti" "recollection of the Buddha") refers to the recitation of the Buddha's name, in most cases the Buddha Amitabha. In Chinese Chan, the Pure Land practice of "nianfo" based on the phrase "Nāmó Āmítuófó" (Homage to Amitabha) is a widely practiced form of Zen meditation. This practice was adopted from Pure land Buddhism and syncretized with Chan meditation by Chinese figures such as Yongming Yanshou, Zhongfen Mingben, and Tianru Weize. During the late Ming, the harmonization of Pure land practices with Chan meditation was continued by figures such as Yunqi Zhuhong and Hanshan Deqing.


title: Zen

text: This practice, as well as its adaptation into the ""nembutsu kōan"" was also used by the Japanese Ōbaku school of Zen.


title: Zen

text: Since Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism, it is grounded on the schema of the bodhisattva path, which is based on the practice of the "transcendent virtues" or "perfections" (Skt. "pāramitā", Ch. "bōluómì", Jp. "baramitsu") as well as the taking of the bodhisattva vows. The most widely used list of six virtues is: generosity, moral training (incl. five precepts), patient endurance, energy or effort, meditation ("dhyana"), wisdom. An important source for these teachings is the "Avatamsaka sutra", which also outlines the grounds ("bhumis") or levels of the bodhisattva path. The "pāramitās" are mentioned in early Chan works such as Bodhidharma's "Two entrances and four practices" and are seen as an important part of gradual cultivation ("jianxiu") by later Chan figures like Zongmi.


title: Zen

text: An important element of this practice is the formal and ceremonial taking of refuge in the three jewels, bodhisattva vows and precepts. Various sets of precepts are taken in Zen including the five precepts, "ten essential precepts", and the sixteen bodhisattva precepts. This is commonly done in an initiation ritual (Ch. "shòu jiè", Jp. "Jukai", Ko. "sugye," "receiving the precepts"")", which is also undertaken by lay followers and marks a layperson as a formal Buddhist.


title: Zen

text: The Chinese Buddhist practice of fasting ("zhai"), especially during the uposatha days (Ch. "zhairi," "days of fasting") can also be an element of Chan training. Chan masters may go on extended absolute fasts, as exemplified by master Hsuan Hua's 35 day fast, which he undertook during the Cuban missile crisis for the generation of merit.


title: Zen

text: Traditional martial arts, like Japanese archery, other forms of Japanese "budō" and Chinese martial arts ("gōngfu") have also been seen as forms of zen praxis. This tradition goes back to the influential Shaolin Monastery in Henan, which developed the first institutionalized form of "gōngfu." By the late Ming, Shaolin "gōngfu" was very popular and widespread, as evidenced by mentions in various forms of Ming literature (featuring staff wielding fighting monks like Sun Wukong) and historical sources, which also speak of Shaolin's impressive monastic army that rendered military service to the state in return for patronage. These Shaolin practices, which began to develop around the 12th century, were also traditionally seen as a form of Chan Buddhist inner cultivation (today called "wuchan", "martial chan"). The Shaolin arts also made use of Taoist physical exercises ("taoyin") breathing and energy cultivation ("qìgōng") practices. They were seen as therapeutic practices, which improved "internal strength" ("neili"), health and longevity (lit. "nourishing life" "yangsheng"), as well as means to spiritual liberation.


title: Zen

text: The influence of these Taoist practices can be seen in the work of Wang Zuyuan (ca. 1820–after 1882), a scholar and minor bureaucrat who studied at Shaolin. Wang's "Illustrated Exposition of Internal Techniques" ("Neigong tushuo") shows how Shaolin exercises were drawn from Taoist methods like those of the "Yi jin jing" and Eight pieces of brocade, possibly influenced by the Ming dynasty's spirit of religious syncretism. According to the modern Chan master Sheng Yen, Chinese Buddhism has adopted internal cultivation exercises from the Shaolin tradition as ways to "harmonize the body and develop concentration in the midst of activity." This is because, "techniques for harmonizing the vital energy are powerful assistants to the cultivation of "samadhi" and spiritual insight." Korean Seon also has developed a similar form of active physical training, termed "Sunmudo."


title: Zen

text: In Japan, the classic combat arts ("budō") and zen practice have been in contact since the embrace of Rinzai Zen by the Hōjō clan in the 13th century, who applied zen discipline to their martial practice. One influential figure in this relationship was the Rinzai priest Takuan Sōhō who was well known for his writings on zen and "budō" addressed to the samurai class (especially his "The Unfettered Mind") . The Rinzai school also adopted certain Taoist energy practices. They were introduced by Hakuin (1686–1769) who learned various techniques from a hermit named Hakuyu who helped Hakuin cure his "Zen sickness" (a condition of physical and mental exhaustion). These energetic practices, known as "Naikan", are based on focusing the mind and one's vital energy ("ki") on the "tanden" (a spot slightly below the navel).


title: Zen

text: Certain arts such as painting, calligraphy, poetry, gardening, flower arrangement, tea ceremony and others have also been used as part of zen training and practice. Classical Chinese arts like brush painting and calligraphy were used by Chan monk painters such as Guanxiu and Muqi Fachang to communicate their spiritual understanding in unique ways to their students. Zen paintings are sometimes termed "zenga" in Japanese. Hakuin is one Japanese Zen master who was known to create a large corpus of unique "sumi-e" (ink and wash paintings) and Japanese calligraphy to communicate zen in a visual way. His work and that of his disciples were widely influential in Japanese Zen. Another example of Zen arts can be seen in the short lived Fuke sect of Japanese Zen, which practiced a unique form of "blowing zen" ("suizen") by playing the "shakuhachi" bamboo flute.


title: Zen

text: Intensive group meditation may be practiced by serious Zen practitioners. In the Japanese language, this practice is called "sesshin". While the daily routine may require monks to meditate for several hours each day, during the intensive period they devote themselves almost exclusively to zen practice. The numerous 30–50 minute long sitting meditation ("zazen") periods are interwoven with rest breaks, ritualized formal meals (Jp. "oryoki"), and short periods of work (Jp. "samu") that are to be performed with the same state of mindfulness. In modern Buddhist practice in Japan, Taiwan, and the West, lay students often attend these intensive practice sessions or retreats. These are held at many Zen centers or temples.


title: Zen

text: Most Zen monasteries, temples and centers perform various rituals, services and ceremonies (such as initiation ceremonies and funerals), which are always accompanied by the chanting of verses, poems or sutras. There are also ceremonies that are specifically for the purpose of sutra recitation (Ch. "niansong", Jp. "nenju") itself.


title: Zen

text: Zen schools may have an official sutra book that collects these writings (in Japanese, these are called "kyohon"). Practitioners may chant major Mahayana sutras such as the "Heart Sutra" and chapter 25 of the "Lotus Sutra" (often called the "Avalokiteśvara Sutra"). Dhāraṇīs and Zen poems may also be part of a Zen temple liturgy, including texts like the "Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi", the "Sandokai", the "Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī", and the "Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra."


title: Zen

text: The "butsudan" is the altar in a monastery, temple or a lay person's home, where offerings are made to the images of the Buddha, bodhisattvas and deceased family members and ancestors. Rituals usually center on major Buddhas or bodhisattvas like Avalokiteśvara (see Guanyin), Kṣitigarbha and Manjushri.


title: Zen

text: An important element in Zen ritual practice is the performance of ritual prostrations (Jp. "raihai") or bows.


title: Zen

text: One popular form of ritual in Japanese Zen is "Mizuko kuyō" (Water child) ceremonies, which are performed for those who have had a miscarriage, stillbirth, or abortion. These ceremonies are also performed in American Zen Buddhism.


title: Zen

text: A widely practiced ritual in Chinese Chan is variously called the "Rite for releasing the hungry ghosts" or the "Releasing flaming mouth". The ritual might date back to the Tang dynasty, and was very popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties, when Chinese Esoteric Buddhist practices became diffused throughout Chinese Buddhism. The Chinese holiday of the Ghost Festival might also be celebrated with similar rituals for the dead. These ghost rituals are a source of contention in modern Chinese Chan, and masters such as Sheng Yen criticize the practice for not having "any basis in Buddhist teachings".


title: Zen

text: Another important type of ritual practiced in Zen are various repentance or confession rituals (Jp. "zange") that were widely practiced in all forms of Chinese Mahayana Buddhism. One popular Chan text on this is known as the Emperor Liang Repentance Ritual, composed by Chan master Baozhi. Dogen also wrote a treatise on repentance, the "Shushogi." Other rituals could include rites dealing with local deities ("kami" in Japan), and ceremonies on Buddhist holidays such as Buddha's Birthday.


title: Zen

text: Funerals are also an important ritual and are a common point of contact between Zen monastics and the laity. Statistics published by the Sōtō school state that 80 percent of Sōtō laymen visit their temple only for reasons having to do with funerals and death. Seventeen percent visit for spiritual reasons and 3 percent visit a Zen priest at a time of personal trouble or crisis.


title: Zen

text: Depending on the tradition, esoteric methods such as mantra and dhāraṇī are also used for different purposes including meditation practice, protection from evil, invoking great compassion, invoking the power of certain bodhisattvas, and are chanted during ceremonies and rituals. In the Kwan Um school of Zen for example, a mantra of Guanyin (""Kwanseum Bosal"") is used during sitting meditation. The Heart Sutra Mantra is also another mantra that is used in Zen during various rituals. Another example is the Mantra of Light ("kōmyō shingon"), which is common in Japanese Soto Zen and was derived from the Shingon sect.


title: Zen

text: In Chinese Chan, the usage of esoteric mantras in Zen goes back to the Tang dynasty. There is evidence that Chan Buddhists adopted practices from Chinese Esoteric Buddhism in findings from Dunhuang. According to Henrik Sørensen, several successors of Shenxiu (such as Jingxian and Yixing) were also students of the Zhenyan (Mantra) school. Influential esoteric dhāraṇī, such as the "Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra" and the "Nīlakaṇṭha Dhāraṇī", also begin to be cited in the literature of the Baotang school during the Tang dynasty. Many mantras have been preserved since the Tang period and continue to be practiced in modern Chan monasteries. One common example is the Śūraṅgama Mantra,which has been heavily propagated by various prominent Chan monks, such as Venerable Hsuan Hua who founded the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas. Another example of esoteric rituals practiced by the Chan school is the Mengshan Rite for Feeding Hungry Ghosts, which is practiced by both monks and laypeople during the Hungry Ghost Festival. Chan repentance rituals, such as the Liberation Rite of Water and Land, also involve various esoteric aspects, including the invocation of esoteric deities such as the Five Wisdom Buddhas and the Ten Wisdom Kings.


title: Zen

text: There is documentation that monks living at Shaolin temple during the eighth century performed esoteric practices there such as mantra and dharani, and that these also influenced Korean Seon Buddhism. During the Joseon dynasty, the Seon school was not only the dominant tradition in Korea, but it was also highly inclusive and ecumenical in its doctrine and practices, and this included Esoteric Buddhist lore and rituals (that appear in Seon literature from the 15th century onwards). According to Sørensen, the writings of several Seon masters (such as Hyujeong) reveal they were esoteric adepts.


title: Zen

text: In Japanese Zen, the use of esoteric practices within Zen is sometimes termed "mixed Zen" ("kenshū zen" 兼修禪), and the figure of Keizan Jōkin (1264–1325) is seen as introducing this into the Soto school. The Japanese founder of the Rinzai school, Myōan Eisai (1141–1215) was also a well known practitioner of esoteric Buddhism and wrote various works on the subject.


title: Zen

text: According to William Bodiford, a very common dhāraṇī in Japanese Zen is the Śūraṅgama spell ("Ryōgon shu" 楞嚴呪; T. 944A), which is repeatedly chanted during summer training retreats as well as at "every important monastic ceremony throughout the year" in Zen monasteries. Some Zen temples also perform esoteric rituals, such as the homa ritual, which is performed at the Soto temple of Eigen-ji (in Saitama prefecture). As Bodiford writes, "perhaps the most notable examples of this phenomenon is the ambrosia gate ("kanro mon" 甘露門) ritual performed at every Sōtō Zen temple", which is associated feeding hungry ghosts, ancestor memorial rites and the ghost festival. Bodiford also notes that formal Zen rituals of Dharma transmission often involve esoteric initiations.


title: Zen

text: Zen teachings can be likened to "the finger pointing at the moon". Zen teachings point to the moon, awakening, "a realization of the unimpeded interpenetration of the dharmadhatu". But the Zen-tradition also warns against taking its teachings, the pointing finger, to be this insight itself.


title: Zen

text: Though Zen-narrative states that it is a "special transmission outside scriptures", which "did not stand upon words", Zen does have a rich doctrinal background that is firmly grounded in the Buddhist tradition. It was thoroughly influenced by Mahayana teachings on the bodhisattva path, Chinese Madhyamaka ("Sānlùn"), Yogacara ("Wéishí"), "Prajñaparamita," the "Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra", and other Buddha nature texts. The influence of Madhyamaka and "Prajñaparamita" can be discerned in the stress on non-conceptual wisdom ("prajña") and the apophatic language of Zen literature.


title: Zen

text: The philosophy of the Huayan school also had an influence on Chinese Chan. One example is the Huayan doctrine of the interpenetration of phenomena, which also makes use of native Chinese philosophical concepts such as principle ("li") and phenomena ("shi"). The Huayan theory of the Fourfold Dharmadhatu also influenced the Five Ranks of Dongshan Liangjie (806–869), the founder of the Caodong Chan lineage.


title: Zen

text: Central in the doctrinal development of Chan Buddhism was the notion of Buddha-nature, the idea that the awakened mind of a Buddha is already present in each sentient being ("pen chueh" in Chinese Buddhism, "hongaku" in Japanese Zen). This Buddha-nature was initially equated with the nature of mind, while later Chan-teachings evaded any reification by rejecting any positivist terminology. The idea of the immanent character of the Buddha-nature took shape in a characteristic emphasis on direct insight into, and expression of this Buddha-nature. It led to a reinterpretation and Sinification of Indian meditation terminology, and an emphasis on subitism, the idea that the Buddhist teachings and practices are comprehended and expressed "sudden," c.q. "in one glance," "uncovered all together," or "together, completely, simultaneously," in contrast to gradualism, "successively or being uncovered one after the other." The emphasis on subitism led to the idea that "enlightenment occurs in a single transformation that is both total and instantaneous" (Ch. "shih-chueh").


title: Zen

text: While the attribution of gradualism, attributed by Shenhui to a concurring faction, was a rhetoric device, it led to a conceptual dominance in the Chan-tradition of subitism, in which any charge of gradualism was to be avoided. This "rhetorical purity" was hard to reconcile conceptually with the actual practice of meditation, and left little place in Zen texts for the description of actual meditation practices, apparently rejecting any form of practice. Instead, those texts directly pointed to and expressed this awakened nature, giving way to the paradoxically nature of encounter dialogue and koans.


title: Zen

text: Sōtō is the Japanese line of the Chinese Caodong school, which was founded during the Tang Dynasty by Dongshan Liangjie. The Sōtō-school has de-emphasized kōans since Gentō Sokuchū (circa 1800), and instead emphasized shikantaza. Dogen, the founder of Soto in Japan, emphasized that practice and awakening cannot be separated. By practicing shikantaza, attainment and Buddhahood are already being expressed. For Dogen, zazen, or shikantaza, is the essence of Buddhist practice. Gradual cultivation was also recognized by Dongshan Liangjie.


title: Zen

text: A lineage also exists in Vietnam, founded by 17th-century Chan master Thông Giác Đạo Nam. In Vietnamese, the school is known as "Tào Động."


title: Zen

text: The Rinzai school is the Japanese lineage of the Chinese Linji school, which was founded during the Tang dynasty by Linji Yixuan. The Rinzai school emphasizes kensho, insight into one's true nature. This is followed by so-called post-satori practice, further practice to attain Buddhahood.


title: Zen

text: Other Zen-teachers have also expressed sudden insight followed by gradual cultivation. Jinul, a 12th-century Korean Seon master, followed Zongmi, and also emphasized that insight into our true nature is sudden, but is to be followed by practice to ripen the insight and attain full buddhahood. This is also the standpoint of the contemporary Sanbo Kyodan, according to whom kenshō is at the start of the path to full enlightenment.


title: Zen

text: To attain this primary insight and to deepen it, zazen and kōan-study is deemed essential. This trajectory of initial insight followed by a gradual deepening and ripening is expressed by Linji in his Three Mysterious Gates and Hakuin Ekaku's "Four Ways of Knowing". Another example of depiction of stages on the path are the Ten Bulls, which detail the steps on the path.