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  • Banquet by Lantern Light (work by Ma Yuan)
    ...romantic night scenes. A particularly moving hanging scroll of this kind, attributed to him and bearing a long poem composed by the emperor and written by Yang, is the unsigned version of the Banquet by Lantern Light in the National Palace Museum in Taipei....
  • Banquet in Blitva, The (work by Krleža)
    ...to enslave one’s mind for material gains or for a sense of belonging. With its first volume published in 1938, his three-volume novel of ideas, Banket u Blitvi, 3 vol. in 1 (1961; The Banquet in Blitva), deals with characters and events in an imaginary eastern European country; it portrays in an allegorical and satirical manner both eastern European backwardness...
  • Banquet, Le (work by Mammeri)
    ...Mammeri constructed a story of the Algerian war of independence, attempting to give the struggle meaning in terms of the essential problem of freedom. His later works included a play, Le Banquet (1973), which dealt with the destruction of the Aztecs, and La Traversée (1982; “The Crossing”), a novel that centred on an alienated journalist’s attempt to......
  • Banquet of Officers of the Civic Guard of St. George at Haarlem (works by Hals)
    ...the spontaneous joie de vivre that is evident in the individual portraits is felt to a degree that revolutionizes the hitherto austere genre. One such painting is his second Banquet of Officers of the Civic Guard of St. George at Haarlem (1627), in which the figures take up postures normally employed for the expression of mystical religious rapture to celebrate......
  • Banquet of the Children of Job (work by Orley)
    ...Jan Gossart, but after that he was influenced by Raphael, whose tapestry cartoons were in Brussels for many years; both influences may be seen in an altarpiece representing the Banquet of the Children of Job (1521), now in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts. Of Orley’s portraits, that of Georg Zelle is the only surviving one that is signed and dated (1519)....
  • Banquet, The (poem by Dante)
    ...to it as one string to another. This theory, expounded in treatises on music by St. Augustine and Boethius, is consciously invoked by Dante in his Convivio (c. 1304–07; The Banquet). In this piece, generally considered one of the first sustained works of literary criticism in the modern manner, the poet analyzes the four levels of meaning contained in his own......
  • Banquet, The (work by Methodius of Olympus)
    ...attacked Origen’s doctrines of the preexistence of souls and their return into the condition of pure spirits. But the acutest of his critics was Methodius of Olympus (d. 311), of whose treatises The Banquet, exalting virginity, survives in Greek and others mainly in Slavonic translations. Although indebted to Alexandrian allegorism, Methodius remained faithful to the Asiatic tradi...
  • Banqueters, The (play by Aristophanes)
    ...island of Aegina may have been the cause of an accusation by his fellow citizens that he was not of Athenian birth.) He began his dramatic career in 427 bc with a play, the Daitaleis (The Banqueters), which appears, from surviving fragments, to have been a satire on his contemporaries’ educational and moral theories. He is thought to have written about 40 play...
  • Banqueting House (building, London, United Kingdom)
    In 1619 the Banqueting House at Whitehall was destroyed by fire; and between that year and 1622 Jones replaced it with what has always been regarded as his greatest achievement. The Banqueting House consists of one great chamber, raised on a vaulted basement. It was conceived internally as a basilica on the Vitruvian model but without aisles, the superimposed columns being set against the......
  • Banquo (fictional character)
    Macbeth and Banquo, who are generals serving King Duncan of Scotland, meet the Weird Sisters, three witches who prophesy that Macbeth will become thane of Cawdor, then king, and that Banquo will beget kings. Soon thereafter Macbeth discovers that he has indeed been made thane of Cawdor, which leads him to believe the rest of the prophecy. When King Duncan chooses this moment to honour Macbeth......
  • Bansang (The Gambia)
    town, east-central Gambia, on the south bank of the Gambia River. Bansang is a local trade centre for peanuts (groundnuts), rice, and fish among the Malinke, Fulani, and Wolof peoples, and it is a port of call for the government steamer from Banjul, 188 miles (303 km) downstream. Bansa...
  • bansha no goku (Japanese history)
    ...criticized the bakufu plan to attack an American merchant ship. The resulting persecution of Watanabe Kazan, Takano Choei, and other scholars by bakufu officials in the so-called bansha no goku incident dealt a serious blow to Western studies in Japan. Thereafter, as consciousness of the foreign threat grew stronger, adherents of Western studies placed heavy emphasis on......
  • Banshan culture (anthropology)
    ...spirals, painted with calligraphic ease, were the most prominent. Related designs involving sawtooth lines, gourd-shaped panels, spirals, and zoomorphic stick figures were painted on pots of the Banshan (mid-3rd millennium) and Machang (last half of 3rd millennium) cultures. Some two-thirds of the pots found in the Machang burial area at Liuwan in Qinghai, for example, were painted. In the......
  • Banshan ware
    type of Chinese Neolithic painted pottery. Its name is derived from the grave site in the Gansu province of north China at which the pottery was found in 1924....
  • banshee (Celtic folklore)
    (“woman of the fairies”) supernatural being in Irish and other Celtic folklore whose mournful “keening,” or wailing screaming or lamentation, at night was believed to foretell the death of a member of the family of the person who heard the spirit. In Ireland banshees were believed to warn only families of pure Irish descent. The Welsh counterpart, the gwrach y Rhibyn...
  • Bansho Shirabesho (Japanese government bureau)
    As early as 1855, preceding the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese established a bureau (later named Bansho Shirabesho, “Institute for the Study of Western Documents”) to study Western painting as part of an effort to master Western technology. Technical drawing was emphasized in the curriculum. Takahashi Yuichi (1828–94), a graduate of that bureau, was the first Japanese artist....
  • Banská Bystrica (Slovakia)
    town, capital of Střední Slovensko kraj, Slovakia. It lies in the Hron River valley, surrounded by mountains. An ancient town, it has been an important mining centre since the 13th century, when it was chartered. Gothic and Renaissance-style buildings, including burghers’ houses and the castle group (in the heart of town), date from the 15th and 16th centuries, when the...
  • Banstead (district, England, United Kingdom)
    borough (district), administrative and historic county of Surrey, southeastern England immediately south of Greater London. Named after the two principal locales of the district, Reigate and Banstead extends across the North Downs, a range of low chalk hills trending east–west. The district is residential and yet contains extensive areas of open space and parkland; recrea...
  • bansuri (musical instrument)
    ...a larger version of the sitar; the sarod, a plucked lute without frets and a shorter neck than that of the sitar; the sāraṅgī, a short-necked bowed lute; the bansuri, a side-blown bamboo flute with six or seven finger holes; the sheh’nai, a double-reed wind instrument similar to the oboe, but without keys; and the violin, played in the same manner......
  • Bānswāra (India)
    city, southern part of Rājasthān state, northwestern India. Bānswāra is an agricultural market centre. Its principal industries include cotton ginning, flour milling, handweaving, and woodworking. A walled city, it was founded in the early 16th century. A government college there is affiliated with the University of Rājasthān....
  • Banswara (district, India)
    The area formerly constituted the princely state of Bānswāra, founded about 1530, of which the city of Bānswāra was capital. Earlier it formed part of the original Dūngarpur state. It merged with the union of Rājasthān in 1948. Pop. (1991 prelim.) 66,676....
  • Bantam (former city, Indonesia)
    former city and sultanate of Java, Indonesia. It lay near the site of present-day Banten, on Banten Bay, at the extreme northwest of the island, just north of Serang. Now in ruins, Bantam was the most important Javanese port for the spice trade with Europe from the 16th century until the end of the 18th, when its harbour silted up. Its site is now more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea. Ruined bui...
  • Banteai Srei (temple, Angkor, Cambodia)
    On some of the temple mountains there are also relief panels illustrating various aspects of the royal mythology. Episodic relief sculpture first appears on Banteay Srei (10th century). The relief centres on a series of Indian legends dealing with the cosmic mountain Meru as the source of all creation and with the divine origin of water. The chief artistic achievement of its architecture is the......
  • Banteay Srei (temple, Angkor, Cambodia)
    On some of the temple mountains there are also relief panels illustrating various aspects of the royal mythology. Episodic relief sculpture first appears on Banteay Srei (10th century). The relief centres on a series of Indian legends dealing with the cosmic mountain Meru as the source of all creation and with the divine origin of water. The chief artistic achievement of its architecture is the......
  • Banten (former city, Indonesia)
    former city and sultanate of Java, Indonesia. It lay near the site of present-day Banten, on Banten Bay, at the extreme northwest of the island, just north of Serang. Now in ruins, Bantam was the most important Javanese port for the spice trade with Europe from the 16th century until the end of the 18th, when its harbour silted up. Its site is now more than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the sea. Ruined bui...
  • banteng (mammal)
    (species Bos banteng), a species of wild Southeast Asian cattle, family Bovidae (order Artiodactyla), found in hill forests. A shy animal resembling a domestic cow, the banteng attains a shoulder height of about 1.5–1.75 m (60–69 inches). It has a slight ridge on the back, a white rump, white “stockings” on the legs, and slender, curving horns. Bulls are dark br...
  • Banti, Anna (Italian author and critic)
    Italian biographer, critic, and author of fiction about women’s struggles for equality of opportunity....
  • Bantia (Italy)
    ...of the laws Lex Acilia Repetundarum (123 bc) and Lex Agraria (111 bc) were found in the 16th century on opposite sides of what was once a large bronze tablet; the local laws of the town of Bantia (on the borderlands of Lucania and Apulia in southern Italy) are inscribed on a fragmentary bronze tablet found in 1790 (now in Naples), with a Latin-language text on one si...
  • Banting, Sir Frederick Grant (Canadian physician)
    Canadian physician who, with Charles H. Best, was the first to extract (1921) the hormone insulin from the pancreas. Injections of insulin proved to be the first effective treatment for diabetes, a disease in which glucose accumulates in abnormally high quantities in the blood. Banting was awarded a share of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for ...
  • banto faros (region, The Gambia)
    ...trees often growing more than 100 feet (30 m) high, abounds in wildlife but has been of little use for either agriculture or human settlement. The grass-covered river flats (known locally as banto faros) of the lower river are rendered useless for cultivation by the salt water that periodically inundates them, and settlements on them are few. The flats of the middle and upper river......
  • Bantock, Sir Granville (English composer)
    English composer known especially for his large-scale choral and orchestral works....
  • Bantoid languages
    The 11th group within Benue-Congo, Bantoid, is far and away the largest not only in Benue-Congo but in Niger-Congo as a whole. Its 700 languages are spoken from eastern Nigeria across the rest of central, eastern, and southern Africa....
  • Bantry Bay (bay, Ireland)
    long inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, southwestern County Cork, Ireland. The bay has a maximum length of 30 miles (48 km) and is 10 miles (16 km) wide at its broadest point; it separates the Beara peninsula to the north from the Sheep’s Head peninsula to the south and is surrounded by mountains. Bantry Bay was entered in 1689 and 1796 by French fleets attempting invasions of Ireland. On ...
  • Bantu Authorities Act (South Africa [1951])
    Under the Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 the government reestablished tribal organizations for black Africans, and the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 African homelands, or Bantustans. The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 made every black South African, irrespective of......
  • Bantu Church (South African Protestant denomination)
    denomination formed in 1859 by the all-white Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa for its black African mission congregations. It has the same structure, doctrine, traditions, and customs as the mother church, which retains extensive control over it by supplying 80 percent of its budget. Its clergy may not serve white congregations; intercommunion between the two churches is prohibited even as a ...
  • Bantu Education Act (South Africa [1953])
    The government also established direct control over the education of blacks. The Bantu Education Act (1953) took black schools away from the missions, and more state-run schools—especially at the elementary level—were created to meet the expanding economy’s increasing demand for semiskilled black labour. The Extension of University Education Act (1959) prohibited the establish...
  • Bantu Folk-Tales and Poems (work by Plaatje)
    ...published his famous Sechuana Proverbs and Their European Equivalents (1916), the Sechuana Phonetic Reader (with the linguist Daniel Jones) in the same year, and the collection Bantu Folk-Tales and Poems at a later date. He also translated a number of Shakespeare’s plays into Tswana. His novel Mhudi (1930), a story of love and war, is set in the 19th century. ...
  • Bantu Homeland (historical territory, South Africa)
    any of 10 former territories that were designated by the white-dominated government of South Africa as pseudo-national homelands for the country’s black African (classified by the government as Bantu) population during the mid- to late 20th century. The Bantustans were a major administrative device for the exclusion of blacks from the South African political system under ...
  • Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act (South Africa [1970])
    ...Authorities Act of 1951 the government reestablished tribal organizations for black Africans, and the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 African homelands, or Bantustans. The Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act of 1970 made every black South African, irrespective of actual residence, a citizen of one of the Bantustans, thereby excluding blacks from the South African body......
  • Bantu languages
    a group of some 500 languages belonging to the Bantoid subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. The Bantu languages are spoken in a very large area, including most of Africa from southern Cameroon eastward to Kenya and southward to the southernmost tip of the continent. Twelve Bantu languages are spoken by more than five million people, including Ru...
  • Bantu peoples
    the approximately 85 million speakers of the more than 500 distinct languages of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger-Congo language family, occupying almost the entire southern projection of the African continent. The classification is primarily linguistic, for the cultural patterns of Bantu speakers are extremely diverse; the linguistic connection, however, has given rise to consid...
  • Bantu Self-Government Act (South Africa [1959])
    Once he was in office, Verwoerd’s program for apartheid was applied in full, with an intricate system of laws separating whites, Cape Coloureds, Asians, and Africans (blacks). He pushed through the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act in 1959; it provided for the resettlement of blacks in eight separate reservations, or Bantu Homelands (now designated black states). These racial policies....
  • Bantustan (historical territory, South Africa)
    any of 10 former territories that were designated by the white-dominated government of South Africa as pseudo-national homelands for the country’s black African (classified by the government as Bantu) population during the mid- to late 20th century. The Bantustans were a major administrative device for the exclusion of blacks from the South African political system under ...
  • banty (winter sport)
    a game similar to ice hockey. It is played almost exclusively in the Scandinavian countries, the Baltic countries, and Mongolia. A team is composed of from 8 to 11 players who wear skates and use curved sticks to hit a ball. Rink size varies but is characteristically larger than an ice hockey rink (about 100 by 55 m [109 by 60 yards]). The goalie does not use a stick but, alone ...
  • Banū Ḥafṣ (Berber dynasty)
    Amazigh (Berber) dynasty of the 13th–16th century in Ifrīqiyyah (Tunisia and eastern Algeria), founded by the Almohad governor Abū Zakariyyāʾ Yaḥyā about 1229. In the 20 years of his rule, Abū Zakariyyāʾ kept the various tribal dispute...
  • Banū Waṭṭās (North African dynasty)
    ...in Tunisia. The campaigns, however, depleted the resources of the dynasty, and by the 15th century the Marīnid realm was in a state of anarchy. A collateral branch of the Marīnids, the Waṭṭāsids (Banū Waṭṭās), assumed rule over Morocco in 1465, but it collapsed when the Saʿdī sharifs took Fès in 1548....
  • Banū Zayyān (Berber dynasty)
    dynasty of Zanātah Berbers (1236–1550), successors to the Almohad empire in northwestern Algeria. In 1236 the Zanātahs, loyal vassals to the Almohads, gained the support of other Berber tribes and nomadic Arabs and set up a kingdom at Tilimsān (Tlemcen), headed by the Zanātah amīr Yaghmurāsan (ruled 1236–83). Yaghmur...
  • Banū Zīrī (Muslim dynasty)
    Muslim dynasty of Ṣanhājah Berbers whose various branches ruled in Ifrīqīyah (Tunisia and eastern Algeria) and Granada (972–1152). Rising to prominence in the mountains of Kabylie, Algeria, where they established their first capital, Ashīr, the Zīrids became allies of the Fāṭimids of al-Qayrawān. Their loyal support prompted the...
  • Banuş, Maria (Romanian author)
    ...life, later revealed a vigorous optimism, and the poet Eugen Jebeleanu protested on contemporary events and themes. Among those who came to the fore during and after World War II were the poets Maria Banuş, who expressed the struggle for peace; Miron Paraschivescu, a lyric poet taking themes from folklore; and Marcel Breslaşu, a complex writer on a wide range of themes....
  • Banvard, John (American artist)
    For some painters whose theme was untouched landscape, the northeast was less alluring than the more primitive and dramatic landscapes of the west. John Banvard and Henry Lewis painted huge panoramas of empty stretches of the Mississippi River. Among the first artists to explore the Far West were the enormously successful Thomas Moran and Albert Bierstadt, who painted grandiose scenes of the......
  • Banville, Étienne-Claude-Jean-Baptiste-Théodore-Faullain de (French poet)
    French poet of the mid-19th century who was a late disciple of the Romantics, a leader of the Parnassian movement, a contributor to many of the literary reviews of his time, and an influence on the Symbolists....
  • Banville, John (Irish writer)
    Irish novelist and journalist whose fiction is known for being referential, paradoxical, and complex....
  • Banville, Théodore de (French poet)
    French poet of the mid-19th century who was a late disciple of the Romantics, a leader of the Parnassian movement, a contributor to many of the literary reviews of his time, and an influence on the Symbolists....
  • “Banya” (work by Mayakovsky)
    ...1929; The Bedbug), lampooning the type of philistine that emerged with the New Economic Policy in the Soviet Union, and Banya (performed in Leningrad on Jan. 30, 1930; The Bathhouse), a satire of bureaucratic stupidity and opportunism under Joseph Stalin....
  • Banyak Islands (islands, Indonesia)
    group of more than 60 small islands, in Aceh semiautonomous province, Indonesia. The largest of the islands are Great Banyak, or Tuangku, Island and Bangkaru Island. With an area of 123 square miles (319 square km), the group lies north of Nias Island and 18 miles (29 km) west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The population is a mixture of settlers from northern and central Sumat...
  • Banyak, Kepulauan (islands, Indonesia)
    group of more than 60 small islands, in Aceh semiautonomous province, Indonesia. The largest of the islands are Great Banyak, or Tuangku, Island and Bangkaru Island. With an area of 123 square miles (319 square km), the group lies north of Nias Island and 18 miles (29 km) west of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The population is a mixture of settlers from northern and central Sumat...
  • Banyamwesi (people)
    Bantu-speaking inhabitants of a wide area of the western region of Tanzania. Their language and culture are closely related to those of the Sukuma. ...
  • banyan (plant)
    (Ficus benghalensis, or F. indica), unusually shaped tree of the fig genus in the mulberry family (Moraceae) native to tropical Asia. Aerial roots that develop from its branches descend and take root in the soil to become new trunks. The banyan reaches a height up to 30 metres (100 feet) and spreads laterally indefinitely. One tree may in time assume the appearance of a very dense t...
  • Banyaruanda
    a Bantu language spoken by some eight million people primarily in Rwanda and to a lesser extent in Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa), Uganda, and Tanzania. The Bantu languages form a subgroup of the Benue-Congo branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Rwanda is closely related to the Rundi l...
  • Banyoro (people)
    an Interlacustrine Bantu people living just east of Lake Albert (also called Lake Mobutu Sese Seko), west of the Victoria Nile, in west central Uganda....
  • Banyuwangi (Indonesia)
    city, East Java (Jawa Timur) propinsi (province), Java, Indonesia. A major port on the Bali Strait, opposite Bali just to the east, it is located 120 miles (193 km) southeast of Surabaya, the capital of East Java. It is linked by railway and road with Jember to the west and by road with Situbondo to the northwest. Exports are copra, lumber, and rubber from the inland area...
  • Banza Bakwai (historical region, Africa)
    ...that of the Kanem-Bornu, or Bornu, in the east. The seven true Hausa states, or Hausa Bakwai (Biram, Daura, Gobir, Kano, Katsina, Rano, and Zaria [Zazzau]), and their seven outlying satellites, or Banza Bakwai (Zamfara, Kebbi, Yauri, Gwari, Nupe, Kororofa [Jukun], and Yoruba), had no central authority, were never combined in wars of conquest, and were therefore frequently subject to domination....
  • Banzart (Tunisia)
    town in northern Tunisia. It lies along the Mediterranean coast at the mouth of a channel that links Lake Bizerte with the sea....
  • Bánzer Suárez, Hugo (president of Bolivia)
    soldier and politician who was president of Bolivia from 1971 to 1978 and from 1997 to 2001....
  • Banzhaf value (mathematics)
    In the section Power in voting: the paradox of the chair’s position, it was shown that power defined as control over outcomes is not synonymous with control over resources, such as a chair’s tie-breaking vote. The strategic situation facing voters intervenes and may cause them to reassess their strategies in light of the additional resources that the chair possesses. In doing so, the...
  • Bao Dai (Vietnamese emperor)
    the last reigning emperor of Vietnam (1926–45)....
  • Bao’an language
    ...the Middle Mongolian period, various dialects began to develop into separate languages. The outlying languages—which today survive as Moghol in Afghanistan; Daur in the east; and Monguor (Tu), Bao’an (Bonan), and Santa (Dongxiang) in the south—were isolated from the main body of Mongolian languages when the tide of Mongol conquest receded. These languages diverged from the ...
  • baobab (Adansonia digitata)
    (Adansonia digitata), tree of the hibiscus, or mallow, family (Malvaceae), native to Africa. The barrel-like trunk may reach a diameter of 9 metres (30 feet) and a height of 18 metres (59 feet). The young leaves are edible, and the large, gourdlike, woody fruit contains a tasty mucilaginous pulp, from which a refreshing drink can be made. A strong fibre from the bark is used locally for ro...
  • baobab (Adansonia gregorii)
    ...the earth, and left its roots in the air.” It is grown as a curiosity in areas of warm climate, such as Florida. A related species, A. gregorii, occurs in Australia, where it is called baobab or bottle tree (the latter name being more correctly applied to the genus Brachychiton, of the same family)....
  • Baoding (China)
    city, southwest-central Hebei sheng (province), China. It is situated in a well-watered area on the western edge of the North China Plain; the Taihang Mountains rise a short distance to the west. Situated on the main road from Beijing through western Hebei, it is southwest of the cap...
  • Baoji (China)
    city, western Shaanxi sheng (province), north-central China. Situated on the north bank of the Wei River, it has been a strategic and transportation centre since early times, controlling the northern end of a pass across the Qin (Tsinling) Mountains, the only practicable route from the Wei valley into ...
  • baojia (Chinese social system)
    traditional Chinese system of collective neighbourhood organization, by means of which the government was able to maintain order and control through all levels of society, while employing relatively few officials....
  • Baol (historical state, Africa)
    in the 14th century, a satellite state of the Wolof empire of West Africa. Situated along the coast and inland to the south of Dakar in present Senegal, it was conquered some time after 1556 by the neighbouring state of Cayor, which controlled it until 1686. Late in the 17th century, Wolof invaded Cayor, causing many of its inhabitants to flee to Baol. The rulers of Baol were a...
  • Baol (region, Senegal)
    ...between Ferlo and the Atlantic and extending from the False Delta in the north to Cape Verde Peninsula in the south was once home to the historical Wolof states of Dianbour, Cayor, Djolof, and Baol. Here the soils are sandy and the winters cool; peanuts are the primary crop. The population is as diverse as the area itself and includes Wolof in the north, Serer in the Thiès region,......
  • baoli (water well)
    ...the religion under Nanak had dissipated. Believing that rituals were necessary to confirm the Sikhs in their faith, Amar Das ordered the digging of a sacred well (baoli), which he designated as a pilgrimage site; created three festival days (Baisakhi, Maghi, and Diwali); and compiled a scripture of sacred hymns, the so-called ......
  • Baoqing (China)
    city, central Hunan sheng (province), southeastern China. It lies in the middle basin of the Zi River....
  • Baoruco, Sierra de (mountains, Hispaniola)
    mountain range in the southwestern part of the Dominican Republic. It extends about 50 mi (80 km) east from the Haitian border to the Caribbean Sea and lies parallel to the Cordillera Central. Its highest peak is 5,348 ft (1,630 m). Straddling the Haitian border, the range is known there as Massif de la Selle....
  • Baotou (China)
    city, central Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, northern China. Baotou, a prefecture-level municipality, is situated on the north bank of the Huang He (Yellow River) on its great northern bend, about 100 miles (160 km) west of Hohhot, the capital of Inner Mongolia....
  • Baotou carpet
    floor covering handwoven in Baotou, in the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China, noted for its high-quality of workmanship and materials. The designs usually consist of landscapes or religious symbols, although horse, stag, lion, and dragon motifs are also used....
  • Baoule (people)
    an African people inhabiting Côte d’Ivoire between the Comoé and Bandama rivers. The Baule are an Akan group, speaking a Tano language of the Kwa branch of the Niger-Congo language family....
  • Baozhang Daifang Lu (work by Mi Fu)
    Mi’s writings were extensive. A collection of his poetry, the Shanlin Ji, has been lost, but still existing are the Baozhang Daifang Lu (“Critical Description of Calligraphics in Mi Fu’s Collection”) and Hua Shi (“Account of Painting”), which contain records of his own and others...
  • Bapak (Indonesian religious leader)
    religious movement, based on spontaneous and ecstatic exercises, founded by an Indonesian, Muḥammad Subuh, called Bapak. A student of Ṣūfism (Islāmic mysticism) as a youth, Bapak had a powerful mystical experience in 1925, and in 1933 he claimed that the mission to found the Subud movement was revealed to him. The movement was restricted to Indonesia until the......
  • Bapco
    municipality in the state and emirate of Bahrain, on central Bahrain island, in the Persian Gulf. Founded in the 1930s by the Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO), it is situated just north of Bahrain’s oil fields and southwest of the country’s oil refinery, one of the largest in the world. The municipality was built to house the main offices, headquarters staff, and foreign executives...
  • Bapedi (people)
    a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting Limpopo province, South Africa, and constituting the major group of the Northern Sotho ethnolinguistic cluster of peoples, who numbered about 3,700,000 in the late 20th century. Their traditional territory, which is known as Bopedi, is located between the Olifants and Steelpoort rivers....
  • baphetid (extinct tetrapod)
    a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting Limpopo province, South Africa, and constituting the major group of the Northern Sotho ethnolinguistic cluster of peoples, who numbered about 3,700,000 in the late 20th century. Their traditional territory, which is known as Bopedi, is located between the Olifants and Steelpoort rivers.......
  • Baphetidae (extinct tetrapod)
    a Bantu-speaking people inhabiting Limpopo province, South Africa, and constituting the major group of the Northern Sotho ethnolinguistic cluster of peoples, who numbered about 3,700,000 in the late 20th century. Their traditional territory, which is known as Bopedi, is located between the Olifants and Steelpoort rivers..........
  • Baphuon (temple, Angkor, Cambodia)
    In the later history of the city, the central temples were completely architectural creations (i.e., pyramid temples), such as the Phimeanakas of Suryavarman I (reigned c. 1000–50); the Baphuon of Udayadityavarman II (reigned 1050–66); and the Buddhist temple of Bayon, which was the central temple built by Jayavarman VII when he gave the city, which was later known as Angkor Thom,......
  • Baptism (Christianity)
    a sacrament of admission to the Christian Church. The forms and rituals of the various churches vary, but Baptism almost invariably involves the use of water and the Trinitarian invocation, “I baptize you: In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” The candidate may be wholly or partly immersed in water, the water may be ...
  • Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry (religious study [1982])
    ...with the World Council. Representatives of the church participated in the discussions sponsored by the World Council that led to the publication of the important document Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry (1982), which identified areas of agreement between the churches on several core teachings; the church responded positively, though with qualification, to the......
  • Baptism of Christ (art motif)
    ...in the Baptistery (completed 1435) and Collegiata at Castiglione Olona. The extensive panoramas in the backgrounds of the “Crucifixion” on the altar wall in S. Clemente and the “Baptism of Christ” at Castiglione Olona are milestones in the history of landscape painting. With their light tonality and elegant, rhythmical figures, the scenes by Masolino in the Baptister...
  • Baptism of Christ, Feast of
    ...in place of the Sundays previously designated “after Epiphany” and “after Pentecost.” The ancient Roman Feast of St. Mary was restored to January 1; a new Feast of the Baptism of Christ was assigned to the first Sunday after Epiphany; and the Feast of Christ the King was shifted to the last Sunday of Ordinary Time. All octaves were eliminated. Fixed holy days are......
  • baptismal name (linguistics)
    ...later in America), normally at Baptism. This is called either simply the name, the baptismal or Christian name, or the forename; in the United States and Canada it is usually called the first or given name. Because many people received the same name (given name), they were differentiated by surnames (for example, John Redhead, John Hunter, John Scott). Many of these surnames became fixed and......
  • Baptist (denomination)
    member of a group of Protestant Christians who share the basic beliefs of most Protestants but who insist that only believers should be baptized and that it should be done by immersion rather than by the sprinkling or pouring of water. (This view, however, is shared by others who are not Baptists.) Although Baptists do not constitute a single church or denominational structure, ...
  • Baptist Bible Fellowship (American Protestant denomination)
    Although fundamentalism was pushed to the fringe of the Christian community by the new Evangelical movement, it continued to grow as new champions arose. The Baptist Bible Fellowship, formed in 1950, became one of the largest fundamentalist denominations; Jerry Falwell, subsequently a prominent televangelist, emerged as the movement’s leading spokesperson in the 1970s. Liberty University,.....
  • Baptist Bible Union (American religious organization)
    ...annual preconvention conferences on Baptist fundamentals. When their attempts to carry their views into the convention failed to make immediate progress, the more militant among them founded the Baptist Bible Union. Eventually the militants left the denomination to form several small fundamentalist churches, while the remainder stayed to constitute a permanent conservative voice within the......
  • Baptist Convention of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island
    ...Provinces. In 1905–06 this group and Free Baptists in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia merged to form the United Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces. In the 1960s it was renamed the United Baptist Convention of the Atlantic Provinces....
  • Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces
    ...Provinces. In 1905–06 this group and Free Baptists in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia merged to form the United Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces. In the 1960s it was renamed the United Baptist Convention of the Atlantic Provinces....
  • Baptist Education Society of the State of New York (university, Hamilton, New York, United States)
    private, coeducational institution of higher learning in Hamilton, New York, U.S. The university offers a liberal arts curriculum for undergraduates and several master’s degree programs. Campus facilities include an automated observatory, the Dana Arts Center, and the Longyear Museum of Anthropology. Total enrollment exceeds 2,700....
  • Baptist Federation of Canada
    cooperative agency for several Canadian Baptist groups, organized in 1944 in Saint John, N.B., by the United Baptist Convention of the Maritime Provinces, the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec, and the Baptist Union of Western Canada....
  • Baptist General Association (religious organization)
    fellowship of autonomous Baptist churches, organized in 1905 by Baptists who withdrew from the Southern Baptist Convention. Originally known as the Baptist General Association, the fellowship adopted its present name in 1924. It was a development of the Landmarker (or Landmarkist) teaching of some Southern Baptists in the mid-19th century. They believed that early Christians wer...
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