The Iron Pagoda of Kaifeng, China, built in 1049 AD

Beopjusapagoda, a wooden pagoda in Korea, built in 553 AD

Wooden five-story pagoda of Hōryū-ji in Japan, built in the 7th century, one of the oldest wooden buildings in the world.

Wooden three-story pagoda of Ichijō-ji in Japan, built in 1171 AD

One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi, Vietnam.

The nine-story Xumi Pagoda, Hebei, China, built in 636 AD

Nyatapola Temple located in Bhaktapur, Nepal, built in 1701-1702 AD

Taipei 101 in Taipei, Taiwan

The Bombardier Pagoda at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway

A pagoda is the general term in the English language for a tiered tower with multiple eaves common in Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Burma and other parts of Asia. Some pagodas are used as Taoist houses of worship. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most commonly Buddhist, and were often located in or near temples. This term may refer to other religious structures in some countries. In Vietnam and Cambodia, due to French translation, the English term pagoda is a more generic term referring to a place of worship, although pagoda is not an accurate word to describe a Buddhist temple. The modern pagoda is an evolution of the Ancient Nepal stupa, a tomb-like structure where sacred relics could be kept safe and venerated.^[1] The architectural structure of the stupa has spread across Asia, taking on many diverse forms as details specific to different regions are incorporated into the overall design.

Terms[link]

The word is first attested for in English in the period c. 1625–35; introduced from the Portuguese pagode, temple, from the Persian butkada (but idol + kada temple, dwelling.) ^[2] Another etymology, found in many English language dictionaries, is modern English pagoda from Portuguese (via Dravidian), from Sanskrit bhagavati, feminine of bhagavatt "blessed" < bhaga "good fortune."

History[link]

The origin of the pagoda can be traced to the stupa (3rd century BC).^[3] The stupa, a dome shaped monument, was used as a commemorative monument associated with storing sacred relics.^[3] The stupa emerged as a distinctive style of newari architecture and was adopted in Southeast and East Asia,^[4] where it became prominent as a Buddhist monument used for enshrining sacred relics.^[3] In East Asia, the architecture of Chinese towers and Chinese pavilions blended into pagoda architecture, eventually also spreading to Southeast Asia. The pagoda's original purpose was to house relics and sacred writings.^[5] This purpose was popularized due to the efforts of Buddhist missionaries, pilgrims, rulers, and ordinary devotees to seek out, distribute, and extol Buddhist relics.^[6]

Symbolism[link]

Chinese iconography is noticeable in Chinese pagoda as well as other East Asian pagoda architectures. The image of the Shakyamuni Buddha in the abhaya mudra is also noticeable in some Pagodas. Buddhist iconography can be observed throughout the pagoda symbolism.^[7]

In an article on Buddhist elements in Han art, Wu Hung suggests that in these tombs, Buddhist iconography was so well incorporated into native Chinese traditions that a unique system of symbolism had been developed.^[8]

Architecture[link]

Pagodas attract lightning strikes because of their height. Many pagodas have a decorated finial at the top of the structure, and when made of metal, this finial, sometimes referred to as a "demon-arrester", can function as a lightning rod.^[9] Pagodas traditionally have an odd number of levels, a notable exception being the eighteenth century pagoda "folly" designed by Sir William Chambers at Kew Gardens in London.

Some notable pagodas[link]

• Beisi Pagoda at Suzhou, Jiangsu, China, built in 1162.
• Chùa Một Cột- One Pillar Pagoda, Hanoi, Vietnam, is an icon of Vietnamese culture.
• Dabotap on Bulguksa, Gyeongju, Korea, built in 751.
• Daqin Pagoda in China, built in 640 by early Christians.
• Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, built in Xi'an, China in 652
• Global Pagoda, the largest unsupported domed stone structure in the world.
• Pagoda at Hōryū-ji, Ikaruga, Nara, Japan, built in 7th century.
• Huqiu Tower, built in 961 outside of Suzhou, China
• Hwangnyongsa Wooden nine-story pagoda on Hwangnyongsa, Gyeongju, Korea, built in 645.
• Ichijō-ji, Kasai, Hyōgo, Japan, built in 1171.
• Iron Pagoda of Kaifeng, built in 1049 AD, during the Song Dynasty.
• Liaodi Pagoda of Dingzhou, built in 1055 AD during the Song Dynasty
• Liuhe Pagoda of Hangzhou, built in 1165 AD, during the Song Dynasty.
• Lingxiao Pagoda at Zhengding, Hebei, China, built in 1045.
• Mingun Pahtodawgyi, a monumental uncompleted stupa began by King Bodawpaya in 1790. If completed, it would be the largest in the world at 150 meters.
• Miruksa Temple Pagoda at Iksan, Korea, built in the early 7th century.
• Nyatapola at Bhaktapur, Kathmandu Valley built during 1701-1702 AD.
• Pagoda of Fugong Temple, built in 1056 in Ying County, Shanxi, China.
• Changzhou Tianning Baota, the highest pagoda in the world since its completion in April 2007, stands at 153.7m in height.
• Palsangjeon, a five story pagoda at Beopjusa, Korea built in 553
• Pha That Luang, the holiest wat, pagoda, and stupa in Laos, in Vientiane
• Phra Pathom Chedi the highest pagoda or stupa in the world Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.
• Pizhi Pagoda of Lingyan Temple, Shandong, China, 11th century.
• The Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, a wonder of the medieval world in Nanjing, China.
• Shwedagon Pagoda, a 98 metres (322 ft) gilded pagoda and stupa located in Yangon, Burma. It is the most sacred Buddhist pagoda for the Burmese with relics of the past four Buddhas enshrined within.
• Shwezigon Pagoda in Nyaung Oo, Burma. Completed during the reign of King Kyanzittha in 1102, it is a prototype of Burmese stupas.
• Small Wild Goose Pagoda, built in Xi'an, China in 709.
• Songyue Pagoda on Mount Song, Henan, China, built in 523.
• Seokgatap on Bulguksa, Gyeongju, Korea, built in 751.
• Thien Mu Pagoda, in Hue, Vietnam, built in 1601.
• Tō-ji, the tallest wooden structure in Kyoto, Japan, built in 1644.
• Tran Quoc Pagoda, Ha Noi, Vietnam.
• Tsui Sing Lau Pagoda in Ping Shan, Hong Kong.
• Uppatasanti Pagoda, a 325 feet tall landmark in the Burmese capital of Naypyitaw which houses a Buddha tooth relic.
• Xumi Pagoda at Zhengding, Hebei, China, built in 636.

Structures that invoke pagoda architecture:

• The Bombardier Pagoda, or Pagoda Tower, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This 13-story pagoda, used as the control tower for races such as the Indy 500, has been transformed several times since it was first built in 1913.^[10]
• Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai, built between 1994-1999.
• Taipei 101 in Taiwan, record setter for height (508m) in 2004 and currently the world's second tallest completed building.

Other Uses:

• Mercedes-Benz W113, nicknamed Pagoda for its concave hard top roof line. Included are the 1964-1971 230SL, 250SL, and 280SL sport coupes.

See also[link]

• Architecture of the Song Dynasty
• Chinese architecture
• Chinese pagodas
• Tō – Japanese pagodas
• Chaitya
• Cetiya
• Stupa
• Gongbei - Chinese Muslim mausoleum with pagoda-style architecture

Notes[link]

References[link]

• The Impact of Buddhism on Chinese Material Culture. John Kieschnick. Published 2003. Princeton University Press . ISBN 0-691-09676-7.
• A World History of Architecture. Michael W. Fazio, Marian Moffett, Lawrence Wodehouse. Published 2003. McGraw-Hill Professional. ISBN 0-07-141751-6.
• Psycho-cosmic symbolism of the Buddhist stupa. A.B. Govinda. 1976, Emeryville, California. Dharma Publications.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pagodas

External links[link]

• Oriental architecture.com
• Culzean Pagoda (Monkey House) - the only stone built pagoda in Britain
• Why so few Japanese pagodas have ever fallen down (The Economist)

Michael Pitt
Pitt in 2011 at the Critics Choice Awards.
Born	( 1981-04-10) April 10, 1981 (age 31) West Orange, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation	Actor Musician
Years active	1998–present

Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor and musician. Pitt is known in film for his role in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers, and in television for his role as Jimmy Darmody in the HBO series Boardwalk Empire.

Career[link]

Pitt made his off-Broadway debut in 1999 in the play The Trestle at Pope Lick Creek at the New York Theatre Workshop. A casting agent, whom Pitt mistook as a police officer attempting to arrest him, noticed him and recommended him for a guest role on the television series Dawson's Creek (he played Henry Parker in 15 episodes between 1999 and 2000). His breakout role as the lover of a transgender rock star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2001 led to supporting roles in Bully and in mainstream Hollywood fare such as Murder by Numbers and The Village, as well as the lead in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers.

He next appeared in Asia Argento's The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, and headlined Gus Van Sant's Last Days, playing a rock star based on Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. He performed all of the songs, which closely resembled Cobain's guitar and singing styles. On set, he met Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, who had been hired by Van Sant to serve as the film's music consultant. The pair formed a close bond, with Moore writing, "[Gus] wanted me to hang out with Michael and talk about his character, and let him be in character. We ended up spending a lot of time together. My daughter Coco still relates to Michael as Blake from Last Days."^[1]

In 2007 he starred opposite Keira Knightley in Silk, adapted from the novel by Alessandro Baricco. He played the lead role of Hervé Joncour, a French silkworm smuggler, who falls in love with a baron's concubine while in Japan. The same year he starred in the romantic comedy Delirious as a young homeless man who befriends a celebrity photographer played by Steve Buscemi and falls in love with a pop singer (Alison Lohman). The movie appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. His more recent films include, Funny Games, Michael Haneke's remake of his own 1997 film, alongside Tim Roth and Naomi Watts. Pitt also stars in the crime drama Pericle il Nero, released in 2009.^[2]

Pitt sang and played guitar in his band Pagoda, whose self-titled debut album has been released by Universal/Fontana/Ecstatic Peace. With the Twins of Evil he performed "Hey Joe," which can be heard in The Dreamers.

He co-starred in the HBO series, Boardwalk Empire (about the rise of Atlantic City during the Prohibition era), with Steve Buscemi.

In 2012, Pitt was named the face of Italian fashion house Prada to model their men's clothes. He affirmed to take inspiration from Italian model and real estate employer Rocco Moccia.

Filmography[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Michael Pitt

• Michael Pitt at the Internet Movie Database
• Michael Pitt Online
• http://pagodapagoda.com/

Barack Obama
44th President of the United States
Incumbent
Assumed office January 20, 2009
Vice President	Joe Biden
Preceded by	George W. Bush
United States Senator from Illinois
In office January 3, 2005 – November 16, 2008
Preceded by	Peter Fitzgerald
Succeeded by	Roland Burris
Member of the Illinois Senate from the 13th District
In office January 8, 1997 – November 4, 2004
Preceded by	Alice Palmer
Succeeded by	Kwame Raoul
Personal details
Born	Barack Hussein Obama II (1961-08-04) August 4, 1961 (age 50)[1] Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.[2]
Political party	Democratic
Spouse(s)	Michelle Robinson (1992–present)
Children	Malia (born 1998) Sasha (born 2001)
Residence	White House (Official) Chicago, Illinois (Private)
Alma mater	Occidental College Columbia University (B.A.) Harvard Law School (J.D.)
Profession	Community organizer Lawyer Constitutional law professor Author
Religion	Christianity[3]
Awards	Nobel Peace Prize
Signature
Website	barackobama.com

	This article is part of a series on Barack Obama
Background Illinois Senate US Senate Political positions Public image Family 2008 primaries Obama–Biden campaign Transition Inauguration Electoral history Presidency Timeline '09 '10 '11 '12 First 100 days Nobel Peace Prize Re-election campaign

Barack Hussein Obama II (ⁱ/bəˈrɑːk huːˈseɪn oʊˈbɑːmə/; born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. In January 2005, Obama was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in the state of Illinois. He would hold this office until November 2008, when he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.

Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he was the president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004.

Following an unsuccessful bid against the Democratic incumbent for a seat in the United States House of Representatives in 2000, Obama ran for the United States Senate in 2004. Several events brought him to national attention during the campaign, including his victory in the March 2004 Illinois Democratic primary for the Senate election and his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July 2004. He won election to the U.S. Senate in Illinois in November 2004. His presidential campaign began in February 2007, and after a close campaign in the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries against Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won his party's nomination. In the 2008 presidential election, he defeated Republican nominee John McCain, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months later, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate. In April 2011, he announced that he would be running for re-election in 2012.

As president, Obama signed economic stimulus legislation in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other domestic policy initiatives include the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010, and the Budget Control Act of 2011. In May 2012, he became the first sitting U.S. president to openly support legalizing same-sex marriage. In foreign policy, he ended the war in Iraq, increased troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. involvement in the 2011 Libya military intervention, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden.

Early life and career[link]

Obama was born on August 4, 1961, at Kapiʻolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital (now Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children) in Honolulu, Hawaii,^[2][4][5] and is the first President to have been born in Hawaii.^[6] His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was born in Wichita, Kansas, and was of mostly English ancestry,^[7] along with Scottish, Irish, German, and Swiss.^{[8][9][10][11][12]} His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was a Luo from Nyang’oma Kogelo, Nyanza Province, Kenya. Obama's parents met in 1960 in a Russian class at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, where his father was a foreign student on scholarship.^[13][14] The couple married on February 2, 1961,^[15] separated when Obama Sr. went to Harvard University on scholarship, and divorced in 1964.^[13] Obama Sr. remarried and returned to Kenya, visiting Barack in Hawaii only once, in 1971. He died in an automobile accident in 1982.^[16]

After her divorce, Dunham married Indonesian Lolo Soetoro, who was attending college in Hawaii. When Suharto, a military leader in Soetoro's home country, came to power in 1967, all Indonesian students studying abroad were recalled, and the family moved to the Menteng neighborhood of Jakarta.^[4][17] From ages six to ten, Obama attended local schools in Jakarta, including Besuki Public School and St. Francis of Assisi School.^[18]

In 1971, Obama returned to Honolulu to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Armour Dunham, and with the aid of a scholarship attended Punahou School, a private college preparatory school, from fifth grade until his graduation from high school in 1979.^[19] Obama's mother returned to Hawaii in 1972, remaining there until 1977 when she went back to Indonesia to work as an anthropological field worker. She finally returned to Hawaii in 1994 and lived there for one year before dying of ovarian cancer.^[15][20]

Of his early childhood, Obama recalled, "That my father looked nothing like the people around me—that he was black as pitch, my mother white as milk—barely registered in my mind."^[14] He described his struggles as a young adult to reconcile social perceptions of his multiracial heritage.^[21] Reflecting later on his years in Honolulu, Obama wrote: "The opportunity that Hawaii offered—to experience a variety of cultures in a climate of mutual respect—became an integral part of my world view, and a basis for the values that I hold most dear."^[22] Obama has also written and talked about using alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years to "push questions of who I was out of my mind."^[23] At the 2008 Civil Forum on the Presidency, Obama described his high-school drug use as a great moral failure.^[24]

Following high school, Obama moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to attend Occidental College. In February 1981, he made his first public speech, calling for Occidental to divest from South Africa in response to its policy of apartheid.^[25] In mid-1981, Obama traveled to Indonesia to visit his mother and sister Maya, and visited the families of college friends in Pakistan and India for three weeks.^[25] Later in 1981, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, where he majored in political science with a specialty in international relations^[26] and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1983. He worked for a year at the Business International Corporation,^[27] then at the New York Public Interest Research Group.^[28][29]

Chicago community organizer and Harvard Law School[link]

Two years after graduating, Obama was hired in Chicago as director of the Developing Communities Project (DCP), a church-based community organization originally comprising eight Catholic parishes in Roseland, West Pullman, and Riverdale on Chicago's South Side. He worked there as a community organizer from June 1985 to May 1988.^[29][30] He helped set up a job training program, a college preparatory tutoring program, and a tenants' rights organization in Altgeld Gardens.^[31] Obama also worked as a consultant and instructor for the Gamaliel Foundation, a community organizing institute.^[32] In mid-1988, he traveled for the first time in Europe for three weeks and then for five weeks in Kenya, where he met many of his paternal relatives for the first time.^[33] He returned to Kenya in August 2006 for a visit to his father's birthplace, a village near Kisumu in rural western Kenya.^[34]

In late 1988, Obama entered Harvard Law School. He was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year,^[35] and president of the journal in his second year.^[31][36] During his summers, he returned to Chicago, where he worked as an associate at the law firms of Sidley Austin in 1989 and Hopkins & Sutter in 1990.^[37] After graduating with a J.D. magna cum laude^[38] from Harvard in 1991, he returned to Chicago.^[35] Obama's election as the first black president of the Harvard Law Review gained national media attention^[31][36] and led to a publishing contract and advance for a book about race relations,^[39] which evolved into a personal memoir. The manuscript was published in mid-1995 as Dreams from My Father.^[39]

University of Chicago Law School and civil rights attorney[link]

In 1991, Obama accepted a two-year position as Visiting Law and Government Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School to work on his first book.^[39][40] He then taught at the University of Chicago Law School for twelve years—as a Lecturer from 1992 to 1996, and as a Senior Lecturer from 1996 to 2004—teaching constitutional law.^[41]

From April to October 1992, Obama directed Illinois's Project Vote, a voter registration campaign with ten staffers and seven hundred volunteer registrars; it achieved its goal of registering 150,000 of 400,000 unregistered African Americans in the state, leading Crain's Chicago Business to name Obama to its 1993 list of "40 under Forty" powers to be.^[42] In 1993, he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill & Galland, a 13-attorney law firm specializing in civil rights litigation and neighborhood economic development, where he was an associate for three years from 1993 to 1996, then of counsel from 1996 to 2004. His law license became inactive in 2002.^[43]

From 1994 to 2002, Obama served on the boards of directors of the Woods Fund of Chicago, which in 1985 had been the first foundation to fund the Developing Communities Project; and of the Joyce Foundation.^[29] He served on the board of directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge from 1995 to 2002, as founding president and chairman of the board of directors from 1995 to 1999.^[29]

Legislative career: 1997–2008[link]

State Senator: 1997–2004[link]

Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, succeeding State Senator Alice Palmer as Senator from Illinois's 13th District, which at that time spanned Chicago South Side neighborhoods from Hyde Park – Kenwood south to South Shore and west to Chicago Lawn.^[44] Once elected, Obama gained bipartisan support for legislation that reformed ethics and health care laws.^[45] He sponsored a law that increased tax credits for low-income workers, negotiated welfare reform, and promoted increased subsidies for childcare.^[46] In 2001, as co-chairman of the bipartisan Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, Obama supported Republican Governor Ryan's payday loan regulations and predatory mortgage lending regulations aimed at averting home foreclosures.^[47]

Obama was reelected to the Illinois Senate in 1998, defeating Republican Yesse Yehudah in the general election, and was reelected again in 2002.^[48] In 2000, he lost a Democratic primary run for the U.S. House of Representatives to four-term incumbent Bobby Rush by a margin of two to one.^[49]

In January 2003, Obama became chairman of the Illinois Senate's Health and Human Services Committee when Democrats, after a decade in the minority, regained a majority.^[50] He sponsored and led unanimous, bipartisan passage of legislation to monitor racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of drivers they detained, and legislation making Illinois the first state to mandate videotaping of homicide interrogations.^[46][51] During his 2004 general election campaign for U.S. Senate, police representatives credited Obama for his active engagement with police organizations in enacting death penalty reforms.^[52] Obama resigned from the Illinois Senate in November 2004 following his election to the U.S. Senate.^[53]

U.S. Senate campaign[link]

County results of the 2004 U.S. Senate race in Illinois. Counties in blue were won by Obama.

In May 2002, Obama commissioned a poll to assess his prospects in a 2004 U.S. Senate race; he created a campaign committee, began raising funds, and lined up political media consultant David Axelrod by August 2002. Obama formally announced his candidacy in January 2003.^[54]

Obama was an early opponent of the George W. Bush administration's 2003 invasion of Iraq.^[55] On October 2, 2002, the day President Bush and Congress agreed on the joint resolution authorizing the Iraq War,^[56] Obama addressed the first high-profile Chicago anti-Iraq War rally,^[57] and spoke out against the war.^[58] He addressed another anti-war rally in March 2003 and told the crowd that "it's not too late" to stop the war.^[59]