The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (990 page)

 
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(Jap., ‘sacred hedge or enclosure’). In ancient times a particularly sacred place, such as a hill, grove, or the area surrounding some other unusual natural phenomenon. The sacral nature of the site can be manifested in various ways, both spontaneously and through divinatory rites.
Contemporary groundbreaking ceremonies, known as
ji-(chin-)sai
or
koto-shizume no matsuri
, reflect in both form and intention the archaic ritual significance of himorogi. A derived usage refers to sacrificial offerings made at the sanctuary; a different Chinese ideogram is used for this meaning.

 
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Hina matsuri
(doll festival)
:

see
FESTIVALS AND FASTS
.

 
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(Skt., ‘small vehicle’). A name used by
Mah
y
na
Buddhists for forms of early Buddhism, which they characterize as defective or preparatory in contrast to themselves, the ‘Great Vehicle’—in particular because they regard adherents of H
nay
na as being preoccupied, selfishly, with the advancement of their own aggregation of appearance towards the goal of
arhat
, as opposed to that of
bodhisattva
. A less aggressive name for the earlier forms of Buddhism is Therav
da, ‘teaching of the elders’, but this strictly is inaccurate, since Therav
da is the name of one particular school belonging to the
Sthavira
group, itself one of the two parties into which early Buddhism split at the 3rd Council (see
COUNCILS
(BUDDHIST)) of P
taliputra. An alternative name is ‘P
li school’, because early Buddhism rested on the P
li canon. More accurate, but unlikely to displace Therav
da, is
r
vakay
na, the vehicle of the disciple (i.e. who seeks to become
arhat
, not buddha, or who ‘hears’,
r
vaka