UPHESC Assistant Professor Asian Culture 2025 PYQs

Concept: Shinto ('way of the kami') is Japan's indigenous religion, older than any imported faith.

1. Buddhism and Confucianism reached Japan from Korea/China only in the 6th century AD.
2. Catholicism came with Francis Xavier in 1549.
3. Shinto worship of kami (nature spirits, ancestors) predates all of these.

Short trick: Shinto = native; everything else was imported.

Concept: Islam is the dominant religion of West Asia (Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Syria etc.).

1. Judaism and Christianity also arose in West Asia, but today their followers there are minorities (Judaism mainly in Israel).
2. Bahai faith (19th-century Iran) has a small following.
3. Islam, born in Arabia (7th century), is followed by the overwhelming majority of West Asians.

Short trick: Origin of many, majority of one: West Asia = Islam.

Concept: Japan's own name Nihon/Nippon means 'origin of the sun'.

1. Seen from China, Japan lay in the east where the sun rises.
2. Hence 'Land of the Rising Sun'; its flag (Hinomaru) shows a red sun disc.
3. Bhutan = Land of the Thunder Dragon; Sri Lanka = Pearl of the Indian Ocean.

Short trick: Nippon = 'sun-origin' → Rising Sun.

Concept: The Quran was revealed in the Arabic language and is written in the Arabic script (right to left).

1. Kharosthi and Brahmi are ancient Indian scripts.
2. 'Hindi' is a language (written in Devanagari), not the Quran's script.

Short trick: Quran → Arabic language + Arabic script.

Concept: The Meiji Constitution (Constitution of the Empire of Japan) was promulgated by Emperor Meiji on 11 February 1889.

1. It was drafted by Ito Hirobumi on the Prussian model.
2. It came into force on 29 November 1890, when the first Diet met – so 1890 is the date of enforcement, not declaration.
3. It remained in force till the 1947 post-war constitution.

Short trick: Declared 1889, enforced 1890.

Concept: Mesopotamia ('land between the rivers' Tigris and Euphrates) corresponds mainly to modern Iraq.

1. Sumer, Akkad, Babylon and Assyria all lay in present-day Iraq.
2. Parts spill into Syria and Turkey, but the core is Iraq.
3. Alexandria is a city in Egypt.

Short trick: Tigris + Euphrates = Iraq.

Concept: Hangul is the Korean alphabet, created in 1443 (promulgated 1446) under King Sejong the Great of the Joseon dynasty.

1. Japanese scripts are Kana (Hiragana, Katakana) and Kanji.
2. Chinese characters are Hanzi; in Korea they are called Hanja.
3. Hangul Day is celebrated in Korea on 9 October.

Short trick: Hangul – King Sejong – Korea.

Concept: The Young Turks opposed the autocracy of Sultan Abdul Hamid II (r. 1876–1909).

1. Abdul Hamid II suspended the 1876 constitution in 1878.
2. The Young Turk Revolution (1908) forced him to restore it; he was deposed in 1909.
3. Mahmud II (1808–39) and Abdul Mejid I (1839–61, Tanzimat) ruled earlier.

Short trick: 1908 revolution vs Abdul Hamid II.

Concept: 'Fukoku kyōhei' (Enrich the country, strengthen the army) was the national slogan of Meiji Japan (1868–1912).

1. It drove rapid industrialisation and a modern conscript army (1873).
2. Japan used it to avoid colonisation and to revise the unequal treaties.

Short trick: Fukoku kyohei = Meiji Japan.

Concept: Jerusalem surrendered to Caliph Umar's forces in 637–638 AD after a siege; Umar personally received the surrender.

1. 635 AD is the capture of Damascus.
2. 624 AD is the Battle of Badr.
3. 786 AD is the start of Harun al-Rashid's reign.

Short trick: Umar + Jerusalem = 638.

Concept: Horyu-ji near Nara was founded in 607 AD by Prince Shotoku (Shotoku Taishi), regent of Empress Suiko.

1. Shotoku is called the father of Japanese Buddhism; he also issued the 17-Article Constitution (604).
2. Soga no Umako built Asuka-dera (Hoko-ji), not Horyu-ji.
3. Masaoka Shiki was a 19th-century haiku poet; Yamashiro was Shotoku's son.

Short trick: Horyuji – Shotoku – 607.

Concept: Asia Minor (Anatolia) is the peninsula forming the Asian part of modern Turkey.

1. Iran = ancient Persia; Iraq = Mesopotamia.
2. Rhodesia is the colonial name of Zimbabwe/Zambia in Africa.

Short trick: Asia Minor = Anatolia = Turkey.

Concept: I-tsing's memoir of eminent monks records the Silla (Korean) monk Hyeryun, whose Sanskrit name was Prajnavarman, who stayed about ten years in India.

1. Other Korean monks in India: Aryavarman, Hyeop, Hyecho (author of a travel account).
2. These monks show the strong Korea–India Buddhist link of the 7th–8th centuries.

Short trick: Korean monks took Sanskrit '-varman' names: Aryavarman, Prajnavarman.

Concept: The Mahavamsa is the Pali chronicle of Sri Lanka, composed by the monk Mahanama (c. 5th–6th century AD).

1. It narrates Sri Lankan history from Vijaya's arrival to King Mahasena.
2. It also describes Ashoka's mission of Mahinda and Sanghamitra to Lanka.

Short trick: Dipavamsa + Mahavamsa = Sri Lanka's chronicles.

Concept: Nahdlatul Ulama ('Awakening of the Ulama'), founded in 1926 by Hasyim Asy'ari, is Indonesia's largest Islamic organisation.

1. It represents traditionalist Sunni Islam rooted in Javanese pesantren.
2. Its rival modernist body is Muhammadiyah (1912).

Short trick: NU and Muhammadiyah – the two pillars of Indonesian Islam.

Concept: The Dipavamsa (c. 4th century AD) is the oldest Pali chronicle of Sri Lanka's history.

1. Lankavatara Sutra is a Mahayana philosophical text (Yogachara), not a history.
2. Jatakas are stories of the Buddha's previous births.

Short trick: Dipa-vamsa = 'chronicle of the island' (Lanka).

Concept: Ganesha, the remover of obstacles and giver of success (Siddhi), is widely worshipped in Java and Bali.

1. Ganesha images are found at Prambanan, Dieng and on Javanese temples.
2. Indonesia's 20,000-rupiah note (1998) carried an image of Ganesha as god of knowledge.

Short trick: Siddhi-data / Vighnaharta = Ganesha.

Concept: The Wahhabi movement was founded in 18th-century Najd by Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab (1703–1792).

1. His 1744 pact with Muhammad ibn Saud laid the base of the Saudi state.
2. Abdul Qadir Jilani founded the Qadiri Sufi order (12th c.); Jamaluddin Afghani led Pan-Islamism (19th c.).

Short trick: Wahhabi ← Abd al-Wahhab; ally = Ibn Saud.

Concept: Borobudur, the world's largest Buddhist monument, stands in Central Java, Indonesia.

1. Built by the Shailendra dynasty c. 8th–9th century AD.
2. It is a stepped mandala-stupa with 504 Buddha images and 72 perforated stupas; a UNESCO site.

Short trick: Borobudur – Shailendras – Central Java.

Concept: Dipavamsa (4th c.) and Mahavamsa (5th–6th c.) are the Pali chronicles of Sri Lanka.

1. Both narrate the arrival of Vijaya, Ashoka's mission and the kings of Anuradhapura.
2. They are also key sources for Mauryan history (Ashoka).

Short trick: '-vamsa' chronicles (Dipa, Maha, Chula) = Sri Lanka.