Encyclopædia Britannica Australia -

Encyclopedias since 1768

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Tanis ... tap'o style

Tanis: ancient city in the Nile River delta, capital of the 14th nome (province) of Lower Egypt and, at one time, of the whole country. The city was important as one of the nearest ports to the Asiatic ...
tanistry: a custom among various Celtic tribes-notably in Scotland and Ireland-by which the king or chief of the clan was elected by family heads in full assembly. He held office for life and was required by custom to be of full ...
Tanit: chief goddess of Carthage, equivalent of Astarte. Although she seems to have had some connection with the heavens, she was also a mother goddess, and fertility symbols often accompany representations of her. She was probably the consort of Baal Hammon ...
Tanizaki Jun'ichiro: major modern Japanese novelist, whose writing is characterized by eroticism and ironic wit.
Tanizaki Prize: Japanese literary award given annually to a Japanese writer in recognition of an exemplary literary work. The prize consists of a trophy and one million yen. It was established in honour of Japanese novelist Tanizaki Jun'ichiro in 1965, the year ...
tank: any heavily armed and armoured combat vehicle that moves on two endless metal chains called tracks. Tanks are the principal type of armoured vehicle. Other major types include tracked and wheeled infantry carriers, which were conceived only for transporting troops ...
tanka: in literature, a five-line, 31-syllable poem that has historically been the basic form of Japanese poetry. The term tanka is synonymous with the term waka (q.v.), which more broadly denotes all traditional Japanese poetry in classical forms.
tankard: drinking vessel for ale or beer, widely used in northern Europe (especially Scandinavia, Germany, and the British Isles) and in colonial America from the second half of the 16th century until the end of the 18th century. The body is ...
tanker: ship designed to carry liquid cargo in bulk. Its cargo is usually a petroleum product, either crude oil being carried from oil fields to refineries or gasoline being carried from refineries to distribution centres. The liquid is piped into the ...
Tann Falls: waterfall in the lan (county) of Jamtland, northwestern Sweden, on upper Indals River, between Tann and Ostra Norn lakes and near Mount Areskutan (4,659 feet [1,420 m]). One of Sweden's most impressive falls, it is split into two parallel cataracts, ...
Tanna: island of Vanuatu, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Volcanic in origin, it is 25 miles (40 km) long and 12 miles (19 km) wide and occupies an area of 212 square miles (549 square km). It rises to 3,556 feet ...
tanna: any of several hundred Jewish scholars who, over a period of some 200 years, compiled oral traditions related to religious law. Most tannaim lived and worked in Palestine. Their work was given final form early in the 3rd century AD ...
Tannenberg, Battle of: (July 15, 1410), battle fought at Tannenberg (Polish: Stebark) in northeastern Poland (formerly East Prussia) that was a major Polish-Lithuanian victory over the Knights of the Teutonic Order. The battle marked the end of the order's expansion along the southeastern ...
Tannenberg, Battle of: (Aug. 26-30, 1914), battle fought at Tannenberg (Polish: Stebark), in what is now northeastern Poland, that ended in a German victory over the Russians in the early days of World War I.
Tannenberg, David: German-born American organ builder.
Tanner, Henry Ossawa: American painter who gained international acclaim for his depiction of landscapes and biblical themes.
Tanner, Vaino: moderate political leader, statesman, and prime minister who was instrumental in rebuilding the Finnish Social Democratic Party after his country's civil war of 1918. Thereafter he consistently opposed Soviet demands for concessions and inroads on his country's independence.
Tannhauser: German lyric poet who became the hero of a popular legend.
tannin: any of a group of pale-yellow to light-brown amorphous substances in the form of powder, flakes, or a spongy mass, widely distributed in plants and used chiefly in tanning leather, dyeing fabric, making ink, and in various medical applications. Tannin ...
tanning: chemical treatment of raw animal hide or skin to convert it into leather. A tanning agent displaces water from the interstices between the protein fibres and cements these fibres together. The three most widely used tanning agents are vegetable tannin, ...
Tannu-Ola: mountain range of southern Tuva, extending eastward about 350 miles (560 km) from the Altai Mountains in Russia. The average elevation of its summits is 8,200-8,850 feet (2,500-2,700 m) above sea level, with a maximum elevation of 10,043 feet (3,061 ...
Tano: Korean holiday celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month to commemorate the start of summer and to honour spirits and ancestors. One of Korea's oldest holidays, it was originally a day of games and festivities, marked by ...
Tano River: river, western Ghana, West Africa. It rises near Techiman and flows southward for 250 miles (400 km) to enter the Gulf of Guinea (Atlantic Ocean), at Aby Lagoon, Cote d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast). Its lower course forms the Ghana-Cote d'Ivoire boundary. ...
Tanomura Chikuden: Japanese painter noted for gentle, melancholic renderings of nature.
tansy: (Tanacetum vulgare, or Chrysanthemum vulgare), any of about 50 species of strong-smelling, poisonous herbs of the family Asteraceae, native to the North Temperate Zone. It has button-shaped yellow flower heads of disk flowers (no ray flowers) that are arranged in ...
Tanta: city and capital of al-Gharbiyah mu- hafazah (governorate), Lower Egypt, in the Nile Delta. It lies on an irrigation canal almost midway between the Rosetta (west) and Damietta (east) branches of the Nile on the Cairo-Alexandria superhighway. It is also ...
tantalite: tantalum-rich variety of the mineral columbite (q.v.). Tantalite is the principal ore of the metal tantalum.
tantalum: (Ta), chemical element, very hard, silver-gray metal of Group Vb of the periodic table, characterized by its high density, extremely high melting point, and excellent resistance to all acids except hydrofluoric at ordinary temperatures. Closely associated with niobium in ores ...
Tantalus: in Greek legend, son of Zeus or Tmolus (a ruler of Lydia) and Pluto (daughter of Cronus and Rhea) and the father of Niobe and Pelops (qq.v.). He was the king of Sipylus in Lydia (or of Phrygia) and was ...
Tantia Topi: a leader of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Though without formal military training, he was probably the best and most effective of the rebels' generals.
Tantra: (Sanskrit: Loom), any of numerous texts dealing with the esoteric practices of some Hindu, Buddhist, and Jaina sects. In the orthodox classification of Hindu religious literature, Tantra refers to a class of post-Vedic Sanskrit treatises similar to the Puranas (medieval ...
Tantric Hinduism: system of esoteric practices used for both the attainment of spiritual experiences and the fulfillment of worldly desires. Tantra designates a particular group of post-Vedic Sanskrit treatises, heterogeneous in content, that deal with secret practices aiming at the purification of ...
Tanucci, Bernardo, Marchese: foremost statesman of the Kingdom of Naples-Sicily in the 18th century.
Tanukh: ancient group of various southern Arabian tribes and clans that first moved into central Arabia and then, at the beginning of the 2nd or 3rd century AD, moved into the fertile region west of the lower and middle Euphrates River. ...
Tanuma Okitsugu: renowned minister of Japan's Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867); traditionally considered one of the corrupt geniuses of the period, he actually helped restore the financial footing of the government and greatly fostered trade.
Tanzania: East African country situated just south of the Equator. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the east and eight other nations: Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Congo (Kinshasa), Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique. Tanzania was formed as a sovereign state ...
Tanzimat: (Turkish: "Reorganization"), series of reforms promulgated in the Ottoman Empire between 1839 and 1876 under the reigns of the sultans Abdulmecid I and Abdulaziz. These reforms, heavily influenced by European ideas, were intended to effectuate a fundamental change of the ...
tao: (Chinese: "road," or "way"), in Chinese philosophy, a fundamental concept signifying "the correct way," or "Heaven's way." In the Confucian tradition, tao signifies a morally correct path of human conduct and is thus limited to behaviour. In the rival school ...
Tao Qian: one of China's greatest poets and a noted recluse.
Tao Sheng: eminent Chinese Buddhist monk and scholar.
Tao Tsang: a large, imperially sponsored collection of Taoist writings, very few of which have been translated into English. The original canon, printed by the Taoist emperors of the Sung dynasty (AD 960-1279), comprised almost 5,000 volumes, but many of these were ...
Tao-kuang: sixth emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty of China, during whose reign (1820-50) attempts to prevent governmental decline met with little success.
Taoism: indigenous religio-philosophical tradition that has shaped Chinese life for more than 2,000 years. In the broadest sense, a Taoist attitude toward life can be seen in the accepting and yielding, the joyful and carefree sides of the Chinese character, an ...
Taoka Kazuo: Japan's major crime boss (oyabun), who, after World War II, rose to head a giant crime organization, the Yamaguchi-gumi. Though centred in Kobe, it had interests and affiliates nationwide and consisted of more than 10,000 members (known as yakuza) divided ...
Taormina: town, Messina province, eastern Sicily, Italy, on a hill rising almost perpendicularly from the sea at the foot of Monte Tauro, between Messina and Catania. The ancient Tauromenium, which took its name from Monte Tauro, the site was originally occupied ...
Taos: county, a scenic region in northern New Mexico, U.S., bordered on the north by Colorado. It lies in the Southern Rocky Mountains. The Sangre de Cristo range in the eastern portion of the county features high, aspen-covered mountainsides; much of ...
Taos: town, seat of Taos county, New Mexico, U.S. It lies on a branch of the Rio Grande in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, near Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico, 55 miles (89 km) north-northeast of Santa Fe. ...
taotie: monster mask commonly found on ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessels and implements.
Taounate: town, provincial capital, and province (established 1978), Centre Nord region, northern Morocco. The town is a local market centre situated on the southern slopes of the Rif Mountains. It is located on a plateau overlooking the valley of the Oued ...
tap dance: style of dance in which a dancer wearing shoes fitted with heel and toe taps sounds out audible beats by rhythmically striking the floor or any other hard surface.
tap'o style: Korean adaptation of a Chinese architectural style first introduced from China late in the Koryo period (935-1392). Tap'o means literally "multibracket," and its main feature is the adoption of intercolumnar brackets besides those on column heads. With the introduction of ...