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| President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama celebrate Diwali in 2012 photo credits |
Video 1: Crash Course Mythology: Ramayana
This video was a 15 minute crash course in the Ramayana story. One thing I found really interesting to learn was that it was first written down between 400-200 BCE, but that the tale had been being told for over 300 years at that point. As a religious studies major, I always find the power of oral story telling really fascinating. This video explains how, to put it simply, Rama fulfills his dharma by doing the duties that are expected of him as a good son, a good husband and a good leader. It also explained all the characters and how the story of the Ramayana can change details depending upon the location in which it is being told.
Video 2: Ramayana and Diwali
This video explained a little about the story of Ramayana, but in much less and detail than the previous video. In all honesty, the majority of my knowledge about Diwali was from The Office episode where Kelly invites her coworkers to her Diwali party, so in less words, I knew very little! It was neat to get to learn about the history of the celebration, and in this video you could already see some of the details changing in the story. In this version, monkeys and bears help Rama rescue Sita, while in the previous video, there was no mention of bears.
Video 3: Ramayana Epic Live
This video was about the spread of the Ramayana story outside of India. In the video it talks about how the Ramayana is the most widespread and influential Asian religious text. I would have assumed it was the Qu'ran, so that was interesting to learn. I also was not aware that one of Thailand's previous capitals, Ayutthaya, was a Thai pronunciation of Ayodhya, the city where Rama is from. I also enjoyed the costumes and music in this video. I liked getting to see the story being acted out.
I am so glad these short videos worked well together, Blake! When I found that Epic Live video from the Asian Art Museum, that inspired me to create a video-extra option for this week, and I tried to find two really different kinds of short videos to go with that one (this is a new assignment that I have not used before; I just created it this weekend!). There are going to be some really excellent video options coming up later also (like the Nina Paley one you already learned about). Being able to integrate videos into the classes is one of my favorite things about teaching online... and it's easy to add videos to your blog posts too if you ever want to do that! :-)
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