Maori
The Maori people are the indigenous community of New Zealand, they are said to have settled in that country at around 17 century having migrated from Polynesia in canoe voyages. Currently they are said to number around 700,000 make about 14 percent of the entire country’s population. They settled and established a country mostly on the northern part which is warmer and was favorable for growing their type of crops by the end of fourteenth century. Their native language is Te reo Maori.Their garments were made of hides and textiles but their most favorites was woven flax mostly decorated with either dog fur or feathers from wild birds like kiwi and Moa which were common in the area. The first European Maori encounter occurred in 1642, it was a bloody encounter which left four Dutch sailors dead. It was not until 1769 when formal agreements were made with the British.
At that time European countries were in annexing spree all over the world hiving off areas and claiming them as protectorates. The Maori all along had resisted any form of European influence and had fought many battles wadding off would be masters. By the start of the 1800s, the Europeans were a common feature in New Zealand and the Maori were in crisis having been reduced to a mere 100,000 people. This was as a result of several wars fought against Europeans and diseases that ravaged their country for a long period of time. A truce was reached in 1840 and a treaty known as Waitangi was signed between Maori and the British. The agreement was to allow the British establish their rule on top of having land rights, in exchange; the Maori got rights to British Citizenship. Before the European encounter, all the Maori literature was passed orally; the Maori had a strong culture which had distinct features like greetings by pressing noses instead of kissing, called Powhiri. They also tattoo their faces in what is known as Moko. This tread is very common even today for those Maoris out to preserve their culture.
Tibetans
The Tibetan people are indigenous to Chinese ethnic group of the Tibet; they are the tenth largest group in china numbering about 5.4 million. They are said to have originated form India. However there are other Tibets spread in India, Nepal and other countries in the world. Their language is Tibetan which an amalgamation of several other unintelligible dialects like khampas and the khams. They live in a terrain with a very harsh topography and this has got big influence in their culinary and medicine. One unique thing is that they are adopted to live in a very high attitude area which is above 4,400 meters above sea level, in such areas there is a shortage of oxygen, how ever they survive, this is due to high levels of nitric oxide in their blood that allows supply of oxygen to tissues. Wars from hostile neighbors drove them into settling in these high altitude areas.
The Tibet exists in semi autonomous region in south east China, where they have been locked in a protracted battle with china, seeking to be fully independent an attempt Chinas meets with brutal force. They stick to their traditional ways of doing things, making them lag behind since they have reused to embrace modernity.
Maori Religion
The Maori people of today are believers in Christianity however before their contacts with the outside world; their traditional religion was based on two very important concepts, Mana and Tapu with the former refrying to a certain force that they believed was inherited and also acquired in the course of one’s life, while the latter referred to sacredness that they believed was acquired at birth. They believed in one god called IO, and then there were two primeval parents who had eight other divine offspring who controlled major aspects of life like agriculture, peace, earthquakes, war, darkness and evil amongst other things. There were also family gods and other spirits with influence in life. Some of the religious practices were presided over by their priests (tohunga ahurewa) they received specialized training and great knowledge on matters of traditions history and weather.
There were rituals and ceremonies where fruit offerings as well as sacrifice of slaves. At that time chanting incantations called karakia. The belief in Tapu was also associated with any thing that possessed supernatural powers or any serious epidemic. There existed an elaborate mourning ceremony with the dead laid on a shelter and buried after two weeks of mourning; the body was interred in a cave or under a tree. After two years it was exhumed, bones scrapped and painted with red ochre and later re buried in a scared place. The dead spirits were believed to make a final journey to the spirit world.
The Maori believed that all living things come from god and that they have a soul. Geographical features like mountains and rivers had spiritual significance, i.e. the Wanganui river had both cultural and spiritual importance same as mount Ruapehu and Ngaruahoe in the northern island. They believed that man was mana or had spiritual significance and everything he had made was mana too and that is why they were very particular in who could touch or not touch a certain object. If this was contravened, the item in question was said to loose its spiritual importance.
Tibet Religion
Religion is a very important phenomenon for the Tibet owing to its influence in all spheres of life. Education in its informal state, culture and intellect were all based on religious influence. The most practiced religion is Tibetan Buddhism while and others practice Muslim, Catholicism and indigenous Bon religion. Bon was the main religion also known as the ‘Black Religion’ since followers don in black. With the introduction of Buddhism from India, a large portion on Bon was converted. This brought about rivalry as there were attempts by Bons to eradicate Buddhism during the reign of Lang Darma; however their mission failed after his assassination. Buddhism being the main religion influences in a big way the lives of Tibet since their drama, art and architecture revolve around religion.
According to history the 28th king of the Tibet Thothori Nyantsen, dreamt of sacred treasure falling from heaven, it contained religious paraphernalia but remained in that untranslated form since there was no formal education and hence it had no effect and Buddhism didn’t take root until the reign of one king Songtsen Gampo who promulgated the mysterious object. Both Buddhist and Bon religions are deeply rooted in the Tibets lifestyles, the monks conduct religious ceremonies as well acting as the custodians of monasteries. Sacred praying grounds have been set aside all over their territory. There is an interesting way of praying where by the Tibet have a prayer wheel which they spin clockwise this is used in desecration of religious artifacts. The Buddhists and Bons use this method for prayer the former in a clockwise direction chanting Om Mani Padme hum, while the latter go round it anti clockwise chanting bon chant matri muye sale du.
The Tibet religion was dealt a blow during the china’s Cultural Revolution; there was wanton destruction of monasteries by the Red guards where crucial religious paraphernalia was destroyed. Religious leaders were hounded, rounded up, persecuted and even to date the trend continues with 80% of all Chinese political prisoners being Tibet. The current leader Dalai Lama is still a hounded man by the Chinese authorities. After the destructions efforts were made and now the monasteries have been rebuilt, but still there are stringent controls by the Chinese government for example, there are restrictions as to the number of religious buildings that can be erected within a certain radius. (McRae 1)
Maori Just like the Tibets, they had a spiritual inclination which was intertwined in their traditions. There was high regard on those with religious power as well as the supernatural powers were invoked in day to day activities of these two communities. There existed an elaborate worship system in both communities with different gods serving different purposes. However, the Tibet can be considered more religious considering the fact that there was no separation of religion and daily life since the monasteries were core in all their activities including producing rulers. There is strict religious discipline coupled with an overwhelming following. Monasteries even to date are held in high regard and they still dispense most of the duties as they did years back. Religiously the Maori have completely slackened and have abandoned their traditional ways or religion for modern religions like Christianity and Islam, while others are pagans and atheists. There only thing to show of once vibrant religious practices are the few artifacts that can be traced in some museums considering that most of the Maori artifacts are in private hands..
Maori Literature
The Maori people are said to have settled on in their current abode around a 1000 years ago, they composed war chants, love poems and prayers. There were also mythologies that recorded their gods, rituals and important cultural happenings. Song and dance were important aspects of the Maori, they had important ritual meanings. Haka was one of the most famous chanting which was made before war, it was used to moralize the warriors before a battle. Even to date it is used by the New Zealand national rugby team before they start playing. Music was facilitated by a wide range of musical instruments like percussion drums and wind instruments.
Maori remained largely a Stone Age cultured community until their contacts with the Europeans in the early 19th centaury. All this times their only source of reverence was oral literature and traditional collections. With the Europeans around some of their literature was copied by Europeans who wrote them down in Maori language others were translated in English i.e. Maori fairy tales which was published in 1908 by Johannes Carl Anderson. Their sense of time is depicted in one of their sayings that say, if one hears a legend story, it is not meant to take the listener back to the past but rather it brings the past to the present hence making the meaning very contemporary. (M.S.L 1). Facial expression was and is still an important form of communication, and is part of Maori culture, the use of gestures also feature predominantly.
For a long period of time there existed no historical records of the Maori literature almost everything was written in English, there was little that was known of the language. It was in 1996 when Jacqueline strum wrote the first Maori short stories though in the early 70s there was unupsurge in Maori political and cultural activities which gave their literature a shot in the arm. Due to the discrepancies in opinion between the Maori writers and the Pakeha (non Maori New Zealanders) and European writers, critics and scholars, there raised a big debate about the nature of writing giving rise to critical literature analysis. The Europeans looked down the Maori literature as inferior and shallow completely ignoring a rich body of Maori oral and written literature. Initially some Maori writers such as Ihimaera and Grace had embarked on writing that shed more light on this rich literature, however they changed their tune in the 80s when they embarked on political writing, criticizing European attitudes and practices towards their culture. (Simms 1).
Much of the Maori myths legends and literature is still in unwritten form, though there is continuity orally, this puts it in a precarious situation and it faces imminent extinction since this method will not preserve it for long. Many of this unpublished literate works are said to be in the hands of families and tribal groups, they ended up there since there were no formal structures to consolidate them. It’s only a few institutions that currently use this language as the medium of communication and it is also not widely spoken, a reason why the literature grind to a halt. The current Maori literature has under gone tremendous change from the traditional outfit to one that includes modern themes and style. This is due to the over whelming influence from European music, religion and material culture.
Tibet Literature
The Tibetan literature can be traced way back in the 8th Century when a monastic university of Samye was established for the purpose of translating Buddhist texts which were written in sanskirt into Kangyur and Tengyur the local vernacular languages. These three were ancient languages. The Tibet institutions were under constant threats from the Indians there was need to look for a safe secret library to preserve their literature. The most difficult moment of the literature started in 1949 with the invasion of Tibet where crucial material was lost. This invasion which lasted for ten years was aimed at wiping out the Tibet culture and to accomplish their mission, all literature had to be destroyed. The learned scholars and accomplished masters were the main targets since they were the custodians.
Many of them were killed and others imprisoned. However Some Buddhist literature works some which are the original copies which were hidden and preserved in the Mogao secret library survived the ruin. Here it is possible to get the oldest text versions in Uighur, Chinese and Tibetan. Other scholars who fled to neighboring countries also salvaged some literature which was later to be used in re building the Tibet literature. Amongst the salvaged were well documented ancient Bon religions materials, some of these works are translated in to English. In this traditional works there were collections of folktales, religious, historical and biographical texts in their original form, a big portion of them which are of their own kind in the world were completely lost. Despite concerted efforts to restore these artifacts, the original state will never be realized.
There were rapid developments as well as changes in the entire Tibet literature in the 1980s as it rose from the rumble it’s was that had been occasioned by the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Currently there is lots of influence from the ever rich Chinese poetry, poems as well as the language. This has taken a dangerous twist as there is very little work that is printed in Tibet language. Since the early 90 there has been increased in the number of young writers penning about Tibet though most of them will write in Chinese. There are also other writers in Diaspora who write journals and other independent periodicals while there are others who write bibliographies for the American Europe consumption but all these are written in English
There is a similarity in their literature, both groups being marginalized; these departments have borne the burn of suppressive regimes. While The Maori literature suffered a stunted growth due to excessive European influence, which sidelined indigenous literature, the fact that their language was threatened did not make matters better either. Eventually they ended up subscribing to the foreign influence and they have to use European systems almost completely abandoning their literature. There was little transfer of indigenous practices which included literature from one generation to the other. This has driven it to the blink of collapse; Very few Maoris are conversant with their literature.
On the other hand the Tibets were facing an almost similar situation; the Chinese cultural revolution of the 70s destroyed thousands of monasteries which were a home to the Tibet literature. There was a crackdown on religious leaders who were custodians of literature as well as looting destruction of preserved materials. Some of these materials are still available in other countries. Worse still the criminalizing of spread traditional values led to an abrupt end to spread of literature. Despite the revival of monasteries the stringent controls have greatly curtailed its growth and spread. One striking difference though is that the Tibets have very high regard of their culture and hence literature, they went to great lengths to spread and preserve it, even during turmoil, they went into great pains to protect it. On the other hand the Maori can be described as non committal since they lost their literature due to partial negligence as well as being overwhelmed by calamities like diseases and war.
Maori Education
The Maori follow the New Zealand system of education but with lots of reluctance. There are low figures posted in terms of education enrollment for the Maori, the most affected being the tertiary education. The education problems start in kindergarten where most parents are reluctant to enroll their children arguing that the schools fail to meet their expected standards. The same situation is experienced in primary schools where teachers have an attitude towards Maori children whom they brand as failures and such an attitude is poison to education. Some institutions come up with special practices that were a kin to the Europeans, this was done with an intention do discourage the Maori children from attending school.(Awatere 1) The likely hood of educational institution enrollment for Maoris between the age of 18b and 24 is very low comparing to that of the Europeans. This is attributed to their moving into new environments and falling to adapt to new learning environments. Financial barriers and lack of social and support also impacts negatively on enrollment. However in the recent times there has been a steady increase in enrollment in the Wanaga which teaches Maori literature and other formal educational institutions. Gunn (2010).
The problem with the Maori education system can be traced back to the time of assimilation to the ‘civilized’ European culture and systems; it attempted to annihilate the entire Maori system. This was of course met with contempt making them abhor the alternatives education systems introduced. Worse still the system introducers come up with a structure that attempted to elevate their culture and morals as superior and relegated the Maori and all their practices to an under class. The teachers who hail from a totally different social background as opposed to the Maori, approach matters with indifference. Since they do not understand the Maori language, they do not regard it. The only language, they speak is English which has drives a wedge between them and the learners.
Pundits have it that the Maori amongst other things, their socioeconomic status also plays a role in poor academic standards. It is said that 40% of Maori women suffer from domestic abuse, while the likely hood of these children being raised by single mothers is five times higher than non Maori. Generally there is low esteem levels amongst the Maori, this in manifested in the way they handle some social life issues. There are very high instances of suicide amongst the Maori as well as reckless behaviors like drunken driving and substance abuse while cases of mental illnesses are at an all time high. If such issues are in a society the school going children will be the first to feel the negative effects and these are factors that inhibit proper learning that’s argued as one of the reasons that make Maori children fail in school. (Gunn 2010). There has been an effort to reverse this trend which stated in 1971 when Kula kupapa or education institutions that recognized and taught Maori language, this was after realization that it was on the verge of collapse.
Tibet Education
The education of Tibet is in a sorry state, the enrollment levels are low. This also affects the education system production since very few Tibets make it to the tertiary level of education. and was set for improvement with the setting up of schools all over the their territory this however did not have the desired effect since up to date not many children are able to write or read their native language. This is mainly attributed to the Chinese influence in almost all spheres of the Tibet life. Language is said to be key in developing of communities identity and since their language is in the blink of disappearance, scholars are urging for stepping up of efforts to conserve this language. In the 50s there were very few schools and it’s only the nobles, businessmen and government officials who educated their children. Other children depended on monasteries which not only offered religious teachings but other forms of life skills like labor, medicine, arts and other forms of traditional knowledge were imparted here. The difference was that those with formal education got an opportunity to serve in the government while the rest were locked out. This widened the rift between these groups of children due to the difference in their educational backgrounds. The ones who studied Tibet were at a disadvantage as they could not write, this was a major draw back in spreading the use of this language and affiliated knowledge.
For generations Mesenteric education system was the only source of education, there were brilliant scholars who ranked highly in the ancient Tibet social rankings. They were respected and knowledge was an important factor in daily activities. After the revolution they could not however fit in the structures of government since they were not conversant with Chinese language which is used officially rendering the traditional intelligence irrelevant. In the government documents and policies there is no recognition of this traditional education system and hence it is more beneficial for students to study Chinese which is gaining international popularity. The traditional system received critics like professor Ran Guang Rong, perceived this system as backward and lacked any educational function he said it portrays a backward tradition which makes people look foolish especially in public.
The biggest blow to Tibet language was in the 70s after the great Cultural Revolution when it declared a religious superstition was struck off the curriculum. It was said reading it could land one in trouble this made many shun it for fear of repercussions. From the early 80s the traditional schools have recovered and Tibet is being taught in many areas with huge Tibet populations as an option in schools (Nima 1). The biggest outdoing of the Tibet education is the chronology of language teachings, students should be taught in Chinese since it is the examining language as opposed to the current situation where students using Tibet language as the medium of learning only to be examined in Chinese.Nima suggests that Tibet should be taught at elementary level but Chinese should be the medium of instructions. The statistics are grim with an estimated 54 % of all Tibets being illiterate while the situation is worse in areas outside the Tibet Autonomous region with 59 % being illiterate.
The two communities’ educational profile can compare well, as both communities are faced with grim education statistics as well as similar policy situation. The effect of ‘senior language syndrome’ affects both situations, their languages are disregarded in their respective countries and they are forced to use ‘senior languages’. The Maori fair poorly academically since most of them are not conversant very with English and it is the language used as a medium of instruction and examination. On the other hand Tibets face a similar predicament of having to cope with the use of Chinese as opposed to the language they are used to. It is terrible to be taught in Tibet only to be examined in Chinese. In both case levels of academic advancement as well as job prospects are low. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is the refusal or failure by these two communities to move with time. They have being clinging to their languages too much refusing to embrace change and accept to learn other languages that would increase their competitiveness locally and globally. Both communities can be said to have failed to flourish in their respective territories since they are still faced with interaction hurdles in their respective backyards.
A difference in their education system though can be seen in how the respective ‘senior governments handled the education issue. The Tibets were met with brutal force when monasteries were attacked and traditional materials destroyed and that crippled their system. The Maori situation was a policy issue which was used to force them adopt a new system. When the use on their native language was discontinued in schools, there were little efforts by the Maori people to resist this; instead they attempted to cope with the new situation while others just ran away from it. Both communities exist within larger civilized and well educated societies which are shining examples to changes that can be brought about by formal education., however the effects of this is little felt as majority of this populations in this two tribes still subscribe top their primitive formative ways of life.
Works Cited
Awatere, Dona. ‘Maori Education’. 2004. Web.
Gunn, Sue. ‘Maori Education the Path to our Future’. Ezine @ Articles. 2010. Web.
‘Maori Stories and legends’.New Zealand Tourism Guide. 2010. Web.
McRae, Jane. ‘New Zealand literature’. Enotes.com. 1991. Web.
Nima, Bageden. ‘Problems related to Bilingual education in Tibet’. 2008. Web.
Simms, Norman. ‘Maori Literature in English’.World literature today. University of olkahama.1978. Web.