Urban

Urban means "related to cities." It may refer to:

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Other uses

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Urban (bishop)

Urban (1076–1134) was the first bishop of South East Wales to call himself 'bishop of Llandaff'. He was of a Welsh clerical family and his baptismal name in the Welsh language is given in charter sources as Gwrgan. He Latinised it to the papal name 'Urban'.

Early career

Urban came from one of the dominant Anglo-Welsh clerical dynasties of what was called in the eleventh century the diocese of Glamorgan. Two of his brothers are known: one called Caradoc the priest and the other, Gwrgan of Llancarfan. This would indicate that his family origins derived from the important clerical community of Llancarfan. The petition of the 'clergy and people' of Glamorgan in support of his election as bishop says that he had been consecrated priest in the English diocese of Worcester. This more than hints that Urban, as with several other known clerics from the southern Welsh dioceses, had been sent to England to be educated. He was already a leading cleric under his Anglo-Welsh predecessor, Bishop Herewald (1056–1104), occupying the office of archdeacon of Llandaff. At the time of his election as bishop in 1107 he was said to be thirty-one years of age, which if true would give a date of birth of 1076.

Urban (name)

Urban as a given name or surname may refer to:

Any of several men with Urban as a given name:

Any of several people with Urban as a surname:

Nio

Niō (仁王) or Kongōrikishi (金剛力士) are two wrath-filled and muscular guardians of the Buddha standing today at the entrance of many Buddhist temples in East Asian Buddhism in the form of frightening wrestler-like statues. They are dharmapala manifestations of the bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi, the oldest and most powerful of the Mahayana Buddhist pantheon. According to Japanese tradition, they travelled with Gautama Buddha to protect him and there are references to this in the Pāli Canon as well as the Ambaṭṭha Sutta. Within the generally pacifist tradition of Buddhism, stories of dharmapalas justified the use of physical force to protect cherished values and beliefs against evil. The Niō are also seen as a manifestation of Mahasthamaprapta, the bodhisattva of power that flanks Amitābha in Pure Land Buddhism and as Vajrasattva in Tibetan Buddhism.

Manifestations

Kongōrikishi are usually a pair of figures that stand under a separate temple entrance gate usually called Niōmon (仁王門) in Japan, hēnghā èr jiàng (哼哈二将) in China and Geumgangmun (金剛門) in Korea. The right statue is called Misshaku Kongō (密迹金剛) and has his mouth open, representing the vocalization of the first grapheme of Sanskrit Devanāgarī (अ) which is pronounced "a". The left statue is called Naraen Kongō (那羅延金剛) and has his mouth closed, representing the vocalization of the last grapheme of Devanāgarī (ह [ɦ]) which is pronounced "ɦūṃ" (हूँ). These two characters together symbolize the birth and death of all things. (Men are supposedly born speaking the "a" sound with mouths open and die speaking an "ɦūṃ" and mouths closed.) Similar to Alpha and Omega in Christianity, they signify "everything" or "all creation". The contraction of both is Aum (ॐ), which is Sanskrit for The Absolute.

2002 North Indian Ocean cyclone season

The 2002 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was a below active season in terms of tropical cyclone formation. The season had no official bounds, but most storms formed in either May or after October. No depressions or storms formed during the monsoon season from July to September, the first such instance on record. There are two main seas in the North Indian Ocean – the Bay of Bengal to the east of the Indian subcontinent – and the Arabian Sea to the west of India. The official Regional Specialized Meteorological Centre in this basin is the India Meteorological Department (IMD), while the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) releases unofficial advisories. An average of four to six storms form in the North Indian Ocean every season with peaks in May and November. Cyclones occurring between the meridians 45°E and 100°E are included in the season by the IMD.

Overall, there was a total of seven depressions and four cyclonic storms. The most intense and deadly tropical cyclone of the season, the West Bengal cyclone, lashed that province of India and Bangladesh in the month of November. Rough seas offshore caused at least 173 drownings offshore Bangladesh and India, while over 100 people were left missing. In West Bengal alone, 124 fatalities were reported, with over one hundred people still missing. Flooding occurred there and some areas of Bangladesh, particularly the capital city of Dhaka. Another notable storm was the Oman cyclone in May. It made a rare landfall in the Omani region of Dhofar. The storm brought historic rainfall to Oman, which in turn brought flooding to the region. Nine people drowned and damage to property, crops, and transportation reached $25 million (2002 USD).

2003 North Indian Ocean cyclone season

The 2003 North Indian Ocean cyclone season was mostly focused in the Bay of Bengal, where six of the seven depressions developed. The remaining system was a tropical cyclone that developed in the Arabian Sea in November, which was also the only system that did not affect land. There were three cyclonic storms, which is below the average of 5.4. Only one storm formed before the start of the monsoon season in June, although it was also the most notable. On May 10, a depression formed in the central Bay of Bengal, and within a few days became a very severe cyclonic storm. After it stalled, it drew moisture from the southwest to produce severe flooding across Sri Lanka, killing 254 people and becoming the worst floods there since 1947. Damage on the island totaled $135 million (2003 USD). The storm eventually made landfall in Myanmar on May 19. It is possible that the storm contributed to a deadly heat wave in India due to shifting air currents.

In late July, a monsoon depression moved across much of India, and another monsoon disturbance persisted off the coast of Pakistan. The interaction between the two systems resulted in heavy rainfall across the region, flooding dozens of villages. Monsoonal rainfall killed 285 people between Pakistan and India in the summer of 2003. In late August, another monsoon depression moved across northeastern India. A depression that struck Andhra Pradesh in India killed 21 people in early October. Later that month, a tropical depression crossed Thailand from the western Pacific Ocean, contributing to ongoing flooding that killed 19. Once in the Indian Ocean, this system struck southeastern India without causing much damage. The last system of the year was a cyclonic storm that struck southeastern India in December, killing 81 people and causing $28 million in damage (2003 USD).