454 Taoism his kingship by combating the demoniac energies loose in the land through seeking ecstasy through bouts of drinking and sexual congress Kertanagara was unfortunately murdered in the course of one of these bouts Tantric practices are also associated with Hinduism and differ from Buddhist tantrism accordingly Vajrayana Buddhism was influential in Tibet and India, but has also been practiced in Central Asia, China, Java, Nepal, and what is now Pakistan In addition, the Mongols adopted aspects of Tibetan Buddhist practice and helped spread them through the Asian continent Variations of tantric practice spread further, although often dissociated from the essence of Vajrayana Buddhism In aesthetic and artistic terms Vajrayana Buddhism has inspired the creation of the mandala, which is a representation of the universe employed in meditation A series of concentric circles identifies the individual and the womb and its connections with wider reality Characteristic forms are found in China, Japan, and Tibet Tibetan versions are one form of thang-ka (tanka), which are cloth paintings that may be used in personal meditation, used for display, or in processions They are created according to a series of strict canonical rules and began to appear from about the 10th century See also Theraveda and Mahayana Buddhism Further reading: Hall, D G E A History of South-East Asia Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan Press, 1994; Padmasambhava The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Great Liberation by Hearing in the Intermediate State Revealed by Terton Karma Lingpa, trans by Gyurme Dorje, ed by Graham Coleman, with Thupten Jinpa Introduction by the Dalai Lama London: Allen Lane, 2005; Rinpoche, Kalu Secret Buddhism: Vajrayana Practices Ashland, OH: Clearpoint Press, 2002 John Walsh Taoism See Daoism (Taoism) Teotihuacán Located some 25 miles northeast of Mexico City in the Basin of Mexico, the massive ruins of the great city of Teotihuacán have long puzzled and intrigued observers Despite more than a century of archaeological investigation, many mysteries remain about the people who built, ruled, and lived in this vast urban complex The city was founded in the first century b.c.e., just north- east of Lake Texcoco, which lay at the basin’s center Its builders were most likely the former inhabitants of the ancient ceremonial center of Cuicuilco, at Lake Texcoco’s southwest corner, which was destroyed in the eruption of the volcano Xitle around 50 b.c.e Construction on Teotihuacán began soon after the abandonment of Cuicuilco The city flourished for the next 600 years, dominating most of the central highlands, before its partial destruction and abandonment around 650 c.e The city’s civic and ceremonial core was built in stages, from its beginnings in the first century b.c.e to its completion by 300 c.e Carefully designed in a gridlike pattern, the core was dominated by several towering structures connected by a broad avenue: the massive Pyramid of the Sun; the slightly less imposing Pyramid of the Moon; the Temple of Quetzalcoatl (Plumed, or Feathered, Serpent); and the large open-air Citadel Scholars offer varying interpretations of its builders’ intentions regarding its orientation, with the Avenue of the Dead at 15.5 degrees west of south Some argue that it is aligned with solar equinoxes; others, with the constellation Pleiades; others, with the nearby Cerro Gordo volcano; still others have proposed mathematical relationships between the city’s orientation and the sacred 260-day calendar All agree that its exacting alignment carried deep meaning for its designers and builders Its largest and oldest vertical structure, the massive Pyramid of the Sun, was built over a series of caves (discovered in 1971) whose interior chambers were modified and used extensively during the pyramid’s construction phase (1–150 c.e.) In Mesoamerican mythology caves were linked to the underworld, the dwelling place of the gods, and the origin of creation, suggesting that the pyramid’s location held profound cosmological significance to its designers Estimates of the city’s population range from a low of 80,000, to a high of 200,000 During its first century its population grew rapidly, reaching perhaps 80,000 by 150 c.e., with many thousands of people from the Basin of Mexico migrating to the city Growth slowed in subsequent decades, with the city’s population reaching its height probably around 200 c.e In the 200s and 300s a series of more than 2,000 apartment or residential compounds were built to house the city’s huge population The sizes and qualities of these compounds varied considerably, suggesting an intricate system of socioeconomic stratification based on wealth, occupation, status, and lineage Most scholars agree that persons claiming a common lineage inhabited these compounds Different districts or neighborhoods within the city also varied widely In some areas, specialized craft or