LibGuides: Resources on Religions of East and South Asia: Internet

Internet Sites

Basics of Buddhism
This is an introduction to Buddhism and the basic beliefs of Buddhists. You can read about Siddhartha Gautama, the Four Noble Truths, Karma, and the Cycle of Rebirth.
Buddhism
Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism
Based on the book "The True History and the Religion of India", this site is a concise encyclopedia of articles on Hinduism. It "gives complete information about the Hindu (Bhartiya) religion, scripture, history, and their Divinity."
Internet Sacred Text Archive
"A freely available archive of significant primary texts relating to religion and mythology. Texts are presented in English translation and, in some cases, in the original language." Covers Ancient, Eastern, and Western religions
ipl2: Information You Can Trust
ipl2 serves "the public by finding, evaluating, selecting, organizing, describing, and creating high quality information resources, and
connecting members of the public to high quality information resources through the IPL question answering service."
ishwar.com
"Site containing sacred texts of various religions. Enables visitors to: Read, Share, Print, Search, Listen, Translate and Download sacred texts."
Resources for East Asian Language and Thought
Indexes, dictionaries, bibliographies and electronic texts on East Asian religion and philosophy. Includes a "Digital Dictionary of Buddhism", indexes to several biographical works on Korean and Japanese Buddhists, translations of classical religious ...
Sikh Missionary Society (U.K.)
Non-profit organization based in the United Kingdom dedicated to promoting the Sikh religion, culture and history. Their Resource Center contains freely available articles and complete publications (eBooks).
Summary of What Most Hindus Believe
"In the 1980s and early '90s the publishers of Hinduism Today magazine crafted a simple summary of Hindu beliefs. These were printed side-by-side with their Christian counterparts in Christianity Today magazine in February 1993 so Christians could better comprehend Hindus. These nine beliefs offer a basic summary of Sanatana Dharma's spirituality."
The Li Ki (The Book of Rites) Part II
James Legge's translation of the second half of the Book of Rites, one of the Confucian classics.
University of Michigan Jains
Web page for the Jain student group at the University of Michigan. Contains a brief overview of Jainism, explanations of Jain concepts, an interactive guide to Jain sacred geography, a Jain reading list with reviews, and links to other Jain resources.
Virtual Religion Index
An extensive, selective, annotated directory of Internet resources on religion and related topics. From the Rutgers University Religion Department.
Women in World History: Sati
Learning module about sati, a concept originating in the Laws of Manu (India), which "declared that a Hindu widow ... was not to remarry, while a Hindu widower was permitted to marry again.
Zarathushtrian Assembly
Zoroastrianism, one of the oldest religions still in existence, also may have been the first monotheistic religion. Founded between 1500 and 1000 BCE, its main beliefs, including its concepts of God and Satan, the soul, heaven and hell, resurrection, ...
Zoroastrianism
A summary of several aspects of Zoroastrianism, including origins and history, beliefs and practices, and links to Zoroastrianism resources on the Web. This page is part of the Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance website. The site is searchab ...
Zoroastrianism and Avesta: Overview and FAQ
Provides an overview of the major figures, tenets and scriptures of Zoroastrianism and forms a part of a larger site called 'Avesta -- Zoroastrian Archives'.

Web Searching Strategies

Document the Source Most writing styles require certain information for citing Web sites. When keeping notes write the URL, the date you accessed and the description of the site. If the URL changes you may need to search for it later.

Evaluate the Web site Don't believe everything you read!

Google Scholar If you need to use the Internet for research use limits under <More> on Google home page or try the Google Scholar link in the box on this page.

Web search engines Not all search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Ask.com, etc.) are the same. Each has strengths and weaknesses. Search engines do not search all of the Internet.

Wikipedia is not a scholarly Web site but it may be a starting point for definitions or to help identify names when you haven't a clue where to begin.