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by OZ bob on April 29th, 2009

OZ bob

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Did Tibetans make the first box kites? If so where would I find reference? I thought Hargraves build the first.

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  • by iwnit on May 1st, 2009

    iwnit

    1) "A box kite is a high-performance kite, noted for developing relatively high lift. The typical design has four parallel struts. The box is made rigid with diagonal crossed struts. There are two sails, or ribbons, whose width is about a quarter of the length of the box. The ribbons wrap around the ends of the box, leaving the ends and middle of the kite open. In flight, one strut is the bottom, and the bridle is tied between the top and bottom of this strut. The dihedrals of the sails help stability.

    A variant was invented by the Australian Lawrence Hargrave in 1893 as part of his attempt to develop a manned flying machine. Hargrave linked several of his box kites together, creating sufficient lift for him to fly some 16 ft (4.9 m) off the ground. A winged variant of this kite is known as the Cody kite following its development by Samuel Cody as a platform for military observation during the Second Boer War. Military uses also involved a kite/radio transmitter combination issued to pilots during World War II for use in liferafts.
    Large box kites are constructed as cellular kites. Rather than one box, there are many, each with its own set of sails."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box_kite


    2) "The kite was first invented and popularized approximately 2,800 years ago in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available: silk fabric for sail material, fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line, and resilient bamboo for a strong, lightweight framework. Alternatively, kite author Clive Hart and kite expert Tal Streeter hold that kites existed far before that time. The kite was said to be the invention of the famous 5th century BCE Chinese philosophers Mozi and Lu Ban. By at least 549 CE paper kites were being flown, as it was recorded in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations. The earliest known Chinese kites were flat (not bowed) and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline. Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures; some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying.

    After its appearance in China, the kite migrated to Japan, Korea, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), India, Arabia, and North Africa, then farther south into the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, and the islands of Oceania as far east as Easter Island. Since kites made of leaves have been flown in Malaya and the South Seas from time immemorial, the kite could also have been invented independently in that region."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kite


    3) About box kites in Tibet:
    In the book "The Third Eye", Lobsang Rampa visits tibetan monks flying box kites. This is supposed to happen between 1925 and 1933, though. It is not say since when the monks have learned to do this.

    "After successfully passing his examinations, Rampa accompanied Lama Mingyar Dondup on an expedition to collect medicinal herbs.

    During their travels, they stopped at the monastery of Tra Yerpa, where the monks built box kites large enough to bear the weight of an adult. Rampa made several flights in such kites, and later suggested design modifications to the monastery's kite master to improve their airworthiness."
    Source and further information:
    "Prisoners of Shangri-La By Donald S. Lopez, Donald S Lopez Jr"
    http://books.google.com/books?id=-i7PQ3n63LAC&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq="tibetan+box+kite"&source=bl&ots=Sd1AVazj6h&sig=g-iOl_kOd0fcbTyaA5XOO6MYeiQ&hl=en&ei=aFb7ScXEIc-F_Qbn6ci4BA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#PPA87,M1


    "The Third Eye is the title of a book published in November 1956. It was written by a British man named Cyril Hoskin (1910-1981) who claimed that his body was occupied by the spirit of a Tibetan monk named Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. It may be an early example of the New Age genre of channeling books."

    "Although it claimed to be an authentic autobiography of Rampa's education as a monk born in Tibet, the book's emphasis on the occult made scholars doubtful about its origins. The book includes a description of a surgical operation similar to trepanation in which a third eye is drilled into the forehead of Rampa, allegedly in order to enhance his psychic powers. After the book became a bestseller, the explorer and Tibetologist Heinrich Harrer hired a private detective to investigate the background of the author. In February 1958 the results of the investigation were published in the Daily Mail. The author of the book turned out to be a man named Cyril Henry Hoskin, who came from Plympton in Devon and was the son of a plumber. Hoskin had never been to Tibet and spoke no Tibetan. When interviewed by the British press, Hoskin (who had legally changed his name to Carl Kuon So in 1948) admitted that he had written the book. He claimed in his 1960 book The Rampa Story that his body had been taken over by the Tibetan monk's spirit after falling out of an apple tree in the garden of his home."

    "The story of The Third Eye begins in Tibet during the reign of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso. Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, the son of a Lhasa aristocrat, takes up theological studies and is soon recognised for his prodigious abilities. As he enters adolescence, the young Rampa undertakes increasingly challenging feats until he is recognised as a crucial asset to the future of an independent Tibet. Tibet's Lamas had foretold a future in which China would attempt to reassert its authority, and Rampa is operated upon to help him preserve his country. A third eye is drilled into his forehead, allowing him to see human auras and to determine people's hidden motivations."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Eye_(book%29

    "Thubten Gyatso (February 12 1876 – December 17 1933), was the 13th Dalai Lama of Tibet."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_Dalai_Lama

    "Tuesday Lobsang Rampa was a writer who claimed to have been a Lama in Tibet before spending the second part of his life in the body of a British man. Cyril Henry Hoskin (8 April 1910 – 25 January 1981) described himself as the "host" of Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. The name Tuesday relates to a claim in The Third Eye that Tibetans are named after the day of the week on which they were born."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobsang_Rampa


    4) A very interesting book:
    "The Kite Runner is a novel by the author Khaled Hosseini, who is also the author of #2 Bestseller, A Thousand Splendid Suns. Published in 2003 by Bloomsbury publishing PLC, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007."
    Source and further information:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_kite_runner

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