created by sekicho
(thing) by sekicho (5.4 d) (print)   (I like it!) 1 C! Sat Jan 25 2003 at 4:00:55
Did you know that Unicode's CJK Unified Ideographs (i.e. the Chinese characters) include a swastika? It appears at hex 534D (decimal 21325), and as JIS hex D2C4 and Shift-JIS hex 99C2.

Granted, it isn't a Nazi swastika. Rather, it's a kanji/hanzi/hanja and a symbol of Buddhism, called manji in Japanese, wàn in Pinyin Chinese, and man in Korean. The main difference is that the Western swastika's arms point clockwise, while the Oriental swastika's arms point counter-clockwise. That is to say:

 ___               ___
    |   |     |   |
 ___|___|     |___|___
|   |             |   |
|   |___       ___|   |

 Buddhist     Nazi/Hindu/
               Western
Many maps in the CJK sphere use this "backwards swastika" to denote the location of Buddhist temples, and it can also be seen on gravestones and as an integral part of the Falun in Falun Gong.

The character and Sino-Japanese term is also used to describe what we would call "gammadions" and "fylfots" in English.

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