I think this is a very good candidate for encoding. I would recommend writing a proposal for UTC and including the discussion about potential location.
On Tue, Jul 1, 2014 at 8:10 PM, James Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > One of the most pervasive religious symbols in traditional Thailand > culture is the "unalom" (อุณาโลม). I was wondering whether it might be > appropriate to encode this in Unicode. > > Visually, it looks like KHOMUT U+0E58, rotated 90 degrees > counterclockwise, and then reflected about its vertical axis (so that the > spiral is right-handed rather than left-handed). However, the semantics > are unrelated. KHOMUT marks the end of a chapter or document, whereas > unalom is a religious, auspicious symbol. > > More specifically, unalom represents the tuft of white hair curling from a > mole between the eyebrows of the Buddha [1], and thus symbolises > enlightenment. It is related to the concept of a third eye. The word > อุณาโลม is a compound of อุณา, derived from the Sanskrit word urna, and > Pali word unna, which literally mean wool but are also used to refer to > auspicious marks on the forehead of the Buddha. > > The unalom is widespread in Thailand. For example, the Thai Red Cross > Society was originally founded as the Red Unalom Society, and its logo was > a red Unalom combined with a cross. It forms the main component of the seal > of Rama I (founder of the current Thai Royal dynasty). It is even part of > the logo for the Royal Thai Army. The unalom used in Thai Buddhist culture > in similar ways to how a cross is used in Western Christian culture. > > The Royal Institute Thai Dictionary (the authoritative dictionary for the > Thai language) has an entry for unalom showing the symbol: > > https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BrdB2IsCYAAu4gP.jpg:large > > One issue is whether this ought to be encoded in the Thai block or as a > non-script specific symbol. The concept of an auspicious mark on the > forehead of the Buddha is common feature of Buddhist art and culture. > However, the exact form of the mark varies: sometimes is a circular dot and > sometimes a spiral. The Thai form of the unalom is also found in other > South-East Asian countries bordering Thailand (Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia). > My inclination would be to include it in the Thai block, on the basis that > it needs to harmonize typographically with U+0E58, and that Khmer has its > own separate version of khomut (U+17DA). Devanagari om U+0950 is a > precedent for encoding a religious symbol in a script block. In fact, some > scholars consider the unalom or urna to be representation of the om sound > [1]. Since it is not a character (in the sense of being part of the Thai > writing system), the name should probably be "THAI UNALOM". > > James > > [1] Buddhist Sculpture of Northern Thailand, Carol Stratton > > http://books.google.com/books?id=EVpSSigMi4cC&lpg=PA50&ots=v8uqIcyyFX&dq=urna%20unalom&pg=PA50#v=onepage&q&f=false > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Unicode mailing list > [email protected] > http://unicode.org/mailman/listinfo/unicode > >
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