Peasant rebel movement of the mid-14th century that flourished in northern China at the end of the Yuan dynasty (1206-1368). The Red Turbans, whose leader was regarded as an incarnation of the bodhisattva Maitreya, were opposed to alien Mongol rule; their movement gained momentum from the famine that resulted from crop failures and floods in the 1330s. Their marauding, which began in the 1350s, took them as far as Korea, where their incursions contributed to the downfall of the Kory dynasty. Though their rebellion was put down, rival rebel forces under Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-98) toppled the Yuan dynasty and founded the Ming. See also Hongwu emperor
Chinese secret society founded during a time of pestilence (2nd century AD). The rebels' yellow headdresses signified their association with the earth element, which they believed would succeed the (red) fire element that represented Han rule. The sect was Daoist in inspiration, like the contemporaneous Five Pecks of Rice sect. Its rebellion (AD 184- 204) against the tyrannical eunuchs who influenced the emperor contributed to the fall of the Han dynasty. See also Daoism
A headdress worn by men in the Levant and by most Mohammedans of the male sex, consisting of a cap, and a sash, scarf, or shawl, usually of cotton or linen, wound about the cap, and sometimes hanging down the neck
A turban is a long piece of cloth that is wound round the head. It is worn by Sikh men and by some Hindu and Muslim men. a long piece of cloth that you wind tightly round your head, worn by men in parts of North Africa and Southern Asia and sometimes by women as a fashion (turbante, from tülbend, from dulband)
a headdress worn chiefly in countries of the eastern Mediterranean and southern Asia especially by Muslims and made of a cap around which is wound a long cloth; a headdress resembling a Muslim turban, specifically a woman's close-fitting hat without a brim