[Verginius Rufus]

The term "Pancasila" goes back to Sanskrit, the ancient Indo-European language of northern India. The first part meaning "five" is cognate with Greek pente, Russian pyat' and English "five." The same root is found in Punjab (region of five rivers) and punch (a drink with five ingredients).

[daltec]

That is really interesting! Thanks!

On a semi-related note, I have always been amazed at how some languages (at least to my ear and eye) often don't sound anything like they look (Gaelic and Finnish for example). I was listening to a Finnish musical group and did some reading, and discovered that there is a theory that Finnish and *Japanese* share a common linguistic ancestor!

Not sure how that could have happened, but I bet there is a real story there!

[indcons]

Bingo. Your command of these details is impressive.

[Flash Bazbeaux]

Pancasila is “five precepts”. It is used in Buddism, for the five precepts of Buddhism, but the “pancasila” of Indonesia, a mainly Muslim and partly Hindu country, are different, including belief in “one God”, which obviously has nothing to do with Buddhism, or for that matter Hinduism. This formulation was created by Sukarno in the late 40s as a basis for a national philosophy.

I knew about “punch” but never made the connection with Punjab. There is also Bencharong, a Thai style of metal tableware, means “five colors”.