Bajoran
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Bajorans, a race of humanoids in the fictional Star Trek universe, were introduced in the Next Generation series and played an integral part in the Deep Space Nine series. Captain Picard met and served with Bajoran Ro Laren, while Captain Benjamin Sisko served Starfleet near the Bajoran homeworld, Bajor, and worked with native Kira Nerys.
Like many alien races on Star Trek, the Bajorans are amazingly human-like in appearance, but have a distinctive symmetrical facial feature—a slight wrinkle on the nose between the eyes.
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Culture
The Bajoran people are an ancient one, having reached an advanced level of technology long before humans had learned to walk upright. Bajorans' first names are their family names (hence, Kira Nerys is "Major Kira" and called "Nerys" by her friends). They wear large, chained earrings and ear cuffs called d'ja pagh as symbols of their religious faith. Bajoran women gestate for five months, as opposed to the nine months of human women, due to high vascularization between the fetus and the mother.
Cardassian Occupation
Main article: Occupation of Bajor
The Occupation of Bajor (usually simply referred to as the Occupation) was the period from 2328 to 2369 during which the Bajoran homeworld of Bajor was under the control of the Cardassian Union. During the Occupation, the Cardassians perpetrated a coordinated scheme of strip-mining, forced labor, and genocide across the planet. The Occupation gave rise to the fierce Bajoran Resistance, which used guerilla and terror tactics to eventually force the Cardassians to withdraw. The producer, Rick Berman, explained that the Bajorans were not modeled on any particular group: ‘The Kurds, the Palestinians, the Jews in the 1940s, the boat people from Haiti—unfortunately, the homeless and terrorism are problems in every age’ (TNG Companion, p. 178).
Religion
The Bajoran religion is a major unifying force on the planet; the spiritual leader, or Kai, wields a great deal of moral and political authority, although the planet's de jure political leader is the First Minister. The Bajoran religion is based upon the revelations of the Bajoran Prophets, who come to be known as the timeless beings residing in the Bajoran Wormhole, or Celestial Temple. Since Benjamin Sisko was the first to make contact with them, he is acclaimed by the Bajoran spiritual leadership as the Emissary of the Prophets. Part of the Bajoran religion involves the use of the Tears of the Prophets, reality-distorting energy orbs produced by the Prophets. Several of these were stolen by the Cardassians during the Occupation, though a number have been recovered.
Titles in the Bajoran religion include a 'prylar' (roughly equivalent to a Christian monk), 'mylar' (priest or minister), 'vedek' (cardinal, bishop) and 'Kai' (equivalent to the pope in Roman Catholic theology).
Language
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The Bajoran written language consists of square symbols reminiscent of Chinese characters, however in form they are more fluid and are composed of thick lines. There are a large number of different symbols which can be used in any of four rotations (normal, horizontal flipped, vertical flipped, 180 degree rotation). This gives approximately 200 symbols in the written language. No translation for these symbols exists although the number of characters in the script implies that its either syllabic or logosyllabic. Bajoran can be written both in vertical columns going from top to bottom, right to left or in horizontal lines going from left to right top to bottom like Chinese
Notable Bajorans
- Kai Opaka
- Kai Winn Adami
- Vedek Bareil Antos
- Lieutenant Ro Laren
- Colonel Kira Nerys
- First Minister Shakaar Edon
- Li Nalas
- Dissident KAZVorpal
- Tora Ziyal
- Dr. Mora Pol
- Ensign Sito Jaxa