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The Kalpa Sūtra (400 BC) & Jain Kālachakra...The Kalachakra refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism….
The Kingdom of Kosala & the Shakya (563 BC)...By the time of the Buddha (about 563 BC - 483 BC).. the Śākya nation had been subsumed into the Kingdom of Kosala under King Pasenad….
Sakyas & the Caucasus Indicus Mountains (625 BC)...In the time of Alexander the Great, the Hindu Kush range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus or the "Indian Caucasus"….
The Durand Line (625 BC): Pakhtia and the Eastern Satrapies...Saka clans settled along the middle course of what is the Durand line around 625 BC-….
Mahasiddha Kṛṣṇapāda, the Great & Rongzompa...He appeared as the remarkable and powerful yogi in the Indian Śaiva tradition of the Nātha yogis and in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the Vajrayana Māhasiddhas.….
Rongzom Chökyi Zangpo (1012–1088 A.D.) & Primordial Purity....We then begin to get the sense that purity and divinity are something to be discovered rather than conjured….
Samantabhadra, Saman.bhadra, Sam.bhala....Saman means "the rising morning sun".... bhadra is a sanskrit term meaning good ….
Riwo Sangchö (Mountain Smoke Offering).... the most famous practice of sang offering in Tibetan Buddhism. ….
Sikkim Dzogchen: Tertön Lhatsün Namkha Jikmé (1597-1653)....one of the greatest of his termas, the Dorje Nyingpo Tringyi Tollü Chökor (The Spontaneous Song of the Clouds: the Nucleus of Indestructible Reality), ….
rDzogs chen terms in Chinese ..The transmission of Fahai Lama focuses on yang ti (yangdi). Yang ti is the Tibetan term for one of the three divisions of the Great Perfection Section of Esoteric Precepts or Section of Secret Instructions (Tib. man ngag sde, Ch. koujue bu 口訣 部), i.e., A ti (Ch. adi 阿的/低), sPyi ti (Ch. jiedi 借的) and Yang ti….
Boundless Space & Unconditional Love....Crazy love is a very ecstatic way of transcending this mind and its ultimate mistake of buying into its own display. We just see everything as sacred and love everything without having any specific object of love (Anam Thubten).
Pema Thongdrol & Padma Sambhava....Tsewang Rikdzin was the son of Drenpa Namkha and the brother of Pema Thongdrol who some Bonpos claim was the original Padma Sambhava.
Reiki and Zhangzhung Bon Healing Practices....Tsi Dup Yang Bod is an ancient energetic healing practice from ZhangZhung, an aspect of these precious teachings is known as Reiki here in the United States.
Adur Farnbag Fire Temple & Greater Khorasan (600 BC)....The Farnbag, Gushnasp, and Burzen-Mihr fires were connected, respectively, with the priests, the warriors, and the farmers. The Farnbag fire was at first in Khwārezm, until in the 6th century BC.
The Tsewang Rigdzin Ritual....In the Tibetan tradition there exist numerous rituals for recovering health, extending life, and recapturing any life force that has been lost due to external negative force, internal emotional suffering, or the secret obscuration of ignorance. The Tsewang Rikzin ritual, from the Tibetan Bon tradition, is just such a rite.
Drenpa Namka & Padmasambava....Multiple versions of a single figure’s biography are a common occurrence in Tibet and the Himalayan region. Bon and Nyingma mythology conflate Pema Tongdrol with Padmasambhava…”.
'Ol-mo-lung-ring & the Oxus River.... ’Ol-mo-lung-ring is located to the northwest of western Tibet and near the rivers Pag-shu and Si-ti, which we might very well identify as the Oxus (Vakṣu) and Sitā (Kabul River) ……
Cista (Shishta): Goddess of the Way....Cista (Shishta): Mithra's companion (16th Yasht) …
March 2014….
Verethragna & Bahrām … The Great Warrior God....Vərəθraγna was one of the principal gods of the ancient Iranian pantheon…. As the divinity of war and victory, he was the protector of his people… …
Shahr-e Sūkhté (3200 BC)....Shahr-e Sukhteh was one of the world’s largest cities at the dawn of the urban era… around 3200 BC.… …
Lake Hamun: The Saoshyants @ Qal'a-e Sham....the ruins are called Qal'a-e Sam …. “Castle of Sam" ……The religion of Sham (Sam) was considered "pagan" by the early Christians and Muslims…….it was the cult of Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun)… …
The Art of Anahita (400 BC)...Another source of spiritual home that made Bactria sacred was a great temple of the ancient Iranian goddess, Anahit (in Pahlavi or Middle-Persian) and Anahita (Ânâhitâ) in the Avesta hymns.…
Greek-Bactrian Art & Early Buddhist Representation (250 BC)...“It was not until the Greek presence after the conquests of Alexander the Great in 326 BC that the anthropomorphic representation of Buddha emerged…
Cyrus the Great Cylinder (539 BC)...Cyrus's notions of human rights influenced the US Constitution…..Thomas Jefferson had two personal copies of the book…
Bas-Reliefs at Taq-e Bostan (c. 400 AD)...Taq-e Bostan and its relief patterns accentuate power, religious tendencies, glory, honor, the vastness of the court, game and fighting spirit, festivity, joy, and rejoicing…
Tonglen: Atisha & Malaysia (1030 AD)...Atisha was first initiated into, and became an adept in, the esoteric and magical practices of Tantra….however, when already a well-established practitioner of Tantra, he underwent a change of heart and made a decision to renounce the search for magical power. …
The Çintamani … Gankyil … Triskelion...Cintāmaṇi is a wish-fulfilling jewel within both Hindu and Buddhist traditions, equivalent to the philosopher's stone (Paras Pathar) in Western alchemy…
Suvarnadvipa, Persian Sea Trade and Kalki Kings (682 AD)...Suvarnadvipa can be identified with Sumatra, Java or Malaysia. It was home to Atisha's most important teacher, known as Dharmakirti of Suvarnadvipa.…
Atisa & the Kalachakra in Indonesia (1012 AD)…Vajracaryas of the original Kalacakra cult included Atisa's guru Pindo - a brahman Buddhist monk from Indonesia…
Spiritual Pilgrimage & Spiritual Tourism…Mt Kailas:…’You will be blessed with holy bath and parikrama to achieve your ultimate spiritual goal before returning to Kathmandu….A Full Moon supplement Charge Will be US $ 150 Per person Extra….Prices include Yaks & Yak men for luggage during Kailash Parikrama.’…
’God’… the word god is thought to derive from a root *ǵʰeu̯- "to pour, libate" (Sanskrit huta, see hotṛ), or from a root *ǵʰau̯- (*ǵʰeu̯h2-) "to call, to invoke" (Sanskrit hūta).…
‘Light’ … ‘o …’od … ‘od dkar … ‘od-i-ana … 'ol-mo … 'od gsal … 'od zer…The tibetan terms: sgra (sound)[sgralha], 'od (light)['odkar], zer (rays)[zermig]. …
Destruction of Archeological Sites in Afghanistan (1920-2014)…For years, villagers have dug the baked earth on the heights of Cheshm-e-Shafa for pottery and coins to sell to antique smugglers. …
Losar and Mönlam (1939 Tibet)…The Ernst Schäfer Expedition to Tibet (1938-39) …
Maps of The Shambhala Region…”…he came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul."…
February 2014 …
Protection Cords, Medicine Strands, Sacred Girdles & Meditation Belts…The belt and stick are an essential aspect of long-dé practice…
Sanskrit to Persian Translators of Central Asia…Akbar underwrote a Persian translation of the Sanskrit Mahabharata…
Tang Dynasty & Central Asian Kingdoms (618-907 AD)…kingdoms paying tribute to the Tang Dynasty included Kashmir, Nepal, Khotan, and Kingdoms located in Amu Darya and Syr Darya valley.……
Nestorian Christians and Prester John in Central Asia…Timothy relates that he has recently appointed a metropolitan bishop for the Turks, and is about to do the same for the Tibetans. These references both date to the early 790s, during Trisong Detsen’s reign.”……
Five Elements Astrology …The oldest type of Tibetan astrology, Byung-rTsis is also called Nagtsi, has its origin in ancient Tibetan Bön culture……
Chogyam Trungpa: The Bon Way of Life (Page 2) …Shen rab was born in Sam bha la (sTag gzigs)……
Chogyam Trungpa: The Bon Way of Life (Page 1) …most of the original Bon texts were eventually destroyed or fell subject to heavy Buddhist editing……
Chogyam Trungpa: Dege, Tibet & Mt Pago-punsum …technically, Trungpa was actually born in Sechuan, China……
Emperor Wu of Han and Legendary Daxia (126 BC) …Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BCE to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, later known as Bactria……
Dongba Hieroglyphic Language … Tompa symbols are a system of pictographic glyphs used by the Bon priests of the Naxi people in southern China. They were developed in approximately the seventh century." …
Naxi … The Bonpo (Dongba) of South China… .Joseph Rock wrote about the region and the Naxi people who occupy it….these writings inspired the novel Lost Horizon, by James Hilton …
Balchen Gekhö … Zhang Zhung Deity of Time….A very important Bon deity is called Balchen Geko, who is said to govern time and the three worlds of existence. In this respect the deity is analogous to Kalachakra in Buddhism…
South Chinese Taoism & The Four Dignities… South Chinese Taoism is probably the origin of the four dignities…of Shambhala Training…
The Crystal Mirror by Thuken Chökyi Nyima (1737–1802)… Chapters on the Nyingma, Kadam, Kagyü, Shijé, Sakya, Jonang, Geluk, and Bön. …. the major traditions of China: Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist …. as well as those of Mongolia, Khotan, and Shambhala. …
The 'Nameless Religion' of Ancient Central Asia… the older … pre-Bon … animist-shamanist religion of Tibet -- the "nameless religion" -- whose practitioners, unbound by formal codes and doctrines, are in direct communication with the spirit world …
Kalash People of Chitral…The Kalash people of Pakistan were found to have DNA from an ancient European population. …
Nine Creator Gods of Ancient Tibet & The Epic of the Lha…Shenlha Okar literally means "wisdom deity of white light;" …. is said to have created the world with the help of nine brother gods or nine cosmic gods (shrid pa 'i lha) who appear as war gods or drala (dgra bla)…
Lha Descending, Sprul.sku & dMu Thag…Olmo Lungring or Shambhala…..was the place where the celestial gods of the Clear Light (`od gsal lha) descended from heaven to earth …
Baresman, Barsom, Sacred Bundles & Divine Sceptres...wands are ceremonial and/or have associations with magic but there have been other uses, all stemming from the original meaning as a synonym of rod and virge...
Mushin no shin & gZhi … No Mind & Ground of Being...True nothingness, true emptiness…from true emptiness the wondrous being appears (shin ku myo mu)”. Shin is true, ku is emptiness, myo is wondrous, mu is being. From true emptiness wondrous being…shin ku myo mu."….Shunryu Suzuki Roshi...
Chandravansha: The Lunar Dynasty...There are two different ksatriya families of the royal order, one descending from the king of the moon planet and the other descending from the king of the sun...the kṣatriyas or warriors…Gautama Buddha was born into a Kshatriya family
Vidyadharas and Vidyadharis ...(Rigpa Holders)...Vidyadhara ... literally ‘awareness holder’. According to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, it indicates someone who constantly abides in the state of pure awareness of 'rigpa’...
Kalama Sutra: Buddha's Charter of Free Inquiry...Do not believe anything on mere hearsay. ......Do not believe in traditions merely because they are old and have been handed down for many generations and in many places....
Alexander the Great, Nysa & The Dionysiaca...Alexander the Great….One of the puzzles of the campaign is the visit to Nysa. Here, the god Dionysus was venerated, one of Alexander's mythological ancestors...
Tirich Mir, Nysa, Sumeru & Mt Meru...The route to Nysa as described by the Greek historians of Alexander's campaign suggest a southerly location near the river Kunar, but a location more to the north, near modern Chitral, better fits the fact that there was ivy to be found on the spot. Moreover, there is an impressive mountain near Chitral, called Tirich Mir...
"Shambhala Lies North of The Sita River "...Obaidallah crossed the Sita River (aka: Kabul River) and made a raid on Kabul in 698 AD...
Oxus Explorer John Wood & the Village of Sambala (1839 AD)...Late in the evening we arrived..... at the bottom of a deep valley, along which was scattered a village named Shambhala....
The Arab Conquest of Shambala 624-870 AD...870 A.D. marks the first time that the Kingdom of Shambhala actually came under Moslem domination...
The Blue Annals & Śambhala (624 AD)...A Muslim invasion in 624 AD weakened the kingdom. It was 800 years after Kulika Pundarika....
The Conflation of Mahāmudrā & Dzogchen...Conflation occurs when the identities of two concepts, sharing some characteristics of one another, seem to be a single identity — the differences appear to become lost....
_Mahasiddha Kukuraja: the Dog King...Kukuraja was a mahasiddha within the lineages of Esoteric Buddhism and he was contemporaneous with Indrabhuti in Oddiyana (also known as King Ja) and Kambalapada (also known as Lawapa)...
The Dzogchen Lineages of Shambala & Oḍḍiyāna...The Dzogchen teachings are mainly found only in the old unreformed Tibetan schools of the Buddhist Nyingmapas and the non-Buddhist Bonpos.... these schools assert that Dzogchen did not originate in Tibet itself, but had a Central Asian origin and was subsequently brought to Central Tibet by certain masters known as Mahasiddhas...
Kabul Shahis & Kapisa (3rd-9th C. AD)...Hsuen Tsang (c. 602–664), clearly describes the ruler of Kapisa/Kabul, whom he had personally met, as a devout Buddhist and a Kshatriya...
Zunbil, Zhun, Surya, Zabul...the god Zun or Zhun whose shrine lay in Zamindawar before the arrival of Islam, set on a sacred mountain….Zamindawar had become a famous pilgrimage center devoted to Zun…....the cult of Zun appears to originally have been brought southward by Indo European Hephthalites, displacing an earlier god on the same sacred site….parallels have been noted with the pre-Buddhist Bonpo monarchy of Tibet...
Kingdom of Zunbil & the Temple of Zun (653 AD)...Although the rulers of the Zunbil dynasty were worshippers of the sun, many inhabitants south of the Hindu Kush practiced Buddhism and other ancient religions ...
Manene…..Gesar’s Goddess and Guide...MANENE...the mother lineage of Warrior Manene....Manene means grandmother. More of a title than a deity. Dolma, the principle goddess in the Lamist pantheon. Tara of the Hindus. Important Goddess in the Gesar Epic....
King Harsha of India (647 AD)...Xuanzang tells us about the good works of kings who were patrons of Buddhism like King Asoka , King Kanishka or King Harsha (7th CE) ...
Xuanzang in Bactria/Kapisa/Udiyana (c.630-644 AD)...The people of Uddiyana, according to Huen Tsiang, were gentle, soft and effeminate.... mostly clothed in pure white cotton. The men have white turbans, the women soft flowing saris, also white. These are a gentle, happy people, rarely endangered by war or calamity. They are a society appreciative of fine culture, and they are all great lovers of learning....
Bahman Yasht & the Kālachakra Prophecy (9th C. AD)...The Bahman yašt is the most important apocalyptic work in Zoroastrian literature…Chapters 4 and 5 tell how calamities which will befall Iran at the end of the tenth millennium when enemy nations—Arabs, Byzantines, Turks, Chionites, Hephthalites, Tibetans, Chinese and others, will conquer Iran, causing decay of religion, breakdown of social order, debasement of law and morality, and degeneration of nature...
Ki Clan and the Kidarite Dynasty (300 AD)...The Kidarites are the last dynasty to regard themselves (on the legend of their coins) as the inheritors of the Kushan empire...
Bamian, Kapisa and the Ki Dynasty (4th c. AD)...the mongolian Ghengis Khan…in 1221 AD the Mongol armies invaded Bamiyan, conquered the fortress at Shahr-i Bamiyan, vandalized the Buddhist sites, and left. ...
The Swat Valley, Oddiana and Kapisa Shambhala...The people of Uddiyana, according to Huen Tsiang, were gentle, soft and effeminate. ....mostly clothed in pure white cotton. The men have white turbans, the women soft flowing saris, also white. These are a gentle, happy people, rarely endangered by war or calamity. They are a society appreciative of fine culture, and they are all great lovers of learning....
Nagarjuna & The Kushan Dynasty (150 AD)...Almost nothing is known of Nagarjuna. He was born sometime towards the end of the second century AD and probably published his most important work the Muladhyamakakarika about 200 to 250 AD. Where he lived, and exactly when are unknown, though he may have had some contact or perhaps even lived for a time in the Kushan Empire. His importance lies in the fact that his work was co-opted by the Mahayana movement of later centuries. Mahayana was a minority in the Kushan Empire but many of the texts which later came to be seen as foundational were published in this period....
Surkh Kotal & King Kanishka (c. 100 AD)...King Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra... Kanishka had been the first Buddhist to rule Balkh... the Surkh Kotal temple complex would have been a imposing site, before its destruction, towering over the vast valley plains below.
Ancient Zabulistan and Kalata/Qala (870 AD)...In southern and eastern Afghanistan, the regions of Zamindawar (Zamin I Datbar or land of the justice giver, the classical Archosia) and Zabulistan or Zabul (Jabala, Kapisha, Kia pi shi) and Kabul, the Arabs were effectively opposed for more than two centuries, from 643 to 870 AD, by the indigenous rulers the Zunbils and the related Kabul-Shahs of the dynasty which became known as the Buddhist-Shahi....
King Gesar & Kapisa Shambhala (739-746 AD)... Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 AD) "King of Khurasan'.....and may have contributed to his transformation in later historical tradition into the Tibetan national hero Gesar, whose figure still survives today in the folklore of the territory of ancient Gandhara....
Hiuen Tsang and Kapisa (640 AD)...Hiuen Tsang made the trip westward to Balkh (modern day Afghanistan), to see the Buddhist sites and relics, especially the Nava Vihara, or Nawbahar, which he described as the westernmost monastic institution in the world. Here Xuanzang also found over 3,000 non-Mahayana monks, including Prajnakara...
The Panjshir Valley and Kapisa Shambhala...Vasubandhu came from the "Kingdom of Shambhala' (approximately, modern Begram, otherwise known as the ancient kingdom of Kapisha, north of Kabul) located in the Afghanistan region, north-west of Peshawar....
Shambhala, Kapisa-Udyana and King Kanishka (78 AD)...King Kanishka of the Kushan Empire (its capital, Bagram, is situated slightly east of Bamian) ruled over Central Asia from 78-144 A.D...and is revered as a patron of Buddhism....Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra.
Kunchen Dolpopa (1292–1361) & The Cry of the Red Garuda...Kunchen Dolpopa’s Mountain Dharma and other Jonang texts were banned in Tibet in the 17th century, they became extremely rare....a few of these texts were re-discovered and re-printed, notably through the agency of His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
Invoking Elemental Drala & Sacred Ground..."Imperial Drala of all dralas.....You hold in your left hand the crystal mirror ...In your right hand you brandish a crystal sword...You wear the blazing golden armor of life and the snow-white pennants on your helmet flutter in the wind...."
The Balkh to Lake Urmia Trade Route (2000 BC)...The Lake Urmia region has a wealth of archaeological sites that were home to some of the most advanced Neolithic communities known. Archaeological excavations of settlements in the Lake Urmia area have found artefacts that date from the Neolithic (New Stone) age, that is, from about 7,000 BCE. ...
Anahita,Lake Urmia & Takht-e Soleyman...The subject of Chichest sea and its identification as Urmieh lake has always caused some argumentation among scholars....The mythical king Khosro praised the goddess Anahita and the angel derwasp on its shore to arrest his enemy Afrasyab. Later, Zoroastrian clergy used the myth as a base to innovate a wide range of legends during Achaemenids and Sassanid period. Therefore, some new legends were ascribed to the sea, such as the foundation of Azargoshasb fire temple on its shore, and ruin of pagan’s temple by the king....
_Caucasus Mountains & the Bactrian Migration (9th c. BC)...Early settlements included the Scythians in the 9th century BC…..Like the Black Sea Scythians, the Saka identified gold with the sun, fire, supreme power and eternal life. The Saka tribes, just like the Scythians from the Dnipro region, had magical gifts from heaven: a plough and a yoke for farmers; a spear and an arrow for soldiers; and a sacrificial cup for priests…..This suggests a division of the Saka society into three groups: warriors (the ancient Indo-Iranian name for warriors, “rataishtar” – “those who stand in a chariot”), priests with their characteristic sacrificial cup and specific headgear and communal farmers, or the “eight-legged”, i.e., those who had two oxen that could be yoked to a plough. Each caste had its own traditional colours: red and golden-red for warriors, white for priests and blue and yellow for farmers...
Saka Migration and Black Sea 'Paganism' (7th c. BC)...The Sakas were an Iranian people that wandered from the north side of the Black Sea through Derbend passage and to the South Caucasus and from there to Asia Minor in the 7th century B.C....
The Kingdom of Balhara & Mount Imeon...Another possible connection between Balhara and the Bulgars is the words by Nasir Khosrow Qubadyani, the famous Persian poet of 11th century, who was born in Qubadyan, a village near Balkh in Afghanistan, says: 'Your voice hardly reaches the corridor from the room But his song (poem) easily reaches from Balkh to Bulgar'...
Mandala of the Sun, Solar Essence, Solar Rays...The sun god, who is both Hindu and Buddhist, appears at the center, flanked by Dawn and Pre-Dawn; the next circle holds the planets; and the outer circle has the twelve forms of the sun. Across the top, two bodhisattvas flank the five cosmic Buddhas. On the bottom, at the left, the priest presents offerings to a fire; on the right are the patron and his family. Nepalese Buddhists carried out ceremonies intended to prevent evil influences from disturbing the sun and the moon. The sun may also be an object of meditation, paired with the moon and imagined inside one's body...
Six Yogas of Naropa & The Bon Mother Tantras... the Bön Three Root Mother Tantras known as the Ma-rgyud Sangs-rgyas rGyud gSum (pr. Magyu Sangye Gyu Sum), the Three Buddhahood Tantras, using the commentary by Mi-lus bSam-legs ( Milu Samlek), the Prince of the region of Tazig around the 7th or 8th century….Hidden in the 8th century, these texts were rediscovered in the 10th century by Guru rNon-rtse [Guru Nontse]. These Tantras have an emphasis on practices of the Completion Stage, rDzogs-rim" ….and have six main practices, which can be said to be somewhat similar to the Six Yogas of Naropa...
Mother Tantras & Milu Samlek...Mi-lus bSam-legs (pronounced Milu Samlek), the Prince of the region of Tazig (Persia) around the 7th or 8th century AD...
Dialogical Awareness & Monological Thinking... Instead of treating a text or practice monologically as a linear, self-contained unit.... Bakhtin treats it as in constant dialogue with other texts, literary works, authors, practices, and even contexts. It is thus a more expansive and inclusive approach, continuously informed by, and in communication with, multiple "others:' where various approaches can coexist...
Ma Gyud Tantra & The Female Aspect of the Natural State...In Bon Dzogchen it is stated that all of reality is pervaded by a transcendent principle called "All Good". It has a male aspect called Kuntu Sangpo and a female aspect, Kungtu Sangmo...
Lucid Dreaming, Yoga Nidra and Dream Yoga...Rinpoche typically discusses the relationships between dreaming and waking and between dreaming and death. He also instructs in the “four preparations” for sleep and the uses and methods of lucid dreaming...
Historical Actuality & Sectarian Amnesia... In 1660, the 5th Dalai Lama was faced with a rebellion in Tsang province, the stronghold of the rival Kagyu sect with its high lama known as the Karmapa. The 5th Dalai Lama called for harsh retribution against the rebels, directing the Mongol army to obliterate the male and female lines, and the offspring too “like eggs smashed against rocks…. In short, annihilate any traces of them, even their names...
Lhasang, Smoke Offerings, Sur & Fire Rituals... Lha, nyen, and lu..... Trungpa Rinpoche thinks that these three principles "describe the protocol and the decorum of the earth itself, and they show how human beings can weave themselves into that texture of basic reality....
Chitral, Tirich Mir, Mt Meru & Oddiyana...Uddiyana ... the most likely mediator for injecting Persian concepts into Bon, transmitting Kashmir Shaiva-teachings into Tibetan Buddhism and combining the early Mahayana of India with Tantric teachings and aspects of folk-religion, a mixture that helped shape the later Vajrayana of Tibet ....
Tonpa Shenrab’s dMu Clan Ancestors... sMug'po gdong...... one of the four original tribes of Tibet from which the people of gLing were descended......Shenrab Miwo's clan is considered to be descended from the bMu deities, an ancient class of celestial deities. dMu is also the name of one of the four original tribes of Tibet....
Spiritual Traditions & Their Founders...As originally proclaimed by Chögyam Trungpa..... the Kingdom of Shambhala, an enlightened society of fearlessness, dignity and compassion." Furthermore, Shambhala vision applies to people of any faith, not just people who believe in Buddhism. The Shambhala vision does not distinguish a Buddhist from a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, a Moslem, a Hindu. That's why we call it the Shambhala Kingdom. A kingdom should have lots of spiritual disciplines in it....
El Shaddai, Shamash & The Goddess Asherah...Jehovah, aka: Yahweh was a god known as the Father of humankind and all creatures, and the husband of the Goddess Asherah ...
Ordu Baliq, The Orkhon Valley and Khocho Shambhala...Later Shambhalists.....the Uighur kingdom of Khocho, located at the northern edge of the Taklamakan, has often been posited as the "historical" Shambhala. ...
Ancient Kingdom of Hor……..Khwarezm/Khorasan, Khotan & Hata-Hor...Gesar's traditional four enemies were China to the East, India to the South, Tag zig (Persia) to the west, and Hor to the North....
Word Origins…..-i-stan….-asan….-isan….-ezm...-i-ana....-asam...The name "Khorasan" is derived from Middle Persian khor (meaning "sun") and asan (or ayan literally meaning "to come" or "coming" or "about to come"), hence meaning "land where the sun rises" ….
Gyalpo Pehar: Oracle God of the Dalai Lama... "Pe-Har" and "bDud-gza’-smin-dkar." Pe-har is featured as a protecting deity of Zhanzhung, the center of the Bon religion. Reportedly, Pe-har is related to celestial heavens and the sky in general.....Pe-har’s consort is a female deity known by one of her names as bDud-gza’-smin-dkar ….
Indo-Iranian Origins and The Oxus Civilization (Part 2)...the BMAC of Central Asia may turn out to be its most northern extension while its heartland might be found in the vast areas of unexplored Baluchistan and Afghanistan.….
Indo-Iranian Origins and The Oxus Civilization (Part 1)...The BMAC culture, excavated by the Soviets in the last two decades in Afghanistan, however, is a slightly different story. Houses and forts, temples and palaces contain parallels in Iran as well as other parts of South Asia, and BMAC seems to be basically contemporaneous with Androvono culture. Archaeologists generally agree that the question of contact between BMAC and Androvono is paramount,….
BMAC: Seven Temples at North Gonur (3000 BC)...Seven temple constructions were recorded at North Gonur. These were: Temple of Fire, Temple of Water, Temple of Soma/Haoma, Temple of Sacrifices, Temple of Mitra-Sun, and Temple of Communal Eating. Their construction occurred roughly between 3000 BC and 2500 BC. ….
BMAC: Margu (2300–1700 BC)... The remains of a highly important Late Bronze Age building from North Afghanistan, the palace of Dashly-III shows strong similarities with the discussed group of seals. Ignoring the area of the entrance, we get the picture of a well planed 'mandala'…….
Uzboy River & The Khorasan Civilization... The major rivers are significant in forming the landscape of the Sea of Aral…..The first and greatest is the Amu Darya, known to the Greeks as the OXUS, and to the Arabs as the Jaihun. It rises in Bactria and forms the border between Margiana and Sogdiana before passing into Chorasmii. It is also the eastern boundary of the Karakorum Desert. Originally it is thought to have flowed north towards the Aral with a tributary turning west through Sary Kamysh Lake towards the Caspian Sea…..This western arm was the UZBOY which is now a dry river channel, but flowed some 750Km from the branch in the Amu Darya river. A riverine civilisation existed along the banks from at least the 5th century BCE until the 16th century CE, when the water which had fed the Uzboy abruptly stopped flowing out of the main course of the Amu Darya. The Uzboy River simple dried up!….
The Palace (Calah) of the King (Rigden, Shah, Khesar) in Ancient Balkh (Bactra)…....The Great Khorasan Civilization ('Land of the Rising Sun') had numerous great city/states, each with its own King and Queen, Royal Court, and Castle….Balkh (Bactra) was the most legendary and grandest, not only a legend in 7th Century pre-Buddhist Tibet but also throughout ancient China, India, the Middle East and Greece.….
Paropamisadae Mountains (Caucasus Indicus) and Bactra... Did Alexander the Great really build sixteen cities in Afghanistan, or was he the destroyer of a far more ancient civilization? David Adams goes in search of the most alluring of them all - Alexandria on the Oxus. The Ancient Greeks have long been credited for bringing civilization to the East. In fact it appears to be the other way round. Alexander discovered a highly developed civilization - a lost world - that pre-dated even the Persians.….
Paratethys Sea & The Oxus River in Central Asia... It is possible that the core region of Vedic culture was the landlocked area between the Oxus and Jaxartes river systems....This archaic geography allows that the Hapta-Hindu or Sapta-Sindhu in Sanskrit might include the rivers Oxus and Jaxartes, and that the location of the Aral Sea and Lake Labnor might not then have been the same as now….
Shenrab Miwoche (1857 BC) and Tagzig/Khorasan...Olmo Lungring (Shambhala) was northwest from Mount Kailash in Zhang-zhung and twice as far as Kailas is from the city of Shigatse in Central Tibet. In precise geographic terms, this would put them beyond the Pamirs in Sogdiana (Khorasan).….
Ancient Bactria: Seals & Amulets (2500- 1500 BC)... Scorpion Seal, Oxus Civilization; Gonor Depe site; BMAC complex... (2000 BC)….
Prehistoric Chalo & Greater Khorasan (2500-1500 BC)... Traces of an international culture with major similarities to the Oxus civilization, otherwise known as the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex, have been discovered during an archaeological excavation in the prehistoric site of Chalo near the town of Sankhast in North Khorasan Province, Iran….
Raphael Pumpelly & The Oxus Civilization (2500- 1500 BC)..."Raphael Pumpelly (1837-1923)…."the fundamentals of civilization - organized village life, agriculture, the domestication of animals, weaving," (including mining and metal work) "originated in the oases of Central Asia long before the time of Babylon....such assertions that civilization as we know it originated in the Oxus Culture in North Khorasan sounded radical at a time when the names of Egypt and Babylon, regions connected to the Bible, were considered to be the cradle of civilization.….
Kayanian Dynasty: Kai Kāvus .....(Younger Avestan....559–330 BC)...Kai Kavoos, the founder of the Kayanian dynasty..... his Flying Throne was a legendary eagle-propelled craft used for flying the king all the way to China.....Kai Kavoos is one of the figures in the Shahnameh who is close to reality. The majority of his characteristics are similar to those of historical kings..........
The Nine Ways of Bon...Shamanic and Resultant Levels...Ninth Level of Bon.....Unsurpassable Way or the Way of Dzogchen (Khyad-par chen-po'i-theg-pa or rDzogs-chen).....Lame thegpa (bLa-med theg-pa), is concerned with the highest attainment through the path of Great Perfection (i.e., rDzogs-chen).….
Ferdowsi: Farr, Xᵛarənah & Lungta... Farr not only auspiciousness, but was also perceived as a necessary source of power, and ultimately a source of authority. In a court culture, which placed a high premium on adulation, well wishers naturally wanted to project a maximum of farr for the object of their praise. The desire to maximize farr….termed farrah afzun (may farr be increased)…..was iconographically achieved through multiplicity and repetition: the greater the number of the symbols of farr, the more powerful became the projection of auspiciousness and power.….
Buddharaksita & Tilise from Khotan (433 AD)... Around 433 CE certain Buddhist texts, including the Karandavyuhasutra, were brought to Tibet by the masters Buddharaksita and Tilise from Khotan. At that time, Khotan was already an important oasis and crossroads for Buddhist teachers moving between India, Bactria and China. Nelpa Pandita recounts how they returned to Khotan having discovered that no one could read or understand the meaning of the books.….
Butön & The Second Propagation of Buddhism in Tibet (11th c. AD)... Butön made enormous effort to determine precisely what should and should not be included in the Tibetan canon, excluding (controversially) everything without a persuasive Indian pedigree….He famously excluded from his Kangyur the Nyingma tantras, which he considered to be inauthentic, which is to say, not the words of the Buddha.
Ancient Central Asian Kingdoms: Bakhdhi, Markanda, Mouru (600 BC)...The Ancient Kingdom of Bactria was renowned through the known world for it wealth, beauty, abundant crops, and a large variety of fruits. While certain parts of Balkh are still relatively fertile.......centuries of climate change, endless war and poor leadership has reduced the once famed land to a dusty shadow of its former self.….
Legendary, Mythical, Mystical, Historical and Magical Reality... Whatever its historical basis, Shambhala gradually came to be seen as a Buddhist Pure Land, a fabulous kingdom whose reality is visionary or spiritual as much as physical or geographic. It was in this form that the Shambhala myth reached the West, where it influenced non-Buddhist as well as Buddhist spiritual seekers — and, to some extent, popular culture in general….
Obi-Rakhmat Grotto (57,000 BC)...New discoveries in the Kashkadariya region of Uzbekistan offer a unique stage on which to test existing assumptions about the geographic limits of Neandertal occupation, the nature of the interaction between modern humans and Neandertals….
Maha Ati & Atiyoga Dzogchen...According to Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen (Rdzogs chen or Atiyoga) is the natural, primordial state or natural condition, and a body of teachings and meditation practices aimed at realizing that condition. Dzogchen, or "Great Perfection", is a central teaching of the Nyingma school also practiced by adherents of other Tibetan Buddhist sects. According to Dzogchen literature, Dzogchen is the highest and most definitive path to enlightenment.….
Neanderthals in Central Asia (30,000 BC)... Denisova Cave is a cave in the Bashelaksky Range of the Altai mountains, Siberia, Russia. The cave is of great paleoarchaeological and paleontological interest. Bone fragments of the Denisova hominin, sometimes called the "X woman" originate from the cave, including artifacts dated to ~40,000 BP. The cave is located in a region thought to be inhabited concurrently in the past by Neanderthals and modern humans….
Africa to Central Asia Migration (50,000 BC)...The first migration of anatomically modern humans from Africa was around the southern shores of the Arabian Peninsula and down the coast of India to the Kerala area on the western tip of South India, about 70,000 to 50,000 years ago.….
Kalhana & The Rajatarangini: Chronicle of Kings (2000 BC)...Excerpt from the "Rajatarangini of Kalhana…....we shall know how over two thousand years before the Christian era (2000 BC)…… bands of pastoral and agricultural tribes left their homes in Iran or Bactria and settled on the fertile banks of the five rivers of the Punjab.….
Zermig (gZer-mig): Piercing Eye...The country of Olmo Lungring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. The mysterious land of Olmo Lungring is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig, which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken. According to the “gZi-brjid”, Olmo Lungring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit ….
Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1933): Rimé (ris med) Movement...The 'non-partisan,' 'non-sectarian', 'universalist' or rimé (ris med) movement represents no less than the most far-reaching and broadly influential phenomenon to mold the Tibetan religious terrain of Shardza's lifetime.....Jamgon Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé ('jam mgon kong sprul blo gros mtha' yas, 1813-1899) rejected the 'intellectual petrification' associated with Geluk scholasticism, instead advocating fresh interpretations of original Indic texts across sectarian lines....This movement provided a promising avenue for Bönpos to contribute....Bönpos shared with the Nyingmas the position that the Dzokchen view represented the apex of all doxographical systems, and they maintained vigorous traditions of practice associated with it. Shardza's own keen interest in practicing and writing about Dzokchen undoubtedly left him well-positioned to participate in this type of dialogue.….
Patrul Rinpoche: Advice from Me to Myself (1808-1887)... Listen up, old bad-karma Patrul, You dweller-in-distraction.....For ages now you've been Beguiled, entranced, and fooled by appearances. Are you aware of that? Are you? Right this very instant, when you're Under the spell of mistaken perception You've got to watch out. Don't let yourself get carried away by this fake and empty life.….
Cuckoo's Song of Total Presence: The Six Vajra Verses...The sound of the cuckoo is evocative of the 6-verse text, The Cuckoo's Song of Total Presence. This fundamental Dzogchen text concerns the universally permeating nature of Mind -- non-dual, non-discursive, radiant, spontaneous and free.….
Lapis Lazuili Purple in Ancient Central Asia (7th c. BC)...Alexander the Great, the emperor of the Seleucid Empire, and the kings of Ptolemaic Egypt all wore Tyrian purple…..In China, purple represents spiritual awareness, physical and mental healing, strength and abundance. A red purple symbolizes luck and fame. The Chinese word for purple, zi, is connected with the North Star, Polaris, or zi Wei in Chinese….
Japanese Rite Of Nokan & Other Death Rituals... In Chinese Buddhist sources, there is a ‘principle of birth and death’ according to which a man’s soul escapes from his body through an upper or lower body part at death. A bystander can tell whether the dead man will go to a good or bad rebirth by noticing which part of the corpse retains its warmth longest….
Ultimate Dralas, Higher Beings, Veneration and Offerings...Tibetan Buddhists believe that there are countless types of beings other than humans and animals. Some are more powerful, happier, and more intelligent than humans, and others less so. Usually if there is no common karma or karmic connection, beings of different types will not encounter each other. Spirits are not necessarily births of the ancestors from a particular locality, but may have come from any kind of birth or realm.….
Uttarakuru, Mt Meru & Bactria...The Ramayana testifies that the original home of the Kurus was in Bahli country. Ila, son of Parajapati Karddama was a king of Bahli, where Bahli represents Sanskrit Bahlika (Bactria).….
Abhinavagupta's Critique of the Kalachakra (c.990 AD)...Kalachakra teachings were available by 1027 in Kashmir. At the end of the tenth and beginning of the eleventh centuries CE, Kashmir was a center for both Buddhist and Hindu Shaivite tantra......a Hindu critique of the Buddhist Kalachakra meditation system in the sixteenth chapter of the Kashmiri Shaivite tantra text Illuminating the Tantras (Skt. Tantraloka), written by the Kashmiri pandit Abhinavagupta....during the latter part of the tenth and the beginning of the eleventh centuries CE, communication was quite common between the Buddhists of Oddiyana, Bactria, and Kashmir."…….
Aham, Spiritual Heart, Bodhicitta & the Tantraloka (950 AD)...Aham, a concept of Kashmir Shaivism, is defined as the supreme heart (hṛdayam)...the space of Aham is where kechari mudra (free movement in the space of the heart) is realised. ….
Abhinavagupta, Tantrāloka and Kashmir Shaivism (990 AD)... Tantrāloka is the masterwork of Abhinavagupta, who was in turn the most revered Kashmir Shaivism master..... a treasure text containing the synthesis of the 64 monistic āgamas and all the schools of Kashmir Shaivism. The work contains both ritualistic and philosophic aspects, spanning over 37 chapters. Chapter 29 is entirely dedicated to the so-called kula-chakra - a tantric practice which includes ritualized sexual activity. ….
Gonur Tepe: Soma, Haoma, Amrita, Ambrosia (2500 BC)...Amrita (Sanskrit: अमृत; IAST: amṛta) or more correctly "Amrit" (Sanskrit: अमृत) is a Sanskrit word that literally means "immortality", and is often referred to in texts as nectar. The word's earliest occurrence is in the Rigveda, where it is one of several synonyms of "soma" as the drink which confers immortality upon the gods. It is related etymologically to the Greek "ambrosia", and it carries the same meaning. It has various significances in different dharmic traditions….
King Oxyartes of Bactria (2140 BC)... Ninus, having conquered all neighboring Asian countries apart from India and Bactriana, then made war on Oxyartes, king of Bactriana, with an army of nearly two million, taking all but the capital, Bactra.….
Ancient Eurasian Calendars & Year Zero...The Kālacakra calendar is a luni-solar calendar based on a 60-year cycle. Unlike the western calendar, the months last from new Moon to new Moon, and are defined by the sign of the zodiac the Sun enters during the month......Strictly speaking, the Kālacakra sytem is not identical to the Babylonian one, which was entirely sexagesimal.….
The 'Gap', Formlessness & Greek Chaos/Emptiness...Greco-Buddhism refers to the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BC and the 5th c. AD in the Indian subcontinent, especially in modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western border regions of modern India.......Chaos was the non-personified concept of the gap between heaven and earth.….
Ancient Kings of Central Asia ( 900 BC - 740 AD)...Khorasan Tegin Shah" (King of the East), was the second Turk Shahi on the throne of Kabul, succeeding his father around or after 680 CE…Phrom Ge-sar was the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE) "King of Khurasan' (Land of the Rising Sun)….
Bactrian Sanskrit...2500 BC... Historians attest the largest population of the region including Bactria spoke vernacular dialects of Sanskrit.….
Kharoṣṭhī, Gāndhārī and Tibetan: Ancient Scripts... The discovery of the earliest Buddhist manuscripts – written in Gāndhārī language and Kharoṣṭhī script and dating from the 1st c. BCE to the 4th c. CE – has revolutionized our understanding of this formative phase of Buddhism...Mahayana and (then) Hinayana, rather than evolving sequentially, developed simultaneously, in an intertwined fashion. The conclusion specialists have drawn is that there is no single, original canon.
The Kharoṣṭhī Script & Tantric Mantras (300 BC- 400 AD)... The Kharosthi alphabet was used in Gandharan Buddhism as a mnemonic for remembering a series of verses relating to the nature of phenomena. In Tantric Buddhism this list was incorporated into ritual practices, and later became enshrined in mantras.….
Sacred Calligraphy: Ancient Central Asia...The word calligraphy is from Ancient Greek: κάλλος .... kallos "beauty" and γραφή .... graphẽ "writing"…..Traces of the writing brush were discovered on the Shang jades, and were suggested to be the grounds of the oracle bone inscriptions (14th–11th centuries BC).
Temple of Hathor (54 BC): Egyptian Fertility Goddess... Hathor was originally a personification of the Milky Way, which was considered to be the milk that flowed from the udders of a heavenly cow....As time passed she became more closely associated with Isis, who to some degree usurped her position as the most popular and powerful goddess. ….She was a sky goddess, known as "Lady of Stars" ….
The Garuda Pillar & King Kasiputra Bhagabhadra (113 BC) Greek-Bactria...From 130 BC, a nomadic people, the Yuezhi, started to invade Bactria from the north and we could assume that Heliocles was killed in battle during this invasion. Details from Chinese sources seem to indicate that the nomad invasion did not end civilisation in Bactria entirely. Hellenised cities continued to exist for some time, and the well-organised agricultural systems were not demolished…..Even if this was the end of the original Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the Greeks continued to rule in northwestern India to the end of the 1st century BCE, under the Indo-Greek Kingdom.….
Ithyphallic Deities, Sperm Gnosis & the Kalachakra Tantra...Pundarika, the first commentator upon the Kalachakra Tantra, distinguishes between one ejaculation, which arises out of karma and serves to perpetuate the chain of rebirth, and another, which is subject to mental control ... An enlightened one can thus ejaculate as much as he wishes, under the condition that he not lose his awareness in so doing.….
Garab Dorje ....dGa'-rab, Persian: گراب, Romanized as Garāb (1st c. AD)In the lineage of masters preceding Gyerpungpa, there is found a master named Zhang-zhung dGa'-rab, who may be Garab Dorje... Dzogchen or "Mahâsandhi" in Sanskrit, considers itself the "highest truth", a view superior to Mâdhyamaka. For many Mâdhyamikas, Dzogchen is not even part of the Buddhadharma, but a sort of Chinese Dharma like Ch'an or coming from Advaita Vedânta, Kaśmiri Śaivism, or even Persian religion,
Dorje: aka...Vajra, Thunderbolt, Diamond, Indra...The vajra is used symbolically by the Dharma traditions of Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism, often to represent firmness of spirit and spiritual power.…. The dorje is a male polysemic symbol that represents upaya whereas its companion tool, the bell which is a female symbol, denotes prajna.
BodhiCitta...Heart Mind...Crystal Kati....Eye Heart... Luminous mind (also, "brightly shining mind," "brightly shining citta") (Sanskrit prakṛti-prabhāsvara-citta, Pali pabhassara citta)….The channel that goes from the heart to the eyes is called the "crystal kati channel"...this seems to be the key to the whole thing.
Fakhruddin Iraqi: Divine Flashes & Radical Primordial Reality (1250 AD)...Both Dzogchen and Sufism are diamond-like Wisdom Teachings grounded in the Radical Primordial Reality. The goal of Sufism is to become the perfect mirror of the Formless through the purification of the heart. .
Legendary Troy & Ancient Balkh (2500 BC)...Balkh reached its height about 2500 BC.....Construction material: sun - dried bricks. (adobe)….Troy I (about 3000 - 2600 BC): Initial settlement of the early bronze age. Construction material: sun - dried bricks. (adobe)....With the idea that Homer's Iliad and Virgil's Aeneid reflected actual historical events….Schliemann, defying the ridicule of the learned world, actually unearthed the remains of the ancient city of Troy.
Two Dzogchen Texts & the Dunhuang Manuscripts (366 AD)...For centuries, Buddhist monks at Dunhuang collected scriptures from the West….“The Small Hidden Grain” and “The Cuckoo of Awareness” are two of up to 50,000 manuscripts hidden there for 700 years.
Shenlha Odkar, Shiwa Okar & Crystal Iconography...Shenlha Okar is depicted with a white body "like the essence of crystal"…. The analogy given by Dzogchen masters is that one's nature is like a mirror which reflects with complete openness but is not affected by the reflections, or like a crystal ball that takes on the colour of the material on which it is placed without itself being changed. ...In Bon tradition, King Gesar of Ling is sent to Tibet by Shenlha Okar, and Trungpa Rinpoche's blending of native traditions and Indian Buddhism appears to echo Mipham's.
Tapihritsa: Zhang Zhung Dzogchen Master (7th Century AD)...Tapihritsa (c 7th ~ 8th C.) is a Bönpo who achieved the Dzogchen mastery of the rainbow body and consequently, as a fully realised Trikaya Buddha, is invoked as a yidam…. The historical Tapihritsa was born in Zhang Zhung of a family of nomads. Tapihritsa's principal teacher was Dawa Gyaltsen. Tapihritsa was contemporaneous with Ligmincha, King of Zhang Zhung and Trisong Detsen, Emperor of Tibet.….
Abisheka: Empowerment, dBang, Esoteric Transmission RitualsThe Kalachakra originates in the ancient Vedic tradition in India which existed long before Buddhism appeared and refers to many different traditions, for example the Hindu; Saivite, Samkya, Vaishnava, the Vedas, Upanisads and Puranas traditions, but also Jainism…..the Kalachakra mandala includes deities which are equally accepted by Hindus, Jainas and Buddhists….There are different levels of abhisheka ritual with Kalachakra. …..entrance level rituals are openly presented to general public, the more advanced ones only conducted in secret…..….
Slavic Mythology & Eastern European 'Paganism'...Slavic mythology possesses many common traits with other religions descended from the Proto-Indo-European religion….all their original religious beliefs and traditions were likely passed down orally over the generations, and basically forgotten over the centuries following their rapid conversion into Christianity, which began with the conversion of Bulgaria in 864 and was largely complete by the late 11th century.....one theory is that Bulgaria, the "Kingdom of Balhara..."Balh" refers to the city of Balkh (Balhara's capital)...
Nalanda University & Nava Vihara in Balkh... Nava Vihara, the main monastery at Balkh, soon became the center of higher Buddhist study for all of Central Asia, comparable to Nalanda Monastery in central northern India. It emphasized study primarily of the Vaibhashika abhidharma and admitted only monks who had already composed texts on the topic. Since it housed a tooth relic of the Buddha, it was also one of the main centers of pilgrimage along the Silk Route from China to India.….
Stravinsky, Nijinsky & Russian 'Paganism': The Rite of Spring (1913)...The Rite of Spring was an exploration of nature, subtitled "Scenes from Pagan Russia" ....Stravinsky set to music two poems from Sergey Gorodetsky's collection Yar.…. Gorodetsky began forming the Acmeist group with Gumilev, Akhmatova, and Mandelshtam….The eminent historian and ethnologist Lev Gumilev became interested in the Shambhala myth while a prisoner in the Siberian Gulag. He is the son of the great Russian poet Anna Akmatova.
Sambhala in the Kalki Purana (7th C. AD)... The Kalki Purana (Sanskrit: कल्कि पुराण Kalki purāṇa) is a prophetic work in Sanskrit that details the life and times of Kalki, the tenth and final of the ten Avatars….The work primarily describes the onset and exponential increase of evil and sin on the earth during the Kali Yuga, and the life of Kalki, who is said to bring an end to the darkness of the Kali Yuga....The name Kalki is a metaphor for eternity or time. ..."Lord Kalki continued to reside in the village of Shambhala, ...which was as good as the heavenly planets, appeared very beautiful with its assembly houses, gates, raised platforms, and flags flapping in the breeze that has been placed here and there.... the village of Shambhala, which was profusely decorated with blooming flowers, pious trees, forests and gardens, became a holy place that granted liberation from material existence."
Windhorse, Lungta and Tengrism...The Wind Horse (Tib. Lung-ta), a mythical Tibetan creature from pre-Buddhist times, combines the speed of the wind and the strength of the horse to carry prayers from earth to the heavens. In Tengriism, the meaning of life is seen as living in harmony with the surrounding world. By living an upright and respectful life, a human being will keep his world in balance and maximize his personal power or Wind Horse.
Geography: Europe, Eurasia, 'Middle East', Central Asia, 'Far East', Asia...In ancient times, the Greeks classified Europe (derived from the mythological Phoenician princess Europa) and Asia (derived from Asia, a woman in Greek mythology) as separate "lands". Where to draw the dividing line between the two regions is still a matter of discussion.…Eurocentrisn is the practice of viewing the world from a European-centered or Western-centered perspective....Many international standards (such as the worldwide spread of the Anno Domini Christian era and Latin alphabet, or the Prime Meridian) have their roots in this....
Modern Human Migration…Ancient Central Asia ... 40,000 B.C....If Africa was the cradle of mankind, then Central Asia was its nursery.....Around 40,000 years ago, as the grip of the Ice Age loosened and temperatures briefly became warmer, humans moved into Central Asia. Amid the bountiful grassy steppes, they multiplied quickly.
Dmanisi Skull & Early Central Asian Humans (40,000 BC)...There's a roughly 30,000-year gap in the archaeological record of Homo sapiens outside of Africa.....The real expansion occurred in the Upper Paleolithic (around 40,000 years ago) into the uncharted territory of Asia proper….as the grip of the Ice Age loosened and temperatures briefly became warmer, modern humans moved into Central Asia.….
Sanskrit: Shambhu ... Sham: happiness...Bhu: source...Shambhu …. (s)ham-(b)hu, sh-am-bhu…. Shambhu is primarily used in the Indian language and its language of origin is Sanskrit. The meaning of the name is benevolent, kind, source of happiness. It is derived from the words 'sham' meaning happiness ; 'bhu' source.….
Mount Belukha of Altai & Siberian Shambhala...Shambala, as legend has it, is a mystical kingdom hidden somewhere beyond the snowy peaks of the Himalaya. The physical place is said to be in Central Asia, north west of Tibet.....or a valley in southern Siberia.....Although an actual location on earth may represent it, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama explains that Shambhala exists purely as a spiritual realm ….
Altaic Tengrism & Shamanistic Burkhanism...Russian Pagan and Hindu followers often go on pilgrimages to Mount Belukha, which is considered to be the location of Shambhala both by some Pagans and locals of Altai. ….Archaeologist and some scholars of Buddhist history and philosophy believe that Belukha may be Sumeru, the Central Asian mountain in Buddhist belief that is the center of Shambala (Shangri-la )
Scythian Suite: Sergei Prokofiev (1915)...Pre-Zoroastrian Scythians...The religious beliefs of the Scythians was a type of Pre-Zoroastrian Iranian religion and differed from the post-Zoroastrian Iranian thoughts.Foremost in the Scythian pantheon stood Tabiti, who was later replaced by Atar, the fire-pantheon of Iranian tribes, and Agni, the fire deity of Indo-Aryans. The Scythian belief was a more elemental stage than the Zoroastrian and Hindu systems.….
Samraat Emperor Pravarasena & Vakataka Dynasty (270 AD)...Pravarasena I. (270-330), who maintained the realm as a great power, he was the first Vakataka ruler, who called himself a Samraat …(Universal Ruler), Samraat (Sanskrit: samrāṭ or सम्राज् samrāj) is an Ancient Indian title sometimes translated into modern English as "Emperor". The title of empress is Samrãjñī….. most historians call Chandragupta Maurya the first samrāṭ of the Indian subcontinent, because he ruled the whole Indian-Subcontinent. Mauryan Emperor'sChandragupta Maurya and Ashoka are more well known as Samraat Chandragupta Maurya and Samraat Ashoka Maurya because of the vastness of their empire….
Kaula & Kapalika Practices: Kashmiri Shaivism & Vajrayana Buddhism... Kaula practices are based on tantra, closely related to the siddha tradition and shaktism. Kaula sects are noted for their extreme exponents who recommend the flouting of taboos and social mores as a means of liberation. Such practices were often later toned down to appeal to ordinary householders, as in Kaśmiri Śaivism…..Kaula or Kula describes a type of Hindu tantrism reckoned by Gavin Flood to derive from Kapalika or "cremation ground" asceticism….
The Kashmiri Pandit, Naropa (1050 AD)...Naropa is sometimes said to be from Bengal in the east, but there is little evidence for this theory and most authors locate his birthplace in Kashmir, along with Niguma. There is even some evidence that Naropa’s well-known hermitage of Pushpahari, or Pullahari, commonly identified as being on a hillock west of Bodhgaya, may have been in Kashmir….
Mother and Child Luminosities: Inner Radiance of the Ground & Path...A fundamental distinction in the Dzogchen literature of 'od gsal is that of 'inner radiance of the ground' ... and the 'inner radiance of the path' ... otherwise known as the mother and child luminosity respectively. "The luminosity experienced in meditation is called the path luminosity, simile luminosity, or child luminosity. The true luminosity of our awakened nature is called the basic luminosity or mother luminosity; it dawns at the moment of death, and if it is recognized, the mother and the child meet and become one in liberation.….
Henry Corbin: Islamic Studies & Realized Eschatology... Platonism, expressed in terms of the Zoroastrian angelology of ancient Persia, illuminated the path that I was seeking..... the writings of Suhrawardi, the 12th century Persian mystic and philosopher whose work was to profoundly affect the course of Corbin’s life….realized eschatology: that is, to live the reality of the Last Things right now.
Dakini Niguma, Consort of Naropa (Kashmir: 1Oth C.)...Niguma is considered as one of most important and highly appreciated tantric yogini or dakini. She was born 10th century in Kashmir in rich Brahmin family and according to different sources was sister or consort of Naropa. It's said that her Buddhist realization originates directly from Buddha Vajradhara. Her main student was Tibetan meditation master Khyungpo Naljor, "the Yogin of the Garuda clan.".... At twelve, in accordance with the tradition on his father's side of the family, he studied the Bon teachings. Later on he practiced Dzogchen, and finally Mahamudra….
Ösel and Śūnyatā ...Luminosity Emptiness... The term ösel literally means “clear light"......."Clarity” is another popular rendering. Chogyam Trungpa however, preferred “luminosity,” which points not so much to the light itself, but to the quality or state of being radiant. He once remarked that even though the experience of brightness, the vividness of the phenomenal world, was an important experience on the path, it wasn’t in itself ultimately the point.….
Aspionus: Bactra-Zariaspa… 'Golden Horse'... The root of the name Aspionus [an eastern district of Bactria taken by the Parthians probably between 160 and 150 BC] is clearly the word asp (horse), which was used to form many toponyms in Central Asia. In Bactria in particular, it was one of the main components of the name of the town Bactra-Zariaspa (Golden Horse), which is mentioned by Strabo and Pliny….
Mani and Shenrab Miwoche.... In Persia, the Religion of Light was presented by the Divine Messengers: Zarathustra and Mani, but a very important manifestation that few people outside of Tibet know of was Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche……Tonpa Shenrab was actually from Central Asia, part of the Persian Empire
Persian Influences in Japanese Buddhism (592 AD)...In Japan it is widely shared that Japanese Buddhism (Mahayana) was formed under the strong influence of Iranian religion………In the Central Asia (present Afghanistan and Pakistan) Iranian religions met primitive Buddhism and made a syncretic new religious movement.…. the origins of Miroku Buddhism in Japan is Mithra.......Bodhidharma is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Persian".
Maitreya-Miroku, Mitra-Buddha & The Saoshyant Kalkin (5th C. AD) ...Saoshyant is a figure of Zoroastrian eschatology who brings about the final renovation of the world, the Frashokereti.….Maitreya may have come from the ancient Indo-Iranian deity Mithra...Miroku originates from the middle Persian name “Mihrak” for Mithra.
Solar Deities & The Great Khorasan Road (2600 BC)...The Great Khorasan Road stretched from Balkh to Egypt and was a major route for Lapis lazuli since at least 5000 BC….It was also the area of the great Solar Kingdoms of Ancient Central Asia and the Middle East…. "khor" means "sun" and "san" means "the place", "the dwelling" . Khorasan, is the "place where the sun rises".….
Emperor Asoka: Eusebeia & Non-Violent Ahimsa (256 BC)... When Ashoka's army took 150,000 people captive and slew 100,000 people at Orissa, unlike Alexander at Tyre and Genghis Khan at Balkh, he experienced tremendous revulsion and an abhorrence of any killing and suffering, human or animal, and never again waged war.….
Greek-Bactrian Satraps After Alexander the Great (356 – 323 BC)...The Maurya Dynasty (321-185 BC) emerged following the withdrawal of Alexander the Great from India in 325 BC, when Emperor Chandragupta defeated Alexander's General, Seleucus Nicator….Emperor Asoka defeated the three Kalinga kingdoms in about 256 BC.
Anahita, Durga, Kali, Vajradakini, Ishtar... Besides Durga in Hinduism, there are many other instances of goddesses that fit the same profile as Inanna/Ishtar:The west-semitic goddess Astarte, a near duplicate of Ishtar referred to abundantly in the Bible.The Greek/Roman goddess Aphrodite/Venus who, although chiefly being associated with sexuality, still was viewed clearly enough as a warrior goddess in Caesar’s time to be claimed by him as his ancestor….
Orissa, Oddiyana & the Indo-European Migration (1500 BC)...Orissa was founded by Indo-Europeans who migrated into India from around 1500 BC, but who were originally from Central Asia.….Oddiyana, mentioned in some Buddhist texts, according to some scholars may have referred to Orissa......King Vishtasp of Balkh was apparantly victorious and resulted in the deva worshippers living in his Central Asian kingdom, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley (today's Pakistan).
Shivini: Solar Deity of Utartu (9th Century BC)... Shivini or Artinis (the present form of the name is Artin, meaning "sun rising" or to "awake", was a solar god in the mythology of the Urartu, a prehistoric Iron Age kingdom. He is the third god in a triad with Khaldi and Theispas and is cognate with the triad in Hinduism called Shivam. The Assyrian god Shamash is a counterpart to Shivini. He was depicted as a man on his knees, holding up a solar disc. His wife was most likely a goddess called Tushpuea who is listed as the third goddess on the Mheri-Dur inscription. Shivini is generally considered a good god, like that of the Egyptian solar god, Aten….
Zhutrul Yeshi & Mucho Demdrug (Tagzig : 1196 BC)...Around 1196 B.C., Zhutrul Yeshi, a great master from Tagzig established the Bon monastic system and propagated the practice of monastic discipline and philosophical study in the kingdoms of Zhang Zhung and Tibet….Of Tonpa Shenrab's many disciples, the foremost was Mucho Demdrug (Mu cho lDem drug), who in his turn taught many students, the most important of whom were the 'Six Great Translators'
King Jalendra, King Ja: Lankapuri & Oddiyana ...Although it is generally accepted that Tantric Buddhism first developed in the country of Uddiyana or Odra Desha under King Indrabhuti, there is an old and well known scholarly dispute as to whether Uddiyana or Odra was in the Swat valley, Odisha or some other place.….the land of Oddiyana was divided into two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Lankapuri was Brahmin and ruled by king Jalendra and the Kingdom of Sambhola was Buddhist and ruled by king Indrabhuti.
Shambhala & Sambalpur, Orissa (100 AD) ...Ptolemy mentions Sambalaka as a city in the country of the Mandalai which produced the finest diamonds in the world.….
King Rāvana of Lankapura Oddiyana ... It is possible that the events of epic Ramayana could have occurred outside the confines of present day India. Ram’s father Dasarath lived in the heavenly city of Ayodhya on the banks of the river Saryu. This might have been a river called the Syr Darya that flows through present day Turkmenistan and Kyrghistan. It is located north of the Pamirs ( Meru) with a city called Andijan that is phonetically quite similar to Ayodhya, as the capital of the area. East of it is Kashi ( Kashgar) and west is Samarkand that was known as the Markanda in the Puranas .….
King Indrabhuti & The Kingdom of Sambhola...The land of Oddiyana was divided into two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Lankapuri was Brahmin and ruled by king Jalendra and the Kingdom of Sambhola was Buddhist and ruled by king Indrabhuti.….
Mithras in the Greek Magical Papyri...The Greek Magical Papyri (Latin Papyri Graecae Magicae, abbreviated PGM) is the name given by scholars to a body of papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt, which each contain a number of magical spells, formulae, hymns and rituals. The materials in the papyri date from the 2nd century BC to the 5th century AD. ….
Suhrawardi and Persian Platonic Orientalism (1155–1191 AD) ...Suhrawardi "came later to be called the Master of Oriental Theosophy (Shaikh-i-Ishraq) because his great aim was the renaissance of ancient Iranian wisdom" which Corbin specifies in various ways as the "project of reviving the philosophy of ancient Persia". In 1186, at the age of thirty-two, he completed his magnum opus “The Philosophy of Illumination.”.....he was executed sometime between 1191 and 1208 in Aleppo….
Dream & Reality: Sufism,Taoism, Dzogchen ... In our waking, intellectual mind, differences dominate and determine how we experience ourselves. Whereas while asleep, the waking, active and conscious mind dissolves into the basic consciousness, kun-gzhi-rnam-par-shes-pa in Tibetan (alaya-vijnana in Sanskrit). The basic, all-ground consciousness stores one’s deeper karmic traces, too, which are a part of oneself. When stirred and awakened, the karmic traces tell stories and convey messages….
Rishis of Shambala, Kashmiri Sufism & the Kalachakra... The Rishi order of Kashmir is a Sufi tradition associated with religious harmony....This vale of Kashmir, that you call a paradise, owes a lot of its charm to the traditions set in vogue by the Rishis."….Kashmiris use the Hindu epithets Rishi or Baba to describe these Sufi saints. The Shaivite yogini Lal Ded was a key influence on Nund Rishi, and is said to have suckled him at her breast when he was an infant. Sufi Rishis were certainly aware of yogic practices, as evidenced by the poet Shams Faqir's praise of Lal Ded: "Lalla achieved the fusion of her vital air and ether, and thus realized God." However, the Sufi Rishis made an effort to clearly distance themselves from certain Hindu practices. Some were farmers, and Nund Rishi himself is said to cultivated land in order to demonstrate the spiritual and social importance of manual labour, abhorred by the Brahmins. ….
Pas-Anfaas & Kashmiri Sufism/Shaivism ...What keeps Kashmiri mystics firmly anchored in the Indian soil is their meditative technique. By and large they use variations of pas-e-anfaas(watching the breath). This is similar to various techniques of pranayama widely practised in India's Hath-Yoga traditions. These meditative techniques were being practised initially by the Shaivaite yogis of Kashmir before the advent of Islam….
Origins of the I Ching (3000 BC)...The typical mythological view attributes the authorship of the I Ching to China's first emperor, a god-like figure, half man, half dragon, who went by the name Fu Hsi and is said to have lived about 5,000 years ago. One day, according to legend, he saw a dragon-horse rise from the Yellow River. On it's side were markings which inspired the earliest version of the I Ching.….
Kalachakra, Shakyamuni & the 9th Century BC...The Kalachakra tantra puts the life of Shakyamuni Buddha in the 9th. Century BC, instead of the more commonly accepted 6th. Century BC....King Suchandra came from Shambhala (some say north of Kashmir) to request and receive the Kalachakra teachings from Shakyamuni Buddha... the Kalachakra tantra originated in the 9th century AD monasteries of Northern-central Afghanistan..... ….
Alexandria on the Oxus: Ai-Khanoum (280 BC) ... Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum (lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek, possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia), was founded in the 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. ….
Eastern Bactria, Gilgit, Chitral...The Dards are the linguistic descendants of the bearers of proto Rigvedic culture ca. 1700 BC, pointing to features in certain Dardic dialects that continue peculiarities of Rigvedic Sanskrit....….
Dardic Languages: Mt Noshaq & the Kalasha Valleys... Kalash mythology and folklore has been compared to that of ancient Greece, but they are much closer to Indo-Iranian (Vedic and pre-Zoroastrian) traditions. This can be explained as Hellenic, Vedic traditions. The Kalash have fascinated anthropologists due to their unique culture compared to the rest in that region, similar to ancient Persians.….
Sumerian Origins & Wisdom Literature Tablets (1750 BC)...The ancient Sumerians, the ‘black-headed ones'......and are likely to have been responsible for the development of the first writing….After about 3250 BC, another people migrated from its homeland, located probably northeast of Mesopotamia, and began to intermarry with the native population. The newcomers, who became known as Sumerians, spoke an agglutinative language unrelated apparently to any other known language.....Their original homeland was between the Caspian Sea and the Hindu Kush and Kopet Mountains
'Sun Worship': Shambhala, Sham Ash, Bactria, Sumeria : 2500 BC ...In Shambhala, the country’s capital, Kalapa…. There the Shambhala king lives in a palace made from every conceivable gem and diamond. The architecture is based upon the laws of the heavens. There is a sun temple and a moon temple… Sometimes referred to as the genuine sun that rises in one’s heart, the Great Eastern Sun’s radiance is perceived through the senses as the luminosity of the world—the worlds of heaven, earth and man—above, below and in-between.
Lapis Lazuli Trade Route ... Bactria to Sumeria (4000 BC) ...The legendary, 'mythical' 7-gated Sumerian city of Aratta, the original homeland of the Sumerians .... appears to refer to Bactria at the eastern end of the "Great Khorasan Road".... the source of valuable gems and minerals, in particular lapis lazuli.....'Civilization' may have traveled from East to West along the Sun’s path rather than blossoming first in the land of the Two Rivers of Genesis….
Mount Mashu, Shamash & The Scorpion Beings (800 BC) ...The Scorpion Men are described to have the head, torso, and arms of a man and the body of a scorpion....In the Epic of Gilgamesh, they stand guard outside the gates of the sun god Shamash at the mountains of Mashu. ….
Cuneiform Writing Script, Sumeria...3500 BC ...The concept of "divinity" in Sumerian is closely associated with the heavens, as is evident from the fact that the cuneiform sign doubles as the ideogram for "sky", and that its original shape is the picture of a star. The original association of "divinity" is thus with "bright" or "shining" hierophanies in the sky. A possible loan relation of Sumerian dingir with Turkic Tengri "sky, sky god" has been suggested.….
The Mes…Ancient Sumerian Blueprints to Civilization (3,000 BC) ...The Mes were documents or tablets which were blueprints to civilization…..In Sumerian mythology, a me (Sumerian, conventionally pronounced [mɛ]) or ñe [ŋɛ] or parşu (Akkadian, [parsˤu]) is one of the decrees of the gods foundational to those social institutions, religious practices, technologies, behaviors, mores, and human conditions that make civilization, as the Sumerians understood it, possible. They are fundamental to the Sumerian understanding of the relationship between humanity and the gods. ….
Inanna, Anahiti & Historical Aratta (4,000 BC)... ….Boyce proposes that there was once a Perso-Elamite divinity named Anahiti (as she reconstructs it from the Greek rendering of Anaitis, being otherwise unattested in old Persian) that was an analogue of Sumerian Ishtar–Inanna.
Aratta: The 'Mythical' Seven Gated City (3000 BC)...Aratta is described as follows in Sumerian literature: It is a fabulously wealthy place full of gold, silver, lapis lazuli and other precious materials, as well as the artisans to craft them......It is remote and difficult to reach.....It is home to the goddess Inana….
Chakravala Chakravartin & The Universal Monarch...Chakravartin is an ancient Indian term used to refer to an ideal universal ruler, who rules ethically and benevolently over the entire world. Such a ruler's reign is called sarvabhauma. It is a bahuvrīhi, literally meaning "whose wheels are moving", in the sense of "whose chariot is rolling everywhere without obstruction"...... "through whom the Dharmacakra ("Wheel of the Dharma) is turning" (most commonly used in Buddhism and Hinduism).….
Elamite Ziggurat ... Chogha Zanbil (1250 BC)...Ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian society....Ziggurats in the ancient world were the centerpiece in any city where they were built.....The Ziggurat was a temple on a man-made mountain where they would perform religious ceremonies exalting the god of that city..... Ziggurat's usually contained seven stories...
The Sogdian Civilization & the Tibet Migration (500 BC)...The Sogdians were the inhabitants of fertile valleys surrounded by deserts, the most important of which was the Zeravshan valley, in today’s Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. This Iranian-speaking people had a fifteen-centuries-long historical identity between the sixth century BCE and the tenth century CE when it vanished in the Muslim, Persian-speaking world....
The Mukpo Clan & the Black Headed People...Shenrab Miwo's clan is considered to be descended from the bMu deities, an ancient class of celestial deities. dMu is also the name of one of the four original tribes of Tibet....
Mukhyud Dalwa: The Cosmic Ocean of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring...Okeanos is the source ("father") of the Rivers and Springs.....the Greeks say that it flows around the whole world from where the sun rises.......
The Rivers & Mountains of Sumeru... a small handful number of western scholars have tried quite hard to identify Mount Meru or Sumeru with the Pamirs, north-east of Kashmir...
Sumerian Dilmun, Gilgamesh & the Pamir Garden of Eden...Some scholars maintain that the Sumerians may have originated from the mountainous regions of southwestern Iran, since their epic poems refer several times to western part of Iran as their original homeland. ...
Sumerian Tablets & The Kaballah (1800 BC)...The Kabbalah is traced back to Sumer and the Eridu Genesis story that was found on the Sumerian Tablets which dates back to 1800 BC. This is the oldest ‘religious text’ known to man....Abraham was a resident of the city of Ur in Mesopotamia
Purusha, Platonic Solids and Prana...Plato.....the four basic elements—fire, air, water, and earth—that he supposed to form all matter through their combinations. Plato assigned the tetrahedron, with its sharp points and edges, to the element fire; the cube, with its four-square regularity, to earth; and the other solids concocted from triangles (the octahedron and the icosahedron) to air and water, respectively. The one remaining regular polyhedra, the dodecahedron, with 12 pentagonal faces, Plato assigned to the heavens with its 12 constellations...
Sacred Geometry: Pythagoras (570 BC) & The Kalachakra...It was Baudhāyana who discovered the Pythagoras theorem. Baudhāyana listed Pythagoras theorem in his book called Baudhāyana Śulbasûtra (c. 800 BC)....
Mt Meru, Mt Harā, Yungdrung Gutsek & The Pamirs...At the centre of the land of Tagzig (called Shambhala in the Kalachakra) was Olmo Lungring which had at its centre, Yungdrung Gutsek, a four-sided mountain similar to Mount Meru / Sumeru...
Baudhayana Srauta Sutra & The Indo Aryan Migration (800 BC)...Is There Vedic Evidence for the migration of Indo-Aryan speakers from Afghanistan into India?...
Dashly Archaeological Sites (c. 2500-1700 BC)...The Dashly archaeological sites are located south of the Amu Darya River in Northern Afghanistan's Jozjan Province northwest of Balkh ... the cities and settlements of Dashly would have come within the orbit of the Ancient Aryan nation of Bakhdhi (later Balkh) otherwise known to the West as Bactria....
_Aybak Cave Dwellings & The Hazār Som Valley (1st C. AD)...an “urban complex” of more than 200 multi-roomed, multi-storied cave dwellings in Hazār Som Valley. Many exhibit painted designs, bas reliefs, and petroglyphs. Possibly the oldest dwellings date about the first century A.D...
Kashmir Smast Caves & The Mardan Valley...Mardan valley was part of the ancient Gandhara civilization...Alexander the Great reached this beautiful valley through Kunar Afghanistan and Swat in 326 BC.
Bactrian Kushan Deities & Religious Pantheon (30 - 375 AD)...from the time of Vima Takto, many Kushans started adopting aspects of Buddhist culture. Like the Egyptians, they absorbed the strong remnants of the Greek Culture of the Hellenistic Kingdoms, becoming at least partly Hellenised. The great Kushan emperor Vima Kadphises may have embraced Saivism, as surmised by coins minted during the period. The Kushan emperors represented a wide variety of faiths including Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, and Tantric Saivism...
Bactrian Kushan Kings (30 - 375 AD)...The Kingdom of Gandhara lasted from the early 1st millennium BC to the 11th century AD. It attained its height from the 1st century to the 5th century under the Kushan Kings....
Rabatak Inscription & the Bactrian Language (127 AD)...The Kushan Empire was an empire in Central Asia originally formed in the early 1st century CE under Kujula Kadphises in the territories of ancient Bactria around the Oxus River (Amu Darya), and later based near Kabul, Afghanistan. ...
Surkh Kotal & The Kushan Empire (127 AD)...Surkh Kotal is an ancient archaeological site located in the southern part of the region of Bactria....Huge temples, statues of Kushan rulers and the Surkh Kotal inscription of early Kushan emperors (also called Great Kushans), the statue of King Kanishka and the Fire Altar....
Iron Age in Central Asia (10th Century BC)...The Iron Age is the period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles...
Banpo & The Cosmic City (4,800 BC)...Urbanization begins at Banpo (4,800-3,750 BC) on the Zhongyuan plain of the Yellow River. Banpo grew from a typical Yangshao village in both size and organization until the construction of the Great Hall ca. 4000 BCE....
Shangdi & The Book Of Rites (1046 BC)...The Duke of Zhou created an entire ceremonial city along strict cosmological principals to house the Shang aristocracy and the nine tripods representing Huaxia sovereignty...
Puranas & The Kalachakra (966 AD)...no one seems to have examined the Sanskrit Kalachakra texts. The Buddhist myth of the Kalkis of Shambhala derives from the Hindu Kalki of Shambhala myths contained in the Mahabharata and the Puranas....
'Channeled' Texts & Shambhala Terma...Chogyam Trunpa said that when he 'received' the Shambhala texts he saw them in a language that he did not recognize....he wrote them down in Tibetan which was 'as close as I could get'....
King Vishtaspa of Balkh (900 BC?)... ...Ferdowsi's Shahnameh tells us that King Vishtasp was King of Balkh at the time of Zoroaster....in the War of Religion in which Vishtasp was apparantly victorious ….resulted in the deva worshippers living in his Central Asian kingdom, leaving or being pushed south through the Hindu Kush mountain passes into the upper Indus valley (today's Pakistan). It is possible that the Indus valley had previously been populated by deva worshippers, and that those from Central Asia migrated to join their co-religionists. The Hindu Kush formed a border between the asura worshippers and the deva worshippers....See KALACHAKRA NOTES...
John Hopkins....February 2021
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
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