Bamiyan, present day distraction of the cultural heritage by Taleban

ASTROLOGY
Jyotish - The Vedic Astrology of
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Feng-shui

Chinese art of Feng-shui. is something similar to "Vastu" in Vedic traditions. In Chinese, Feng-shui means understanding "The forces of Nature".

This Feng-shui site is from Vincent Koh. A Chinese Buddhist in Singapore

VedicWorld

Dedicated to the memory of world heritage Bamiyan Buddha statues destroyed by fanatics for no reason at all.

Vedic civilization was on it's highest glory during the last 2000- 4000 year period. The crown jewels of the vedic era was the emergence of two great religious philosophies , Buddhism and Hinduism. Both philosophies are based on the theory of Karma with the ultimate aim of ending the recurring cycle of life and death. The Vedicworld contains hundreds of links to good high quality web sites related to Vedic traditions, such as

Yoga, Vastu, Ayurveda, Jyotish Astrology, Hinduism and Buddhism......

Sun Shuyun

Sun Shuyun grew up in China during cultural revolution. Her grandmother was a devout Buddhist, her father a zealous follower of the Communist party. Sun Shuyun remembers growing up in Mao's China - a world of deception, distrust and misunderstanding. More at.guardian.co.uk

Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud

A book worthy of having in every Library, specially in Sri Lanka, India, China and Japan. A book which must be translated to Singhalese and Hindi by some one who can.

Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com

Perhaps, you may remember the TV series Monkey , made by NTV in the late 1970s, and viewed by Sri Lankans in mid 80's

It's based on one of the great quest stories, a 16th century Chinese epic " Buddhist Records of the Western Countries" (Click hereto read that book) written by Hsien-tsang circa 650 AD. In his era, China was isolated from India and all the homelands of Buddhist tradition; this was a grief to Chinese Buddhists, who had no direct contact with the heartland of their religion, the land where the Buddha himself had lived and taught Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang). actually lived and really did go to India in 629 A.D. to get Buddhist scriptures.

Synopsis

At the heart of this book lies Sun Shuyun's own personal journey towards understanding the Buddhist faith of her grandmother, recognizing also the passionate idealism of the communist beliefs of her own family and discovering her own beliefs.... Read More about Sun Shuyun.. here BETTER NOT KILL ANYTHING:Sun Shuyun was shocked by the effect of the violent cultural revolution in 1960's as described in the chapter 2 THREE MONKS AT WILD GOOSE PAGODA Chapter 6 is about her visit to Pakistan and the present day distraction of the cultural heritage by Taleban. IMAGINING THE BUDDHA. In Chapter 8 , Sun Shuyun records her encounter of the new breed of Buddhists at Buddha Gaya in the following way.. NOT A MAN ? (WHO IS BUDDHA) In chapter 9 Sun Shuyun records, what caused the decline of Buddhism in India. The Birth place of Buddha EVERY HINDU IS A BUDDHIST

Other Book Reviews.

ABC Online - In search of Buddha Spirit of things - An interview with Author by Australian TV. (A must Read)

The Book was published by HarperCollins UK, in 2003 , ISBN 0007129734 Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud ( Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com)

Visitors today

IMAGINING THE BUDDHA

Chapter 6 is about her visit to Pakistan and the present day distraction of the cultural heritage by Taleban

…The man reappeared half an hour later, with a little sack, We retreated into the back of his shop. Slowly from his sack, emerged handfuls of copper coins, whose dates or authenticity I could not determine. But of the beautiful stucco head of a Bodhisattva, there was no denying the antiquity. The expression on the face was so otherworldly. I doubted whether any one who did not truly understand the message of the Buddha could copy it so perfectly. It was like some of the best pieces' the Peshawar Museum. From the maze-like bazaars of Peshawar, the treasures of Afghanistan and Pakistan, piece by piece, will wriggle way to private owners, dealers and museums in the West, until there will be nothing left inside the country Thank God, I remember thinking, they could not smuggle giant Buddhas of Bamiyan. As everyone now knows, the worst was yet to come. 26 February 2001, a year after I had tried in vain to en i Afghanistan, Mullah Mohammed Omar issued this decree. In view of the Fatwa of prominent Afghan scholars and the verdict of the Afghan Supreme Court, it has been decided to break down all statues idols present in different parts of the country. This is because these idols have been gods of the infidels, who worshipped them, and these are respected even now and perhaps may be turned into gods again. The real god is only Allah, and all other false gods should be removed.

The destruction started with the Buddhas of Bamiyan. The statues had been left over from our ancestors as a wrong heritage,' the international community was told and its' pleas protests and requests to purchase them were completely ignored. As the world watched helplessly, tanks and anti-aircraft rocket-launchers fired round after round at the Buddhas, knocking off the heads, the legs and the heavy folds of their robes. But the statues which had been standing there for over a millennium, and had withstood the onslaught of Genghis Khan's army, would not surrender.

I thought of Xuanzang often during those fateful weeks of destruction. He had stood right there, just after they were built. He received a warm reception on reaching the Kingdom of Bamiyan. The king came out to meet him in person and invited him to the palace. He was, Xuanzang says, so devout frequently assembled his people and the monks in the country to give away all his possessions, only to have them batred back by his ministers and officers.

This is how Xuanzang describes the bigger of the statues: 'To the northeast of the royal city there is a mountain, on whose slope there stands a stone figure of the Buddha, erect, 145 or 150 feet in height. its golden hues sparkle on side and its precious ornaments dazzle the eyes by their ness.'

Disturbed by how long it had taken to destroy them, Mohammed Omar instructed that a hundred cows be slaugh-tered around the country 'to atone for the delay in the demo-lition of the statues'. To speed up their action, soldiers climbed up and down the tunnels behind the giant statues and filled them with dynamite. Then the final moment came. The Tali-ban filmed the whole act of destruction, and put it on video, showing it around the world, as yet another gesture of their defiance. I watched it on the Internet at home in disbelief a huge explosion shook the ground amid cheers and of delight, 'God is great,' and 'Whatever God wills'. T1. cloud of dust and smoke filled the air and the valley, shook the entire mountain. When the dust settled and the air cleared, where the two Buddhas had stood was nothing two gaping holes. On the ground lay two huge piles of n that were once the Buddhas of Bamiyan. Then the Taleban soldiers scrambled up into the empty spaces, waving shouting in triumph. They looked as small as scorpions just as deadly. Their commander who oversaw the destruction….

The two colossal Buddhas were gone. So too were the sculptures that had survived in the Kabul Museum. Taliban soldiers burst in there and for three days smashed, with hammers and axes what was left of the thousand statues. The last one to go was the finest piece in the collection, the second-century limestone statue of I Kanishka, the great patron of Buddhism. They laughed as they hacked it to pieces, until it was reduced to yet another pile of rubble. Every trace of Buddhism, every image was erased from Afghanistan. Their ancestors had built biggest statues of the Buddha that the world has ever see prove the strength of their faith; now they proved themselves to Allah by destroying them. In the end, the Taliban achieved something they not intended. The weeks of shelling and the final destruction the statues focused the whole world's attention on Afghanistan's rich Buddhist past, the history of these stone sculptures and, as Xuanzang described, the fervor of the local peoples devotion which led them to create them……...Ten Thousand Miles Without a Cloud ( Click here to buy the book from Amazon.com)

Buddha

Dharma

An appearance of a Buddha & the opportunity to know Dhamma (The way Karma works) is rare indeed, unfortunate are those who miss it.

Stupa, murals found in Bamiyan

Researchers have been over Bamiyan, site of ancient Buddhist relics, with a tooth comb. Yet on Wednesday, a Japanese team reported the first discovery in 40 years of new cave murals. The paintings, found in the Da'uti area of Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley in June, are near the remains of two giant Buddha statues destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001.

The team, from the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, also confirmed during field work conducted June 15 to 29 that a 2.5-meter tall enclosure in the Bamiyan Valley was an old stupa site. The team is helping preserve the Buddhist cultural heritage of the Silk Road center, designated a World Heritage site in July 2003.[Follow article link...]

True Heros

American Col. Olcott, and Tibetan Rev. S. Mahinda are regarded as National Hero's of Sri Lanka. Their service to the country is immense. The works and influences of great personalities transcend the time for hundreds of years to the posterity.

Because of that, it is important to have their life and work to be researched, translated, documented and published. Such as production of a TV documentary, biographies etc. But as usual Sri Lankans were an ungrateful nation. The time has come for some one or an association such as old Anananda or Nalanda, association in US to take the initiative and get on with rather than organizing parties, dances and BBQ's.

It is also important to mention that we have lot to learn from Tibet. There is a great need to do a comparative study of Buddhism in the two countries in an equal footing open minded manner compare one by one all the aspects including Sutras and traditions etc. (The importance of this is immense, but you need the capacity to understand that. I can write a whole web page full, explaining why we should do it. But unfortunately very few Sri Lankan Buddhists and specially priests have the capacity, the open mindedness, the genuine thirst for knowledge and exploration. To understand what I am talking about. As there are very few Rev. Ananda Mithriyas are among us. You can not do that with the mind set of that, Heenayana is better than Mahayana or the other way around (It is as foolish as saying that "Loken Uthum Rata Lankawai" {Sri Lanka is the best country in the world} as it is not true now and it is the bitter truth. Only those who have not seen and lived in other countries may accept that delusion). You have to do it with the mind set of that, both are from the same original sources and what pollutants had the both attracted on the course of flow for thousands of years in different directions and piece together the original quality of the water of the source by analyzing the present samples of water of the two rivers and matching. It is not easy. To do that you need to know Buddhism as well as Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Sinhalese etc. So an extra ordinary person or persons are needed)

Why not some one do a PhD project on that ? Why not do some exchange of scholarly Bikkus for a period of years between Tibet and Sri Lanka ?.

Some Mahanayaka's think their duty is to advice corrupt politicians, whilst there are millions of important things to do are being neglected. What a disgrace.

~Lakshman~

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