Buddhist cave temples found in Grand Canyon

Dhr. Seven and Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly, Jack Andrews, "Was the carved 'installation' in the Grand Canyon an ancient Buddhist temple?" (Lost Civilizations / in Spanish)

The Gazette headlines of April 5, 1909 document the reality of these unbelievably astounding finds, some of the greatest US archeological discoveries ever. Why were they covered up?

 

Better than feathers (Jamyang190/blog)

In the vast Grand Canyon of Arizona, USA, there is an Egyptian-style tomb full of Buddhist art showing that Asians migrated to America and brought the Dharma and advanced technology to Native Americans in the distant past. It is similar to the Valley of Kings in Luxor, Egypt. While this will be too fantastic for most readers to believe, the trail of evidence begins with an article published on the front page of the Arizona Gazette on April 5, 1909. It claims that just such a rock-cut cavern temple full of Buddhist, Vedic, and Egyptian art and architecture, hieroglyphs, and mummies -- an almost incomprehensible wealth of archaeological treasures -- was discovered.

Marble Canyon, Grand Canyon Nat'l Park

"According to the story related to the Gazette by Mr. Kinkaid, the archaeologists of the Smithsonian Institute, which is financing the expeditions, have made discoveries which almost conclusively prove that the race which inhabited this mysterious cavern, hewn in solid rock by human hands, was of oriental origin..." - Arizona Gazette, April 5, 1909

"First, I would impress that the cavern is nearly inaccessible. The entrance is 1,486 feet down the sheer canyon wall" -  G.E. Kincaid, 1909 

Was the carved "installation" in the Grand Canyon an ancient Buddhist temple?

 

Mt. Hengshan, China, near Datong, Shanxi Province

Photos show how ancient Chinese Buddhist monks went out of there way to carve their temples in cliff faces in remote and inaccessible cliff-lined river canyons.

Other clues to the speculation that the installation may have been used for such a purpose are broken swords and cups and other items, often used ceremonially in ancient Chinese Buddhist temples, were found in the cave in 1909. The cave lies in Marble Canyon (above photo), which is a steep limestone wall-lined canyon. It it is similar to the Hanging or Mid-Air temples on Mount Hengshan, China, southeast of Datong, Shanxi Province.

They cling precariously to the cliff face and illustrate determined isolation of the early Buddhist communities in China. 

Founded in pre-Tang Northern Wei Dynasty, the temples continued to function during the Tang period and were subsequently restored in the Ming and Qing dynasties (Tang China: Vision and Splendour of a Golden Age by Edmund Capon with photography by Werner Forman, Macdonald Orbis, 1989). 

 

Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves (left) high on the cliffs of the west Mutou Valley under the Flaming Mountains, 27 miles (45 km) east of Turpan near Shanshan in Western China's Uygur Autonomous Region, northeast of Taklamakan Desert, Xinjiang. The caves feature  ancient Buddhist monasteries carved into cliffs dating from ~400 AD to 1,300  AD. More

  

"Approximately 70 km. (45 miles) east of Turfan lie the Buddhist cave-cliff temples of Bezeklik, most of which were originally built in the open and joined by wooden porches.

 

Grand Canyon Egyptian finds (lightworkers.org)

"Others were carved into the living rock in the manner of cave temples. The height of activity at Bezeklik, on the evidence of surviving wall paintings, was the Tang Dynasty, when Silk Road trade brought travelers, merchants, and missionaries to the temples in search of sanctuary and spiritual comfort.

Today they are still difficult to reach, for the monks endeavored, even here in the desert wastelands of Chinese Central Asia, to build their temples as far away as possible from the real and profane world" (Ibid.)

 

Mai-Chi caves, Chinling range, China (Magnificant China, Hong Kong, Hua Hsia Publ., 1972)

 
Indian Legend

Burmese cave temple (Nadia Isakova/flickr)

It is notable that among the Hopis, the tradition is told that their ancestors once lived in an underworld in the Grand Canyon. This went on until dissension arose between the good and the bad, the people of one heart, the people of two hearts.
 
(Manchoto), who was their chief, counseled them to leave the underworld, but there was no way out. The chief then caused a tree to grow up and pierce the roof of the underworld, and then the people of one heart climbed out.

They tarried by Palsiaval (Red River), which is the Colorado river, and grew grain and corn. They sent out a message to the Temple of the Sun, asking for blessings of peace, goodwill, and rain for the people of one heart.

That messenger never returned, but today at the Hopi village at sundown can be seen the old men of the tribe out on the housetops gazing towards the Sun, looking for the messenger. When he returns, their land and ancient dwelling place will be restored to them. That is the tradition. More

• Arizona Gazette, Monday Evening, April 5, 1909
• Is There a Vast Cavern System of Tunnels and Chambers at the Grand Canyon?
• Lost City of the Dead in the Grand Canyon
• The Grand Discovery (story quoted in full)
• The Importance of the Find in 1909
• The Search for Kinnaman's Entrance
• The [astonishing] Arizona Gazette story of 1909

• Lost Cities and Ancient Mysteries of the Southwest
• Lost Cities of China, Central Asia, and India

The Kogi, Sierra Nevada (RinzaisMarket.com, Sedona, AZ, world-healing.com)