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Who was the architect in Taiwan who thought of Mahabodhi Temples and a pyramid?
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Balloons really fly over Bagan as best way to see
The most memorable time to see the ancient site of Bagan is at sunrise or sunset, when the ancient peaks of this sprawling temple complex (filled with many Buddhist monuments, temples, and a thousand+ stupas) are illuminated by a soft glow.
They can best be seen in the morning by hot air balloon, but we rented a bike and drove around from ancient ruin to ruin to well-kept temple, at least one of which was like a European castle made of stone.
This living archeological site, which sits on the fertile plains of the Irrawaddy River delta, is composed of more than 1,000 red-brick temples, pagodas, palaces, and Buddhist monasteries, which were built between 1057 and 1287 AD.
Sadly in 2016, a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck the site, and 185 of the buildings were damaged, with restoration work continuing to this day. It was the Pagan (\puh-gone\ not \pay-gan\) Empire, circa 1210.
[The reason there are so many is that the Burmese Theravada Buddhists learned that they could make merit by building a Buddhist monastery or monument. So they competed with one another so that ever villager of means began construction to ensure the future with good karma.]
Proof the ETs planned and built these structures: the presence of vast amounts of liquid mercury under a Chinese Buddhist tomb site, the Mexican pyramid site at Teotihuacan (40 miles from modern Mexico City), and at least one ancient Egyptian pyramid. Ancient humans mined and moved super toxic mercury for its value in energy production?
The wonders of Angkor in Cambodia, once the world's largest city
Cambodian (Khmer) Theravada Buddhist monks still use the grand monastery (Angkor Wat)
The walls, levels, peaks, and geometry represent the Buddhist universe with its many worlds
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Buddhist Angkor (Khmer language អង្គរ, lit. "Capital City"), also known as Yasodhara-pura (Khmer យសោធរបុរៈ, Sanskrit यशोधरपुर) [1, 2], was the capital city of the Khmer Empire in the Cambodian jungle.
The city and empire flourished from approximately the 9th to the 15th centuries. The city center houses the great temple-monastery Angkor Wat, one of Cambodia's most popular tourist attractions.
These walls represent the four quarters of the sky (akasha) and the heavens (sagga) above.
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The geometric arrangement is visible to the godlings (devas)
The name Angkor is derived from nokor (នគរ), a Khmer word meaning "kingdom," which in turn derived from Sanskrit nagara (नगर), meaning "city" [3].
The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" (chakravartin) and "god-king" (deva-raja, melding church and state like the Dalai Lama system once did in Tibet before China overthrew it) and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayutthayan suzerainty in 1351.
A Khmer rebellion against Siamese (Thai) authority resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya, causing its population to migrate south to Longvek.
The alternate name, Yasodharapura, was derived from the name of the foster mother of Lord Krishna in Hinduism [which is also the name of Prince Siddhartha's wife before he became the Buddha].
Hinduism -- which had swallowed and melded itself with Buddhism by this time -- was the largest religion in the ancient Khmer Empire, and many temples were constructed by Khmer kings dedicated to Hindu deities, including Angkor Wat. More: Angkor
This tiered motif represents a hierarchical arrangement of heavens (deva lokas)
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The great pyramid temple of Java, Indonesia: Borobudur, the largest excavated site
This Buddhist-Hindu masterpiece is the largest excavated Buddhist temple in the world. There is a larger temple complex underground in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara) but that may stay underground due to the US war on Afghanistan's economy and chance of recovery, leaving it wholly dependent on outside investors from China.
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From the Buddhist empires of Indonesia (Java), India, Burma, Cambodia to the Greek kingdoms Buddhist Bactria and Europe to Africa (Egypt), to China, to Mexico and the Mayan sites of modern Mesoamerica and the Indigenous dwellings of the Americas, these breathtaking ruins offer a fascinating insight into how some of the world’s oldest cultures lived. Here are 30 ancient sites that any history lover should visit at least once in their lifetime.
The Buddhist-Hindu temple above, with Buddhas in bells atop it, is called Borobudur, Java, Indonesia (Adel Newman/Shutterstock). One would be hard-pressed to find a more stunning sight than sunrise over Buddhist Borobudur (with the exception of the larger sites of formerly Buddhist Afghanistan or ancient Gandhara), with Mount Merapi rising up in the background. This impressive structure, located in Central Java, is the world’s largest (excavated) Buddhist temple. It was built between AD 778 and 850, under the Shailendra dynasty. (It needed to be excavated because invading Muslims could neither explain how Buddhists and Hindus built it nor could they tear it down, so they buried it in mud, and it was forgotten for many years. Then one day a British surveyor arrived with a map, looked around, and said, "That mountain does not belong there." He climbed it, dug into it, and rediscovered it for all humanity. It was cleansed of the caked mud and plants, revealing wonders that can hardly be explained today. It is so level and all made of stone without mortar or cement. How? Even with a laser level, it would be an impressive feat to build it now.] It’s thought that the ancient kingdom was used for only two centuries before volcanic activity from Merapi, between AD 928 and 1006, led Buddhist monks to abandon the sacred site. Today, it’s best visited with a guide, who can be hired for about 50,000 Indonesian rupees (US$3.22).
We are lied to. Much is kept from us. Which country has the most pyramids? No, not Egypt. Not Mexico. It is Syria. (Who even knew there were any there? If there are 167 Egyptian pyramids, there are about 220 ancient Syrian ones. Yet, we do not remember ever being shown even one of them).
The latest discovery of a Buddhist pyramid (square stupa) is in Central Asia, near Afghanistan.
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The largest pyramid in the world? Egypt? No, not even close. The largest is in Cholula, Mexico. But there are likely larger ones in Bosnia and Indonesia, super ancient sites the size of mountains. We are not allowed to believe in those. They certainly look like pyramids from a distance. Closer up it is not as clear. They are so old they have crumbled and are overgrown. But at least in Bosnia, there is a tunnel system underneath, just as we find in Cholula, Mexico, and Egypt.
Modern Buddhist Taiwan has built the latest Buddhist pyramid with a giant Buddha behind.
Borobudur, Indonesia, in the mist, topped by many small hollow stupas with Buddhas inside.
These are the archeological remains of a mountain-sized pyramid in Indonesia.
Science is having a hard time accepting that the ancients could have built something this big.
Because Buddhist missionaries arrived in Mexico and California, the pyramids here suggest a connection to other empires and even distant ancient Egyptians who built in the Grand Canyon.
There was once a single worldwide culture connecting most if not all human groups.
The alignments and perfection of Borobudur cannot be explained, and no mortar was used.
The Borobudur site has a map of all its many surprises as it was laid out like an Angkor Wat.
Giant Amitabha Buddha overlooking pyramid
The grand architecture of the layout is only visible from sky-vehicles (vimanas)
This is an overview of the latest discovery, a square (yantra, mandala) pyramid (Newsweek)
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