(Ajahn Sona) Premiered June 22, 2025: This video essay explores the influence of Western culture -- particularly those of ancient Persia (Aryan Iran) and Greece -- on Indian Buddhism in the first 500 years after the Buddha's passing [into final nirvana].
Focusing on the region of Gandhara (in present-day Afghanistan/Pakistan, Central Asia), this video traces how early encounters between these civilizations shaped the development of [Greco-] Buddhist art, writing, and the transmission of ideas [particularly along the Silk Road].
Through reflections on script, statuary, and cultural exchange, this documentary sheds light on the oft-overlooked role that Western thought played in shaping early Buddhism -- a legacy that still echoes to this day.
0:00:00 - Title
0:00:15 - Chapter 1: Two empires arrive in India
0:24:11 - Chapter 2: Roots of writing the Dhamma
0:52:23 - Chapter 3: Buddha statues and monasteries
This golden urn and these items were found buried in a stone casket found in Stupa No. 2 at Bimaran, Gandhara, near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan.
When it was found by the archaeologist Charles Massonduring his work in Afghanistan between 1833 and 1838, the stone casket contained coins.
The piece was dated as having been created or buried in the 1st century AD, which is when the coins are thought to date from, on the assumption that those coins were interred in it in the first place, when they were almost certainly added later when it was re-interred after its precious relics were looted.
The priceless gold, jewel-studded, cylindrical relic container set with almandine garnets bears a frieze with one of the earliest depictions of the Buddha from the northwest region of Gandhara (ancient India).
However, when found in the 19th century, the lid of the reliquary and the bones were missing. The relic was deposited with small burnt pearls [a good description of genuine relics], beads of precious and semi-precious stones, and four Azes II coins. The coins, and thus the reliquary, can be dated... More Evidence of the Buddha's Ukraineconnection
The Buddha reclining into final nirvana (paranirvana), Gandharan art (wiki)
Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, all around Kapilavastu (wiki)
The outrageous claim by a Ukrainian scholar that the Buddha may have been Ukrainian is quite possible -- so long as one extends ancient Indo-Scythia to include faraway Crimea and Ukraine high in the north of Asia.
The Scythians might well be the Shakyas of later Sakkastan. But history here is very muddled by nationalistic Indian claims, Nepalese counterclaims, British archeological discoveries and deceptions, such as the Jonesian frauds detected by Dr. Pal.
In any case, this magnificent relic container suggests that Siddhartha Gautama came from far north of India, somewhere west of the Indus river. If that is not the case, it is hard to imagine why people under a Gandharan/Indo-Pakistani king would have been involved in re-interring the Buddha's relics rather than plundering the treasure.
(WIKI) King Azes II (reigned circa 35-12 BCE) may have been the last Indo-Scythian king on the northern Indian subcontinent (now Pakistan as of 1947's Partition).
However, due to new research by R.C. Senior (2008, "The Final Nail in the Coffin of Azes II," Journal of the Oriental Numismatic Society 197, 2008, pp. 25-27), his actual existence is now seriously in doubt, and "his" coins and so on are now thought to refer to those of Azes I.
After the death of Azes II, the rule of the Indo-Scythians in northwestern India and Pakistan finally crumbled with the conquest of the Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had lived in [Greco-Persian] Bactria for more than a century, who were then expanding into India to create a Kushan Empire. Soon after, the Parthians invaded from the west. More
And what it all goes to show is that history is a mess, just as the Buddha spoke of countless empires, kingdoms, and republics that rose to glory to invariably crumble. Even a "world monarch," or chakravartin, ruling in accordance with dharma in the noble/warrior-caste ideal, is not exempt from this revolving cycle. Who were these world ruler?
Wisdom Quarterly; Tom Standage, Mitch Jeserich (KPFA), Frank Rose (NY Times, 11-1-13)
Through the ages: A Roman wax tablet and its 21st-century electronic descendant, the iPad.
The Romans had social media and tablets. The Victorians had an Internet. We are taught to believe it's novel, but it's the way things were before media got centralized. Technology has just returned us to where we were with everything potentially faster and cheaper.
For nearly 20 years, we’ve thought of “new media” as the brash young upstart and “old media” as the stalwart if increasingly embattled establishment.
But what if new media aren’t as new as we assume -- and old media not really old at all?
So argues Tom Standage in Writing on the Wall, a provocative book that asks us to look at media less in terms of technology -- digital or analog -- than in terms of the role they invite us to play. Are we passive receptors for whatever facts, opinions, and ad messages come our way?
Or are we participants, sharing what we like with others, amending or commenting in the process? The second is characteristic of the Internet in general and social media in particular. But there’s nothing revolutionary about this, Standage says.
Instead, it’s the role of consumer, so typical of 20th-century mass media, that’s unnatural -- and to Standage, a historical blip. This observation has been made before, but never with such a wealth of
information to back it up. Standage -- the digital editor at The Economist and the author of such unorthodox chronicles as...More
Writing on the Wall: Social Media — The First 2,000 Years by Tom Standage. Illustrated. 278 pp. Bloomsbury.
“The Buddhas of Mes Aynak” page on kickstarter.com succeeded! It met its initial goal of $30,000 to promote the preservation of perhaps the world's greatest Buddhist archeological site, located in war torn Afghanistan which is being destroyed by US greed and Chinese opportunism.
The updated ambition is to aim at stretching the goal to $40,000. This would enable the project to hire a composer,
sound mixer, and additional film editors.
Afghan archeologists struggle to document treasure before Chinese government mining interests destroy them and plunder the wealth of metal and mineral treasures on the site.
The additional
funds would also allow for a creation of a Thai section to the film. It would become composed of interviews with people in Thailand, one of the most Theravada Buddhist countries in the world, who have been fighting to protect Mes Aynak ("Little Copper Well").
his work documenting Mes Aynak before its destruction for copper mining
Original goal
Workers continue to uncover treasures as the Chinese eagerly approach with dreams of billions of dollars' worth of raw ingredients for iPhones and other electronics.
The original goal of the campaign was to fund the production of a
documentary film (segments of which have already been featured by BBC, NPR, Wisdom Quarterly, CNN, The
Washington Post, PRI, Huffington Post, etc.) about the imminent destruction of
the ancient Buddhist city and massive temple complex at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan.
The U.S. War on Afghanistan has so destabilized the country that it is desperate for foreign investments and the development of Afghanistan's natural resources. Enter the newly capitalist Chinese government. It plans to exploit the mineral wealth of this ancient copper, gold, and rare earth mine beginning December 2012.
The film will also document the work of
international archaeologists and all of their findings at Mes Aynak.
Brent E. Huffman is a documentary filmmaker and professor at Northwestern
Univ., working since 2011 on a story about this ancient Buddhist
city now converted to Islam and populated by Pashtuns. Having felt deeply connected with Afghanistan and the Afghan people
while covering the first democratic presidential elections in 2004, he vowed to do something to bring this amazing land and its people to the attention of the world.
Huffman first visited Mes Aynak in June of 2011 and immediately fell in
love. He felt the need to do everything in his
power to save its cultural heritage for future generations of both local Afghans
and the international community.
In addition to destroying one of
Afghanistan’s most important archaeological sites yet discovered, the Chinese copper mine
will devastate the environment by polluting the land and poisoning the water
supply in Logar province, killing all life forms in the area.
The money raised in this expanded campaign will goes toward documenting the site and its eventual disposition by film. This will create international awareness that may save Mes Aynak and
prevent the destruction of other Afghan cultural sites located on or near other mineral sources.
This is a story of a race against time. The documentary follows an international team of archaeologists fighting to save a 2,600-year-old Buddhist city and temple complex in volatile Logar
province, Afghanistan.
Led by Philippe
Marquis of DAFA, the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, the
specialists attempt to document ancient Mes Aynak before
it is destroyed and buried.
The
location, called one of the most important archaeological discoveries in all of Asia (Afghanistan is in Central Asia, bordering India and an ancient Indian territory known as Gandhara),
will be demolished by the Chinese government-owned mining company MCC. MCC will exploit the location for
over 100 billion dollars worth of copper located directly beneath the Buddhist
temples and precious reliquary burial mounds on the site.
The film will also examine the cultural and historical significance of the Mes
Aynak Buddhist complex and show in vivid detail what life was like for the
Buddhist nuns and monks who lived, meditated, and attained enlightenment there.
Gorgeous figures in the Western-influenced Gandhara-style predating Indian depictions
Background
Mes Aynak is desert region 15.5 miles (25 kms) southeast of the capital of Kabul.
It is an enormous
archaeological treasure trove 400,000 square feet in size. It is an ancient Buddhist
monastic complex with abbeys, halls, courts, extensive wall frescos, massive devotional temples, and more
than 200 life-sized Buddha statues comprising a discovery of immense global significance.
At the same time, Mes Aynak is home to the largest undeveloped
copper reserve in the world.
Directly beneath the Buddhist site lie mineral deposits worth an
estimated $100 billion (a figure that increases as the dollar and other international currencies plunge).
The fate of the ancient Buddhist artifacts hangs in the
balance as the Chinese begin planning their destructive exploitation using open-pit style copper
mining techniques. More
Bamiyan: Wonderful of the World Heritage Shovelbum.com The giant Afghan Buddhas, carved into a mountainside at Bamiyan in the heart of the Hindu Kush mountains, were among Asia’s great archaeological treasures.
In antiquity, central Afghanistan was strategically placed to thrive from the Silk Road caravans which criss-crossed the region trading between the Roman Empire, China, and India. One of the stopping-off points was the old kingdom of Kushan, whose people were responsible for carving these Buddhist wonders of the ancient world.
The larger statue stood at 53 metres (125 feet) above the town of Bamiyan [possibly the original Kapilavastu, where Siddhartha grew up before becoming the Buddha] -- as high as a 10-storey building.
It was considered to be the [largest and] most remarkable representation of the Buddha anywhere in the world. At one time, it and a 38-metre-high companion were painted in gold and other bright colors. And they were decked in dazzling ornaments.
All around there was a synthesis of Greek, Persian [Indo-Iranian/Aryan], Central Asian, and South Asian art. There were countless rich frescoes.
On one cave wall, there remain traces of a painting of Buddhas in maroon robes strolling in fields of flowers. In another painting, milk-white horses draw the Sun God’s golden chariot [vimana, space ship, UFO] through a dark blue sky.
Bamiyan was a place of pilgrimage. There were 10 Buddhist monasteries built into the cliff [a labyrinth of caves and crevices] -- the home of saffron-robed Buddhist monks and nuns, who presided over festivals.
Muslim Afghanistan
The monastics and pilgrims left 14 centuries ago when Islam [conquerors] came to the Hindu Kush. Bamiyan fell into neglect.
For a short time, the 1960's hippy trail passed through Bamiyan. It became a hub for a new kind of traveler. But Afghanistan’s 20 years of civil war put a stop to that. The area played an important strategic role.
For many years it was the stronghold of the Hezb-i-Whadat party, the main faction of the Shi’a Muslims of the center of the country.
Hezb-i-Whadat is a member of the Northern Alliance which opposes the purist [CIA-created] Taliban movement. They apparently approached the site with a mixture of suspicion and disinterested neglect.
It became variously an ammunition dump and home to dozens of families displaced by the war [who took up residence in the caves]. Those who visited Bamiyan said this treatment was threatening the integrity of the monuments and structures.
The Hezb were driven out by the Taliban in the campaigns of 1997 and 1998. Despite their abhorrence of idols and un-Islamic images, the Taliban initially assured the international community that the site would come to no harm.
But that restraint has now been dropped [thanks almost certainly to CIA pressure], apparently in the belief that there is little to be gained from bowing to the sensibilities of the outside world.
Why destroy a world heritage site?
Seven and Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (ANALYSIS)
The CIA by vilifying the extremist Taliban -- which it created from released prisoners in neighboring countries, according to Fitzgerald and Gould -- was intent on creating a pretext to attack and invade the entire country of Afghanistan while claiming to be rooting out just the Taliban. With 9-11 and Osama bin Laden/Emmanuel Goldstein, it found a fertile narrative to justify the US's longest war ever. The real interest the US has in controlling Afghanistan follows the history of many previous empires (British, Indian, Persian, Central Asian, Russian, Roman, Greek). It is a strategic interest to control the region by launching attacks from a centralized base and airstrips. The other dominant interest is an oil pipeline that had already been arranged and contracted before the US invaded. There is a great deal of money to be made and influence to be exerted. Meanwhile, ancient Buddhism falls by the wayside. Now China is extracting mineral riches and demolishing the world's largest Buddhist archeological site and Afghan monastery at Mes Aynak.
SPECIAL NOTE: WQ has no vested interest in the Buddha's birthplace being in India, Persia, Iran, Afghanistan, Greco-India, or anywhere else in particular. (In fact, for simplicity we prefer Nepal, a lovely and mysterious land which already claims the other biggest thing in the world). However, we do have a keen interest in the truth -- whatever it may be. We are therefore eager to entertain, explore, and question counterintuitive scholarship on the subject.
Ranajitpal.com (excerpt)
Sir Aurel Stein, one of the greatest antiquarians of all times, found a very ancient shrine at Kuh-e Khwaja [the real "Kapilavastu," birthplace of the Buddha, also called Prophthasia] in Seistan which he labelled as Buddhist. He found nothing ancient in Nepal yet, due to Führer, saw only Bodhisattvas and missed that this was the birthplace of Gotama Buddha. This created a sensation but has been duly forgotten.
Roman Ghirshman, a noted Iranologist missed the full import of Stein's discovery but wrote with unfailing instinct that the murals of Kuh-e Khwaja are the precursors of Gandhara art, which points to the great antiquity of the site. Nearby Dahan-e Gholaman is heedlessly termed a "slaves entrance," but to any discerning observer Gholaman is a clear echo of Gotama.
Seistan is not only the home of all ancient Iranian lore including the Shahnama, it is also the locale of the Lalitavistara.
Kuh-e Khwaja was Kapilavastu. The important Buddhist text the Mahaparinibbana Sutta ["the lengthy Discourse of the Buddha's final passing into nirvana"] states that the "Mauryas," a kshatriya ["warrior caste" rather than brahmin, merchant, or laborer] people, had received the relics of the Buddha. The Mauryas are said to be from Pipphali-vana, which appears to be Babil in Seistan.
Babil is cognate with Kapilavastu, and there are several sites named Vasht in Seistan. Vasht reminds one of Queen Vashti of the Book of Esther. Herzfeld wrote about Bawer, said to have been founded by the legendary Jamshid, which is Babil. Kapilavastu was the holiest religious center of the ancient world. The Tarikh-i Seistan states that Ali, son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed, was buried in Seistan.
E. Herzfeld wrote that the Magi went to Palestine from Kuh-e Khwaja. I. M. Diakonoff held that the Prophet Zoroaster was from Seistan. This is also stated by Gnoli who, unfortunately, is hoodwinked by Führer. Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, founder of the venerated Indian shrine of Ajmer Sharif, which stands for "amity amongst people of all creeds" hailed from Seistan.
The history of Alexander the Great shows that Kuh-e Khwaja was Alexandria Prophthasia, the "abode of Prophets." Deluded by Führer's misdeeds, great scholars like Tarn and Herzfeld missed the clear hint in the name Alexandria Prophthasia. Herzfeld mistakenly dated the stepped fire altar at Kuh-e Khwaja to the first century B.C., which is accepted by T. Kawami without circumspection. Y. Yamamoto, on the other hand, correctly identifies it as the oldest surviving Zoroastrian altar.
In art Gotama [the Buddha] is often shown seated on a lotus which may be related to his true origin: For Nelumbo nucifer (Nelumbonaceae), the Indian lotus, is not native to modern India but to the wetlands of northern Iran. From there it probably spread to Egypt, India, and further east. Persian history provides crucial information about the history of Buddhism.
The magnificent ruins of Kapilavastu or Prophthasia (Kuh-e Khwaja) in ancient "India" (once Persia)
A careful study shows that "Gotama" [Gautama, the historical Buddha] was the same as Gaumata, who hangs like a ghost in Persian history. His tussle with Darius-I as recorded in stone at Behistun is one of the greatest stories and scandals of history, yet little is known about the nature or cause of his revolt.
P. Briant's account of Gomata in the Encyclopedia Iranica lacks insight, but historians like Toynbee and Olmstead suspected Darius’ veracity and concluded that Gaumata was not an imposter. Although R. N. Frye fails to notice the overlap with Indian history, Gaumata was a namesake of Gotama. Gut-ama in Sumerian means "one whose mother is a cow," which agrees with the meaning of Gau-mata in Sanskrit and old Persian. Gaumata was an immensely popular figure.
That Darius had lied is also noted by Chester Starr, Dandamayev, and W. Culican. T. C. Young Jr., a noted expert on Iran, also saw through the tirades of Darius-I and came very near recognizing the true nature of Gaumata, who was also a religious leader. More>>
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