Journey to Bamiyan, Land of the Buddha

A Journey to the Bamiyan valley, Afghanistan, to see remarkable Buddhist landmarks (link).

According to non-Jonesian historical and archaeological finds, Gautama Buddha was likely not born in present day Nepal, as is widely believed, but in a defunct Indian-Hellenistic-Persian empire. And he is likely to have been born much earlier than currently placed by some historians. This would explain a number of anomalies. (Details at http://www.ranajitpal.com/ from the 2003 book Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander by Ranajit Pal). One anomaly is the profusion of Buddhist archaeological sites -- such as Bamiyan with the largest Buddha images in the world -- in modern Afghanistan.

• Afghanistan Today

It also accords with the Buddha's own repeated claim to be an Aryan rather than a brahmin or someone from the area. "Aryan" to this day is literally understood to mean "Iranian"; figuratively, it is a "noble" (an epitaph for "enlightened") or a warrior. "Aryan invaders," in ancient Indian history and even older mythology, are believed to have overrun the Indus Valley cultures bringing Sanskrit civilization to the Dravidian people along with phenomenal technological and spiritual advances.

No one disputes that the Buddha came from a kingdom in the north, only how far north, or that he had blue eyes and golden skin and strikingly different features than most of his ass. It also better explains the Dharma's wide influence on Hellenistic Greece even as subsequent religious campaigns (Persian Zoroastrianism, Middle Eastern Islam, indigenous Hinduism, British Christianity, and European Catholicism) overran it in India.

This also helps explain the Sri Lankan insistence and its embroidered histories (Mahavamsa, Buddhavamsa, etc.) link it to Aryan-Indian ancestry rather than Southern Indian (Tamil) or aboriginal (Yakkha) stock. Its flag and lion insignia are essentially that of Iran, and its mythology is recounted in the Ramayana, the story of Rama. The new non-Jonesian view posits that:

"Rama may have been the ruler of the Indus cities, Iran and Sumer. He was also seen to be an ancestor of Gotama Buddha and the Achaemenian kings. I. M. Diakonoff and D. McAlpin have pointed to a link of Elamite with Dravidian, but the links between Elamite and Indian civilization also extend to history. Although Rama is usually thought to be an Aryan, he was called Elamite and in Indian art he is usually painted in blue, whereas his brother Lakshmana and wife Sita are shown as light-skinned." More>>