Buddhism in Uganda, Africa

Buddhism in Uganda, Africa: ancient tradition of alms round

(Uganda Buddhist Centre) Dec. 8, 2023: Under the guidance of Bhante Buddharakkhita, Theravada African Buddhist monks and nuns at The Uganda Buddhist Centre go on alms round (pindapata) in Bulega Village, Garuga, Uganda. Their mindful steps with alms bowls in hands reminds us of our journey to liberation.

• 'It's not weird or foreign': the Ugandan monk bringing Buddhism to Africa – photo essay | The Guardian
• Religion in Uganda
• Buddhism in Africa

How one woman changed Buddhism

Sanghamitta Day Celebrations

Sanghamitta and the Bodhi Tree

Saṅghamittā (Sanskrit Saṅghamitrā, "Friend of the Sangha") with the nun's name Ven. Ayapali Theri [1], who lived from 282 BC–203 BC [1].

 

She was a fully enlightened (arhat, arahant) Indian Buddhist nun and the eldest daughter (as recounted in Sri Lankan tradition as recorded in the Dīpavaṃsa) of Indian Buddhist Emperor Ashoka (304 BC–232 BC) with his first wife Queen Devi (302 BCE–242 BCE).

Together with her monastic brother, Ven. Mahinda Thero, she entered the order of Buddhist monastics. The two siblings later went as Buddhist missionaries to the island of Sri Lanka to spread the Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha, at the request of Sri Lankan King Devanampiya Tissa (250 BC–210 BC), who was a contemporary of King Ashoka.

• (Theravada) Buddhism in Sri Lanka
• Buddhism was first missionary faith

Emperor Asoka at Nava Jetavana Temple, Shravasti, for the Third Buddhist Council

 

From Emperor Ashoka's India to Sri Lanka

Ashoka was initially reluctant to send his daughter (according to the Sri Lankan tradition) on an overseas mission, even one of only 35 miles, the distance between the subcontinent (India) and the island (dipa or dvipa).

However, because of the insistence of Ven. Sangamitta herself, he finally agreed. She was sent to Sri Lanka together with several other nuns to start the Buddhist nun's lineage of (Bhikkhuni Sangha or order of fully ordained female Buddhist monastics) at the request of King Tissa.

• 

  Sangha incomplete without women

  THERE ARE MANY GREAT WOMEN IN BUDDHISM: Many come to mind like the Buddha's enlightened wife (Bimba Devi, Yasodhara, Rāhulamātā, Bhadda Kaccana, Subhaddakā, and called by many other names to dilute her magnificence and prominence in the Bhikkhuni Sangha, as if she were the "Mary" so often mentioned in Christianity); Ven. Mahā Pajāpatī Gotami, the Buddha's mother and history's first Buddhist nun; Western German Jewish Buddhist nun Ayya Khema, who restarted full ordination in Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka; Khema Theri, foremost in wisdom; Uppalavanna, foremost in psychic powers; Ven. Sundarī Nanda, the Buddha's fully enlightened sister (possibly the same as the "Belle of the Land," the most beautiful Janapada Kalyani); Kwan Yin Bodhisattva, Goddess of Compassion; Prajnaparamita, Goddess of Wisdom (Buddhism's Sophia); the various colored Taras; Ambapali the Wise Courtesan; Ven. Kisa Gotami; Dipa Ma; modern American greats like Tara Brach, Ven. Tathālokā Bhikkhunī, Sharon Salzberg, Sylvia Boorstein, Shaila Catherine, Tina Rasmussen; and the many advanced ones like Beth Upton, Sayalay Susila, Sayalay Dipankara, and so on.

There she ordained Queen Anulā and other women in King Tissa's court at Anuradhapura who desired to be ordained as nuns after Mahinda converted them to Buddhism [2, 3, 4, 5, 6].

After Sanghamittā’s contribution to the propagation of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and her establishing the Bhikkhunī Sangha or Meheini Sasna ("Order of Buddhist Nuns") there, her name became synonymous with "Buddhist Female Monastic Order of Theravāda Buddhism" that was established Sri Lanka, Burma, China, and Thailand, in particular.

The day she brought the most revered Bodhi tree as a sapling to Sri Lanka and planted it in Anuradhapura, where it still survives, is still celebrated annually on the Full Moon Day of December as Uduvapa Poya or Uposatha Poya and "Sanghamittā Day" by Sri Lankan Theravāda Buddhists [3, 5, 7]. More

• Venerable Gotami (video), Dec. 22, 2025; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

The Real Shaolin Zen Temple of Kung Fu

Soft power is more powerful: martial arts magic

Shaolin: Zen Temple of Kung Fu (documentary)

(The Simpsons) Now listen up, Kids. Kung fu is not just for children. Fat guys can, too.

Ancient Buddhists, Egyptians, Grand Canyon

Tibetan style Buddha statue found in the Citadel, the main gallery of the large caverns

Phoenix Arizona Gazette documented discovery in great detail before Smithsonian hid it.

Details, names, photos, testimony, official comments - all made up?

Why would Native Americans choose to live in an inhospitable spot when they could be here?

Why do all of the monuments have Egyptian and even a Buddhist name, Josh? - IDK.

Grand Canyon US is massive unless compared to the enormous Copper Canyon in Mexico

Could American pyramids built by the Egyptians be so old as to be crumbling and unrecognized?

Ancient Egyptians in the Grand Canyon

An Inglorious Columbus

(Ancient Mystery) The details of the expedition by American anthropologist hired by the Smithsonian (then erased) G. E. Kincaid and John Powell and their report of the Egyptian artifacts that they found in the Grand Canyon. Gold artifacts from the Kincaid Tunnel are the only artifacts on display at the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, D.C. from the Grand Canyon. The most interesting artifacts are from King Akhenaten and Queen Nefertiti. The Grand Canyon has many traces of the ancient Egyptians.

Chinese and other Asians found it

There are hieroglyphs, metal smelters, and even the peaks themselves are named pyramid temples. This together with the contemporaneously documented written findings (Phoenix Gazette) reporting Kincaid's findings make this an ancient mystery worth learning. How could Buddhist, Egyptian, Hindu, and other artifacts have come to the U.S. in ancient times? Was there a worldwide religion, an amalgam of different teachings from different lands known about by the pharaoh and the ancient Egyptian priests? (It would explain the tremendous similarities between Hinduism/the old Vedic religion, Mahayana Buddhism, and Coptic (Egyptian) Christianity. The Egyptians did not die out but simply morphed their diverse teachings into a universalist faith.

Join @AncientMysteryChannel #egyptians #grandcanyon #ancientmystery Channel: Ancient Mystery by A. Christie

Egyptians in Turkey (Anatolia), walling off underground cities

5,000 years ago? Main channel: Discovery that shocked world

Smithsonian cover-up: Ancient Buddhists, Egyptians, Hindus, giants in Grand Canyon

Vining knew Buddhists had found US (1885)

(The Why Files) In 1908, Pres. Teddy Roosevelt wanted to declare the Grand Canyon off-limits to all timber and mining operations. It would take another 11 years for Congress to designate the Grand Canyon a national park. Sensing a final opportunity for adventure, explorer G. E. Kincaid took a boat down the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon. The canyon was rich in minerals like gold, silver, and copper and Kincaid wanted to see what he could find before the area was closed off for good. About 40 miles up-river from the El Tovar Crystal Canyon, Kincaid saw stains in the sediment formation about 2,000 feet up.

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

He tied off his boat and got out to investigate. Kincaid couldn't find a trail, but after a short hike he found something interesting covered in desert brush: manmade steps, hundreds of them carved in sandstone, steps that wound their way up to a high shelf on the side of the canyon. He followed the steps until he came across a cavern entrance, an entrance that was clearly man made. Kincaid entered the cavern and turned on his flashlight. On the walls he saw writing. But it wasn't English or Native American writing. It was Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Kincaid lifted his flashlight and saw that the tunnel ran far into the distance. He didn't realize it at the time, but this was only the beginning. #Ancient #Unsolved #Mystery

Gold treasure?

Strange ancient mysteries dissected: The Proof is Out There

(HISTORY) June 1, 2024: Isn't gold the reason for Spain's greed in the "New" World? The search for El Dorado ("The Golden"), a famed City of Gold that may have been found and kept secret or never existed and was just invented to mislead the Conquistadors (the "Conquerors"), has a basis in history. People still seek the Motherlode, and the Island of California is a very rich and mythical place. The underground world in the desert is well known by the Native Americans, but as those places are still claimed by others (the "Ant People"), no one trespasses on their territory, waiting for the next series of cataclysms to be invited to return and be saved again as American Indians were in the past. Is there any reasonable explanation for these ancient mysteries? See more in this compilation from The Proof Is Out There. Watch all new episodes of The Proof Is Out There, Fridays at 10/9c, and stay up to date on favorite The HISTORY Channel shows at history.com/schedule. #TheProofIsOutThere

• Interested in submitting videos or other content to be featured on an upcoming season of The Proof Is Out There? Head to history.com/shows/the-pro... to agree to Terms and Conditions to submit content via Submission Page.

• VIDEO: Buddhism in the Grand Canyon
• The Why Files, Dec. 15, 2022; Ancient Mysteries, Dec. 25, 2020: Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Records show Chinese explored America

Henriette Mertz; Christopher Nyerges, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Xochitl (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America

Native Americans learned of the Buddha

Author Henriette Mertz has 4.5 stars out of 5 with 29 ratings. She presents her theory and analysis of two ancient Chinese documents that provide evidence of early Chinese exploration and presence in America.

[The Chinese made it across the Pacific, which is as easy as being blown across by a storm or, more likely, simply traveling up and around, keeping sight of land until reaching the Americas by navigating the Pacific Rim.]

Pale Ink: Chinese Exploration in America

Mertz explores the stories and accounts mentioned in the "Fusang" and "Shan Hai Jing" texts, both of which date back to ancient times.

She argues that these texts describe voyages made by Chinese explorers to the American continent long before Christopher Columbus is said to have arrived in the Caribbean, never actually making it to the mainland.

Mertz suggests that these explorations occurred during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and potentially even earlier.

Through meticulous research and analysis, Mertz connects the descriptions in the ancient Chinese texts to geographical locations and landmarks in America.

She examines linguistic, historical, and cultural evidence to support her claim that the Chinese had knowledge of and interactions with Native Americans on this continent in ancient times. More

• Geographical Myths
• Fu-sang
• Chinese Whimsy?
• Kuen 327 and the Liang-Sse-Kong Ki
• Mexican Legends
• Yucatan
• Related Items
• The Buddhists
• A Matter of Words
• Hwui Shan, Traveller par Excellence
• Early China
• The Shan Hai King
• Across the Sea
• The Great American Desert
• SAMPLE: Pale Ink: Two Ancient Records of Chinese Exploration in America (eBook)

Polynesians find Americas before Columbus

StarsInsider.com via MSN.com, Nov. 7, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The sewn plank technology in canoes (tomols) used by Native American Chumash people of Southern California (Ventura. LA County, Channel Islands) are very similar to Polynesian vessels.

11 French Polynesian islands most travelers have never heard of | Travel Nation

Did the Polynesians reach the Americas before Columbus?

Who found it? (Edward P. Vining)

The ancient seafaring Polynesians were incredibly skilled navigators who managed to discover and settle on hundreds of islands across the Pacific Ocean.

Their territory extended from Hawaii in the north to New Zealand in the southwest and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) in the southeast. But did they go as far as the American continent? This gallery looks back at Polynesian voyages and expansion and examines the evidence of their presence in the Americas.

An Inglorious Columbus; Evidence that Hwui Shan and a Party of Buddhist Monks from Afghanistan Discovered America in 5th Century, A.D. (Internet Archive)

.

(Getty Images/Stars Insider)

Polynesian voyagers crossed millions of miles throughout the Pacific Ocean without nautical instruments. They relied on reading nature's signs and managed to find some of the world’s most remote places. But where did the Polynesians come from, really? Let’s take a look at their ancestry. 

Polynesian ancestry

Archeological data indicates Polynesians traveled south, first to the Philippines then to New Guinea and its Bismarck Archipelago. It’s believed the ancestors mixed with the natives at the Bismarck Archipelago, and by around 1300 BCE a new culture, known as the Lapita, had developed. More

First before Columbus (documentary)

An inglorious Columbus

An Inglorious Columbus

; or, Evidence that [Chinese Buddhist monk] Hwui Shan and a party of Buddhist monks from Afghanistan [the place of the Buddha's origin, Shakya Land or the mahajanapada of the warrior nomads that was not a part of proto-India but on the northwest frontier of the future empire of India brought together by the Buddhist King Ashoka, at that time called Gandhara and later Scythia] discovered America in the fifth century, A.D. by Vining, Edward Payson, 1847-1920

Chinese named their discovery "Fu Sang" (Mexico, California, etc.)

An Inglorious Columbus by Edward P. Vining, 1847-1920: Free Download (Internet Archive)

Native-American-Chinese in California, Mexico

Ancient Geographic, May 12, 2023; Xochitl, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Yes, your facial features show you are not Siberian so much as Northern Chinese.

According to American scholars Hendon Harris (chinesediscoveramerica.com) and Ken Campbell (lastwilderness.com), the Americas are "Fu Sang," the mythical land to the east of China, not the nearby islands of Japan.

(chinesediscoveramerica.com)

Fu Sang (also called Fusang) was a wondrous place of exotic people, foods, and customs. American historian Edward Vining (An inglorious Columbus; or, Evidence that Hwui Shan and a party of Buddhist monks from Afghanistan discovered America in the fifth century, AD, 1885) knew this by 1885 and we had never heard?

Mysterious genetic origins of Native Americans tracked to China

(Ancient Geographic) According to recent genetic and DNA research, some of the first Native Americas [Fusang] came from the north coast of China.

Where did we come from? Aztlán

According to a new genomics research, some of the initial arrivals occurred during the last Ice Age and shortly thereafter, in two different migrations.

People from the north coast of China [an easy trip along the coasts all along the way as Edward Payson Vining (1885) and Rick Fields (2022) showed] were among the earliest humans to arrive in the Americas, arriving in two independent migrations during and after the last Ice Age, according to a new genomics research.

We're related by blood!

Explorers might have arrived in the New World by a terrestrial route through an ice-free corridor [Bering Straits land bridge], although this was most likely not the initial migration.

The kelp highway theory is the polar opposite of the old "ice-free corridor" route.

The findings suggest that, in addition to the previously identified ancestral sources of Native Americans in Siberia, northern coastal China acted as a genetic reservoir that contributed to the gene pool.

SOURCES

• theguardian.com/science/2...
• bbc.com/news/world-asia-3...
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal...

CONCLUSION

So I'm Mexican-Chinese?

(WQ) In addition to the early American scholarship of Edward P. Vining (An inglorious Columbus, 1885), Hendon Harris points to an article in American Heritage (April 1966, p. 9) by Robert Larson entitled "Was America the Wonderful Land of Fusang?"

The last paragraph of it reads: "Who will now revive the Hwui Shan controversy and gainsay the conclusion of Dr. Charles E. Chapman, the last American historian to write on the subject? ...Fusang was in America, presumably in Mexico... The evidence that it was...is almost overwhelming."

The Buddha holds up a flower (Zen)

Roshi Bodhin Kjolhede | Zen Bow | Spring 2019, Vol. XLI, No. 1 via Rochester Zen Center (RZC.org); Seth Auberon, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Philip Kapleau Roshi (hvzc.org)

ROSHI PHILIP KAPLEAU HAS SAID that when he was at Hosshin-ji, the monastery where he spent his first three years of training in Japan, at the end of each sesshin Harada Roshi would publicly recognize, in the zendo, the participants who had achieved kensho that week. It was done as a brief ritual, but imagine what it put people through: Besides inviting feelings of envy on the part of the “losers,” the ritual might well have been hard on the “winners,” too; in Japan, you never want to stand out from the group. So why did Harada Roshi do this?

Two reasons come to mind. First, by publicly presenting those who had just seen into their nature, he hoped to boost others’ faith that they, too, could break through. Second, now that those who had glimpsed their True Self were “outed,” they would feel a greater responsibility to live up to that Self in their daily lives. However well these strategies may have worked at Hosshin-ji, for an American Sangha I would expect them to do more harm than good. They would too likely reinforce the delusion that there is something to be “attained” in Zen. On the contrary, if awakening gives us anything, it’s the realization that from the very beginning all beings are endowed with the same originally enlightened nature....

THE BUDDHA HOLDS UP A FLOWER

Koan commentary

Art in the Rochester Zen Center (rzc.org)

How can we convey the teaching beyond words and letters…in words? Once, when the World-Honored One (the Buddha) in ancient times was upon Vulture's Peak (named such because of the shape of the rocks), he held up a flower before the assembly of monastics.

At this all were silent. Venerable Great Kashyapa (Maha Kassapa) alone broke into a smile. The World-Honored One said, “I have the all-pervading Eye of the True Dharma, the Secret Heart of Incomparable Nirvana, the True Aspect of Formless Form. It does not rely on letters and is transmitted outside the sutras. I now hand it on to Maha Kashyapa.”

The Commentary

You don't get it like I do (Demystifying Reality).

Golden-faced Kudon is certainly outrageous. He turns the noble into the lowly and sells dog flesh advertised as sheep’s head — though with some genius. However, supposing that at the time all the monastics had smiled, how would the “All-including Eye of the True Dharma” have been handed on?

Or again, if Kashyapa had not smiled, how could he have been entrusted with it? If you say that the True Dharma can be handed on, the golden-faced old man with his loud voice deceived the simple villagers. If you say it can’t be transmitted, why did the Buddha say he had handed it on to Kashyapa?

The Verse

Holding up a flower

The snake shows its tail.

Kashyapa smiles,

And people and devas are confounded.

THIS CASE IS BASED ON A FAMOUS STORY. Some have called it a fable and said it never really happened, but it doesn’t matter in terms of its value as a koan (a public case). Whether it has historical veracity or not is not important; it’s a rich koan.

About Maha Kashyapa: “Kashyapa” is the short form of Mahakashyapa. The prefix “Maha” means “great” or “large,” and here it is an honorific. With this incident of him on Vulture's Peak smiling in response to the Buddha holding up a flower, he became the first patriarch of Zen.

For the scant biographical information available on Mahakashyapa, let’s turn to The Transmission of Light (Denkoroku in Japanese), a collection of koans compiled by the Japanese Zen Master Keizan, the Dharma Heir of Dogen.

This text purports to be Zen’s ancestral line, presented in stories — enlightenment accounts — of each of the 52 or so earliest masters. It says that Kashyapa was born in an Indian Brahmin family, and his name in Sanskrit means "drinker of light."

When he was born, supposedly a golden light filled the room and went into his mouth; hence the name. We’re also told that his complexion was golden. As a monk he was renowned for his ascetic self-discipline and moral strictness, and these qualities enabled him to assume the leadership of the Sangha after the passing of the Buddha.

It was Kashyapa who convened the First Buddhist Council in order to counteract tendencies toward a less strict lifestyle within the Sangha. He had differences of opinion with Ananda, the Buddha’s attendant, but in the end authorized Ananda as his Dharma Heir in Zen’s ancestral line.

IN THE CHINESE TEMPLES and in [the Rochester Zen Center] Buddha Hall in Rochester, the figure of Mahakashyapa stands on the Buddha’s right and Ananda on the Buddha’s left. Iconographically, Mahakashyapa is often identified by his cracked and wrinkled face, meant to show his age and his asceticism.

When Kashyapa met the Buddha, the latter said, “Welcome, mendicant” [Ehi bhikkhu or "Come, monastic"] — so by that time, apparently, Kashyapa was already wearing the patchwork robe of a monk. [The saying makes someone a monk ordained by the Buddha, so one would not need to be wearing a robe yet.]

The Denkoroku says that “Kashyapa had practiced austerities and never wasted any time.” Remember that the Buddha himself began his journey to enlightenment by first spending six years practicing severe austerities, but then gave them up when he realized they would not lead to enlightenment.

The Buddha then warned that self-punishment [penance, severe asceticism] was not the way, but Kashyapa stuck to his ways, drawing the disapproval of others in the Sangha:

“Only seeing the ugly emaciation of his body and the wretchedness of his clothing, everyone doubted Kashyapa.” Still, we’re told, “every time the Buddha was going to give a talk in someplace or other, he shared his seat with Kashyapa, who thenceforth was the senior member of the community.” More