How did Buddhism reach China?

(Natasha Yehenara) How did Buddhism reach China? Buddhism in China, Greco-Buddhism, the Buddha (Scythian Prince Siddhartha Gautama) was from Gandhara (Central Asia), modern Afghanistan (likely Buddhas of Bamiyan, Mes Aynak, and Kabul as one of the three seasonal capitals all collectively referred to as Kapilavastu). See Dr. Ranajit Pal: Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander  #academia #Buddhism #historyfacts #Gandhara #GrecoBuddhism #ChineseCulture

Greco-Buddhism in Hellenistic Far East

BOOK: Greco-Buddhist Relations in the Hellenistic Far East

Dr. Olga Kubica, University of Wroclaw

Author Dr. Olga Kubica has 4.4 out of 5 stars with four ratings. This book provides the first comprehensive and interdisciplinary view of the relationship between the Greeks and Buddhist communities in ancient Bactria and Northwest India [Scythian Gandhara, now Afghanistan and Pakistan], from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Indo-Greek kingdom circa 10 AD.

Greco-Buddhist Relations...

The main thesis is the assumption that, despite the presence of mutual relationships and interactions between the Greeks and Buddhist inhabitants of the Hellenistic Far East, the phenomenon known conventionally as "Greco-Buddhism" never truly occurred.

The individual chapters of this book provide an analysis of the main sources for Greco-Buddhist relations, mainly textual, but also archeological [excavated sites] and numismatic [coinage].

• Greco-Buddhist art
• Buddhism in Central Asia
• Greco-Buddhist monasticism
• Indo-Greek Kingdom
• Buddhism in Afghanistan
• Buddhism in Pakistan
• The historical Buddha had golden skin and blue eyes? (Yes)
• The Questions of the King Milinda (Greek King Menander I)
• Oldest "Buddhism" in world: Gandhāran Buddhist texts

(Sam Taylor) Is this really Afghanistan? Bluest lake in world: Band-e Amir

Who are the Hazara people?

The methods of philological and historical research are used in combination with postcolonial approaches to the study of the Greeks in India, drawing from sociological research on ethnicity and intercultural relations.

It is a rich source of information for anyone interested in Greco-Buddhist relations and is a great starting point for further research in this area.

This volume (1st edition) is a valuable resource for students and scholars working on the Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek kingdoms, both classicists and those working on early Indian history, as well as those working on cultural exchange in the Hellenistic world. More

• VIDEO: Dave Mani travels through old Afghanistan
• VIDEO: Dark Reality of visiting Kabul, Afghanistan
• Escape with Emily and Danny; Samantha Taylor, female traveler through Afghanistan; Dr. Olga Kubica; Amber Larson and Dhr. Seven, (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Classical Indian music meets metal

(Opalinskyband) Metal genres vs. metal fans - Five metalhead myths debunked in 30 seconds

Would Lord Ganesha approve? Goddess Kali?

Bloodywood is an Indian heavy metal band from New Delhi that formed in 2016. They began as a parody band that uploaded metal covers of pop songs on YouTube [1] and later wrote their own music. They have become India's first metal act to chart on Billboard [1]. HISTORY: Prior to forming the band, Karan Katiyar regularly uploaded parody metal covers of popular Bollywood songs on YouTube, but he had trouble finding a suitable vocalist. At a local gig... More

Bloodywood and Babymetal

Bloodywood with Babymetal on same stage - Bekhauf (Mohegan Sun Arena, June 27, 2025)

• Karl Rock, YouTube.com; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

Ancient Greeks converted to Buddhism

• Moment of Zen: Wonders of Kashmir, India

(Religion for Breakfast) Greece is very far away from the heartland of Early Buddhism in proto-India and parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan (ancient Gandhara). But thanks to Alexander the Great, Hellenistic and Buddhist cultures came into contact (and fusion) in the 4th century BCE, creating a cultural synthesis known as Greco-Buddhism.

• 00:00 A Greco-Bactrian Buddhist Inscription
• 1:41 The Hellenistic "Far East"
• 4:10 Pyrrho: A Buddhist for Greece?
• 7:42 Ashoka and his Dharma Conquest
• 10:23 King Menander [King Milinda]: The Most Famous Greek Buddhist
• 13:26 Greco-Buddhist Art of Gandhara
• 15:23 Syncretism?
• 16:44 [Sponsor:] Nebula!

Indie creators being awesome Thumbnail art by @hotcyder Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images and Reuters

Lost Greek-Buddhists of Alexander

1st human representation of the Buddha: Gandhara

The LOST Greek Buddhists: The Untold Story of Alexander's Monks

(Buddha's Wisdom) 🗡️ When Greek Warriors Became Buddhist Monks: History's Greatest Plot Twist. In 326 BCE, Alexander's unstoppable army met something their swords couldn't conquer -- the wisdom of naked monks (Gymnosophists). Greek warriors laid down their weapons to follow the Buddha's path, sparking one of history's most fascinating cultural fusions.

Discover how fierce Greek soldiers became peaceful Buddhist monks, why they created the world's first Buddha statues, and what happened when Greek philosophy met Buddhist enlightenment.

From lost kingdoms to hidden [Central Asian] monasteries, uncover the epic story that changed both East and West forever.

🗡️MAJOR REVEALS

• The warrior who dropped his sword and changed history
• The Greek king who chose enlightenment over empire
• Recently discovered scrolls that reveal ancient secrets
• The stunning truth about the Buddha's familiar face
• New evidence of undiscovered monasteries

🎯 KEY MOMENTS

• 0:00 Introduction
• 2:03 Warriors Meet Wisdom
• 6:38 The Naked Truth
• 9:18 Kingdom of Two World
• 13:08 The Face of Buddha
• 17:10 The Lost Scrolls
• 23:05 Legacy of the Lost Monks
• 17:59 Conclusion

Support this channel: Buy us a coffee ☕: buymeacoffee.com/buddhaswisdom. Join in as archaeology meets adventure in this untold tale of warriors, wisdom, and one of history's greatest transformations. #Buddhism #History #AncientGreece #Philosophy #Archaeology

• Scythian Prince Siddhartha, the Buddha, was from Gandhara
• Greco-Buddhist art: fusion of East and West
• Gandhara grave culture (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India)
• Partition of India led to creation of Pakistan (formerly part of Northwest India, with Afghanistan in Central Asia or Indo-Sakastan, as its neighbor)

• Buddha's Wisdom, 11/19/24; Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Early Buddhist photo art exhibit until Dec. 23

HsiLai.org; Dhr. Seven, Ananda M. (Dharma Meditation Initiative), Wisdom Quarterly

Prince Siddhartha Gautama

The Hsi Lai Temple art gallery houses a rich collection of Buddhist artifacts from around the world, along with Chinese art and temporary displays -- such as the current photography exhibit of Buddhist art from Northwestern India and modern Pakistan, an area once known as Gandhara, where the earliest and most famous images of the historical Buddha, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, come from. In these he appears as a Central Asian king with Western and Eastern features, often wearing a toga in the ancient Greek style of Bactria in old "Shakya Land" (modern Afghanistan according to Dr. Ranajit Pal), mistakenly thought of as Kapilavastu, one of its seasonal capitals, Sogdia, and Indo-Sakastan. Saka=Shakya. Exhibition ends Sunday, 12/23/18. More

• Calendar
• Meditation at Hsi Lai Temple

"Dear God"? (video)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; XTC (COMMENTARY)

"When I am silent, I fall into that place where everything is music." - Rumi

Hey, mouth off and I'll smote ye!

XTC's Skylarking spawned the controversial track "Dear God," which was originally issued as the B-side of the album's first single

Interest in the song saw the U.S. album re-issued with "Dear God" included, and the new version of the LP sold a quarter million copies in the U.S., reviving the band's commercial fortunes and earning critical accolades.

"Dear God" lyrics

Why don't Buddhists believe in God...or do they? (thankingthespoon.com)

.

Dear God, hope you got the letter, and I pray you can make it better down here. I don't mean a big reduction in the price of beer, but all the people that you made in your image, see them starving on their feet 'cause they don't get enough to eat from God, I can't believe in you

Dear God, sorry to disturb you, but I feel that I should be heard loud and clear. We all need a big reduction in amount of tears, and all the people that you made in your image, see them fighting in the street 'cause they can't make opinions meet about God, I can't believe in you. Did you make disease and the diamond blue? Did you make mankind after we made you? And the devil, too?

I'm getting to it later. I'm busy right now.

Dear God, don't know if you noticed, but your name is on a lot of quotes in this book, and us crazy humans wrote it, you should take a look, and all the people that you made in your image still believing that junk is true. Well I know it ain't and so do you, dear God, I can't believe in, I don't believe in

I won't believe in heaven and hell. No saints, no sinners, no devil as well. No pearly gates, no thorny crown. You're always letting us humans down. The wars you bring, the babes you drown. Those lost at sea and never found, and it's the same the whole world 'round. The hurt I see helps to compound

That Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is just somebody's unholy hoax, and if you're up there you'd perceive that my heart's here upon my sleeve. If there's one thing I don't believe in it's you, dear God.

Bjork, what did you attack her?

(TFI Friday Official) Bjork: "Why I attacked reporter at Bangkok Airport" (1996)

"Deus"?
(Björk) Deus ("God") from The Sugarcubes before the singer became a famous soloist

"No one 'saves' us, no one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path; buddhas only point the way." The path we walk is our actions, our karma, the results of which will take us places. What is the karma to the end of suffering? The Noble Eightfold Path.

.

When Bjork was in The Sugarcubes she sang, "Deus does not exist." "Deus" is God's Latin name, of course, from which we derive diva, divine, divinity, borrowing the root from the Sanskrit deva, a "shining one" as the Buddha explained.

Buddhism does believe in God (Maha Brahma), in many Gods (brahmas) and gods (devas), and many Buddhists can believe or not, worship or not. (The route is the meditative absorptions).

Ultimately, however, the Great God or countless other gods, who themselves are not enlightened and liberated from suffering and rebirth, cannot lead us to enlightenment or even point the way. They have a much better time than humans, on the whole. But they may not even be able to tell us how we can get to be reborn where they are. They can say how they did it, to the extent they know the karma (actions) and root causes.

Be here now at every moment like Ziggy.

A buddha (fully enlightened teacher) knows the route to all rebirth-destinations. In the book The 31 Planes of Existence, a treatise on ancient Buddhist cosmology, it is laid out. Do you wish for rebirth in God's company? That's called "Brahma's Retinue" and is rather lowly.

Do you wish to be a God, a brahma or "supreme one"? That's in there. How about a "messenger angel"? That's very low but still above human, a state known as a gandharva or gandhabba, the lowest rank of deva, the heavenly musicians. Why not aspire to rebirth as a beautiful, long-lived, and influential human? That will be very short life compared to any of the deva lives. There are much worse places to land than the human state or manussya loka. Just look at the wild animal world or the ghosts and ghouls.

Wheel of Life (E. C. Baptist)

This human plane offers one advantage over all others -- the ease with which it is possible to attain enlightenment from here, midway between luxurious hedonism and woeful suffering. The devas in general have much better strands of pleasure, so much so that they're intoxicated with parties and good times, rarely allowing themselves to perceive any suffering or shortcoming to the endless round of rebirth...until they fall from their perches/stations. But then it's a little bit late to do anything about it. Now is the time.

The Buddha saw all of these destinations and declared that nirvana -- which is neither a location nor a temporary state but "the unconditioned element" -- is the best, highest above all, the only true refuge and safety. Until then, choose rebirth-destinations wisely. We're choosing all the time by our karma.

• Black lives don't matter (to God or those who kill)
• GOP to examine FBI's failure to indict Hillary
• Obama to EXTEND war on Afghanistan
• Donald Trump raises $51 million in a June
• Gov't want you to fear and hate "ISIS" - just look at the sex slaves (but please pay no attention to rapes by U.S. military and other U.S. atrocities)
• U.S. love to harass and murder blacks 
• VIDEO: Killer Louisiana cop executes man on street, police chief ID's killer
• The Latest: Why did police kill black man now?
• Imprisoned transgender US soldier Chelsea [Bradley] Manning hospitalized

Shakyans were Scythians (Greco-Buddhist art)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; Wiki edit

Earliest representations of the Buddha, half Eastern, half Western (Buddhist Triad/wiki)

The Buddha's family, the Shakyans, were Scythians from west of ancient "India"

.

The Buddha, Gandhara/Afghan (Boonlieng flickr)

Greco-Buddhist art is the artistic manifestation of Greco-Buddhism, a cultural syncretism between the Classical Greek culture and Buddhism.

It developed over a period of close to 1,000 years in Central Asia, between the conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th century BCE and the Islamic conquests of the 7th century ACE.

Greco-Buddhist art is characterized by the strong idealistic realism and sensuous description of Hellenistic art.

It is of primary importance for providing the world with the very first representations of the historical Buddha Gautama, known as Shakyamuni (the "Sage of the Shakyans or Scythians") in human form.

• The real history of India and Buddhism (ranajitpal.com) 
• Afghan-Buddhist missionaries brought Buddhism to America before Columbus (Edward Vining, 1885)

It helped define the artistic (and particularly, sculptural) canon for Buddhist art throughout the Asian continent up to the present.

Buddhism arrived in ancient Greece before arriving in China, and Greco-Buddhist art is a strong example of cultural syncretism between eastern and western traditions.

 

The origins of Greco-Buddhist art are to be found in the Hellenistic Greco-Bactrian kingdom (250 BC-130 BC), located in today’s Afghanistan, what Buddhists must have referred to as the "Middle Country" (Majjhima-desa, where the Buddha was from, dividing East and West).

Indo-Greco Buddhist art (wiki)

From Afghanistan Hellenistic culture radiated into the Indian subcontinent with the establishment of the Indo-Greek kingdom (180 BC-10 BC). Under the Indo-Greeks and then the Kushans, the interaction of Greek and Buddhist culture flourished in the area of ancient Gandhara, formerly part of British colonial India but in northern Muslim-majority Pakistan as of 1947.

Buddhism then spread further into India from Central Asia and northern kingdoms like Magadha, influencing the art of Mathura, and then the Hindu art of the Gupta empire, which was to extend to the rest of Southeast Asia.

The influence of Greco-Buddhist art also spread farther northward towards Central Asia (the Stans and Russia), strongly affecting the art of the Tarim Basin, and ultimately the arts of China, Korea, and Japan. More

Ancient Buddhist money (kahapana)

Editors, Wisdom Quarterly edited English translation of German-Wiki "kahapana"

Examples of gold kahapanas minted in Sri Lanka as a revival of ancient Buddhist coins.

Modern minor excavation at Mes Aynak, Afghanistan shows gold and jewellery treasure. This hoard was dated from 500 AD to 700 AD (Kadir Salamviking)

Rectangular punch mark purana (CM)

Kahapana was the name of an ancient Indian coin. It was either gold, silver, or copper. Its shape was round or rectangular. In Sanskrit it was called a purana or "punch marked coin," in England a "crown."

 

Kahapanas are mentioned in early Buddhist literature, where their role was as a means of payment on the Indian subcontinent of antiquity. It is also in evidence in excavations.
 

WQ "Save Mes Aynak" demo, UCLA

In the story of the cat (Babbu Jataka) of the Pali canon, a rich mouse (the Bodhisatta) is so revered that the others daily bring him a kahapana with which he buys food. With this same food they then ransom from the claws of cats.
 

How much is one kahapana worth? In the Mahavamsa (a Pali language chronicle of the kings of Sri Lanka), King Dutugamunu is said to have ruled from 161 to 137 [BCE]. He had 800,000 gold hirannas paid as wages for the construction of a palace, which corresponds to 6,400,000 kahapanas.
 

The kahapanas found are made of hammered silver. Their weight varies. As an estimation, 3.73 grams is accepted. Kahapanas (presumably modern ones) are on display in the Mint Museum of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. More (German) More details at Sirimunasiha about corresponding Sri Lankan money.

Set of kalandas of corresponding weight -Type I -Chank over Vase or Pot (Sirimunasiha).

The kahavanuva as well as the kalanda of gold may perhaps have been struck first as a deliberate revival of the kahapana of the  Buddhist scriptures (sutras). It is supposed by the commentators of the 5th century and their successors to have been a coin of gold. But the name was also applied to silver and copper coins.

Later punch mark coins or puranas of ancient India (chennaimuseum.org)

The greatest Buddhist commentator, Ven. Buddhaghosa, weighed in on this matter. His statement that the kahapana was "either of gold or of silver or the common [copper] one" is amplified in the Khuddasikkha Commentary:
 

"Kahapana is either of gold or of silver or the kahapana now common." And the copper coins of Parakrama Bahu I were also known by this name (Mhv LXXXVI, 104). The following table of the gold coins can now be given with their denominations and weights. More

Lipstick and Blood in Afghanistan

Crystal Quintero, CC Liu, Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly; Uprisings; RAWA

New Skater'istan, formerly Buddhist Bamiyan, Afghanistan (zeroanthropology.net)

  

Lipstick in Afghanistan (amazon.com audio)

There was Greco-Buddhism and amazing art in Gandhara (Afghanistan). But that was a long time ago. Now there's war.

 

Roberta Gately’s lyrical and authentic debut novel -- inspired by her own experiences as a nurse in third world war zones -- is one woman’s moving story of offering help and finding hope in the last place she expected.

Gripped by haunting magazine images of starving refugees, Elsa has dreamed of becoming a nurse since she was a teenager. Of leaving her humble working-class Boston neighborhood to help people whose lives are far more difficult than her own.

 

The best lipsticks are unexpected and yummy

No one in her family has ever escaped poverty, but Elsa has a secret weapon: a tube of lipstick she found in her older sister’s bureau. Wearing it never fails to raise her spirits and cement her determination. With lipstick on, she can do anything -- even travel alone to war-torn Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.

I will get us out of Af'

But violent nights as an ER nurse in South Boston could not prepare Elsa for the devastation she witnesses at the small medical clinic she runs in Bamiyan [the formerly Afghan Buddhist town with massive Buddha statues and a cave system that used to be a monastery along the foothills of the Himalayas, here called the Hindu Kush].

• Dick Cheney to G.W. Bush: See how that works? We do it, and the [black guy] gets blamed. It's okay, he's on board.

Buddhism in Afghanistan was one of the major religious movements during the pre-Islamic era. It was widespread south of the Hindu Kush mountains. Buddhism was thought to have first arrived in Afghanistan in 305 BCE when the Seleucid Empire made an alliance with the Indian Maurya Empire. But recent archeology revealed 2600-year-old Mes Aynak, a one square mile Buddhist monastery near a precious metal mine. The Buddha was from Afghanistan, and the Shakyan capital of Kapilavastu may have been somewhere between Bamiyan and Kabul (ranajitpal.com). Buddhism thrived until the time of the Ghaznavids in the 11th century.

• VIDEO: Rebuilding Bamiyan Buddhas (Archaeoscoop)

Greco-Buddhist statues of Afghanistan and Indo-Pakistan, ancient Gandhara

 

Pakistan, parts of Afghanistan used to be India

As she struggles to prove herself to the Afghan doctors and local villagers, she begins a forbidden romance with her only confidant, a charming [American serial killer] Special Forces soldier.

Then, a tube of lipstick she finds in the aftermath of a tragic bus bombing leads her to another life-changing friendship. In her neighbor Parween, Elsa finds a kindred spirit, fiery and generous. 

 

Crossing Zero (invisiblehistory)

Together, the two women risk their lives to save friends and family from the worst excesses of the [CIA-Pakistani creation known ominously as the] Taliban. But when the war waging around them threatens their own survival, Elsa discovers her only hope is to unveil the warrior within.

Gately’s raw, intimate novel is an unforgettable tribute to the power of friendship and a reminder of the tragic costs of war. More + Audio

Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence

See the reality: Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA.org)

 

Afghan female (codepink.org)

This is in-depth research in a historical context. Sonali Kolhatkar and James Ingalls report on U.S. (CIA, MIC) policies in Afghanistan in the post-9/11 era.

Using declassified government documents and on-the-ground interviews with Afghan activists, journalists, lawyers, refugees, and students, Bleeding Afghanistan examines the connections between earlier U.S. training and arming of Afghan Mujahideen commanders and the subversion of Afghan democracy today. 

This book boldly points out the exploitation of Afghan women to justify war, which has been done by both conservatives and progressives. It analyzes uncritical mainstream media coverage of U.S. policies and examines the ways in which the U.S. benefits from being in Afghanistan even as the military seems to be "losing" the war. More

Exquisite examples of ancient Afghan Buddhist art, Gandhara-style (metmuseum.org)

The Battle for Afghanistan, William Dalrymple (New York Times book review)

 

Byzantine History Made Easy (audio)

Pat Macpherson, Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Marc Haefele, John Rabe (Off-Ramp)

Archangel Michael (Buddhist Sakka, King of the Devas), 1300-1350 AD, Constantinople, tempera and gold on wood (Gift from Istanbul, Byzantine & Christian Museum, Athens).

Byzantium: Heaven and Earth and Constantinople, too

Buddhist Messiah Maitreya (WQ)

What civilization lasted 1,100 years, almost into Columbus’ time, that hardly anyone thinks of as a civilization? Byzantium.

It was a Yelp-5-Star civilization that bridged ancient times to modernity. And it’s now showing at both of the Gettys in Los Angeles.
  

First the Romans took over the Greeks. Then, 800 years later, the Greeks took over the Romans. [Messianic Buddhism-influenced] Christianity came into the mix, and the result was the magnificent Byzantine Empire, which once spread from North Africa all the way to Crimea (Ukraine).

• 

  Greco-Buddha, Gandhara

  Greco-Indian Buddhist empires: Bactria, Seleucid, Sogdia, Gandhara
• Ancient Greece: the Buddhist monk and King Menander I (Milinda) In the land of the Bactrian Greeks, there was a city called Sagala, a great center of trade. Rivers and hills beautified it, delightful landscapes surrounded it, and it possessed many parks, gardens, woods, lakes, and lotus-ponds. Its ruler was King Milinda (Menander I), a man who was learned, experienced, intelligent, and competent, and who at the proper times carefully observed all the appropriate Brahminical rites, with regard to things past, present, and future. As a disputant he was hard to assail, hard to overcome, and he was recognized as a prominent sectarian teacher. One day, a large company of Buddhist saints (arhats) living in a well-protected spot in the Himalayas sent a messenger to Ven. Nagasena. He was dwelling at Asoka Park in Patna. They asked him to come, as they wished to see him, to have him go dispute the Greek king. 

While Western Europe was collapsing during the Dark Ages, Byzantium was a world center of art, literature, and culture. Yet, its story is largely forgotten in the deep dark gap between ancient and modern history.

• Read up on Byzantium after seeing double Getty exhibits
• What is Greco-Buddhism, Kingdom, Greco-Buddhist art?

"Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections" is at the Getty Villa through August 25. "Heaven and Earth: Byzantine Illumination at the Cultural Crossroads" is at the Getty Center through June 22, 2014.

Aphrodite, 1st century (NAM)

In a bid to remedy this, the Getty is hosting a rare doubleheader called Heaven and Earth. The art from several Greek museums is on display at the Getty Villa, while the manuscripts are at the Getty Center. This has never happened before. Nor has any art of the past millennium ever been shown at the classically dedicated Getty Villa.

• Eureka! Huntington opens Archimedes exhibit with text and puzzle

Why now? Not that the recovery of the civilization of Greeks who called themselves Romans isn’t much overdue. But the new consciousness or awareness of this rich and tumultuous Byzantine culture seems to spring from Greece itself.
 

Buddha, 1st century (Guimet)

“It was always there,” said Peter Poulos, an American-born official of the Bernaki Museum. “There are wonderful Byzantine churches all over Athens, built over almost every ancient pagan temple.”

• Getty to return illegally removed ancient manuscript to Greece

But in recent years, modern Greece has rediscovered this mighty culture that endured far longer than the glory that was Classical Greece. Byzantium continued that glory. That’s one reason Modern Greece wants to share this heritage to the world.

The Getty Villa has on show more than 160 ikons, sculptures, and other works of art, many of which illustrate Byzantine art’s connection to... The intricate passages of this great art through the medieval world were indeed truly byzantine. Some of the most fascinating stuff here shows the Byzantine effects on the art of Central Asia [land of the Shakyas, the Buddha's relatives]... LISTEN

• See the shows at BOTH Gettys (getty.edu)
• 7 Byzantium books to read after visiting double Getty exhibits 
• The competitive sport of tree climbing comes to Pasadena

• 5 classic Easter eggs from favorite animated movies
• Angels pitcher CJ Wilson's shocking confession
• 130-year-old Heritage Square building damaged in car crash
• Boston Marathon bombing: Studio City runner returns to race
• L.A.'s Angels Flight railway in limbo in downtown
• Mike Kelley - a (too short) life in full at MOCA Geffen Contemporary
• Re-evaluating Friedkin's "Sorcerer" and other "flops" by the wizards of the 1970s
• Awkward Family Photos exhibit comes to the California Heritage Museum 

Charles Manson (LAPD photo archives)

• Mimi Pond's Over Easy: Sex, drugs, and gourmet omelets
• Pete Seeger tribute comes to Downtown Los Angeles
• Picture This: Inside the LAPD's rarely seen crime photo archives
• NBA commish on Clippers owner's alleged remarks: No sanctions yet 
• Paramount Drive-In re-opens tonight after being closed for more than 20 years

Punk Rock is Dying (sort of)

RIP Mike Atta: Hardcore punk founder, guitarist for OC band

John Rabe (Off-Ramp/SCPR.org)

The Middle Class may have invented hardcore, an important genre of punk rock, but to say they invented it implies intent.

"It's not like The Middle Class guys, who were all teenagers at the time, like 15-17, who had barely discovered punk, and kinda taught themselves to play. What they had heard was that punk was loud and fast, and be kind of crazy. So with that in their heads, they just started playing loud and fast, there was nobody around to tell them, 'Hey, you're playing too loud and too fast!'" - Chris Ziegler, editor and publisher of LA Record.

In any case, this group of teens from Santa Ana (Orange County) was doing something nobody else was doing, and they were successful and influential. LISTEN

• Off-Ramp is a lively weekly look at Southern California through the eyes and ears of radio veteran John Rabe (from Pasadena's KPCC FM). News, arts, home, life... covering everything that makes life here exciting, enjoyable, and interesting.