The History of Iran, formerly Persia, is rich and wondrous. Among the many strongest features of Cyrus the Great's powerful (Achaemenid) Empire is its enduring love of poetry. One need only to think of one of the world's greatest poets, Rumi (aka Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī).
Zionist Israelis and American imperialists, who together are trying to establish a Western beachhead in the center of the Middle East and calling it "Greater Israel," may hate Iran, but we love it and Iranians, the original Aryans.
The Buddha's father, Scythian King or Tribal Chieftain Suddhodana, was a Central Asian from Kabul and Bamiyan, it would seem. But even if the historical Buddha and his biological parents bore no relation to the region, modern Iran is still a magnificent ancient society and a power to reckon with in the region.
It is a horror and a travesty that the CIA, NSA, NSC, Mossad, Israel, UK, TC, and USA meddle in it so much since at least the time of the Shah of Iran and U.S. puppet dictator gone rogue Saddam Hussein.
(Adele Journeys) Premiered Jan. 22, 2026: The Gem Story | Turquoise of Iran. Explore the legendary turquoise mines of Nishapur, Iran, where some of the world’s most prized Persian turquoise has been mined for thousands of years.
See how the stones are extracted, shaped, and polished in local workshops, and learn why turquoise is called a "living stone."
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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 [ScythianGandhara, now Afghanistan and Pakistan], from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the fall of the Indo-Greek kingdom circa 10 AD.
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].
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
Bones of the Buddha is a documentary about the British excavation of one of the eight stupas (Buddhist burial mound and reliquary found in Piprahwa, now India, near the border with Nepal) where the historical Buddha's cremation remains (sarira or relics) were placed after the Buddha's final nirvana (parinibbana). More
Ranajit Pal's Non-Jonesian Indology and Alexander makes sense of the ancient history of proto-India and India and sheds light on the real motives of Alexander the Great in his Gedrosian expedition.
(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
(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
Zawia: Zaman Buddhas of Bamiyan Shamama | زمان بت شمامه بامیان
(ZAWIA) Renegade Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal, Ph.D., has determined that Bamiyan town is one of the three seasonal capitals that comprise "Kapilavastu," the hometown of the historical Buddha Gautama, formerly Prince Siddhartha the Sage of the Scythians/Shakyians (Shakyamuni). He grew up here in the foothills of the Himalayas, in a part of the Himalayan range known as the Hindu Kush, far from Nepal and India but linked geographically. The prince renounced his life of luxury, here in wealthy but far off place along the Silk Road. He traveled East on a spiritual quest and arrived in the Kingdom of Magadha. (There was no "India" yet, which would come centuries later under the rule of Buddhist Emperor Ashoka, who united many kingdoms and republics to form or re-form Great "Bharat," India, as a nation that included Pakistan and part of Afghanistan (ancient Gandhara), which may have been a country previously at the time of the Indus Valley Civilization, 5-10,000 years before the present, when Brahmin priests treasured the Vedas, the ancient Knowledge Books, and shaped a society to their advantage. The Buddha, Mahavira (founder of Jainism) and other separatists were part of the "wandering ascetic" or shramana (shaman) movement, seeking direct experience of the Truth and teaching a Doctrine and Discipline (Dhamma-Vinaya) open to all regardless of caste or sex. So Mahavira accepted female wandering ascetics (sadhvis, sramaneris, and bhikkhunis) and then the Buddha did, and there were other dharmas that did not survive to the present, like the teachings of Makkhali Gosala. But the Old Vedic Religion was eventually claimed by Hinduism, which came centuries later as it was organized and systematized by Sri Shankara and others trying to make a fully "Indian" religion apart from outsiders and foreigners like the Buddha, who was a Scythian (as the Greeks called them) or Saka, as they are still known from the Northwestern frontier, which includes the strange and rare out of the way land now known as Afghanistan.
Evidence of Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist past (not some later territory conquered by the Silk Road spread of Buddhism) rests on such strange facts that Afghanistan is home to the largest unexcavated Buddhist temple complex (Mes Aynak), larger than Borobudur, Java, Indonesia and its pyramid temple topped by bell stupas (possible mimics of time machine technology rediscovered by the Germans and their WWII Die GlockeET technology), the most ancient Buddhist writings (Gandhāran Buddhist texts), stupa (Buddhist burial mound) treasures found in Tillya Tepe and in neighboring Tajikistan's Ajina Tepe, and the most extensive rock hewn structures and art (like the world's oldest oil painting in Bamiyan), which spread throughout the Stans and into what is now India at its famous cave monastery complexes like Barabar and others, which seem to be miracles of advanced technology built by celestial devas ("shining ones") or works of magical feats (siddhis) wielded by powerful adepts and meditators. The Buddhist marvels at Sanchi are hard to explain as ordinary architecture planned by humans alone.
It can also boast the largest Buddha statues in the world, with the largest still untouched, a reclining Buddha buried somewhere in Bamiyan not too far from the massive standing Buddhas that were destroyed by the CIA and ISI and their creation the "Taliban," whose ranks were filled in by released Islamist prisoners from neighboring countries fomented into a war against the West and Western imperialism, taught an extreme brand of Islam known as Wahhabism, which seems like the creation of CIA cubicle workers in Virginia or elsewhere rather than any kind of grassroots movement. The Buddhas of Bamiyan were detonated in public to create outrage and raise support for an American invasion of "Russia's Vietnam." Afghanistan was and remains "a land where empires go to die," England, Russia (USSR), and China's next. The CIA, Pentagon, and American forces (NSA, NSC, and other alphabet agencies we never hear about in the mainstream press) wanted to invade -- to create an oil pipeline, to secure the DNA of redhaired Nephilim cannibal giants for transhuman super soldiers, to recover time well vimana technology, to control a geopolitical Middle East from the best vantage point, to frustrate the Russian Empire's ambitions, to slow China down (with the CIA recruiting Tibet in its fight, compromising the Dalai Lama to become an asset, training and arming his close relatives in Colorado in exchange for favors and publicity), to help India and intervene by playing up both sides of a long-simmering conflict between archrivals Pakistan and India (a single country that was only divided at Partition in 1947, when the British ensured the ruination of the world as they exited by their "divide and conquer" tactics, much as they ruined and ensured misery for Palestine/Israel); in fact, so much of the world's troubles today can be laid squarely at the feet of the British and their Anglo-Afghan wars and the "Great Game" intrigue against other superpowers, with the USA just being the latest, greatest spear tip for those old United Kingdom/British ambitions to rule the world, which seem rooted in their Germanic and ancient Roman mentality to conduct endless war and banking and imperial religion to rule the world one way or another.
Zawia - Zaman Buddhas of Bamiyan Shamama | زمان بت شمامه بامیان
Welcome, everyone, to Zawia’s channel. Hope everyone enjoys these videos. Please make sure to like, subscribe, and share this channel with others. Much love, and thank you, all. #Bamiyan #Buddha #ZAWIA
The Buddha was born a Scythian (Shakyian, Saka) prince in the Indo-Scythian region of Sakastan (Gandhara, modern Afghanistan). See the work of maverick Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal, particularly his breakthrough work Alexander. In Proto-India (Magadha and other kingdoms), the Buddha was considered a "foreigner" because he was a Saka (Scythian, Shakya, Sakai) and treated as such, particularly much later by Sri Shankara who created a systematic "Hinduism" (Indus-ism) out of the ancient indigenously Indian Vedic (Indus Valley Civilization "knowledge books") and Brahminical (Brahmanism) traditions of the Brahmin priests.
These mysterious people, intrepid horsemen and women, have left a real desire for archeological discovery. From the 1st millennium BC onwards, the Scythians constituted a moving and formidable empire established in the vast Eurasian steppes.
The only traces they left us of their existence and significance are their graves: the kurgans (barrows, tumuli, cairns, tells, stupaslike the unimaginable Takht-e Rostam, Afghanistan).
In April 1999, a Franco-Italian and Kazakh scientific team announced the exceptional discovery in Kazakhstan of a 2,400-year-old Scythian tomb.
A true archeological treasure, the contents of the tomb reveal, among other things, 12 horses entirely harnessed in gold, whose precious adornment testifies to the social rank of the deceased, whom they accompany to their final resting place.
All the objects discovered are unique and shed new light on the life of the mysterious people of intrepid horsewomen and men. More
AWARDS: Youth Jury Prize, Researchers' Film Festival 2001, Nancy (France) Special Jury Mention, Filmobidos Festival, Obidos, Portugal - May 2001 Best Archaeological Film Award, Human Adventure Festival 2001, Castellana Grotte (Italy) Grand Jury Award, Nyon Archaeological Film Festival 2001 (Switzerland) Audience Award, Nyon Festival, Switzerland - March 2001 Bronze Medal, New York Film Festival 2001, (USA) Scientific Adventure Grand Prize, Scoop Festival 2000, Angers (France)
Who were these blue-eyed people like the Buddha living in Central Asia near Iranian Aryans?
Who were the Scythians who could make gold jewelry like this comb? (Solokha, 4th cent. BC)
Buddhist coin, gold kapana, circulating in Scythia/India
The distinct caps
When the Buddha-to-be, the Bodhisatta, was a boy, he grew up spoiled in a Scythian warrior culture. He had a white pony named Kanthaka. He was married off at 16 to his extraordinarily beautiful 16-year-old cousin, Princess Bimba (known to the world by the moniker Yasodhara). He learned to ride, shoot with bow and arrow, play and compete with other Scythian boys, and was educated in all the arts and sciences of the day by royal tutors, likely Brahmins and other instructors. All of this would be extraordinarily unlikely for a Nepalese or Indian boy, but it was common for a Central Asian, a Gandharan, a proto-Afghan. Similar to the Scythians of Central and North Asia are another culture designated by recent studies by Western scholars of the Yamnaya (named by Russians to refer to their burial pits, tumuli, kurgan, barrow tombs, their "stupas" of sorts).
Scythians (Barry Cuneliffe)
The Buddha was not from India. He was an outsider, a foreigner. First of all, there was no "India" at the time. There may have been a "Great Bharat" (Maha Bharata) at some time in the past, but not until the Buddhist Emperor Ashoka united disparate kingdoms and republics into a united empire two centuries after the life of the Buddha did anything like modern India come to be.
It was perhaps bigger in the past, extending into Pakistan and Afghanistan (until 1947's Partition that divided India between Hindu-majority and Muslim-majority areas (Pakistan, Kashmir, Bangladesh). The Buddha was from ancient Gandhara (in a region that is now Afghanistan), part of what the ancient Greeks called Scythia.
This was the Indo-Scythian land of the Sakas (Shakyas). These formerly nomadic horse-riding warriors (not caste kshatriyas) were very strange compared to the people of Magadha and neighboring kingdoms where Prince Siddhartha Gautama, renouncing his kingdom of Kapilavastu, went in search of spiritual answers, namely, "What do we suffer, and what can be done about it." The Magadhis and people we would today label as Indians spoke poorly of the barbarians in the Northwest frontier. They did things that ran contrary to the post-Indus Valley Civilization peoples guided by Brahmin priests and their Vedas and countless creeds, belief systems, and practices.
Female Scythians, warrior princesses
For one, they (Scythians in general throughout Central Asia, not South Asia and Indo-Scythians from around ancient Gandhara by Taxila, Pakistan, and modern Sakastan/Afghanistan/Sistan Baluchistan):
did not adhere to the Vedic/Brahminical caste system
did not revere Brahmins as but ruled by kings and warriors
did not subjugate women, who were fellow warriors
did not keep sexual standards as the east did, marrying among cousins [like British and other royals]
and so on as befits an exceedingly "proud," nomadic, horseback extended family clans in there mahajanapada or "country" (foothold of the clan).
What was the Buddha's country?
The Shakyan Clan was one of these Aryan peoples, living in what is now the Stans, the steppe of Central Asia all the way up to Ukraine and down to Persia/Iran, or land of Iranians/Ariyans.
Dr. Ranajit Pal, Ph.D.
This is not the story we are told, but it is very well explained by maverick Indian historian Dr. Ranajit Pal, Ph.D. and aligns with the facts we have from the texts about how the Buddha was regarded, particularly by the founder of Hindu-ism (Indus-ism) as a systematic religion under the Brahmins and extending their lineage back thousands of years to the ancient Vedas [much like Jews due to push themselves back as a group into Sumerian times and the precursors of the Bible stories].
The video above shows how these family clans, these Scythian-like people venturing to the steppe, like Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes on the eastern end of Asia in and around Mongolia.
Territory of the Indo-Scythians in and around Gandhara and expanding into South Asia
Super Afghan stupa carved out of stone
One of the most distinguishing aspects of the Buddha and Buddhism and what he perceived to be his (Solar Race, Aryan) lineage and their traditions is the stupa or burial mounds. These barrows, tumuli, kurgans, burial mounds have an ancient history. The Buddha continued it. One Ukrainian scholar even saw fit to declare that the Buddha was from Ukraine nearer to North Asia than Central Asia, and while this may sound ludicrous and self-aggrandizing, there are indications that he was more a part of that ancient Scythian, for lack of a better more comprehensive designation, tradition than anything "Indian." But the Indo-Scythians abutted the kingdoms that later became India, and it is said that the Buddha's clan, the Sakas or Shakyas (Shakyian/Scythians) invaded and took over and occupied Bihar (now a state in India so named because of the large number of Buddhist vihars or abbeys built throughout the land), where their leader had his great enlightenment in Bodh Gaya.
Devoted Scythian couples with the Buddha (center), Scytho-Parthian, Kushan (wiki)
.
The Yamnaya culture [a] or the Yamna culture [b], also known as the Pit Grave Culture or Ochre Grave Culture, is a late Copper Age to early Bronze Age archeological culture of the region between the Southern Bug, Dniester, and Ural rivers (the Pontic–Caspian steppe), dating to 3300–2600 BCE [2].
It was discovered by Vasily Gorodtsov following his archeological excavations near the Donets River in 1901–1903. Its name derives from its characteristic burial tradition: Я́мная (Romanization Yamnaya) is a Russian adjective that means "related to pits (yama)," as these people used to bury their dead in tumuli (kurgans) containing simple pit chambers.
Research in recent years has found that Mikhaylovka, in lower Dnieper river, Ukraine, formed the Core Yamnaya culture (c. 3600–3400 BCE) [3]. The Yamnaya economy was based upon animal husbandry, fishing, and foraging, and the manufacture of ceramics, tools, and weapons [4].
Exotic nomadic Eurasians with wagons
The people of the Yamnaya culture lived primarily as nomads, with a chiefdom system and wheeled carts and wagons that allowed them to manage large herds [5].
They are also closely connected to Final Neolithic cultures, which later spread throughout Europe and Central Asia, especially the Corded Ware people and the Bell Beaker culture [5], as well as the peoples of the Sintashta, Andronovo, and Srubnaya cultures.
Back migration from Corded Ware also contributed to Sintashta and Andronovo [6]. In these groups, several aspects of the Yamnaya culture are present [c].
Yamnaya material culture was very similar to the Afanasevo culture of South Siberia, and the populations of the two cultures are genetically indistinguishable [1]. This suggests that the Afanasevo culture may have originated from the migration of Yamnaya groups to the Altai region or, alternatively, that both cultures developed from an earlier shared cultural source [7].
Genetic studies have suggested that the people of the Yamnaya culture can be modelled as a genetic admixture between a population related to Eastern European Hunter-Gatherers (EHG) [d] and people related to hunter-gatherers from the Caucasus (CHG) in roughly equal proportions [8], an ancestral component which is often named "Steppe ancestry," with additional admixture from Anatolian, Levantine, or Early European farmers [9, 10].
Genetic studies also indicate that populations associated with the Corded Ware, Bell Beaker, Sintashta, and Andronovo cultures derived large parts of their ancestry from the Yamnaya or a closely related population [1, 11, 12, 13].
According to the widely-accepted Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, the people that produced the Yamnaya culture spoke a stage of the Proto Indo-European language, which later spread eastwards and westwards as part of the Indo-European migrations. More: Yamnaya culture
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