NYC exhibition depicts ancient Buddhist caves

Home Arts & Culture

NEW YORK, USA -- The China Institute Gallery has been transformed into an ancient cave, taking visitors back more than a millennium to a dazzling world where Buddhist worshippers adorned the walls with colorful frescoes, silk prayer banners and lavishly painted life-size clay sculptures.

"Dunhuang: Buddhist Art at the Gateway of the Silk Road" features a replica of an 8th century cave carved into the limestone cliffs at the edge of the Gobi Desert southeast of the oasis town of Dunhuang from 366 to about 1300.

It is one of 735 Mogao Caves constructed during what is known as the high Tang period (705-781), designed for devout Buddhists to gather and worship. Nearly every inch is covered in art, with a canopy ceiling resplendent in floral and diamond shapes. One end is filled with life-sized sculptures of a Buddha flanked by two monk disciples wearing luxuriously patterned robes, two bare-chested figures and two ferocious-looking guardians in military armor.

While there have been exhibitions that have featured individual pieces from the Mogoa Caves, this is the first exhibition in the United States to put all the elements of the cave shrines into context, said Annette Juliano, a professor of Chinese art history at Rutgers University.

It shows the "relationship between the architecture, the pictures, the subject matter and the (ritual) practices . the actual use of the cave, rather than just an abstraction," added Juliano, who visited the caves for the first time in 1980.

Many of the caves are exquisitely preserved but others are fragile due to neglect over the centuries and the conditions of the surrounding desert and sand dunes. To protect them from further erosion, tourist access is limited to several dozen caves a day that are rotated regularly.

The exhibition also features a 6th-century replica of an elaborate square altar called the Central Stupa Pillar that highlights the religious ritual of circumambulation - an act of veneration - in which the faithful walk clockwise around the altar that contains four niches, each holding a Buddha.

"Walking around the stupa pillar helps to empty your mind to allow visualization, to focus on the images of the Buddhas," said Juliano, who contributed an essay to the exhibition catalog.

Exact, hand-painted reproductions of wall motifs and story scenes complete the exhibition space in this gallery. Among the highlights is a Thousand Buddha pattern that covers an entire wall and is symbolic of the deity's omnipresence. Among the narrative paintings is the tale of the Deer King and his journey toward enlightenment.

Authentic silk prayer banners, a handwritten Buddhist scripture in near mint condition, a Yuan dynasty fragment of a mathematical document, small clay figurines, Persian silver coins that bear witness to foreign travelers on the Silk Road, patterned floor tiles and oil lamps used to light the dark caves round out the small two-gallery exhibition.

The Mogao Cave shrines, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987, were largely unknown in the West until they were discovered in 1900 by a Hungarian archaeologist, Sir Aurel Stein.

Dunhuang, located at the north and south crossroads of the Silk Road, was a strategic hub of trade and religion. Stein, who made several treks through Central Asia, had heard rumors of a cave room sealed in the 11th century containing tens of thousands of manuscripts, scrolls, silk paintings and textiles dating in Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit and other languages.

A local caretaker had uncovered the treasure trove after discovering a crack in the wall of a corridor leading to a larger cave. It's not clear why the room was sealed, but scholars speculate they were walled up to protect them from the threat of invasion from nomadic people.

Stein was able to persuade the caretaker to sell a portion of the material in exchange for money for the cave's upkeep. In subsequent years, almost 80 percent of the contents were taken out of the country by foreign adventurers. Today, the treasures are found in various museums and libraries around the world.

The exhibition, organized by the Dunhuang Academy, runs through July 21. A second exhibition in the fall will focus on paintings and sculptures by contemporary artists inspired by the caves.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/04/29/3370293/nyc-exhibition-depicts-ancient.html#storylink=cpy

View the original article here

Save Pali, ancient classical Indian language of Buddhism in India

Home Issues

New Delhi, India -- The Government of India has recently removed Pali - an ancient classical language - as a subject from the main examination of the Civil Services (popularly known as Indian Administrative Services i.e. IAS) of India, 2013, which were  under the purview of the UPSC (Union Public service Commission).

The presence of Pali in this competitive examination was one of the major reasons that attracted many youngsters to opt for Pali and Buddhist Studies. The examination was touted as a major lifeline of the language, and was credited to have played an important role in stemming the decline of Buddhism in its homeland.

Most Indian Buddhist scholars are not aware that the Government of India does not consider Pali as a classical language of India.

In a 2006 press release, Minister of Tourism & Culture Ambika Soni told the Rajya Sabha (upper house of the Indian Parliament) the criteria which were laid down to determine the eligibility of languages to be considered for classification as a "Classical
Language":

“High antiquity of its early texts/recorded history over a period of 1500-2000 years; A body of ancient literature/texts, which is considered a valuable heritage by generations of speakers; The literary tradition be original and not borrowed from another speech community; The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may also be a discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or its offshoots.”

Activists have argued that the Pali language and literature fulfils the above criteria. Pali, the language used to encapsulate the Buddha’s teachings as contained in the Tipitaka, is a treasure trove of Buddhist knowledge and has become an important carrier of Buddhist propagation throughout the world. The latest setback has the potential of suffocating Buddhist growth in its own homeland.

Activists contend that the standpoint of the Indian government is illogical, unjustified and reflects ignorance of the Indian bureaucratic system and political leadership towards its own heritage.

The removal of Pali by UPSC and non-recognition of Pali as an Indian classical language calls for strong protests not only by those who are related with Pali and Buddhist Studies but also by all those who study, respect or relate themselves with Indology or Buddhism in whatever ways.

A petition has been organised to mount pressure on the Government of India to take the following actions:

Include Pali as a classical language of IndiaWithdraw the decision of removing Pali Language & Literature from the Civil Services Examination conducted by Union Public service Commission (UPSC) of India.

Supporters of the Pali language are urged to write to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India. His address is as follows:

South Block, Raisina Hill,
New Delhi.
India-110011.
Telephone: 91-11-23012312.
Fax: 91-11-23019545 / 91-11-23016857
Email: http://pmindia.gov.in/feedback.php

A Facebook Page entitled “Save Pali and Buddhist Studies in India” can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/586673281343224/?ref=ts&fref=ts

An online petition entitled “Save Pali, ancient classical Indian language of Buddhism in India” has been setup:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/979/079/931/save-pali-ancient-classical-indian-language-of-buddhism-in-india/.

All Buddhists are urged to support this cause as the death of Pali Language and Buddhist Studies in its motherland would be disastrous, not only for India but also for the entire World.

View the original article here

Ancient meditating Buddha discovered

Home Archaeology

Kandramanickam, Tamil Nadu (India) -- A Buddha statue in sitting dhyana (meditation) posture was recently found in  Kandramanickam while carrying out field work alongwith a team which included Dr. Kudavayil Balasubramanian.

<< Dr.B.Jambulingam with the Kandramanickam Buddha (2012)

During the 2012 field study conducted at the location, the statue was discovered while building works were carried out in Mettu Street.

Locals worshipped the Buddha by placing a lemon garland around it's neck. It also sported sandalwood paste and kumkum on the forehead. A lamp was found in front of the statue. Sacred ash was also kept there.  

Like other Buddha statues of the Chola country this statue belonged to 10th-11th century CE era. It had smiling face, tilak mark on the forehed, elongated ears, dress over the shoulder and chest. Dharmachakra was found on the hand. Flame was found over the head. Part of nose is found broken.

After some time the Buddha statue was taken from this location and exhibited in the Government Museum at Tiruvarur.

For more details, please visit: http://ponnibuddha.blogspot.in/2013/04/buddha-statues-found-during-field-study.html

View the original article here

Ancient Buddhist Vihara found in Munshiganj

The discovery was made during an excavation conducted jointly by Agrasar Bikrampur Foundation, a local socio-cultural organisation, and Archaeology Department of Jahangirnagar University (JU).

The Ministry of Cultural Affairs financed the project.

The excavation is the result of four years of hectic effort of the team.

Nuh-ul-Alam Lenin, Director of the Archaeological Excavation and Research in Bikrampur region, confirmed reporters from the site about over a 1,000-year-old Buddhist Vihara being spotted.

Lenin, also a Presidium member of the ruling Awami League, said it was believed the monastery had been built about 1,100 years ago.

He said over 100 precious idols and sculptures have so far been discovered from the region.

Project researcher Prof Dr Sufi Mostafizur Rahman, a teacher of the Archaeology Department at JU, said it was believed that the monastery was related to Atish Dipankar Srigyan, a child prodigy like the Lord Buddha, who was born in Bikrampur region during the regime of King Dharmapala (820 AD).

It is said that some 8,000 students and professors came to the Buddhism education centre in Bikrampur from as far as China, Tibet, Nepal and Thailand during the period and Atish Dipankar was the Chancellor of the centre.

The friendly people of China had constructed a mausoleum at his village, Bojrojogini, in Bikrampur.

Through Atish, the teachings of Lord Buddha reached the world.

View the original article here

Afghanistan hurries to uncover, document ancient Buddhist city

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Afghanistan

A buried Buddhist city in Afghanistan is sitting atop an enormous copper deposit and a planned Chinese open-pit mine, the largest private investment in Afghan history. Archaeologists are racing to document and preserve the treasures before they’re lost forever.

MES AYNAK, Afghanistan -- It had the potential to be another Afghanistan Buddha disaster, recalling the Taliban’s destruction of two ancient statues that had stood for centuries in this country’s west: A buried Buddhist city lost to time was about to be obliterated by what promised to be one of the largest copper mines in the world.

<< JAY PRICE / MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS
Archaeologists and local laborers excavate the main part of the ancient city at Mes Aynak in Afghanistan, which sits on the old Silk Road trading route connecting China and India with the Mediterranean.

Now, however, thanks to delays in construction of the massive mine and a hefty influx of cash from the World Bank, the 1.5-square-mile Mes Aynak complex is an archaeological triumph - though bittersweet.

An international team of archaeologists and more than 550 laborers are now frantically excavating what turns out to be a unique window into Afghanistan’s role on the ancient Silk Road connecting China and India with the Mediterranean.

With its Buddhist city, a ring of perhaps a half-dozen monasteries and a striking complex of workshops and mine shafts built into a high mountain ridgeline at an altitude of 8,200 feet, the site shows the interplay of Buddhism, mining and trade during the years it was in operation, now thought to be from the fifth to the late eighth centuries.

It underscores the conflict between cultural preservation and Afghanistan’s desperate need to find a way to survive as the international community winds down its involvement in the country. The copper may be worth $100 billion, five times the estimated value of Afghanistan’s entire economy, in which the government and military are funded mainly by foreign countries. The best private-sector jobs are with foreign relief groups.

A Chinese consortium agreed in 2007 to pay $3 billion for a 30-year lease on the mine. It was the largest private investment in Afghan history, and Afghan officials hailed it as a key component in building an economy that one day won’t rely almost solely on donor nations and the opium trade. They said it would generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year for the government eventually, and would provide thousands of jobs.

The massive open-pit mine, though, would destroy most or all of the ruins, which were larded with well-preserved frescoes and more than 1,000 statues, including hundreds of Buddhas.

The specter of Buddhas being dynamited or bulldozed immediately sparked comparison with one of the greatest cultural disasters in Afghan history: the Taliban’s destruction in 2001 of the giant Buddhas set into cliff walls in Bamiyan province

But a small group of French and Afghan archaeologists cut an informal deal with the Ministry of Mines in 2009 for time to perform a “rescue excavation,” to recover as many key artifacts and document the site to whatever degree possible before the mining begins.

When that will be, they don’t know. A December deadline came and went. Now they have until June to finish work on the primary sites, said Mossadiq Khalili, the Afghan deputy minister of cultural affairs. Work on some of the monasteries on the edge of the mine area could continue for several years, he said.

The archaeologists are almost certain that they have until at least 2016, because so little progress has been made on the mine. There seem to be no firm plans yet for the necessary power plant, smelter and rail line, or for the mining operation itself.

“So, if that’s correct, it means that there is, I won’t say plenty of time, but a reasonable, good amount of time to work on this site,” said Philippe Marquis, the director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, which has been operating in the country since 1922 and acts as an adviser to the Afghan government.

The World Bank, keen to see the mine succeed, committed $8 million last year to the archaeological project.

Without the copper mine, Mes Aynak and its artifacts very likely would have been destroyed anyway, Marquis and others think, looted by dealers in stolen antiquities, the fate of many Afghan archaeological sites. But with hopes for an economic boon, there’s a strong chance the site will be documented and its artifacts preserved.

Many of the site’s statues and paintings have been removed, and the rest will soon follow, said Nicolas Engel, an assistant director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan.

It’s an adventure just to visit the site, in Logar province about 25 miles south of Kabul. Al-Qaida trained here before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the highway is still subject to occasional Taliban assaults.

The mine site is fenced and heavily guarded. One tunnel, apparently dug by the Russians when they occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s, is thought to be booby-trapped, and land mines left from their presence are still a major hazard. One laborer was wounded last year when he struck a mine while digging, Engel said.

Everywhere are the telltale signs of copper mining going back centuries. Blankets of fused slag — the byproduct of the old copper-smelting operations — tint the mountainside black. In one place the slag was piled nearly 40 feet high, evidence of thousands of years of production.

Large sections of the city have emerged. Several monasteries, each on a hill or mountain above the main city, have been excavated, and more than 1,000 sculptures have been found. Ancient manuscripts and decorative woodwork also have been uncovered.

On a recent sunny day, British archaeologist Thomas Eley sat on a wall sketching the layout of a small building and pondering a small indentation beside a heavily scorched depression in the floor. More than 700 coins had been found in the building, and he said it appeared to be a place where coins had been made from the copper smelted atop the mountain.

Across an ancient street, laborers were uncovering more buildings.

“I’m an archaeologist, so of course I’m sad about what will happen here, but it’s also life, and life has to go on,” said Usman Ishanzada, who’s from Tajikistan. “If this mine can bring some life and jobs for local people, why not?”

The plan is to remove all the artifacts, even the largest statues and the domed shrines called stupas. Afghan officials hope to build a museum just north of Mes Aynak.

Marquis said it was possible that time wasn’t the major challenge now.

“Our biggest problem has become the long-term conservation of all these things that are being saved,” he said. “We need to work on a plan for what to do with them.”

View the original article here

Afghanistan moves to salvage ancient Buddhist city – and its economy

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Afghanistan

MES AYNAK, Afghanistan -- It had the potential to be another Afghanistan Buddha disaster, recalling the Taliban’s destruction of two ancient statues that had stood for centuries in this country’s west: A buried Buddhist city lost to time was about to be obliterated by what promised to be one of the largest copper mines in the world.

<< The base of a life-sized Buddha, one of more than 200 found at the Mes Aynak site, sits along with hundreds of other statues depicting figures from Buddhist life and teachings in Afghanistan. | Jay Price/MCT

Now, however, thanks to delays in construction of the massive mine and a hefty influx of cash from the World Bank, the 1.5-square-mile Mes Aynak complex is an archaeological triumph – though bittersweet.

An international team of archaeologists and more than 550 local laborers are now frantically excavating what turns out to be a unique window into Afghanistan’s role on the ancient Silk Road connecting China and India with the Mediterranean.

With its Buddhist city, a ring of perhaps a half-dozen monasteries and a striking complex of workshops and mine shafts built into a high mountain ridgeline at an altitude of 8,200 feet, the site shows the interplay of Buddhism, mining and trade during the years it was in operation, now thought to be from the fifth to the late eighth centuries.

It underscores the conflict between cultural preservation and Afghanistan’s desperate need to find a way to survive as the international community winds down its involvement in the country. The copper here may be worth $100 billion by some estimates, five times the estimated value of Afghanistan’s entire economy, in which the government and military are funded mainly by foreign countries. The best private-sector jobs are with foreign relief groups.

A Chinese consortium agreed in 2007 to pay $3 billion for a 30-year lease on the mine. It was the largest private investment in Afghan history, and Afghan officials hailed it as a key component in building an economy that one day won’t rely almost solely on donor nations and the opium trade. They said it would generate hundred of millions of dollars a year for the government eventually and would provide thousands of jobs.

The massive, open pit mine, though, would destroy most or all of the ruins, which were larded with well-preserved frescoes and more than 1,000 statues, including hundreds of Buddhas.

The specter of Buddhas being dynamited or bulldozed immediately sparked comparison with one of the greatest cultural disasters in Afghan history: the Taliban’s destruction in 2001 of the giant Buddhas set into cliff walls in Bamiyan province. But a small group of French and Afghan archaeologists cut an informal deal with the Ministry of Mines in 2009 for time to perform a "rescue excavation," to recover as many key artifacts and document the site to whatever degree possible before the mining begins.

When that will be, they don’t know. A December deadline came and went. Now they have until June to finish work on the primary sites, said Mossadiq Khalili, the Afghan deputy minister of cultural affairs. Work on some of the monasteries on the edge of the mine area could continue for several years, he said.

The archaeologists feel almost certain that they have until at least 2016, because so little progress has been made on the mine. There seem to be no firm plans yet for the necessary power plant, smelter and rail line, or for the mining operation itself.

"So, if that’s correct, it means that there is, I won’t say plenty of time, but a reasonable, good amount of time to work on this site," said Philippe Marquis, the director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan, which has been operating in the country since 1922 and acts as an adviser to the Afghan government.

What makes the prospect of success even greater, Marquis said, is the international interest in getting the mine up and running. Afghanistan has long been desperately poor, but it’s thought to have untapped oil, gas and mineral reserves worth perhaps more than $1 trillion. The World Bank, keen to see the mine project succeed, committed $8 million last year to the archaeological project.

Without the copper mine, Mes Aynak and its artifacts very likely would have been destroyed anyway, Marquis and others think, looted by dealers in stolen antiquities, the fate of many Afghan archaeological sites. But with hopes for an economic boon, there’s a strong chance that the site will be documented and its artifacts preserved.

Many of the site’s statues and paintings have been removed, and the rest will soon follow, said Nicolas Engel, an assistant director of the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan.

It’s an adventure just to visit the site, in Logar province about 25 miles south of Kabul. Al Qaida trained here before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the highway is still subject to occasional Taliban assaults. The massive copper mine site is fenced and heavily guarded. One tunnel, apparently dug by the Russians when they occupied Afghanistan in the 1980s, is thought to be booby-trapped, and land mines left from their presence are still a major hazard. One laborer was wounded last year when he struck a mine while digging, Engel said.

Everywhere are the telltale signs of copper mining going back centuries. Blankets of fused slag – the byproduct of the old copper-smelting operations – tint the mountainside black. In one place the slag was piled nearly 40 feet high, evidence of thousands of years of production.

Shovels and picks ring out against rock as local laborers dig. Large sections of the city have emerged, as have roads and alleys that cut across several neighborhoods. Several monasteries, each on a hill or mountain above the main city, have been excavated, and more than 1,000 sculptures have been found, including Buddhas more than twice life-sized. Ancient manuscripts and decorative woodwork also have been uncovered.

On a recent sunny day, British archaeologist Thomas Eley sat on a wall sketching the layout of a small building and pondering a small indentation beside a heavily scorched depression in the floor. More than 700 coins had been found in the building, and he said it appeared to be a place where coins had been made from the copper smelted atop the mountain.

Across an ancient street and several buildings away, another archaeologist was sketching the unusually thick walls and small, extra-secure doorways of what may have been a bank where copper and coins were stored. All around them, laborers were uncovering more buildings, more pieces of the puzzle of Mes Aynak.

"I’m an archaeologist, so of course I’m sad about what will happen here, but it’s also life, and life has to go on," said Usman Ishanzada, who’s from Tajikistan. "If this mine can bring some life and jobs for local people, why not?"

The site poses intriguing questions about the era when Buddhism was the dominant religion in Afghanistan, Marquis said.

"The odd thing is all these Buddhist monasteries," he said. "Monks are not supposed to be miners, because Buddhist monks are not supposed to be working.”

The way monasteries are arrayed around the city and mine creates almost a wall around the site, which almost suggests a type of military activity, too, which would be a previously unknown role for monks.

The success of the project from a scientific and economic standpoint is becoming a positive lesson for the Afghan population and once-skeptical officials in the government, who thought the archaeological efforts would slow the mine and cause problems. Instead they’ve pumped money into the local economy, improved security and made it clear that such work can coexist well with economic development projects.

It’s also showing that even projects unrelated to mines may have big benefits for local communities, Marquis said.

It seems unlikely, he said, that the Afghan government will stop work on the excavation without any mining. That not only would trigger an international uproar but also would make hundreds of workers jobless, a major security issue. Many workers here already acknowledge that they were part of a rocket attack last August that was staged to protest the destruction of villages that sat atop the mine, Marquis said. Their hostility, however, has turned into enthusiasm now that they’ve been hired on.

The plan is to remove all the artifacts, even the largest statues and the domed shrines called stupas. For now, some statues are being stored in shipping containers at the site, and some have been sent to the national museum in Kabul. Afghan officials hope to build a museum just north of Mes Aynak.

Marquis said it was possible that time wasn’t the major challenge now.

"Our biggest problem has become the long-term conservation of all these things that are being saved," he said. "We need to work on a plan for what to do with them."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/12/185592/afghanistan-moves-to-salvage-ancient.html#storylink=cpy

View the original article here

Ancient tombs discovered in Swat valley

The Italian mission began digging in the 1950s at Udegram, a site of Buddhist treasures in Swat, the northwestern district formerly known as the Switzerland of Pakistan for its stunning mountains, valleys and rivers.

Archaeologists were aware of a pre-Buddhist graveyard site in Udegram, but only recently discovered the collection of almost 30 graves, tightly clustered and partially overlapping.

"Some graves had a stone wall, others were protected by walls and enclosures in beaten clay," Luca Maria Olivieri, head of the Italian mission, told AFP.

"The cemetery seems to have been used between the end of the second millennium BCE and the first half of the first millennium BCE," he added.

Olivieri said, "The tombs point to the culture that predates the Buddhist Gandhara civilisation that took hold in northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan from the first millennium BCE to the sixth century AD.

"The presence of a few iron fragments might be amongst the most ancient traces of this metal in the subcontinent," he said. Bodies were first laid to rest in open graves, fenced in by wooden railings. Then the graves were re-opened and the bones partially burnt before the graves were sealed and a burial mound built. Men were buried with high quality flasks, bowls and cooking pots, and women with semi-precious beads, bronze hairpins, and spindles.

Taliban insurgents led by cleric Fazlullah terrorised the Swat valley from 2007 to 2009, beheading opponents and burning down girls' schools as part of their determination to implement their laws. An army offensive in 2009 claimed to have defeated the insurgency, but isolated attacks continue.

View the original article here

Ancient Buddhist Relics Returned by Burmese Locals

Home Archaeology

Bago, Myanmar -- Hundreds of 1,000-year-old Buddhist statues have been returned by workmen after an ancient pagoda site in Prome (Pyay) Township, Pegu (Bago) Division, dating from the Sri Ksetra era of the Pyu Kingdom, was ransacked.

<< Some of the 1,000-year-old Buddhist statues unearthed in Prome Township. (Photo: Warazein Moekyo)

Local people handed the antique Buddhist relics to the authorities on Thursday after they began to worry about possibly being arrested for stealing the artifacts. Prome residents sent a letter to The Irrawaddy about the discovery last week.

The Irrawaddy reported that the valuable antiques were being hidden and then removed from the site by car. However, after word got out those responsible eventually decided to hand the treasures back to the proper authorities.

“After news spread to the media, they were afraid and this is why they had to give them back,” said a worker who operates a drill at the site.

Local people who stay near the excavation area told The Irrawaddy that it was a shame that the township authorities did not prevent the ancient ruins being destroyed. However, the authorities ordered the digging to halt after complaints were filed in the wake of the relics being discovered on Nov. 5.

The area of Prome Township is called Pagoda Hill and belongs to a man called Thai Thai who recently bought the land from its original owner, Tin Ngwe, who moved to live in Rangoon earlier this year.

The entire plot is valued at 60 million kyat (US $70,000) with the pagoda site alone is worth five million kyat ($6,000). A group of workers found the Buddhist statues after beginning demolition work using a bulldozer on Oct. 15. The find dates from around 700 to 1300 AD, according to Burmese researchers.

Pyu was a civilization that lasted for nearly a millennium until the early ninth century when a new group of “swift horsemen” from the north, the Mranma (Burmans), entered the Upper Irrawaddy Valley. In the early ninth century, the Pyu city-states of Upper Burma came under constant attack from the Nanzhao Kingdom of the present-day Yunnan Province of southwestern China.

In 832, the Nanzhao sacked then-Halingyi, which had overtaken Prome as the chief Pyu city-state. A subsequent Nanzhao invasion in 835 further devastated Upper Burma. While Pyu settlements remained in the region until the advent of the Pagan Empire in the mid-11th century, then Pyu was gradually absorbed into the expanding Burman kingdom of Bagan over the next four centuries.

The Pyu language continued to exist until the late 12th century. By the 13th century, the Pyu had assumed the Burman ethnicity. The histories/legends of the Pyu were also incorporated into those of the Burmans.

View the original article here

Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara civilisation covered up

More than 10 years on Western experts say Afghanistan's ancient Buddhist and early Islamic heritage is little safer.

At the foot of the cliff where the two Buddhas used to stand 130 kilometres (80 miles) west of Kabul, an archaeological site has been found and parts of a third Buddha, lying down, were discovered in 2008.

The area of the lying Buddha is around half the size of a football pitch. A dozen statues or more lie under tonnes of stone and earth.

"We covered everything up because the ground is private and to prevent looting," says Zemaryalai Tarzi, the 75-year-old French archaeologist born in Afghanistan who is leading the project.

Tarzi says he dug first in the potato fields to find artefacts, which he buried again afterwards. All around him, under a large area of farmland, he says, lie exceptional treasures.

In the West, the presence of such riches would lead to a large-scale excavation, frantic research and in time, glorious museum exhibitions.

In Afghanistan, ground down by poverty and three decades of war, it is the opposite.

"The safest place is to leave heritage underground," says Brendan Cassar, head of the UNESCO mission in Afghanistan, adding that policing the thousands of prehistoric, Buddhist and Islamic sites dotted around the country was impossible.

Below ground, the relics are protected from endemic looting, illegal smuggling and the corrosive effects of freezing winters.

"There is looting on a large or small scale at 99.9 percent of sites," says Philippe Marquis, director of a French archaeological delegation in Afghanistan.

Middlemen pay Afghans $4 to $5 a day to dig up artefacts, which are smuggled abroad and sold for tens of thousands of dollars in European and Asian capitals, he says.

Cassar believes the solution is educating locals about the value of their history and the need to implement the law, and a global campaign using Interpol and customs to stop smuggling.

UNESCO added the rocky Bamiyan valley, with its old forts, temples and cave paintings, to its list of endangered heritage sites in 2003. But sites have been destroyed throughout the country.

Hadda in the east was home to thousands of Greco-Buddhist sculptures dating from the 1st century BC to 1st century AD, but it was devastated in the 1990s civil war. Hundreds of pieces have disappeared or been destroyed.

Marquis says the old city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of the southern province of Helmand -- whose 11th-century arch appears on the 100 afghani ($2) banknote -- was irreparably damaged by an influx of refugees.

A Chinese copper mining company has been granted a concession over an area in Logar province, south of Kabul, that includes an ancient Buddhist monastery, and researchers fear the ruins will largely be destroyed.

Archaeologists complain that culture is only a secondary consideration to development and security.

"Cultural issues are never the priority. Security, yes, which eats up 40 percent of the Afghan state budget," says Habiba Sorabi, the governor of Bamiyan province, where few public resources are allotted to archaeology.

A meeting in Paris last year decided one of the two niches that housed Bamiyan's giant Buddhas should be left empty as testimony to the destruction, while experts should look at partially reassembling the other statue on site.

But local archaeologist Farid Haidary says "lots of money" was spent on restoring the Buddhas before the Taliban destroyed them.

"What's the point in building something if the Taliban, who are 20 kilometres away, destroy it afterwards?" he asks.

View the original article here

Ancient Buddhist music used first time for a stage play on life of Buddha

Home Arts & Culture

New Delhi, India -- Deb Chowdhury is a popular music director from the West Bengal state of India with strong and ancient Buddhist roots.

The drama company Rangapath of which he is the music director is the producer of a unique stage play entitled Thathagatha, based on Buddha’s life.

The stage play became more unique as Chowdhury decided to make use of thousands of years old ancient Buddhist music for the play.

To adapt such a music track for Thathagatha he did research in two Tantrayana Buddhist monasteries in India and five other monasteries in China.

Commenting on the kind of music he has invented for the play a Times of India writer Dibyajyajyoti Chaudhuri said, “Music transcends all barriers, they say. But when it comes to music associated with the Buddha, there is something in it that makes it universal.”

The writer further said, “The Erhu, Pipa, Ruan and Gu jheng may sound like words from a distant land but are actually names of Chinese string instruments used in authentic Buddhist music that have been adapted into the soundtrack of " Tathagata", a Bengali play based on the life of the Buddha, by the theatre group Rangapat.”

The man behind this feat further said, "For the music, I researched for more than two years. I visited monasteries in Bodhgaya and Mirik and recorded the music of Vajrayana Buddhism. English speaking Lamas translated the notations of the original music from the libraries at the gumphas." 

When Deb got a chance to fly to China in September 2011, he visited six ancient Buddhist places of worship there. "I was at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Famen Temple at Xi'an, the White Horse Temple and the caves of Longmen Grottoes, both in Luoyang in the Henan Province, the Five Pagoda Temple at Haidan and the Tanjhe Temple at Memtougou, both in Beijing. I recorded the Buddhist chants and music from these places and used them in the play," Deb says. Many chants were processed at the studio and some of the music was re-created locally to get that authentic feel.

Tapanjyoti Das, the director of the play, feels that it was imperative to have that perfect music for bringing the 3,000-year-oldstory alive on the stage. "Such a deeply researched work on Gautam Buddha is perhaps being done for the first time in India. The script, written by Mohit Chattopadhyay, is a result of years of research on the Buddha. Added to that, Deb's music was the icing on the cake. The play is for a qualified audience and the first staging was only for a select few from the theatre fraternity. It was much appreciated by them," says Tapanjyoti.

"The temples are mostly 1,400 to 1,500 years old and are storehouses of Buddhists music," Deb says.

Apart from the string instruments, sounds of the Chinese flute, the Xiao, and many other Chinese percussions have been used in the play too.

View the original article here

Buddhist delegation visits ancient viharaya in Kotapola

Home Asia Pacific South Asia Sri Lanka

Kotapola, Sri Lanka -- An international Buddhist delegation led by Ven Hou Jen Chun, the abbot of the World Buddhist Ch'an Jing Centre of the United States of America will visit Gatabaruwa Raja Maha Viharaya, Kotapola.

The delegation comprising Ven Hou Jen Chun, Rev Hsu Shu Nu and four other lay devotees led by Nancy Go came to Sri Lanka on the invitation of Most Ven Kurunegoda Piyatissa Maha Thera, abbot of the New York Buddhist Vihara and were accompanied by Ven Aregama Sirisumana Thera of the viharaya.

They will also visit the Gatabaruwa Raja Maha Vihara, Kotapola. At the vihara, they will offer alms to 25 Buddhist monks from the Kotapala area and lay the foundation stone to a Buddhist Pilgrimage Centre.

The alms giving ceremony and the construction of the pilgrimage centre will be conducted by Ven Dr Kirinde Ananda Thera of the Getabaru Raja Maha Viharaya under the guidance of Most Ven Pandita V Chandavimala Maha Thera.

View the original article here

Rare ancient Buddhist scriptures found

Home Archaeology

SANKHUWASABHA, Nepal -- Books and scriptures about Buddhism are found more in numbers in a person's home than in the Soyambhu.

Some 178 packets of scriptures of Buddhist religion, mostly disappeared from the world and are not generally found in other Buddha monasteries, are found at a home of Lama in Mudhesanischare. He had also collected some 300-year ancient bands.

The religious scriptures including 108 packets of Kongeur, 13 packets of Yung, 13 Diksaya and 44 Mundhuk have been safely kept at the home of Chhetemba Lama for the past 150 years.

Some 88 Lamas had brought these scriptures and bands from Boda, a place in China, around 150 years ago, said Chhetemba Lama.

The books have been kept at the home due to no monasteries nearby and different instruments of bands have been lost due to insecurity, said eleven-year-old Lattar Lama.

'Number of Buddhists from across the world would come to visit the area if the ancient and rarely found scriptures and bands related to Buddhism were managed well', said Daba Lama.

View the original article here

Ancient Buddhist music in a Bengali play

Home Arts & Culture

New Delhi, India -- Music transcends all barriers, they say. But when it comes to music associated with the Buddha, there is something in it that makes it universal.

<< A scene from 'Tathagata' play

The Erhu, Pipa, Ruan and Gu jheng may sound like words from a distant land but are actually names of Chinese string instruments used in authentic Buddhist music that have been adapted into the soundtrack of " Tathagata", a Bengali play based on the life of the Buddha, by the theatre group Rangapat.

Behind this feat is Deb Chowdhury, the music director of "Tathagata". "For the music, I researched for more than two years. I visited monasteries in Bodhgaya and Mirik and recorded the music of Vajrayana Buddhism. English speaking Lamas translated the notations of the original music from the libraries at the gumphas," he says.

When Deb got a chance to fly to China in September 2011, he visited six ancient Buddhist places of worship there. "I was at the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Famen Temple at Xi'an, the White Horse Temple and the caves of Longmen Grottoes, both in Luoyang in the Henan Province, the Five Pagoda Temple at Haidan and the Tanjhe Temple at Memtougou, both in Beijing. I recorded the Buddhist chants and music from these places and used them in the play," Deb says. Many chants were processed at the studio and some of the music was re-created locally to get that authentic feel.

Tapanjyoti Das, the director of the play, feels that it was imperative to have that perfect music for bringing the 3,000-year-oldstory alive on the stage. "Such a deeply researched work on Gautam Buddha is perhaps being done for the first time in India. The script, written by Mohit Chattopadhyay, is a result of years of research on the Buddha. Added to that, Deb's music was the icing on the cake. The play is for a qualified audience and the first staging was only for a select few from the theatre fraternity. It was much appreciated by them," says Tapanjyoti.

"The temples are mostly 1,400 to 1,500 years old and are storehouses of Buddhists music," Deb says.

Apart from the string instruments, sounds of the Chinese flute, the Xiao, and many other Chinese percussions have been used in the play too.

View the original article here

Thailand monks save ancient Buddhist texts from floodwaters

Home Asia Pacific South East Asia Thailand

AYUTTHAYA, Thailand -- Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, a monk university in Ayutthaya, Thailand was swamped by floodwaters.

Buddhist monks raced against rising floodwaters to keep Buddhist Tripitaka, books containing Buddhist texts, dry and above water.

Monks waded in floods and formed a line on the steps of the university to transfer the books, wrapped in paper.

"The books are priceless because it is the heart of Buddhism," said the university's Assistant Professor Siriwat Srikhruedong.

The Tripitaka represent Buddha's teachings from more than 2500 years ago, held sacred by Buddhists.

Several books have already been damaged, as water levels of at least 1.5 meters (5 feet) inundated the university, known to be a centre for Asian monks.

Half of around 90,000 Buddhist books kept in a room has been damaged by the floods.

Relief goods such as bottled water were also distributed to flood affected communities.

At least 283 people in Thailand have been killed by heavy monsoon rain, floods and mudslides since late July and 26 of Thailand's 77 provinces are inundated, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said on Thursday.

More than 2 million people are estimated to have been affected by the floods which has covered about a third of the country.

View the original article here

China invests heavily in protecting ancient town from desertification

The plan for preserving the oasis, in northwest Gansu Province, has been approved by the State Council and will be a major boost for Dunhuang, also an ancient Silk Road town, to fight an uphill battle against desertification, said officials with provincial water resources bureau.

Authorities will build channels to bring water in from outside, promote water-saving technologies and methods, ration the use of water, and plant more trees and wetland plants, according to the plan.

Dunhuang, with a population of 130,000, has been protected from the encroaching dunes of the Kumtag desert by a belt of forests, wetland and lakes sustained by two major rivers and abundant underground water. But in recent years, excessive draining of water in the region has dropped the levels of the lakes, shrunk the wetlands and dried up the rivers.

Government statistics show that over the past six decades the forests of Dunhuang have shrunk by 40 percent, meadows by 62 percent, and the wetlands by 68 percent.

"A large part of salt lakes and fresh water lakes in the oasis had mostly gone," said Gao Hua, director of the Forestry Bureau of Dunhuang.

Gao previously told Xinhua that the Kumtag desert was pushing back the oasis' forest belt three or four meters each year.

Experts say desertification also threatens the preservation of 1,000-year-old Buddhist frescoes in the Mogao Grotteos, which were listed in 1987 by the United Nations' Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization as China's first world heritage site.

Dunhuang is just one example of the effect water shortages have on the vulnerable ecology in the country's northwest, where about 1.7 million square km of territory in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia, or 17.7 percent of China's land space, are covered by desert.

During a visit to Gansu in 2009, Premier Wen Jiabao, who started his career as a geological engineer in the province, called for efforts to "save" Dunhuang from disappearing into the desert.

"We should never allow Dunhuang to become a second Loulan," Wen said, referring to an ancient Kingdom located in today's northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. Loulan is believed to have been swallowed by the desert about 1,400 years ago.

"It is a good thing that the state is about to give us such major support," said Ren Shenglu, head of the village of Heshui in Dunhuang. "We have been calling for the support for years."

Local officials said they have taken measures to prepare for the implementation of the plan, including promoting water-saving irrigation, advising farmers to grow agricultural products that need less water, and restricting drilling wells, farming and migration.

View the original article here