Northwest Buddhist treasures in NYC

Tribune.com.pk (2011); Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (2012)

A vision of paradise (Mohammed Nagri, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4th Cent.) BELOW: Maha Maya's Dream in Kapilvastu, Sikri, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 2nd-3rd Cent. (sites.asiasociety.org).

  

The Buddha's mother's dream

LAHORE, Pakistan [formerly Northwest India] - Fifty Gandhara Civilization artifacts from the Lahore Museum collection have received a tremendous response from media and visitors to the New Asia Society Museum in New York in the United States.

  

India before 1947 and Pakistan (leics.gov.uk)

Elaine Merguerian, Director of Communications at the New Asia Society Museum, said via email that the exhibition “has received much enthusiastic attention from the media and many, many visitors who are interested in Pakistan, Buddhist heritage, and the story behind the exhibition.”

   

She added that the exhibition was “probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to see these great works of art from Pakistan in the United States.”

  

Lahore Museum (Ed Sentner)

LAHORE MUSEUM Director Humaira Alam said museums in South Korea, Japan, and Sri Lanka had repeatedly asked the Lahore Museum for artifacts. “They are not sent until we are assured about the timely return of the artifacts and their security,” she said.

  

The collection was also displayed in Germany, France, and Switzerland between 2008 and 2010 and as part of an exhibition in Japan in 1999.

Last seen at home?

It was not clear when or if the pieces that have been winning rave reviews in New York were last on display at the Lahore Museum itself, since museum officials made conflicting statements. More

• Dispute over the Buddha's birthplace
• VIRTUAL TOUR: Lahore Museum, PK
• Rescuing Afghanistan's Buddhist history
• The Splendors of Afghanistan (Gandhara)

Discovering Buddhist-Afghanistan
Michal Przedlacki; edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

(Dziadek) Archeologists clean the remains of 2,600-year-old Buddhist monasteries and buildings in the MES AYNAK VALLEY. Of an area of roughly 1,000 hectares (1.5 km by 1.5 km) only a tiny portion has been uncovered to date. And not a single site has been fully excavated. Archeologists believe there are three distinct archeological levels in Mes Aynak ("Copper Well"). Excavations are currently underway only on the first (newest) layer, dating back to 2-9th century B.C.E. (PHOTOS)

Mes Aynak excavation site 25 miles east of Kabul (Jerome Starkey)

The World's Oldest Buddhist Monastery

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Where was the Buddha really born?

Ranajit Pal, Ph.D. (ranajitpal.com)

Bamiyan, Afghanistan, was near Kapilavastu, birthplace of the Buddha (Afghan Treasures)

The fantastic recent find of about 10,000 ancient Buddhist fragments at Bamiyan [Afghanistan], part of which is now in the Schoyen Collection, shows that Buddhism was born here. 

  

The names Tiŝŝa, Siddhartha, and Suddho-dana, of the Persepolis Tablets prove conclusively that Gotama [Gautama Buddha] was from Seistan-Baluchistan. 

  

About the iconography of a beautiful schist stele from Mes Aynak, G. Fussman of the College de France writes that the prince shown sitting under foliage of [a] Pipal [tree] is Siddhartha before his enlightenment. 

  

Sistan-Baluchistan, ancient Indian frontier

Gregory Schopen also writes about a "cult tied to a cycle of festivals celebrating four moments, not in the biography of the Buddha but in the pre-enlightenment period of the life of Siddhartha."
  
Yet neither he nor G. Fussman recognizes the need to integrate the Mes Aynak findings with the priceless inscriptions from the Persepolis Tablets, which mention Tissa, Sedda Saramana (Siddhartha), Sudda Yauda Saramana (Suddodana), and Saman.
  
Schopen's video, entitled "Buddha as a Businessman," is largely based on false Nepalese data. More

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"Buddha as a Businessman" (video)

UCLA Faculty Research Lectures; Wisdom Quarterly

Series: UCLA Faculty Research Lectures [5/2009] [Humanities] [Show ID: 16444]
 

(UCtelevision) Prof. Gregory Schopen, Chair of the UCLA Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, an authority on ancient Indian Buddhism, has been separating Buddhist-fact from Buddhist-fiction [falling on the side of fiction, according to Dr. Pal] for the past 30 years. In this UCLA Faculty Research Lecture, Prof. Schopen explores the Buddha as an astute businessman, economist, and lawyer.

• The Buddhas of Bamiyan, Afghanistan
• PHOTOS: "Grey Earth" of Shakyan Afghanistan
• China's Mo Yan wins Nobel Prize in literature

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Buddhism in Iran

Mehrak Golestan (Iranian.com, 2004); Wisdom Quarterly (2012)

Buddha statues and relics priceless smuggled out of Pakistan and recovered (sfgate.com)

  

Lahore Museum, 500 BC (MOW)

The first instance of Buddhism entering Iran seems to have been during the life of the historical Buddha, Sakyamuni, roughly 5/6th century BCE. During the course of this paper, I will seek to examine the spread of Buddhism amongst Iranian people, a subject the significance of which is often overlooked by modern day scholars. The paper begins with a brief background of the region and then examines the circumstances under which Buddhism entered the Persian Empire and how it spread amongst the people of the region.
  

New borders divide old India (new-pakistan.com)

It then looks at the patterns of cross cultural influence and the mark that Buddhism left on Iranians and vice versa. To clarify, the area I am concerned with is not the region of modern day Iran, rather the area of Central Asia inhabited by Iranian people from roughly 500 BCE onwards. This would include modern day Iran, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, as well as parts of North-West Pakistan and India....
  

Shakyamuni [Bijapuri (Ed Sentner)]

The most obvious example of Iran's influence on Buddhism is to be found in the "Gandharan" style of art. It developed under the Kushans and is closely linked with the development of Mahayana Buddhism. Scholars agree with Emmerick (1983) that, "It seems probable that both [development of art as well as development of Mahayana school of thought] arose from the contact between Greek, Iranian, and Indian influences" (Emmerick, RE, "Buddhism amongst Iranian peoples" in: Yarshater, Ed, Cambridge History of Iran, vol 3.2, Cambridge, CUP).  More

• Buddhism in Pakistani (Gandharan) history
• Western Buddhas in Lahore Museum, Pakistan

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