World's Oldest Buddhist Temple: Mes Aynak

Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly; Salman Hameed, Irtiqa-blog.com, Aug. 15, 2010)

Excavations at Mes Aynak ("Copper Well"), Afghanistan, a massive Buddhist temple complex in danger of demolition due to US war, Afghan desperation, and Chinese greed (Science, Vol. 329, 7-30-10/Irtiqa).

  

To outrage the world and create a pretext for war, the CIA-created Taliban demolished some of the world's largest Buddha statues at Bamiyan, 125 miles to the northwest. The age of those statues is hard to pinpoint because long before they were converted to Buddhist images, monastic caves, and a rich cultural crossroads along the Silk Route, they were monolithic giants depicting humankind devolving slowly through the epochs, according to Russian psychic and Theosophist Madame Blavatsky.

Map of Mes Aynak, Afghanistan (SV)

A precious metal and rare earth mine 25 miles southeast of Kabul, the current Afghan capital, was an enormous Buddhist temple complex 2,600 years ago. Why? The Buddha was born in the ancient region (now called Logar Province), which was once India's northwest frontier.  Temples were often built near mines to draw raw materials for the ornate temple structures.
   

Buddhist archaeological discoveries: Mes Aynak, Tepe Naranj, Buddhist art of the Kabul River Valley -- the first new collections to enter the Nat'l Museum (Kabul) in 30 years come from the newly excavated Buddhist sites of ancient Kabulistan. The spectacular finds from two sites, Mes Aynak and Tepe Narenj, greatly expand our understanding of the artistic culture of the region during the expansion of Islam and the displacement of Buddhism and Zoroastrianism More

• The world's oldest form of religion

Mes Aynak jewelry treasure (SV)

That fabulous 1,000 hectare complex -- with various monasteries, nunneries, and other buildings -- is very ancient and is apparently set atop two older layers of a town. But Chinese government corporate interests are doing their best to make sure the world never sees most of what constitutes this archeological site. They seek to demolish it and extract its mineral wealth.
  
Millennia ago, this region served as a critical conduit in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia [up to Europe and the only indigenously Buddhist portion of Europe, Kalmykia] and China [Buddhism flourished in ancient Greece before it got to China], says T. Richard Blurton, an archaeologist and curator at London's British Museum who has excavated in Afghanistan. 

  

The barren site hiding cultural wonders

Blurton says Mes Aynak could provide new data on both the origin and demise of the religion here. Researchers now believe that as late as the 7th century C.E., when Islam arrived in the area, Buddhism was still making inroads as far west as Iran and as far north as Turkmenistan. "It's quite tantalizing to consider how Buddhism coexisted with the new religion."

Mes Aynak, Afghanistan (Michal Przedlacki, Dziadek/Flickr.com/GALLERY)

There are also Hindu deities from that late period at Tepe Sardar, a large monastery located in the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni. Further evidence from Mes Aynak could help provide a new picture of religious blending at an important historical juncture, explains Blurton. There is some hope for compromise and coexistence -- by creating a protected zone for archeology. But it looks like the decision is now directly in the hands of US-installed Afghan leader Karzai. Read full article (subscription may be necessary).

• Cultural revival in Europe's only Buddhist region

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Visiting Buddhist-Afghanistan (without a gun)

Edited and expanded by Dhr. Seven and Amber Dorrian, Wisdom Quarterly

Mes Aynak archaeological excavations

Michal Przedlacki (REPORTING)

LOCATION: Southern chapel, Kafiriat Tepe monastic complex, Logar Province, Afghanistan [ancient Gandhara, frontier India]

Gandhara-style Buddha (SF Asian Museum)

Of great interest in Mes Aynak ["Copper Well"] is the association of many Buddhist monasteries with the economic activity of copper mining. There is no doubt that the wealthy decoration of the monasteries is linked to the wealth that people living nearby derived from the mine.

   

In May 2012 I traveled to Afghanistan on an assignment for the Czech edition of National Geographic magazine. I photographed excavation and rescue efforts at the world’s largest archaeological excavation site, located in Mes Aynak (“copper well”) area, Logar Province, Afghanistan.

The Buddha's western face (buddhaskulptur.de)

Being an equally inspiring and unique place, experts on site believe that uncovering the ancient city of Mes Aynak would not only re-write the history of the Silk Route but also the history of Buddhism.

  

[According to maverick Indian archeologist Dr. Ranajit Pal, modern Bamiyan, Afghanistan, was ancient Kapilavastu, India, the Buddha's hometown. We at Wisdom Quarterly agree that the historical Buddhist sites were far west of modern Nepal.]

That is, however, unlikely to happen. At the end of December 2012, the first part of the ancient site will be destroyed [by corporate Chinese interests bent on extracting rare earth minerals, copper, and gold].

Policeman guards excavation (time.com)

Due to the economic interests of China and Afghanistan [the former desperately needs rare minerals for producing electronics like iPhones, whereas the latter desperately needs cash in the face of an invasion by a foreign army that has occupied the country with no end in sight] a massive open copper mine complex just where the ancient city lays will be established. 

  

US strike team soldier drives bulldozer through infrastructure to help make country "safe" for capitalism during US war on and continued occupation of Afghanistan (defense.gov)

  

Marks of a Great Man (en.wikipedia.org)

[The upshot is that this massive Buddhist archeological site located west of India in Central Asia will be destroyed and covered by a massive mining city before it is ever excavated or even fully documented. Afghanistan's Department of Archeology is working as fast as it can with no hope of even describing all of its wonders before the Chinese are contracted to start their demolition of the site. While China may have one billion uncounted Buddhists, it is ruled by an officially atheist Communist regime bent on capitalist riches.]

  

Mes Aynak is also a home to a second-largest unworked cooper deposit in the world.

  

To give you a hint, this earth-covered ancient city -- yet to be excavated -- sprawls across a territory of approximately 1.5 by 1.5 kilometers [distance, perhaps a temple complex a square mile in size. Wisdom Quarterly does not refer to it as "the World's Greatest Buddhist Site" for nothing].

  

Gandharan (flickrhivemind.net)

Recent findings suggest that underneath the 2,600 years-old town [which, not coincidentally, is the exact official age of Buddhism itself -- since Buddhism came to Afghanistan just seven years after Siddhartha's great enlightenment, when as the "Buddha" (Shakyamuni, "the Sage of the Shakya Clan") he visited his home town and converted his father King Suddhodana who entered the first and second stages of enlightenment and continued to rule (reaching full enlightenment on his death bed when the Buddha returned to help him awaken), his stepmother Maha Prajapati who became the first Buddhist nun, his son Rahula who at 7-years-old became the first Buddhist novice, his half-brother Nanda and half-sister Sundari Nanda, and many of his relatives like his cousin Ananda from the royal Shakya clan's territory, shakya meaning "grey earth," a reference to the strangely grey soil in this area of Afghanistan], Mes Aynak was inhabited in an organized manner as early as 5,000 years ago, well into Bronze Age.

• The Shakya Clan: The Buddha Gautama's Family

It is considered a literal missing-link between worlds East and West, a trading hub, a money factory, a place where two civilizations met and interacted. 

Gandhara-style Buddha (SF Asia Museum)

According to international archaeologists on site, Mes Aynak is one of the five most important findings in the entire history of archaeology. It is in the same category as Petra and Machu Picchu. [It is, in fact, the world's greatest Buddhist site -- rivaling Indonesia's Borobudur, Cambodia's Angkor Wat, and Sri Lanka's Anuradapura.]

  

Unfortunately, we will never learn about it. For underneath Mes Aynak City exists the second-largest known unworked copper deposit in the world. MCC (China Metallurgical Group Corporation, a government-owned giant) bought rights to it for about $3 billion. It plans to excavate copper and rare earths for the next 30 years, aiming to extract approximately $100 billion worth. As such, a massive open copper mine visible from outer space will completely destroy this ancient site. 

Fitzgerald (InvisibleHistory.com)

So far only about 15% of the newest archaeological layer has been uncovered. A second earlier layer will never be accessed. The entire city’s history, including its administrative center, Buddhist burial mound/reliquary shrines (stupas), monasteries, nunneries, as well as evidence of its Bronze Age past will be forever lost.
  

CIA-funded Afghan Muslims (uberhumor.com)

Archaeologists say they would require 20 to 30 years to fully uncover and simply document this site -- to say nothing of preserving or restoring it. But they have no power to oppose decisions taken by the [CIA-corrupted Karzai] government of Afghanistan and MCC [just as mere archeologists could neither oppose or prevent the planned ransacking of priceless treasures in the Iraqi Museum, which the West considers the "Cradle of Civilization." A further complication exists: Islamic regimes are in no hurry to uncover their pre-Islamic/Buddhist pasts.
 
So sites in Pakistan, Iran/Persia (where the Buddha's mother, Maya Devi, was likely born, according to Dr. Ranajit Pal, who posits that she was from Seistan-Baluchistan, which is a border area between Afghanistan-Iran-Pakistan), Kazakhstan, and elsewhere go largely unprotected in spite of the meager efforts of earnest archeologists].

• Buddhism in Iran (iranian.com)
• The REAL American history of Afghanistan
• Ancient Western Buddhist art (gandhara.com.au)

Kabul Bank bail out (Huff Po; NPR)

A team consisting of international and Afghan archaeologists is conducting so called “rescue archaeology” -- digging out as much as possible in the remaining few months before demolition begins.
  

Reporting (with text by Jiri Unger and Nicolas Engel) has been published exclusively in the September edition of the Czech version of National Geographic magazine.

  

Application for UNESCO protection

(Nadia, Afghan Treasures) Fantastic news! We have blown past our original goal of 10,000 signatures for our petition to protect the Afghan Mes Aynak site from Chinese mining developers.  Who can imagine these incredible archaeological treasures being destroyed for commercial profiteering?  More than 10,000 signatories think that is a bad idea. As of today, we have collected 10,360 signatures and are stretching the goal to 20,000 [2011]. We will report our progress the April newsletter, which features an exclusive article on Mes Aynak by Prof. Tarzi. (We welcome comments and feedback). Here are three things to do right now:

1. Subscribe to Afghan Treasures.
2. Sign the Care2 petition.
3. Subscribe to the newsletter.

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