India Uses History and Artefacts To Build Bridges with Sri Lanka

Four bone fragments of the Buddha housed in the National Museum, Delhi are on a two-week tour of Sri Lanka to enable Buddhists there to pay homage to them. While all relics of the Buddha are revered, these are special. They are part of the trove of 22 bone fragments that were discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in the 1970s in Kapilavastu, Uttar Pradesh, where he grew up as a prince before renouncing the world.

The journey of the relics, from New Delhi to Colombo, and to six other places in Sri Lanka this year, being observed as the 2,600th anniversary of the Buddha’s enlightenment, brings up some old questions.
For the two governments, the historical antecedent of the relics is a settled fact, and the exchange of cultural artefacts between the two countries is a continuation of the long history that dates back to the days of Emperor Ashoka.

But Nepal has for years raised doubts about the relics, claiming that the true Kapilavastu lies in its territory, and not in U.P. as Indian archaeologists claim.

After Gautama Buddha died or attained Mahaparinirvana in the 5th century BCE, eight ruling families shared the relics from his body. Among them were the Sakyas, the clan to which the Buddha belonged. They built a stupa over their share in Kapilavastu, the capital city. After the decline of Buddhism, many stupas and monasteries were abandoned and the one built by the Sakyas too went to seed. When the Chinese pilgrims Fa-hien and Hiuen Tsang visited India centuries later in the 5th and 7th C.E respectively, most of these sites lay in ruins.

PEPPÉ’S DISCOVERY

It was in the 19th century that Buddhist archaeology began to be properly noticed as British antiquarians set out to pursue the Buddha’s trail. In 1898, William Peppé, a planter, while clearing his estate near Piprahwa, a village in eastern Uttar Pradesh near the India-Nepal border, found a brick dome that contained a sand stone box with five caskets, relics said to be that of the Buddha, and other artefacts. An inscription found on one of the caskets, though dated to after the Buddha’s death, established the authenticity of the relics.

Based on this discovery and the location with respect to Lumbini, the Buddha’s birthplace in Nepal, Piprahwa was identified as Kapilavastu. But there were counter claims. In 1896, and again in 1899, a few archaeologists identified Tilaurakot, a village in Nepal’s terai region as Kapilavastu. Though they could not find any relics, the presence of a large ensemble of structures and their correlation with the Chinese pilgrims’ description supported their claim. Tilaurkot’s case was bolstered by the disagreement among archaeologists over the decipherment of the Piprahwa inscription.

The dispute continued in the post-independence period. Nepal commenced a series of excavations in 1962 and found more structures around Tilaurakot, but failed to locate any relics. Matters turned in India’s favour in 1971. K.M. Srivastava, an archaeologist with the ASI, following a complaint forwarded to him from the Prime Minister’s Office regarding the poor upkeep of Piprahwa, decided to look afresh at the place. He began new excavations and dug deeper to discover two remarkable soap stone urns. One of them contained 10 bone fragments and the other 12, all dateable to 5th century BCE. Besides this, many terracotta seals with inscriptions found at the site supported India’s claim. This was “an epoch making discovery” that settled the location of Kapilavastu, Mr. Srivastava said in his report. For reasons that are still unknown, the ASI published the report only 20 years after the excavations were completed.
Nepal refused to acknowledge these developments and persists with its claim. It even nominated Tilaurakot along with Lumbini for World Heritage status. Unesco, which accepted the nominations, declared Lumbini as a World Heritage Site in 1997. Tilaurakot is still on the tentative list. The controversies over Kapilavastu were in the spotlight again last year when Charles Allen published his absorbing book, The Buddha and Dr. Füher: an Archaeological Scandal.

Evidently none of the contesting claims has worried Sri Lanka. It was the first county to invite the relics and exhibit them in 1978. The exhibition, The Hindu reported then, drew more than 10 million visitors.

TIRUKETHEESWARAM PROJECT

The exchange of ideas and objects around Buddhism between India and Sri Lanka go back more than two millennia. In the 3rd century BCE, a mission led by Mahinda, Ashoka’s son, reached Sri Lanka and converted the Sri Lankan king Tissa to Buddhism. One of Tissa’s first requests, as the Sri Lankan text Mahavamsa compiled in 6th century CE describes, was for a branch of the Bodhi tree. The request was accepted, and Sanghamitra, Ashoka’s daughter, carried the branch to Anuradhapura.

Unlike in 1978, when the Indian government first exhibited the relics at Chennai’s Egmore Museum, en route to Sri Lanka, this time, in the current atmosphere of political antipathy in Tamil Nadu towards the Sri Lankan government, it evidently did not want to take chances. The relics were flown directly to Colombo.

This brings us to a second question around the lending of the relics to Sri Lanka. In the light of the unresolved Tamil issue, at least one political party, the MDMK, has objected to it. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, its leader Vaiko wrote that this was an “unpardonable betrayal” of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Indian government.

Perhaps it was in anticipation of such criticism that at the same time as the inauguration of the relics exposition in Colombo, India will launch a project for the conservation of the Tiruketheeswaram temple in Mannar.

Indeed, in the joint declaration issued on June 9, 2010, during the visit of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to India, alongside the plans for “joint activities” by the two countries to mark this year’s anniversary of Buddha’s enlightenment, there is also the following line: “Both leaders also welcomed the proposal for the restoration of Tiruketheeswaram temple at Mannar to be undertaken with the assistance of the Archaeological Survey of India and the College of Architecture and Sculpture, Mamallapuram, with the involvement of the Department of Archaeology of Sri Lanka.”

Union Minister of Culture Kumari Selja, who has accompanied the relics to Colombo, will travel to Mannar on Monday to launch the project, to which New Delhi has committed Rs.135 million.

Source: The Hindu

Monday Ground Up: Angkor Wat Is The Temple of Time

This article is contributed by Lima. 
 

For 800 years the temples and shrines of Angkor Wat have stood as a symbol of the nation of Cambodia. So much so that Angkor Wat appears on the Cambodian flag, its beauty and magnificence a source of national pride.

The temples at Angkor Wat, built in the early 12^th century under the reign of King Suryavarman II, have been a center of religious worship continuously since its construction, making it the oldest site where religious activities have taken place uninterrupted.

Originally built as Suryavarman’s royal temple and center of the king’s court, Angkor Wat was constructed to honor the Hindu god, Vishnu. Angkor Wat was abandoned as the nation’s capital after it was attacked by an enemy clan within Cambodia at the time. A new capital was created and served as the royal center of power, leaving Angkor Wat to the local people who prayed in the temples that cover the 203 acres that comprise the whole of these magnificent structures built in the classic style of the Khmer.

In the 13^th century, King Jayavarman VII was deposed by his son-in-law who had studied for 10 years in a Buddhist monastery and Cambodia quickly adopted Buddhism as the state religion. The Cambodian people were quick to accept this new religion that focused on the spiritual rather than material world. At this time, Angkor Wat became a shrine and a holy site for Buddhists throughout the region.

The original layout of the shrines and temples is clearly evident but construction at the site continued for almost four hundred years. As such, the complex is an architectural history showing change across four centuries – living history.

In that time, numerous buildings were added including decorative carved bas relief lines, many temple walls, representing the Hindu deities for which the temple was originally constructed. This centuries-long creation provides a trove of anthropologic information showing the evolution of the Cambodian culture and political structure. Even today, Angkor Wat continues to be one of the most researched sites on the planet. Its rich history is carved in the stone that makes up this mystical, awe-inspiring place.

The temples of Angkor Wat have remained sacred to the Theravada Buddhist sect into modern times and remain a place of great religious and spiritual power within the large segment of Buddhists that comprises the Cambodian population.

Over the centuries, the temples at Angkor Wat were gradually overtaken by the surrounding jungle and, in the early part of the 20^th century, the site was in need of restoration. Recognizing the cultural significance of this remarkable series of shrines and spires, the world community came together to restore Angkor Wat to its former glory. Today, this holy place is not only a pilgrimage destination for Buddhists, it has become a major source of tourism revenue for Cambodia. The site is well-maintained and is, indeed, one of the wonders of architecture 800 years after work was begun.

The Significance of Design at the Site of Angkor Wat

Because Angkor Wat was built as a Hindu complex and center of state, the design of the complex is based on Hindu religious icons. The main temple is a representation of the home of Hindu gods, Mount Meru.

Surrounding the main temple are five spires that represent the five mountain peaks that surround Mount Meru. Angkor Wat was enclosed, the walls representing mountains. It was also surrounded by an immense moat, a representation of the sea. Thus, when the complex at Angkor Wat is taken as a whole, it becomes a representation of the world in miniature as it was known during the 1200s.

The walls of Angkor Wat are decorated, not only with bas relief depictions of Hindu deities, but also representations of the king and royal authority. However, archeologists suggest that many walls of the complex remain bare when work stopped on Angkor Wat upon the death of Suryavarman.

Many of these carved decorations depict known science at the time, particularly astronomical signs and symbols leading some anthropologists to suggest that Angkor Wat was more than a palace for Suryavarman and a private religious sanctuary for the king and his inner court.

Some anthropologists suggest that many of the bas reliefs that adorn the temple walls make a political statement as well as a religious one, pointing to a new era of learning, engagement and a contented populace, something that any monarch would desire.

The design and layout of Angkor Wat remain somewhat of a mystery. Khmer temples are built facing the east. The temples at Angkor Wat are oriented toward the west, the source of some controversy among the anthropology community. Some experts believe that the unusual alignment of the complex indicates that Angkor Wat was intended to serve as the burial site of its builder, Suryavarman.

Other anthropologists believe the alignment of Angkor Wat is more likely based on the deity to which it was originally constructed, Vishnu. In Hindu religious texts, Vishnu is associated with the west and, therefore, the western alignment of Angkor Wat makes sense despite its contrary positioning to other Cambodian temple sites.

Do the Features of Angkor Wat Suggest Engagement With Aztecs or Egyptians?

Using architecture and the advent of architectural innovation, anthropologists attempt to uncover connections between diverse cultures.

While there is no evidence to suggest that the design of Angkor Wat is imitative of the great pyramids of the Egyptians, Incans or Mayans, some within the anthropology community point to Angkor Wat as an example of cultural transference – the exchange of technology, linguistics and other elements that define diverse cultures.

Some experts point to the alignment question as an indicator that Angkor Wat was a Cambodian adaptation of either Egyptian or Mesoamerican civilizations. Others point to architectural innovations that appear in the design and construction of newer buildings over the 400-year span that construction was undertaken at Angkor Wat.

In fact, the buildings at Angkor Wat follow traditional building practices seen in other temple sites throughout the region. There’s no need to speculate how Cambodian architecture evolved. The evidence still stands, available for further study and analysis.

The Magic of Angkor Wat

However, this remarkable place is more than a collection of buildings. It is more than a site of archeological study. It is more than the cause for debate among anthropologists.

In today’s high-tech society, Angkor Wat stands as a true wonder. It has been described as mystical, magical and “almost surreal” – sentiments expressed by Westerners upon visiting the site for the first time. This is the true appeal of Angkor Wat.

Indeed, its history and construction are important to understand. However, it is the mysterious and the dynamic energy that emanates from this sacred spot that is the true story of this collection of holy buildings.
Angkor Wat is truly the world’s Temple of Time.

Also check out Lima’s article

Evolution of Culture, Genetic Anthropology, and the “Eve Theory”

For decades, anthropologists have debated “The Eve Theory” – the theory that world cultures migrated and evolved from a single source – Eve, a reference to Adam and Eve mentioned in the Bible’s Book of Genesis as the first man and woman and the progenitors of all human life.

Read more: Evolution of Culture, Genetic Anthropology, and the “Eve Theory”

This article is contributed by Lima, an avid traveler who owns a website offering high quality adjustable dumbbells for sale

Reference:
1st Photo © Adana Lima
Photo 2-4 © Cornstaruk

Differences Between Buddhist and Hindu Religion

Religion gives people a sense of hope and a purpose in life. There are many differences in the two major religions in East Asia. The most significant difference between Hinduism and Buddhism is in the Hindu religion, the people believe in many “Gods”. The Hindu “Gods” seemed to be created in stories and in people’s images. There were never any accounts of actually being able to see the “Gods” as humans.

Chris Stonecipher shares his view in the article Spiritual Differences Between Buddhist and Hindu Religion @Factoidz

Image Via Wikipedia