Saturday, December 22, 2012

Sacred Mountains of Central Asia

**************************

Click Here to View the Main Index

**************************

"Koh e Alburz.....(Romanized as Kuh i Elburz, Gory Koh-i-Elburz, Kohe Alborz, Kuh i Alborz (Persian: کوه البرز‎ high mountain) is a mountain a ridge of the Hindu Kush
in Afghanistan, Balkh Province. The ridge is elongated to the south of the ancient city of Balkh,
which is about 25 kilometers northwest from the city of Mazar-i-Sharif. It is a tertiary, elongated ridge with steep slopes to the north and south. The comb has short canyons. Between the breaking points are the small river Schadyan and Marmal mountain. The German ISAF troops call their military camp Camp Marmal. Above this ridge, the two Buddhist monasteries as Nava Vihara Top i Ruslam (Persian: تپه رستم‎ Rustam hill or Rustam Hat) and Takht e Rustam (Persian: تخت رستم‎ Rustam's throne) and fire temple of Nava Vihara.

"There are many shared elements of undoubted significance in Indo-Iranian cosmography. Comparison of the various ancient Indian cosmographic systems and the Avesta or, indeed, the whole body of Zoroastrian writings, including the Pahlavi literature of the ninth century, reveals a number of common features: the concept of Mount Harā and that of Mount Meru, or Sumeru, in Brahmanical, Buddhist, and Jainist cosmography; the idea of the seven regions of the earth, the Iranian karšvar- (Pahlavi kešwar) and the Indian dvīpa; the idea of a central region, Xᵛaniraθa (Pahlavi Xwanirah) and Jambūdvīpa; the idea of the “Tree of All Seeds” in the Vourukaša sea, south of the Peak of Harā and the Jambū tree, south of Mount Meru ...... These elements, common to the Iranian and Indo-Aryan vision of the earth, are certainly to be considered essentially mythical when related to the historical periods during which these groups were living on one side or the other of the Indus. Yet they do not seem to be totally devoid of any geographical reference if the so-called nordic cycle of Indo-Iranian mythology is anything to go by."....AVESTAN GEOGRAPHY.....http://www.iranicaonline.org

HINDU KUSH..... "In Classical times, the Hindu Kush were also designated as the "Caucasus" in parallel to their Western equivalent, the Caucasus Mountains between Europe and Asia....Alexandria in the Caucasus: town founded by Alexander the Great, modern Charikar near Begram, north of Kabul in Afghanistan......A brief description of Kapisa is offered by the Chinese traveler Xuan Zang (603-664), a Buddhist pilgrim who visited the area much later, but before the rise of Islam changed everything. He saw the city well built by the Macedonians (3 km long) and mentioned that the country produced all kinds of fruit, wheat, and other cereals. Xuan Zang also mentions to the high, snow-covered mountains......The Macedonians and Greeks had called them the Caucasus, the name they gave to the large mountain range that divided Asia into a northern and a southern half."

"Zoroastrians may identify the range with the dwelling place of the Peshyotan, and the Zoroastrian Ilm-e-Kshnoom sect identify Mount Davamand as the home of the Saheb-e-Dilan ('Masters of the Heart'). In his epic Shahnameh, the poet Ferdowsi speaks of the mountains "as though they lay in India..... As recently as the 19th century, a peak in the northernmost range in the Hindu Kush system, just south of Balkh, was recorded as Mount Elburz in British army maps. All these names reflect the same Iranian language compound, and share an identification as the legendary mountain Harā Bərəzaitī of the Avesta."...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alborz

"Archaeologists studying the jewelery and other artifacts unearthed from the Royal Tombs (circa 2400 BC) discovered that More than twenty thousand beads and other objects made of lapis lazuli retrieved from the Royal Tombs all had the same mineral compostition; hence all all originated from the same mine. Extensive cross-checking discloed that virtually every piece of lapis lazuli used in the ancient Near East — many tons of material — all came from the same mountain range, the Sar-i Sang, deep in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan...Sar-i Sang lapis lazuli mine, probably dating from proto-historic times. It consists of one old disused shaft and two new shafts. This was the main source of lapis lazuli in the ancient world, with lapis from here occurring in such famous archaeological discoveries as the Royal Treasure of Ur and the Tomb of Tutankhamun..".....http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/history-pre.htm

Alexandria-Kapisa has been identified and partly excavated on a hill near Begram -or to be more precise, near Charikar-, 65 km north of modern Kabul. Not many finds date back to the age of Alexander, but the identification is uncontested....Ai-Khanoum or Ay Khanum (lit. “Lady Moon” in Uzbek, possibly the historical Alexandria on the Oxus, also possibly later named اروکرتیه or Eucratidia), was founded in the 4th century BC, following the conquests of Alexander the Great and was one of the primary cities of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. The city is located in Kunduz Province northern Afghanistan, at the confluence of the Oxus river (today's Amu Darya) and the Kokcha river, and at the doorstep of the Indian subcontinent. Ai Khanoum was one of the focal points of Hellenism in the East for nearly two centuries, until its annihilation by nomadic invaders around 145 BC about the time of the death of Eucratides."...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai-Khanoum

CAUCASUS MOUNTAINS...."70 different languages are spoken in the Caucasus Highlands. Many various tribes. (Le Strange: 1966..pg 180)..."The ancient fortress of Kabalah near Darband is more than once mentioned in the campaigns of Timur. (LeStrange: 1966..pg 181)...Caspian Sea is also called Bahr Khazar after the Khazar Kingdom to the north of it....

"Eratosthenes of Cyrene tells us that everything attributed by the Macedonians to the divine influence was grossly exaggerated in order to please Alexander. For instance, there is a cave in in the territory of the Parapamisidae; according to Eratosthenes, the Macedonians saw this cave and on the strength of some local legend (which they well may have invented) put it about that it was the cave where Prometheus was hung in chains when the eagle used to come to feed on his guts, and that Heracles came thither to kill the eagle and set Prometheus free; so that by means of this tale the Macedonians transferred Mount Caucasus from Pontus to the far east, fixing it in India in the country of the Parapamisidae, and gave the name Caucasus to what flatter Alexander by the inference that he had crossed Caucasus."...http://www.livius.org/aj-al/alexander/alexander_t71.html

"In the ancient geography there was a notion that Caucasus and Hindu Kush are part of the same big mountain ridge (called Parapamisus) that crosses the continent from Asia Minor to the Eastern Ocean. According to Arrian the name was given by the soldiers of Alexander:........" In Bactria it unites with mount Parapamisus, which the Macedonians who served in Alexander’s army called Caucasus, in order, as it is said, to enhance their king’s glory; asserting that he went even beyond the Caucasus with his victorious arms. Perhaps it is a fact that this mountain range is a continuation of the other Caucasus in Scythia, as the Taurus’ is of the same. For this reason I have on a previous occasion called this range Caucasus, and by the same name I shall continue to call it in the future" (Anabasis, book 5b, ch. V)......He gives also another interesting detail: "... just as the Macedonians called Parapamisus by the name of Caucasus, though it has nothing to do with Caucasus. And besides, learning that there was a cave among the Parapamisadae, they said that this was the cave of Prometheus the Titan, in which he was crucified for his theft of the fire" (Book VIII: Indica, V). .....Ardavarz

Paropamisus (pâr'əpăm`ĭsəs, –pəmī`səs), mountain range, NW Afghanistan, stretching c.300 mi (480 km) W from the Hindu Kush toward the Elburz Mts. in Iran; rises to c.11,000 ft (3,350 m).

Caucasus and Hindu Kush are part of the same big mountain ridge (called Parapamisus) that crosses the continent from Asia Minor to the Eastern Ocean. According to Arrian the name was given by the soldiers of Alexander: " In Bactria it unites with mount Parapamisus, which the Macedonians who served in Alexander’s army called Caucasus, in order, as it is said, to enhance their king’s glory; asserting that he went even beyond the Caucasus with his victorious arms. Perhaps it is a fact that this mountain range is a continuation of the other Caucasus in Scythia, as the Taurus’ is of the same. For this reason I have on a previous occasion called this range Caucasus, and by the same name I shall continue to call it in the future" (Anabasis, book 5b, ch. V).....He gives also another interesting detail: "... just as the Macedonians called Parapamisus by the name of Caucasus, though it has nothing to do with Caucasus. And besides, learning that there was a cave among the Parapamisadae, they said that this was the cave of Prometheus the Titan, in which he was crucified for his theft of the fire" (Book VIII: Indica, V). .....Ardavarz Saudar

MT PAGO PUNSUM......"My birthplace was a small settlement on a high plateau of north eastern Tibet. Above it, the celebrated mountain Pago-punsum rises perpendicularly to more than eighteen thousand feet, and is often called the 'the pillar of the sky'. It looks like a tall spire; its mighty crest towers under perpetual snows, glittering in the sunshine."....Mt Pago Punsum (18,000ft): high plateau in northeastern Tibet. Home of the King of Spirits. Near Geje in an area called Nyishu-tza-nga....The birthplace of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche.....Chogyam Trungpa .....Born in Tibet

"Chogyam's birthplace was at a small community on a very high plateau in eastern Tibet. The mountain called Pago-punsum rises high above. The total height of Pago-punsum is over 18,000 feet. It is not as tall as Everest, but is extremely large. In his autobiography, Chogyam mentions that the Bon religion existed in Tibet long before the coming of Buddhism. The Bon followers believed that the king of spirits resided on Pago-punsum. They considered the nearby lesser peaks to be the homes of his ministers. Many myths have been told about those mountains. The community in which Chogyam was born is called Geje. At the time of his birth the population was around 500. Chogyam's father's name was Yeshe-dargye and his mother's name was Tungtso-drolma.....

ZHANG ZHUNG.......Mount Kailas...Mt Tise Gangkar (31N 81E)...
...Kailas, The Snow Mountain...Kailas appears in the Mahabharata....(22,000 ft)(6714 M).....in northwestern Tibet. One of the most sacred mountians in Asia. Its four faces are like jewells. Crystal in the east, ruby in the west, sapphire in the south and golden in the north. For Buddhists, the dwelling place of Chakrasamvara. For Hindus, the dwelling place of the god Shiva [Also spelled Shiwa]. Sacred for the Jains. Also the location of the Zhang Zhung capital, Khyunglung Nulkhar (80E 31N)("Silver Palace of the Garuda Valley"). For the Bon religion it is the dwelling place of the 360 Werma deities and also the dwelling place of the deity Nyi pang se (Nyi=sun, se=lha or god). Nyipangse is depicted as a great king, astride a white horse bearing a banner of white silk. (Kvaerne in Lopez:1997)..."The palace of the Rigdens, the imperial rulers of Shambhala, is built on top of a circular mountain in the center of the country. The mountain is Kailasa. The palace is called Kalapa." (Trungpa:1984..Pg 26)....Film by Brian Beresford: "Kailash: The Sacred Mountain"..90 minutes. Distributed by Wisdom Films....:Mt Tago (Tise) (Mt rTa sgo ) near Lake Dwangs ra in Northwest Tibet is a name for Mt Tise.' (Norbu: 1995..pg 261)...

TAGZIG...........Mount Demavand....(Damavand...Dunbavand).(35N..52E)...(Qolleh-Ye)...MT ELBURG...(43N...42E)...(Alburz, El'brus, Elbruz)...18,510'..."Haoma was discovered on the Elburg Mountain in the Caucasus."..(James:1963..pg 92)..."The cosmic mountain, called either Haraiti or Hara Barazaiti in northern Iran."..Alborz, Persian: البرز), also written as Alburz, Elburz or Elborz, is a mountain range in northern Iran stretching from the borders of Azerbaijan and Armenia in the northwest to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, and ending in the east at the borders of Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The highest mountain in West Asia, Mount Damavand, Amol, Mazandaran is located in the range.....location of Mithraic dragon...."In 676 BC an Assyrian raid penetrated Median territory as far as Mt Bikni (Demavend) in the district of Patusharri." (Culican: 1965..pg 44)..."in the Alburz Mountains of Northern Persia. Mount Hara or Harburz. Described in the Avesta (Yasht 19) as the first mountain in the world."...Lar Valley..."The Chinvat Bridge is conceived of as being somewhere in Media, at the northern foot of Mt Harburz (Alburz). Also mentioned are Eran Vez, the river Daitik. This may be the magnificent Demavand, the most imposing peak of the Alburz range." (Pavry: 1929...pg 79)........All others in the group were also wearing the 'sudrehkusti'. Behramshahji later learned that they were the "Saheb-e-Dil" (Masters of heart) who lived a pious and secluded life in an unknown area near Mount Daemavand. ......

Mt Damâvand, the highest peak of the Alborz (Elburz) range is 18,934 feet (5,771 meters) above the sea level. The peak is always snow-covered and is only 33 miles (53 kilometers) ENE of Tehran and presents a tall, beautiful cone on clear days. The word should be Dûmavant in Avesta and dhûmavant in Sanskrit, meaning "smoking," because the peak is nothing but a huge dormant volcanic crater.

To devout Zarathushtis, Mount Daemavand is as sacred as Mount Kailash is to devout Hindus and Mount Fujiyama is to the Japanese. Behramshahji joined the caravan which took him from Peshawar to Kafristan and then to Afghanistan and Khorasan in Iran. From Khorasan the caravan proceeded in the northwest direction towards Azarbaijan-which in ancient times was a Zarathushti stronghold and according to some, possibly the birthplace of Asho Zarathushtra. Finally, the caravan moved towards the Alburz range whose peak is Mount Daemavand. The place where these highly evolved Masters dwell is called "Firdaus" (paradise).........It appears the Masters had retreated to the mountains decades before the fall of the Sassanian Empire and the Arab invasion. According to Behramshahji, the inhabitants of Firdaus lead a simple pious life dedicated to the service of Ahura Mazda. They mainly thrive on a diet of milk, fruits and vegetables. The colony, according to Behramshahji had a population of two thousand men, women and children - all highly evolved souls. ....MT HARA....the Mithra deity...Persian God of Light..."Fire and water of the sky were believed to issue from Harburz, the sky mountain which was regularly described as lofty (Bereza, a retranslation of Hara, which also means high). The opening verses urge the worship of the great mountains of the earth, the first being Hara Bareza (Hara in Mazanderan, the Alborz) and is said to surround the whole earth. The hollow cave. The world mountain, sometimes identified with the Hindu Kus. The mythical Lake Kasava. (Campbell: 1968..pg 202+)...."Hara Berezaiti, the lofty Hara on whose summit Mithra was located."..(Campbell..1968..pg 95)..."Mt Hara Barazaiti...the action of Mithra rising from the peak of Mt Hara expresses the rising of Daena from Hara." (Piras: 1996..pg 11)..."Mithra, the first celestial god to rise from Mt Hara is most endowed with that asna-xratu that grants vision.' (piras: 1996..pg 15)..."Mt Hara, Indo-Iranian sacred mountain (Sanskrit: Meru)." (Boyce: 1984...pg 11)...

MT BELUKHA.... (49 N..86 E)...(Belucha)((Gora Belukha)(Bye Lu Kha)...One of the Katun Mountains. It is the highest mountain in the Soviet portion of the Altai Mountains. (14,783')(4506 m) Has twin peaks. Lies in a region of year round snow. Many ancient myths describe a subterranean civilization that continues to dwell there. It is also called Ak-Sumer and in Buddhist mythology, it is the center of the world..."the true natives of the Altai were Turkish tribes who worshipped the mountain Belukha. They had their own version of Shambhala, which they called Belovodye (White Waters)."...(Roerich:1989..pg166)..."No change in climate in the Altai for the past 2,000 years...ancient society was equestrian...thoroughbred horses..."(Rudenko: 1970..pg 57)..."The home of the supreme chiefs, tribal nobility, was in the central Altai, in the Ursal Valley." (Rudenko:1970..pg 215)..."The Altaic peoples of 400 BC resembled the peoples west of the Caspian Sea in the Caucasus Mountains. The Altai is the eastern limit of Scythian art and is a marked ethnic and linguistic boundary." (Rudenko: 1970..pg xxx)

ODIYANA.....Tirich Mir......... (7,708 m or 25,289 ft) in Chitral ...The Ruby Colored Mountain......The highest point in the Hindu Kush....According to Afghan tradition, the name Hindukush means 'Hindu killer', but more probably it's a variant of Hindu Kuh, meaning 'Hindu mountains'. The Hindukush system is the westernmost extension of the Pamir, Karakorum, and Himalayas. Straddling the Pakistan-Afghan border.....This was the region of Oddiyana.....

MT MERU..."the Aryans developed a cosmography that established Meru as the central core of the universe and navel of the earth." (Allen: 1982..pg 18)..."Shenrab climbed to the summit of Meru (Ri-rab)." (Francke: 1950..pg 166)... 'on the summit of Meru stood Swarga, the heavenly city of Indra."..."Seven golden mountain ranges surround Mr Meru, each forming a square."..(Kongtrul: 1995..pg 110)..." Mt Meru (ri rab lhun po) is the axis mundi in Traditional Indian cosmology."...Jain map of Meru in Allen: 1982...pg 33....In Jainism, Kailash is also known as Meru Parvat or Sumeru. Ashtapada, the mountain next to Mt.Kailash is the site where the first Jain Tirthankara, Rishabhadeva, attained Nirvana/moksa (liberation)......

Olmo Lung Ring.......MT YUNGDRUNG GUTSEG..."old Bonpo texts describe how the 'nine story swastika mountain' had to be moved from the north to the present location at Kailas." (Allen: 1982..pg 30)..See: Flying Mountains..."To the west of Tibet in a larger country called Tazig is Mount Yungdrung Gutseg. At its bas springs 4 rivers flowing in the four directions. The mountain is surrounded by temples, cities and parks."...

Mount Malaya.......The location where the master Garab Dorje first taught and compiled the 6,400,000 Verses of Dzogchen with the help of two Dakinis....Garab Dorje had comprehended both the outer and inner paths and most particularly he had apprehended the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses. Then the Bodhisattva Vajrasattva gave him the initiation and empowerment of the Bestowal of Awareness and permission to write down the sixty-four hundred thousand Dzogchen verses and the oral tantras. They were written down by three Dakinis, some say on Mount Malaya......http://www.keithdowman.net/lineage/dzokchen_masters.htm

"The subterranean Agartha also has an analog in the Iranian tradition - that is the iron underground palace build by Turanian king Afrasiab (Av. Frangrasyan) under the mountain Bakuir where old age and death could not penetrate. Curiously the name "Bakuir" resembles the Turkic word baqïr ("copper") which evokes another similar legend - the Russian tale about the subterranean kingdom of the "Lady of the Copper Mountain" located somewhere in the Volga Basin (it was told that the rebel Stepan Razin has visited this underground realm). Also the name "Agartha" resembles the Turkic Ak-Yurt or Ag-Yortï - the White Yurt (tent, pavilion) which was the usual designation of the movable residence of the Steppe emperors and a symbol of the royal power.".....Ardavarz has left a new comment on your post "Early Shambhala Research":

PAMIR MOUNTAINS..... a mountain range in Central Asia formed by the junction or knot of the Himalayas, Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, and Hindu Kush ranges. They are among the world’s highest mountains, and since Victorian times, they have been known as the "Roof of the World", presumably a translation from the Persian...(Social and Economic Change in the Pamirs, pp. 13-14, by Frank Bliss, Routledge, 2005, ISBN 0-415-30806-2, ISBN 978-0-415-30806-9: Pamir = a Persian compilation of pay-I-mehr, the "roof of the world".)......aka: Ts'ung-ling or "Onion Range" (after the wild onions growing in the region)......The lapis lazuli found in Egyptian tombs is thought to come from the Pamir area in Badakhshan province of Afghanistan. About 138 BC Zhang Qian reached the Fergana Valley northwest of the Pamirs. Ptolemy vaguely describes a trade route though the area. From about 600 AD, Buddhist pilgrims travelled on both sides of the Pamirs to reach India from China. In 747 a Tang army was on the Wakhan River. There are various Arab and Chinese reports. Marco Polo may have travelled along the Panj River........Some Greek sources claim that the Greeks (Achaeans) departed from the lowest points of the mountain to Greece and so did the late Dorians."......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamir_Mountains#cite_ref-2

**************************

Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

Northern New Mexico….December 2012

**************************

No comments:

Post a Comment