Saturday, December 8, 2012

Magi (Magoi) of Ancient Central Asia (6th c. BC)

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"For Buddhists, the Lord Padmasambhava represents a second Buddha. For the Hindus he is the deathless Mahavatar (Great Avatar), the eternal youth, or Kumara. For the Christian he is the Christ-consciousness. The Himalayan yogis know him as the foremost of their great Saints, or Mahasiddhas, while amongst the sages he is known as the supreme Magi (maharani.....Mahamuni Buddha(literal meaning: The Great Sage). For some initiates he is known as Arunagiri babaji, the holy master of the Sacred Red Mountain. In our tradition he is the Paramguru, the supreme Guru of those who follow the way of Tantra.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm

"There is a legend of Mithra’s magi in the area (Afghanistan, Pakistan, north-west India) where Mahāyāna Buddhism was formed. It is a legend about the Maga-Brahmanas, atarvan Maga, Bhojaka or Sakaldwipiya Brahmins. They identify themselves as having Iranian roots, and assert that they inherit their by-name maga from a group of priests (cf. maga) who established themselves in India as the Maga-Dias or Maga-Brahmanas. Their major centers are in Rajasthan in Western India and near Gaya in Bihar. According to Bhavishya Purana and other texts, they were invited to settle in Punjab to conduct the worship of Lord Sun (Mitra or Surya in Sanskrit). Bhavishya Purana explicitly associates them to the rituals of the Zurvanism. The members of the community still worship in Sun temples in India. They are also hereditary priests in several Jain temples in Gujarat and Rajasthan. Bhojakas are mentioned in the copperplates of the Kadamba dynasty (4-6th cent) as managers of Jain institutions. Images of Lord SunMihir in India are shown wearing a central Asian dress, complete with boots. The term "Mihir" in India is regarded to represent the Maga influence.".....http://www.kavehfarrokh.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/zen_buddhism_and_persian_culture_v1.pdf

"In Cappadocia -for there the sect of the Magians, who are also called fire kindlers, is large- they have fire temples [pyrethaia], noteworthy enclosures; and in the midst of these is an altar, on which there is a large quantity of ashes and where the Magians keep the fire ever burning. And there, entering daily, they make incantations for about an hour, holding before the fire their bundle of rods and wearing round their heads high turbans of felt, which reach down their cheeks far enough to cover their lips.".....[Strabo, Geography 15.3.15]

"The Higher Tantras were underground in the early days, but translations were made, despite the lack of government sanction and sponsorship. And transmissions were received from Tantric masters who came to Tibet, such as Guru Padmasambhava in the eighth century who taught the Tantric system of the Eight Herukas (bka'-brgyad), as well as Dzogchen. Three of these Herukas were worldly and concerned with magic: the Worldly Gods, the Mamo mother goddesses, and the Fierce Mantras. In their mandalas Padmasambhava even incorporated native Tibetan deities in a subordinate role. But he gave these initiations in a cave at Chimphu and not in the nearby recently erected monastery of Samye. The cult of the Higher Tantras was not practiced publicly. Wall paintings from these early centuries depict the peaceful deities of the Yoga Tantras but not the wrathful blood-drinking and copulating deities of the Anuttara Tantras."......http://www.vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/mahasiddha.html?start=1

The word "magic" derives via Latin magicus from the Greek adjective magikos (μαγικός) used in reference to the "magical" arts of the Persian Magi-cians (Greek: magoi, singular mágos, μάγος), the Zoroastrian astrologer priests of the ancient Persian Empire. Greek mágos is first attested in Heraclitus (6th century BC, apud. Clement Protrepticus 12) who curses the Magians and others for their "impious rites".

MAGIC: "Any perception can connect us to reality properly and fully. What we see doesn't have to be pretty, particularly; we can appreciate anything that exists. There is some principle of magic in everything, some living quality. Something living, something real, is taking place in everything." (pg 99) "When we draw down the power of vastness into a single perception, then we are discovering and invoking magic. By magic, we...mean...the discovery of innate or primordial wisdom in the world as it is." (pg 103) "If we open our eyes, if we open our minds, if we open our hearts, we will find that this world is a magical place. It is not magical because it tricks us or changes unexpectedly into something else, but it is magical because it and be so vividly, so brilliantly. However the discovery of that magic that can happen only when we transcend our embarrassment about being alive, when we have the bravery to proclaim the bravery to proclaim the goodness and dignity of human life, without hesitation of arrogance. Then magic or drala can descend into our lives."(pg 132) .....http://www.glossary.shambhala.org/#FOURDIGNITIES

Mystery.... in a spiritual sense, "religious truth via divine revelation, hidden spiritual significance, mystical truth," from Anglo-Fr. *misterie, O.Fr. mistere "secret, mystery, hidden meaning" (Mod.Fr. mystère), from L. mysterium "secret rite, secret worship; a secret thing," from Gk. mysterion (usually in pl. mysteria) "secret rite or doctrine," from mystes "one who has been initiated," from myein "to close, shut" (see mute (adj.)); perhaps referring to the lips (in secrecy) or to the eyes (only initiates were allowed to see the sacred rites).

"the old pre-Buddhist pagan and shamanic culture of Tibet continued side by side with the growth of this monastic system of Indian origin. Gradually, in all of the schools of Tibetan Buddhism these indigenous magical and ritual practices began integrated with the Buddhist practices of Indian origin, thus giving to Tibetan Buddhism its unique flavor and character which is so different from other forms of Mahayana Buddhism. The Ngakpas like Nubchen Sangye Yeshe, living outside the monasteries and still close to the common people of Tibet, the peasants and the nomads, were especially open to incorporating the native magical tradition into their Buddhism. The same had been done previously in India, incorporating the traditions of popular Indian magic into the Buddhist Tantras, as for example, the Mahakala Tantra. This was done by both Indian and Tibetan Buddhists for the simple reason that, on the practical level, magic works. Magic is a way of evoking and channeling energy in order to realize certain effects. It does not work with the same efficiency as a mechanical device because its efficacy depends on the state of mind of the practitioner and may other secondary factors, but it works enough of the time to inspire the confidence of most of humanity for most of human history. However, in the West, since the eighteenth century with its mechanistic model of reality and the general fruitfulness of the scientific method and explanations, magic has received a bad press from Western scholars. Western scholars of Buddhism tend to underplay the role of magic in Buddhism, including Theravada Buddhism, and they become upset with the idea that Buddhist Tantra represents an incredibly complex and sophisticated system of theurgy and ceremonial magic.".....http://www.vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/mahasiddha.html?start=3

Chogyam Trungpa: "So meditation practice brings out the supernatural, if I may use the word. You do not see ghosts or become telepathic, but your perceptions become super- natural, simply super-natural....Normally we limit the meaning of perceptions. Food reminds us of eating; dirt reminds us to clean the house; snow reminds us that we have to clean off the car to get to work; a face reminds us of our love or hate. In other words we fit what we see into a comfortable or familiar scheme. We shut any vastness or possibilities of deeper perception out of our hearts by fixating on our own interpretation of phenomena. But it is possible to go beyond personal interpretation, to let vastness into our hearts through the medium of perception. We always have a choice: we can use perception to limit or close off vastness, or we can allow vastness to touch us. When we draw down the power and depth of vastness into a single perception, then we are discovering and invoking magic. By magic we do not mean unnatural power over the phenomenal world but rather the discovery of innate or primordial wisdom in the world as it is.Such transformed perception could be called" ordinary magic."

The Magi are popularly referred to as wise men and kings. The word magi is the plural of Latin magus, borrowed from Greek μάγος magos, as used in the original Greek text of the Gospel of Matthew. Greek magos itself is derived from Old Persian maguŝ from the Avestan magâunô, i.e. the religious caste into which Zoroaster was born, (see Yasna 33.7: "ýâ sruyê parê magâunô " = " so I can be heard beyond Magi "). The term refers to the priestly caste of Zoroastrianism. As part of their religion, these priests paid particular attention to the stars, and gained an international reputation for astrology, which was at that time highly regarded as a science. Their religious practices and use of astrology caused derivatives of the term Magi to be applied to the occult in general and led to the English term magic.

"Śākadvīpīya Brahmins (or Bhojaka Brahmins or Maga Brahmins)(Sanskrit: शाकद्विप), is a class of Hindu Brahmin priests and Ayurveda teachers (acharyas) and practitioners, with significant concentrations of their populations occurring in Western and Northern India......Spelling variants of "Śākadvīpīya" (IAST transcription) include Shakdvipi, Shakdwipi, Shakdweepi, Shakdvipiya, Shakdwipiya, Shakdweepiya, Shakadwipi, Śākadvīpīya, and Sakadwipi......The Śākadvīpīyas are also known as Maga Brahmins (or sometimes Mragha) . Historically, Maga Brahmins are Sūryadhvaja ("white flag") Brahmins, who nevertheless today consider themselves to be distinct from the Śākadvīpīya or Bhojaka Brahmins......The Śākadvīpīya Brahmin community of India identify themselves as having Iranian roots, and assert that they inherit their by-name mragha from a group of priests (cf. mobed) who established themselves in India as the Mragha-Dias or Mragha-Brahminas."....

"Bhaviṣya Purāṇa 133, which may be summarized as follows: Krishna's son Samba was afflicted with leprosy, which was cured after he worshiped Sūrya, Hinduism's god of the Sun. In response, he built a temple to Sūrya on the banks of the Chandrabhaga river, but no Brahmin could be found willing to take up the role of a temple priest, as they could not accept offerings made to gods. So Samba sought help of Gauramukha("white face"), the adviser of the Yadu chief, Ugrasena.:Gauramukha responded with a suggestion that Samba go to Shakdvipa.... and invite their priests to worship Sūrya. Further, asked Samba, "tell me, oh Brahmin, what are the antecedents of these worshipers of the Sun?" To which Gauramukha replied... "The first of the Brahmins amidst the Śakas was called Sujihva ("good tongue").... He had a daughter of the name Nikshubha, who so enamored Sūrya that she was impregnated by him. Thus she gave birth to Jarashabda who was the founding father of all the Maga-Ācārya. They are distinguished by the sacred girdle called the Avyanga that they wear around their waist." And so Samba called on Krishna to send him Garuda, on whose back he then flew to Shakadwipa. He collected the Maga-Ācārya ("Maga teacher"), brought them back to India and installed them as priests of his Sūrya temple.....Of the pious representatives of 18 families Samba invited to resettle in the city of Sambapura, eight were Mandagas, and their descendants became Shudras. The other 10 were Maga Brahmins, who married Bhoja vamsa women and so their descendants came to be known as Bhojakas."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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Friday, December 7, 2012

Archaeology of the Balkh Region

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"The ruins of Balkh are situated some 12 km from the right bank of the seasonally flowing Balkh River, at an elevation of about 365 m (1,200 ft). .......Though Marco Polo still called Balkh “a great and noble city” after the Genghis Khan attack, the area continued to be brutalized and fought over until the 1870s, when a malaria outbreak caused government to shift the regional capital to Mazar-e-Sharif........Since then, Balkh has lay largely in ruins, with professional archaeologists generally unable to properly excavate the site. Although efforts have been made by organizations such as the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH) to maintain some of the existing structures, governing bodies in Afghanistan have shown little willingness to protect the site, and as such, historic remains like the No Gumbad Mosque, one of the oldest Islam monuments, as well as the spectacular Khwaja Abu Nasr Parsa Shrine, have fallen victim to Balkh’s modern plague: looting.......Like so many of the war-conflicted areas that surround it, Balkh has been pillaged over the past few decades by looters who seek out ancient statues, pottery, and coins to sell on the black market. One mound in particular, known as Jewelry Hill, which legend says was the site of a jewelry bazaar 1,400 years ago, is today scarred with hundreds of deep holes and shards of broken artifacts. There is simply not enough policing or repercussions to prevent looting in regions like Balkh, where government must concern itself with far graver crimes and conflicts.........Sadly, for Balkh, its treasures are on the verge of disappearing forever into the black market, where their true cultural value will never be properly appreciated."....http://globalheritagefund.org/onthewire/blog/balkh_afghanistan

The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (or BMAC, also known as the Oxus civilization) is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age civilisation of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2300–1700 BCE, located in present day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River). Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in modern-day southeastern Turkmenistan.

At Jeitun (or Djeitun) mudbrick houses were first occupied c. 6000 BC.

"The westward movement of the western group of Aryans by the 18th century B.C.E. It is postulated that they migrated westward in the role of mercenaries, as the term Marianni - an Aryan word meaning warriors - can be observed in Egyptian and Hittite texts classifying them as a ruling military class; and documents from the 16th century B.C.E. in Mesapotamia and Syria disclose Iranian names. Morever, the dynasty of the Mitanni kingdom, situated in northern Mesapotamia, can be proved to have Aryan origins by the names of its kings (Artatama, Shutarna, Artasumara, Dushratta) and in a treaty betwixt the Mitanni and Hittites dating to the 15th century B.C.E. the gods Mitra and Varuna, Indra and the Nasatyas are invoked by the former. For the study of Mithraism, this data is vital, as it is one of the earliest recordings concerning the god Mithra, and it clearly indicates his Aryan origin: Mitra (later to be transformed into Mithra) being the Sanskrit counterpart of the Old Persian Mihr (meaning: friend or contract) both derived from the Iranian (Aryan) root Mei meaning "exchange."

In the Early Bronze Age the culture of the Kopet Dag oases and Altyn-Depe developed a proto-urban society. This corresponds to level IV at Namazga-Depe. Altyn-Depe was a major centre even then. Pottery was wheel-turned. Grapes were grown. The height of this urban development was reached in the Middle Bronze Age c. 2300 BCE, corresponding to level V at Namazga-Depe.[5] It is this Bronze Age culture which has been given the BMAC name.,,,Altyndepe (Алтын-Депе, the Turkmen for "Golden Hill") is a Bronze Age (BMAC) site in Turkmenistan, near Aşgabat, inhabited in the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC, abandoned around 1600 BC.....Models of two-wheeled carts from c. 3000 BC found at Altyn-Depe are the earliest complete evidence of wheeled transport in Central Asia...

The discovery of a single tiny stone seal (known as the "Anau seal") with geometric markings from the BMAC site at Anau in Turkmenistan in 2000 led some to claim that the Bactria-Margiana complex had also developed writing, and thus may indeed be considered a literate civilization. It bears five markings strikingly similar to Chinese "small seal" characters, but such characters date from the Qin reforms of roughly 100 AD, while the Anau seal is dated by context to 2,300 BCE. It is therefore an unexplained anomaly.

Kostenki....The dream of every archaeologist, who is involved in the Gravettian studies, is to discover and explore such a site as Kostenki on the Don River. The Kostenkian, Kostenki-Avdeevo and Kostenki-Streletskaya cultures are the examples of the cultures of the eastern European Gravettian.

ANAU....."We've been looking at some of these large desert oasis sites in part of the Kara Kum Desert of Turkmenistan which cover an area of 100 miles long by some 50 miles wide. This is an area that is simply dotted with archaeological sites. We call this an 'ancient oasis.' It would have been an area watered in the past with irrigation canals and would have been a lush agricultural oasis where farming would have produced an abundance of wheat and barley. Today it's sandy. The sites are almost gone. It takes excavation to reveal the plans of these buildings. Once the buildings are excavated, we see they are unlike any other area that we have previously worked in Mesopotamia or Iran. These buildings tend to be in the 300 to 500 foot length on each side, often having many series of walls that enclose them surrounded by the fields, the agricultural fields. It's almost like a building complex with dozens and dozens of rooms inside them. Quite unusual and apparently quite an organized society."...Fredrik Talmage Hiebert, Ph.D., Prof. of Anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Assistant Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology, Philadelphpia, Pennsylvania

"The tale of the famous Chinese pilgrim, Xuanzang (translated by Paul Pelliot) who visited Bamiyan in 632 tells of the existence of resplendent giant Buddha statues and a city surrounded by ramparts like the capital of a kingdom (which the Mission calls Z.Tarzi, the “Royal City” or, in French “Ville Royale” = VR) partly backing up against the mountain on the north side. He also tells of several dozen monasteries, one of which housed a one-thousand foot long Buddha lying in a state of parinirvana."......http://www.apaa.info/APAA/Archaeology.html.....The APAA, Association for the Protection of Afghan Archaeology, was founded by Nadia Tarzi in December of 2002 in the State of California, U.S.A.

"The looting of the Archaeological Heritage of Afghanistan does not limit itself to these few sites proposed by Mr. Feroozi. One should also mention the sites of the regions of Herat, Maymana, Balkh, Samangan, Qunduz, Bakhshan, Takhar; the mountainous regions of the center of Afghanistan such as Bamiyan,Yakaoling, further south, Panjshir, Kohestan (especially Khom e- Zargar), Kapissa, Begram, Kabul, Jalriz, Maydan Shahr, Kandahar, Helmand, Seistan. And let us not forget the Eastern regions such as Jalalabad (especially Hadda for its beautiful Buddhist monasteries, excavated by the French and Afghans, Dr. Chaibai Mustamandy and Dr. Zemaryalai Tarzi), Kunar, Laghman (especially Khoguiani), Patchir, and Agam, etc......http://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh08-01enl.html

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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Thursday, December 6, 2012

Kingdom of Shambhala: Architecture, Clothing, Diet, Medicine

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"The highest elite of the country of Shambhala is formed by the priests. The monks wear white, speak Sanskrit, and are all initiated into the mysteries of the Kalachakra Tantra. The majority of them are considered enlightened...... a “white clothed one”, who is generally accepted to be Mani, the founder the Manichaeism......More specific are the white robes which the monks in the kingdom of Shambhala wear. White was the cult color of the Manichaean priestly caste and is not a normal color for clothing in Buddhism......"....http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-10.htm

"The commentary on the Kalachakra-tantra [probably the first commentary on the Kalachakra-tantra by Chandrabhadra, the king of Shambhala and the first recipient of this teaching] says: One should not buy meat, nor should one offer animals in sacrifice to the gods and ancestral spirits. For the Buddha never allowed "marked meat" to be eaten. And by "marked meat" he meat the flesh of animals that have been killed and purchased for food, as well as animals marked for sacrifice.".....http://www.shabkar.org/scripture/tantras/commentary_kalachakratantra.htm

Amrita.....In the Vedas, or Vedic scriptures, Soma is portrayed as sacred and as a god (deva). The god is the plant and the drink; there is no difference. The plant is the god and the drink is the god and the plant is the drink — they are all three the same. Soma is similar to Greek ambrosia (cognate to amrita); it is what the gods drink, and what made them deities. Indra and Agni are known for drinking massive amounts of Soma. Mortals also drink it, giving access to the divine. The Rigveda (8.48.3, tr. Griffith) states...We have drunk Soma and become immortal; we have attained the light....

The houses in the villages of Shambhala are two storied. The people have fine bodies and appearances and they are very wealthy. The men of Shambhala wear caps, and white or red cotton clothes. Women wear white or blue garments pleated and patterned with beautiful designs." (John R. Newman....1985)

The Arab geographers Yaqubi and Moqaddasi (9th and 10th centuries) depict Balkh as it was under Samanid rule, whe Bukhara was the center of power. A large and prosperous city of mud brick some three square miles in area, it held perhaps 200,000 persons. It was surrounded by mud-brick walls pierced by seven gates. ......

"House-dwellings and associated artifacts: Stein, in excavating many towns of the ancient Khotanese, preferred to dig out the more deeply buried structures, as the sands protected them and their contents from the elements as well as looters. Houses and temples were built of sun-dried bricks and clay, due to the lack of stone in the Khotan region. Wooden beams and poles incorporated into the walls and roofs for support were often the first remains found sticking out of desert sands.".....http://www.athenapub.com/9khotan1.htm

Adobe is a natural building material made from sand, clay, water, and some kind of fibrous or organic material (sticks, straw, and/or manure), which the builders shape into bricks (using frames) and dry in the sun. Adobe buildings are similar to cob and mudbrick buildings. Adobe structures are extremely durable, and account for some of the oldest existing buildings in the world. Buildings made of sun-dried earth are common in West Asia, North Africa, West Africa,South America, southwestern North America, Spain, Eastern Europe....Adobe had been in use by indigenous peoples of the Americas in the Southwestern United States, Mesoamerica, and the Andean region of South America for several thousand years, although often substantial amounts of stone are used in the walls of Pueblo buildings. Adobe brickmaking was used in Spain starting by the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, from the eighth century B.C. on.

"A glimpse into ancient Persian cosmology is the royal city of Echbatana (Hamadan, Agbatana, Ekbatana)[50E 32N] built in 800 BC by King Deioces (Daiukku) of the Medes...Seven concentric circles within walls, each higher than the preceding wall as one passed toward the center hill where the palace (KALA, CAHLA) of the Emperor stood. The 7th and highest wall was painted gold (sun)...the 6th was painted silver (moon)...the 5th wall was painted orange...the fourth was painted blue...the third was painted red...the second black...and the outermost wall was painted white. Orange was the fiery morning 'asman', blue the noonday 'asman', red for the evening asman. The array of colors chosen for the encircling walls of the royal city was similar to that of the robe of warriorhood and sovereignty described in the Denkart." (Leroy Campbell: 1968...pg 97)..

The Diet of Shambhala......Chogyam Trungpa stressed the importance of the Shambhala Diet...."NYIDA: The vegetarian diet of Shambhala. Nyi stands for yellow and green foods, primarily vegetables and fruits, and da for white foods such as milk, yogurt, cheese and tofu......enjoy as your provision only yogurt, milk, white butter, cheese, fresh vegetables, raw fish and white rice. You should refrain from garlic, onions, fat and other meats."

Ephedra is a type of plant that ancient Zorastrians used to create a ritual drink that allowed them to hallucinate and get closer to God. It may well be that the tube was used in some pre- Zorastrial ritual involving ephedra. Ephedra has medicinal factors.

ANAU....."We've been looking at some of these large desert oasis sites in part of the Kara Kum Desert of Turkmenistan which cover an area of 100 miles long by some 50 miles wide. This is an area that is simply dotted with archaeological sites. We call this an 'ancient oasis.' It would have been an area watered in the past with irrigation canals and would have been a lush agricultural oasis where farming would have produced an abundance of wheat and barley. Today it's sandy. The sites are almost gone. It takes excavation to reveal the plans of these buildings. Once the buildings are excavated, we see they are unlike any other area that we have previously worked in Mesopotamia or Iran. These buildings tend to be in the 300 to 500 foot length on each side, often having many series of walls that enclose them surrounded by the fields, the agricultural fields. It's almost like a building complex with dozens and dozens of rooms inside them. Quite unusual and apparently quite an organized society."...Fredrik Talmage Hiebert, Ph.D., Prof. of Anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Assistant Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology, Philadelphpia, Pennsylvania

There is a ritual in ancient Persian Zorastrianism that we think would have an early form in the desert oases that would involve leaving the bodies out to return to nature.

Rig Veda.....Cattle are one of the important animals, and several hymns refer to ten thousand and more cattle.[6] Rig Veda 7.95.2. and other verses (e.g. 8.21.18) also mention that the Sarasvati region poured milk and clarified butter (ghee), indicating that cattle were herded in this region. RV 6.28 is called Cows. Text 3 speaks about safety of cows.......In the Rig Veda, the cows figure frequently as symbols of wealth, and also in comparison with river goddesses, e.g. in 3.33.1 cd,

Kalachakra....As for the behavior of the Lalos, whatever country in the world they are in, they have asura aspects or proclivities or are of that family, the party of Maara. Dwelling on having power and violent action, without kindness toward sentient beings is the Lalo form or way....The people in those countries, personally kill camels, horses, and cattle and eat their flesh together with the blood with little cooking, mostly raw, as their only food;

Haoma is the Avestan language name of a plant and its divinity, both of which play a role in Zoroastrian doctrine and in later Persian culture and mythology....Sacred haoma has its origins in Indo-Iranian religion and is the cognate of Vedic soma.Both Avestan haoma and Sanskrit soma derived from proto-Indo-Iranian sauma....Parsi-Zoroastrians use a variant of Ephedra, usually Ephedra procera, imported from the Hari River valley in Afghanistan.

For the most part, Zoroastrianism does not have a notion of reincarnation, at least not until the final renovation of the world. Followers of Ilm-e-Kshnoom in India believe in reincarnation and practice vegetarianism, two principles unknown to Orthodox Zoroastrianism.

Beckwith, Christopher..."The Introduction of Greek Medicine into Tibet in the 7th Century"...Journal of the American Oriental Society #99... (1979)

HAOMA/SOMA...."The ancient Indo-Iranians act of worship often involved the preparation, purification, and the offering of a sacred plant.(Iranian:Haoma) (Indian:Soma). It was mixed with water, milk, and other ingredients and offered as a libation to the gods. Thereafter it was drunk by the participants. See Hymns of Nook 9 of the Rig Veda. The color of the drink was golden." (Acta Iranica: 1985..pg 699)..."Haoma was widely used by warrior and poet as well as priest and seer, playing a part in their lives not unlike that of mead among the ancient Teutonic peoples." (Boyce: 1982...pg 147)...

Siberian shamans use the fly-agaric mushroom in their rituals. (Acta: 1985..pg 700)...

GOLDEN DRINK..." The Golden Drink (gSer-skyems) is the Celestial drink according to which wine is presented to Kings as a substitute for nectar." (Hoffman: 1975..pg 109)..."the yul lha is invited to take a seat and consume his offerings. These consist of the first part of the nourishment (zas phud), bsangs, and gser skyems." (Blondeau: 1996..pg 125)....(ambrosia) (bdud stsi)( sk: amrita)..."Aqua vitae"..."The ancient Indo-Iranians act of worship often involved the preparation, purification, and the offering of a sacred plant, Iranian Haoma, Indian Soma. It was mixed with water or milk and other ingredients and offered as a libation to the gods. Therafter it was drunk. It is a color of golden or yellow. See Book 9 of the Rig Veda." (Acta: 1985..pg 699)..."The Sapa Incans poured a libation to the Sun God from a golden vase before the procession to the Coricancha Temple." (Hawkes: 1962..pg 133)...

SOMA...."a popular drink in the land of the Indo-Iranians...the HUM plant of the Parsis is said to turn sour after a few days...the moons rays and the shoots of the Soma plant....."Oh King Soma..come here...descend!"..."This Soma is pressed for you O Mitra"....the ambrosia is ready in the sky...a piece of gold is tied in a garment and dipped into the oblation...Soma was in the third sky, a leaf w3as cut off, that became the parna. The Parna is holy power. Parna wood is royalty...Butter is brilliance. Soma is splendour. Curd is strength...(Keith: 1967)...

Gonur as the "capital" of the complex in Margiana throughout the Bronze Age. The palace of North Gonur measures 150 metres by 140 metres, the temple at Togolok 140 metres by 100 metres, the fort at Kelleli 3 125 metres by 125 metres, and the house of a local ruler at Adji Kui 25 metres by 25 metres. Each of these formidable structures has been extensively excavated. While they all have impressive fortification walls, gates, and buttresses, it is not always clear why one structure is identified as a temple and another as a palace.Mallory points out that the BMAC fortified settlements such as Gonur and Togolok resemble the QALA , the type of fort known in this region in the historical period. They may be circular or rectangular and have up to three encircling walls. Within the forts are residential quarters, workshops and temples.

MUD-BRICK.......Shibam, which is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, owes its fame to its distinct architecture.The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud brick and about 500 of them are tower houses, which rise 5 to 11 stories high, with each floor having one or two rooms. While Shibam has been in existence for an estimated 1,700 years, most of the city's houses originate from the 16th century. Many, though, have been rebuilt numerous times in the last few centuries. Shibam is often called "the oldest skyscraper city in the world" or "the Manhattan of the desert", and is one of the oldest and best examples of urban planning based on the principle of vertical construction.The city has some of the tallest mud buildings in the world, with some of them over 30 meters (100 feet) high, thus being early high-rise apartment buildings. In order to protect the buildings from rain and erosion, the walls must be routinely maintained by applying fresh layers of mud. The nearby town of Tarim contains the tallest structure in the Wadi Hadhramaut valley, the mudbrick minaret of the Al-Mihdhar mosque. It stands at a height of approximately 53 meters (175 feet.)

"Ashoka taught and persuaded his people to love and respect all living things. According to Dr. Munshi, "he insisted on the recognition of the sanctity of all human life".The unnecessary slaughter or mutilation of animals was immediately abolished. Wildlife became protected by the king's law against sport hunting and branding. Limited hunting was permitted for consumption reasons but the overwhelming majority of Indians chose by their own free will to become vegetarians."....http://www.csuchico.edu/~cheinz/syllabi/asst001/spring98/Ashoka.htm

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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Central Asian Historical Timetable...45,000 BC - 100 AD

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45,000 BC....A Stone Age archaeological site on the banks of the river Don in southern Russia has been identified by scientists as the earliest known settlement of modern humans in Europe. The discovery has provided support for the idea that the first migration of modern humans out of sub-Saharan Africa occurred less than 50,000 years ago. Scientists have dated the artefacts from the Russian site to 45,000BC, which would make the inhabitants the earliest known ancestors of Europeans today.

40,000 years ago – Upper Paleolithic begins in Europe. An abundance of fossil evidence includes elaborate burials of the dead, Venus figurines and cave art. Venus figurines are thought to represent fertility goddesses. The cave paintings at Chauvet and Lascaux are believed to represent religious thought.

Cro-Magnon or early modern human skeletal remains with "Neanderthal traits" were found in Lagar Velho (Portugal), dated to 24,500 years ago...The youngest Neanderthals include the Vindija Cave fossils in Croatia, which are between 33,000 and 32,000 years old. No definite specimens younger than 30,000 years ago have been found, but evidence of fire by Neanderthals in Gibraltar indicate they may have survived there until 24,000 years ago.

Glacials, on the other hand, refer to colder phases within an ice age that separate interglacials. Thus, the end of the last glacial period is not the end of the last ice age. The end of the last glacial period was about 12,500 years ago....

8000 BCE......"we are looking at a part of the world, even though it had been forgotten by western scholars, which really takes its place as a partner in the development from the first farmers about 10,000 years ago up to early villagers when we see the beginning of our settlement in Anau at Turkmenistan 4,500 B. C., all the way through the development of these large cities that we are finding out in the deserts. And I am quite convinced that 5,000 years ago an ancient Sumerian would have some understanding of what a central Asian was, or what central Asian artifacts were and vice versa."....Fredrik Talmage Hiebert, Ph.D., Prof. of Anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Assistant Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology, Philadelphpia, Pennsylvania

According to the Surya Siddhanta, Kali Yuga began in 3102 BCE.....The Surya Siddhanta is one of the earliest doctrine or tradition (siddhanta) in archeo-astronomy of the Hindus. Its original version is by an unknown author. It describes the archeo-astronomy theories, principles and methods of the ancient Hindus. This siddhanta is supposed to be the knowledge that the Sun god gave to an Asura called Maya. Asuras were enemies of the Deva, the Gods of Hindus. Asuras were believed to be residents of the nether worlds.

Lapis lazuli was being mined in the Badakhshan province of Afghanistan as early as the 3rd millennium BC, and there are sources that are found as far east as in the region around Lake Baikal in Siberia. Trade in the stone is ancient enough for lapis jewelry to have been found at Predynastic Egyptian and ancient Sumerian sites, and as lapis beads at neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and even as far from Afghanistan as Mauritania.....Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-e-Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years. Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as the later Greeks and Romans. During the height of the Indus valley civilization about 2000 BC, the Harappan colony now known as Shortugai was established near the lapis mines

"After 2400 BC, throughout Central Asia the growth of urban societies was severely challenged. Within a span of some three hundred years, none of the major centers that developed during the first half of the 3rd millennium were still occupied. The precise reasons for this "urban collapse" remain a mystery. Yet toward the end of 3rd millennium, across northern Afghanistan and southern Turkemenistan and Uzbekistan, a series of events fueled the rise of cities and settlements that was to have a major impact".....http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/history-pre.htm

2300 BC...The Anau Seal.... inscribed stamp seal dated to about 2,300 B. C. that clearly had symbols on it......A large sophisticated civilization equal to Sumeria and Mesopotamia and thriving at the same time at least 5,000 years ago was lost in the harsh desert sands of the Soviet Union near the Iran and Afghanistan borders......recent excavations in the Kara Kum desert of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan on the Iran and Afghanistan borders......No American archaeologist had been there since 1904 when New Hampshire archaeologist and geologist, Raphael Pumpelly, discovered ancient ruins at Anau in southern Turkmenistan near Iran..... in 1988 after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Dr. Hiebert first received permission to travel to Anau. He has discovered it is about 2,000 years older than the Bactria and Margiana sites further to the east, going back nearly seven thousand years to at least 4,500 B. C., or the Bronze Age. Not only are the oldest shards from there of high craftsmanship, this past summer Dr. Hiebert also found a black rock carved with red-colored symbols that, to date, are unidentified but considered to be evidence of a literacy independent of Mesopotamia. The discovery is revolutionary to earlier academic thought that Sumeria was the first civilization with language.

Balkh was of the the largest and most grand of ancient cities. Balkh was at it height from 2700- 2000 BC but of great importance from 600 BC until 600 AD.....

2800 BC...For over three hundred years the rulers of the Roman Empire worshipped the god Mithras. Known throughout Europe and Asia by the names Mithra, Mitra, Meitros, Mihr, Mehr, and Meher, the veneration of this god began around 2800 years ago in Persia, where it was soon moved west and became imbedded with Babylonian doctrines. There is mention of Mithra or Mitra (et al) before 2800, but only as a minor diety and without much information. It appears to be after 2800 when Mithra is transformed and starts to play a major role among the gods.

2800 BC...Traditionally it was believed that the principles of the I Ching originated with the mythical Fu Xi (伏羲 Fú Xī).[7] In this respect he is seen as an early culture hero, one of the earliest legendary rulers of China (traditional dates 2800 BC-2737 BC), reputed to have had the 8 trigrams (八卦 bā guà) revealed to him supernaturally.

2600 BC .....Balkh is one of the oldest cities in the world...Since the Indo-Iranians built their first kingdom in Balkh (Bactria, Daxia, Bukhdi) some scholars believe that it was from this area that different waves of Indo-Iranians spread to north-east Iran and Seistan region...]The period between 26th-20th century BC was the most important period in the history of Balkh; it's in this relatively short period that a kingdom was established, then the population started to disperse and the kingdom started to shrink.

"The lapis lazuli that arrived from the Sar-i Sang mines in Afghanistan to the great cities at Ur about 2400 BC travelled along routes or exchange that had already been active for thousands of years. In the long march toward civilization, Mundigak (near modern-day Kandahar) provides evidence of a true city, perhaps a provincial capital of the Indus valley civilization, and evidence of the type of structures and objects that true cities produce: religious structures and carved or painted works of art. At Mundigak, archaeologists have discovered a large 3rd millennium BC pillared terrace structure with a doorway outlined in red, which probably had a religious purpose. At Deh Morasi Gundai, archaeologists found evidence of a shrine complex containing various ritual items such as goat horns, a goblet, a copper seal, hollow copper tubing, a small alabaster cup, and a carved and hand-molded pottery figurine of a mother goddess or fertility figure similar to figurines that were also found at Mundigak.Deh Morasi Gundai was eventually abandoned about 1500 BC, perhaps because of the westward shift of the river on which it was built. Mundigak continued another 500years. Two successive invasions by a nomadic tribe from the north forced the inhabitants to abandon the city after more than 2,000 years of continuous occupation.".....http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/history-pre.htm

13th Century BC....As the Aryan Indo-Europeans descended onto the Iranian plateau, they divided once again; one group migrated into the Indian subcontinent whilst the other progressed westwardly eventually caressing the borders of the Semitic lands. The eastern group is known to have settled in the Punjab between the Indus and Sarasvati during the Vedic era circa 13th century B.C.E. The literay and linguistic evolution of Sanskrit from its earliest instances in the Rig-Veda to the end of the Vedic era, circa 500 B.C.E.

2000 BC.....SANSKRIT...(Tibetan: legs sbyar gyi skad)....Sanskrit appears about 2000-1500 BC in India with the migration of the Indo-Aryan branch of speakers into northwest India. The nearest relative of Indo-Aryan is Persian. Their earliest literature is the Vedas, sacred hyms to the Aryan deities. The Mahabharata consists of 100,000 couplets. Close affinities with the Iranian Avesta. The Sanskrit dramatists had little regard for the three classical unities of space, time, and action..(Encyclopedia Britannica)....

c.1900–c.520 BC .... Indo-Aryan migrations. Ramayana legend says Lord Rama's brother Bharat ruled from Gandhara.

1857 BC...Birth of Shenrab in the 1st Wood Male Mouse Year, the son of King Gyal Tokar and Queen Zanga Ringum (Wangyal: 1993..pg 30)

c.1700-1100 BC: The Rigveda, one of the oldest known texts written in an Indo-European language, is composed in a region described as Sapta Sindhu....('land of seven great rivers')

Mithra......Much of the pre-Zoroastrian Iranian Mithra in terms of how he was worshipped by the Iranians is little known. It is known that Mithra boasted a considerable following; there are indications that he was attributed elements of a sky god - he was associated with the sun, altho not equated with it, and was termed the 'god of light' - and was often invoked with other high gods, such as Ahura, who at that time bore a prominent although non-universal position.

The 2nd millennium BC marks the transition from the Middle to the Late Bronze Age. Its first half is dominated by the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and Babylonia. The alphabet develops. Indo-Iranian migration onto the Iranian plateau and onto the Indian subcontinent propagates the use of the chariot. Chariot warfare and population movements lead to violent changes at the center of the millennium, and a new order emerges with Greek dominance of the Aegean and the rise of the Hittite Empire. The end of the millennium sees the transition to the Iron Age. World population begins to rise steadily, reaching some 50 million towards 1000 BC.

1st mellenium B.C.E. .....the Aryans had arrived on the Iranian plateau and the Indian subcontinent. Indeed, the term Iran is the result of the term Ariana (Airyana) meaning "the land of the Aryans." The Aryan group of languages had two principle divisions: Sanskrit and Old Iranian.

1700 BC....Rigveda. Ancient Indian hymns. Composed prior to the Indo-European migration into Persia and India

1627 BC: Beginning of a cooling of world climate lasting several years recorded in tree-rings all over the world....The last known population of woolly mammoth, preserved on Wrangel Island, goes extinct.

1500 BC....the weather change in Airyana Vaeja, that pollen and tree ring analysis indicates the Chang Tang plateau in Northern Tibet had a far more liveable environment than it has today - one that supported a primordial civilization - until the climate become colder and drier starting around 1500 BCE, a climate change that caused the population to migrate out of the northern plateau.

The Vedas are among the oldest sacred texts. The Samhitas date to roughly 1500–1000 BCE, and the "circum-Vedic" texts, as well as the redaction of the Samhitas, date to c. 1000-500 BCE, resulting in a Vedic period, spanning the mid 2nd to mid 1st millennium BCE, or the Late Bronze Age and the Iron Age

c. 1350 BC: .....Migration of waves of Iranian tribes begin from the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex westwards to the Iranian plateau, western Afghanistan and western Iran. ...According to the Avesta (Vendidad 1.1-21), they are compelled to leave their homeland Airyana Vaēǰah because Aŋra Mainyu so altered the climate that the winter became ten months long and the summer only two. Along the way, they settle down near large rivers, such as Bāxδī, Harōiva, Haraxᵛaitī, etc.

c. 1100-550 BC: Zoroaster introduces a new religion at Bactra (Present-day Balkh) - Zoroastrianism - which spreads across Iranian plateau. He composes Older (i.e. 'Gathic') Avesta and later Younger Avesta is composed - at least - in Sīstān/Arachosia, Herāt, Merv and Bactria.

1000 BC........Bactria: semi mythical empire about 1000 BC....

At a very early date, Balkh was the rival of Ecbatana, Nineveh and Babylon. There is a long-standing tradition that an ancient shrine of Anahita was to be found here, a temple so rich it invited plunder.

-959 BC..... King Mu (Mu Wang),. West Chou king and the earliest reputed Silk Road traveller. His travel account Mu tianzi zhuan, written in the 5th-4th century BC, is the first known travel book on the Silk Road. It tells of his journey to the Tarim basin, the Pamir mountains and further into today's Iran region, where the legendary meeting with Xiwangmu was taken place. Returned via the Southern route. The book no longer exists but is referenced in Shan Hai Zin, Leizi: Mu Wang Zhuan, and Shiji.

900 BC....Walled Cities with central castles (kal'ah) existed in Bactria (Merv(Mary in Turkmenistan), Maracandra (Samarkand), Balkh)

700-600 BC...horses were domesticated in the Eurasian Steppes (Dereivka centered in Ukraine) during the Scythian period of the 6th and 7th centuries BC....Earlier dates of 4000 BC have recently come into question.

700 BC.....Median and Persian empires in 700 BC

6th Century BC....Balkh was regarded as the first place where Zoroaster first preached his religion, as well as the place where he died. Zoroastrianism, also called Mazdaism and Magianism, is a religion and philosophy based on the teachings of the prophet Zoroaster (also known as Zarathustra in Avestan) and was formerly among the world's largest religions. It was probably founded some time before the 6th century BCE in the eastern part of ancient Greater Iran (Persia)...."Balkh had been the birthplace of Zoroaster in about 600 BCE. It was the holy city of Zoroastrianism, the Iranian religion that grew from his teachings and which emphasized the veneration of fire. Kanishka followed the Graeco-Bactrian policy of religious tolerance. Thus, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism peacefully coexisted in Balkh, where they influenced each other's development. Cave monasteries from this period, for example, had wall paintings of Buddhas with auras of flames and in­scrip­tions calling them "Buddha-Mazda." This was an amal­gam of Buddha and Ahura Mazda, the supreme god of Zoroastrianism."....628-551 BC...Zarathustra launched his movement in Chorasmia (Persian Khorasan, Western Afghanistan, Turkmen Republic). (James: 1963..pg 79)...628 BC......"Zoroaster [Zarathushtra] (628-551 BC?) was probably a priest of the old Aryan religion, for he calls himself a zaotar (Indian hotar) in the Gatas (Yasna 33.6)....He also retained the old poetic form, for the meter of his Gathas is similar to that of the Vedas. He further exalted the concept of asha, 'truth', the rta of India, and further used words in the same sense as in the Vedas."

Laozi (Chinese: 老子; pinyin: Lǎozǐ; Wade–Giles: Lao Tzu; also romanized as Lao Tse, Lao Tu, Lao-Tsu, Laotze, Laosi, Laocius, and other variations) (fl. 6th century BCE) was a philosopher of ancient China, best known as the author of the Tao Te Ching

567-486 BC....Shakyamuni Buddha....The first two disciples of the Buddha were merchants from Balkh. Their stupas are still located in the area.

480 BC....these Upanisads are prior to the rise of Buddhism, which is derived logically from the system which they contain, and, as the date of the death of the Buddha may be placed with fair probability in or about the year 480 B. c., a lower terminus of 500 B. c. for the Upanisads is attained.

Trapusa and Bahalika from Balkh in Afghanistan, are attributed to be the first two lay disciples of the Buddha. In the vinaya section of the Tripiṭaka where they offer the Buddha his first meal after his enlightment, take refuge in the Buddha and Dharma, (the Sangha still not having been formed) and become the Buddha's first lay disciples.When Trapusa and Bahalika wished his leave to return home, they asked the Buddha for something by which they could remember and honour him in his absence. The Buddha gave them eight of his hairs as relics. They made golden caskets for the relics and took them to their own city (Balkh) where they enshrined them in a stupa by the city gate. Huang Tsang recounts that theirs was the first ever Buddhist Stupa to be made and that the Buddha had first to instruct them how to erect it by folding his three robes into squares piling them up and then topping them off with his inverted bowl....John S. Strong draws attention to the important tradition that brings together several firsts ; first lay disciples of the Buddha to take refuge in him and his teachings; first meritorious food offering to the Buddha after his enlightenment; first Buddhist's monk's bowl; first words of Dharma given by the blessed one; first relics of Gautama after his attainment of Buddhahood; the first Stupa of the Buddha here on earth. The remains of this stupa are still in Balkh.

Central Asia was 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....."The process whereby Iranians spread over Central Asia and the Iranian Plateau can be compared with the later expansion of the Turkic peoples... As in the Turkification of Anatolia, the Iranians gave their languages and practises to the aboriginal population" (Frye 1996). In the middle of the sixth century BCE, the Achaemanid clan of the Persians was headed by Cyrus, who ruled, under Median domination, as sub-king of Parsa, or Persis. In 553 BCE Cyrus led a revolt that resulted in the overthrow of the Median ruler and the rise to the power of the Achaemenids."

Roxana (Avestan: Raoxshna or Roshanak, "luminous beauty"; Persian: رخسانه‎ Rokhsāna; Pashto: روښانه‎ Rox̌āna), sometimes Roxanne, Roxandra and Roxane, was a Bactrian (Iran) princess and a wife of Alexander the Great. She was born earlier than the year 343 BC, though the precise date remains uncertain......Roxana was the daughter of a Bactrian named Oxyartes of Balkh in Bactria (around modern-day Balkh province of Afghanistan), and married Alexander at the age of 16 after he visited the fortress of Sogdian Rock. Balkh was the last of the Persian Empire's provinces to fall to Alexander. Ancient sources describe Alexander's professed love for Roxana. She accompanied him on his campaign in northern India in 326 BC......After Alexander's sudden death at Babylon in 323 BC, she bore him a posthumous son called Alexander IV Aegus. Also, after Alexander's death, Roxana murdered Alexander's other widow, Stateira II, as well as either Stateira's sister Drypteis[1] or Parysatis II (Alexander's third wife).

329 BC.....Alexander took Bactria in 329 B.C.E., and made it his base for conquest and amalgamation of the Greek and Iranian civilizations.....Balkh was old long before Alexander’s raid, and its history of 2500 years records more than a score of conquerors. The Arabs, impressed by Balkh’s wealth and antiquity, called it Umm-al-belad, the mother of cities. When the Silk Road was the chief artery of commerce between East and West, Balkh was second to none. But then came Ghengis Khan, and wreaked upon it the utter devastation that has made the Mongols’ name a byword for barbarism. Balkh never fully recovered, and eventually faded into a village; the seat of government shifted to scruffy but vigorous Mazar-e-Sharif. What the visitor comes to see in Balkh is chiefly the melting walls of the old city, enclosing a vast field of rubble and wreckage; it is a place of memories rather than monuments. But for those who savor the melancholy pleasure of ruins, there is no more evocative site between Xian and Trebizond.

Greco-Buddhism, sometimes spelled Graeco-Buddhism, refers to the cultural syncretism between Hellenistic culture and Buddhism, which developed between the 4th century BCE and the 5th century CE in the Indian sub-continent, especially in modern Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western border regions of modern India. It was a cultural consequence of a long chain of interactions begun by Greek forays into India from the time of Alexander the Great, carried further by the establishment of Indo-Greek rule in the area for some centuries, and extended during flourishing of the Hellenized empire of the Kushans.Greco-Buddhism influenced the artistic, and perhaps the spiritual development of Buddhism, particularly Mahayana Buddhism

Following Alexander's death on June 10, 323 BCE, the Diadochoi (successors) founded their own kingdoms in Asia Minor and Central Asia. General Seleucus set up the Seleucid Kingdom, which extended as far as India. Later, the Eastern part of the Seleucid Kingdom broke away to form the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom (3rd–2nd century BCE), followed by the Indo-Greek Kingdom (2nd–1st century BCE), and later the Kushan Empire (1st–3rd century CE). The interaction of Greek and Buddhist cultures operated over several centuries until it ended in the 5th century CE with the invasions of the White Huns, and later the expansion of Islam.

Under the reign of King Ashoka of the Indian Maurya dynasty (324-187 BCE), Buddhism was helped to spread throughout the surrounding region. After his only conquest of Kalinga, Ashoka was so full of sorrow and remorse that he resolved to refrain from violence, took the vows of an upsaka (lay Buddha) and dedicated the rest of his life to helping spread Buddhism to distant parts of his Kingdom. A great number of Buddhist missionaries were sent to spread the teachings of Buddha, and rock edicts set up by Ashoka state that he sent some to his North-West territories....In 1958, edicts inscribed on rock pillars promulgating the ethical standards of Buddhist teaching were discovered in Qandahar, Afghanistan and in 1962 a long inscription entirely in Greek (later identified as parts of Ashokas edicts) was found in the surrounding area. During the first century Balkh was famous throughout the region for its Buddhist temples and the Greek scholar Alexander Polyhistor mentions Buddhism's relationship with Iran and refers to Balkh and its temples specifically. It is widely agreed that without Ashokas patronage of Buddhism, it would have remained another minor Hindu sect as opposed to the world religion it is today.

208 BC...The city was the capital of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and was besieged for three years by the Seleucid Empire (208-206 BC).

176 BC...Seven generations of kings after Suchandra, in 176 B.C.E., King Manjushri Yashas gathered the religious leaders of Shambhala, specifically the brahman wise men, to give them predictions and a warning. Eight hundred years in the future, namely in 624 C.E., a non-Indic religion will arise in Mecca. Because of a lack of unity among the brahmans?people and laxity in following correctly the injunctions of their Vedic scriptures, many will accept this religion when its leaders threaten an invasion. To prevent this danger, Manjushri Yashas united the people of Shambhala into a single "vajra-caste" by conferring upon them the Kalachakra empowerment. By his act, the king became the First Kalki ?the First Holder of the Caste.

-138-116 BC....... Zhang Qian (Chang Ch'ien). Chinese general and envoy credited with opening the Silk Road after his mission from the Han Emperor Wudi to recruit the Yueh-chih people to form an alliance against the Xiongnu. First trip (138-125) skirted the Taklamakan desert via the northern route, passed the Pamir, then reached Ferghana. Returned via the southern route. His second trip (119-115), a mission to seek alliance with Wu-sun people, took him to Dunhuang, Loulan, Kucha, then the capital of Wu-sun kingdom in the Ili river. His missions to the west led to the formalization of trade, especially the silk trade, between China and Persia.

129 BC....Bactria reappears with its annexation by the Kushans (129 B.C.E.), whose large and powerful empire stretched from Central Asia deep into India. This was a fortunate era, when the lands through which the caravan routes passed were divided among a few stable states which submerged their differences in the interests of trade; and Balkh flourished at the crossroads as a depot and trans-shipment point for the world’s luxuries. “ From the Roman Empire the caravans brought gold and silver vessels and wine; fom Central Asia and China rubies, furs, aromatic gums, drugs, raw silk and embroidered silks; from India spices, cosmetics, ivory and precious gems of infinite variety” (Dupree, p 71). With the merchants came monks preaching the new religion of Buddhism, and Balkh became a center of worship and learning, famous for its temples and monasteries.

Ancient Chinese sources do describe the existence of "white people with long hair" Very well preserved Tarim mummies with Europoid features (light hair and eyes) ...Museum and dated to the 3rd century BCE, were found at the ancient oasis on the Silk Road, Niya.....According to one theory, the Yuezhi were probably part of the large migration of Indo-European-speaking peoples who were settled in eastern Central Asia at that time. The nomadic people of the Ordos culture, who lived in northern China, east of the Yuezhi, are another example. Also, the Europoid mummies of Pazyryk, which were probably Scythian in origin, were found around 1,500 kilometers northwest of the Yuezhi and date to around the 3rd century BCE....From 130 BCE a nomadic people, the Yuezhi, started to invade Bactria from the north and we could assume that Heliocles was killed in battle during this invasion. Details from Chinese sources seem to indicate that the nomad invasion did not end civilisation in Bactria entirely. Hellenised cities continued to exist for some time, and the well-organised agricultural systems were not demolished. Even if this was the end of the original Greco-Bactrian kingdom, the Greeks continued to rule in northwestern India to the end of the 1st century BCE, under the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

According to Chinese textbooks Buddhism was spread by Parsi monks including An Shi Kao, An Huvan, Te Al and Fagin. Buddhism was influenced by mysticism and Manichaeism in Iran and before conversion to Islam the Barmakians who were one of the biggest family of scholars and statesmen in Iran followed that religion.

1 BC.......Indo-Greek Kingdom, Hermaios, c. 40 - 1 B.C.....Hermaios was the last Indo-Greek king of Bactria. With his defeat by the Kushan ruler Kujala Kadphises, the isolated Greek area in India, which had lasted three centuries, came to an end. Some biblical scholars believe he was one of the three kings to visit the baby Jesus....Scythian kingdom of Chorasmia, centered at Balkh. This scarce coin features a stylized portait of Hermaios on the obverse and a horse on the reverse.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Anau Seal in Bactria (2300 BC)

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The discovery of a single tiny stone seal (known as the "Anau seal") with geometric markings from the BMAC site at Anau in Turkmenistan in 2000 led some to claim that the Bactria-Margiana complex had also developed writing, and thus may indeed be considered a literate civilization. It bears five markings strikingly similar to Chinese "small seal" characters, but such characters date from the Qin reforms of roughly 100 AD, while the Anau seal is dated by context to 2,300 BCE. It is therefore an unexplained anomaly.

Three months after the announcement of its discovery in Central Asia, a tiny stone object inscribed with symbols thought to be the writing of an obscure desert culture from 4,000 years ago is more of an enigma than ever.....If this is indeed an early form of writing, as its discoverer has suggested, it is strong evidence for a previously unknown civilization that began about 2300 B.C. across much of modern Turkmenistan and parts of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan....An even more puzzling aspect of the discovery has been raised by specialists in ancient Chinese writing. They contend that the inscription bears more than a passing resemblance to Chinese writing -- not an early script, but one that was not used until about 200 B.C.... There is no clear evidence for Chinese writing before about 1300 or 1200 B.C. -- 1,000 years after people lived at the Anau site in Turkmenistan where the mysterious inscription was unearthed.

"Scholars have long predicted an important outside influence on the Sumerians (as Anau reveals levels which go back to the Copper Age, c. 4500 BCE), and many see the Bronze Age Bactrians as eventually contributing to the Harappan Indus Valley civilization, though whether through trade, conquest, or some unremarkable and unknown process, is not yet clear."

20 minutes by car from Ashgabat to the south east, this site includes the remains of the Bronze age settlement Anau -Depe and the fortress of Anau. The name Anau derives from Abi-Nau, meaning "new water". The site was already inhabited in the 4-3 millenium B.C. The culture of this period has been named Anau culture. Excavations began in 1904 when an American archaeologist R. Pempelli launched an expedition. The site includes a great wall and a ditch. Some skeletons of children, the remains of the painted ceramics, decorated with the geometrical ornament and the most ancient remains of the camels were discovered at the time of excavations. According to the scientists camels were domesticated at first just on the territory of the present day Turkmenistan. Anau fortress already existed during the Parthian period /3d c BC- 3d c. AD/.

Another possibility, which would throw the scholarship of Chinese writing into turmoil, is that the 2300 inscription date is correct. That would suggest that influences from Central Asia or farther west might have contributed to the invention of Chinese writing. Dr. Mair, who holds that such influences were greater than previously thought, has raised this controversial point. ''The Anau seal forces us to rethink in a most radical fashion the origins of the Chinese script,'' he said.

Anau was one of several settlements in the foothills that preceded the culture's expansion around 2200 B.C. out into the arid basin, where the residents practiced irrigated farming at oases. Whoever the people were, their culture is now called the Bactria Margiana Archaeology Complex. It disappeared a few hundred years after the expansion.......Previous research had shown that the culture built large urban centers with fortifications, had the administrative skills to develop extensive irrigation systems and produced surpluses to pay for fine ceramics, jewelry and bronze goods. If Dr. Hiebert's findings are correct, the culture also developed a writing, or proto-writing systems. Thus, by the definition of some anthropologists, the culture probably could be considered an early civilization that was later lost.

8000 BCE......"we are looking at a part of the world, even though it had been forgotten by western scholars, which really takes its place as a partner in the development from the first farmers about 10,000 years ago up to early villagers when we see the beginning of our settlement in Anau at Turkmenistan 4,500 B. C., all the way through the development of these large cities that we are finding out in the deserts. And I am quite convinced that 5,000 years ago an ancient Sumerian would have some understanding of what a central Asian was, or what central Asian artifacts were and vice versa."....Fredrik Talmage Hiebert, Ph.D., Prof. of Anthropology, Univ. of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and Assistant Curator of Near Eastern Archaeology, Philadelphpia, Pennsylvania

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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BMAC Culture of Bactria (2300 BC)

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"All known cities in the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex contained monumental structures with heavy defensive walls, each located aproximately 30 to 50 kilometers (roughly a day's march) from each other. The temples in these ancient cities contain fire altars, sacrificial areas and architectural features described in passages of the Rig-Veda and the Avesta — the holy texts of the Indo-Aryans and the Zoroastrians. The city in northern Afghanistan named Baktra (present-day Balkh) is recorded in the Avesta as the birthplace of Zarathustra Spitama (Zoroaster), the founder of Zoroastianism, one of the first great world religions that is continually practiced to this day. The reasons that the cities of the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex were suddenly abandoned are not known. Possibly the widespread calamity known as the Bronze Age Collapse (which imploded the palace economies of the Aegean and Anatolia during the late 2nd millennium) impacted trade with settlements in Central Asia. Or possibly a severe drought or other envionmental catastrophe forced the BMAC settlers in Central Asia to flee."....http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/afghanistan/history-bmac.htm

"The Rigveda describes a mobile, semi-nomadic culture, with horse-drawn chariots, oxen-drawn wagons, and metal (bronze) weapons. The geography described......Rivers flow north to south, the mountains are relatively remote but still visible and reachable (Soma is a plant found in the high mountains, and it has to be purchased from tribal people). Nevertheless, the hymns were certainly composed over a long period, with the oldest (not preserved) elements possibly reaching back to times close to the split of Proto-Indo-Iranian (around 2000 BC) ....Thus there was some debate over whether the boasts of the destruction of stone forts by the Vedic Aryans and particularly by Indra refer to clashes between the early Indo-Aryans with the BMAC in what is now northern Afghanistan and southern Turkmenistan (separated from the upper Indus by the Hindu Kush mountain range, and some 400 km distant)......

45,000 BC....A Stone Age archaeological site on the banks of the river Don in southern Russia has been identified by scientists as the earliest known settlement of modern humans in Europe. The discovery has provided support for the idea that the first migration of modern humans out of sub-Saharan Africa occurred less than 50,000 years ago. Scientists have dated the artefacts from the Russian site to 45,000BC, which would make the inhabitants the earliest known ancestors of Europeans today....The evidence consists of stone, bone and ivory tools discovered under a layer of ancient volcanic ash on the Don River in Russia some 250 miles south of Moscow, said John Hoffecker, a fellow of CU-Boulder's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Thought to contain the earliest evidence of modern humans in Europe, the site also has yielded perforated shell ornaments and a carved piece of mammoth ivory that appears to be the head of a small human figurine, which may represent the earliest piece of figurative art in the world, he said.

The excavation took place at Kostenki, a group of more than 20 sites along the Don River that have been under study for many decades. Kostenki previously has yielded anatomically modern human bones and artifacts dating between 30,000 and 40,000 years old, including the oldest firmly dated bone and ivory needles with eyelets that indicate the early inhabitants were tailoring animal furs to help them survive the harsh climate.

The Yaz culture is an early Iron Age culture of Bactria and Margiana (ca. 1500-1100 BC). It has been regarded as a likely archaeological reflection of early East Iranian culture as described in the Avesta. So far, no burials related to the culture have been found, and this was taken as evidence of the Zoroastrian practice of exposure or so-called sky burial.

The Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (or BMAC, also known as the Oxus civilization) is the modern archaeological designation for a Bronze Age civilisation of Central Asia, dated to ca. 2300–1700 BCE, located in present day northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan and western Tajikistan, centered on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus River). Its sites were discovered and named by the Soviet archaeologist Viktor Sarianidi (1976). Bactria was the Greek name for the area of Bactra (modern Balkh), in what is now northern Afghanistan, and Margiana was the Greek name for the Persian satrapy of Margu, the capital of which was Merv, in modern-day southeastern Turkmenistan.

Sarianidi's excavations from the late 1970s onward revealed numerous monumental structures in many sites, fortified by impressive walls and gates. Reports on the BMAC were mostly confined to Soviet journals, until the last years of the Soviet Union, so the findings were largely unknown to the West until Sarianidi's work began to be translated in the 1990s.

Gonur Depe......The capital of one of the great but little known ancient civilizations, called Margush, Margiana, or the Bactria-Margiana Archaeological Complex. .....The golden age of Margush lasted from the sixteenth to the thirteenth centuries BC. The advanced city of Gonur was the capital of this great agricultural civilization. Its ancient citizens built it on a great natural plateau. In the center of the city a fortified palace enclosed by a great wall was built. The unique architecture of this construction has no corollary and represents a singular phenomenon in the history of ancient Oriental architecture. Not far from this palace a fortified temple was located, and its walls and floors were coated with white gypsum.

In the Early Bronze Age the culture of the Kopet Dag oases and Altyn-Depe developed a proto-urban society. This corresponds to level IV at Namazga-Depe. Altyn-Depe was a major centre even then. Pottery was wheel-turned. Grapes were grown. The height of this urban development was reached in the Middle Bronze Age c. 2300 BCE, corresponding to level V at Namazga-Depe. It is this Bronze Age culture which has been given the BMAC name.

Mallory points out that the BMAC fortified settlements such as Gonur and Togolok resemble the Qala (Kala), the type of fort known in this region in the historical period. They may be circular or rectangular and have up to three encircling wall. Within the forts are residential quarters, workshops and temples.

The discovery of a single tiny stone seal (known as the "Anau seal") with geometric markings from the BMAC site at Anau in Turkmenistan in 2000 led some to claim that the Bactria-Margiana complex had also developed writing, and thus may indeed be considered a literate civilization. It bears five markings strikingly similar to Chinese "small seal" characters, but such characters date from the Qin reforms of roughly 100 AD, while the Anau seal is dated by context to 2,300 BCE. It is therefore an unexplained anomaly.

"An Overview of the Andronovo Culture:....Late Bronze Age Indo-Iranians in Central Asia.....In the 1914 near the village Andronovo in the Enisei river valley, southern Siberia, several burial grounds containing skeletons in crouched position and pottery with very rich decoration were discovered. Archaeologists gave the name Andronovo to the distinctive Bronze Age culture dated mostly to the 2nd millennium BC. The Andronovo Culture covers a vast portion of western Asia. Its western flank constitutes a contact zone with the Srubnaya (Timber Grave Culture) in the Volga-Ural interfluvial; extending eastward to the Minusinsk depression. Sites are found as far south as the foothills of the Koppet Dag, the Pamir and Tian Shan mountains, while the northern boundary is rather vague reaching the taiga zone. Moreover, there is a chain of Andronovo type cultures in the forest-steppe zone of Western Siberia......The Andronovo Culture is of great importance in understanding the early history of the Indo-Iranian speaking peoples. The linguistic interpretation of this culture is under discussion as well as its origin and chronology.?.....http://www.csen.org/Koryakova/korya.andronovo.html

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Akar Werma, Akar Thegpa, Kunzang Akor & Shenlha Okar

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Dzogchen Explorations

Okar Research

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" .....important connections between the Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche and Namkha Drimed Rinpoche. For example, the Vidyadhara and His Eminence shared visions of Akar Werma, the deity whom the Vidyadhara called Shiwa Ökar. Shiwa Ökar is an important figure in Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche’s Shambhala termas and in the New Treasures termas discovered by His Eminence.".....The Great River Of Blessings....by Walker Blaine

Akar thegpa (A-dkar theg-pa), the Way of the White A, explains the practices and rituals of the higher Tantras.....

WHITE 'A'..."O great White Light of (the letter) A of the womb of space"(Nalanda Translation Committee: Lopez:1997..pg 403)....The seventh level in the Nine Ways of Bon is the Way of the White Letter A (A-dkar theg-pa). (Snellgrove:1967)....."A' represents the unconditioned primordial state, the natural state of mind; it is white to represent the innate purity of mind." (Wangyal: 1993..pg 41)..."The Seventh Vehicle is 'The White A'. The sacred A is the symbol of the 'Pure Sound'...the origin of all earthly sounds and of all effects in the phenomenal world." (Hoffman: 1975...pg 110)...

Buddha Shenlha Okar at Kundrol Ling....

Shenlha Okar | Kunzang Akor....Tibetan: Kunzang Akor (kun bzang a bskor)......."The deity Kunzang Akor is the meditational form of Shenlha Okar. He is generally recognized by the Tibetan letter 'A' placed on the chest at the level of the heart. The two hands are generally placed in the lap and hold the stems of two flower blossoms supporting a yungdrung (svastika) on the right and a vase on the left. There are numerous traditions of ritual cycles and meditation practices for Kunzang Akor. It is also common to have a sculpture of Kunzang Akor created as a death memorial. In Tibetan Buddhism it is more common to have a painting created in memorium however in the Bon Religion creating a sculpture is more common and considered best.".....http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=683

This Kunzang Akor is the most important Bon sculpture to appear in years......from a private collection. It is large, beautifully cast and appears to be from the Khassa Malla workshops of West Nepal. It is possible that it was created for the Bon temples in the Dolpo region of West Nepal.....http://www.himalayanart.org

Kunzang Akor: the All-good 'A' Circle is a meditational form of Shenlha Okar. He is generally recognized by the Tibetan letter 'A' placed on the chest at the level of the heart. The two hands generally rest in the lap and hold the stems of two flower blossoms supporting a yungdrung (svastika) on the right and a vase on the left. There are numerous traditions of ritual cycles and meditation practices for Kunzang Akor.....http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1387

Shenlha Okar | Kunzang Akor....Tibetan: Kunzang Akor (kun bzang a bskor)......The deity Kunzang Akor is the meditational form of Shenlha Okar. He is generally recognized by the Tibetan letter 'A' placed on the chest at the level of the heart. The two hands are generally placed in the lap and hold the stems of two flower blossoms supporting a yungdrung (svastika) on the right and a vase on the left. There are numerous traditions of ritual cycles and meditation practices for Kunzang Akor. It is also common to have a sculpture of Kunzang Akor created as a death memorial. In Tibetan Buddhism it is more common to have a painting created in memorium however in the Bon Religion creating a sculpture is more common and considered best.".....http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=683

"Kunzang Akor is the meditational form of the Bon deity Shenla Okar and is recognized here by the Tibetan letter “a” on his chest. The Bon religion pre-dates Buddhism in Tibet yet was heavily influenced by the arrival of the Indian tantras in the 10th-12th centuries, hence the Buddha-like appearance of Kunzang Akor. Likely commissioned in memoriam of a passed loved one, a sculpture such as this would have generated a great deal of religious merit for its patron. Bonpo differences from Buddhist iconography can be found in the presence of finger rings and in the prominence of the “a” on the chest, not found in any Buddhist deities. The deity would have been flanked by a swastika representing the eternal teachings of Bon on the proper right and a vase representing long life on the proper left yet the two implements have been lost.".....http://www.walteraraderart.com/himalayan-art/himalayan-bronze/tibetan-bronze

Tthe Warrior God Werma Nyi-nya..... in the Musec Guimet in Paris.....however this depiction does not have the elephant trunk.......horns of a garuda, lion's head, lynx ears, fearful face, crocodile mouth, tiger's teeth, feet and wings in the form of swords.....

VII. THE WAY OF PURE SOUND (a-dkar theg-pa)..... "This deals with higher tantric practices. It gives a very good account of the tantric theory of 'transformation' through the mandala. (I have alreafy summarized these ideas in my introduction to the Hevajra -Tantras). It then goes on to refer briefly to the union of Method and Wisdom as realized by the practiser and his feminine partner. This anticipates VIII. The section ends with concise lists of nine 'reliances', eighteen 'performances' and nine 'acts'. The 'reliances' comprise a list of primary neds, the 'performances' resume the whole process of ritual of the mandala, and the 'acts' represent the total power that accrues to one from mastering all the Nine Vehicles....."... from "The Nine Ways of Bon: Excerpts from Gzi-brjid". Edited and Translated by D.L. Snellgrove, pp.1-23 London Oriental Series , Vol 18, Oxford University Press 1968.

VII. The Way of the Shen of the Pure Sound (A-dkar theg-pa) (pp. 170-89). This part deals with the highest tantric practices; also the tantric theory of the ‘transformation’ through the mandala is illustrated....The Nine Ways of Bon, a collection of texts in Tibetan published in 1967 by the Oxford University Press of London, edited by Prof. David L. Snellgrove, an eminent tibetologist, in collaboration with three Bon monks - Löpon (slob-dpon) Tenzin Namdak, Geshey Sangye Tenzin Jongdong and Geshey Samten Gyaltsen Karmay.

7. Way of Primordial Sound (Adkar theg-pa) charts the integration of an exalted practitioner into the mandala of highest enlightenment;

Ahkar Tekpa,. Yeshen Tekpa, and. Dzogchen Yang Tsei Lamed Kyi Tekpa are known as the ways of fruition or result (Drewu Tekpa Nga). These are higher-level teachings based on the faith and trust developed through the first four ways.

The gZer-mig and gZi-brjid are both published by the Bonpo Foundation, Dolanji, 1965 and 1967-69, respectively. Extracts from the gZi-brjid have been edited and translated by D.L. Snellgrove, The Nine Ways of Bon, London Oriental Series, vol. 18, London 1967. The first seven chapters of gZer-mig and part of the eighth have been translated into English by A.H. Franke, 'A Book of the Tibetan Bonpos', Asia Major, Leipzig 1924, 1926, 1927, 1930; Asia Major (New Series) 1, London 1949. A summary of the contents of gZer-mig has been made by H. Hoffmann in The Religions of Tibet, London 1961, 85-96.

"In the Tibetan Bon traditon.....the first 4 of the Nine Ways are Shamanic Levels of Ordinary Elemental Magic.......the the next 3 are Tantric Transformation Levels.....and the highest 2 are Dzogchen Direct Experience Levels...in all nine levels of Bon the connecting deity is Shenlha Okar."

The Nyingma school recognises 9 categories of teachings, known as 9 ‘vehicles’ (theg pa, or yāna in Sanskrit). The classical Nyingma formulation, represented in sources like Longchenpa’s Treasury of Philosophical Tenets is:....Śrāvaka.....Pratyekabuddha.....Bodhisattva....Kriyā....Ubhaya....Yoga....Mahāyoga....Anuyoga....Atiyoga

But Bon practices are not limited to ceremonies and ritUals only. There are higher-level teachings of a very esoteric natUre, in both Tantra (Sang Ngag) and the Great Perfection (Dzogchen). Sang Ngag includes visualization and generation (kyerim) and perfection (zogrim) stages and the practices of channels (tsa), wind (lung), and physical exercise (trulkhor) as gradual practices on the wheels or chakras (khorlo), energy points in the body. The most secret Bon practice is Dzogchen, the great perfection. All of these traditions are still preserved and practiced today.

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2012

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