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"......the country’s capital, Kalapa by name. By night, the city of light is lit up as bright as day, so that the moon can no longer be seen. There the Shambhala king lives in a palace made from every conceivable gem and diamond. The architecture is based upon the laws of the heavens. There is a sun temple and a moon temple..."
French Buddhist Alexandra David-Néel associated Shambhala with Balkh in present day Afghanistan, also offering the Persian Sham-i-Bala, "elevated candle" as an etymology of its name.... David-Néel, A. "Les Nouvelles Littéraires";1954, p.1
"....the Gurdjieffian J. G. Bennett published speculation that Shambalha was Shams-i-Balkh, a Bactrian sun temple......Bennett, J.G: "Gurdjieff: aking a New World".
Bactra the sacred city and the capital of Bactria.....Balkh (Persian/Pashto: بلخ Balkh; Bactrian: Baktra) ....The ancient city of Balkh was under the Greeks renamed Bactra, giving its name to Bactria. It was mostly known as the centre and capital of Bactria or Tokharistan.....
"Balkh is one of the oldest cities in the world and is considered to be the first city to which the Indo-Iranian tribes moved from the North of Amu Darya, between 2000 - 1500 BC. The Arabs called it Umm Al-Belaad or Mother of Cities due to its antiquity.... The name Zariaspa, which is either an alternate name for Balkh or a term for part of the city, may derive from the important Zoroastrian fire temple Azar-i-Asp....the Indo-Iranians built their first kingdom in Balkh (Bactria, Daxia, Bukhdi).....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balkh
The period between 26th and 20th century BC was the most important period in the history of Balkh.... http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology
"Suchandra reigned as the king of Shambhala, a legendary kingdom somewhere to the north of India. He did not travel alone to be initiated in Dhanyakataka, but was accompanied by a courtly retinue of 96 generals, provincial kings and governors. After the initiation he took the tantra teaching back with him to his empire (Shambhala) and made it the state religion there; according to other reports, however, this only happened with the Kulika Kings after seven generations.....In the center of the ring of mountains lies the country’s capital, Kalapa by name. By night, the city of light is lit up as bright as day, so that the moon can no longer be seen. There the Shambhala king lives in a palace made from every conceivable gem and diamond. The architecture is based upon the laws of the heavens. There is a sun temple and a moon temple, a replica of the zodiac and the astral orbits.....the protest of a group of no less than 35 million (!) Rishis (seers) led by the sage Suryaratha ("sun chariot”). As the first Kulika king, Manjushrikirti, preached the Kalachakra Tantra to his subjects, Suryaratha distanced himself from it, and his followers, the Rishis, joined him....Manjushrikirti integrated in his office the energies of both the priestly and the military elite. Within himself he united worldly and spiritual power.... the sun (high priest) and the moon (warrior king) in the Indian cultural sphere. The union of both heavenly orbs in his person made him an absolute ruler."......http://www.trimondi.de/SDLE/Part-1-10.htm
" At Altyn Tepe a monumental religious complex was formed, (2300-1850 B.C.), with a four-level tower of the Mesopotamian ziggurat type......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v
"......in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya, we have the Amirabad culture.....the settlements consisted of large-frame houses of the semi-mud hut type; hand-molded dishes are occasionally decorated with notches. The wide distribution of domesticated horses is significant. The Chust culture is represented in the eastern part of Farḡāna, with hand-molded ceramics painted with simple geometric designs in black paint on a red background....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v
"...It appears that sun worship was limited to only relatively advanced early societies such as the Mexican and Peruvian Indians, the Egyptians and, of course, the pre-Vedic and Vedic societies in India.".....http://www.asianartmall.com/SUN%20WORSHIPING.html
"...A striking example of objects from Greco-Bactrian times was found at the site of the former city of Taḵt-e Sangīn in southern Tajikistan. Here, at the end of the 4th-3rd centuries B.C., a square-shaped four columned temple with an ayvān-shaped portico was erected. The temple existed with renovations and structural alterations until the 2nd-3rd centuries A.D. Numerous valuable objects and objets d’art serving as sacramental offerings have been found in it. A Greek inscription found on one stone altar indicates that the temple was dedicated to the deity Oxus, i.e., the Amu Darya......http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v
"History of Balkh (Bactria).....The Old Iranian name of Paktra, which the classical writers named it Bactria and their language was known as Bactrian, and after invasion of Iran by Arabs in 7th century CE it has come to be called Balkh; A northern province of Turkistan in modern Afghanistan, north of the ancient river Oxus.......Not much has been known about this empire, only some coins and a little bit of writing and occasional archaeological artifacts. Much of the work on excavations of Bactrian artifacts has been done by French Archaeologists. Historians find remote references in other people's records about the kingdom. ....It was from Bactria that came prophet Zarathushtra (Zartosht/Zardosht). Another source of spiritual home that made Bactria sacred was a great temple of the ancient Iranian goddess, Anahit (in Pahlavi or Middle-Persian) and Anahita (Ânâhitâ) in the Avesta hymns.....The temple was so rich that often it attracted plunder..... Anaitis was a Scythian goddess, but she is identified also as Assyrian Mylitta, the Arabian Alytta and the Greek Venus Urania. Artaxerxes Mnemon, one of the emperors of Achaemenid dynasty was among her devotees. She is also associated with the Persian Mithra......Bactria, by some writers, is called "the pride of Ariana". The ancient local citizen called it "Bactria the beautiful". Bactria was popular for its fertility. Besides Oxus, the Arius [modern Hari-rud] and a few other smaller river irrigate it. A large variety of fruits and vegetables grows here and excellent breed of sheep were raised in green Hindu Kush slopes..... the most popular of the Bactrian animals is the Bactrian horse. This animal played a partial role in the reputation of Bactrian cavalry in the ancient world....The once well watered land of Bactria and its fair climate has generally changed. The courses of the rivers have shifted, thus Bactria is not as glorious as it had been during the Macedonian occupation. The river Oxus once poured into the Caspian Sea, but now it flows into the Aral Sea. The modern city of Balkh [the old Bactrus], stood on the banks of this river, but now the city is a few miles away from the mighty Oxus.".... http://www.iranchamber.com
The legend is that Zarathushtra appeared during the reign of Gushtaspa at "Bactra the beautiful, city of the high - streaming banner". Zarathushtra's wife's family were very influential in the Royal court, that helped Zarathushtra spread his religion. Hence, Bactria became the heart of the new creed. According to Ferdowsi. Zarathushtra was killed by an invading Scythian party in front of his fire-altar, in Balkh........http://www.iranchamber.com
"One of the early Kushan remains in Bactria is Khalchayan (Ḵaḷčayān) (1st century B.C.-1st century A.D.), where a country palace-residence has been uncovered with a festive hall and a four-columned ayvān. The entire complex is richly decorated with painting and clay sculptures representing members of aristocracy and a group of heavily-armed warriors on horseback. In a number of statues one can see a striving for a certain portrait quality harking back to the Hellenistic psychological portrait. At this time in Bactria, there is a growth of urban centers; cities are again being constructed according to a regular rectangular or square plan, surrounded by fortress walls with watchtowers (Zar Tepe, Keyqobād Šāh, Kohna Kala). The Buddhist complexes in the suburbs of Termez, the capital of northern Bactria have been studied (Fayaz Tepe, Kara Tepe, and the stupa of Zurmal).....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v
"In Buddhism, another of the great oriental religions, there are distinct indications from various temple and cave iconography, of the influence of the Sun-god and the venerable position held by Him. An example is the series of relatively well preserved images in the Central Asian (now Xingjian Province, China) Kizil caves, where a Sun-god (paired with a Moon-god) is shown along with the Buddha. There are also carvings of the Sun-god on pillars and lintels of many ancient Buddhist temples in India."......http://www.asianartmall.com/SUN%20WORSHIPING.html
"Greek sources mention a temple dedicated to the goddess Aenê (Anahita) at Ecbatana, the capital of the ancient Median Empire....Anahita was considered to be the consort of Mithra..... According to classical historians, the temple was a vast palace, four-fifths of a mile in circumference, built of cedar or cypress. Every surface was covered by plates of silver or gold. The floor tiles were made of silver, and the whole building was faced with bricks of silver and gold., This shrine was rumoured to have been destroyed by the Macedonian king Alexander the Great, in 335 BC....".......
"Zar Tepe. In the northern part of the city there is a powerful three-tower palace citadel. Halls richly decorated with painting and clay sculpture stand out in the festival part of the palace.....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/archeology-v
Zoroastrian Ātashkada (fire-temple) Naubahār in Balkh, north Afghanistan.....Ātashkada Naubahār is one of the oldest Zoroastrian Ātashkada in the world. It is located in Balkh, north Afghanistan. Balkh (Avestan: Bakhdi, Old Persian: Bakhtrish, Latin: Bactria)
"SUN WORSHIPING....The worship of the sun, or heliolatry (Gr. ‘helios’: Sun and ‘latry’: worship or excessive devotion), is known to have been prevalent since the beginning of recorded history of man. Sun worship was very important among many cultures; particularly the Egyptian, Indo-European (Greek, Roman, Babylonian, Persian, Sumerian, Vedic Aryan etc), and Meso-American (Aztec, Mixtec, Maya etc) cultures. The influence of the sun was also important or formed an integral part of religious beliefs of, among others, the Druids of England, the Incas of Peru and many Native North American tribes. Among Eastern religions, Japanese mythology refers to ‘Amaterasu’ the Sun Goddess, while there are distinct influences of sun worship in certain forms of Buddhism. Sun worship has been a very important element of ancient and modern Hinduism. ".......http://www.asianartmall.com/SUN%20WORSHIPING.html
The Greeks in Bactria and India. William Woodthorpe Tarn. 1st Edition, 1938
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….July 2013
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