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'Hor' was an ethnonym that originally referred to the Uyghurs, and from the 12th century CE to the Mongols…..….Stein, Rolf A. (1959, pp. 188–9). Recherches sur l'épopée et le Barde au Tibet. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
.."the Four Sons of Heaven, the rulers of the four great countries of the Asiatic world: China, India, Iran, & Throm in the north with King Gesar." (Stein:1972, pg280)...
Gesar's traditional four enemies were China to the East, India to the South, Tag zig (Persia) to the west, and Hor to the North." (Norbu:1995, pg 225)
..."In Jambudvipa there were six great countries where the true doctrine was propagated: India, Tibet, China, Khotan, Shambhala, and Kailash." (H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche (1904-1987): History of the Nyingma Lineage)...
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Vohra 1996, pp. 216–17 writes that Gesar is mentioned in a Khotan text, the Tibetan Li-yul-lun-bstan-pa, ("Prophecy of the Li Country") of the 9th-10th century, and Phrom long identified with a country northeast of Yarkand. Recent opinion identifies the land either with the Turkish Küūsen or the Kushan territories of Gandhāra and Udayana. Gesar may be either someone of Turkish stock or a non-Tibetan dynastic name. The Khotan king Vijaya Sangrama's consort Hu-rod-ga (Hu-rong-ga) was Phrom Gesar's daughter. The Padma-thang-yig records a Tibetan army subduing Gesar, something also mentioned in the Rygal-po'i-bka'i-than-yig ("Pronouncements concerning Kings")……Vohra, Rohit (1996). "Early History of Ladakh: Mythic Lore % Fabulation: A preliminary note on the conjectural history of the 1st millennium A.D.". In Osmaston, Henry; Denwood, Philip. Recent research on Ladakh 4 & 5: proceedings of the fourth and fifth international colloquia on Ladakh. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 216–234. ISBN 978-81-208-1404-2. Retrieved 16 July 2011
Hor gling g.yul 'gyed ("The War of Hor and Gling"). Meanwhile the three demon-kings of Hor, led by Gur dkar, overcome Gling and abduct 'Brug mo, who becomes the mother of Gur dkar's child. Ge sar is eventually aroused from his drugged state, returns to Gling and leads a successful campaign to defeat Hor, which becomes an ally of Gling……http://www.thlib.org/encyclopedias/literary/genres/genres-book.php#!book=/studies-in-genres/b21/dn2/
The Hor gling episode…..…For Samuels, the Gesar epic lies towards the shamanic pole in the continuum of Tibetan culture and religion, which he sees as evincing a constant tension between 'clerical' and 'shamanic' Buddhism, the latter grounded in its earlier Bön substrate….. Samuel, Geoffrey (1993). Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. ISBN 978-1-56098-620-1.
The 18 fortresses (rdzong chen bco brgyad). Gesar sets out to conquer the 18 great forts (Tib.: rdzong). They are listed differently according to singers and texts, but these battles nearly always include Tajik (Tib.: Stag-gzig) and Khache Muslim adversaries.
Geser's war against the three kings of Sharaigol (Hor)……Sharai Gol is located in North-West Frontier Province, Pakistan. The estimate terrain elevation above seal level is 2272 metres. …. 35°22'48" N 71°47'1" E
"Salar is a Turkic language spoken by the Salar people, who mainly live in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu in China; some also live in Yining, Xinjiang…….The Salar arrived at their current location in the 14th century, having migrated there from the west, according to a Salar legend from Samarkand. Linguistic evidence points to a possible western Turkic, Oghuz origin of the Salar. Contemporary Salar is heavily influenced by contact with Tibetan and Chinese."…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_language
The Salar Language is used to recite some portions of Gesar…..Similarities with motifs in Turkic heroic poetry….Chadwick and Zhirmunsky consider that the main outlines of the cycle as we have it in Mongolia, Tibet and Ladakh show an outline that conforms to the pattern of heroic poetry among the Turkic peoples. (a) Like the Kirghiz hero Bolot, Gesar, as part of an initiation descends as a boy into the underworld. (b) The gateway to the underworld is through a rocky hole or cave on a mountain summit. (c) He is guided through the otherworld by a female tutelary spirit (Manene/grandmother) who rides an animal, like the Turkish shamaness kara Chach. (d) Like kara Chach, Gesar's tutelary spirit helps him against a host of monstrous foes in the underworld. (e) Like Bolot, Gesar returns in triumph to the world, bearing the Food of immortality and the water of Life.(f) Like the Altai shamans, Gesar is borne heavenward on the back of a bird to obtain herbs to heal his people. They conclude that the stories of the Gesar cycle were well known in the territory of the Uyghur Khaganate."http://www.chinabuddhismencyclopedia.com/en/index.php?title=King_Gesar_Ling
….'the appearance of Pehar—first in. Khotan (li-yul), then in Bhata - Hor (Mongolia)...….http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_04_02_02.pdf
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….."Khotan (Li-yul) was a Buddhist kingdom on the Silk Route along the southwestern rim of the Tarim Basin, just north of western Tibet. Its people were of Iranian origin and its form of Buddhism derived from India. A trade route ran from Khotan to Tibet via Kashmir" …http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html
"Pehar (the principal oracle god of the Dalai Lama) was originally a bitter arch-enemy of the Tibetans."….http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/dalai_lama/Part-2-07.htm
Hor, kHor, Horezm….."Khwarezm has been known also as Chorasmia, Khwarezmia, Khwarizm, Khwarazm, Khorezm, Khoresm, Khorasam, Harezm, Horezm, and Chorezm….In Avestan the name is Xvairizem, in Old Persian Huwarazmish, in Modern Persian خوارزم (Khwārazm), in Arabic خوارزم Khwārizm, in Old Chinese *qʰaljɯʔmriɡ(呼似密), modern Chinese Huālázǐmó (花剌子模), in Kazakh Хорезм, in Uzbek Xorazm, in Turkmen Horezm, in Turkish Harezm, in Greek Χορασμία and Χορασίμα, by Herodotus….The Arab geographer Yaqut al-Hamawi in his Muʿǧam al-buldan wrote that the name was a compound (in Persian) of khwar (خوار), and razm (رزم), referring to the abundance of cooked fish as a main diet of the peoples of this area…..C.E. Bosworth however, believes the Persian name to be made up of (خور) meaning "the sun" and (زم) meaning "Earth", designating "the land from which the sun rises", although the same etymology is also given for Khurasan. Another view is that the Iranian compound stands for "lowland" from kh(w)ar "low" and zam "earth, land."…..Khwarezm is indeed the lowest region in Central Asia (except for the Caspian Sea to the far west), located on the delta of the Amu Darya on the southern shores of the Aral Sea. Various forms of khwar/khar/khor/hor are commonly used also in the Persian Gulf to stand for tidal flats, marshland, or tidal bays (e.g., Khor Musa, Khor Abdallah, Hor al-Azim, Hor al-Himar, etc.)….The name also appears in Achaemenid inscriptions as Huvarazmish, which is declared to be part of the Persian Empire…..Some of the early scholars believed Khwarezm to be what ancient Avestic texts refer to as Airyanem Vaejah ("Ariyaneh Waeje"; later Middle Persian Iran vij)…. These sources claim that Old Urgench, which was the capital of ancient Khwarezm for many years, was actually Ourva, the eighth land of Ahura Mazda mentioned in the Pahlavi text of Vendidad….However, Michael Witzel, a researcher in early Indo-European history, believes that Airyanem Vaejah was located in what is now Afghanistan, the northern areas of which were a part of ancient Khwarezm and Greater Khorasan….. Others, however, disagree. University of Hawaii historian Elton L. Daniel believes Khwarezm to be the "most likely locale" corresponding to the original home of the Avestan people, and Dehkhoda calls Khwarezm "مهد قوم آریا" ("the cradle of the Aryan tribe")."…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khwarezm
"According to some Tibetan sources, Emperor Tri Songdetsen launched a campaign against the Bhata Hor (Bha-ta Hor) in the Lake Baikal region in order to bring the protector Pehar (Pe-har) to Tibet. [The Bhata Hor refer to the Uighur Turks of the Orkhon Uighur Empire (745 – 840). That empire included Mongolia and the Lake Baikal region of southern Siberia, north of Mongolia. Pehar (Pe-har) refers to a group of five protector spirits, known as the Five Bodily Manifest Kings (rGyal-po sKu-lnga), or to just one of them, the King of Enlightening Influence (‘Phrin-las rgyal-po). With his special powers, Padmasambhava foresaw that Pehar would be the appropriate spiritual protector for Tibet. …….http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/e-books/unpublished_manuscripts/survey_tibetan_history/chapter_1.html
"….historical records indicate that the present Uyghurs were formed by admixture between Tocharians from the west and Orkhon Uyghurs (Wugusi-Huihu, according to present Chinese pronunciation) from the east in the 8th century CE…..The earliest Uyghur written language was in the runic Orkhon script. After the Uyghurs moved into the Qocho/Turfan area, the Uyghurs adapted the Sogdian alphabet, writing it vertically and this system came to be known as the Old Uyghur alphabet. "…..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people
"….Discovery of well-preserved Tarim mummies of a people European in appearance indicates the migration of an Indo-European people into the Tarim area at the beginning of the Bronze age around 2,000 BCE. These people probably spoke Tocharian, and were suggested by some to be the Yuezhi mentioned in ancient Chinese text.….Uyghur nationalists claimed these mummies to be of Uyghur origin, based partly on a word, which they argued to be Uyghur, found in written scripts associated with these mummies, although other linguists suggest it to be a Sogdian word later absorbed into Uyghur…..Later migrations brought peoples from the west and northwest to the Xinjiang region, probably speakers of various Iranian languages such as the Saka tribes."…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uyghur_people
"Another set of deities are the White Old Man, a sky god, and his consort. They are known by a few different names, such as "Pe-Har" and "bDud-gza’-smin-dkar." Pe-har is featured as a protecting deity of Zhanzhung, the center of the Bon religion. Reportedly, Pe-har is related to celestial heavens and the sky in general. In early Lamaist times, Pe-Har transmogrified into a shamanic bird to adapt to the bird motifs of shamanism. Pe-har’s consort is a female deity known by one of her names as bDud-gza’-smin-dkar" (Stein 1954 in Hummel 1962)….Hummel, Siegbert 1962 "PE-HAR." East and West 13(4):313-316
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"Pehar was Uigur in origin -- the yidam of the Hor tribal people. in origin… the Protector Pehar, a deity of the Horpas, who lived to the east of (Lake) Kokonor. According to tradition, he is held to have been originally brought to Samye Monastery by Padmasambhava who bound him to protect the dharma. An alternative story is that he was brought back by a Bon general, Tara Lugong, who took possession of the meditation school near Kanchow of the Bhaţa Hor, a tribe of Uighurs, about the end of the 8th century CE. Pehar was regarded as the guardian deity of the treasures of Samye Monastery and, later, as the 'protector of religion'…..During the time of Lobsang Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama (r. 1642-1682), Pehar was first moved from Samye to Tse Gugtang and then to the present site of Nechung Monastery."….http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Nechung
"Deity King Pehar in absolute sense is an emanation of the five Buddhas and in ordinary (common) sense appears as a Deity, Protector Pehar. Here is his history: Many eons, many kalpas ago he was born as the King Damaraja of Asura country.
"The Tibetan state oracle…. In earlier times he reigned as war god of the Hor Mongols. According to the sagas, this wild tribe was counted among the bitterest opponents of the pre-Buddhist Tibetans and their national hero, Gesar of Ling."…..http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/dalai_lama/Part-2-07.htm
"Papas writes that Stag-gzig, 'the mythical region of the origin of Bon-po,' was often conflated with 'Ol-mo-lung-ring, which modern scholars locate somewhere between northern Persia and Tibet's western borders.'it refers apparently...to the Persian-speaking part of Central Asia, that is, the land of the Tajiks according to Islamic sources, including present-day Tajikistan and Southern Uzbekistan, more precisely the Bukhara and the Samarkand areas. Apart from the question of the origin of Bon-po, one can perceive the name Stag-gzig/Tajik as a memory, in Tibetan culture, of its Central Asian roots.'…..Papas, Alexandre (2011…p. 268). "So Close to Samarkand, Lhasa: Sufi Hagiographies, Founder Lhasa and Sacred Space". In Akasoy, Anna; Burnett, Charles; Yoeli-Tlalim, Ronit. Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Ltd. pp. 261–280. ISBN 978-0-7546-6956-2. Retrieved 14 July 2011.
"…For many centuries, the Orkhon Valley was viewed as the seat of the imperial power of the steppes. The first evidence comes from a stone stele with runic inscriptions, which was erected in the valley by Bilge Khan, an 8th-century ruler of the Göktürk Empire. Some 25 miles to the north of the stele, in the shadow of the sacred forest-mountain Ötüken, was his Ördü, or nomadic capital. During the Qidan domination of the valley, the stele was reinscribed in three languages, so as to record the deeds of a Qidan potentate……Mountains were considered sacred in Tengriism as an axis mundi, but Ötüken was especially sacred because the ancestor spirits of the khagans and beys resided here. Moreover, a force called qut was believed to emanate from this mountain, granting the khagan the divine right to rule the Turkic tribes. Whoever controlled this valley was considered heavenly appointed leader of the Turks and could rally the tribes. Thus control of the Orkhon Valley was of the utmost strategic importance for every Turkic state. Historically every Turkic capital (Ördü) was located here for this exact reason. There were many houses by the bank but they are all gone now."….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orkhon_Valley
"The Gesar legends vary according to the cultural tradition of the devotee. In the Bon tradition, Gesar is sent by Shenlha Okar. A Mongolian reference links Gesar and Shakyamuni. For some other Buddhists, he is an emissary of the Wisdom Kings of Shambhala, and for many Nyingmapas he is considered an emanation of Padmasambhava.
The name, Gesar, is evocative of the Latin Caesar, from which we get the German Kaiser, and also the Russian word for "king," Tsar.) Noted mythologist Joseph Campbell (1968, 107) also had this impression, but pointed out that, although some think the Gesar material refers to "the glories that were Rome," there is also a commonality in the pre-Islamic Persian word for "sovereignty" which is sahr
(http://www.khandro.net/langnlit_Gesar.htm)
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Some Gesar accounts speak of a Bactrian ruler Phrom-kesar, specifically in the Turkish dynasty in Gandhāra, which was ruled by a Turkish Phrom-kesar ("Caesar of Rome"), who was father-in-law of the king of Khotan, around the middle of the 8th.century CE.
Some 40 Uyghur singers of long rhymed tales that extol heroes in the Turkic tradition—known as dastan in Uyghur and Persian, destansı in Turkish and dasitan (达斯坦) in Chinese—gathered recently in Hami (哈密) for an event that featured seminars and actual performances... “The Shepherd's Dream”: An Excerpt from Alai's “King Gesar” .....(http://www.bruce-humes.com/?p=7028)
HOR..."Hor gling denoted the region north of eastern Tibet in what is now Xinjiang Uighur."..."Hor and Phrom, (Turks and Tartars) north of Tibet. The land of Phrom Gesar of the North." (Stein: 1972..pg 41)..."Hor: where live the Uighurs. Near the Tarim River."...."Hor and Phrom, Turks and Tartars".(Stein: 1972..pg 41)...(80E) ...(See: Hermann: Historical Atlas of China)
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
John Hopkins.....Northern New Mexico….December 2013
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