Yagnobi Sogdian, Ancient Tagzig and the Yaghnob Valley

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"The country of Olmo Lungring where Tonpa Shenrab descended from the celestial spheres and took up incarnation among human beings as an Iranian prince. The mysterious land of Olmo Lungring (`ol-mo lung-rings) or Olmoling (`ol-mo`i gling) is said to be part of a larger geographical region to the northwest of Tibet called Tazig (stag-gzig, var. rtag-gzigs), which scholars identify with Iran or, more properly, Central Asia where in ancient times Iranian languages such as Avestan and later Sogdian were spoken. According to the “gZer-mig” the traditional etymology of the name Olmo Lungring is as follows: “`ol” means “unborn”, “mo” “undermined”, “lung” “the prophetic words of Shenrab”, and “rings” “everlasting compassion”. According to the “gZi-brjid”, Olmo Lungring was also known as Shambhala in Sanskrit and it continues to be known by this name among Tibetan Buddhists even today. Moreover, it is said that in ancient times it encompassed fully one-third of the known world a statement which could apply to the historical Persian empire."..... OLMO LUNG-RING: THE IMPERISHABLE SACRED LAND.....by Vajranatha......http://www.surajamrita.com/bon/Shambala.html

"The Sogdian language was an Eastern Iranian language spoken in the Central Asian region of Sogdiana, located in modern-day Uzbekistan and Tajikistan (capital: Samarkand; other chief cities: Panjakent, Fergana, Khujand and Bukhara). Sogdian is one of the most important Middle Iranian languages, along with Bactrian, Khotanese Saka, Middle Persian and Parthian. It possesses a large literary corpus. The language is usually assigned to a Northeastern group of the Iranian languages, although this is an areal rather than genetic group. No direct evidence of an earlier version of the language ("Old Sogdian") has been found, although mention of the area in the Old Persian inscriptions means that a separate and recognisable Sogdiana existed at least since the Achaemenid era (559-323 BC)......Like Khotanese, Sogdian possesses a more conservative grammar and morphology than Middle Persian. The modern Eastern Iranian language Yaghnobi is the descendant of a dialect of Sogdian spoken around the 8th century in Ustrashana, a region to the south of Sogdiana."

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"The economic and political importance of Sogdian guaranteed its survival in the first few centuries after the Islamic conquest of Sogdiana in the early eighth century AD. A dialect of Sogdian spoken around the 8th century in Ustrashana (capital: Bunjikat, near present-day Istaravshan, Tajikistan), a region to the south of Sogdiana, developed into Yaghnobi language and has survived into the 21st century. It is spoken by the Yaghnobi people."

"The Yaghnobi, who have inhabited the high mountain valley of Yaghnob in west-central Tajikistan for centuries, have been identified as descendants of the ancient Sogdians. The kingdom of Sogdiana existed from before the sixth century BC until the Arab conquests of the eighth century AD..... The region to the south of Sogdiana, Ustashana (also called Sorushna) was also populated by Sogdian speaking people (Negmatov, 1999). Its capital, Bunjikat, was near present day Istravshan in northwest Tajikistan (Bosworth, 2005). The dialect of Sogdian spoken in Ustrashana in the eighth century has been identified through lexical and phonological similarities as the language from which modern Yaghnobi has descended.....https://yaghnobi.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/history-of-the-yaghnobi-people/#more-106

"After the Sogdians were defeated by Arab invaders at the battle of Mount Mugh in 722 AD, many of them fled Arab domination to live in the high mountain valleys (Whitfeld, 2005). According to Belyakov (2003) the village of Pskon in the Yaghnob valley became a de facto capital for the Sogdian refugees. It appears that the Sogdian refugees remained fairly isolated from outside authority and influence, although significant numbers were subject to forced conversion to Islam. Eventually all of the Yaghnobi adopted Islam, but they also retained Zoroastrian beliefs which continue to be a part of their religious practice (Gunya, 2002)....During 1970 and 1971 the Soviet authorities forcibly deported the entire population of the Yaghnob valley to the cotton plantations in the area of Zafarbod."........https://yaghnobi.wordpress.com/2007/10/15/history-of-the-yaghnobi-people/#more-106

"MUGH, MOUNT (Kuh-e moḡ ‘Magus Mount’), site of the 7th-8th-century refuge of the rulers of Penjikent in Sogdiana, where an important archive of documents written in Sogdian was discovered in 1930s. The castle was built on a mound overlooking the confluence of the Zerafshan (Zarafšān) and the Qom rivers, at a height of 1500 m above the sea level and 150 m above the running waters. Its location is some 120 km east of Samarkand and 60 km east of Penjikent. It consisted of a walled structure rectangular in shape and surrounding a courtyard, and a two-story building upon a platform in its northeastern corner...The famous archives consisting of seventy-four documents in Sogdian, one in Arabic, one Turkish runic script, and several in Chinese are now preserved in the St. Petersburg branch of the Oriental Institute of the Russian academy.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/mugh-mount

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"Some of the Sogdian traders who plied their trade along the Silk Roads between China and Asia Minor and even resided in China, came from the Yagnobi region of Sugd. The Yagnobi Sogdians have special links to Zoroastrianism. They left behind a legacy including Avestan texts written in Yagnobi Sogdian..... Even today, names like Rustam, a legendary Aryan / Iranian name, are common among the Yagnobi. The Yagnobi language spoken today is a dialect of the ancient Sogdian language which died out some time after the 10th century AD. ".....http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/tajikistan/page2.htm

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"Sugd / Sogdiana - Tajikistan Region.....The land of ancient Sughdha (Sugd) and its Zerafshan River valley, straddles the border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Sughdha is the second nation mentioned in the Avestan Vendidad.......In Tajikistan, the ancient land of Sughdha form present day Sugd (Sughd) province. Sugd province includes the Yagnobi river valley as well as the Fergana / Syr Darya valley in the north. "......http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/tajikistan/page2.htm

The Sogdian site of Bunjikath near Shakhristan, was the 8th-century capital of the kingdom of Ushrushana.....Bunjikath....(Ancient Penjikent)......Built in the 5th century on the banks of the Zerevshan River, it was abandoned in the 8th. The city was built by the Sogdians and was the capital of Panch and its rulers. Most of the antiquities are now in The Hermitage in St Petersburg......The Principality of Ushrusana (also spelled Usrushana and Osrushana) was a local Iranian dynasty of Sogdian origin, which ruled the Ushrusana region from an unknown date to 892 AD......

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

April 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Anahita & Artaxerxes II (Persia: 404-359 BC)

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"The earliest dateable and unambiguous reference to the iconic cult of Anahita is from the Babylonian scholar-priest Berosus, who – although writing over 70 years[η] after the reign of Artaxerxes II Mnemon[θ] – records that the emperor had been the first to make cult statues of Aphrodite Anaitis and place them in the temples of many of the empire's major cities, including Babylon, Susa, Ecbatana, Persepolis, Damascus and Sardis.[c1] Also according to Berosus, the Persians knew of no images of gods until Artaxerxes II erected those images.[c1][λ] This is substantiated by Herodotus, whose mid-5th-century-BCE general remarks on the usages of the Perses, Herodotus notes that "it is not their custom to make and set up statues and images and altars, and those that make such they deem foolish, as I suppose, because they never believed the gods, as do the Greeks, to be the likeness of men.".....Boyce, Mary (1975), "On the Zoroastrian Temple Cult of Fire", Journal of the American Oriental Society

The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia by Esther Jacobson....In her book “The Deer Goddess of Ancient Siberia: A Study in the Ecology of Belief,” Esther Jacobson writes that it has been suggested goddess Anahita “must have been purely Iranian in origin, since her name is not attested to in Indo-Iranian texts...",,,,.The Official Site of Sheda Vasseghi Page Liked · January 8 · Edited ·

"Artaxerxes II Mnemon ....... King of Persia from 404 BC until his death in 358 BC. He was a son of Darius II of Persia and Parysatis..... Artaxerxes II is said to have more than 115 sons from 350 wives......Much of Artaxerxes's wealth was spent on building projects. He restored the palace of Darius I at Susa, and also the fortifications; including a strong redoubt at the southeast corner of the enclosure and gave Ecbatana a new apadana and sculptures. He seems not to have built much at Persepolis.....In 386 BCE, Artaxerxes II betrayed his allies and came to an arrangement with Sparta, and in the Treaty of Antalcidas he forced his erstwhile allies to come to terms. This treaty restored control of the Greek cities of Ionia and Aeolis on the Anatolian coast to the Persians, while giving Sparta dominance on the Greek mainland. In 385 BCE he campaigned against the Cadusians.....Although successful against the Greeks, Artaxerxes had more trouble with the Egyptians,".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artaxerxes_II_of_Persia

"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, which boarders to the north, the river Oxus and the former USSR.....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 the needy Syrian kings who sat out to plunder it. In her name and honor, in Armenia, girls prostituted themselves. 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. Her association with Zoroaster adds to her popularity".....History of Balkh (Bactria)....By: Ramin Javid-Moshref....http://www.iranchamber.com/geography/articles/balkh.php

"Artaxerxes II's devotion to Anahita is most apparent in his inscriptions, where her name appears directly after that of Ahura Mazda and before that of Mithra. Artaxerxes' inscription at Susa reads: "By the will of Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra I built this palace. May Ahura Mazda, Anahita, and Mithra protect me from all evil" (A²Hc 15–10). This is a remarkable break with tradition; no Achaemenid king before him had invoked any but Ahura Mazda alone by name although the Behistun inscription of Darius invokes Ahuramazda and "The other gods who are"......The temple(s) of Anahita at Ecbatana (Hamadan) in Medea must have once been the most glorious sanctuaries in the known world.[π][c2] Although the palace had been stripped by Alexander and the following Seleucid kings,[c3] when Antiochus III raided Ecbatana in 209 BCE, the temple "had the columns round it still gilded and a number of silver tiles were piled up in it, while a few gold bricks and a considerable quantity of silver ones remained." ".....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anahita

"Artaxerxes II, (flourished late 5th and early 4th centuries bc), Achaemenid king of Persia (reigned 404–359/358)......He was the son and successor of Darius II and was surnamed (in Greek) Mnemon, meaning “the mindful.” When Artaxerxes took the Persian throne, the power of Athens had been broken in the Peloponnesian War (431–404), and the Greek towns across the Aegean Sea in Ionia were again subjects of the Achaemenid Empire. In 404, however, Artaxerxes lost Egypt, and in the following year his brother Cyrus the Younger began preparations for his rebellion. Although Cyrus was defeated and killed at Cunaxa (401), the rebellion had dangerous repercussions, for it not only demonstrated the superiority of the Greek hoplites used by Cyrus but also led the Greeks to believe that Persia was vulnerable.".......http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36748/Artaxerxes-II

"Under Artaxerxes an important change occurred in the Persian religion. The Persians apparently did not worship images of the gods until Artaxerxes set up statues of the goddess Anāhitā in various large cities. Inscriptions by all former kings named only Ahura Mazdā, but those of Artaxerxes also invoked Anāhitā and Mithra, two deities of the old popular Iranian religion that had been neglected."........http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/36748/Artaxerxes-II

"Further evidence for this king’s building activities, with which the inscriptions are chiefly concerned, is found in the several inscriptions at Hamadān, ancient Ecbatana....It is notable that Artaxerxes in his inscription invokes Mithra and Anāhitā as well as Ahura Mazdā. This agrees with Berossus’ remark.....that under Artaxerxes II, idols (especially those of Anaitis) were introduced for worship throughout the empire.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/artaxerxes-ii-achaemenid-king

"Artaxerxes.....(died 359 B.C.E.)......By Plutarch.....Written 75 A.C.E.......Translated by John Dryden.......The first Artaxerxes, among all the kings of Persia the most remarkable for a gentle and noble spirit, was surnamed the Long-handed, his right hand being longer than his left, and was the son of Xerxes. The second, whose story I am now writing, who had the surname of the Mindful, was the grandson of the former, by his daughter Parysatis, who brought Darius four sons, the eldest Artaxerxes, the next Cyrus, and two younger than these, Ostanes and Oxathres. Cyrus took his name of the ancient Cyrus, as he, they say, had his from the sun, which, in the Persian language, is called Cyrus.......http://classics.mit.edu/Plutarch/artaxerx.html

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"The Achaemenid Empire (c. 550–330 BC), also called the First Persian Empire or Medo-Persian Empire, was an empire based in Western Asia in Iran, founded in the 6th century BC by Cyrus the Great. The dynasty draws its name from a hypothetical king Achaemenes, who would have ruled the Persis region between 705 BCE and 675 BCE. The empire expanded to eventually rule over significant portions of the ancient world, which at around 500 BCE stretched from parts of the Balkans (Bulgaria) and Thrace-Macedonia in the west, to the Indus valley in the east......The historical mark of the Achaemenid Empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well. Many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their daily lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange, some being employed by, or allied to the Persian kings. The impact of Cyrus the Great's Edict of Restoration is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts and the empire was instrumental in the spread of Zoroastrianism as far east as China. Even Alexander the Great adopted some of its customs, venerating the Persian kings including Cyrus the Great, and receiving proskynesis as they did, despite Macedonian disapproval"..... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achaemenid_Empire

"What is the etymology of the Persian word for "sun"?.......the origins of the Persian (specifically Farsi) word خورشید (khorshid)?...... it doesn't seem to be an Indo-European (or Turkic or Semitic, for that matter) word. I know that Persian also uses a cognate to the Hindi word आफ़ताब (aaftaab, which I assume originally came from Persian), and that Офтоб (aftab) is more common in Tajik, but even in other Indo-Iranian languages such as Kurdish (which has a cognate to aftab), and the Indo-Aryan languages of South Asia, خورشید isn't reflected......Where did this word come from?......Best Answer: khorshid ("the Sun" from Avestan hvarə-xšaēta "radiant Sun")......Further research turns up that "hvarə" is cognate with Vedic Sanskrit "súvar" where the connection to Proto-Indo-European *sāwel- is self-evident. ".....https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110218210127AAIP8uc

"Cyrus, as a word in English, is the Latinized form of the Greek Κῦρος, Kȳros, from Old Persian 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 Kūruš. According to the inscriptions the name is reflected in Elamite Kuraš, Babylonian Ku(r)-raš/-ra-áš and Imperial Aramaic kwrš. The modern Persian form of the name is Kourosh.....The etymology of Cyrus has been and continues to be a topic of discussion amongst historians, linguists, and scholars of Iranology. The Old Persian name "kuruš" has been interpreted in various forms from "the sun", "like sun", "young", "hero" to "humiliator of the enemy in verbal contest" and the Elamite "kuraš" has been translated as one "who bestows care".".....Schmitt, Rüdiger (1996a), "Cyrus i. The Name", in Yarshater, Ehsan, Encyclopaedia Iranica 6, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, pp. 515–16

"The Aryans and the Iranians of Bactria, had a lot in common. They spoke the same language, worshiped the forces of nature, such as: Varuna, the shining Vault of Heaven; Mithra, the friendly light of the sun; Vayu; the wind that pushes aside the storms and clears the heaven; Yama, the primeval man, reigning over the blessed souls in paradise. The powers of nature, to them, were the signs of something far more deeply interfused. In their ceremonies they also drunk the sacred Juice, Soma. These two races slowly drifted apart as time went on, for not known reasons. Although the history of early Bactria is vague, the historians gather that as early as the second millennium BC, a powerful confederacy, centered in Bactria existed in South Central Asia. The confederacy was created to survive the influences of powerful neighbors such as the Persians, the Medes and the non-Aryans (An-Iranian)."......http://www.iranchamber.com/geography/articles/balkh.php

"Russian-French archaeologist Roman Ghirshman notes in his 1962 book entitled “Persian Art” that during the Iranian Parthian Empire under the Arsacids (247 BCE – 224 CE) from among the Iranian trinity -- Ahura Mazda, Mithra, and Anahita -- "the cult of Anahita took the lead. All the Iranian temples mentioned in the historical texts were dedicated to her."....Roman Ghirshman (1895 – 1979) was a Russian-born French archeologist who specialized in ancient Iran. He was mainly interested in the archeological ruins of Iran, specifically Teppe Gian, Teppe Sialk, Bagram in Afghanistan, Bishapur in Fars, and Susa."

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

April 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Ziji: Chapter 30......Prince Trishang of Tazik

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"The subject of the Four Transcendent Lords is described in detail in chapter 30 of the Ziji (gZi brid) with the story of the death of Prince Trishang of Tazik. The Four Lords are the principal deities in the funeral ritual for the prince....."........http://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=51

"...in the text (p. 961), he tells us how to get to Stag-gzig (=Ta-zig) country. Starting from Ladakh you travel a great distance, and in the northwest is Mo-ta-na, a part of Du-ru-ka. To the south of Mo-ta-na is Thod-dkar country, and outside of (or ‘beyond’) Thod-dkar is Ta-zig or Stag-gzig country. (Note: This does seem to place Stag-gzig in the northern part of present Afghanistan and Pakistan".......https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

"...If we follow the scheme of the Eighteen Great Countries, and assume that ’Ol-mo-lung-ring is, as many later sources say, in some way identical with Stag-gzig, we see that Stag-gzig is to the west of Tibet, and is bordered by the smaller areas of Gilgit and Yavana (Bactria). This would point to an area stretching from present-day north Pakistan to Takhar (equivalent to Tibetan Tho-gar, which shouldn’t be confused with the Thod-dkar which borders China, although both names seem to come from a single ethnonym, and are in fact occasionally confused in Bon sources) in northeastern Afghanistan, and possibly including areas still further to the south."....https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

".... ’Ol-mo-lung-ring is located to the northwest of western Tibet (where Ti-tse/Ti-se is) and rather to the north of a mysterious country called Dmu (Persia, perhaps?). It is cut by both the Nine Dark Mountains (on which, more soon) and the rivers Pag-shu and Si-ti, which we might very well identify as the Oxus (Vakṣu) and Sitā ....rivers. Here we seem to be dealing with an area that stretches from the Badakhshan in northeastern Afghanistan, circling (to the right or the left of) the Pamirs, and touching on, but not actually including, the Tarim Basin."........https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

"... the Mdo-’dus says that ’Ol-mo-lung-ring is cut by the rivers Pakshu (Oxus) and Si-ta .......".......https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

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The Tibetan texts "Ziji" (gZi brid) and "Zermig" (gZer mig)(Piercing Eye)...... Two biographies of Shenrab Miwo (Mibo)

"The work of Shenrap still exists in Tibet in the form of 400 volumes, but it has undergone heavy Buddhist editing." ......... (Trungpa: Shen = divine,heavenly,ally..... Rap = Supreme One.... Miwo = Great Man)......(Chogyam Trungpa: 1978..pg 220)

"... the teachings of Yungdrung Bon did not solely originate in Zhang-zhung, but were said to have been brought from Tazik, that is, Iranian speaking Central Asia......Shenrab Miwoche..... incarnated as a human being in the country of Olmo Lung-ring ..... in Tazik or Central Asia. In this mysterious land at the center of the world, which was in later Indo-Iranian tradition identified with Shambhala..."....Ancient Tibetan Bonpo Shamanism ....John Myrdhin Reynolds, aka Vajranatha......http://vajranatha.com/articles/traditions/bonpo.html?showall=1

" ....all the various sources we have brought forward point to a location for ’Ol-mo-lung-ring not precisely in Persia, but in the lands between northern Persia and the (changing) western borders of Tibet."..... ...https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

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"...This Bon historical-geographical work would make a fascinating study in its own right, but here we will limit ourselves to what it has to say relevant to ’Ol-mo-lung-ring and the three Zhang-zhungs. It says (p. 945) that Innermost Zhang-zhung is more than three months journey to the west of Mount Ti-se, close to Me-sag-gi Par-sig (?some part of Persia, evidently) and the area which includes Badakhshan (Bha-dag-shan) and Balkh (Bha-lag). ".....https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

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".....On the tomb of Cyrus and Pasargadae.......viewed from an aerial perspective, the tomb of Cyrus really does look quite a bit like the map of ’Ol-mo-lung-ring. .......https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

Bsod-nams-don-grub, “Stag-gzig dang Gna’-rabs Bod-kyi ’Brel-ba’i Skor la Dpyad-pa” (‘Investigation into the Ancient Historical Connections between Persia and Tibet’), Bod-ljongs Zhib-’jug, 3rd issue for the year 1992, pp. 25-34.

"Many modern Tibetan nationalists, both inside and outside Tibet, strongly reject, or simply ignore, the idea of Bon’s extra-Tibetan origins, since this doesn’t fit well with the uses they want to make of Bon. "....https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

"There is another earlier Chos story, starting with the history by Nyang-ral at the end of the 12th century, that at least one kind of Bon (Nyang-ral calls it ‘outbreak Bon of the sky’) had its Tibetan origins with a teacher who came from a place to the west of Tibet (a place he locates on ‘this’ side of O-rgyan, and the other side of Kashmir, thus seeming to place it in the present-day Buner valley, while other later Chos sources locate it either in Stag-gzig or in between Sog-po and Stag-gzig, making for a rather complicated discussion that will not be pursued further here) in the time of Dri-gum-btsan-po, and although quite evidently polemically motivated, a number of centuries later than the events described, and not portraying the geography in the same way as Bon sources, this sort of statement might at the very least be taken as an outside source of verification, however hostile it may be, of the nearly universal account of Bon’s extra-Tibetan origins held by Bon historians of the past. Even the nineteenth-century guide to Mt. Ti-se by the Bonpo Dkar-ru Grub-dbang, who was born (in 1801) in the vicinity of that mountain, and evinces in his book very little interest in ’Ol-mo-lung-ring, nevertheless says that Lord Shenrab came to Mt. Ti-se from ’Ol-mo-lung-ring in Stag-gzig and subsequently returned there (Norbu & Prats 1989: 42-53).".........’Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place.....by Dan Martin....https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

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"....Buner District (Pashto: د بونیر ولسوالی‎) is a district of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan.....Buner which until 1969 was part of Swat.....It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into four sub-divisions. The Mora Hills and the Ilam range divide it from the Swat Valley, the Sinawar range from Yusafzai, the Guru mountains from the MARDAN valley, and the Duma range from the Puran Valley.......

’Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place.....by Dan Martin....https://sites.google.com/site/tibetological/-ol-mo-lung-ring#_ednref24

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

April 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Tadzhik, Tadjik, Tajik...Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring

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"Tajik is occasionally written as Tadzhik or Tadjik, a transcription of the Russian spelling."

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"Tajik, also spelled Tadzhik, sometimes called (before the 20th century) Sart, the original Persian-speaking population of Afghanistan and Turkistan. The Tajiks constitute almost four-fifths of the population of Tajikistan. In the early 21st century there were more than 5,200,000 Tajiks in Tajikistan and more than 1,000,000 in Uzbekistan. There were about 5,000,000 in Afghanistan, where they constituted about one-fifth of the population. Another 40,000 lived in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang in China......The name Tajik refers to the traditionally sedentary people who speak a form of Persian called Tajik in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan and who speak the modern Persian language in Afghanistan."

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"Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is a non-dual spiritual realm (plane or dimension) of the Bon tradition which resides beyond dualism. It is understood to be a timeless perfected realm where peace and joy are the very fabric of being. This country-name rTa-gzig is believed to be a form of the name Tajik; while the Ol-mo-lung-ring is believed to be a form of the name of the city Olmaliq (now reckoned as being within Uzbekistan, but formerly included within Tajikistan)."

"The Tajiks were the heirs and transmitters of the Central Asian sedentary culture that diffused in prehistoric times from the Iranian plateau into an area extending roughly from the Caspian Sea to the borders of China. They built villages of flat-roofed mud or stone houses and cultivated irrigated fields of wheat, barley, and millet. Their gardens were famous for melons and a variety of fruits. Their crafts were highly developed, and their towns along the caravan routes linking Persia, China, and India were centres of trade. Turks subsequently migrated westward into the area inhabited by the Tajiks. The latter became Turkicized in their culture, though many retained their Iranian language......http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/581024/Tajik

"Mount Garmo (Tajik: Қуллаи Гармо, Qullai Garmo, Russian: пик Гармо, pik Garmo) is a mountain of the Pamirs in Tajikistan, Central Asia, with a height reported to be between 6,595 metres and 6,602 metres....Formerly in the Soviet Union, Garmo forms part of the Akademiya Nauk Range....A Russian expedition to the region in 1928 made the first ascent of Lenin Peak and also measured the height of what is now officially called Ismoil Somoni Peak, which may have been mistakenly identified with Garmo although it lies some sixteen kilometres to the north of the present Garmo."

"The Beyul realm of Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is fabled to be located to the west of Mount Kailash and shaped like an eight-petaled lotus and divided into four regions: inner, middle, outer and boundary area. The sky of this realm is likened to an eight-spoked wheel (refer Dharmachakra) and the land itself is fragrant and coloured by beautiful flora and landscaping, chorten and snow-capped mountains.......Central to Tagzig Olmo Lung Ring is Yungdrung Gutsek, a pyramidal-shaped mountain serving as axis mundi with nine Yungdrungs....(sauwastika) ascending like a staircase evocative of the Nine Ways (or stages) of Bon. The four faces of the pyramidal mountain, face the four cardinal directions. At the corner-joints of Yungdrung Gutsek (cross-quarter directions) four rivers flow from simulacra of archetypal thoughtforms:
from the simulacrum of a snowlion the river Narazara flows from the East;
from the simulacrum of a horse the river Pakshi flows from the North;
from the simulacrum of a peacock the river Gyim Shang flows from the West; and
from the simulacrum of an elephant the river Sindhu flows from the South.
...Geshe Nyima Dakpa Rinpoche (2006). Opening the Door to Bon. Snow Lion Publications.

"Olmaliq also spelled as Almalyk (Uzbek: Olmaliq / Олмалиқ; Russian: Алмалык) is a city (2004 pop est 138,000) in the Tashkent Province of central Uzbekistan, approximately 65 km east of Tashkent. It is located at latitude 40° 50' 41N; longitude 69° 35' 54E; at an altitude of 585 meters.

"Tajik (Persian: تاجيك‎, also Romanized as Tājīk) is a village in Jeyransu Rural District, in the Central District of Maneh and Samalqan County, North Khorasan Province, Iran....Khorasan (Persian: استان خراسان‎ ).... (also transcribed as Khurasan and Khorassan, also called Traxiane during Hellenistic and Parthian times) was a province in north eastern Iran, but historically referred to a much larger area east and north-east of the Persian Empire. The name Khorasan is Persian and means "where the sun arrives from." The name was given to the eastern province of Persia during the Sassanid Empire."...The older Persian province of Khorasan included parts which are today in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Some of the main historical cities of Persia are located in the older Khorasan: Nishapur and Tus (now in Iran), Merv and Sanjan (now in Turkmenistan), Samarkand and Bukhara (both now in Uzbekistan), Herat and Balkh (now in Afghanistan), Khujand and Panjakent (now in Tajikistan). In its long history, Khorasan knew many conquerors and empires: Greeks, Mauryans, Arabs, Seljuk Turks, Safavids, Baloch, Pashtuns and others."

"The influence of the Buddhist art of Fondukistan, dated to the seventh and eighth centuries, is reflected in the contemporaneous art of northern Toḵārestān, exemplified by the murals and clay sculpture from the Buddhist monastery at Adzhina tepe, near Kurgan Tyube, in southern Tajikistan. The colossal image of a recumbent Buddha (originally 12 m) from this site, recalls the gigantic Buddha image of Bāmīān, noted by the Chinese pilgrim Hsüan tsang in the seventh century, and other large Buddha images uncovered in western Turkestan (from Krasnaya rechka near Frunze, Kuva in Ferghana [Farḡāna], and Marv).."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/art-in-iran-vi-pre-islamic-eastern-iran-and-central-asia

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The road from Ghazni to the valley of Band-e Amir and Yakaulang. (© Minoru Inaba).....http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase12?language=en

"FONDOQESTĀN......(FONDUKISTAN), early medieval settlement and Buddhist monastery in Afghanistan, in the province of Parvān (Parwan). The site is usually dated to the 7th century CE on the evidence of artistic style and numismatic finds, the oldest of which is from 689 C.E. However, the shape and the decorations of the stupa suggest that the complex can be even earlier. The site is situated in the Ḡūrband valley, five kilometers south of Sīāhgerd and 117 kilometers north-east of Kabul, at 34° 58′ N 68° 53′ E. It was named after a village located nearby....Unfortunately, no detailed description or documentation of the site has ever been published. The most important data about the installations is still unavailable; even the exact size of the structures is not known.".....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/fondoqestan-

"Adzhina Tepe - a hill located 12 km from the Tajik city of Kurgan-Tube.... the Buddhist sites further east at Adzhina Tepe near Kurgan-Tyube, at Kuva in Farghana and at Ak-Beshim near Frunze...Splendid Buddhist remains of the 7th-8th century A.D. have been dug up since 1959 in Adzhina-tepe (the "Devil's Mound", 12 km off Kurgan-Tyube) by Litvinskiy....The architecture and decoration of the monastery organically merged local traditions and ancient Tokharistan various Indian elements. International Organization UNESCO awarded Adzhina Tepe nominee status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site."

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"The Vakhsh River (Tajik: Вахш), also known as the Surkhob (in north-central Tajikistan) and the Kyzyl-Suu (in Kyrgyzstan), is a Central Asian river, and one of the main rivers of the nation of Tajikistan. It is a tributary of the Amu Darya (Oxus) river.....Intensive agriculture in the Vakhsh basin has left the river polluted with fertilizers, pesticides, and salts...Since the waters of the Vakhsh eventually flow into the Aral Sea, pollution in the Vakhsh contributes to eutrophication there....The Vakhsh is fed by the glaciers of the Pamirs, one of the world’s most susceptible regions to climate change. "

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

April 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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