The Pāratas & King Yolamira (125 AD)

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"The Pāratas, an Iranian people and ruling dynasty from what is now western Pakistan, are known essentially through their coinage, which typically exhibit the bust of a particular monarch on the obverse ( having long hair within a headband), and a swastika within a circular legend on the reverse in Kharoshthi (usually copper coins) and sometimes in Brahmi (usually silver coins). Coins depicting Pārata monarchs have been found in and around the district of Loralai, Balochistan, western Pakistan. This may have been their capital."

"The Pāratas in Classical & Historical sources.....Herodotus in c. 440 BC describes the Paraitakenoi as a tribe ruled by Deiokes, an Iranic monarch who ruled on eastern-most region of the Iranian plateau. (History I.101)......Arrian describes how Alexander the Great encountered the Pareitakai in Bactria and Sogdiana, and had them conquered by Craterus (Anabasis Alexandrou IV)......The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea (1st century CE) describes the territory of the Paradon beyond the Ommanitic region, on the coast of Balochistan."

Coin 1: Yolamira, silver drachm, early type.....c. 125-150 AD......Diademed bust right, dotted border /Swastika right, Brahmi legend ..... Yolamirasa Bagarevaputasa Pāratarāja ......(Of Yolamira, son of Bagareva, Pārata King).....The names Yolamira and Bagareva betray the Iranian origin of this dynasty. The suffix Mira refers to the Iranian deity Mithra. Yolamira means "Warrior Mithra." Bagareva means "rich God."

"The Pāratarājas are identified as such by their coins: two series of coins, one mostly in copper bearing legends in Kharoshthi and the other mostly in silver bearing legends in Brahmi. Among coins known so far, there has been no overlap between the two series, which appear to be quite separate from one another, despite commonalities of content. The notable feature of both series is that almost all of the coins bear the name ‘Pāratarāja’ as part of the legend, and they nearly always bear a swastika on the reverse (the exceptions being some very small fractions that seem to eliminate the swastika and/or the long legend, including the words ‘Pāratarāja’, for lack of space). The coins are very rare and, when found, are discovered almost exclusively in the Pakistani province of Baluchistan, reportedly mostly in the area of Loralai..."......NEW LIGHT ON THE PĀRATARĀJAS by PANKAJ TANDON.......http://people.bu.edu/ptandon/Paratarajas.pdf

"According to Bon tradition, the founder of the orthodox Bon doctrine was Tonpa Shenrab Miwoche of Tagzig...... some writers identify the region with Balkh/Bactria. The name Shenrab has an Iranian sound to it.....One of the most powerful and resonant words in pre-Buddhist Tibet was yungdrung (g.yung drung). It was a the key terms for the old royal religion, the mythological backdrop to the kingly lineage of the Tibetan Empire. For example, the inscription of the tomb of Trisong Detsen has the line: “In accord with the eternal (yungdrung) customs (tsuglag), the Emperor and Divine Son Trisong Detsen was made the ruler of men.” I discussed how to translate that term tsuglag in an earlier post. Here, as you no doubt noticed, I have translated yungdrung here as “eternal”. Eternity seems to be the general meaning of yungdrung in the early religion. In addition, the word was associated with the ancient Indo-European swastika design, which in Tibet was the graphic symbol of the eternal...what did the early Buddhist writers and translators do with this term? Many of them just attached it to the word “dharma” (i.e. Buddhism), no doubt in an attempt to transfer its prestige from the earlier religion to Buddhism. Thus we see “the eternal dharma” (g.yung drung chos) in many Dunhuang manuscripts.".....http://earlytibet.com/2008/04/30/buddhism-and-bon-iii-what-is-yungdrung/

"the Pāradas of the Mahabharata, the Puranas and other Indian sources........

"...coins of Yolamira is in itself a breakthrough, as this is one king for whom we have independent evidence. Konow reports on some pottery fragments from Tor Dherai in the Loralai district that carry an inscription relating to one Shahi Yolamira. Konow says the name Yolamira is not known to us. These coins, found in the same area, provide further evidence of the existence of this king, and can place him in some historical context.....Once again, the validity of this reading is buttressed by examining the meaning of the name. In Bactrian, the name Yola-mira means ‘warrior Mithra’....http://people.bu.edu/ptandon/Paratarajas.pdf

"...Of the Shahi Yola Mira, the master of the vihara, this water hall (is) the religious gift, in his own Yola-Mira-shahi-Vihara, to the order of the four quarters, in the acceptance of the Sarvastivadin teachers. And from this right donation may there be in future a share for (his) mother and father, in future a share for all beings and long life for the master of the law’ .......Sten Konow, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. II pt. I, pp. 173

"....As permanent monasteries became established, the name "Vihara" was kept. Some Viharas became extremely important institutions, some of them evolving into major Buddhist Universities with thousands of students, such as Nalanda."

"fixing the reign of this dynasty in the interior of Baluchistan during the second and perhaps the third centuries AD fills an important gap in the history of the region. Very little has hitherto been known of the politics of this area from the time of Alexander’s departure to the arrival of Islamic invaders in the early eighth century. Some historians have tended to assume that the Kushans must have held sway over this region, but that hypothesis does not appear to be correct, as the Pāratarājas appear to have been ruling precisely at the time when the Kushan empire was at its zenith...".......http://people.bu.edu/ptandon/Paratarajas.pdf

"Given Konow’s suggestion that Kanishka began the use of the term Shahi, a suggested date for the Pāratarājas would be around the middle of the second century, give or take a quarter century or so."........http://people.bu.edu/ptandon/Paratarajas.pdf

"The swastika mark is not encountered on Kushan coins, but it is an element on Kushanshah coins.."..http://www.academia.edu/2078818/The_Mint_Cities_of_the_Kushan_Empire

"The Kabul Shahi also called Shahiya dynasties ruled one of the Middle kingdoms of India which included portions of the Kabulistan and the old province of Gandhara (now in northern Pakistan), from the decline of the Kushan Empire in the 3rd century to the early 9th century. The kingdom was known as Kabul Shahi (Kabul-shāhān or Ratbél-shāhān in Persian کابلشاهان یا رتبیل شاهان) between 565 and 879 when they had Kapisa and Kabul as their capitals, and later as Hindu Shahi.....The Shahis of Kabul/Gandhara are generally divided into the two eras of the "Buddhist Shahis" and the "Hindu Shahis", with the change-over thought to have occurred sometime around 870 AD with the Arab conquest....."....Sehrai, Fidaullah (1979). Hund: The Forgotten City of Gandhara,

"The mountainous region of Central Asia comprising the eastern parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan and northwest India has always known war. Even now, the area, high in the Hindu Kush mountains, proves difficult to hold......In the sixth century C.E., the place was known as Gondhara, and nominally controlled by the Huns—a people famed for being great horsemen and even greater warriors. Some 200 years later, Gondhara was ruled by a succession of kings called the Hindu Shahi.....It was the Hindu Shahi kings who first minted these silver coins—a simple and elegant representation of the diversity of the region. On one side is the Hun soldier on horseback; on the reverse, the bull that is so sacred to the Hindus."....http://www2.educationalcoin.com/2012/12/21/bull-horse/

Charles Frederick Oldham The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-worship, 1905..Serpent worship; The Shahis of Afghanistan

"King standing facing, head turned to right, Brāhmi legend at left: Koziya....Koziya issued several differnt types of copper drachms, some of very fine style, such as this one. So Koziya must have risen to the throne as a teenager and probably had quite a long reign, given the wide variety of types he issued."....http://coinindia.com/galleries-parata-rajas.html

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July 2015

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Bactrian Bagolago, Devakula & Kushan Divine Kingship

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"Bagolago is a Bactrian term.....the Bagolago at Mat (Mathura)......equivalent Prakit term 'devakula' appears in the inscriptions....the Mat site is one of three certain complexes (others are Surkh Khotal and Rabat) which are part of the same sort of ritual activity....There may be many more similar sites....as many as eight sites.......There is no way for certain what a Bagolago was....The sites have several features in common. They are not public spaces...have an association with water...had erections of both Kings and Gods....unclear if the kings attended the gods or vice-versa......there served some dynastic purpose but terms such as 'dynastic shrine' or 'dynastic cult' may be too strong....the presence of the Bagolago at Mat emphasizes the importance of Mathura....Mathura was the capital of Surasena which the Kushans ruled....http://www.academia.edu/2078818/The_Mint_Cities_of_the_Kushan_Empire

" The meager remains of Bactrian so far described are usefully supplemented by some identifiable Bactrian loanwords in other, better-known languages. As well as words already attested in Bactrian (e.g., Pers, xidēv < Bactr. xoadēo “lord,” Kroraina Prakrit personal name Vaǵamareǵa < bago “god” plus marēgo “servant”) these include some new vocabulary".....bagolaggo [-ŋg] “temple”),..... most of the “Bactrian” legends are virtually identical in vocabulary and phraseology to their Pahlavi equivalents. A legend such as bago pirōzo oazarko košano šauo “Lord Pērōz, great Kušānšāh” may be compared with the Pahl.....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language

"..... 'devakula' in Mathura we will return to this type of site later. ..... the only Jain Stupa known from the period; and most important, the Bagolago at Mat."

Kula-Deva (Sanskrit) ......Domestic god

कुल ...kula: chief ...family ...inhabited country ...residence of a family ...seat of a community ...lineage [ family ] ...clan ...high station ...caste ...race ...noble or eminent family or race ...tribe

"Kanishka...........SHAR had many meanings in the ancient cultures of the Near East, it meant both celestial bodies and master. UONONKCHE, which can be also read as VONONTE, was the name of a number of historical personalities - for example the Parphian king Vonones, its successor Vonones, the second name or more exactly - the title of the conqueror of Bactria - the Kushan ruler Kanishka, called Uanando Bagolago. All names stem from the epithet Vanand ('victorious, presented with the grace of the Gods'), which is of very ancient origin with roots in the Sumero-Accadian and from there in the Sanskrit culture. Since the eastern Iranian languages replaced "o" with "a" (which is also characteristic to the modern Mundjan and Tadjik languages), in Old Parphian this epithet was pronounced as VONONES, while for the Kushans - as UANAND.. ".....http://ashrafonline.net/vb/showthread.php?p=316003

Канишки (Канишка) звучало Uanando Bagolago

نصف الأبجدية الهركليفية 14/28 اكتشفت من طرف العلماء العرب في ... ......The best example is a stamp of Tervel, where next to the face of the ruler are ... the conqueror of Bactria - the Kushan Ruler Kanishka, called Uanando Bagolago....http://ar.cyclopaedia.net/wiki/Kushan_Ruler

"Kanishka I (Sanskrit: कनिष्क; Bactrian: Κανηϸκι, Kaneshki; Middle Chinese: 迦腻色伽 (Ka-ni-sak-ka > New Chinese: Jianisejia), or Kanishka the Great, was the emperor of the Kushan dynasty in 127–151 AD.....famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements. A descendant of Kushan empire founder Kujula Kadphises, Kanishka came to rule an empire in Bactria extending from Turfan in the Tarim Basin to Pataliputra on the Gangetic plain during the Golden Age of the Kushanas. The main capital of his empire was located at Puruṣapura in Gandhara (Peshawar in present Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan), with two other major capitals at ancient Kapisa (present Bagram, Afghanistan) and Mathura, India. His conequests and patronage of Buddhism played an important role in the development of the Silk Road, and the transmission of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara across the Karakoram range to China."

Iranian/Indic phase.....Following the transition to the Bactrian language on coins, Iranian and Indic divinities replace the Greek ones: ΜΑΝΑΟΒΑΓΟ (manaobago, Vohu Manah ).......Vohu Manah is the Avestan language term for a Zoroastrian concept, generally translated as "Good Purpose" or "Good Mind" (cognate with Sanskrit vasu manas), referring to the good moral state of mind that enables an individual to accomplish his duties.

Surkh Kotal...... 36.03N, 68.55E......."That Surkh Kotal was a major site of direct importance to the Kushan dynasty is beyond doubt. It is the site of a bagolago, a dynastic shrine associated with the period from Wima Kadphises to Huvishka........http://www.kushan.org/sources/coin/sites.htm......Ball, 1982: no.1123 ....Ball, W (1982) Archaeological Gazetteer of Afghanistan, Catalogue des Sites Archaeologiques D'Afghanistan. 2 Volumes.

"The Rabatak inscription is an inscription written on a rock in the Bactrian language and the Greek script, which was found in 1993 at the site of Rabatak, near Surkh Kotal in Afghanistan. The inscription relates to the rule of the Kushan emperor Kanishka, and gives remarkable clues on the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty."

"Jamal Garhai is ancient Gandharan site located 13 kilometers from Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northern Pakistan. Jamal Garhi was a Buddhist monastery from the first until the fifth century AD at a time when Buddhism flourished.....The most remarkable find in Jamal Garhi is the circular stupa situated on high ground to the west of the main clump of edifices. The stupa is surrounded by a ring of cubicles that may have either served as shrines housing images of Buddha or prayer chambers for the devout. The superior stonework and symmetry of the stupa are notable..... The Central Asiatic Kushans, originally fire worshippers, had embraced Buddhism and followed their new faith with the customary zeal of recent converts. In fact, Huvishka’s predecessor, the great Kanishka, is commemorated to this day for his ardent pursuit of ordering some of the most monumental stupas ever to be raised...........http://odysseuslahori.blogspot.com/2014/10/Jamal-Garhi.html

"The Kushan empire emerged as one of the most powerful empire empire during first century A.D. in central Asia.....Kushanas had very unique system of administrative system. King was highest level of administration. King and kingship was linked with divine rule.The Kushana kings generally used exalted titles like maharajadhiraja (king of kings), daivaputra (son of heaven), soter (Saviour) and kaisara (Caesar). The Kushans had appointed ksatrapas and mahaksatrapas for different units of the empire. There were other officials performing both civil and military functions, called dandanayaka and mahadandanayaka.......The Kushans seem to have followed the earlier existing pattern of the Indo-Greeks and Parthians by appointing ksatrapas and mahaksatrapas for different units of the empire. There were other officials performing both civil and military functions, called dandanayaka and mahadandanayaka. At village level, gramika and padrapala– both signifying ‘village headman’, who collected the king’s dues and took cognizance of crimes in his area."......

"It seems that the Kushans, upon becoming masters of Bactria, at first continued the traditional use of Greek as a medium of written communication. As a spoken language they had adopted Bactrian, the native idiom of the country, which they afterwards elevated to the status of a written language and employed for official purposes, perhaps as a result of increasing national or dynastic pride. The earliest known inscriptions in Bactrian (the “unfinished inscription” from Surkh Kotal, cf. A. D. H. Bivar, BSOAS 26, 1963, pp. 498-502, and the Dašt-e Nāvūr trilingual) belong to the reign of Vima Kadphises. A few decades later, early in the reign of Kanishka I, Bactrian replaced Greek on the Kushan coins. After this period Greek ceased to be used as an official language in Bactria (although later instances of its use by Greek settlers are known, cf. P. M. Fraser, Afghan Studies 3-4, 1982, pp. 77f.)."....http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/bactrian-language

Mithraic Studies: Proceedings of the First International Congress.....Page 138 ...By John R. Hinnells

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July 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Sandalwood, Cedar & the Sacred Trees of Shambhala

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"Kalapa, according to Buddhist legend, is the capital city of the Kingdom of Shambhala, where the Kulika King is said to reign on a lion throne. It is said to be an exceeding beautiful city, with a sandalwood pleasure grove containing a huge three-dimensional Kalachakra mandala made by King Suchandra."......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalapa

"The Awesome Creator of the Turquoise Wind, arose garbed in leaves and flowers and wearing a crown of crystal ornamented with cedar twigs.....The great warrior danced in the eight directions. He created God's tree, the cedar...then the peoples tree. the rhododendron...then the tree of the sea-gods, the tamarisk....then the tree of the firece gods, the neem....then the demon's tree, the pines... The cosmic world of trees presented so many virtues."....Golden Drop...Page 13

"On Shambhala Day and at other auspicious times, we often gather outdoors around a fire, or indoors around a brazier of glowing charcoal. Chanting verses to the dralas, or nonvisible wakeful energies, we offer juniper and other substances, creating a column of smoke through which the dralas can descend. Chanting KI KI, SO SO ASHE LHA GYE LO TAK SENG KHUNG DRUK DI YAR KYE!, we circumambulate the fire, carrying banners and smiling in the bright air. This ceremony is called the lhasang, the divine purification. It is a ceremony of meeting and joining the magic of the warrior’s world.".......http://shambhalatimes.org/2014/02/24/the-magic-of-lhasang/

Cedar...Juniper, the tree of lha.....Deodar cedar, Cedrus deodara, (Sanskrit देवदारु devadāru) is a species of cedar native to the western Himalayas in eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan (especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir), north Republic of India (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states), southwesternmost Tibet in (China) and western Nepal....The botanical name, which is also the English common name, derives from the Sanskrit term devadāru, which means "wood of the gods", a compound of deva "god" and dāru "wood, tree".....Forests full of Deodar or Devadāru trees were the favorite living place of ancient Indian sages and their families who were devoted to the Hindu god Shiva. To please Lord Shiva, the sages used to perform very difficult tapasya (meditation) practices in deodar forests. Also the ancient Hindu epics and Shaivite texts regularly mention Darukavana, meaning a forest of deodars, as a sacred place."
Rhododendron...tree of nyen...Rhododendron (from Ancient Greek ῥόδον rhódon "rose" and δένδρον déndron "tree") is a genus of 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae), either evergreen or deciduous, and found mainly in Asia.....
Tamarisk...tree of lu....The genus Tamarix (tamarisk, salt cedar) is composed of about 50–60 species of flowering plants in the family Tamaricaceae, native to drier areas of Eurasia ...In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh's mother, the goddess Ninsun, ceremoniously bathes in a bath of "tamarisk" and soapwort before allowing Gilgamesh and Enkidu to begin their conquest."
Neem...Margosa, tree of tsen.....Margosa or neem is a most favourite and very common tree and is grown and found all Over India. ...Neem (Azadirachta indica) is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae.
Pine....tree of dut...The modern English name pine derives from Latin pinus which some have traced to the Indo-European base *pīt- ‘resin’ (source of English pituitary)......Amrita (Tibetan: dut tsi) A blessed substance, which can cause spiritual and physical healing....The legend is that at a very remote period when the gods felt their powers weakened and were desirous of obtaining Dut Tsi (Tibetan for amrita the beverage of immortality), Vishnu directed them to churn, together with the demons, the ocean of milk. For this purpose they took the mountain Mandara as the churning stick. But they could succeed only when Vishnu himself consented to support the mountain on his back; after having assumed the shape of a gigantic tortoise: the milk became butter and Dut Tsi was pulled up from the bottom of the World Sea.."

"Sandalwood is a tree with a highly aromatic wood. It is economically and culturally important to many countries around the Pacific and Eastern Indian Ocean regions where it grows or is traded. There are 16 species of sandalwood (Santalum) that grow naturally throughout the Pacific and Eastern Indian Ocean regions. Sandalwoods are evergreens ranging in size from tall shrubs up to large trees. They grow in a variety of climates--from the Australian desert to subtropical New Caledonia--and at elevations from sea level to over 8000 feet.".....https://www.auracacia.com/auracacia/aclearn/features/sandalwood.html

"Zoroastrians offer sandalwood twigs to the sacred fire.....priests who offer the sandalwood to the fire to keep the fire burning. Sandalwood is offered to all of the three grades of fire in the fire temple, including the Atash Dadgahs. Sandalwood is not offered to the divo, a homemade lamp. Often, money is offered to the mobad (for religious expenditures) along with the sandalwood. Sandalwood is called sukhar in the Zoroastrian community. The sandalwood in the fire temple is often more expensive to buy than at a Zoroastrian store. It is often a source of income for the fire temple."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandalwood

https://books.google.com/books?id=YZJcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA476&lpg=PA476&dq=kabul+sandalwood&source=bl&ots=TBl0GeCHyl&sig=ibglvhqpeEYdOlED7HWz1VOvGDg&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Vb-bVfvmBsW5ogSBsZPgAg&ved=0CB4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=kabul%20sandalwood&f=false

"Cedrus deodara (deodar cedar, Himalayan cedar, or deodar/devdar/devadar/devadaru; Sanskrit देवदारु devadāru, Hindi: देवदार devadār, दारूक dāruk; Urdu: ديودار/ دیار deodār; Chinese: 雪松 xuě sōng) is a species of cedar native to the western Himalayas in eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan (especially in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Azad Jammu and Kashmir), north Republic of India (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states), southwesternmost Tibet in (China) and western Nepal, occurring at 1,500–3,200 m (4,921–10,499 ft) altitude."

"Sandalwood.......Osyris wightiana, native to Nepal........one of the genuine types of aromatic sandalwood and is native to Nepal. Reportedly, it is difficult to tell any difference in grain or color between this sandalwood and East Indian sandalwood, which is generally illegal for export from India in wood form. The scent of the two woods seem slightly different. Nepal sandalwood aroma is a little less earthy but more ethereal than Indian sandalwood.".....http://www.exoticwood.biz/sandalwood.htm

"Parsis have had a long association with sandalwood, which goes back many thousands of years. There are several references in the Shah Nameh where specific mention is made of sandalwood which was imported from India and Ceylon for the use of the Royal families. The existence of these ancient trade routes was one of the reasons why Parsis came to India after the end of the Sassanian dynasty and the Arab invasion of Iran....These trees grow in great abundance in the lower Himalayan regions and in the north-central regions like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Two products derived from these trees, namely, cedar wood oil and camphor, are being used extensively throughout the country. Moreover, ample reforestation practices are being followed in these regions, which ensure that the sustainability of the forests is maintained. In addition, these sweet scented woods are much cheaper, compared to sandalwood.......I have been fortunate to have obtained samples of cedar wood (locally called Deodar, ‘wood of the Gods’; Cedrus deodara) and camphor wood (local name Kapur Chandan; Cinnamomum camphora). After cleaning and making small pieces, much like our Sukhad peria, I have burned them on the embers and they have emitted a beautiful smell... The five types of wood mentioned in the Vandidad are of the Burjis (Jupiterian) or Khur (Sun) or Mah (Moon) Jiram, which all correspond to our religion. Hence their use is especially beneficial for our own and the deceased’s spiritual progress.......Having examined our scriptures, we can safely conclude that it is not necessary that only sandalwood be used for our religious purposes. Given the current situation, it is therefore time to look at emerging alternatives. Our country is blessed not only with Sandalwood (which is now on the verge of extinction) but many other fragrant woods, including Camphor wood, Cedar wood and Pine......http://www.frashogard.com/emerging-alternatives-to-the-use-of-sandalwood/

"Most hall furniture of Imperial era China was made of mahogany, though Chinese pear wood and its later substitutes, red sandalwood (zitan) – a form of rosewood – and blackwood (hongmu – sometimes referred to as wu mu), were used to some extent. Chinese red sandalwood, initially in abundance, eventually became a very rare wood by the middle of the Qing Dynasty, therefore Ming or Qing Dynasty furniture made of these two wood types fetch a very high price at international auctions. "......http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/culture/ancient-chinese-furniture.htm

"South of the main palace is a grove of Sandalwood trees (not depicted on all thangkas) and in the middle of the grove is a huge three-dimensional Kalachakra Mandala constructed by the first King of Shambhala of gold, silver, torquoise, coral, and pearl. Nearby are also other mandalas built by later kings of Shambhala. To the east of the Sandalwood Grove is a body of water known as Near Lake and to the west is White Lotus Lake. In both of these lakes gods, nagas, and humans comport themselves on boats made of jewels.......Each of the eight petals in the outer part of Shambhala contain 120 million villages. These 960 million villages are divided into kingdoms numbering ten mlllion villages each, with each kingdom ruled by a satrap, or local governor, making a total of ninety-six satraps....The villages of Shambhala are made up mostly of two stories houses ....Men wear white or red cotton robes; woman white or blue dresses decorated with pleats and various designs.."......http://worldwidewanders1.blogspot.com

".....The innermost division made up of Nine Stacked Svâstika Mountain and the surrounding groves......spoken by the Teacher Gshen-rab-mi-po (i.e., Lord Shenrab) at a ‘perfection of Place’ (gnas phun-sum-tshogs-pa),......’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). ......At the center is Nine Stacked Svâstika Mountain, surrounded by four groves: Happiness Grove [Dga’-ba’i Tshal], Jewel Grove [Rin-chen Tshal], Lotus Grove [Padma’i Tshal], and Man-made Grove [Skyed-mo Tshal]. It was apparently the central mountain surrounded by groves (or parks or formal gardens) that initially inspired Kuznetsov to identify the map with the Persian Empire, since he believed that the mountain (which appears on the woodblock printed map as nine stepped levels, each composed of seven or five svâstikas; on the drawn map, it looks rather like a beehive) surrounded by gardens was reminiscent of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae........’Ol-mo-lung-ring, it could very well encapsulate cultural memories of the area to the west of Tibet and on the fringes of Persia, a place where Buddhism was long known and practiced..... Although its explicit identification with Shambhala, more correctly Sambhala, appears only rather late in Bon literature (see the appendix), there are a few general and specific features, even in the earlier texts, that would suggest their similarity. ’Ol-mo-lung-ring was and is all these things, but at the same time it was a place on the ground that we can indeed roughly locate, through text-based historical geography, in the area between Ladakh/Kashmir and the Oxus River. ....’Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place...by Dan Martin

"Mount Yungdrung Gutseg (gYung-drung dgu-brtsegs), the 'Pyramid of Nine Swastikas'. .....At the base of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg spring four rivers, flowing towards the four cardinal directions. The mountain is surrounded by temples, cities and parks. To the south is Barpo Sogye (Bar-po so-brgyad) palace, where Tonpa Shenrab was born. To the west and north are the palaces where Tonpa Shenrab's wives and children lived. To the east is Shampo Lhatse (Sham-po lha-rtse) temple. The complex of palaces, rivers and parks with Mount Yungdrung Gutseg in the centre constitutes the inner region (Nang-gling) of Olmo Lungring. The intermediate region (Bar-gling) consists of twelve cities, four of which lie in the four cardinal directions. The third region includes the outer land (mTha'-gling)."......Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition...Page 43 ...By Tenzin Wangyal

"The Cedar Forest is the glorious realm of the gods of Mesopotamian mythology. It is guarded by the demigod Humbaba and was once entered by the hero Gilgamesh who dared cut down trees from its virgin stands during his quest for fame. The Cedar Forest is described in Tablets 4-6 of the great Epic of Gilgamesh......Tablet four tells the story of the journey to the cedar forest. On each day of the six-day journey, Gilgamesh prays to Shamash...... (Sham ... Akkadian: Šamaš, "Sun")...... in response to these prayers, Shamash sends Gilgamesh oracular dreams during the night......Šamaš, "Sun" was a native Mesopotamian deity and the Sun god in the Akkadian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and Hebrew pantheons. Shamash was the god of justice in Babylonia and Assyria, corresponding to Sumerian Utu. Akkadian šamaš is cognate to Syriac ܫܡܫܐ šemša or šimšu Hebrew שֶׁמֶשׁ šemeš and Arabic شمس šams......Sham:Sun......Bala:Elevated

The lofty Cedars of Chitral Gol National Park, Hindukush.....North Western Pakistan

"The Epic of Gilgamesh, which can be dated to c. 2000 BC, making it one of the earliest known works of literary writing. In the epic poem, in tablet nine, Gilgamesh sets out on a quest for the Water of Life to seek immortality. Gilgamesh travels far to the east, to the mountain passes at the ends of the earth where he grapples and slays monstrous mountain lions, bears and others. Eventually he comes to the twin peaks of Mount Mashu at the end of the earth, from where the sun rises from the other world, the gate of which is guarded by two terrible scorpion-beings......

"Sumerians appeared in Southern Mesopotamia around five and half thousand years ago carrying with them the seeds of civilization. It was also suggested that they migrated from the west coast of India or Pakistan.....we have absolutely no idea where the Sumerians acquired their language, or what they might have looked like. Their language, which we call Sumerian, was a linguistic isolate—it’s the oldest known written language on Earth, and any languages it might have derived from or developed alongside have been lost to time. The Sumerian people were also, it can be reasoned, ethnically isolated; referring to themselves as the sag gigga (“black-headed people”).....

"Deodar cedar is native to the Himalayas and is the national tree of Pakistan. I would identify the Evergreen School cedar as a deodar because of its long, flexible needles. The name deodar is Hindi and comes from Sanskrit devadaru "divine wood", another link between cedars and the gods....

" Between 1700 and 1500 BC widescale collapse and transformation occurred throughout the entire Middle East........BMAC/Oxus Civilization collapsed and all of its Qala-like settlements were abandoned in the century or so in the century 1700-1600 BC but concurrently BMAC/ Oxus materials occur throughout Iran and parts of the Indus Valley regions........- In Mesopotamia the period leading up to 1600 BC saw the final end of the dominance of southern Mesopotamia with the destruction of the Old Babylonian Dynasty by Hittites from the north and Kassites who were originally nomadic peoples from the Zagros Mountains and western Iran."......http://www.unm.edu/~gbawden/328-coll/328-coll.ht_

"...... bought at around Rs 500 a kg in India, the item can fetch even Rs 3000 a kg in China. "Beside usages in alternative medicines, newly identified other possible usage avenues are quite disturbing. As discussed in Wildlife Crime Control Bureau platform, availability of radioactive elements like Thorium and Uranium in Red Sandalwood could be a major attraction. "......http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

July 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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BMAC/Oxus Civilization.....1600 BC

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"Between 1700 and 1500 BC widescale collapse and transformation occurred throughout the entire Middle East........BMAC/Oxus Civilization collapsed and all of its Qala (Kala) settlements were abandoned in the century or so in the century 1700-1600 BC but concurrently BMAC/ Oxus materials occur throughout Iran and parts of the Indus Valley regions.... Recent archaeology reveals that the BMAC/Oxus civilization comes to an end around 1600 and people from the Oxus spread across the Iranian plateau as seen in their intrusive grave goods and tombs. Evidently people from the area north of the Kopet Dagh Mountains were migrating to the east, west and south at this time in the period 1700-1600 BC... In the Oxus region the long-standing structural tension between town dweller and nomad probably culminated around 1700 BC in conflict in which some of the actual subjects of the BMAC/Oxus rulers participated on behalf of their nomadic kin. It appears that as a result of this conflict the BMAC/Oxus cities were abandoned and the displaced farmers spread south across the Iranian Plateau..."............http://www.unm.edu/~gbawden/328-coll/328-coll.ht_

Click on the map to enlarge

"In Mesopotamia the period leading up to 1600 BC saw the final end of the dominance of southern Mesopotamia with the destruction of the Old Babylonian Dynasty by Hittites from the north and Kassites who were originally nomadic peoples from the Zagros Mountains and western Iran."......http://www.unm.edu/~gbawden/328-coll/328-coll.ht_

"Sumer was conquered by the Semitic-speaking kings of the Akkadian Empire around 2270 BC....In around 1720 BC the last Sumerian King was defeated by Hammurabi and Sumer became part of the Babylonian empire... The Sumerians were a non-Semitic people and were in constant danger of attack from the Semitic peoples.... Babylon was an ancient city in the south of modern-day Iraq. Babylon became a hugely powerful and influential city when Hammurabi made it the capital of the Babylonian Empire in around 1720 BC......Once Sumerian culture was absorbed into Babylonian culture, the language of the Sumerians disappeared and there was no longer a people called the Sumerians. ".....http://www.skwirk.com

"India .....2500 BC - 1500 BC......The past thousand years have seen the Indus Valley civilization flourish, until about 1800 BC. It then began to decline. The history of ancient India during these centuries is obscure, but this decline has been linked by modern scholars to environmental factors, such as change in climate patterns or an overuse of land and water resources; migration by Indo-European tribes from central Asia may also have been another factor. In any event, by about 1700 BC the large cities of the Indus valley had disappeared altogether.".......http://www.timemaps.com/history/south-asia-1500bc

"By about 1700 BC the large cities of the Indus valley had disappeared altogether.......At about the same time, newcomers to India made their appearance, Indo-European speaking, semi-nomadic pastoralists from central Asia. They have brought with them the domestic horse and two-wheeled chariots, and have begun spreading out over the great plains of northern India. These “Aryans” are already starting to compose an oral poetry consisting of hymns, spells, rituals, dialogues and proverbs, which in later times will form the Vedas, the ancient foundation literature of Hindu civilization. These reflect a world under the rule of warrior aristocrats."..........http://www.timemaps.com/history/south-asia-1500bc

"Indus Valley Civilization disappears by 1600 BC and many of its settlements were abandoned. There was no major integrated urban society with a well-defined civilization in this region again until the period approximately dating to 1200-1000 BC.....later Hindu writings (Rig-Veda and Vedic Hymns) talk of the conquest of India by Aryans over darker skinned people of a different language. Linguistic analysis indicates that this diffusion may have happened in first half of the 2nd millennium. ".........http://www.unm.edu/~gbawden/328-coll/328-coll.ht_

"Indo-Aryan migration to and within Northern India is consequently presumed to have taken place in the Middle to Late Bronze Age, contemporary to the Late Harappan phase in India (c. 1700 to 1300 BC)….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_period_of_ancient_Burma

"Pandemonium: The Asura/Deva Split (1500 BC).......The linguistic history indicates that the Aryans ("Indo-Europeans"....."Iran") originally formed a single people until the beginning of the 2nd millenium BC when the Deva worshipping Indian Aryans and the Asura worshiping Iranian Aryans went separate ways....... ... The Kalachakra discusses the expulsion of the Deva worshippers from Shambhala and refers to the Rigden kings as Asura." (Yarshater: 1987..pg 684)

"The Oxus civilization was a Bronze Age Central Asian culture dated to ca. 2300–1700 BC and centered on the upper Amu Darya (Oxus). 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 BC, corresponding to level V at Namazga-Depe. This Bronze Age culture is called the Bactria–Margiana Archaeological Complex (BMAC).".....V.M. Masson, The Bronze Age in Khorasan and Transoxiana, chapter 10 in A.H. Dani and Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson (eds.), History of civilizations of Central Asia

"Did Climate Change Bring Sumerian Civilization to an End?.......A geologist with the Byrd Polar Research Center believes that more than 200 years of excessive drought may have doomed the Sumerians, one of the world’s first complex civilizations whose culture and language disappeared from Mesopotamia around 4,000 years ago. At a recent meeting of the American Geophysical Union, geologist Matt Konfrist argued that new geological records point to an extended period of drought that began around 2200 B.C.E., with increased rates of evaporation in both the Dead Sea and the Red Sea and lower rainfall across much of the Near East. During this period of drought, archaeology shows that nearly 75 percent of ancient Mesopotamian settlements were abandoned, while waves of marauding invaders took up residence in former Sumerian areas, effectively bringing Sumerian civilization to an end. “People still live in this region,” explained Konfrist. “It’s not that the collapse of a civilization means that an area is completely abandoned, but that there’s a sharp change in the population.”.....http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org

"Sumerians believed in an anthropomorphic polytheism, or the belief in many gods in human form.....The Sumerians worshiped: ........An as the full-time god equivalent to heaven; indeed, the word an in Sumerian means sky and his consort Ki, means earth...... Inanna, the deification of Venus, the morning (eastern) and evening (western) star, at the temple (shared with An).....The sun-god Utu."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer

Click on the map to enlarge

"The earliest record of the Sumerian creation and flood is found on a single fragmentary tablet excavated in Nippur, sometimes called the Eridu Genesis. It is written in the Sumerian language and dated to around 1600 BC during the first Babylonian dynasty, where the language of writing and administration was still Sumerian. Other Sumerian creation myths from around this date are called the Barton Cylinder, the Debate between sheep and grain and the Debate between Winter and Summer, also found at Nippur.....Where the tablet picks up, the gods An, Enlil, Enki and Ninhursanga create the black-headed people and create comfortable conditions for the animals to live and procreate. Then kingship descends from heaven and the first cities are founded: Eridu, Bad-tibira, Larak, Sippar, and Shuruppak....."

"The Sumerians developed one of the earliest civilizations on earth (3500-1750 B.C.), but the existence of such a people and civilization was not even suspected until the middle of the 19th century.....

"Gilgamesh is the semi-mythic King of Uruk best known from The Epic of Gilgamesh (The Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh written on clay tablets...c. 2150 - 1400 BC ) ......The legend of Gilgamesh, who searches for the immortal flood hero, in the north. [2,500BC]....Since The Epic of Gilgamesh existed in oral form long before it was written down, there has been much debate over whether the extant tale is more early Sumerian or later Babylonian in cultural influence......"...http://www.ancient.eu/gilgamesh/

"Scientists have solved the mystery of the collapse of an ancient civilization living on the fringes of the Tibetan Plateau around 2,000 BC, and it seems that climate change is to blame......cooling global temperatures at the end of the Holocene Climatic Optimum - a 4,000 year period of warm weather - would have made it impossible for these ancient people to cultivate millet, their primary food source...Until now, scientists were left wondering why this Tibetan society died out, and also why the area's original inhabitants either left so abruptly or changed their lifestyles. This study may have finally given them the answer."..... Journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...http://www.natureworldnews.com

"The Mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum warm event......Current desert regions of Central Asia were extensively forested due to higher rainfall....By 5000 to 3000 BC average global temperatures reached their maximum level .......From 3000 to 2000 BC a cooling trend occurred. This cooling caused large drops in sea level and the emergence of many islands (Bahamas) and coastal areas that are still above sea level today......A short warming trend took place from 2000 to 1500 BC, followed once again by colder conditions. Colder temperatures from 1500 - 750 BC caused renewed ice growth in continental glaciers and alpine glaciers, and a sea level drop of between 2 to 3 meters below present day levels.".......http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

July 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Surkh Kotal & Mount Yungdrung

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"Surkh Kotal is an archaeological site in the southern region of ancient Bactria containing a 2nd century AD fire temple believed to have been built by the Kushan emperor Kanishka I (Kanishka the Great), whose statue was found within the temple."

"Built on the top and side of a hill, the temple complex would have been a imposing site, before its destruction, towering over the vast valley plains below. It was accessed by a long flight of steps leading to a stairwell, above which was a monumental stairway some fifty five metres high, rising in four flights, flanked by four terraces, to the temple on top of the hill.....The stairs led to a temple containing a 11m. x 11m. sanctuary - a cella - in which there was a platform flanked by four columns, and on which rested a fire altar".......http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/balkh/balkh2.htm

Surkh Kotal seen from afar.........Note the wide terraces leading to the top

"Surkh Kotal (Persian: سرخ‌کوتل‎; Pashto: سور کوتل‎), also called Chashma-i Shir or Sar-i Chashma, is an ancient archaeological site located in the southern part of the region of Bactria, about 18 km north of the city of Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan Province of Afghanistan. It is the location of monumental constructions made during the rule of the Kushans. Huge temples, statues of Kushan rulers and the Surkh Kotal inscription, which revealed part of the chronology of early Kushan emperors (also called Great Kushans) were all found there. The Rabatak inscription which gives remarkable clues on the genealogy of the Kushan dynasty was also found in the Robatak village just outside the site.

Click on the map to enlarge

".....The innermost division made up of Nine Stacked Svâstika Mountain and the surrounding groves......spoken by the Teacher Gshen-rab-mi-po (i.e., Lord Shenrab) at a ‘perfection of Place’ (gnas phun-sum-tshogs-pa),......’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). ......At the center is Nine Stacked Svâstika Mountain, surrounded by four groves: Happiness Grove [Dga’-ba’i Tshal], Jewel Grove [Rin-chen Tshal], Lotus Grove [Padma’i Tshal], and Man-made Grove [Skyed-mo Tshal]. It was apparently the central mountain surrounded by groves (or parks or formal gardens) that initially inspired Kuznetsov to identify the map with the Persian Empire, since he believed that the mountain (which appears on the woodblock printed map as nine stepped levels, each composed of seven or five svâstikas; on the drawn map, it looks rather like a beehive) surrounded by gardens was reminiscent of the tomb of Cyrus the Great at Pasargadae........’Ol-mo-lung-ring, it could very well encapsulate cultural memories of the area to the west of Tibet and on the fringes of Persia, a place where Buddhism was long known and practiced..... Although its explicit identification with Shambhala, more correctly Sambhala, appears only rather late in Bon literature (see the appendix), there are a few general and specific features, even in the earlier texts, that would suggest their similarity.[108] ’Ol-mo-lung-ring was and is all these things, but at the same time it was a place on the ground that we can indeed roughly locate, through text-based historical geography, in the area between Ladakh/Kashmir and the Oxus River. ....’Ol-mo-lung-ring, the Original Holy Place...by Dan Martin

"Mount Yungdrung Gutseg (gYung-drung dgu-brtsegs), the 'Pyramid of Nine Swastikas'. .....At the base of Mount Yungdrung Gutseg spring four rivers, flowing towards the four cardinal directions. The mountain is surrounded by temples, cities and parks. To the south is Barpo Sogye (Bar-po so-brgyad) palace, where Tonpa Shenrab was born. To the west and north are the palaces where Tonpa Shenrab's wives and children lived. To the east is Shampo Lhatse (Sham-po lha-rtse) temple. The complex of palaces, rivers and parks with Mount Yungdrung Gutseg in the centre constitutes the inner region (Nang-gling) of Olmo Lungring. The intermediate region (Bar-gling) consists of twelve cities, four of which lie in the four cardinal directions. The third region includes the outer land (mTha'-gling)."......Wonders of the Natural Mind: The Essence of Dzogchen in the Native Bon Tradition...Page 43 ...By Tenzin Wangyal

"The site of Surkh Kotal, excavated between 1952 and 1966 by Prof. Schlumberger of the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan, is the main site excavated of the Kushan Empire. Some of the site's sculptures were transferred to the National Museum of Afghanistan (also known as the 'Kabul Museum'), the rest of the site was completely looted during the Afghan Civil War. The most famous artifacts of this site are the Surkh Kotal inscriptions, the statue of King Kanishka and the fire altar. The statue of the king was destroyed during the Taliban wave of iconoclasm in February–March 2001, but has been restored by French conservationists. The three artifacts are currently on display in the Afghan National Museum.

"Surkh Kotal is in the predominantly Tajik northern Afghan province of Baghlan, about 20 miles southwest of the town of Baghlan and 11.5 miles north of the provincial capital of Pol-i Khomri, on the road to Mazar-e-Sharif (Balkh). It is also known as Atashkadeh-ye Sorkh Kowtal.

"Kanishka’s empire was vast. It extended from southern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, north of the Amu Darya (Oxus) in the north west to Northern India, as far as Mathura in the south east. His territory also included Kashmir, where there was a town Kanishkapur, named after him not far from the Baramula Pass and which still contains the base of a large stupa, a mound-like structure containing relics."

Nearby cities: Pol-e - Khumri, Baghlan (Sana `Ati), Dahana-I-Ghori........Coordinates: 36°2'9"N 68°35'21"E

Click on the map to enlarge

"The excavations at Surkh Kotal and the problem of Hellenism in Bactria and India"......Author: Daniel Schlumberger........Publisher: London. (1962)

"Surkh Kotal is a famous archaeological site of the Kushan period, located in southern Bactria, to the west of the road between Pul-e Khumri , Robatak, Samangan and Mazar-e Sharif. The site was excavated during the 1950s and ‘60s under the direction of Professor Daniel Schlumberger from the Strasbourg University, who was then director of the DAFA. The site is located on a natural headland facing east thus dominating the plain. At the summit of the site, a temple was built on a podium surrounded with a portico. One had access to this cultural en- semble by the means of three immense terraces connected to one another by monumental stairs composed of more than one hundred steps each, and by way of a ramp of about 150 m. The buildings are built in dried earth but with a white limestone facing. Sev- eral mutilated statues of Kushan kings were discovered; one of them identified as representing King Kanishka. The cult celebrated in the great temple A is still subject to discussion. However, the two later temples B and D are designated, rightfully so, as sanctuaries for the sacred fire."........http://www.archaeological.org/pdfs/papers/AIA_Afghanistan_address_highres.pdf

"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 (es- pecially 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. These sites of which I mention only few, have been subjected to ille- gal excavations by local commanders for the past twenty some years, before the Taliban, during the Taliban, after the Taliban, and are still being looted today."..........http://www.archaeological.org/pdfs/papers/AIA_Afghanistan_address_highres.pdf

"Surkh Kotal. The presence of Persian symbols in Kushan-era culture is most evident among the ruins of Surkh Kotal, a Zoroastrian Fire Temple complex with a vast processional stairway located north of the Hindu Kush near the city of Pul-i Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province…..Excavations at Surkh Kotal between 1952 and 1966 proved the co-existence of a purely indigenous Zoroastrian religion, unaffected by Buddhism, centered around the cult of fire……. Kanishka personally seems to have embraced both Buddhism and the Persian cult of Mithra……. Fragments of his statue found at Surkh Kotal ranks among the most precious objects in the Kabul Museum collection…"..http://www.cemml.colostate.edu/cultural/09476/afgh02-08enl.html

"Zoroastrians offer sandalwood twigs to the firekeeping priests who offer the sandalwood to the fire to keep the fire burning. Sandalwood is offered to all of the three grades of fire in the fire temple, including the Atash Dadgahs. Sandalwood is not offered to the divo, a homemade lamp. Often, money is offered to the mobad (for religious expenditures) along with the sandalwood. Sandalwood is called sukhar in the Zoroastrian community. The sandalwood in the fire temple is often more expensive to buy than at a Zoroastrian store. It is often a source of income for the fire temple."....https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandalwood

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

July 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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Kshatriya King Khingala of Kapisa & Phrom Gesar (745 AD)

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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)

"Buddhaguptanatha (1514-1610 ?)...about 1580 AD Buddhaguptanatha locates Urgyan (Uddyana) in Ghazni, about 50 miles south of Kabul in modern Afghanistan, which is in contrast with the traditional location of Urgyan in the Swat area......

"Buddhaguptanatha was remarkable. He travelled on foot to Iran, Balkh in the north of Afghanistan, Kashgar in Central Asia, Multan, Kabul, Khorasan, Badakshan, Qusht and the lands of the Mughals.....Buddhaguptanatha, said that previously when he was in Upper Hor [Muslim territories]… he was fully protected by the mantras that he had received from those dakinis in Urgyan, as well as by his own physical powers. Urgyan is surrounded to the east, the south and the west by three large lakes. When he… crossed over the pass he came into the Hor Mleccha land of Balkh [northern central area of modern Afghanistan]...."....Buddhaguptanatha and the Late Survival of the Siddha Tradition in India.....by David Templeman

"Archeological sites of the period, including a major Hindu Shahi temple north of Kabul and a chapel in Ghazni, contain both the pre-dominant Hindu and Buddhist statuary, suggesting that there was a close interaction between the two religions.......When the Chinese visitor Hsuan-tsang visited Kapisa (about 60 km north of modern Kabul) in the 7th century, the local ruler was a Kshatriya King Shahi Khingala. A Ganesha idol has been found near Gerdez that bears the name of this king."..........

"H. M. Elliot...... (The History of India, 1867-1877).......relates the early Kabul Shahis to the Kators and further connects the Kators with the Kushanas. Charles Frederick Oldham also traces the Kabul Shahi lineage to the Kators—whom he identifies with the Kathas or Takkhas—Naga worshipping collective groups of Hinduism (Sun god-worshiping) lineage. He further speaks of the Urasas, Abhisaras, Daradas, Gandharas, Kambojas, et al. as allied tribal groups of the Takkhas belonging to the Sun-worshiping races of the north-west frontier.".....Charles Frederick Oldham The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-worship, 1905, pp. 113-126

6th-century "image of Hindu deity, Ganesha, consecrated by the Shahi King Khingala.".....F. Marble statue of the god Ganesha. The statue was found in Gardez (East Afghanistan) and later erected in the Hindu temple Dargha Pir Rattan Nath in Kabul. (© Shoshin Kuwayama)......The "King Khingala, King of Uddiyana" named in the dedicatory inscription could be the same person as the Kabul Shah Bo Fuzhun known from Chinese sources, who succeeded his father Fulin jipo (Phrom Gesar) on the throne in 745 AD and was invested by the Chinese emperor as king of Uddiyana (Swat).".....The Rutbils of Zabulistan and the "Emperor of Rome"

"Richard Frye noted that Alxon or Alxan appears on a coin with the name Khingila and refutes Harmatta’s suggestion that it is the same as the name Lakhana. ".....Richard Frye (1920 – 2014) was an American scholar of Iranian and Central Asian Studies, and Aga Khan Professor Emeritus of Iranian Studies at Harvard University. His professional areas of interest were Iranian philology and the history of Iran and Central Asia before 1000 CE.

"According to Biswas, the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hsüan-tsang came to Kashmir when Khinkhila was ruling here. Regarding the extent of his empire, Biswas concludes: The empire of Kashmir included the Kabul valley, the Swat valley and the mountain regions of Kashmir proper and in the south-east extended as far as Sakala on the Chenab river. If the king of Kashmir had a hold over Swat, the Kabul valley and Bannu, it is possible that his empire extended even to Gardez. The Gardez inscription of Khingala was probably thus of the Kashmir king Khinkhila, who was also the overlord of Udyana.....Khinkhila was succeeded by his son Yudhishthira who, according to the Rajatarangin ruled for 40 years (until c. 670 AD), when he was dethroned by Pratapaditya, son of Durlabhavardhana, the ruler of the Karkota dynasty." ......EASTERN KUSHANS, KIDARITES IN GANDHARA AND KASHMIR, AND LATER HEPHTHALITES.....http://en.unesco.org/silkroad

"Khingila is the first of the four kings mentioned on the Schøyen copper scroll inscription and therefore may have been the eldest or senior most among them. Traditionally, Khingila is regarded as the Alchon king who started to make serious inroads into India, but there is no definitive evidence of this ... it is just that he was one of the few kings whose name could be read on the coins."....http://coinindia.com/galleries-khingila.html

"Archeological sites of the period, including a major Hindu Shahi temple north of Kabul and a chapel in Ghazni, contain both the pre-dominant Hindu and Buddhist statuary, suggesting that there was a close interaction between the two religions. When the Chinese visitor Hsuan-tsang visited Kapisa (about 60 km north of modern Kabul) in the 7th century, the local ruler was a Kshatriya King Shahi Khingala. A Ganesha idol has been found near Gerdez that bears the name of this king, see Shahi Ganesha. Several 6th- or 7th-century AD Buddhist manuscripts were found from a stupa at Gilgit. One of the manuscripts reveals the name of a Shahi king Srideva Sahi Surendra Vikramaditya Nanda."….The Shahi Afghanistan and Punjab, 1973, pp 1, 45–46, 48, 80, Dr D. B. Pandey;

"In the wake of Muslim invasions of Kabul and Kapisa in second half of the 7th century (AD 664), the Kapisa/Kabul ruler called by Muslim writers Kabul Shah (Shahi of Kabul) made an appeal to the Ksatriyas of the Hind who had gathered there in large numbers for assistance and drove out the Muslim invaders as far as Bost. This king of Kapisa/Kabul who faced the Muslim invasion was undoubtedly a Ksatriya."…..The Sun and the Serpent: A Contribution to the History of Serpent-worship, 1905, p 126, Charles Frederick Oldham

"The first Rutbil of Zabulistan had declared his independence from the Kingdom of Jibin (Kabulistan) after 680 CE. According to Arab and Chinese sources, he was an older brother of the king of Kabul "Khorasan Tegin Shah" ..... after his ascension to the throne, they had a falling out and the first Rutbil founded his own kingdom in Zabul. Initially he must have secured the support of the Arabs. The title Rutbil corresponds to the Turkic iltäbär and is used in Arab sources to refer to the king of Zabulistan from that point on. The personal names of the various rulers are not known from written sources. The end of the Zabul kingdom, which together with Kabul stood at the fore of the long resistance against the Muslim conquerors, finally fell in 870 CE when the Arab general Yaqub bin Laith al-Saffar (r. 861–879 AD) conquered the entire Iranian East from Sistan and definitively defeated Zabul.....The center of the Kingdom of Zabul lay in the city Ghazni, one of the three residences of the king. In the northeast it bordered on Kabulistan and in the northwest it reached into the central Hindu Kush . In the south it included at times the cities of Rakhwad (al-Rukhkhaj) and Bost (near Kandahar, South Afghanistan). In the west the border followed the Helmand River, and the Sulaiman Mountains constituted the eastern border."...... The Rutbils of Zabulistan and "Phrom Kesar"

Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes.......Page 127......edited by Anna Akasoy, Charles S. F. Burnett, Ronit Yoeli-Tlalim

"The success of the Turk Fromo Kesaro, whose name is a Persian pronunciation of "Rome (Byzantium) Caesar", in overwhelming an intrusive Arab army in Gandhara sometime between 739-745, may have formed the historic core behind the Gesar epic in Tibet..... In the records of the earliest rulers of Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit, whose countries were later overrun by incursive Tibetans, royal ancestry is connected to the Bactrian Gesar......"Vohra 1996, pp. 218–219...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_King_Gesar#cite_note-6

Fulin Jipo & Phrom Kesar.......745 AD.......PHROM CAESAR TO CHI-P'O.......Tibeto-Logic post on Phrom Ge-sar.......The name Phrom ......the Tibetan counterpart of Late Middle Chinese 拂菻 *Fur-lim (there is no f in Classical Tibetan):.......From (Phrom) comes via Hrom (pronounced From) from Rome, meaning the eastern Rome of the Byzantines, not that one in Italy.......One year later, in 739, Tegin shah [of the Turk Shahi] abdicated the throne of Gandhara in favor of his son, Fu-lin-chi-p’o (also known as Fromo Kesaro, the Bactrian form of his name) ... The name implies an anti-Arab programme and propaganda at the time, which might be explained by Fromo Kesaro's having entered into manhood as an er at (meaning ‘man’s name’ [in Turkic]) in 719, the year in which a Byzantine delegation travelled through Tokharistan on their way to the Chinese emperor and informed the kingdoms of Central Asia of the great victory they had won over the Arabs the previous year.......Fu-lin chi-p'o (Pinyin: Fulin Jipo) is the modern Mandarin pronunciation of Late Middle Chinese 拂菻罽婆 *Fur-lim Kɨej-ba. *Fur-lim (< *Frim 'Rome' in some Iranian language?) corresponds to Bactrian Fromo, but why does *Kɨej-ba have a *-b- absent from Kesaro? I and others regard 婆 *ba 'old woman' as an error for the similar-looking rarer graph 娑 *sa (second half of 婆娑 *basa 'whirling'). 罽娑 *Kɨej-sa is the closest possible LMC approximation of *Kesar:......http://www.amritas.com/100320.htm

"Numismatic evidence and some accounts speak of a Bactrian ruler Phrom-kesar, specifically the Kabul Shahi of Gandhara, which was ruled by a Turkish From Kesar ("Caesar of Rome"), who was father-in-law of the king of the Kingdom of Khotan around the middle of the 8th century AD...... In early Bon sources, From Kesar is always a place name, and never refers, as it does later, to a ruler...... In some Tibetan versions of the epic, a king named Phrom Ge-sar or Khrom Ge-sar figures as one of the kings of the four directions – the name is attested in the 10th century...... and this Phrom/Khrom preserves an Iranian form (*frōm-hrōm) for Rūm/Rome. This eastern Iranian word lies behind the Middle Chinese word for (Eastern) Rome (拂菻:Fúlǐn), namely Byzantium (phrōm-from<*phywət-lyəm>).....A. H. Francke thought the Tibetan name Gesar derived from Sanskrit. S.K. Chatterji, introducing his work, noted that the Ladakh variant of Kesar, Kyesar, in Classical Tibetan Skye-gsar meant 'reborn/newly born', and that Gesar/Kesar in Tibetan, as in Sanskrit signify the 'anther or pistil of a flower', corresponding to Sankrit kēsara, whose root 'kēsa' (hair) is Indo-European."......https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_King_Gesar

""Khorasan Tegin Shah" (= Tegin, King of the East), known in Chinese sources as Wusan teqin sa, was the second Turk Shahi on the throne of Kabul, succeeding his father Barha Tegin around or after 680 AD......The actual dominion stretched from Kabulistan to Gandhara and at times also included Zabulistan. Bactria, the land just north of the Hindu Kush, did not belong to his immediate sphere of rule......Faced with the threat of the Arabs, the two ruling houses remained in close contact and fought side by side against the Muslim enemy. The first Rutbil of Zabulistan fell already by 683 or 686/87 CE in a battle against the Arabs, after having been previously allied with them. Around 710 CE it appears that the Kabul Shah temporarily gained suzerainty over Zabulistan, and troops were recruited in Zabulistan for the mutual struggle against the Arabs......In 719/20 CE an embassy was sent by the Tegin of Jibin (Kabulistan) and the iltäbär of Zabulistan (Xieyu) to China to obtain confirmation of their thrones from the Tang emperor. The investiture decree signed by the emperor was sent by messenger back to Jibin and Zabulistan. During his journey through the lands south of the Hindu Kush in around 726 CE, the Korean pilgrim Huichao stayed for some time at the court of the Kabul Shah, who may well have been "Khorasan Tegin Shah". Huichao recorded that Kabul and Zabul were then ruled by Turkic kings, who were Buddhists, and that the King of Kabul was supposed to have been the uncle of the ruler of Zabul."......Kabulistan and Bactria at the time of "Khorasan Tegin Shah"......http://pro.geo.univie.ac.at/projects/khm/showcases/showcase14?language=en

"Vohra 1996, p. 217 writes that these coins with the title Fromo Kesaro appear to refer to the successor of Sahi Tegin (700-738 CE:Chinese:烏散特勤灑:MC:uo-sân d'ɘk-g'iɘn ṣai=*Horsān tegin šāhi 'Tegin, king of Khurasan'), ruler of the Second Turki Śāhi dynasty at Kapisa-Udyana, whose reign was between 738 and 745 C.E., and who is identified with the 'Frōm Kēsar' (拂菻罽婆: Fúlǐn jìpó:North Western Tang pfvyr-lḭum-kḭe-sâ) of the Tang shu. SeeHarmatta & Litvinsky 1999, pp. 376,380).".....

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.

Francke, August Hermann (2000) [1905/1909]. A Lower Ladakhi Version of the Kesar Saga. Dehli: Asian Educational Services.

Harmatta, J.; Litvinsky, B. A. (1999). "Tokharistan and Gandhara under Western Türk rule (650-750)". In Dani, Ahmad Hasan. History of civilizations of Central Asia 3. Dehli: Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 367–402.

Kornman, Robin (2005). "The Influence of the Epic of King Gesar on Chogyam Trungpa". In Midal, Fabrice. Recalling Chögyam Trungpa. Boston, Massachusetts: Shambhala Publications. pp. 347–379.

Maconi, Lara. (2004). "Theatrical Gesar de Pékin? Le sort du Roi Gesar de Gling, héros épique tibétain, en Chinese (post-)maoïste". In Judith. Formes modernes de la poésie épique: nouvelles approches. Bruxelles: Peter Lang. pp. 371–419.

ANCIENT KINGDOMS...."the Four Sons of Heaven, the rulers of the four great countries of the Asiatic world: China, India, Iran, Throm (Phrom) in the north with King Gesar." (Stein:1972, pg 280)...

"Tazig: appears to signify Persia. 13 days horseback ride from Ling, at a place called Memoyu Thang." (David-Neel: Gesar: 1981..pg 239)

"One translation, Gessar Khan, a West Tibet version (first appeared in German in 1836) makes reference to Persian non-Buddhist deities. The "Foreward" also mentions the Kalmyk Little Gesser (Riga, 1804.)...The Gesar legends vary according to the cultural tradition of the devotee. In the Bon tradition, Gesar is sent by Shenlha Okar. ... (http://www.khandro.net/langnlit_Gesar.htm)

"Syed Abbas Kazmi of the Baltistan Cultural Foundation , who is a scholar, has written a monograph on the Balti version of the old Tibetan Epic of King Gesar.....http://uyghuramerican.org

"King of Khotan.....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.".

Coin of a Turk Shahi king inscribed with "Fromo Kesaro" .....http://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-gesar-place-this-time.html

"Phrom is mentioned several times in SKC (pp. 23, 42, 90), but most interesting here is the one time it mentions Phrom Ge-sar, on p. 44. The passage on Phrom Ge-sar takes up almost an entire page (again, the context is Lord Shenrab’s emanations in many countries). It does inform us that it is in the northern quarter (byang phyogs Phrom Ge-sar-kyis yul...), while Tazig (Stag-gzig) is in the western. It says that its Bon king is named Phrom-bon Mthu-chen (“Bon-gyi rgyal-po Phrom-bon Mthu’-chen bya-ba yod”). It says the Bon ministers are called E-ber and Ting-wer."......SOURCE: The Khyung-po Blo-gros-rgyal-mtshan, Rgyal-rabs Bon-gyi ’Byung-gnas, as contained in Three Sources for a History of Bon (Dolanji 1974), pp. 1-196, at p. 43..........http://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-gesar-place-this-time.html

".....the Tibetan manuscripts are all much later than the coins, true, but may incorporate earlier texts or oral traditions that would be closer at least to being contemporary. But I should clarify that the Tibetan epic hero is not commonly known as Phrom Ge-sar. When he isn’t called just Ge-sar or King Ge-sar, he’s usually called Gling Ge-sar. That last name tends to connect him with Gling-tshang area of Kham in eastern part of the Tibetan plateau where, anyway, relics of his are kept and shown to pilgrims. "............http://tibeto-logic.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-gesar-place-this-time.html

"According to Xavier Tremblay, one of the Hephthalite rulers was named Khingila, which has the same root as the Sogdian word xnγr and the Wakhi word xiŋgār, meaning "sword". "....Xavier Tremblay, Pour une histore de la Sérinde. Le manichéisme parmi les peoples et religions d’Asie Centrale d’aprés les sources primaire, Vienna: 2001

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Email....okarresearch@gmail.com

July 2015

John Hopkins....Northern New Mexico

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