Buddhism literally throbs with the history and geography of India. The relics from Sanchi, Ajanta, Bharhut, Amaravati, Gandhara, Thotlakonda and Mathura link India with early Buddhism. The Indian tradition of tolerance and moderation goes beyond 6th century B.C. and primitive Buddhism can be traced in the Harappan era, but Buddhist history is a queer mix of facts and fiction that baffles the discerning reader.
The poet Goethe wrote; "Wer den Dichter will verstehen. Muss in Dichters Lande gehen." 'If you want to understand a poet, you must go to the poet's land.' Indeed, in order to understand Gautama Buddha one has to go to his true land which was
Afghanistan not
Nepal.
The startling recent discovery of a 6th century B.C. Buddhist site at
Mes Aynak in Logar province of Afghanistan, 35 km south-east of Kabul has dramatic repercussions on Buddhist history. Mes Aynak is one of the greatest Buddhist sites in the world.
The Dreadful Nepalese Forgeries
Nepal is a beautiful country but Gautama Buddha of Nepal is a
nauseating fraud. Nothing in the art, archaeology, history or literature of early Nepal has the faintest hint of Buddhism. Jonesean Scholars such as R. Thapar affirm that Gotama was from the Nepal area but this is denied by archaeology. C. Humphreys points to the stark ground reality,
The Lumbini gardens, where Gotama was born, lie in the difficult Nepal Terai, and Kusinara, where the Buddha passed away, has little to show'.
In contrast to gullible historians the renowned Belgian scholar E. Conze also flatly dismisses the fanciful text-based accounts,
To the modern historian, Buddhism is a phenomenon which must exaspera-te him at every point and we can only say in extenuation that this religion was not founded for the benefit of the historians. Not only is there an almost complete absence of hard facts about its history in India; not only is the date, authorship and geographical provenance of the overwhelming majority of the documents almost entirely unknown, ....
The way out of the chaos is shown by the British scholar
T. A. Phelps whose painstaking study has exposed the dreadful
forgeries of A. Führer who moved pillars and faked inscriptions and relics to falsely locate Lumbini. Nepal has no ancient Buddhist relics. Vincent Smith vehemently protested against the fabrications of Dr. Führer. Gotama was a prince but after he was abandoned in the wilderness of the Terai by the rogue Führer, his history went to pieces.
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