Nalanda University reopens after hundreds of years!

[Yogijaat]

Sikhs unlike hindus dont have the same deities as the hindus but Buddhism has.

sikhs also had hindu dieties in gurudwara until Gurdwara Reform Movement in 1920s

 

[Levina]

sikhs also had hindu dieties in gurudwara until Gurdwara Reform Movement in 1920s

Really!!!
This thread is enlightening.

 

[scorpionx]

@levina

This term had been regularly used by Arya Samajis and other pro Hindu groups to describe Muslims in their reconversion movement Shuddhi in the 30's. Cow became sacred atleast three thousand years back when ancient Indian society adopted agriculture as their primary living.

sikhs also had hindu dieties in gurudwara until Gurdwara Reform Movement in 1920s

Never knew it. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Indischer]

Errrr
You're right that Jains dont eat garlic and onions but the reason you gave is not true.
Garlic and onions are essentially used in non-vegetarian dishes to negate its effects and ergo they're not needed in pure vegetarian food.

Ah, thank you for that clarification , @levina !

Actually, Jainism suggests avoidance from killing any life form. Onions, garlic, carrots etc are essentially bulbous roots of a plant and hence the entire plant has to be killed in order to obtain them. This is one of the main reasons why such ingredients were avoided in Jainism. Rice and wheat too, are avoided by those who strictly follow Jainism, and hence lentils are a very important part of their diet.

 

[JustAnotherWomen]

Apart from culture Japanese make the creepiest horror movies. I mean i have never been scared so much till i saw the Japanese horror. Awesome direction awesome storylines but the screenplay is just "awesme"(i dont know how to say some good word about something that creeps u out)

 

[Capt.Popeye]

The great library of Nalanda was said to have burned for three whole months after the invaders set it on fire.

What a tremendous loss of knowledge.

That's why a lot of Nalanda's history comes from Chinese sources like Xuanzang and Yijing. Because the written sources in India were destroyed.

And the invaders probably did not even realize how much irreplaceable knowledge they tragically and wantonly destroyed, out of their ignorance and spite.

Unfortunately that kind of damage has been wrought time and again by bigots all over the world. In recent times the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha is just one such instance which comes to mind. The sacking and destruction of Nalanda is an irretrievable loss.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

In this May 24, 2012 photo, people sit near a sculpture of the Buddha whose face was destroyed by Taliban fighters at Jahanabad, Pakistan in the Swat valley. – AP


JAHANABAD, Pakistan: When the Taliban blew the face off a towering, 1,500-year-old rock carving of Buddha in northwest Pakistan almost five years ago, it fell to an intrepid Italian archaeologist to come to the rescue.

Thanks to the efforts of Luca Olivieri and his partners, the 6-meter (nearly 20-foot)-tall image near the town of Jahanabad is getting a facelift, and many other archaeological treasures in the scenic Swat Valley are being excavated and preserved.

Extremists have a history of targeting Buddhist, Hindu and other religious sites they consider heretical to Islam. Six months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Taliban shocked the world by dynamiting a pair of 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues in central Afghanistan.

The Jahanabad Buddha, etched high on a huge rock face in the 6th or 7th century, is one of the largest such carvings in South Asia. It was attacked in the fall of 2007 when the Pakistani Taliban swarmed across the scenic Swat Valley. The army drove most of them out two years later, but foreign tourists who used to visit the region still tend to stay away.

Olivieri himself had to leave in 2008 after more than two decades of tending to the riches dating back to Alexander the Great and the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim invaders who followed. The 49-year-old head of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan returned in 2010 and is back at work.

Taliban militants climbed ropes to insert explosives in holes drilled into the face and shoulders of the Jahanabad Buddha, said Olivieri. The explosives in the shoulders failed to detonate, but the others blew off most of the face above the lips and cracked other parts of the carving and surrounding rock.

Olivieri and his team began work this month on fixing the cracks and what's left of the face. A full reconstruction is impossible because detailed documentation and fragments of the face are lacking.

"Whatever you do in the absence of perfect data is a fake," said Olivieri, who says he has wanted to be an archaeologist since age 6 and still brings a youthful exuberance to his work even as his beard grows gray.

In this May 24, 2012 photo, Italian archeologist Luca Olivieri, left, talks with colleagues in Saidu Sharif, Pakistan. – AP


Arriving as a university student in 1987, he was fascinated by Swat, once an important center of Buddhist culture and trade. The monk credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet, Padmasambhava, was born in Swat.

In more recent decades, the area was known as "the Switzerland of Pakistan," popular with religious tourists from China, Japan and South Korea, and the hope is that restoration of the Jahanabad Buddha will spark a revival of tourism here.

Olivieri's mission is funded by the Italian government, which works with local Pakistani antiquities authorities. It has uncovered over 120 Buddhist sites among Swat's soaring hills and rushing rivers. Of roughly 200 Buddhist rock carvings in Swat, the Jahanabad Buddha was among the few to survive with its face intact for so long, said Olivieri. Most were defaced centuries ago by Muslim invaders who, like the Taliban, consider Buddha a false idol.

Maulana Shamsur Rehman, a leading politician in Swat, says the attack on the Buddha should never have happened. Islam preaches freedom and protection for followers of all religions, he told The Associated Press, and "in line with Islamic rules, nobody should have an objection to the repair work on the Buddha statue."

In 2001, militants damaged the excavated ruins of a 7th century Hindu temple in Swat overlooking a stronghold conquered by Alexander in the 4th century B.C. Unable to protect the temple, the Italian mission had to rebury it.

Ironically, the site that Olivieri was most worried about during the Taliban's violent reign in Swat was an Islamic one—the roughly 1,000-year-old Udegram Ghaznavid mosque, the third oldest in Pakistan. He feared the militants would occupy and damage it, but that never happened.

Pakistani security officials say the Taliban are again trying to infiltrate Swat, but militants are not the only threat to the archaeological sites. Looters are perhaps a bigger problem. Many relics looted from Swat are in private and public collections around the world.

In December police arrested several men in Swat and seized a roughly one-meter-(three-foot) tall, 1,800-year-old Buddhist statue that could have fetched tens of thousands of dollars on the international antiquities market.

The Italian mission has posted guards at the most important sites and is also training them to become guides by teaching them English, first aid and basic conservation techniques, said Olivieri.

The mission opened in 1955 in an office provided by the Wali of Swat, the one-time princely ruler of the territory. To furnish a taste of home, its first draftsman painted a mural of Rome's Spanish Steps in the dining room.

The feeling of glimpsing Italy in the wilds of Pakistan's northwest continues today. There's espresso in the morning and Italian olive oil on the dining room table. A Fiat Campagnola jeep shipped from Italy in 1955 is due to end up in a museum in Swat.



Interesting the monk who introduced Buddhism to Tibet was from Swat!!!

Never knew that..

Unfortunately that kind of damage has been wrought time and again by bigots all over the world. In recent times the destruction of the Bamiyan Buddha is just one such instance which comes to mind. The sacking and destruction of Nalanda is an irretrievable loss.

I remember reading somewhere that it was a Hindu king who exterminated Buddhism in India ..?

 

[proud_indian]

Actually, Jainism suggests avoidance from killing any life form. Onions, garlic, carrots etc are essentially bulbous roots of a plant and hence the entire plant has to be killed in order to obtain them. This is one of the main reasons why such ingredients were avoided in Jainism. Rice and wheat too, are avoided by those who strictly follow Jainism, and hence lentils are a very important part of their diet.

never seen a single person practicing this
although my Late grandma didn't eat jimikand (rooted vegetables)

My mother don't eat so many vegetables along with onion and garlic

 

[Chronos]

248 replies and no trolling?

Buddha really is great

 

[Indischer]

never seen a single person practicing this
although my grandma didn't eat jimikand (rooted vegetables)

My mother don't eat so many vegetables along with onion and garlic

To see that, you'll have to come down south to Shravanabelagola.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

248 replies and no trolling?

Buddha really is great

Buddha could be a Holy man ... Even a saint or messenger of God..

 

[Daedalus]

In short you would not say the same if you were in your senses.

No. I believe what I preacher. But no one will debate with me on religion when we have our senses intact. You know how doctors have to behave in a respectable manner in India. Talk about stereotype! We only get to relax and speak our hearts out when we are a little bit knocked and dead in the middle of night behind closed doors.

 

[proud_indian]

To see that, you'll have to come down south to Shravanabelagola.

I never went there but I want to.

by the way we call this place Bahubali JI

 

[Chronos]

In this May 24, 2012 photo, people sit near a sculpture of the Buddha whose face was destroyed by Taliban fighters at Jahanabad, Pakistan in the Swat valley. – AP


JAHANABAD, Pakistan: When the Taliban blew the face off a towering, 1,500-year-old rock carving of Buddha in northwest Pakistan almost five years ago, it fell to an intrepid Italian archaeologist to come to the rescue.

Thanks to the efforts of Luca Olivieri and his partners, the 6-meter (nearly 20-foot)-tall image near the town of Jahanabad is getting a facelift, and many other archaeological treasures in the scenic Swat Valley are being excavated and preserved.

Extremists have a history of targeting Buddhist, Hindu and other religious sites they consider heretical to Islam. Six months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, the Taliban shocked the world by dynamiting a pair of 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues in central Afghanistan.

The Jahanabad Buddha, etched high on a huge rock face in the 6th or 7th century, is one of the largest such carvings in South Asia. It was attacked in the fall of 2007 when the Pakistani Taliban swarmed across the scenic Swat Valley. The army drove most of them out two years later, but foreign tourists who used to visit the region still tend to stay away.

Olivieri himself had to leave in 2008 after more than two decades of tending to the riches dating back to Alexander the Great and the Buddhist, Hindu and Muslim invaders who followed. The 49-year-old head of the Italian Archaeological Mission in Pakistan returned in 2010 and is back at work.

Taliban militants climbed ropes to insert explosives in holes drilled into the face and shoulders of the Jahanabad Buddha, said Olivieri. The explosives in the shoulders failed to detonate, but the others blew off most of the face above the lips and cracked other parts of the carving and surrounding rock.

Olivieri and his team began work this month on fixing the cracks and what's left of the face. A full reconstruction is impossible because detailed documentation and fragments of the face are lacking.

"Whatever you do in the absence of perfect data is a fake," said Olivieri, who says he has wanted to be an archaeologist since age 6 and still brings a youthful exuberance to his work even as his beard grows gray.

In this May 24, 2012 photo, Italian archeologist Luca Olivieri, left, talks with colleagues in Saidu Sharif, Pakistan. – AP


Arriving as a university student in 1987, he was fascinated by Swat, once an important center of Buddhist culture and trade. The monk credited with introducing Buddhism to Tibet, Padmasambhava, was born in Swat.

In more recent decades, the area was known as "the Switzerland of Pakistan," popular with religious tourists from China, Japan and South Korea, and the hope is that restoration of the Jahanabad Buddha will spark a revival of tourism here.

Olivieri's mission is funded by the Italian government, which works with local Pakistani antiquities authorities. It has uncovered over 120 Buddhist sites among Swat's soaring hills and rushing rivers. Of roughly 200 Buddhist rock carvings in Swat, the Jahanabad Buddha was among the few to survive with its face intact for so long, said Olivieri. Most were defaced centuries ago by Muslim invaders who, like the Taliban, consider Buddha a false idol.

Maulana Shamsur Rehman, a leading politician in Swat, says the attack on the Buddha should never have happened. Islam preaches freedom and protection for followers of all religions, he told The Associated Press, and "in line with Islamic rules, nobody should have an objection to the repair work on the Buddha statue."

In 2001, militants damaged the excavated ruins of a 7th century Hindu temple in Swat overlooking a stronghold conquered by Alexander in the 4th century B.C. Unable to protect the temple, the Italian mission had to rebury it.

Ironically, the site that Olivieri was most worried about during the Taliban's violent reign in Swat was an Islamic one—the roughly 1,000-year-old Udegram Ghaznavid mosque, the third oldest in Pakistan. He feared the militants would occupy and damage it, but that never happened.

Pakistani security officials say the Taliban are again trying to infiltrate Swat, but militants are not the only threat to the archaeological sites. Looters are perhaps a bigger problem. Many relics looted from Swat are in private and public collections around the world.

In December police arrested several men in Swat and seized a roughly one-meter-(three-foot) tall, 1,800-year-old Buddhist statue that could have fetched tens of thousands of dollars on the international antiquities market.

The Italian mission has posted guards at the most important sites and is also training them to become guides by teaching them English, first aid and basic conservation techniques, said Olivieri.

The mission opened in 1955 in an office provided by the Wali of Swat, the one-time princely ruler of the territory. To furnish a taste of home, its first draftsman painted a mural of Rome's Spanish Steps in the dining room.

The feeling of glimpsing Italy in the wilds of Pakistan's northwest continues today. There's espresso in the morning and Italian olive oil on the dining room table. A Fiat Campagnola jeep shipped from Italy in 1955 is due to end up in a museum in Swat.



Interesting the monk who introduced Buddhism to Tibet was from Swat!!!

Never knew that..




I remember reading somewhere that it was a Hindu king who exterminated Buddhism in India ..?

Bamiyan was a great loss :/ and now this.

Idiotic Taliban destroying cutural heritage. Pakistan could rake in the tourist dollars if it weren't for these dark age morons

 

[Levina]

No. I believe what I preacher. But no one will debate with me on religion when we have our senses intact. You know how doctors have to behave in a respectable manner in India. Talk about stereotype! We only get to relax and speak our hearts out when we are a little bit knocked and dead in the middle of night behind closed doors.

You mean that religion is your forte.Did I read it right??
If so earlier you had said that you and your frens get spiritual when you're drunk.

Why is everyone so adamant at confusing me today??