Massive 2,600 year old Buddhist Monastery
(By Tsem Rinpoche)
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2011
Buddha statues inside ancient temple in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan. This archaeological site is located at the world’s second-largest unexploited copper mine in Logar province. China Metallurgical Group Corp. will destroy it in three years.
MES AYNAK, Afghanistan — It was another day on the rocky hillside, as archaeologists and laborers dug out statues of Buddha and excavated a sprawling 2,600-year-old Buddhist monastery. A Chinese woman in slacks, carrying an umbrella against the Afghan sun, politely inquired about their progress.
World’s largest Buddha, now demolished, Bamiyan, Afghanistan (OSProductions LLC).
She had more than a passing interest. The woman represents a Chinese company eager to develop the world’s second-biggest unexploited copper mine, lying beneath the ruins.
The mine is the centerpiece of China’s drive to invest in Afghanistan, a country trying to get its economy off the ground while still mired in war. Beijing’s $3.5 billion stake in the mine — the largest foreign investment in Afghanistan by far — gets its foot in the door for future deals to exploit Afghanistan’s largely untapped mineral wealth, including iron, gold and cobalt. The Afghan government stands to reap a potential $1.2 billion a year in revenues from the mine, as well as the creation of much-needed jobs.
Massive 2,600 year old monastery discovered
Wisdom Quarterly has been sitting on this explosive story awaiting further confirmation. It establishes what we have been saying for years: The Buddha was born in Lumbini Garden far to the west of Nepal on the outskirts of the Indian frontier. (Dr. Ranajit Pal places the exact birthplace in Seistan-Baluchistan, in the vicinity of modern Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, all of which are now steeped in Islamic rule and war).
Bamiyan Buddha, Afghanistan
The basics are simple; the modern situation is dire. Buddhism is presumed to be 2,600 years old. (People have been rounding down to 2,500 for more than a century). There was no time for Buddhism to be born, move west along the trade routes, and become established in a far off hinterland (Gandhara) of the Indian empire. Instead, that area recognized its native famous native son, even though he launched his teaching, the Dharma, far to the east near the greatest holy city of that time, Varanasi. It is comparable to a young person from Hicksville heading to Hollywood to pursue a music career. As that person’s fame spreads, the ones to make the biggest deal out of it are those in his home state.
What the startling archeological find at Mes Aynak reveals is a full monastic temple complex (vihara), with massive Buddha statues. They must have taken centuries to develop as art forms in the Gandharan style — always assumed to be a later Grecian metamorphosis from earlier Asian examples, which now seems to be turned around — to say nothing of how long they took to construct.
It is well known that the Buddha discouraged the making of idols, resisting the tendency of people to place emphasis on him as a person. Instead, he redirected attention at the timeless liberating Dharma. The Dharma — that is, realization of the Dharma, enlightenment — was symbolized by a wheel, a Bodhi tree, stupas (encasing the relics and funerary remains of enlightened individuals), the swastika, and other symbols.
Photo of the Buddha, appearing Central Asian (Indo-Iranian)
Only later were depictions of the Buddha’s body and image allowed to develop and encouraged as reminders of the Three Jewels: Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (in this case, noble disciples).
“Noble” is a key term. It is thought to signify warrior (kshatriya) caste status, out of which the Buddha and many of his disciples emerged. The Buddha did not support the Brahminical/Vedic caste system. But in far off Kapilavastu where he grew up, the nobles (warrior or ruling caste) were in conflict for supremacy with the brahmins (priestly or educated class).
Brahmins eventually ascended to the top of the hierarchy by serving as advisers to rulers. The educated class does not rule directly by force as do royals. It rules by using rulers as puppets hamstrung and utterly dependent on ministers, advisers, planners, functionaries, and operatives.
Map of ancient trade routes from Alexandria, Egypt to Indian centers of learning.
Eventually there were many “Alexandrias” in Greater India.
The Buddha changed the meaning of “noble” and even the term “brahmin.” He emphasized that both meant superior in terms of virtue, worthiness, and spiritually accomplishment. This does not happen by birth but by one’s actions (karma). Caste status is set in stone by birth. Deeds undertaken now, rather than results of former actions enjoyed at birth, allow anyone, whatever their circumstances, to become ennobled and worthy of salutations, gifts, reverence, and deference.
Another word for “noble” is aryan, a much maligned term that originally meant something as basic as Iranian. The Buddha was an arya, a noble one, not in the later sense of being enlightened, virtuous, and worthy of honors. He was literally an arya because he had been born in the aryan land, on the frontiers of the prosperous India of that time.
This was in fact a decline of India’s greatness, which had come in the time of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa, massive, technologically advanced societies with extraterrestrial contact (devas), which were eventually obliterated by nuclear arms and natural disasters, not the least of which was the drying up of great rivers. The Vedas, or Knowledge Books (as distinct from aveda or avidya which mean “ignorance”) record the progress of the Indus Valley Civilization (later pronounced “Hindu” by British surveyors referring to the amazing diversity of “religious” beliefs of India all taken under a single term) and the many types of beings that visited, inhabited, and set up great cities around the Earth’s “cradle of civilization”).
He was a princely foreigner from the west who came to Magadha, India. He crossed a oddly unnamed river defining the limits of the land of his father’s influence and came to the prosperous area of India, the largest and most vibrant cities in those times, in search of a guru.
There was bustling trade and interaction with his own homeland. They shared a language (Magadhi, or Prakrit, a form of Sanskrit-Pali, Pali being the simplification of the scholarly language that was never in popular use but rather reserved for the educated elite brahmins), perhaps not a dialect. But it was close enough the Buddha and others from the “Land of the Shakyas” were able to travel freely and adapt seamlessly.
The land back then was divided into mahajanapadas (footholds of clans or tribes or extended ruling families). These great territories were constantly in dispute, growing, and being taken over. Sixteen are spoken of as being relatively stable. The Shakyas’s “kingdom” was crushed and overtaken in the Buddha’s own lifetime. As much as he attempted to intervene and keep the peace between it and a related neighboring group, the Shakyas were slaughtered.
After the great Indus Valley Civilizations along the Indus and Saraswati rivers
Although he did not know until it happened — in his efforts to intervene he realized it was futile and searched for the reason, finding it in a case of collective karma stemming from the spiteful poisoning of a river killing many fish in the ancient past — had he stayed as a royal, he and many of the most famous Buddhist monks, to whom he was related, would have met the same fate.
Everything in the sutras suggests a foreigner of royal demeanor, much loved, admired for his tact and compassion and honored for his wisdom and spiritual accomplishments. The Buddha was not from nearby Nepal. Travel was widespread, and diminished over time as people became parochial. Because we assume we are at the apex of civilization, we think that however it is now, it is at least better than it was in the past.
But time and epochs of civilization are cyclical, rising, achieving greatness beyond our comprehension, and falling away. The past is always spoken of as a Golden Age, not the present. The future will worsen before there is again another Golden Age. The time between these cycles may be in the thousands of years or aeons. It is confounded by the fact that there are cycles within a cycle, and different locations are at different stages, and all of this is happening simultaneously.
The Art
The art is even more telling. We make images in our own likeness as time passes, moving away from the origins. However, using Burmese art as just one example, dark skinned South Asians depict the unknown early life of the Buddha with very Central Asian (Iranian, Persian, Afghan) characteristics and accents. There could be other reasons for this, but the tendency would have been to simply use royal Burmese details that locals would have understood. Click here to see the Life of Buddha in arts.
The Problem
The problem is not the history. That will straighten itself out in time as people eventually come around to the truth. The problem is China. Formerly a Buddhist empire, now a Communist-Capitalist and officially atheist but promoting Roman-style Catholicism superpower, it now is all about money. It is not satisfied to have its main debtor-nation, the USA, attempting to pay off its debt in large shipments of Ameros or even a New World Currency.
It’s interested in exploiting resources in second and third world nations, such as Afghanistan. It is not about to stand by and watch America and Russia divvy up the goods (war booty). The Chinese government-backed China Metallurgical corporation has gone in and forged its own contracts with the Afghan government to exploit the second largest copper mine in the world.
Unfortunately, in ancient times, temples were usually built near mines to have the material at hand for the construction of precious idols and artifacts. This is the case with Mes Aynak in the Logar province, Afghanistan (formerly Gandhara, India). The discovery of one of the largest and oldest Buddhist monasteries in the world is not about to stop atheist/Communist/Catholic China.
They have given war-torn Afghani archeologists three years to excavate before the site is demolished and the copper is plundered. (And where there’s copper, there’s gold as well). Afghani archeologists with their extremely limited resources and funding — and Islamic government in no way interested in promoting Buddhism, Buddhist tourism, or revealing its own Buddhist past — in return say three years is not even long enough to document and describe the discoveries.
Indus Valley Civilization
How could the past have been more glorious than the present? During 4300–3200 BCE of the copper age (chalcolithic period), the Indus Valley Civilization area shows ceramic similarities with southern Turkmenistan and northern Iran, which suggest considerable mobility and trade. During the Early Harappan period (about 3200–2600 BCE), similarities in pottery, seals, figurines, ornaments, and so on, document-intensive caravan trade with Central Asia and the Iranian plateau. [Ref.] Judging from the dispersal of Indus civilization artifacts, the trade networks, economically, integrated a HUGE area, including portions of Afghanistan, the coastal regions of Persia (Iran), northern and western India, and Mesopotamia.
Source: http://wisdomquarterly.blogspot.my/2011/02/massive-2600-year-old-buddhist.html
Addendum
Below are other Buddha statues and figures excavated from the site.
For more interesting information:
- Giritale, Sri Lanka (site of the replica Avukana Buddha)
- Suryagupta’s 21 Taras
- The Six Patriarchs of Chan Buddhism
- The Four Exalted Brothers
- The Great Buddha of Kamakura
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If you are in the United States, please note that your offerings and contributions are tax deductible. ~ the tsemrinpoche.com blog team
The Great Buddhas of Bamiyan were two monumental Buddhist statues built around 600 CE. A holy site for Buddhists on the Silk Road, historically a caravan route linking the markets of China with those of the Western world. The two most prominent statues were the giant standing sculptures of the Buddhas .It was the site of several Buddhist monasteries where monks at the monasteries lived as hermits. It was until in 2001, both statues were destroyed by the Taliban . Before being blown up in 2001, they were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world .Buddhism was eliminated in Afghanistan by the 13th century during the Mongol conquests. Sadly all statues depicting humans in Afghanistan was destroyed. They were perhaps the most famous cultural landmarks of the region, and the site was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Despite the Buddhas’s destruction, the ruins continue to be a popular culture landmark, where many locals, pilgrims and tourist visit the site.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting blog.
That’s great with the discovery of a massive 2,600 year old Buddhist Monastery in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan. Mes Aynak contains Afghanistan’s largest copper deposit, as well as the remains of an ancient settlement with over 400 Buddha statues. This archaeological site is located at the world’s second-largest unexploited copper mine. Sadly because of the Afghanistan an Islamic government in no way interested in Buddhism, had given Afghani archeologists three years to excavate and soon it will be destroyed. Some believe future discoveries at the site could have the potential to redefine the history of Afghanistan and even the history of Buddhism itself. This site is an outstanding and complex archaeological landscape, with astounding quality of preservation. Well even the archaeological evidence points to civilizations in the area flourishing as early as the 3rd century BCE. This is an old post, all these ancient Buddhist site were destroyed by now….Sad. Interesting read. Looking at those beautiful rare pictures of the discoveries tell all.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Glad to know ancient Buddhist site dating back to 2600 years in Afghanistan.
Buddhism in Afghanistan was one of the major religious forces in the region during pre-Islamic era. The Buddhist religion in Afghanistan started fading with the arrival of Islam in the 7th century .
A 2,600-year-old Buddhist Monastery was only recently unearthed as the Chinese government were developing the world’s second largest copper mine. This ancient Buddhist city will be destroyed once when this copper mine starts. More than 150 statues and ancient Buddhist artefacts have been found . It was considered an important and historic discovery, as the discovery site is so massive. Archaeologists are rushing to salvage what they could from a major 7th century B.C. religious site along the famed Silk Road connecting Asia and the Middle East. The war-torn Afghani archaeologists were given three years to excavate before the site is demolished. How nice if they could preserved those ancients Buddhist artefacts and statues to share with the rest of the world.
Sad…..the Afghan will be losing a huge part of how important their own history is and how influential Afghanistan was to the rest of the world.
Thank you Rinpoche for this interesting sharing.
Amazing discovery a massive 2,600 year old monastery discovered in Mesayna, Afghanistan . It is amazing to see Afghanistan, as an Islamic country, has Buddhist monastery which is 2600 years of age in Mes Aynak. Absolutely fascinating to see ancient Buddhist artifacts that were 2,600 years old from a region infected with wars and fights. But too bad that many of the statues have been destroyed. How wonderful it would be if they can preseve those ancient discoveries to share with the out side world. Thank you very much again Rinpoche and blog team for writing up another interesting post ???
It will be a pity if these archaeological finds are destroyed. The temple grounds and surroundings could shed light of the civilisation of those people living during that period. Aside from the spiritual and religious finds, evidence of the culture, tradition, language, food, trade and commerce, politics, and many more could provide experts to know not just how those people lived but what happened to them, if ample time was given to them to unravel the mystery. Who were the inhabitants? Did those people perish there, if so how? Or did they migrate to somewhere else? So much to discover, so much to learn, from this lost civilisation.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this article. It is amazing to see Afghanistan, as an Islamic country, has Buddhist monastery which is 2600 years of age in Mes Aynak. There are so many Buddha images in Mes Aynak. The sad thing is that the archaeologists were given a short period of time to document and move all the Buddha images and other things to another place because China wants to develop this area. Being an Islamic country, the archaeologists have hard time to get funding to document and move the Buddha images to somewhere else. Why China never thought of rebuilding this Budhhist Monastery and make it well-known and as a pilgrimage site?
With folded palms,
Vivian
Some recent write up to share on this subject. If the information is accurate there’s hope that the Buddhist relics found or to be discovered in this area will be preserved. The delay of this copper mine project is also beneficial in giving archaelogists more time to discover and rescue the precious relics. Let’s hope we have the Karma to make these findings and preserve them for the benefit of the future generations and continuation of the growth of the Dharma.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such an interesting article. May the Wheel of Dharma continue to turn to benefit all beings !
“It was widely reported in the international media that a Buddhist archaeological site and its remnants in Mes Aynak were in danger and would be demolished by the Chinese miners if action was not taken. That was not the case. From the outset of the project, the Afghan government was fully aware of the archaeological site and assumed responsibility for preserving the relics and assuring their safety. During Daud Khan’s reign (1973-1978), the Mes Aynak site was surveyed and labeled as a Buddhist archaeological site. In 2003, the Afghan government restarted surveying and protecting the area site. When the Mes Aynak mine contract was awarded, Archeologique Francaise en Afghanistan (DAFA) was requested by the Ministry of Information and Culture in April 2009 to provide technical assistance in excavating and transferring the relics to a safe place. The World Bank also provided technical support through UNESCO to assist the Afghan government in taking care of the archaeological site. More than a dozen international archaeologists, numerous national experts, and up to 500 laborers have been part of the excavation since 2012.
According to Ministry of Information and Culture, not a single Buddhist artifact has been damaged or affected during excavation thus far. My colleagues in the Ministry of Information and Culture told me that more than 2,000 Buddhist relics have been safely transferred to the Kabul museum and remnants that are not transferable have been allotted a temporary shelter site in Mohammad Agha district for storage. Therefore, the various alarming-sounding reports and documentaries that claimed Buddhist relics are under serious threat by the mine workers are not supported by the facts on the ground.
Did the excavation of the archaeological site force MJAM to postpone its physical work on the ground? Actually, no, because MJAM has so far only managed to proceed with preliminary paperwork, such as surveys, a feasibility study, and environmental impact studies, and has yet to start copper extraction. Secondly, the archaeological site is just 0.45 square kilometers in size compared to the area of the whole site which is 28 sq km. The area occupied by the archaeological portion, just 1.5 percent of the total mining site, is not sufficient to have halted the work of MJAM to such an extent as to have made extraction impossible.
Kabul and Beijing clearly understand what is going on. It is neither the security situation nor the archaeological site that has kept the Mes Aynak project from moving forward over the past nine years. It is all about agreeing on the contractual terms”
http://thediplomat.com/2017/01/the-story-behind-chinas-long-stalled-mine-in-afghanistan/
For every Taliban there is in Afghanistan I am happy there are Afghanis who know the value of cultural past and history. I knew the Taliban said to blow up the buddhas, because people around the world was more interested in the Buddhas of Bamiyan than the people and children.
But by destroying such a unique heritage, they lost much opportunity for tourism dollars. By conserving the statues, it could have paid the bills for food for the the people of Afghanistan.
These two maps, the first mapping out the Indus Valley civilization and the second which shows the area of Sistan-Baluchistan on a modern political map, will help show where Lumbini Garden, the birthplace of Buddha Shakyamuni might be according to this article.
Well is this postulation holds true then the historical Buddha was actually born about 2600 years ago in Seistan-Baluchistan.
Hi Choong,
I think the article is not trying to relocate the birth place of the Buddha from Lumbini to Seistan-Baluchistan. I think what the article is trying to say is that Buddhism first became big in the fringes of Indian civilization, with the discovery of this huge excavation site of the ancient monastery Mes Aynek. The date of this excavation site is 2,600 years ago and that places this monastery to be the oldest and probably the first to have emerged.
Therefore, they are saying that is unusual considering the Buddha first taught way down in the south east at Varanasi. They are saying that Buddhism flourished first in the outskirts of the Indian civilization because that’s where the Buddha came from, Lumbini / Kapilavastu kingdom is considered the fringes of Indian cultural sphere of that time as well. That does not mean Lumbini is in the Afghan area. It is not. If you look at the map, you will see that Nepal is far off to the east. Lumbini stays in Nepal. Hence, Nepalese are very proud of Buddha being Nepalese although the kingdom of Nepal didn’t exist during the Buddha’s time.
There are other things they talked about as well including the evolution of Buddhist art and so forth but that’s not relevant here. I hope I help shed some light here… 🙂
Absolutely fascinating to see ancient Buddhist artifacts that were 2,600 years old from a region infected with wars and fights. Despite the very rich historical heritage, the Persian Gulf has not been successful in keeping many of it. It is a reminder that anything man-made is impermanence. Even the holy site of worship can be destroyed to make way for the faith of the day or the give way to growth and development.
Many do not see the need to preserve these artifacts in their original form and location because spiritual is a distanced practice that is meant for a few people. Imagine if there is a huge demand for the preservation of the artifacts, instead of the mineral from the mine, it is pretty obvious what that the Chinese company will do. Therefore, it is paramount to preserve and spread the Dharma by ways of applying it in everyones daily life; only through keeping the Buddha Dharma flame ablaze in people’s mind, we can garner the support need to keep important artifacts intact. Thank you, Rinpoche, for this article.
It will be a sad day if the statues at Mes Aynak are destroyed. It has lain hidden for centuries to be destroyed upon its unveiling? How very sad. Hopefully, China Metallurgical Company will be agreeable to a mining method that will be kinder to the statues and maybe, in later years, enable the statues to be kept as monuments and a window to the past.
Such treasures are the keepers of history and should be maintained and allowed as places of pilgrimage.
Wow Buddha statues since 2600 years ago in Afghanistan! That must be dated back to the time of the first Buddha. How wonderful to see that Buddhism had been already quite prevalent in many Asian countries since ancient civilisation. May Buddhism in these countries be revived and continue to grow.
Amazing discovery a massive 2,600 year old monastery discovered in Mesayna, Afghanistan . Buddhist statues was found at the archaeological site at the world secound largest unexploited copper mine.It reveals the largest and oldest monasteries of ancient times with massive Buddha statues dated back to many centuries ago.Those statues excavated from the site was precious and rare and we are forfunate able to see it.
China has invested billions in the coppermine mining in Afghanistan as the government are trying to build up from a war torn country as Afghani archeologists could not afford .Quite recently some Buddha statues was demolished and destroyed as Islamic government not keen to promote Buddhism or revealing its own Buddhist past and because of war too. How nice if they can presevered those ancient discoveries to share with the out side world.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these interesting article and those beautiful rare pictures of Buddha statues found.