2000-year-old Indian Buddhist documents!
Dear all,
I came across this interesting article about a 2,000 year old Indian Buddhist document that has been found in modern Northwestern Pakistan. It is currently being analyzed by experts from the Indological Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich. What makes this piece of ancient document so unique is that it comes from the 1st century BC… making it the oldest Indian Literature on Buddhism to date!
This is a ground breaking discovery as it tell us how Buddhism took root in India. It also gives us an idea of what it was like for Buddhists back in the 1st Century. The research for this manuscript was granted 8.6 million euros from the Academies Program, making it one of the largest humanities research program!
I am glad to hear how experts have so much enthusiasm to decipher this document which is written in a language long extinct. This is certainly one research that every Buddhist will be looking forward to hear about in the years to come. Buddhism is one of the oldest continuous religions of the world and certainly has much to offer mankind for daily living as well as profound insights.
I really am enthralled by this special treasure of humankind.
Tsem Rinpoche
Indian Buddhism: Birch-Bark Treasures
Jan. 23, 2013 — Experts in Indological Studies at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich are in the process of analyzing 2000-year-old Indian Buddhist documents that have only recently come to light. The precious manuscripts have already yielded some surprising findings.
The oldest surviving Buddhist texts, preserved on long rolls of birch-tree bark, are written in Gandhari, an early regional Indic language that is long extinct. The scrolls originate from the region known in ancient times as Gandhara, which lies in what is now Northwestern Pakistan.
For researchers interested in the early history of Buddhism, these manuscripts represent a sensational find, for a number of reasons. The first is their age. Some of the documents date from the first century BC, making them by far the oldest examples of Indian Buddhist literature. But for the experts, their contents are equally fascinating. The texts provide insights into a literary tradition which was thought to have been irretrievably lost, and they help researchers to reconstruct crucial phases in the development of Buddhism in India. Furthermore, the scrolls confirm the vital role played by the Gandhara region in the spread of Buddhism into Central Asia and China.
Editing the manuscripts
At LMU Munich a team of researchers led by LMU Indological scholar Professor Jens-Uwe Hartmann and Professor Harry Falk of the Free University of Berlin has just begun the arduous job of editing the manuscripts. Most of the texts survive only as fragments, which must first be collated and reassembled. The magnitude of the task is reflected in the planned duration of the project — 21 years. The project of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities is being funded by a total grant of 8.6 million euros from the Academies Program, that is coordinated by the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities. It is one of the largest research programs in the field of the Humanities in the Federal Republic.
The researchers work not with the manuscripts themselves, but with digital scans. The originals are not only extremely fragile, but are held in various collections scattered around the world. A large fraction of the surviving material is stored in the British Library in London. The ultimate goal of the project is to prepare a modern edition of all the Gandhari manuscripts, thus making them available for further investigation. In addition, the researchers plan to produce a dictionary of the Gandhari language and a survey of its grammar. However, the project will be primarily concerned with illuminating the development of Gandhari literature and the history of Buddhism in Gandhara. It is already clear that the results will lead to a new understanding of the earliest phases of Buddhism in India.
At the core of the project is the construction of a comprehensive database in which all relevant information and results are collected, stored and linked together. The database will serve as the major source of electronic and printed publications on the topic, and regular updates will give the international research community access to the latest results.
Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130123133430.htm
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Amazing discovery a 2,000 year old Indian Buddhist document as it tell us how Buddhism took root in India. It’s the oldest Buddhist manuscripts yet discovered, dating from about the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE. Found in the north-western outskirts of the Indian subcontinent an ancient Buddhist kindgom. The document, written on a birch bark scroll offers rare insight into the early history of Buddhism. Surviving manuscripts are rare only a few hundred are known to still exist. Understanding the history of the region helps us realize the significance of this scroll.
Thank you Rinpoche for this sharing.
Fantastic discovery of a scroll is written in Gandhari. A derivative of the classical Indian language Sanskrit in the Indo-Aryan branch of languages. These document, written on a birch bark scroll about 2,000 years ago which offers rare insight into the early history of Buddhism. These manuscripts are not only the oldest of any Buddhist tradition, but they are also the oldest manuscripts in existence. These Buddhist manuscripts, has been painstakingly preserved and digitized.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing this amazing article with us. The amount of work ventured forth by the conservation researchers, historians and so forth in preserving history goes beyond words.
Fantastic discovery of these ancient manuscripts of Buddha’s teachings which is said to be 2000 years old. It offers a glimpse into early Buddhist history in the ancient kingdom of Gandhara known as Afghanistan. These Indian Buddhist documents that have only recently come to light which is preserved on long rolls of birch-tree bark. Amazing discovery and it seem to be the oldest surviving Buddhist texts written in long extinct Gandhari. The precious manuscripts had given more insight to the Buddhist teachings by some experts. May all these texts be preserved and well taken care of. A rare and precious discovery.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such a discovery.
Such an amazing discovery of a 2,000 years old Buddhist scripture and its a wonder how it survived given that it was written on biodegradable birch tree bark. This is certainly one research that every Buddhist will be looking forward to hear about in the years to come.
Thank you Rinpoche and blog team for sharing this interesting article about a 2,000 year old Indian Buddhist document that has been found in modern Northwestern Pakistan. 👍😍🌈🔥🙏
Amazing a 2000-year-old Indian Buddhist documents found in modern Northwestern Pakistan. Its the oldest surviving Buddhist texts, preserved on long rolls of birch-tree bark.It comes from the 1st century BC… making it the oldest Indian Literature on Buddhism. It is one of the largest research programs which cost 8.6 million euros editing the manuscripts.They will take some years maybe to get it translated.The good news is that we know Buddhism was there thousands years ago.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing these interesting post.
Such an amazing discovery. 2,000 years old Buddhist scripture and its a wonder how it survived given that it was written on biodegradable birch tree bark. The ink is still clearly readable although much research will be needed since the written language in Ghandari is extinct. Definitely would be interested to learn what is written and hope the research will have result way before the 21 years time frame given. Don’t think I will be around if it takes that long.
Scrolled down and read Jin’s comments. He was concerned about preservation of Dharma texts and teachings for the future generations. In my humble opinion, no matter how well the teachings may be preserved to pass on into the future, it will remain academic. What we need to preserve is the attained Gurus who compassionately come back life after life to bring the Dharma alive with blessings. It is very important to preserve the monastic system where the Sangha dedicate their lives to learning and actualising what Buddha taught. This is the method of keeping Buddha’s teachings alive for the future generation. Therefore it is very important to gain the merits to create causes for the Gurus to remain, as well as to reincarnate again and again as they carry the enlightened Buddha mind stream in them. We, ourselves must also practice towards gaining attainments to be able to help others.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such an exciting discovery.
感恩仁波切的分享，倘若不是一直追寻着仁波切的博客，我想我这一辈子都没有机会与福份能够看见如此殊胜的佛法历史文物，这是多大的加持与祝福啊
祈愿所有有关予佛法的文物，佛像，经书，都能好好的被保存下来，好使佛法永在，将来能利益无数的众生
感恩仁波切，祈愿您长驻在世常转法轮
Thanks Rinoche for the sharing.
This news is really a good news for all Buddhist.
I am also look forward for the result of the research.
This is an interesting article. Discovery of this fragile documents and the amount of time and money spend on research to unveil the secrets will definitely shed lights to the early years of Buddhism.
Birch bark was a primary material used in India for writing before the introduction of paper and it’s amazing that it can survive all these years.
How incredibly exciting and a truly pivotal find. How this document even survived 2000 years is in itself truly miraculous. I cannot wait to find out what is written exactly in these writings and how it can be related to our times. Truly a “voice” from the past which is haunting yet invigorating!
Wow! What an amazing discovery! Something as sacred and old can still be found. And I cant wait for more of it to be discovered! I am really excited… I wonder what is written in the text. And its going to take 21 years for the whole project? Like many, this is my first time hearing about Gandhari. But the amazing part is to know that Buddhism spread to many places even in those years.
Thank you for this excellent find. Hope this will help us to understand much more of how Buddhism was presented in the past.
such a fantastic new discovery of these ancient Buddhist text, it will provide people around the world more in-depth understanding of what Buddhism was 2000.
with such finding it will shed light on what transpire during Buddha Shakyamuni time 2500 years ago, and it will provide a solid foundation of Buddhism history of Lord Buddha teaching. Rejoice.
Thank You Rinpoche for this sharing.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such exciting and wonderful news!!
Wow , really good to know that discover 2,000 year old Indian Buddhist document which in modern Northwestern Pakistan. This is very tough job to translate ancient Gandhara language . Really wondering what is the teaching of this Gandhari manuscripts .
I went through different emotional feelings when I read that such holy and ancient Buddha scriptures was discovered recently.
I was very touched and moved when I read that holy and treasured ancient Buddha scripture like this dated 2,000 years ago was discovered recently. 🙂 I felt the kindness and compassion of the previous generations to us. They actually cared and thought about preserving such good teachings for us – for the future generations to study! 🙂
But later I felt very, very sad… when I looked at the holy scriptures photo which looked very torn apart and there were many missing parts… Such holy Buddha scriptures like this only remained/survived parts of it, not the entire, complete scripture. It was also written in a language that we could not understand now any more… It becomes very difficult for future generations like us to read.. We could only rely on limited language experts to try to ‘decode’ the meaning of the scriptures. But I wonder would the experts’ interpretations be the same meaning as what Buddha really wanted to tell us or teach us? Everyone has different interpretations to a poem for example..
This makes me think that the same incident may happen to our future generations 2,000 years later. Its just like a cycle. History just happen again and again like samsara.
I have been thinking few questions:-
Are we, this generations people also doing something good and cared for our future generations? Just like what the 2,000 years ago people did for us? Are we also helping to preserve holy Buddha scriptures for another 2,000 years later people? For them to read and study the path to Enlightenment?
We have been discovering many hidden Buddha Scriptures, Teachings that the previous generations have preserved for us. But are we also helping to preserve the holy Buddha teachings for the future generations? It reminds me of petroleum. I am worried that if we only keep discovering ancient, hidden Buddha scriptures, and we are not doing something to preserve them for the future generations, the Buddha texts may disappeared one day… This has been puzzling me for quite some time. It just makes me fell very, very sad..
Then later the next question I wonder is how do we do our part to preserve the Buddha scriptures for our future generations also? What is the best way to store and keep holy Buddha scriptures? Do we use our technology now to store holy Buddha scriptures? Like saving in a computer’s thumb drives? We could save many data or Buddha scriptures in a thumb drive now, but could the people in 2,000 years later open the files in the thumb drive that we saved to read? Without the computer now, how are they going to open the thumb drive files 2,000 years later?
Another question I thought about is the language issue. Imagine in this generations we wrote and preserved some holy Buddha’s scriptures in English or other languages. What if 2,000 years later English became extinct also? How would those future generations learn about the real Buddha’s teachings without understanding the language? There may also be some language experts 2,000 years later who could analyze the extinct ‘English’ text using whatever new technology that they have in the future, but would they be able to translate or preserve the original meaning of what Buddha really wanted to explain to us? Sometimes one word could have several meanings. For example, ‘light’. Light could mean light as ‘sunlight’ or light as not heavy. Imagine the front parts of the sentences and the back of the sentences are missing, and only the word ‘light’ was visible and preserved, how would the language expert translate the meaning of ‘light’..
The more centuries and generations the Buddha scriptures go through, the more missing parts and different translations, interpretations Buddha scriptures may have. The original teachings of Buddha may be lost or different and may not be as accurate as the original meaning.. How sad it is to think of that… What if one day the meaning becomes distorted..
Then I thought what could we do to solve the problem? I was thinking would it be possible to actually draw out the whole of holy Buddha’s scriptures/teachings in image and preserve it for the future generations? If we draw a stick man for example, regardless if we are Indian, Chinese or Japanese, we could still understand the meaning. But if its language, unless we know the language, if not we would not be able to understand without a translation. So if we draw out the Buddha scriptures and teachings for the future generations, would it be easier for them to understand more? Along we could still write in few languages to preserve the holy Buddha’s scriptures. Hoping if some futures experts don’t know english, at least there are still other choices of languages like Indian, Chinese..etc languages for them to try to interpret along with the drawings that they found.
Then the next question is how to preserve and protect the holy Buddha scriptures for many, many years. I was thinking of something like sealing them, laminating all the holy Buddha scriptures and then store them safely in a vacuum condition to preserve for many , many years.
I have been having all these weird thoughts for quite sometime whenever I read about ancient holy Buddha scripture, caves, drawings been discovered.. Don’t understand why.. But just want to share my weird and funny thoughts only. 🙂
Thank you. Looking forward to hearing more news or findings from the ancient scriptures! 🙂
Amazing archeological find! The most interesting aspect is the Germans have such an enthusiasm for this project that they are willing to fund 8.6 million Euros alone for this research program. The text has survived so long on birch bark written in Gandhari langugage. I don’t know how they are going to understand this ancient script. It is totally mind boggling. Hopefully this news will pique the interest of the general public about Buddhism.
Thank you for sharing this interesting news. it is amazing that it will take 21 years to complete this research. The researchers must be very committed and passionate about their work and it is excellent that there is funding for this research also. i wonder what made LMU Munich be the lead on this – whether they are specialists in Buddhist archeology and whether they were appointed or they decided to undertake this research themselves. I also find it amazing that these texts which date to 1 century BC are the oldest Buddhist scriptures while Buddhism has been around for 2,500 years. What we take for granted today like paper and pen (let alone computers etc) was so scarce then. We are very fortunate that these have survived (barely!) over the years and i look forward to the findings.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such an important discovery. It is so nice that this Buddist document was discovered. This discovery is truly valuable not simply because of the fact that it is already 2000-year-old, but it surely does bring us a lot of knowledge about Buddhsim.
Documented resources such as written papers and videos are valuable, because it convinces us that something does exist and how far things have developed/declined.
With this, we have to appreciate the values of many Buddhist books such as Lamrim, because it makes Buddha’s teachings so easily available to us and even at the convenience of our time and physical locations.
This is indeed a very exciting news, I always thought the oldest Buddhist teaching was only in Pali or Sanskrit, I didn’t know it is written in Gandhara Language as well, This also shows that how wide Buddhism has spread in 2000 years ago.
I wonder what is the content on these text in Gandhara Language. It is very interesting that the scientists are having interest and doing research on these text.
In 1994, British Library acquired a group of some eighty Gandharan manuscript fragments from the first half of the 1st century. They were written on birch bark and stored in clay jars, which preserved them. They are thought to have been found in eastern Afghanistan (Bamiyan, Jalalabad, Hadda, which were part of Gandhara), and the clay jars were buried in ancient monasteries. A team has been at work, trying to decipher the manuscripts: three volumes have appeared to date (2009). The manuscripts were written in Gandhari using the Kharosthi script, and are therefore sometimes also called the Kharosthi Manuscripts.
More info to read on: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gandh%C4%81ran_Buddhist_Texts
Amazing findings…I am so curious to know what teachings these ancient Gandhara scriptures will reveal to us!
I am glad to know that there are investors and people out there that would invest in such findings of our ancient past so we have a clearer picture of where and how Buddhism spread and evolved in to our modern world today.
It’s mind blowing that 1 man, the Buddha could see that there are 84,000 different mindsets and have the wisdom to give 84,000 different teachings and methods for the people of this planet called earth! So I am wondering which 84,000 teaching would this one be??? 🙂 Can’t wait for the experts to translate these ancient texts.
Like what Rinpoche always says, knowledge is power, when we have knowledge it gives us confidence and conviction of what we believe instead of just “blind faith” that has a risk of us losing it’s grip when certain circumstances manifest itself in our lives which we cannot explain or understand.
What an incredible find and I wonder if it will reveal any new insights into the Buddha’s teachings. It is also a good reminder of how impermanent everything is. Gandhara was once part of the great Ashoka’s empire and yet the language and culture is extinct today.
An interesting fact about Gandhara is that artists from Gandhara were apparently the first to paint and sculpt images of the Buddha in a human form and prior to that the enlightened one was not presented thus. In other words, although Gabdhara no longer exists, its influence remains in all Buddhist images and art today.
This certainly would revolutionize my understanding of Buddhist history. I had always thought that the body of Buddhist scriptures had had always been recorded in Sanskrit or Pali. I have never heard of Magadhi script before and this must be ground-breaking research. The script looks complicated and sophisticated, somewhat like corrupted Sanskrit.
I wonder what does the experts think of this. I wonder if these texts were the ones produced by the Great Council of the Sangha that occurred after the parinirvana of the Buddha. I distinctly remember there were several of these councils meant to record down everything that the great arhats remembered of the Buddha’s teachings. Anyway, my point is that I am very much excited as the rest of the Buddhist world on what is within the contents of these mysterious texts.
Isn’t it exciting that these 2000 -year-old documents have been found and experts are pouring through them to uncover their secrets? These precious documents will definitely shed light on these early years of Buddhism.
The ancient Ghandara language has to be unravelled first. Then the careful study of these very fragile ancient scripts. However, once they are ciphered and put together, there will unfold the mysteries that surround a crucial period in the history of Buddhism in the Gandhara region. Mankind will be all the richer with the knowledge of this period.
I am glad that there are people, like the Union of German Academies of Sciences and Humanities, who will raise the enormous amount of funds needed to see through this project because they recognize how important it is. The project is going to take 21 years and there will be a great deal of work involved at different levels. The world will be updated on the progress of this project and the results at every phase.
Thank you Rinpoche for sharing such exciting and wonderful news!!
What an amazing discovery and so wonderful that there is the funding of 8.6 euros to bring forth to the world ‘ a comprehensive database in which all relevant information and results are collected, to allow international research community access to the latest results.’
It is incredible that there is so much enthusiasm by the scholars and reseachers, to search for knowledge and the truth – to offer to the world ‘new understanding of the earliest phases of Buddhism in India.’
This is so so so exciting and i cannot wait for the transcript to be made known to the world.