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"Uddiyana Until the Eighth Century: A Short Historical Overview.....the ancient Kingdom of Uddiyana; so beautiful a Kingdom, that its very name means "the royal garden" (from the Skt: udyana). With cascading pure rivers splashing down from ice-bound lakes high in the snowy peaks beyond, and quiet pools stocked with fish, with lush meadows, in raiment of every variety of wildflower, Uddiyana truly seemed a paradise on earth. No wonder people from far and wide spoke of it as a magical place, the hidden flower garden of the wise and compassionate Lord Buddha......We today are able to gain a fairly vivid picture of the ancient Kingdom of Uddiyana, because in the year 630 A.D., a renowned heroic Chinese Buddhist pilgrim, known by the name of Huen Tsiang, passed through the heart of Uddiyana on his way to India. .... Chitral is drained by the Kunar River which flows southward, through Afghanistan, to meet the East flowing Kabul River, which in times past, was known as the Sita, or White River. In the year 1900 the Russian mystic George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff traveled by raft down part of this dangerous river, as part of an expedition led by Prof. Kozlov in search of the ruins of ancient Shambhala......Archaeology6 has shown that the great stupa of Andan Dheri stood 80 feet high (24 metres) and was surrounded by 14 votive stupas. This must have been the location of the famous Shankarakuta Stupa cited by early Buddhist historians in the Dzogchen tradition, the dazzling monument mentioned by Huen Tsiang and which was said to have graced the shore of sacred Dhanakosha lake.".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/library/essays/uddiyana.htm
"According to the ancient, written Ka-ma tradition of the cycle of Vajrakilaya teachings, Padmasambhava was the son of a royal heir, Prince Mahusita of Dhanakosha, in Uddiyana ( O-rgyān, U-rgyān, O-ḍi-yā-n)....... Originally given the name Dhanaraksita, which means " Protector of Charity" , it is stated that he was born in the year of the water monkey (732 A.D.). Thus his mundane birth and status as a prince of Uddiyana may be pinpointed as a fact of history. .....At the age of eight the princely child was adopted by King Indrabhuti (King Ja) and made heir to the throne of Uddiyana. .....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
"Although there was also a historical Padmasambhava, nothing is known of the "obscure 'Indian' sorcerer" apart from him helping the construction of a temple at Samye at the behest of Trisong Detsen and shortly being chased out of Tibet in 774 AD.".....Schaik, Sam van. Tibet: A History. Yale University Press 2011, page 34-5, 96-8.
"Subhakarasimha's ... (637-735 AD) (Indian Buddhist monk)......journey to China which interests us is his brief stay in Uddiyana between the years 714 and 715 A.D (Age 77 years)....an Indian monk who passed through the country early in the 8th century. Subhakarasimha was a monk from Magadha who stopped in Uddiyana on his way to China. Later in China he became famous as a teacher of the Yoga tantras. The Chinese called him Shan-wa-wei. ...Subhakarasimha's father was King Buddhakara of Kalinga....After leaving Uddiyana, Subhakarasimha made his way north over the Hindu Kush into Central Asia. He suffered sickness and attacks by bandits, but survived the difficult journey, arriving in Chang-an, the imperial capital of China, in 716 A.D. .".......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
"Subhakarasimha in Uddiyana between the years 714 and 715 A.D....... Pei, in the Wen-yuan ying-huo reports that he was commissioned to teach the profound Mahavairocana-tantra to the son of the khatun of Uddiyana. The term khatun is a Turkishahiya title for Queen. This implies that the King of Uddiyana, " Ta-mo-yin-t'o-ho-szu," mentioned in the Chinese records for the year 642 AD, was deceased. A Queen, or Khatun, was on the throne, and she had a son and heir-a boy who was sufficiently mature to be involved in the higher scholastic Sanskrit studies of Yoga tantra. This boy must have been the young Indrabhuti, the king of Udiyana who figures so prominently in the biography of Lord Padmasambhava."
"Six years after Subhakarasimha's visit, in 720 A.D., the T'ang Annals state that the Emperor sent ambassadors to Uddiyana to confer the investiture on the new king. Therefore, 720 A.D. must mark the date that King Indrabhuti, the famous adoptive father of Padmasambhava, succeeded to the throne....In the country of Urgyen (or Udyana), westward from Bodh-Gaya, there was the great city of Jatumati, containing a palace called 'Emerald Palace' wherein dwelt King Indrabodhi....we must also remember that Indrabhuti was a factual historical character, and his adopted son, the great saint Lord Padmasambhava, likewise possessed a factual existence." .........http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
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"Gilgit is a small state that borders on the north of Uddiyana. Between 720 and 726 the King of Baltistan moved his seat westwards to Gilgit out of fear of the Tibetan advance. It becomes apparent as we sift through the records, that more and more territory on the edges of Uddiyana was being eaten up by the expanding Tibetan Empire during this period."....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
"The Nyingma school possesses two kinds of tantric scripture: the Kah-ma, or "Sacred Word" that has been handed down since very ancient times, and the Ter-ma, or "Sacred Treasure", which in different periods has been discovered or revealed by various saintly treasure finders (Terton). Ter-ma can include both those texts which from time to time are discovered hidden away in old temple crypts, etc., and what are known as books of Revelation."
"The T'ang Annals record for the year 745 AD....the investiture of the King of Kapisa with rulership over Uddiyana.....It is in consequence of the evil act of killing the son of a baron, or the mother and child of a minister, that the young prince Padmasambhava is banished from the Kingdom...Padmasambhava's banishment to foreign lands, reflects the changes wrought when the powerful lords of Kapisa seized, as we know they did, control of the Swat Valley. Uddiyana was defeated and utterly lost its independence. Whatever happened to Indrabhuti we do not know, but it is probable that he was slain, or perhaps as a blind captive, was dragged ignominiously back to Kabul in chains. At any rate Padmasambhava fled in the direction of Kashmir. .........http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
745 A.D. when the Chinese Court is suddenly seen to confer upon the king of Kapisa the double investiture of " king of Kapisa and Uddiyana." .......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
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"Padmasambhava's route of escape in 745 AD is fairly evident. There was only one direction for him to go. About 30 kilometres north of the old capital of Mangalapura he must have taken the ancient trail over the Shangla Pass to present day Besham on the Indus River, a 70 kilometre trek. From Besham he would have had to make the long hike up the Indus, past Dassu and the famous Buddhist rock carvings of Shatial and Chilas, until many days later he could have entered the relative safety of Baltistan. The latter country is formed by the long valley of the Indus from where it meets the Karakorum Highway at Gilgit up to Skardu. On this perilous journey Padmasambhava would have skirted around the sandy base of 26,660 foot high Nanga Parvata, the ninth highest peak in the world....Baltistan, or Greater Pu-lu as we find it called in the Chinese annals, was under the protection of Tibet.".........http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#eightcentury
Nanga Parbat (literally, Naked Mountain Urdu: نانگا پربت [nəŋɡaː pərbət̪]) is the ninth highest mountain in the world at 8,126 metres (26,660 ft) above sea level. It is the western anchor of the Himalayas around which the Indus river skirts into the plains of Pakistan.
"Mention of tribute from the King of Kapisa in 748 A.D. ascertains that by that date Uddiyana had become a vassal state. As we shall see, it was in the very midst of this turmoil and change that Padmasambhava was born and spent his youth......Nothing is really reported concerning Padmasambhava's life in Kashmir (745-752 AD).... He lived, some say, with wandering yogis and saddhus, in exile from his homeland. Others report that it was during this period that he acquired worldly knowledge and skill in various crafts. Howbeit, in Kashmir he earned the name Sthiramati, the Youthful Genius. ....In the spring of 786 AD by the Tibetan reckoning a Fire Tiger year, the Precious Lord, or " Guru Rinpoche" as he is most commonly known in Tibetan, set forth across the high passes of the Himalaya. On the Tibetan frontier, in Mangyul, he was met by five royal ministers to escort him to the Imperial Palace. In the valley of Tsang he was greeted by a messenger with a white horse. Riding in state to the town of Turdlung, he was welcomed with a grand reception. Then in the Tamarisk Garden near Red Rock, he was royally received by the Emperor. He was about 54 years old."......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm
804 AD.... "Prof. Tucci, Preliminary Report on an Archaeological Survey o f Swat, states that " Lankapuri is, as known, Laghman." Laghman, an independent nation prior to Hiuen Tsiang's time, had certainly become a tributary province of Kapisa by 629 A.D. Since Kabul was not overrun - and then only temporarily - by the Moslem invasion until as late as 870 A.D., Laghman's status would still have been that of a Buddhist province of Kapisa (Shambhala) in 804 A.D. The Sanskrit name of the country was Lampaka and Hiuen Tsiang lists it as Lan-po. The sacred mountain in question would be that of Sri Aruna Parvata, Aruna " the Red" , now thought by some to be the Chehel Dukhtaran peak. Eminently logical as Prof. Tucci's argument may sound, Laghman was not Padmasambhava's " Lankapuri." Sometime around 950 A.D., a certain King Indrabhuti of Uddiyana married his sister, Laksminkara, to the " Hindu king of Lankapuri." This latter, a kingdom south of Uddiyana (and definitely not Laghman), we can identify with Hiuen Tsiang's Simhapura in the Salt Range, for just as Ceylon is known as Sri Lanka today, and anciently Lankapuri, so also has it been known as Simhapuri; the names are interchangeable. The actual site of the ancient Padmavabhasa Citadel in the Salt Range is still open to question: it could be near Malot, not far from Ketas (the ancient capital of Simhapura), where now stands the red sandstone remains of some eighth century Kashmiri style temples; or it could have been at Mount Sukesar (4,992 ft), the highest peak in the Range. The latter may be the Arunachala, the " Red Mountain" of Padmasambhava's biography. Near Mount Sukesar, at Amb, are the signs of a ruined Hindu town with fortified walls and temples that go back to the eighth century. Jean Fairly, The Lion River, who visited the Salt Range in the 1970s, talks of " the bald redness of the mountains" rising from the barren yellow desert of the plains. Another but less likely location for the Guru's final residence would be the old fort at Nandana, later occupied by the Hindushahi rulers when they fled from their capital at Wahind after their defeat in 1001 A.D. by Mahmud of Ghazni. "
"Simhapura was a kingdom south of Uddiyana in what today is called the Salt Range. Hiuen Tsiang refers to it as Sang-ho-pu-lo and locates its capital where today stands Khetas. The temples, shrines, fort and bathhouses of Khetas, once sacred to Avalokitesvara and later to the Hindu god Siva, are now deserted. Marriage contracts or engagements were made between the parents of the prospective couple in India at very early ages. Padmasambhava was probably twelve years of age when such a contract was formed. The children are officially married by Indian custom from that point on, but they do not begin living as a married couple until much later. The term "engagement" therefore, in this context, is more suitable than saying "marriage". ".....http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#departure
Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, Oxford 1954. If Padmasambhava was born in 732 A.D., then he would have been 13 years old when Uddiyana was overrun by the Kingdom of Kapisa. This is confirmed also in another manner: Tsele Natsok Rangdrol says that, " Padmasambhava stayed five years in the royal palace of Uddiyana." He was adopted at eight and he stayed five years, means that he was thirteen when he went into exile.".......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#departure
Tib: Lo-den Chokse..... "If Padmasambhava was born in 732 A.D., then the years spent in Kashmir would have been roughly from the age of 13 to 20. The latter age of 20 is assumed only on the basis that the next event in his life mentioned in the various accounts is his ordination at Bodh Gaya. The full ordination of a Bhikkshu, or Buddhist monk, such as was received by Padmasambhava, is not given until the person has attained maturity. He must therefore have been at least 20 years of age. ".......http://www.dharmafellowship.org/biographies/historicalsaints/lord-padmasambhava.htm#departure
"If Padmasambhava was born in the Water Monkey year of 732 as the sacred texts state, then he would have been 54 years of age when he made the difficult journey into the Land of Snow."
Email....okarresearch@gmail.com
June 2015
Excellent work, perfect geographical and historical environment. Well done. Sarva Mangalam.
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