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Tocharians: Bringers of Buddhism (Video)

DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran
edited July 2011 in Faith & Religion
Ancient Greek and Chinese historians had long referenced a unique cultural and ethnic group with red or blonde hair and blue eyes since the 3rd century BCE, that settled Afghanistan and forged a vibrant Buddhist empire that spread Buddhism to much of the the world through China and India.

Mysterious 4,000-year-old mummies in the deserts of China with "white Europoid" features and clothing, Aryan Proto-Indo-European/Iranian

Comments

  • Very cool man.
  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Never heard of this before, thanks for sharing. :)
  • DaltheJigsawDaltheJigsaw Mountain View Veteran
    Welcome!
  • cool:)
  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    edited July 2011
    Bless you, Leon. I've spent the last 2-3 years reading all about this. The unexpected news is that a) Indo-European languages developed first in ASIA b) the first people to populate the Central Asia, the Altai Mountains and Western Mongolia after the last ice age were early Indo-European nomads. Chinese archaeologists found Indo_euro remains as far east as northern China near Korea.

    These people passed on aspects of their culture to later Asian migrants that settled around them: a love of poetry and oratory, white as a sacred color (in Mongol culture the white foods (dairy foods) are sacred food), a reverence for lakes, considered sacred, the Shambhala myth of a hidden realm high in the mountaints, sun cult (the word "Khor" in Tibetan, denotes the sun and is an Indo-Euro word, found also in Bulgarian and Russian, where it denotes the circle dances oiginally done as sun worship), gold-lined skull cups, as in Tibetan culture. Gold-lined skullcups have been found as far West as Germany, archaeologically, the warrior culture that considered the horse to be a sacred animal (still is, in Turkic cultures in Central and North Asia), etc. These were the predecessors of the Tocharians. They eventually settled into the Inner Asian oasis towns between the Altai Mts. on the north, and the Tibetean plateau in the south, and evolved a high civilization there. Tibetan nomads and Uighurs carry the Indo_european genetic heritage with them today. You can see Indo_euro features in the faces of Tibetan nomads today. Take a look around your local Tibetan community, if you have one. Occasionally blond Kazakhs turn up as living evidence of their "Tocharian" heritage.

    This is one of my favorite topics. I should watch the video, before I natter on any more. :)
  • Dakini! Thanks so much for the education! Very interesting. I love anthropology. :)
  • ZenshinZenshin Veteran East Midlands UK Veteran
    edited July 2011
    I'm pretty sure I saw a really interesting Horizon (BBC science program) episode about this called Mummies of the Takla Makan, I couldn't find it on youtube and googling it led me to the sort of web forums where people think its fun to have British flags with the Nazi swastika on!

    I'm pretty sure I saw an episode of the Silk Road TV series dealing with people with European features in the Takla Makan. In one of the programs there was a Buddhist temple in one of the pyramids with a room dedicated to Maitreya.
  • ZenshinZenshin Veteran East Midlands UK Veteran
    Hmm might not have been the Silk Road, I've just watched about 20 minutes before my GF complained about the vid intefering with her watching a subtitled Swedish detective series. Silk Road seemed pretty Chinese state sanctioned.
  • I'd like to see more detail about how the Tocharians brought Buddhism to China. The Tocharians had a sun-worship religion and people related to them wrote the Vedas. So I don't know how/where/when Buddhism fits in with that. Maybe it was a passing fad, lol. I'm not doubting that they practiced Buddhism--they're portrayed in the Buddhist caves at Dunhuang, and similar sites. I'm just curious about the bigger picture.
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