Ancient Persian drawing found in Afghan Buddhist cave

Yahoo ^ | Tue Jul 25

[nickcarraway]

Japanese researchers said they found a seventh-century painting of a mythological Persian bird in Afghanistan's Bamiyan ruins, showing the region's Buddhism was influenced by pre-Islamic Iran.

The team unearthed an image of what appears to be a Simorgh, the giant and powerful bird that figures prominently in Zoroastrian-era Iranian legends.

The faded painting emerged after Japanese researchers removed soot from a Buddhist cave in Bamiyan, the region where Taliban Islamic extremists dynamited the world's tallest standing Buddha statues in 2001.

"This is the first time a vivid image of this creature was confirmed" in Bamiyan, an expert involved in the project at Japan's National Research Institute for Cultural Properties told AFP.

"This image shows that Iranian myth and Persian views were reflected in Bamiyan Buddhism. It indicates the influence of people from Sogd, the areas north of Afghanistan which covers what are now Uzbekistan and Tajikistan," he said.

However, the Japanese team called for more research, saying that some scholars believed the image could instead be a Griffin from Greek mythology. Alexander the Great conquered Afghanistan in the fourth century BC.

The picture portrays the creature with an eagle's head, wings and a lion's torso of gold, silver, blue and red facing off with a bull.

Inside the same cave, researchers also found a design of a boar and a lion facing each other.

"Fragments of similar images have been found in other caves and areas. But this is the first time we see so many pictures of animals in one place," said the researcher, who did not want his name used for the group project.

The Japanese team employed a special chemical to remove the soot without harming the mural in June and July. It also used the project to train Afghan workers.

Japanese researchers have spearheaded the drive to preserve what is left of Bamiyan.

The Taliban, ignoring world protests, dynamited two 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues carved into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan in March 2001, branding them un-Islamic.

[nickcarraway]

Ping

[2banana]

Yes - Afghanistan was Buddhist for over 1,000 years. Then, islamic armies conquered the place and either put them to the sword or forced them to convert (after the women had been raped, of course).

[tkathy]

How long before the death squads of the death cult destroy this?

[DoughtyOne]

...another ping for Islamic tolerance...

Cool discovery...

[lilylangtree]

What's left of the taliban must be gnashing their teeth.

[LeoWindhorse]

thank you thank you thank you Japan

[-=SoylentSquirrel=-]

I dunno if that was an inadverdant typo, but "Death squads of death" has a nice ring to it. It might even be a FReeper quote of the month.

However, you have stiff competition from New Jersey FReeper Huck, who, on a thread about a new slogan for his state came up with
"New Jersey, so screw you".

[tkathy]

Brainwashing the young and vulnerable to butcher others in the name of a sick deity is one of the great evils ever.

[Ciexyz]

btt

[Ciexyz]

The mention of Sogd, or Sogdia, brings to mind the historical fact that Alexander the Great married a Sogdian princess, Roxane.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

The shiite thugs running Iran would have it destroyed in a second.

They revel in destroying anything of the persian empire that was dated before the death cult arrived.

[SunkenCiv]

Very cool. Thanks Nick.

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[Comstock1]

Really? I hadn't heard that of them. Of course, it shouldn't come as a surprise.

[blam]

Tocharians

"Tocharian donors", possibly the "Knights with Long Swords" of Chinese accounts, depicted with light hair and light eye color and dressed in Sassanian style. 6th century CE fresco, Qizil, Tarim Basin. Graphical analysis reveals that the third donor from left is performing a Buddhist vitarka mudra. These frescoes are associated with annotations in Tocharian and Sanskrit made by their painters.

Blue-eyed Central Asian (Tocharian?) and East-Asian Buddhist monks, Bezaklik, Eastern Tarim Basin, 9th-10th century.

[SunkenCiv]

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