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The 1,300-year-old temple of Wat Dhammachak Semaram in Sung Noen is famous for housing the oldest reclining Buddha statue in Thailand, which measures 43 feet long. The Thaiger reports that during recent restoration and conservation work, archaeologists uncovered an extraordinary cache of treasures that researchers believe could change scholarly understanding of the region's early Buddhist art. Hidden three feet beneath the sculpture, the team found an earthenware vessel containing 33 gold, silver, and bronze items, including rings and earrings. However, the most noteworthy finds were two repoussé plaques, one gold and one made from a lead-tin alloy. Repoussé is an...

The day I took this photo of Melbourne ruckwoman Georgia Campbell being tackled by key forward Tayla Harris, the configuration of elbows, heads and hands caught my eye as something special. Together, the two players looked like a Lotus Flower - the Buddhist symbol of purity, spiritual enlightenment and rebirth. I asked Tay if she'd like a song to be written about it and she said she'd prefer a rap. So I tried (without huge ability in the art form) to make one. (click here) In Melbourne, Aussie Rules football is often called a religion. Could the game become more...

The proposed list of countries for the "Muslim ban" reboot has been leaked. It includes a small Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas.One of President Donald Trump's acts during his first term was the so-called Muslim ban. Building on a 2015 campaign promise to enact "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on," he banned all entry by seven Muslim-majority nationalities. After extensive court battles and airport chaos, the ban list shifted around and grew to include some non-Muslim adversary countries. Trump has promised to "bring...

Ruins of a wall built during the Mauryan empire have been recovered during an excavation in Tilaurakot, Kapilvastu. Maurya era bricks measuring 47 cm long, 26 to 28 cm wide and 7 cm thick were used to build the wall.According to archeologists involved in the excavation, the findings of the wall ruins have archaeological significance...The Department of Archaeology and Lumbini Development Trust started excavating and exploring Tilaurakot, an ancient Shakya capital city where Siddhartha Gautam spent his princely life before he became the Buddha, and its surrounding areas in 2012.A geophysical survey of the Tilaurakot premises conducted in 2014 showed...

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. When the Taliban and its Al Qaeda allies blew up two giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan,it put the Jihadist alliance on the world's radar even before the September 11 attacks. The destruction of the statues was widely condemned by just about everyone. Even Democrats. Now, Joe Biden has decided to free an Al Qaeda commander who helped bomb the statues. As the Taliban retake Afghanistan, Biden’s decision to free Abdul Latif Nasir signals support for the...

The 21st century is in danger of becoming an era of statue smashing and historical erasure. Not since the iconoclasts of the Byzantine Empire or the epidemic of statue destruction during the French Revolution has the world seen anything like the current war on the past. In 2001, the primeval Taliban blew up two ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan on grounds that their very existence was sacrilegious to Islam. In 2015, ISIS militants entered a museum in Mosul, Iraq, and destroyed ancient, pre-Islamic statues and idols. Their mute crime? These artifacts predated the prophet Muhammad. The West prides itself in...

The deadly tsunami could have uncovered the remains of an ancient port city off the coast in southern India. Archaeologists say they have discovered some stone remains from the coast close to India's famous beachfront Mahabalipuram temple in Tamil Nadu state following the 26 December tsunami. They believe that the "structures" could be the remains of an ancient and once-flourishing port city in the area housing the famous 1200-year-old rock-hewn temple. Three pieces of remains, which include a granite lion, were found buried in the sand after the coastline receded in the area after the tsunami struck. Undersea remains "They...

Viking treasure hoard yields astounding finds 06/24/2002 STOCKHOLM: Four years ago, a farmer digging in his fields in Sweden's Baltic island of Gotland came across a Viking coin. He called a friend from the local museum, and together they soon uncovered another 150 Viking relics. But the crops growing in the fields hindered their work and they gave up. The following summer, with crops that year infected by lice, they resumed their search - and on July 16, 1999, came across the biggest Viking-period treasure hoard so far discovered. It had been lying there for about 1,100 years. The Spillings...

11/09/2007 PAKISTAN Another attack on the giant Buddha of Swat In the valley of Swat, north western Pakistan, Islamic militants have launched a second attack in less than a month on the gigantic sacred statue. The head, shoulders and feet have been destroyed while the militants threaten a third and final attack. Islamabad (AsiaNews) – A group of Islamic militants have attacked for the second time in less than a month the giant Buddha carved in the rocks of Swat Valley, in north western Pakistan. Despite the many requests for greater protection, the government has failed to intervene in any...

Despite repeated requests by Pakistani archeologists to the local authorities to protect the seated Buddha and other sites, especially after the first attack, no action was taken. In fact, militants were able to carry out their work in broad daylight The world watched in horror when Taliban forces destroyed the monumental Buddha statues in Bamiyan, Afghanistan in 2001. Political and cultural leaders from around the globe condemned the attacks. Offers of help poured in. Everyone asked: will the world be ready next time? Alas, the answer is a resounding “no.” In northwest Pakistan’s Swat valley, armed Islamist militants recently attacked...

Islamists damage giant rock Buddha By Ben Quinn Last Updated: 2:11am BST 11/10/2007 Islamist radicals in Pakistan have attempted to destroy an ancient carving of Buddha by drilling holes in the rock and filling them with dynamite.The Buddha is thought to date from the seventh century AD The 23ft high image was damaged during the attack, which brought back memories of the Taliban's destruction six years ago of the giant Buddhas at Bamiyan, in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Buddha, in the Swat district of north-west Pakistan, is thought to date from the seventh century AD and was considered the largest in...

Islamic militants tried to blow up a statue of the Buddha carved into a mountainside in northwestern Pakistan but did not damage the structure, officials and a witness said Wednesday

1,300-year-old SKorean Buddha unearthed intact Tue Sep 11, 2:05 AM ET SEOUL (AFP) - A 70-ton granite statue of Buddha, which toppled over face-down 1,300 years ago in South Korea, has been unearthed with its features intact. The 5.6-metre (18-foot) sculpture was in May found buried in the southeastern city of Gyeongju and has been partially unearthed after months of work, news reports said Tuesday. The nose missed a rock by only five centimetres when the statue toppled, the English-language JoongAng Daily quoted specialists as saying. "It was a miracle that the Buddha's face was saved by only five centimetres,"...

In Afghanistan, 900-foot Sleeping Buddha eludes archaeologistsBut researchers are finding and preserving other ancient riches. By Mark Sappenfield | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor from the August 7, 2007 edition BAMIYAN, AFGHANISTAN - After the Taliban fell, France sent Zemaryalai Tarzi to this Afghan valley on a quest bordering on the mythological. His goal: to find Sleeping Buddha, the reclining sculpture that, at 900 feet long, would be nearly 10 times the size of the Buddhas destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. He brought the ultimate treasure map – the journal of a 7th- century Chinese pilgrim who...

A NATO airstrike destroyed a Taliban command post in southern Afghanistan, killing a suspected senior militant leader, the alliance said Friday. Separately, an assailant gunned down an Afghan lawmaker who, under the former Taliban regime, oversaw the destruction of two Buddha statues carved into a cliff. Maulavi Mohammed Islam Mohammadi, who was the Taliban's governor of Bamiyan province when the fifth-century Buddha statues were blown up with dynamite and artillery in March 2001, was killed on his way to Friday prayers in Kabul, said Zulmai Khan, Kabul's deputy police chief. Mohammadi was elected in 2005 to represent the northern province...

The country may be busy celebrating the 2550th year of Buddha's Mahaparinirvana, but grey areas abound on how Buddhism spread across the globe after the first sermon at Sarnath. Which is why the state's archaeology department has finally decided to track the route taken by Buddha's disciples—Kumar Jeev, Kashyap and Matang— to spread his message of peace and harmony. The project, titled "The Buddha Sandesh Yatra", will span 11 countries. Beginning from Sarnath, the team will travel to Burma, Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Afganistan, Pakistan and Tibet.

Taliban Resumes Blasting Buddha Statues Taliban leader says international appeals to save the statues will fail. By Kathy Gannon ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, March 9 (AP)--Using cannons and explosives, the Taliban has reportedly resumed blowing up two towering stone statues of Buddha, a task the religious militia began a week ago. The explosions of the 3rd and 5th century statues were part of carrying out an order by Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammed Omar for all statues in Afghanistan to be demolished. The order, meant to discourage idolatry, was given two weeks ago. The Taliban, who rule roughly 95 percent of the...

A 2,500-year-old fragment of bone believed to be one of Buddha's fingers went on public display in Seoul Friday after arriving from China, officials said. The bone was sent to an indoor stadium in southern Seoul for a temporary exhibit after a ceremony at Jogye Temple, said Jin Yeo-shim, a temple official. The temple is the headquarters of Jogye Order, South Korea's largest Buddhist sect. "I think this event will greatly help solidify friendship and religious faith between Korean and Chinese Buddhism," said the Venerable Jigwan, head of the order, during the ceremony, according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency....

(CNN) -- Afghanistan's Taleban has destroyed two giant Buddhas carved into a cliff centuries ago, pictures obtained by CNN show. United Nations officials confirmed the claims made by the Taleban, which announced last month it would destroy images deemed "offensive to Islam." But no photographs of the demolition were available until Monday. Museums and governments around the world had hoped to save the two Buddhas, the earliest of which is thought to have been carved into the sandstone cliffs of Bamiyan in the third century A.D. At 53 meters (175 feet) and 36 meters (120 feet), the statues were the...

Chinese archaeologists have found 400 stone Buddha statues during a field survey at a ruined temple dating back to the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Liangping County of Chongqing Municipality in southwest China. Ranging from 20 centimeters to 2 meters in height, the stone Buddha statues had sustained severe damage, but traces of distinct features of carving are visible. The finding is of great significance to research on the customs, religion and architecture in the Ming Dynasty, a cultural relics official with the Liangping County. The stone Buddha statues are now being protected by relevant department of the county.