Jaina Archaeology Outside India

SR No.: 007644
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jineshwardas Jain
Publisher: Bharat Varshiya Digambar Jain Mahasabha
Publication Year: 2011
Total Pages: 105
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 3 MB

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TIBET
The Bon religion [68], which was fundamentally Jainism, preceded Buddhism in Tibet, is said to have originated from Tajik (Persia). The term Bon is of uncertain deviation and meaning. Originally it was a regional form of the pre-cultural 'animistic-sharmanist' cult, wide spread in primitive times in inner Asia including east & west Turkestan, Mongolia, Manchria, Tibet and even China [69]. It was transformed into the national religions of Tibetans as Shen-rabi, meaning the most excellent of Shamans. Here, I would like to narrate one incident happenedn Tibet which is similar to an event happened with scholars Akalanka and Nikalanka as is decribed in jaina religious books. The Tibetan history mentions that the first Buddhist monastry inn Tibet was built by Padmasambhava at a place called Sam-yas. It is said that on this occasion he was accompanied by two distinguished scholars from Nalanda, namely Santarakshita and the other Santarakshita's disciple Kamalsila. About them the legent is that Kamalasila wasmurdered by his opponents out out of spite after he had won a victory over them, in a religious debate.
According to Dub-thah-sel-kyi-me-long, twenty generations of Tibetan kings from Nya-thi-tsan-po down to Thi-je-tsan-po followed no other religion than the Bon which prevailed in Tibet upto 780 AD when it was persequted by King Thi-sron-de-tsan. Sen-rab, who was one of he most prominent Bon-teachers, has among his spiritual descendents apersian sage, named Mu-tso-tra-he-si. It is alos evedent from Kalidasa's (Sanskrit) Raghuvamsha, Canto IV (verses 60-8) that Raghu after subduing the Parasika (Persians), Huna (huns) and Kamboja (the inhabitants of Hindukush Mountains, which separate the Gilgit vqalley from Balkh, ascended the Himalayas, and crossing the Lauhitya (Brahmaputra river), came down to Pragjyotisa (Assam). Even if the name Raghu is a fiction, it shows that in the days of Kalidasa, abot 500AD, the people of India new about the route between Persia and India. It is well known that the disciple Hans Param Hans of Haribhadra Chaiyo (8th Centuri) had gone to Tibbet (Bhot) for spreading of Jainism but he was murdered by Buddhist monks. Gruinvedal had mentioned in a book translated by him regarding this episode confirms the fact of presence of Jain religion in Tibbet. [48].
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