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From Editor's Desk
Jain Center of America Inc., New York, has constructed a new temple for worship and other religious activities in 2005. Since then JCA has been gifted with a replica of Shri Ashtapad Maha Tirth, sculpted from crystal and gemstones, which was installed at the center in 2010. To learn more about Ashtapad a lot of literature was collected from scriptures and compiled in XX volumes. These articles are now being reviewed and a selection of 1000 pages is being printed in two parts. Part I contains articles from scriptures which has already been published, while part II which is related to Ashtapad research is being presented herewith. The whole Granth is divided in ten chapters. Each chapter is preceded by a photo gallery related to that topic. A brief introduction to each chapter is as follows: Chapter one contains "Introduction to Research.” It deals with quest for finding Ashtapad and newer methods of tracing it. Dr. Narendra Bhandari, Dr. Keval K. Sharma and Dr. Rajmal Jain give an insight towards achieving that goal. Photo Gallery has photos about various views of Kailash. Chapter two contains "Three field trip reports". Original studies were done by Bharat Hansraj Shah. His report and opinion with photos is presented first. Subsequently we organized three field trips under the banner of Jain Center of America, New York and later in coordination with the Lalbhai Dalpatbhai Institute of Indology at Ahmedabad. I have summarized the report on field trip one. P.S. Thakker discusses report on field trip two. Dr. John Bellezza gives in depth studies of third field trip while Dr. A.K. Verma discusses the Ashtapad Initiative. A map of the Kailash region is attached. We have given photos en-route to Kailash here. Chapter three contains special research data using satellite imagery obtained from Geo EyeIKONOS data. Dr. P.S. Thakker's report on possible sites of Ashtapad and walking tour of Kailash with satellite imaging (see video) by Shashikant Sharma are interesting. We have given pictures of probable sites- Ashtapad and Nandi. Chapter four contains articles on archaeology. Dr. John Bellezza's article is on the Pre - Buddhist Archaeological sites found around Kailash. Tom Sever's article explains about Archaeological remote sensing. Photos of rocks and ruins found around Kailash are given here. Chapter five contains articles on Geology. Mayur Desai and Ajit Shah's article throws light on this subject. A summary from articles of Dr. Augusto Gansser and K.S. Valdiya throws light on geological aspects of Himalayas. Studies done by Dr. Navin Juyal on rocks and sculptures in Kailash area is interesting to learn. Photos about Nature as a sculpture as observed in Kailash area are given here. Chapter six contains articles on "climate and glaciers". Navin Juyal's article on glaciation around Mount Kailash is interesting. Bao Yang and Erwin Appel's article explains the details about climate, eco-system, and glacier fluctuations. Various photos of glaciers, rivers and lakes of Kailash area are given here. Chapter seven contains a short summary about Tibet, its history, geography, climate, geology, culture and religion. A translation of Tibetan articles has some important information about
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