Talk:Zhang Zhung culture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article is part of WikiProject Tibet:Tibetan Buddhism, an attempt to improve content and create better coordination between articles related to traditional religion, cultural practices and customs in Tibet. Please participate in improvement by editing Zhang Zhung culture and related pages, or visit the WikiProject Tibet main page for more details on the projects. 
|
|
| Start | This article has been rated as start-Class on the Project's quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.) |
|
How could they have been Buddhists before the "Shakyamuni Buddha"? Isn't that like saying "They were Christians that predated Christ?"
- This claim does have its improbable aspects, I will grant you that. While a Western historian can discount this claim on the face of it, the beauty of it is that it tempts the rival Nyingmapa sect (the sect in Tibetan Buddhism which prides itself on being the oldest) to assert the claim is not true, when both sects take it as an article of faith that the Buddha indeed did have previous lives before appearing as the Shakyamuni Buddha. Welcome to Buddhist metaphysics! What we are seeing here is Tibetan Buddhist one-upmanship of the finest kind. (There is a whole class of stories dedicated to the prior lives of the Buddha known as jataka). I felt slightly guilty about including this claim in the article, but it is so much fun I couldn't resist. — technopilgrim 17:31, 8 Apr 2004 (UTC)
Among Buddhist sutras themselves there are legends of previous buddha-like figures. While the sutras are not impartial, the "legends" may have some basis in fact, adn they might be previous religious teachers similar to gautama/sakyamuni. Anyway, the Gnostics were sort of "Christians that predated Christ" --Darthanakin 09:45, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
Ok after clicking on a few links, I came across this interview. http://www.buddhistview.com/site/epage/8958_225.htm I think the yungdrung Bön tradition was probably the result of syncretism. --Darthanakin 09:56, 23 October 2005 (UTC)
Bon is today accepted as a form of buddhism by Dalai Lama and most tibetan schools. Besides not believing the history Bon claims for its lineage, its view is considered perfect. I think it has been accepted as such from the very beggining of the Rime movement. Theres quite a lot of texts on this encyclopedia that say that someone population practice 'Bon or Buddhism', , while enumerating religions, among other options, implying Bon isnt Buddhism... Also, Some (non-Bon) lamas, like Namkhai Norbu Rimpoche, after some research, grant Bon its claim that its tradition does have an independend origin and independent transmission of buddhism from the other tibetan schools, though of course not dating it nearly as far back, maybe just a little before Nygmapas (certanly not before Shakyamuni buddha, though some fundamental teachings of tibetan buddhism, like dzogchen, which is a part of Bon too, are not even claimed to have ever been tought by shakyamuni buddha, but by Garab Dorje), and still considering much of whats todays Bon (but not all, and not even all thats buddhism in it) as appropriated from Nygmapas later... --Aryah 20:50, 30 July 2006 (UTC)
No its not - Bon is Bon. It has adapted intself to the political reality of buddhism, at least in terms of ritual and appearance etc., but in fact ALL of the rituals of tibetan buddhism are bon in origin. The above statement is absolutely nonsensical if one exams the origin of Bon, in Siberia. Why don't you read the article you are apparently discussing?? or maybe this one: http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/~volk/sylvia/Magic.htm Wikiherbal 03:09, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
I changed this section to: Zhang Zhung culture's influence in India, with a discussion of the similarities and links between Lord Shenrab Miwo, the founder of the "yrungdrung" Bon (basically, all Bon). The yrungdrung section in the Bon entry is also poorly written, and totally besides the point. The "tantilizing" claim is only "tantilizing to the apparent fixation of the author. The comments have nothing to do with Bon, or really what Bonpos think. I will get to it eventually.Wikiherbal 03:34, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] Sarmatians?
"The Zhang Zhung culture was centered around sacred Mount Kailash and extended west to Sarmatians and present-day Ladakh ..." Ladakh in the West sounds logical. The Sarmatians were in Ukraine. Don't just tell some name. This claim about Sarmatians in Tibet needs explanation. Truchses 22:00, 17 November 2006 (UTC)
