The remains of an estimated 1,000-year-old temple and city have been found in Munshiganj District’s Bikrampur, one of the oldest archaeological sites in Bangladesh. According to The Daily Star , an...
Buddhism, in the first few centuries following the death of the Buddha, spread from India mainly to China, Southeast Asia, and Central Asia. One place where its presence is less studied, in some ways...
It is a mistake to think there wasn’t international travel during Jesus’ time. As this map of ancient merchant routes shows, the known world was linked by land and sea. Perhaps with some helpful...
You may have heard that Tantra is full of obscenities or that it has something to do with black magic. Forget that. As a matter of fact, Tantra involves practices such as yoga, meditation, and the...
“Lord Ganesh of curved elephant trunk and huge body, Whose brilliance is equal to billions of suns in intensity, Always removes all obstacles from my endeavours truly...” ― Munindra Misra, Chants of...
Borobudur is one of the great monuments of Southeast Asia. It is a colossal Buddhist stupa that rises out of the rice paddies and palm trees with the nearby volcano Gunung Merapi in the distance...
A team of archaeologists has uncovered a large ancient statue that is thought to have once stood as a guard over an ancient hospital to the north of Cambodia’s Angkor Thom city complex. Impressive...
The vajra is the most important ritual implement of Vajrayana Buddhism. In Sanskrit, the word vajra is defined as something hard or mighty, as in a diamond. It symbolizes an impenetrable, immovable...
For centuries, ancient Taxila in Punjab, modern Pakistan, was revered as a center of learning and a holy city in the Buddhist and Hindu traditions. It hosted one of the earliest institutions which...
A team of archaeologists has uncovered more than 1000 tablets inscribed with Buddhist scriptures and over 500 pieces of stone sculpture, as well as glazed tiles with inscriptions, at the site of a...
Angkor Thom (which means ‘Great City’) was the last capital of the mighty Khmer Empire, which was based in modern day Cambodia. This typically intricately decorated Khmer city, which is located in...
When the rebirth of an ancient building is assumed by a modern thinking artist, strange elements might appear. This is what has happened at the site of Wat Rong Khun, now the White Temple, Thailand...
In many countries, laws prohibit employers from discriminating based on sex. However, exemptions to this law are often made for religious orders. The Roman Catholic Church is adamant that women...
Kyaiktiyo Pagoda (known also as the ‘Golden Rock’) is a Buddhist pilgrimage site located in the Mon State, an administrative region in the southern part of Myanmar / Burma. The site consists of a...
Twenty-two small gold plates with divine symbols and characters have been unearthed in central Java, a large island in the Indonesian archipelago. When archaeologists went to investigate, they found...
Hsi-yu chi , or Journey to the West, is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty. The novel adds elements from a bewildering array of Asian cultural lore, as well as...
Is it possible that early Christians believed in reincarnation? Although some may find this idea unbelievable, several Christian sources (including the Bible) suggest that many centuries ago, it was...
Throughout history, there are many rituals that individuals and groups participate in which could be considered strange or unusual by others. The following is a short overview of some of the uncanny...
The Vajracchedika Prajnaparamita Sutra has been translated from Sanskrit into English variously as the Diamond Sutra , the Diamond Cutter Sutra , the Vajra Sutra and the Vajra Cutter Sutra . This...
The city of Kathmandu is today the capital of Nepal. This status, however, was only conferred on it during the 18th century. 1769 is traditionally regarded as the year that Nepal was unified by...
When Alexander the Great arrived in Pakistan and India two very different civilizations confronted and were influenced by each other. The first anthropomorphic representations of Buddha were...
Seven caves that served as shelters from monsoons for Buddhist monks more than 2,000 years ago (and even into the 1990s) have been discovered in the forests of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park in...
The Pyu civilization, known also as the Pyu city-states, is an ancient entity located in present day Myanmar (also known as Burma). One reason this civilization/group of city states is important is...
Since it was first proposed by the Pre-Socratic philosopher, Empedocles of Acragas, fire has been regarded in the Western world as one of the four classical elements. The status of fire as a...