The racial appearance of the Buddha: Vasala 'outcaste'

Textual analysis and comparative discussion on early Buddhist sects and scriptures.
thomaslaw
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Re: The racial appearance of the Buddha: Vasala 'outcaste'

Post by thomaslaw »

Hi

Are the Buddha's eyes actually blue, dark-blue or black, which is in fact the same Pali word ‘niila’?

Thomas
Kusala wrote: Sat Oct 28, 2017 7:05 am
Santi253 wrote: Sat Jun 24, 2017 12:14 pm The Buddha, being from Nepal, was of the Mongoloid race. The Kirats were the ruling people of ancient Nepal:
Kirata Kingdom (Kirat) in Sanskrit literature and Hindu mythology refers to any kingdom of the Kirata people, who were dwellers mostly in the Himalayas (mostly eastern Himalaya). They took part in the Kurukshetra War along with Parvatas (mountaineers) and other Himalayan tribes. They were widespread in the folds and valleys of Himalayas in Nepal and Bhutan, and also migrated to Indian states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Darjeeling (West Bengal), Assam and Tripura including west mountain of Pakistan. Kirata dynasty was established by king Yalamber...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirata_Kingdom
This is what the Buddha would look like if he were alive today:
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Blue eyed Nepali Sadhu.

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Kusala
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Re: The racial appearance of the Buddha: Vasala 'outcaste'

Post by Kusala »

thomaslaw wrote: Mon Oct 30, 2017 5:34 am Hi

Are the Buddha's eyes actually blue, dark-blue or black, which is in fact the same Pali word ‘niila’?

Thomas
I don't know, but I assume the Buddha would have looked like these Indians.

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"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

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"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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Kusala
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Re: The racial appearance of the Buddha: Vasala 'outcaste'

Post by Kusala »

Dmytro wrote: Sat Jun 24, 2017 4:30 pm
Kusala wrote:I did some research on the subject and concluded that the Buddha, without a shadow of a doubt, was an Aryan. The Pali Cannon describes the Buddha as tall, handsome, blue eyed...from Afghanistan to Northern India, you find people that could possibly be the descendants of the ancient Aryans...
Yes, he was an Aryan, as evidenced by language, - and blue eyes in the list give an important hint.
A mongoloid would have spoken Tibeto-Burman language.

Michael Witzel wrote on the origin of Sakyas:
Both the Malla and Vrji apparently immigrated into the east only after the end of the Vedic period, but well before the time of the Buddha (c. 400 B.C.). This must have been one of the last great infiltrations in Vedic times of western peoples into the lower Gangå area. More or less about this time the so-called second urbanization began as well.

Nevertheless, the settlement pattern in the east was not as homogenous as it was in the more western areas where the indigenous population had become Indo-Aryan in language and culture since the Mantra period. Instead, the Kosala-Videha area was one of great mixture of peoples. There were some earlier eastern Indo-Aryan settlers, the local Munda people and some Tibeto-Burmese elements. Then, various types and groups new immigrants entered from the areas further west. These were some brahmanically oriented tribes but also other non-orthoprax Indo-Aryan tribes such as the Malla and Vrji. They immigrated from northwestern India into Bihar which had been already settled by the old, para-Vedic Indo-Aryan tribes such as the Iksvåku, Kosala, Kåśi, and Videha.

Many of these tribes, including the Śakya to whom the Buddha belonged, are called asurya in ŚB. For it is the Sakya and their neighbors, the Malla, Vajji, etc. who are reported in the Påli texts as builders of high grave mounds, such as the one built for the Buddha. According to ŚB 12.8.1.5 the “easterners and others(!)” are reported to have round “demonic” graves, some of which may have been excavated at Lauriya in E. Nepal. These graves are similar to the kurgan type grave mounds of S. Russia and Central Asia. However, the origin of the Śakya is not as clear as that of the Malla and Vrji. They may very well have been (northern) Iranian, and would then constitute an earlier, apparently the first wave of the later Śaka invasions from Central Asia.
http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~witz ... df#page=56
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Indo-Eura ... sage/13470

See also:

Possible Iranian Origins for Sākyas and Aspects of Buddhism
Jayarava Attwood

http://jocbs.org/index.php/jocbs/article/view/26
http://jayarava.blogspot.com/2012/02/po ... ea-of.html
You're probably right. This man from Iran is probably what the ancient Persians looked like before the Arabs invaded... the ancient Persians and Northern Indians called themselves "Aryan".


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"He, the Blessed One, is indeed the Noble Lord, the Perfectly Enlightened One;
He is impeccable in conduct and understanding, the Serene One, the Knower of the Worlds;
He trains perfectly those who wish to be trained; he is Teacher of gods and men; he is Awake and Holy. "

--------------------------------------------
"The Dhamma is well-expounded by the Blessed One,
Apparent here and now, timeless, encouraging investigation,
Leading to liberation, to be experienced individually by the wise. "
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