Ancient tombs discovery in Pakistan

This video from Pakistan is called Gandhara Civilization, Buddhist Remains Taxila.

From AFP news agency:

24 November 2012 – 08H46

Ancient tombs discovered in Pakistan‘s Swat

Italian archaeologists say they have discovered a cemetery that reveals complex funeral rites dating back more than 3,000 years in Pakistan’s Swat valley, recently controlled by the Taliban.

The Italian mission began digging in the 1950s at Udegram, a site of Buddhist treasures in Swat, the northwestern district formerly known as the Switzerland of Pakistan for its stunning mountains, valleys and rivers.

Archaeologists were aware of a pre-Buddhist grave site in Udegram, but only recently discovered the collection of almost 30 graves, tightly clustered and partially overlapping.

“Some graves had a stone wall, others were protected by walls and enclosures in beaten clay,” Luca Maria Olivieri, head of the Italian mission, told AFP.

“The cemetery… seems to have been used between the end of the second millennium BCE and the first half of the first millennium BCE,” he added.

Olivieri says the tombs point to the culture that predates the Buddhist Gandhara civilisation that took hold in northwest Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan from the first millennium BCE to the sixth century AD.

“The presence of a few iron fragments might be amongst the most ancient traces of this metal in the subcontinent,” he said.

Bodies were first laid to rest in open graves, fenced in by wooden railings. Then the graves were re-opened and the bones partially burnt before the graves were sealed and a burial mound built.

Men were buried with high quality flasks, bowls and cooking pots, and women with semi-precious beads, bronze hairpins, and spindles.

…

In October, the Taliban shot schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai in the head in Mingora, the main town of Swat, in a case that sparked worldwide condemnation.

She is now undergoing treatment in Birmingham, England.

Related articles

• Pakistan’s Turmoil Endangers Its Archaeological Treasures (time.com)
• Pakistan Struggles With Smuggled Buddhist Relics (abcnews.go.com)
• Tombs of the Apostles: Slideshow (history.com)
• Tombs and the Taliban (thehindu.com)
• Pakistan in losing battle with Buddhist relic smugglers (thehimalayantimes.com)

Vietnamese suicide monk’s photographer dies

In 1963, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk committed suicide by burning himself, in protest against the violent persecution of Buddhists by the United States-supported South Vietnamese dictatorship.

Today, from daily The Guardian in Britain:

Malcolm Browne: man behind iconic burning monk photograph dies aged 81

Browne was a hero of photojournalism whose best work was beautifully judged and infused with a dignified power

Malcolm Browne’s 1963 photograph of a monk on fire in Saigon retains its power even after half a century. Browne has died aged 81, but his most famous picture will endure as a classic. Violent history has continued to create violent pictures ever since. But the dreadful act of self-immolation seemed a new kind of protest then. …

Yet still, this photograph has tragic power.

This is partly because it is in black and white, a restrained palette that worked well for news in the past because of its dignifying effect. The monochrome flames engulfing the monk are somehow more a matter for the imagination than they would be in gory colour. This slight holding back of horror allows a brief moment of thought and reflection to the observer of what is, by any standards, a shocking scene.

Yet the power of the picture ultimately comes from the stillness and calm of the monk, Thich Quang Duc. His composure as he is engulfed by agonising, petrol-fuelled fire is profoundly unsettling. The contrast between his suffering and his meditative pose is unearthly, and Browne’s photograph serves the self-sacrificing monk perfectly, for the photographer too seems to have worked carefully, rather than simply seizing a shot. The balanced, calm composition of the picture is what allows it to do justice to the scene.

USA: in 1965 a 31 year old Quaker named Norman Morrison set himself on fire in front of the river entrance to the Pentagon to protest the use of napalm in the Vietnam war. Morrison doused himself in kerosene and set himself on fire below Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara’s office: here.

Taiwan religious releases kill animals

This video is called National FongHuangGu Bird Park (國立鳳凰谷鳥園), NanTou, Taiwan, 12/20/2010.

From the Buddhist Channel:

Taiwan‘s Buddhist rites “killing millions” of animals

Channel News Asia, 13 May 2012

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Tens of millions of animals, mostly fish and birds, are dying every year in Taiwan because of so-called “mercy releases” by Buddhists trying to improve their karma, according to animal welfare activists.

The government is now planning to ban the practice, saying it damages the environment and that a large proportion of the 200 million or so creatures released each year die or are injured due to a lack of food and habitat.

Around 750 such ceremonies are carried out in Taiwan each year, according to the Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan.

Negotiations have seen some groups agreeing to halt the practice, but others have yet to accept a ban, Lin Kuo-chang, an official from the government’s Council of Agriculture, told AFP on Sunday.

Proposed amendments to current wildlife protection laws would see offenders facing up to two years in jail or fined up to 2.5 million Taiwan dollars (US$85,000) for such unauthorised releases, he said.

he Environment and Animal Society Taiwan said some native species are under threat because of foreign species released into the wild by religious groups: here.