Were Anasazi [Native Americans] Buddhists?

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; Hendon Harris (chinesediscoveramerica.com)

The most famous building in the entire Tibetan plateau, Potala Pueblo, Lhasa (HCC)

Tibetan store (Aaron Berkovich/flickr)

Were the Anasazi, who are known to many as the Native Americans of the Southwest, Buddhists? 

 

Buddhism began in the sixth century BCE in India [although the Buddha was from neighboring Afghanistan -- the ancient northwestern frontier of Gandhara and to points west -- where the Dharma quickly took hold among his familial clan simultaneous with its spread in Magadha/modern Bihar, India].

It soon spread to ancient Greece and parts of its empire in Central Asia [Bactria, Sogdiana, etc., where Alexander the Great left yet another "Alexandria" in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when it was part of the Hellenic Empire], the geopolitical Middle East, and some believe to Europe (Kalmykia) as far north as Scandinavia and even North America, which was partly ancient Mexico, a spread Rick Fields documented in How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America and Edward P. Vining's Inglorious Columbus, which recounts how a group of Afghan Buddhist monks led by Chinese Buddhist missionary Hwui Shan  "discovered" America and therefore interacted with the Native Americans long before the genocidal, Polish, Jewish Christopher Columbus].

This is where the Native Anasazi (or Ancestral Puebloan people, such as the Hopi, Hisatsinom, and others) come in.

• Did they leave temples and treasures here?

One piece of evidence is the ancient Buddhist proclivity for carving building and shrines into mountains and creating distinctive rock formations. They are now found all over the world and bear a likeness to that favored by Vedic Hinduism/Buddhism. Buddhism ultimately reached China in the first century ACE, after it had made a grand impact on Greece bringing in many Eastern philosophical idea -- the atom (kalapa), democratic voting and rudimentary parliamentary rules of order (Sangha organization according to the Vinaya), and so on.

 

The Anasazi culture mysteriously appeared in North America at an undetermined time and disappeared about 1300 ACE. Where did these incredibly advanced people come from? How and why did they just as mysteriously disappear? We know they were astronomers because we have found some of their observatories. We know they were road builders because we have found their roads. We know they were incredibly proficient at stone carving and masonry because we have found evidence of their work and architectural styles in the Four Corners area of the Southwest.

 

Native American indigenous Apache, remnant Anasazi spirit dancers, 1887 (Native Skeptic)

 
These architectural styles and art carved in stone provide the best evidence that the source of the Anasazi culture with its advanced knowledge and artistry was Vedic Asia.

 

This is a provocative statement likely to offend a few scholars. However, if one takes the time to examine the art and architecture, compare examples from each culture side by side, it will provide clear evidence of their connection.

 

Rock cliffs of the Grand Canyon, Arizona

If one were to start by using the image search terms “Were the Anasazi people Buddhist?” one would find that the architectural styles of the Puebloan people (Anasazi) and Chinese Buddhists are so similar that they show up interchangeably on the image page clearly demonstrating that they used the same techniques for carving out rock caves. (See examples of rock caves carved high on the cliffs of Bandelier National Park, New Mexico. They bear an incredible likeness to Asian Buddhist caves). 

Further search “Architecture-Pueblo complexes and Great Houses” or “Bandelier National Park Rock Cave Images” to see more). Compare these to the Caves of Dunhuang and the Longmen Caves in China or to the recently discovered Shangri-la Buddhist Caves of Nepal all of which are carved high up on rock faces.
 

Luoyang Shaolin Buddhist temple (G-W-H)

For evidence of IDENTICAL construction techniques used in ancient China and in ancient North America “zoom in” on these pictures of the rock-cut caves at Bandelier National Monument, USA and the Caves at Dunhuang, China.  Both locations, separated by the vast Pacific Ocean, show identical horizontal rows of small bored holes cut into the cliff faces perhaps to insert wooden pole frames for shade canopies for each location thousands of miles apart.

 

Tibetan structures are like Puebloan dwellings of the Southwest. This American adobe complex was likely built between 1000-1450 AD near Taos, New Mexico, USA (wiki).

  

Rock-cut remains, Bandelier, NM, USA

Ancient Buddhists seem to have been fascinated by rocks shaped a particular way. Here is a very unusually shaped rock in Thailand and an almost identically shaped rock in the Bisti Badlands, New Mexico. 
 
The Bisti Badlands are an interesting place in the Four Corners region, where the Anasazi people lived. However, the common opinion is that “The Canadian Goose Bisti,” “The Sleeping Lizard Bisti,” “The Flying Turtle Bisti,” and so on are simply random acts of erosion. A more plausible explanation is that these rock formations are ruins of a people exhibiting a Vedic cultural heritage because of at least three different types of rock formations there.

1. Mushroom rocks like the ones found at Mushroom State Park, Kansas are found throughout these 45,000 acres of badlands. “Mushroom Rocks” are the chattra symbols of ancient Buddhism. Chattra is the Sanskrit word for “mushroom,” which is also the word for the Parasol, one of the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism. More

I'm a Mexican Buddhist (video)

Crystal I. Quintero, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly (PART 1)

Mexican-American in L.A. Sit and sit, wait and wait, grow and grow (Yoga9v/facebook)

Nathalie Cardone sings "Hasta Siempre" (Forever, lit. Until Always) subtitled lyrics

Devotion (Guido Dingemans/flickr.com)

Can one be Latin American and Buddhist? It seems like such an American, particularly a Californian, thing to do. Then I think, California was Latin America, a part of Mexico, until it was invaded and annexed by the USA. This was during the American-Spanish War, post British colonial invasion, after Columbus and the Conquistadores buttered up the people with European diseases and sadistic Old World ways.

The amazing thing is that Mexico and Mesoamerica (the stretch of land between North America and South America), El Norte being the US, Canada, and Greenland, was Buddhist long before it was Catholic, Christian, or agnostic.

Ernesto Che Guevara Lynch, Latin-Irish revolutionary hero

(Society for Irish Latin American Studies)

Afghan Buds in America

For long ago Asian Buddhist monks from China visited and shared a wealth of advanced technological knowledge about spirituality, religion, pottery, art, food, and everything (and everyone) under the Sun.

It's how the Native Americans -- the American "Indians," the First Nations of Canada, the Indigenous Mexicans, the Inuit of Alaska and Greenland -- got such advanced spiritual knowledge while presumably living like cave dwellers in a "savage" pre-colonial environment.

Hope Sandoval, once lead singer of Mazzy Star, performing their greatest hit, "Fade Into You"

Which world-religion was first?

Wisdom Quarterly has covered much of this shocking new historical territory (with Rick Fields, Edward P. Vining, the History Channel, National Geographic, Hendon Harris, and others), so the real question is, Why would any modern person prefer to find guidance in the Enlightened One?

If the first Noble Truth is "All conditioned existence is disappointing or unsatisfactory," my own suffering, particularly in the Love Department, resonates with that. I weep, I hurt, I'm happy to roll in disappointing-sensuality, and I'm yet to be fulfilled. 

When I date, I fade into you. When I yearn for social justice, I want to be Che and always and forever fight for freedom and justice, not in name like imperial US wars but in truth. Like, maybe, the real struggle for liberation I need to wage is for personal liberation. It would help everyone around me, it would free me, and it would lead to world peace or peace in the world anyway. I am you, you are me, we're different, we're the same, we're all one, we've yet to meet... So you see, the Buddha is the best guide to find the freedom and light he found. Buena suerte (Good luck).

A Tongva Native American Garden (and Tibet)

Xochitl, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Pitzer Arboretum; Hendon Harris

When the world was a garden: Los Angeles' original inhabitants the Tongva tribe

Pitzer College has a hidden treasure: a Native Tongva Garden (pitzer.edu)

 

Native American Tongva, Chumash, Anasazi (Hopi, Puebloan peoples), and in fact all indigenous people made use of all of the plants at hand.

Berries were abundant, particularly a local favorite [alongside elderberry], the manzanita (Spanish "little apple") a.k.a. madrone. Sobochesh, as it was known to the Tongva, was useful to eat, drink, and use as natural medicine.
 

A lotion made of leaves is an excellent treatment for treating exposure to poison oak, or they can be simmered into a tea to cure diarrhea, urinary infections, and headaches, a poultice for skin sores... The blossoms are also useful.

Arroyo Seco Foundation (facebook), March 22

While berries are wonderful, every plant is useful, from yucca to sagebrush to wild buckwheat to black sage and, of course, sacred white sage... Pitzer College, at the eastern extreme of modern Los Angeles County, at the base of massive Mount Baldy, has prepared a hidden treasury of plant uses and folk cures.

Other Tongva Indians will be on hand along with Wisdom Quarterly this Saturday for the Fourth Annual Hahamongna Walkabout in JPL's front yard in Pasadena.

Native American (Tibetan) Buddhism

Native Wm Leclair with Buddhist brothers (BP)

What is the Buddhist connection? Not only are the similarities between the "Indians" of India, Ladakh, Tibet, and the mountainous parts of Asia -- the Karen, for example, and other tribes in Burma, Thailand, Bhutan, and Nepal -- and the "Indians" of America patently obvious to anyone who looks, there is a historical reason for it.

Gomari, Tibet/China (Rietje)

Hendon Harris (Chinese Discover America) helps us understand, and Rick Fields laid it out in How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in [Ancient] America. But as early as 1885, American historian Edward P. Vining knew that a group of Buddhist monks from Afghanistan had come to the New World, that is, long before Columbus, they "discovered" America and brought the Dharma to the Native Americans. See An Inglorious Columbus about the Buddhist discovery of America.

QUESTION

Native dance, Hemis Gompa (Stella Peters)

Harris, responding to Native American Buddhism and Tibet, writes in to ask: In Wisdom Quarterly's opinion is the Native American "Ghost Dance" revival movement, which started in approximately 1880 and ended violently at Wounded Knee in South Dakota in December 1890, directly related or religiously or culturally linked to the Tibetan "Ghost Dance" tradition celebrated to this very day? Please explain the reasons for your opinion.

ANSWER: Hendon, we only know it's possible, and we wouldn't be the first to notice. We will have to consult with our non-resident expert, H.M. Harris, to see if it is probable. (We hope he reads this and sends us the answer soon).

• Native American Walkabout 2014 (March 22)
• Early Chumash and Tongva cultures (PDF)
• Native American Buddhism and Tibet
• The Tibet-Pueblo [American Indian] Connection
• Buddhism among the Pueblo Indians, USA
• Native American Ethnographic Study: Ventura
• A Sneak Peek into Santa Monica's "Tongva Park"
• Pitzer College (Claremont) John R. Rodman Arboretum

Chinese discovered America (video)

CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Xochitl, Wisdom Quarterly; Sarah Todd (tricycle.com); Rick Fields

The splendor and sophistication of ancient China's walled civilization (Linc060/flickr)

(FA) Documentary about the Chinese discovery of America, with written recorded documentation in China and anthropological evidence in America, long before European explorers. This "shocking" was revealed by Rick Fields in How the Swans Came to the Lake

Buddhists in early America

Sarah Todd, Editorial Assistant (Tricycle.com)

Editor in chief James Shaheen recommended Rick Fields’ How the Swans Came to the Lake, which offers an in-depth history of Buddhism’s role in American life. Originally published in 1981 and last updated in 1992, Swans is a (mostly) current and always relevant look at Buddhism’s roots.

 

In a culture saturated with pop-Eastern philosophy -- toy Buddha car accessories, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and The Tao of [Physics and] Pooh, the now-discontinued “Om” fragrance by Gap -- it’s clear that Buddhism has secured a place in the imagination of the American public.

 

In warm, witty prose Fields takes on the question of why and how this came to be. He begins by tracing the development of America’s understanding of Buddhism, illuminating the way that misconceptions and poor translations caused even great Western thinkers to misunderstand basic [tenets] of practice.

(AHB) A Buddhist monk arrived in California/Mexico 1,000 years before

"Who Really Discovered America?" Did numerous explorers discover the "New World" long before Christopher Columbus staked a claim for Europe in 1492? No less than a dozen cultures have tales of these adventurers woven into their histories, but they are noticeably absent in American history books. This documentary explores the possibility that the Chinese, Japanese, Polynesians, Norse, Welsh, Irish, Ancient Hebrews, and the Solutreans all made it to the Americas earlier than Columbus. Rebuild the ships, trace the routes, test the artifacts and analyze blood evidence to finally learn the answer to one of the greatest mysteries of all time -- who really discovered America?

The USA is only a small part of America

From the 18th-century scholar and linguist William Jones, who understood Asian culture’s potential to offer the West an “Oriental renaissance” but “either did not know or did not accept the Buddhist’s version of the origin of their own religion,” to Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote alarmingly of “This remorseless Buddhism…threatening with death and night,” Westerners often misunderstood Buddhism as a primitive form of nihilism.

Nonetheless, Fields points out that many artistic and intellectual movers-and-shakers of early America had more in common with Buddhists than they themselves may have known. Henry David Thoreau’s experiment on Walden Pond was focused on mindful sitting in nature that sounds much like Buddhist meditation; he himself wrote, “I realized what the Orientals mean by contemplation and the forsaking of works.” And what else is Walt Whitman’s expansive embrace than a celebration of the interconnectedness of all beings, one of the central Buddhist understandings? First, America became ripe for Buddhism; then came the ambassadors.

 

The Western interpreters of Eastern Buddhism rose to prominence in the form of Colonel Olcott and Madame Blavatsky, spiritualists who eventually forsook their preoccupation with the afterlife to, as Blavatsky said, “point the way eastward.” Olcott sought to bring Buddhism to the public and “unite Buddhists under a common banner,” writing a book of Buddhist catechisms that was translated into nearly every European language... More

• VIDEO: Forbidden Archeology (suppressed evidence) 
• Secrets of the Ancient Mexicans: the Olmecs (BBC)
• New History of Humanity (scientific discoveries) 

(History) America was full when Italian Colombus arrived on Spanish ships

When Columbus arrived in the Caribbean in 1492, unknown to him he was on islands located between two huge land masses now known as North America and South America. It was teaming with huge civilizations rivaling any in the world at the time. There were thousands of smaller First Nations and tribes. According to recent estimates, the population may have exceeded 100 million people from Alaska and Greenland in the north, to the southern tip of South America. In proto-Canada, most people lived along the coast or along major rivers.